Another Weight Loss thread

[DeltaSigStan]

I have two weeks before school starts, and I need to go from sumo to pudgy. Any suggestions to drop a quick 10-15 lbs?

[AXJules]

Low carb is so the way to go....
You've gotta be really anal about it, but if you do it right you'll drop 7 or 8 lbs in 2 days.
You stay under 15 gs the first 3 or 4 days and then gradually work up to under 100.
the only prob is that almost everything has carbs, you gotta stick to salads, cold cuts, hot dogs, eggs, sugar free jello, cheese, etc. Basically eating like a cave man. Even fruit has too many carbs.
It's hard but seriously if you research it a little and really try it, it is guaranteed to work!

[Sistermadly]

I hate to sound like a shill for Weight Watchers, but it really does work. My first two weeks on the program, I lost 12 pounds. Granted, I was heavier than most people and it came off really fast, but men generally lose weight faster than women do.

But if WW isn't your thing, the best thing to do is cut back on portion sizes, exercise, drink LOTS of water (some people suggest 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water), and cut out alcohol for the two weeks you're trying to lose. If you do this, chances are you might be able to lose those 10 lbs, but you have to be really disciplined - no cheating!

[sunnygirl]

Atkins! That is the best, albeit unhealthy way. to lose weight fast. Even the latest Maxim endorsed it.

[Allie]

Low carb is the only way! I used a very strict diet this summer and lost 10 pounds in the first week.

[aephi alum]

I have had great success with the Atkins diet (when I stick to it ). Try his induction plan - less than 20g of carbs per day. Lots of meat, fish, eggs, cheese, salad; no bread, rice, regular soda, or other carbs; no alcohol or caffeine; lots of water and exercise. You may well be able to lose 10 lbs or so that way.

But, it's not sustainable long-term. For one thing, it's not healthy to lose more than 1-2 lbs per week. I myself have added complex carbs back into my diet, though I stay away from simple sugars, and I keep well below the federal recommended guideline of 300g/day (no wonder Americans collectively are so overweight ).

At a minimum, I suggest you eliminate simple sugars from your diet, and if you drink, either stop drinking or cut back.

Good luck

[carnation]

Does anyone know what Advocare is? I don't but this local girl wanted to drop about 40 lbs. quickly so she could have a good rush at Ole Miss and it sure worked for her.

[WhiteDaisy128]

If the weight is in your belly, why not tone up while you drop the extra fat...all these diet solutions only cater to dropping fat...it won't always make it look better though. Here is my work out schedule for my abs...it takes some dedication, but it only takes 10-15 a day...it might take a little longer than these quick fix diets, but you'll be more pleased with the results and you'll start to see them with in 2 weeks or so...you'll also notice how the work out gets easier:

No food after 10 PM.
Body Weight divided by 2 in ounces of water a day (ie. if you weigh 100 lbs, you need 50 ounces of water a day).

Workout for Monday, Wednesday, Friday right before you take a shower:
1.Get a 6 lbs. medicine ball hold it between your knees (feet slightly in the air) and do 60 crunches.
2. Lay flat on your back and hold the medicine ball above your head with straight arms, do "V-ups" by bending you body at your hips and sitting up bringing the ball to your toes. Do 20 of these.
3. Hold the medicine ball between your knees (feet slightly in the air) and get your shoulder blades off the ground. Arms behind your head, twist torso to the right and left 60 times.
4. 20 pushups.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays (right before you take a shower):
2 sets of the 4 point stance. You do this by sitting with your legs out straight and leaning back on your elbows. Push against the floor with your heels so your body is in a straight position with your butt off the floor. Hold for a minute and a half. Rotate to one side. With right elbow and feet the only thing on the ground. Body should be straight. Hold a minute and a half. Rotate so your toes and elbows are the only thing on the ground and you are facing down towards the ground. Hold a minute and a half. Rotate so left elbow and feet are the only thing on the ground. Straight body. Hold minute and a half. Do one more complete rotation.

If you do that every day you will have a great tummy - upper, lower, and obliques. It really doesn't take that much time either - about 10 minutes before a shower each day.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Low carb is a good way to lose weight. But some of you have lost too much weight too fast. 10 pounds in one week is too fast and any doctor and nutritionist will tell you that's not the way to lose weight. Start eating right, and a low card diet works, and start excersing regularly and you'll see reults. I've lost 15 punds since the summer just doing it slowly. You really shouldn't be losing more than 3 pounds a week depending on your weight. Work slowly because it will be better in the long run. You'll be able to keep the weight off.

[James]

I would disagree that ten pounds a week is too fast. Usually the first two weeks on any weight loss program, if done correctly, will cause the most extreme fat loss.

But after that weight loss will slow depending on how much extra fat you have.

It may very well be possible for an extremely obese person to drop 30 pounds in the first two weeks and then keep losing 10+ pounds a week for weeks on end.

[James]

To anwer the orginal question: The people advocating the low carb diet (Atkin's) are correct. ITas the no-brainer approach to fat loss and you should be able to lose your goal weight rather handily.

Make sure you excercise, but honestly, if you are a couch potato almost anything is going to work for you. Even on days you work out try and walk for a couple miles in the evening. ITs a nice low impact extra.

For your diet: Plan out the same meal at the same times for the next two weeks. Also your diet should be 3-1 fat calories to protein calories. The diet works much better if your fat intake is pretty high.

To give you an idea, a 4oz piece of chicken has 80 calories of protein (20 grams). You would want to eat 240 more calories of fat with it. Some diets recomend 4-1 fat to protein.

Try and keep your calories around 1800, divided into 3-5 meals. If you have more meals you can squeeze in some extra calories.

Did I mention working out? If you do some cardio and some weights you will have no problem at all.

Oh and a word to the wise. Loose ten to fifteen pounds more than you think you need to, because you will always rebound at least that much coming off any diet program. Especially a low carb diet where a lot of the weight loss is water.

If you have any more specific questions we could work on a diet and excercise program to fit your lifestyle.

I have coached litterally hundreds of people to significant fat loss or muscle gain.

Originally posted by DeltaSigStan
I have two weeks before school starts, and I need to go from sumo to pudgy. Any suggestions to drop a quick 10-15 lbs?

[cuaphi]

I'd always heard that there are 3,500 calories in every pound of fat. Therefore, if you create a 1,000 calorie deficit every day between what you eat and burn (which will require exercise) you'll lose two pounds per week. Any faster than that and it's just water weight and maybe even some muscle.

[Sistermadly]

Originally posted by Lady Pi Phi
Low carb is a good way to lose weight. But some of you have lost too much weight too fast.

Some doctors (including mine) suggest 1-2 lbs a week, or 1% of your body weight per week. If you're heavier than 200 lbs, chances are you'll lose much more than 2 lbs a week. Larger people simply lose weight faster in the beginning, but as you get closer to an average weight, the losses slow down to about 1-2 lbs a week.

[James]

There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat.

Whenever you lose fat you always loose water with it. And usually you loose water more than you lose fat.

So if you are losing 2 pounds a week a decent amount of that will be water and probably some of it will be muscle.

People that do cardio only, or diet only lose a great deal of fat. In fact after they loose the first goodly amount of fat, almost 50 percent of their weight loss will be muscle.

This is one of the reasons some many diets fail in the long run. By loosing muscle your metabolic rate lowers. so if you start losing pounds of muscle that is a lot less calories that your body can handle, so its easy to gain back even more fat after you start eating more food.

That is why weight training is essential for long term fat loss.

Originally posted by cuaphi
I'd always heard that there are 3,500 calories in every pound of fat. Therefore, if you create a 1,000 calorie deficit every day between what you eat and burn (which will require exercise) you'll lose two pounds per week. Any faster than that and it's just water weight and maybe even some muscle.

[James]

1-2 pounds a week is the medical benchmark. I speculate that some of that is based on observation:

It seems that many dieters start slowing down to one or two pounds week over time.

One of the major reasons this happens is that people start taking in almost a starvation level of calories. Especially women. This drastically slows down weight loss because the body is perceiving that you are starving it.

This is a curse also for women that are constantly watching what they eat. What they end up doing is lowerinf their metabolic rates because they consume so little food daily, and then adding fat every time they break down and eat more, like over a holiday.

It also makes it very hard to diet because they are already on a low calories diet daily. There is not much room for them to drop calories.

I usually tell people in that situation to add calories for a few weeks to their diets and work on the meal spacing. Especially if you can get them on a low carb diet.

For some reason you can take a lot more calories on a low carb diet and not put on weight. For example, when I am doing low carbs I have gotten to over 4 thousand calories a day and been sedentary without putting on fat. If I did that with carbs I would have blown up.

Originally posted by Sistermadly


Some doctors (including mine) suggest 1-2 lbs a week, or 1% of your body weight per week. If you're heavier than 200 lbs, chances are you'll lose much more than 2 lbs a week. Larger people simply lose weight faster in the beginning, but as you get closer to an average weight, the losses slow down to about 1-2 lbs a week.