A Fat Man's Weight Loss Advice
An Easy to Understand Article About Losing Weight.
Everything compiled here I have learned over the course of several years through personal experiences and constantly trying to learn more. The intent behind this article is to create a small easy to understand overview of how to lose weight not only successfully, but in a healthy manner as well. I write this because I think it is information that should be shared by everyone. It drives me nuts seeing people spend tons of money trying to lose weight when the simple scientifically proven methods are out there. It is never easy, but it also does not have to be as hard as we humans tend to try to make it. Knowledge is key. The more you know the easier and more successful your journey will be.
At any time while reading this... if I did not elaborate well enough or you have questions, feel free to let me know and I will try to do a better job explaining it. Also, if you stumble across something and you think that I am incorrect, please let me know. I'm not nearly arrogant enough to think I know and understand it all, and I want to know if I'm wrong. This was written completely for the goal of assisting others, and if the information contained in it is inaccurate or just plain wrong it is not living up to its full potential. Also, I intend to keep this article alive to share with anyone that wants assistance, so I'm sure I'll be tinkering with it regularly. Also, I intend to write a few more in depth guides to offer additional information about specific parts that are briefly described in this article.
Before you start any diet or weight loss routine, speak to your health care provider or doctor.
General Tips
Trying to lose weight does not mean starving yourself. It is much easier to lose weight when you have healthy eating habits.
Don't think about losing weight in negative terms... In other words don't spend time dwelling on what you can't eat or why foods are bad. Think in positive terms. Try to understand what good things the food you are eating will do for you and your goals.
Set goals for yourself. It is always less painful if you have a goal set out for yourself. This will help you not only have something set to strive for, but it will also allow you to feel a real step by step set of accomplishments for yourself. Also, you can use goals as an excuse to stay on course. You may love eating pizza, and can't imagine going without it. Use eating pizza as the reward for accomplishing your goals. You aren't giving up the food you love, your just putting it on hold until you reach a few goals.
Food diaries and/or workout journals have helped a lot of people. Keeping track of everything you eat and everything you do workout wise will allow you to go back and figure out what you need to do to get the most out of your diet. It also can serve as a living document to show you the improvements that you have made.
For many people losing weight and getting in shape is a lot easier if you have one or more friends that are dieting and/or working out with you. If you have someone working towards the same goal as you, you might find that you are less likely to stray for the simple reason you don't want to let the other person down. You may also find an important source of encouragement in the form of support or competition to help you meet your goals.
Maybe the most important part of losing weight is building your metabolism.
Without getting overly in depth, lets just say that your metabolism is your body's ability to burn calories while sitting still. The higher your metabolism is the faster you will lose weight. Building a strong metabolism should be the focal point of any good diet.
Never ever ever ever ever starve yourself... there is nothing that hurts your metabolism worse than starving. When you are starving your body goes in to 'starvation' mode... which means that it isn't going to burn any more calories than it absolutely has too, and it will try to store as many calories as possible in the form of fat.
Don't eat big meals. Big meals digest slower and cause your metabolism to slow down. Your body is only going to use the calories it needs right now, and will change the rest to fat as mentioned above. When you eat a big meal it is likely that you will not eat again for several hours, during which time your body may slip in to 'starvation' mode and beginning trying to cut back on the calories that you burn.
Instead of eating big meals, eat multiple small meals all day. This isn't always easy, but instead of eating 3 big meals a day, try to eat 5 or 6 small ones. Again your body is going to use what it needs right now, and will store the rest as fat. So if you eat a small amount of food every few hours, you are only giving it what it needs, so it won't store it as fat. Also, you will digest it faster and your metabolism won't take a hit for being overworked. Because you are cutting down the time between getting more calories your body won't feel the need to hold on to excess calories.
The next piece of advice for building your metabolism is eat more protein. Protein is known for use in building muscles, but it also is used in nearly every function of the body including raising your metabolism.
Don't wait too long to eat breakfast. You want to give your metabolism its first boost shortly after waking up so that you don't start your day out in starvation mode. If you don't have time to sit down and eat at least grab something you can eat on the go that offers some health benefits such as a piece of fruit, granola bar, or yogurt.
What to Eat
There are some common misunderstandings about calories.
Calories are made of 4 different things we generally consume... fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and alcohol. Here is how it approximately works out by gram (As most food labels go by)....
1 gram of...
Fat = 9.4 calories
Protein = 4.1 calories
carbs = 4.1 calories
alcohol = 7 calories (This is why drinking wrecks diets quick)
Fat shouldn't be called fat because its misleading... back when they first started figuring all of this out, I imagine they thought that fat caused you to be fat and that's why they named it fat... just a theory... however this isn't really the case.
There are good fats and bad fats. There are good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. There are good proteins and better proteins, depending on your goals of course. I'm not gonna try listing off all the different kinds because the type isn't as important as the basic understanding.
Fat
Avoid anything with trans fat in it. In recent years they've discovered trans fat and began putting it on labels along with saturated and unsaturated fat. It is believed to be the most unhealthy of all of the fats. Limit but don't necessarily completely avoid saturated fat as it has some health benefits. Unsaturated fat is the good fat. Taken earlier in the day and in moderation unsaturated fat is more likely to burn up as energy, rather than turn in to fat on your body.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates also can be misleading. There are many different low carb diets and media that tend to make people think that carbs are bad. That simply isn't true. If you look at a food label you will notice that there is a total amount of carbohydrates listed. Under the total amount of carbs listed you will see the amount of sugar and the amount of fiber. This is because sugar and fiber are carbohydrates.
It is common knowledge that while dieting you should avoid large amounts of sugar. Sugar is what is called a fast burning carb. In other words the energy you get from it will burn out fast and tends to get stored as fat in the body. Sugar isn't the only fast burning carb but is considered the worst and for good reason. The other fast burning carbs don't get listed on your food labels.
Fiber is crucial to good digestion. It used to be difficult to get adequate fiber, but in recent years its everywhere. All kinds of new foods are filled with fiber... theres fiber cereals, double fiber bread, fiber granola bars etc. Apples, broccoli, and whole wheat bread are all good sources of fiber. Fiber is important not only for good digestion, but it also helps your stomach feel full. Getting an adequate amount of fiber will help you overcome some strong feelings of hunger, and you'll be less likely to want to eat more if you eat high fiber foods.
Slow burning carbs are good because they burn up slower, which in turn gives you energy longer and they are less likely to be stored as fat. They are also not specifically separately labeled in the carb field of your food labels. However I can tell you where to find them. Whole wheat breads, beans, and oatmeal are all great sources of slow burning carbs.
Protein
Protein is known for its assistance in building muscles. This is true. Protein is key in building lean muscle mass. But as I mentioned earlier its good for nearly every function of the body, and it will help raise your metabolism. There are tons of different types of protein... none that I'm aware of are bad. The proteins in bread are as I understand the weakest. The best are the proteins in meat, eggs, and milk. Now my understanding of this could be off, but as I understand protein will not turn in to fat. Whatever the body doesn't need right now, will store within fat, but doesn't itself turn to fat.
Water
The importance of water cannot be over exaggerated. Water is the single most nutritious thing you can do for yourself. Water is the single best thing you can take to lose weight. Water will do more for your weight loss goals than any diet pill will. Water is the single best muscle building thing you can take as well. This is not an overstatement. Quite simply, the more water you can drink the healthier you will be, and the more weight you will lose.
When to Eat What
Ok so I've already talked about eating lots of small meals, and how that will make a huge difference for helping you lose weight. The other part of that is eating the right things at the right time of day.
A basic simple breakdown would go like this... Protein in every meal. Good fats and carbs early through the middle of the day. The last 4 to 5 hours before you go to bed you want to cut down the fats and carbs. This is because when you go to sleep they will just turn in to fat. So for the last few meals of the day you can do something like chicken breast or fish... very low in fat and carbs... but high in protein... along with a vegetable like green beans or broccoli which are low in calories period, but offer a few other nutrients.
Working Out
OK so its fairly common knowledge that you have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. What isn't common knowledge is that there are a few tricks to make this a little bit easier.
Most people think if they just do some cardio they will lose weight. That works to an extent, but there are ways to optimize it. Most people don't really like to workout (Author included). So if you're gonna do it, you might as well do it for the best results.
Weight Training
Lifting weights its just as good.... *cough in my opinion better*... for losing weight as cardio. This applies to females too. Here is why. If you run for 30 minutes you will burn X amount of calories. That is it. When you lift for that same time period you might not burn even half as many calories, but here's the thing.... When you lift weights, you break down muscle tissue, and it grows back stronger. That isn't an instant process. Anyone who has been sore knows that can go on for days. Rebuilding muscle tissue requires a lot of calories. So for the few days your body spends rebuilding muscle tissue, its going to be constantly burning calories all day and night long. I've lost lots of weight doing no cardio, but weight training regularly and eating right.
Cardio
I in no way want to down play the health benefits (including weight loss) that doing cardio can provide. However, If you do your cardio right after you wake up and before you eat, then all of the calories you burn have to come from somewhere. If you haven't taken in any calories, it has to pull those calories from your fat stores. In my opinion 10 minutes of cardio right after you wake up and before you eat is better than 30 minutes later in the day.
Meal Planning
Meal planning isn't particularly easy to do. Hopefully the above
information will make it easier for you. The thing is we all like
different things and we like variety. If you carefully take the time
to understand what foods are good and for what reason, it gets a lot
easier to make meal plans. The only other thing I can do is present
my meal plans, and explain why each part is set up the way that it
is. So ill give an example of one of mine and explain why each part
is included. Because this is based off my schedule the exact same times won't work for everyone, but that is just a matter of changing the times to fit for anyone.
This includes drinking water all day long from the time I wake up until I go to bed.
11:00 AM wake up head to the placement bike for 15 – 20 minutes or to the XBOX Kinect for 30 min.
12:00PM: Breakfast -
A healthy cereal -High in fiber, high in good carbs, high in protein, high in vitamins and minerals
Frozen blueberries - High in fiber, a few good carbs, vitamins and minerals;
Skim milk - 0 fat, lots of protein and a few other various nutrients
3PM: half a sandwich -
Fat free turkey lunch meat – High in protein
1 slice whole wheat or double fiber bread – High in protein, fiber, and slow burning carbs
A little bit of mustard – Mustard is a low calorie condiment
An apple – High in fiber and various other nutrients
6PM: Steak and beans
A small small steak – I choose a cut low in fat, but high in protein
Some kind of beans, usually pinto – high in fiber, good carbs, and even protein
9PM: Tilapia and green beans (At this point its getting pretty late in the evening so I cut down on carbs and fat) –
Grilled tilapia – Hardly any fat, but loads of protein
Green beans – Very few calories, a few nutrients
1AM: Weightlifting -
I make a protein drink which Ill drink a little of before I work out, occasionally a little while I work out, and down it when I'm done.
2AM: Chicken breast and broccoli
Chicken – Barely any fat, lots of protein
broccoli – Steamed, very little calories, a little fiber though, and various other nutrients
Hubs About Weight Loss By Me
- A Roller Coaster Diet, The Story of Success and Failure of One Man's Diet.
This is a hub I wrote about my own personal and current diet. - Kinect to Fitness
This is a hub about working out with the XBOX Kinect.
In Closing
In no way am I a medical professional, doctor, nutritionist or otherwise. This is just what I've learned over years of researching and experience. I have helped many people reach their goals of weight loss through this proven method, but they were all in good enough health to begin an exercise routine and were monitored closely to ensure their safety. Again it is very important and highly recommended that you seek the advice and guidance of your health care provider before beginning any diet or exercise regimen. The reason I say this is not only as a disclaimer, but because you never know if you may have some underlying condition that you are unaware of. You could believe you are healthy and cause yourself harm without realizing it.
I hope this simple guide can offer you some assistance that will help you reach your goals. Again, I know there is a strong possibility I may be mistaken about somethings or possibly even wrong (Even more of a reason you should seek the guidance of your health care professional before starting). If you notice anything that you believe I am incorrect about or you would like to see something added feel free to message me. This guide is meant to be a tool to help people understand (In simple terms) what they need to do to lose weight in a healthy manner. I will continue to attempt to improve its content, and am contemplating writing a series of articles going in to further detail about certain aspects, so feel free to check back.