I see a lot of overweight people. And the trick is this: eat marginally less, eat more wisely, exercise marginally more.
A few people who try more drastic measures succeed, but mst regain the weight. Consider the following advice:
Switch all your soda to diet soda. It will only take you a week to get used to the difference in taste. Most diet soda drinkers were once in your shoes, believe me. I wouldn’t switch back now, and I wouldn’t give up too much at once.
Drink 1% milk instead of what you’re drinking now.
Do not eat potato chips or high fat snacks. Switch to light popcorn and pretzels.
Eat smaller portions of the food you like. Eat fatty foods you like less often.
Eat fish more often.
Eat fewer processed foods. Eat fast food less often.
Exercise more. You do not need to join a gym. Climbing stairs at work instead of taking the elevator can cause ten pounds of weight loss over a year. Jogging for 30 minutes three times a week will give you the results you want over time.
The Atkins’ diet suggests eliminating carbohydrates from the diet and eating more meat. This certainly reduces the number of calories you eat, which is more important than the fat content. I do have considerable reservations about this diet over the long term, but it is probably safe for a short time.
Orlistat can help your body absorb less fat, and can lead to a weight loss of 10%. I would recommend this only as a last resort if your health is in serious jeopardy from being overweight. It is not the answer for most people.
In short, make small sacrifices a few at a time. Do just a little more. But keep at it. You can do it.
Atkins is not a no-carbohydrate diet, it is a low carbohydrate diet. I eat plenty of veggies, some fruit, and whole grain bread. I generally do not eat sugar, pasta, rice, corn, or potatoes.
I lost 65 pounds, going from 260 to 195, over the course of less than a year.
I drank Slim Fast for breakfast. (I still do, because I have very little time in the mornings.)
I did calesthenics. Starting with 10 push-ups, I increased to 25. (I was never very good at push-ups.) Before the push-ups, I did sit-ups. I started with 20 and worked my way up to 120. But for most of the time I los weight I only did about 40. I don’t have any furniture to speak of, so I jogged in my living room. Back and forth. I usually had some upbeat music on (The soundtrack to 1941, one of k.d. lang’s early CDs, or the local “alternative” station, KROQ). I started with 20 minutes and increased that to 45 minutes.
I’d come home for lunch and have another Slim Fast (I worked only 7 miles from my home).
I’d eat whatever I wanted for dinner. Since the Slim Fast and exercise shrunk my stomach capacity, I could get stuffed on a Big Mac combo. Not that I ate a lot of that. Usually it was a sandwich or a frozen meal. (Bachelour, y’know?)
I stopped smoking. It helped my endurance and helped to curb the “oral fixation” if you believe in that sort of thing.
I had a girlfriend. Although we started going out while I was still huge, having her was a good incentive to drop the pounds. I felt better about myself, and that manifested itself physically.
I’d do the workout I described Monday through Friday before work. No workout on the weekend.
I kept the weight off for about eight years.
Then… I got laid off. Rehired at another office, I had a 70-mile each way commute. No time to work out in the morning (and I can’t bring myself to do it in the afternoon). Lost the girlfriend (to another woman, yet!). Worked on a few films and started smoking again. I got a computer that wants me to log on in the mornings. I put the weight back on.
Although I still have a long (43 mile) commute and don’t have the time to do the (previously) normal workout. But I do get out two or three times a week for a walk. I don’t know exactly how far, but it’s about 2 miles and takes a little over 1/2 hour. I did the walk Friday to go to the market for fresh salmon, then again Saturday to get a couple of videos, then today to take back the vids and go get some dried papaya from a different market. The one thing that would really help to take off the poundage would be to stop going out to lunch! I eat with co-workers almost every weekday. Eating out instead of having a nice Slim Fast really packs it on. The good news though, is that recently I haven’t been eating my entire lunch. I’ll eat about half of it home and have it for dinner. What this is telling me is that my capacity is growing smaller (i.e., my stomach is shrinking) so I must be doing something right.
When I had lost the 65 pounds, some jerk came up to me and said I could stand to lose a little weight. (195 is still a bit heavy when you’re 5’ 11".) Rather than take it as a slam, I was able to look at him and say, “I’ve lost 65 pounds. How much have you lost?” (Not that he needed to, but I felt that I had accomplished something and he didn’t.)
Good luck.
Oh… about cutting out soda. I drink black coffee, water, and unsweetened tea almost exclusively.
Johnny: Forget Girlfriends… If you really want an incentive to lose weight I suggest you go out and fly once a week in a Cessna 150. Take a friend, and load that sucker to max gross. After 20 minutes of climbing at 300 fpm while wedged against your buddy, you’ll vow to get back down to your fightin’ trim. Works for me.
Just like Mom always told you, eating a good breakfast is a great way to start your day. It has been suggested that eating a good meal at the beginning of the day boosts your metabolism naturally for the rest of the day. If all you are having is a soda, that is not going to cut it. Wake up 15-30 minutes earlier and start your day off right. (Now if I could only follow my own advice, I would be in good shape! :D)
right,
I am one of the most healthy people I know.
my average pulse is 50. My cholesterol is 86. my blood pressure is so low (normally about 90/55) that the people take it once, or twice extra to make sure the machine isn;t messed up. my Body fat percentage is 3.25.
know why?-I EXERCISE. now I don’t mean do aerobics and go for 2 hr jogs every morning, no no no,
I mean that I eat anything I want, and enjoy life. I take myself to places that most people wouldn’t dare. I workout in my own way. I’ve kayaked the north shore of Lake Superior,took 2 week hikes through mtns, and through all this, I haven’t seen one change. That’t because when I’m not doing this, I’m skiing, skating, and canoeing. This keeps me in as good of shape as I will ever be in, and have muscles to impress the ladies. but come on, do you wanna impress other people, or do you want to impress YOURSELF. it sounds like your problem is Introvert, and that you are unhappy with yourself. Do not be unhappy with YOURSELF, but unhappy with your IMAGE. and remember, most people don’;t succeed at dieting on their first try. Failure isn’t a person, its an event.
*Do not eat fast food. If you go to restaurant, make sure they have menus and people to bring it to your table.
*Drink diet soda. I had to start drinking them when I became diabetic. Hated them at first. Within 60 days, I loved them, and could no longer drink the regular ones.
*Start your exercise program slowly. You don’t need to join a gym. Get yer walkman and a tape of cool music and walk. Start for 30 minutes, then gradually increase the time. People who get all fired up and start going to the gym at 5am with a serious regimen burn out pretty quickly. Find a physical activity thats fun to do.
*Lower your carb intake. Especially processed sugars. Protiens are much more satisfying.
I once wrote a Subject here about foods that have no calories. Yep, Luckys pickles, no calories, no calorie sodas, pepper, coffee, ones coming up the back cause they use all of the calories in the work it takes to eat them are: lettuce (20 cal a cup), mushrooms, celery.
You can practice eating those. After a few days they get pretty boring.
Ad Noctum,
Here at the University’s Campus Recreation Center, if you test that low on their ‘body fat assesment’, I hear they give you a T shirt that says “I’m 97% fat free.”
