A few words of advice for you Gcers out there in diet land.
I've done the diet/weight/aero/trying to get ripped thing since i was a junior in high school, so I've pretty much gotten this down to simple math, which is all it is really. So, a few tips to dropping a few lbs.
First. THROW OUT THE SCALE!
I know once we start dieting, the numbers on that thing can motivate us or make us crash. The problem is, if you start doing weights, the number will actually go UP for a bit as you start gaining muscle. This normally crashes motivation and has 90% of people quit a diet and training program in less than a few weeks. Only weigh yourself every 2 or 3 weeks to get a general range. You'd be surprised, but liquid consumption and sodium retention can easily make you gain or drop 5 lbs in a day.
Second. More specifically for the ladies.
if you want to develop shape and curves instead of just looking thin and scrawny, weights are a MUST. Please don't make the mistake that most girls do in thinking that weights will bulk you up.
For reference sake. Next time you go to the gym, take a quick look in the aerobic equipment section, where 90% of the girls in the gym will be. Then go to the weight section and look at the girls training there. I'm willing to bet that you will find the girls with the better bodies actually using the weights, not avoiding them.
Seeing as some of ya'll are concerned with the overdevelopment of the booty, stay away from machines and excersizes that will develop it. So, don't go heavy on squats or ballistic on the stairmaster. You may very well become bootylicious, but your butt might also pop the seams on your jeans if you know what I'm saying. Good exercises for the legs are lunges, stiff legged deadlifts, and light high rep squats. Oh, and if you have one in your gym, go for the nautilus machine, its an ass blaster as well.
Oh and, another frequent thing i hear ladies wondering about in the gym is chest excersizes. Let me dispel another myth. NO, your chest will NOT transform into flat slabs of muscle. However, toning the muscle underneath the fatty tissue WILL errr...pick them up and push them out a bit. Visualize it and you'll know what I mean.
With aero, don't go overboard or you'll burn out physically and mentally. Aim for 30-40 minutes 5 or 6 days a week. Preferably pre breakfast so all your body has to burn is fat, seeing as the glycogen (essentially bloodsugar) from your liver is dissapated by the time you wake up. Don't worry if you can't hit 5 or 6 days, 3 is better than most people will do anyways and besides, aerobics won't condition you up as much as...
The third and most important element, the diet.
The problem with a diet is that most people view it as a bad thing. All a diet is is modification and replanning of caloric intake. it's that simple. There's no magic to it, it's all discipline and breaking bad eating habits by replacing them with good ones. General guidelines. Eat at least .5 gram protein per pound of bodyweight. So, you're 150, take in 75 grams a day. And even that is pretty low. Personally I stick to 1 gram per pound. its easier to keep track of.
Carbs are not bad, just eat them early and immediately post workout so your body can actually use the sugar to create energy for your body to carry the amino acids from the protein to your broken down muscle tissue. Also, get at least 30 -40 grams of protein within an hour of working out. Working out is pointless if you don't give your body fuel to repair with afterwards. Also, try to cut down on carbs as the day goes on. Especially don't load up on them for dinner, unless you're hitting the gym afterwards. This can KILL your efforts, even if the carbs are low fat, they'll still equivilate to unused sugar, which will accumulate the lbs.
if your'e counting calories. DON'T. Just go by percentages. According to most "experts" in the field, the ideal ratio of carb/protein/fat is 40/30/30. That's decent, but I shoot for a 45/35/20, especially when dieting down. These are total percentages of daily calories. If you eat 2,000 calories a day for example, you would apply the percentage to those calories when trying to figure out what to eat. if ya don't know how many calories you need, figure around 12 per pund to maintain weight and 10 per pound if you want to lose weight. But never ever go below the 1400 threshold, even if your'e like 100 lbs cause first... you won't even have enough calories to function properly and will go catabolic (bad situation). Second, if your'e 100 lbs, your ass doesn't need to be on a diet anyway!
Hmm, lets see, what else...oh yeah. Invest in a decent multivitamin. Drink 1 oz. of water per pound you weigh and 8 oz. per 15 minutes you work out. Xenadrine and pretty much every other caffiene/ephedra supplement thats out there are effective, just don't overdo it. Guys should also stay away from the androstenione (sp?) or any other anabolic steroid, but, I don't even need to tell ya that.
In general though, with the dieting. Realize that you are not going to be perfect with it, and you will mess up and have cookie once in a while, but thats fine, because your body responds to weeks and weeks of training and good care, not the 2 minutes in which you down a few snacks, it doens't work like that.
And hell, i'm bored typing, so you must be blasted from reading this far. i hope it was helpful. Good luck everyone!
