I'm having trouble losing weight, nothing works! what's your best advice?

Question

so I have been going to the gym 4 times a week, and I mainly focus on cardio because I need to burn fat off of my body. I do the treadmill for 30 minutes and then the elliptical machine for an hour. According to the elliptical machine I burn 600 calories in one hour. I also walk a lot in my neighborhood, I don't have a car. --> that's pretty much my exercise.

for diet...i guess I keep yo-yo dieting. I eat a lot of chicken, tunafish, eggs, but then ill be in school and get something with bread like turkey sandwich on white bread roll, or another time I got a hot dog...i do cheat sometimes and ill have a cookie or some dark chocolate...but I watch the portions.

i don't notice much weight loss I also went to the doctor and my blood pressure is high, so she said no sodium...

what diet plan do you advise? what foods burn more fat?

thanks for your help! =]

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Cardio sucks for weight loss. This is a huge myth. Stop doing so much cardio, it burns muscle after 20 minutes, not fat. Stay under 20 minutes, and start lifting weights and doing muscle exercises.

Here's my general advice that I tell people to lose weight and be healthy:

Dos

- Eat a lot of vegetables, more than any other food you eat.

- Eat eggs, fish, meat, beans, and protein rich foods. Get more protein.

- Eat healthy fats such as saturated and monounsaturated. But use sparingly because because of their calorie density. Butter on vegetables, coconut oil for cooking, olive oil on salad. If you believe the myths about saturated fat, do some research. It's actually not that bad.

- Eat frequently, 3-4 meals/day, with one snack in between them. Also helps increase metabolism. Starving yourself tells your body to store fat.

- Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day

- Lift weights and build muscle (girls don't worry, estrogen stops you from being buff). Do some cardio, but not as much as lifting weights. Less than 30 minutes every 2 days.

- Sleep properly, take a multivitamin, increase nutrients, decrease toxins.

Donts

- Don't eat much sugar. Don't eat candy, pops, juices, packaged snack foods, popular cereals, etc with added sugar. (IF YOU MUST, have very little not often, and be mindfull of it. Enjoy it. Sitting in front of TV chowing down on chips is not being mindfull, that's how people overeat.)

- Don't eat most "Sugar free" labeled foods if they have aspartame, it's a poison. Don't eat any foods with "High Fructose Corn Syrup", that's even worse than sugar.

- Don't eat foods with processed flours like "enriched wheat flour". It has no vitamins and just turns into sugar in the body. Basically almost all packaged grain based foods like cookies, crackers, etc. Eat 100% whole grains.

- Eat less starchy carbohydrates like white breads, fries, potatos, rice.

- Don't eat "low fat" labeled foods, they are higher in sugar, and sugar is what makes you fat. Eating fat does NOT make you fat. You need fat, your cells and brain is made up of of fat. Excess fat is what you don't want, and that comes from calories, and bad fats like in vegetable oils.

- Don't eat vegetables oils such as canola oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated oils, margarine, shortening. They are NOT healthy like the food companies want you to believe. They are highly processed, oxidized, high in omega 6, and low in omega 3 (the good ones). When you have a high 6/3 ratio, you get inflammation. Inflammation and OXIDIZED cholesterol is a major cause of heart disease and others.

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Longshot · Accepted Answer

Cardio is not a weight loss approach. You'd be better off walking or running and getting on a good diet plan. Weight Watchers is the highest rated plan in the U.S. Essentially plenty of fruits and veggies and lean protein like fish or chicken. I eat 5 times/day and keep it to about 1,500 calories/day. I probably cheat once a month on the diet.

I have been on a plan like this which includes walking 25 miles/week. I went to the doctor today and found I lost about 40 lbs over 5 months. My blood pressure and cholesterol are way down.

By the way, the dark chocolate may not be a bad thing in moderation. There is a lot of scientific evidence that purer chocolates might be better for your health than most people believe. Again in moderation.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

i feel you. I'm in sort of a similar boat but I'm not trying to really lose much weight just maintain. I'm like you in that I go to the gym 4 times a week and exert myself for at least 45 mins. but I also do weights. I used to do more cardio and instead I do those weights for different parts of the body. I do 3 sets of 12, on each side if it works one side at a time. I do ones that work on my sides, abs, inner thighs, outer thighs, front thighs, upper arms and torso.

cut back on the cardio and do some more weights.

also for cardio they say doing shorter bursts of more intense workout is better. so I do about 20 min on 2 different machines each at a higher more sweaty speed. it's much more bearable than an hour and a half of cardio.

but it is more about the food. I'm not losing much going to the gym but I know that if I ate better I could.

cut out processed food, junk, sweets. the less cooked it is, the better. cut out most or all white flour. the more processed it is the less healthy it is. don't eat too much cheese. lots of fruits, veggies, and lean proteins. no soft drinks. avoid artificial sweetner as much as possible.

don't have too many or too few calories. eat smaller amounts throughout the day.

water is your friend

eating like this sucks sometimes, won't lie, but you will def feel better. I know I feel better when I eat healthier

rachiee · Accepted Answer

How intense are you working out? Are you running for most of the 30 minutes? Are you on the elliptical at a high resistance? How much do you eat? You can workout as much as you want but if you go home and totally pig out then everything cancels itself out. You really want to cut down on cheating and only allow it very rarely, like once every two weeks. Cut down on sugars. Make sure you get a lot of water. Also, prepare your own foods. Don't eat anything fried; only baked or grilled. Get a good serving of veggies in daily and eat healthy snacks such as fruit.

orangasing · Answer

control your intake food, that's the effective way to lose weight. no soft drink, no fried foods, only chicken if you want to eat meat, no red meat, apple if you feel hungry, no sugar no juice wiht sugar, reduce intake food contain high sugar. coffee wihtout sugar and cream.always eat half potion your daily food, buy one portion share it lunch and dinner, for breakfast only eat protein or oat meat, like me I always have breakfast wiht 2 egg and milk no sugar no fat, I throw out one yellow egg cause I don't want my cholesterol become high.

frankie484 · Answer

Make sure that you have breakfast lunch and dinner make sure that you don't eat a lot of things with high salt and sugar, chicken is great for you so are eggs and fish but you have to be careful when you think you can get away with eating something that's not great for you. Its good to treat yourself once a week because believe it or not that one chocolate bar can be about 200 to 300 calories so that's nearly half your workout on one chocolate bar put on top all the food you have in a day that's still going to reach your 2000 calories daily guidline amount.

also going to the gym all the time doesn't mean you will lose weight you might be doing cardio work but that's only improving your aerobic indurance rather then fat burning. you want to go on YouTube and put in six pack short cuts this guy is really good he has a range of videos that might interest you try to find something that involves body weight rather then his muscle gaining videos

hope this helps.

Anonymous · Answer

4 Times a week for one hour, 30 minutes of cardio? Here's the problem. 4 days might be enough to sustain weight, but to lose weight you won't get anywhere. Also, this whole notion that a certain time limit is enough cardio to get the job done is wrong. Intensity matters. You can skip that long cardio session in favor for a compact, high intensity cardio routine that will have you falling on your face in 20 minutes and burning 700 calories, with several hundred more calories because of afterburn.

Search YouTube for such workouts.

justjumpit4 · Answer

Diet is the majority of weight loss. Don't binge, or starve yourself. Starving yourself slows your metabolism.

Only eat whole wheat/ whole grain, cut out excess sugar and sodas for sure. Drink lots of water.

Xx_DRE_xX · Answer

Do you know your Calorie intake? You should by that an also with cutting out carbs & junk foods of course. Lots of water besides beverages. I know that strength training has a better after burning effect on body than cardio does.

lucky87is · Answer

Definitely start weight training, by gaining muscle you'll burn fat faster. Aside from that, keep a balanced diet, you seem to have a good plan :) All I can advice, is healthy diet, weight training and cardio. Weight loss will happen sooner or later!

Anonymous · Answer

Im in your same boat, and actually TODAY I'm beginning a 60 day guide.i started a tumblr site to log it...if you want the address?:) if not BEST of luck,:)

islands7 · Answer

Simple to say, hard to do Drink water while always walking between sleeps Never sit

I'm having trouble losing weight, nothing works! what's your best advice?

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