Best way to lose weight

Pengwuino

So guys, what do you think the best way to lose weight is? And it can be anything besides drugs/surgery lol. Seems like running doesnt produce much sweat with me which i heard is the real indicator of weight lose routines. Tennis seems kinda odd though. When i use to play tennis, after a rather short time id be sweating like theres no tomorrow yet not feel very tired at all. Is there somethign about tennis that is incredibly hard on your body yet you can do it alot? What gives :D

BicycleTree

When I am active I gain weight--not so bad because I don't need to lose much weight and I'm mostly gaining muscle. Whenever I sit around on the computer for a few days I lose weight because I eat more than proportionately less. I think one thing to do is eat only bland foods. Also you should bicycle everywhere you can, especially if you live in the city where it's probably faster anyway.

Pengwuino

Bleh, i live in the city and nothings faster by bicycle lol. Biking to my university would probably take a good 30 minutes cuz its 5 miles away if i didnt stop (so god knows how long if i do sotp and classes for me start at 8am :P). But of course i have to go through about 10 or 12 intersections.... and the route id have to take is waaaaaaay too dangerous of an area :D

I really wana know why tennis seems to be such a strenuous activity though without really 'tiring' you out.

russ_watters

Sweating is an ok indicator, but really what you want to know is your heart rate. HERE is a good start to figuring out what you should keep your heart rate at for a good aerobic or fat-burning workout. You should sustain this heart rae for at least 20 minutes (better, 30 or 45 minutes), 5 days a week.

Pengwuino

Sweet stuff :D

DaveC426913

Best solution (IMO) is that you must combine exercise with a reduction in caloric intake.

Diet won't do it. Exercise won't do it. Diet and exercise will.

I managed to lose 25 pounds on the "Jared diet". Walked 45 min per day, and ate a 6" sub built according to the "7grams of fat" guide twice per day. My snacks were celery and low fat cheddar.

I lost 1 pound per week, (and I can prove it). More than 1 lb/week is unhealthy.

Pengwuino

I think its more then 1lb/day is unhealthy because ive heard of many people lose 50 or 60 pounds in 10 or 12 weeks.

I need a new scale. According to my scale, sleeping sometimes allows me to drop 5 pounds overnight! lol. Stupid digital bs.

russ_watters

5 lb in a night is a lot, but you will lose up to 1/4 lb an hour by breathing. Your weight should fluctuate 2-3 lb during the course of the day.

brewnog

And more if you have a particularly large dump.

Ba

I bike 5 miles to school pretty much every day, it's really not bad except when it is pouring rain. It takes about twenty minutes and I'm going up and down hills.

BicycleTree

For 5 miles in the city, your bike is almost certainly faster unless it's hilly or your city has very little traffic. The more intersections there are, the faster the bike is relative to a car. When the cars stop you can just continue to one side of them and be first at the light every time. It will not take 30 minutes, probably more like 15 to 20 minutes, and it would take that long by car. Even if it is uphill and the traffic is wide open so you have no advantage over a car, consider that you're spending 30 minutes exercising instead of sitting in a car. It's 30 minutes of useful exercise vs 20 minutes of wasted time.

Pengwuino

I have a freeway going straight up to the university so its a dream for me. Can get to class in about 12 minutes.

joejo

hey slimfast worked with me.....

well 2lbs a week is also healthy but nothing more then that!!

Pengwuino

Geez, i always thought it was 1lb a day...

Moonbear

Getting a good aerobic workout is important for fitness and cardiovascular health, and will burn calories faster, but any exercise is going to burn calories. The key to weight loss is to consume fewer calories than you burn. This is why a combination of diet and increased exercise works best.

The best exercise is whatever you enjoy, because you'll keep doing it! If you enjoy tennis and can really work up a sweat doing it, go for it (just be careful to stay hydrated). I understand the dilemma of needing to get through bad neighborhoods to get from home to campus, so won't suggest biking or walking to campus (5 miles is a bit long anyway when you don't have the spare time...I used to walk 1.5 mi, which was really nice once I got used to it, because it gave me time in the morning to plan my day and think while heading to the lab and then time to clear my mind and de-stress at the end of the day). Even an extra walk around the block each day will help.

Keep in mind, however, that as you add exercise to your routine, you may get to a point where you are building muscle mass in addition to burning off fat, so may not see as great of a change in total weight (hinted at by Bicycle Tree).

Cutting calories is often easier than you think as well. How many cans or bottle of soda or fruit drinks do you consume in a day? Replace those with water. What about cookies, chips, candy bars? Pack a few apples or oranges instead. Leave a little food on your plate when you sit down for a meal.

Ignore that bathroom scale for at least a week. As has been mentioned above, your weight can fluctuate 2-3 lbs a day just from normal activities (how much food is still in your gut from the last meal, the last time you urinated, whether you've just dehydrated a bit from a workout, etc.), so when you do weigh yourself, do so at the same time of the day (first thing in the morning is often a good time to be consistent before you're influenced by whatever else you do during the day). If you're losing weight at a healthy rate, it will frustrate you to check the scale every day because you really shouldn't lose weight fast enough to notice on a daily basis, at least not on a standard bathroom scale. Oh, also make sure you put the scale in the same place every time you use it. Those things aren't always the most accurate and putting it on a different surface can change the reading by a few lbs (at least with my cheap scale...move it around the floor a bit and re-weight yourself and you'll see how variable your own scale is).

The Bob

A while ago I hated my 'fatness' (well it was about 5 years ago). Anyway, I was doing less excerise than I should have been (as I was trying a trick of not going out to play outdoors in a hope that people will wonder why was not out and start to be concerned but it failed). I gained weight so that I was very rounded in the face and could grab 3 inches.

I found all I needed to do was to swop my crisps and cakes and other high calore foods for apples and bananas etc. I am not addicted to apples (granny smith's) and that was all I did and I lost the weight in about 3 months easy.

Try your diet before you try excerise and drugs. I still ate pizza and burgers but I simply changed my snacks from unhealthy and high in calories to healthy and low in calories.

The Bob (2004 ©)

Moonbear

That's a very good suggestion, especially for someone who is both eating a bad diet and overly sedentary. Ease into a weight loss plan, don't change everything at once. Diet is a good starting place, because once you start to lose a little weight and have more nutritious foods in your diet, you'll find you're going to start having more energy to make the exercises more enjoyable.