3 slices? I routinely eat an entire pizza by myself. I don't get fat, even though I've stopped growing. Maybe it's because that'll be all I'll eat the whole day.

Staff Edit: Due to the recent overabundance of weight loss topics, this thread has been created by simply merging them all into one. If your question or topic concerns weight loss, or is mostly relevant to it, post it here.

If anyone notices any more topics revolving around weight loss, please report them to a staff member and they will be closed, with a link referring the original poster to this thread.

~Jman


Hey guys I'm new at this but I have a problem..........I need to lose weight.
I'm not fat or overweight or anything like, I can tell you, but I'm not healthy enough for my own liking.
I know people would say you should be happy with who you are and everything, but I need to loose weight, not 'cause of boys or anything, but for myself. I need some tips so someone please help...and starvation is not an option, lol.
Oh yeah, don't advise sports 'cause where I live you have to pay to do sports and the gym of course you gotta pay for that so.........


Please help,

God bless, chi-chi.

This post has been edited by Jman: Mar 30 2008, 08:32 PM

You have to pay for sports? Surely you don't have to pay to go out and...jog, or something?

What type of healthy foods do you like? Salad? A lot of people think salad is boring, but if you think about it there are many ways to make it more interesting! There are literally hundreds of different styles and dressings to try out.

And how are you with fruit? Again...people tend to find that boring but have you ever thought of maybe drinking smoothies instead?

Just a few simple ideas.

Okay, I can help on that!
I am sorta in the same situation, like, I am trying to eat real healthy.
Sport round here is expensive, other than jogging, which I cant do (seriously, I literally cannot breathe if I run much)
So i am eating healthy.
-First thing first, cut out as much sweets, chocolate, and crisps as you can. Limit yourself to say, one packet of crisps a week, one chocolate bar a week, and try not to have any sweets. If your family has a tin of chocolates left from Christmas, then eat one of those if you feel the need for chocolate as it is smaller. Don't beat yourself up if you occasionaly pig out, a diet shouldn't stop you from enjoying yourself.
-Salads can be good too, if you get some healthy living cheese from the supermarket, and put that in, that'd be good. Buy a bag of mixed salad leaves, add some tomatos and carrots, and for a dressing just mix together a little olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice and it should taste wonderful.
-Eat wholmeal. Stuff like wholemeal bread, etc, is so much healthier, and it tastes as good, if not better!
-If you are hungry between meals, either eat an apple or something, or dont eat until your next meal. Have a drink of juice or water, you may be thirsty.
- Drinks. Drink water, fruit juice, and smoothies. The innocent range of smoothies are excellent (quite expensive though), and pure 100% fruit.

They are INCREDIBLE.

lol... it took me ages to figure what that smiley was doing o_0

But they are awesome. Especially the mango and passion fruit one

And if you don't like to spend money on smoothies, you can always make them yourself!

(that's my weakness--toss a banana into the blender with a bunch of milk and ice after a run--yum!)

Anyway, for the most part. Dayly physical activity is the most esential part of keeping healthy. keeping up on neutrition is important to, but if you sit around on your butt all day it won't do you any good.

Really the big thing that is against you is the American diet. Proper neutrition does indeed have its spot. And neutrition in amarica is at its worst. One of the better things to make sure you get enough of in your diet thogh is iodine. We as Amaricans really do not get enough iodine in our diets. Iodine is what is used for the basic building blocks of a hormone who's responsability it is to speed up your celular metabolism. With out Iodine, your body can't make this hormone, and your body's metabolism can't start. As a result, you will not be able to burn the energy that comes from your food.

Amaricans thogh, simply do not eat the foods that have iodine in it. To compensate for this, the government has added iodine to one of the more common things that are eaten by people around here. That is salt. Iodine is where the io comes from in ionized salt. So makeing sure all of your salt is ionized salt is one good place to start. But to much salt in your diet really is not very good for you. A better option would be to start eating some of the other foods that have iodine in them. One of the best sources is seaweed and kelp. One of the better ways to have that in your diet is the seaweed that is used for wraping in sushi rolls. Seaweed has such a high Iodine value that it would only take two or three average size sushi rolls for you to reach your dayly recomended amount of Iodine.

I think one question can help us to understand what you want a little better, do you want to loose weight, or inches? Becuase if you are already a pretty normal weight for your age/height loosing weight v.s. loosing inches can be completely different things. I say this becuase I was in the same type of situation a few years ago, which was that I was a small person but very unfit, so to loose inches I actually had to gain muscle weight.

My general advice for those who can't afford to go to the gym is to buy yourself a yoga ball, and an instructional DVD. You can do almost any excersize witha yoga ball becuase they are amazing.
Also, simple things like walking instead of taking the car to various places, taking the stairs instead of the escalator can actually improve your everyday activity level so try things like that.

well I would say to do some hard workouts for 12-15 mins, 3 times a day...lol that and eating the right foods can help very quickly...especially no soft drinks.

But it's an annoying task, my father had to do it and he hates cottage cheese till this day that he ate it so much.

I couldn't agree more.

When I got out of high school, I was about 30 pounds overweight and couldn't even run a mile.

I moved out of my mom's house, took up skateboarding and bicycling on a daily basis (usually skating 2-3 miles a day and/or biking 10-20), weightlifting, and an hour or two of pushups and situps every night. End result? I went from 185 pounds and a 32-inch waist to 140 pounds and a 28-inch waist in three months.

It's been three or four years since then, and I'm down to a 26-inch waist, 6% body fat, and between 135-140 pounds, depending on how much and how recently I've eaten.

Exercise works.

Eat right and exercise, that's the only way to do it. Don't do any fad diets or anything like that.
I've been using thedailyplate.com
You track what you eat, how much and what kind of exercise you do, and it tells you what you have to do given that to lose weight. (How many more calories you can at that day, etc.) It works for me so I just thought I'd recommend it

don't drink soda, it worked with me.

This is going to sound weird, but...

Eat a bigger breakfast, a medium lunch, and a very light supper. It's entirely healthy, you'll settle out about 10lbs over your optimum weight, if you exercise, you'll be at optimum with no difficulty. If you can, try to move away from meals, but switch to grazing. Have healthy snacks in the fridge (celery, cucumber, carrots) that you can have throughout the day in very small portions.

Make sure that you continue to meet essential Mineral requirements with your meals, but changing the portion size and timing of them will do wonders.

You may not have to change much.
Just eat less of what you eat.
Instead of say 3 pancakes for breakfast, eat 2.

Don't drink diet drinks, they are more unhealthy then regular.
Try drinking lots of water, and if that's too plain, then add Crystal Light packets..they're really good.

Try to exercise everyday.
For me, I run track at school, and am also on the tennis team, but I also skateboard.

As far as exercise goes, walking is free!!! I walk (almost) everyday (not during swim season), and it has less impact than running. I can't run because of my knee problems:/ Mostly other advice I have has already been covered.

I've lost 13 pounds already within the past few months and what I've been doing is not skipping meals, eating special K for breakfast and dinner (whatever for lunch, but I normally have a sandwich), and exersice. What i'd recommend since you said you have to pay for gym and sports...go for a walk, jog, or run. I love it! It works a lot of your muscles and it'll make them lean and strong. You'll definately notice the difference in your body. You'll have more energy and feel more toned. Let me know how it goes.

P.S. Make sure to build up to a run. Start by walking, of course, hehe...and then speed it up, you'll definately be on your way to a healthier you!!!

From most of the information available now. This is a verry effective way to go.

Another thing I have found recently. It seems the food industrys actually put some chemicals in your food designed to increase your craveings. For the past six months or so, I have been moveing to a more natural and organic foods diet. A lot of the things I eat are grown in the garden out back. I have also been researching edible wild plants such that I can literaly graze on the greenery outside. The result of being off of any processed foods for a matter of months. I am now eating less than 1/6th of the amount of food I had been eating before and I am never feeling hungry for it. In fact, I have more energy than I have ever had before.

As for why the food industrys would do something like this. Once you have gotten over the initial stuned reaction from it if this is your first time hearing this concept, it makes perfict sense. If you eat more food, you have to buy more food. If you buy more food, it makes the food companys more money. And with people eating more food than they were ment to, they get fat for it.

The catch 22 of breaking out of this cycle. If you are eating less than your bodie is craveing. Your body thinks that there is not enough food. So it goes in to starvation mode and lowers your metabolism and starts storeing more of the calories that you do get from your food as fatt. So you just about have to go by switching to the same amount of food from a source that does not have such chemicals in it then taper your self down as it starts to leave your system and your body adjusts.

Agree with everything else but special K . Check the energy it has towards 100g's.

I would also like to echo the smoothies! I drink lots and lots of smoothies, mostly with banana (yes, it's supposed to be the fruit with biggest amount of calories). I tend to mix some milk, a hint of the "hot chocolate" -powder and the banana. I also eat a lot of fruits, more than warm food, actually. Helps me to keep in shape

Plenty of good hints from everyone, thanks a lot!

Drink tons of water.
Most of the time when you are hungry, you are actually just thirsty.
You are supposed to drink at least your body weight divided by two in ounces every day,
but I would suggest more than that, especially if you are trying to lose weight.
Plus, it's just generally healthy to stay hydrated (which 70+% of americans are not).

There are tons of ways to get in cardiovascular exercise. And it's important.
If you don't like jogging, try fast walking, jump roping, or biking.
But when you do, it's good to keep at it for at least 30-45 minutes for weight loss.
After 20 minutes is when you start to burn fat so it's good to go more than that.
Work your way up if you need to.

So I have some waight to lose and I have decided to try something new I only eat fruit during the day and then have a halthy meal in the evening. What do you guys think is this healthy?

I also need to lose waight I'm trying to just eat fruit during the day and an evening meal

Anyone?

Well, grazing throughout the day is supposed to be healthier than eating three large meals. I'd suggest eating something other than fruit once in a while though. Maybe a handful of nuts here and there, or some celery or carrots, or even a sandwith with a little meat (not necessarily deli meat though) perhaps a boca burger, or a sandwich with some cold turkey? Just be sure to get some veggies, grains, and some form of protein.

Mmm, not really! You need to have a variety. Breads, meats, veggies . . . Fruit is good but it won't give you everything you need.