Tips for losing weight

[Occhidiangela]

Hi!

For Christmas last year I got a membership at the local gym from my parents, and I've started working out.

I'm 22 years old, 1.70cm tall and I weigh 67kg. (5.7", 148lbs)
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I appreciate any help you can give me.

Cheers!

- [wcip]Angel
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Drink water, a few cups of coffee each day won't kill you, but keep it to two 8 oz cups is my advice. (Which I am presently in violation of!)

What worked for me when I was 34. I had a very successful weight loss regimen that worked very well. It included my wife's preference for Weight Watchers diet schemes, and was based on lowering fat intake and increasing calorie burn rates. Waist went from 35 to 31.5. The pants started to hang on me, which at the time was fine. Wish I had stayed there, that's another story.

My workouts for the weight loss portion, I lost and kept off successfully for two years 17 pounds. Went from 175ish to 158, height 5' 8."

Based on the advice of some of my fitness friends, I tailored workouts to be fat burning, greater emphasis on aerobic versus anaerobic. Had popped a hamstring the year before in a flag football league, and decided that fast twitch days were behind me.

What they advised me, similar to Armin's comment, is that to burn fat you need to burn through the locally stored energy source and keep the burn going for a bit longer. For me that translated into workouts that lasted 10-15 minutes past the 20 minute "get to the fat" threshold. You will want no less than 4 workouts per week. Even if you do two or three per week aimed at strength, you will want either jogging, running, bike, eliptical trainer (aerobic sessions) that you sustain for a good 30 minutes. All above that is gravy. If you can vary them, that is a good way to prevent boredom and loss of motivation.

I would vary my running between 2 1/2/ and 4 1/2 miles during the week. To ensure any run burns fat of some sort, aim for a 3-4 mile jog run. A bike or rowing machine for 30 minutes can sometimes be made more pleasant with an Ipod (orsimilar device) and a set of headphones. Our gym had news on TV all the time, so my bike rides would be made bearable by watching HNN's 30 minute rotation.

For ab shaping, make sure that each workout includes three or four different ab exercises. If you work the abs, make sure you also work the lower back.

At the time I was not interested in gaining lots of muscle mass in any hurry. However, after the first four months, I started to put three strength workouts in per week, since by that time my jogging was consistently 3.5 to 5 miles, three times per week.

The end result was that I raised my resting calorie burn rate.

Diet?

Went the "lower fat" route. Skim milk. Non fat yogurt with my own fruit chopped into it. Small servings of pasta or rice with meet. (1/4 to 1/3 of a cup.) Plenty of veg. We even shopped for and used low fat bread for sandwiches. I like eggs, and they were fine. The missus got in a panic about cholesterol in egg yolks and some folks should keep an eye on that. I learned to make a good egg white ommlette (three eggs, yolks removed, veggies and mushrooms chopped into it, and a little sharp cheddar for flavor.) From my days as a short order cook, I kept my trick of adding a bit of water, skim milk, and 1/8 tsp of baking powder to keep the eggs fluffy in the omlette. :D I was at sea level, if you are at high altitude, you may need a 1/4 tsp.

Using the weight watchers "low, less, and no" fat menus, my wife had a bunch left over from a previous run through that program, there were three degrees of difficulty that any weekly menu plan allowed for, we varied from week to week, rarely the using the "no" fat regimen.

What did I miss most?

Besides bacon with my eggs, cheese. While we used occasional low fat cheese slices on some foods, Parmesan cheese on any number of fish and vegetable dishes, my habits of cheese and crackers went down the loo. I also cut waaaaaay back on a favorite food, peanut butter.

Chips/crisps were almost non-existent in our house, replaced by chopped carrots, cucumber, peppers, celery etc, usually dipped into one of a variety of mostly vinegar/olive oil salad dressing mixed with Good Seasons packages. Fresh fruit was the most common snack.

The discipline of the menu plan, which we shopped to, was a huge bonus in keeping on the diet and eating recipes we enjoyed. I like to cook, so it was little trouble.

Typical lunch would be a sandwich (no cheese, thin coat of low fat mayo on one slice) with a bunch of sliced apples or orange wedges, and a handful of veggie sticks for "munchies." I saved money the whole time by eliminating McD's and other fast foods completely from my life.

This approach allowed me to still drink beer in moderation, though I tended to keep lite beers in the fridge in order to keep the burn requirement down to a dull roar. Otherwise, more miles per week required. The occasional Guinness was a real treat, just not a regular occurrence. When thirsty, after the morning coffee, it was water. On cool nights, boil a teapot full of water, and either use tea, herbal tea, or squeeze in lemon or lime.

One of the nice things about building more upper body muscle mass, which you seem to want to do, is that it is lean body mass and helps keep your burn rate higher if you keep working out the upper body. Without killing yourself, you can maintain musclel tone and shape while allowing for the occasional milkshake or banana split.

The whole approach requires a positive in attitude, a habit of exercise that you have already set up to take on, and a small ration of self discipline. And, the will to, on any given morning, get up and either hit the bike or the road for that day's workout. As soon as you "take a day off" that you had scheduled for a workout, you are on the road to perdition.

I regret to report that I have since fallen off the wagon, as my running was interrupted a few years later by an ankle break that took some years to "heal right." If I want to lose a similar amount of weight, I expect it will take me much longer, since I am not yet ready for 3-5 mile runs any time soon, but that's my fault for not liking pain. (The bad ankle was run for a while, even though it hurt, which "gutting it out" helped injure an arch, a hip, and a knee, side effects that are with me today.) Also, I always walked when I golfed. Still do on almost every round of golf I play, unless there is very heavy drinking involved.

If you lose inches, but gain a bit of weight, that means is that you are replacing fat with lean body mass, which is OK. I had gotten to 154, and with roughly the same workout plan and diet was starting to gain weight and lost the last inch from my waist. My fitness nutcase buddy explained to me what went into that when I discussed my puzzlement to him over that development.

YMMV

Occhi