How can I lose weight? Diets, pills, or exercise?

[Anonymous]

I need to lose probably around 40 lbs. I'm 5'10" and around 190 lbs. I used to be fit but I've really let myself go these past couple of years and been drinking too much beer apparently. So I'm open to suggestions on how to lose this extra weight.

[DarthSkykiller]

Look, this is coming from somebody who is a self taught expert in Nutrition and Fitness. I've been spending ALL my free time researching nutrition for 2 years and have learned tons. Trust me when I say this...

You DON'T need to lose weight, nobody on this planet does. What you need to lose is body fat percentage. When you lose weight, you lose it from muscle, bone structure and fat. If you lose body fat percentage, it's just fat you'd lose.

You want to have 3 large meals a day split into thirds. Protein, veg and carbs. On top of this, have two small meals focusing on just carbohydrates and one more as a little treat at the end of the day.

This is my diet plan, id use this if i was you:

breakfast: boiled egg, two toast and an apple

Mid morning: 1 500ml lucozade sport

lunch: turkey salad with chicken tikka pasta

mid afternoon: pasta with SMALL amount of melted chees

tea: tons of pasta, chicken/fish and lettuce

Night: a chocolate bar and a small bottle of diet coke

Now for excercise, you want to do ONE hour or less at the gym per day. any more, you'd lose muscle and heart tissue. Your personal trainer should give you an excercise plan for your needs. If you want toned muscles, lidt smaller weights many times. big muscles: less sets and repititions, heavy weights. or you could do cardio.

YOU HAVE TO KNOW THIS. cardio and building/toning muscle work against eachother. So it's one or the other. If you just want to be skinny, cardio. Want to be 'fit' bodybuilding or crossfitness.

I recommend bodybuilding, you WILL lose body fat percentage from this if you work hard enough. Always lift the heaviest you can possibly do.

[Asker]

I'm guessing martial arts would probably fall more under cardio since you're not lifting anything? Would it also work against stuff like sit-ups and chin-ups? And would swapping Budweiser for Bud Light make a difference? Thanks for the very detailed information by the way.

[DarthSkykiller]

Yes, that will make a difference :). I usually have 1 diet coke a day. Martial arts are OK, because it's not designed to burn calories. they should be fine as long as your not doing it too often :)

[Asker]

What are some of the best exercises for losing calories? I probably get a lot of calories from the beer. Maybe if I switch to Bud Light and do better exercise I'll get some results. The type of martial art I do isn't really the best for exercise.

[DarthSkykiller]

dont worry about calories. never even weigh yourself. the way i see it, if you dont like what you see in the mirror, you just work even harder at the gym... as long as you are within your GDAs and are doing resistance training at the gym, you WILL lose body fat.

[bizzz]

Its all in the diet. And exercise speeds up the process. Cut out sugar first. No candy, Soda, icecream, nothing… Then maybe 1-2 weeks later, cut out rice. Then bread. Then all bad carbs. Keep consistently working out or exercising. I did this, and my metabolism isn't the fastest, I was fat back in highschool. But I did that meal plan, and I exercised almost every day, and I did full speed sprints after my workouts… I had a 4-pack in 1 month… Im not lying. But what you have to do, and learn from my mistake, is to keep going even if you start to see results. Because if you stop when you see results, you will go right back to where you started faster than what you lost.

[Asker]

Yeah I know you can get out of shape a lot quicker than you can get in shape. So you're saying I can't have beer? x_x

[bizzz]

you can, but in moderation. Once or twice a week with constant exercise should be ok

[Asker]

Well 6 cans of Budweiser is about half of my calorie limit for the day.. So I might need to swap to Bud Light.

[523206720]

If you severely overweight - I recommend low carb diets in which it is COMMON and NORMAL to lose 100 pounds in 4 months - this is the NORMAL amount that people lose on low carb diets when they are severely overweight but since you are not severely overweight - I recommend either eating more vegetables and cutting out processed food and sugars - or if you have a metabolic issue I recommend cutting out grains as you can survive without grain. I don't cut out rice but I cut out bread and human processed grains.

[Unknown1993]

Let me tell you something!!! Everyone say Diet!!! I've lossed 20 lbs for the past 2months... I eat what I want , WHEN I WANT AND YES!!! I've LOSSED 20 lbs. if you deprive yourself of what you love you wouldn't succeed... why? Because you're gonna make it feel like a chore.. However jogging, lots and lots of water JUST CUT THE PORTION SIZE OF YOUR Meal... Oh!!! Go out and buy a dress you LOVEEEEE but!!! Let it be the size you're aiming to achieve!!! I BELIEVE IN YOU!!! You CAN AND WILL ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL!!!

[Asker]

Thanks for the encouraging words.

[Unknown1993]

You're welcome :)

[CourtJester]

Stick with the good ol' formula of diet and exercise. Focus on diet... reducing carbs (rice, bread, potatoes, processed sugar) intake to under 100g/day and also being in a caloric deficit (it's annoying but counting calories is a must). Add weight training (heavy sets/30-60mins) to increase metabolism and do some cardio (15-30mins) in the treadmill after lifting. Guarantee this will help. Good luck.

[Asker]

Thanks for the advice.

[sandra80]

Stay off alcohol, sugary drinks, eat healthy, look at portion sizes, exercise.

Unfortunately it takes sacrifices to get out of your normal bad habit routine... But it's all about getting into a better new routine. Once you get to the point where you've taken the step and it's a routine, it's much easier... You just have to train yourself first. It's a mental thing. It may be hard at first... But the results will motivate you to continue... :)

[Asker]

I don't know if I can lay off the beer. The best I could probably do is swap Budweiser for Bud Light. x_x

[donut94]

Change what you eat. Losing weight is 80% diet and 20% excercise. At least that's what i read and tried. You are what you eat so if you're gulping down loads of junk food or
oily stuff then you'll show that. I lost ten pounds in 2-3 months so trust me on that!

[aleigh]

Diet and Exercise. Read this https://themilitarydiet.com/military-diet-plan/ it's 3 days a week. You can do your exercise on 4 days that you're not on a diet. But you have to remember not to overeat during those 4 days. And follow the Diet plan.

[SilverWeb]

Diet and exercise. When I say diet, I dont mean "starve yourself". When I say diet, I mean eat balanced and healthy and count calories. Exercise should be mostly cardio. Strength exercises could help you burn more but you'll get muscle weight. Even walking around could be a good exercise.

[kheserthorpe]

Mainly diet, supported by exercise. Pills are either dangerous or don't do much. If you run into specific issues there are a few that can help a little, but they will never do the heavy lifting. Diet has to be the main part.

[Asker]

What's a simple but effective diet that you can recommend?

[kheserthorpe]

The right diet is a healthy one that works well for you. Some of that comes down to personality. Would you rather be slightly tweaking everything 100% of the time, or go hard most of the time, and have the occasional time when you can eat what you like?

Do you have any other health issues?

Do you have 100% control over what you eat?

[Asker]

I guess what would be easiest is to find a leaner diet that I like.

I reckon I am healthy enough.

I guess I have 100% control because I buy my own groceries, though I do have quite an appetite for things like pizza and cheeseburgers which aren't exactly very lean.

[kheserthorpe]

Its a little up to you. I'd rather eat chicken and vegetables 5 nights a week, then pizza once a cheeseburgers once, then eat semi-healthy 7 nights a week.

[kheserthorpe]

*not literally chicken and vegetables, but something that healthy/low calorie*

[Asker]

Lazy as I am though I need to cut back all I can. :P

[kheserthorpe]

For me, no carb/very low fat 19/21 meals a week was by far the easiest. I can't use it now, because I need carbs to train. But in terms of just losing weight via diet, that was easiest.

Like breakfast couple scrambled eggs, slice of ham, couple slices of tomato.

Lunch salad w/ chicken and dressing made from yogurt (plain) with herbs.

Dinner lean protein with non-starch vegetables.

Then twice a week, eat what you like for one meal.

[Asker]

Yeah I should probably start eating scrambled eggs for breakfast again. Gotta be better than pizza. :)

[kheserthorpe]

Protein and vegetables are your friend, carbs are a treat, basically. Don't get caught up in 'healthy' looking carbs that really aren't that healthy. And eat your vegetables.

[Asker]

What about granola bars? Would they have too many carbs or processed sugar if they're chocolate chip?

[kheserthorpe]

Granola bars are very, very slightly better than candy bars. Slightly.

[Asker]

Very very slightly? So I'd just as well eat Reese's cups?

[kheserthorpe]

Reese's cups have more protein, its probably a toss up.

[Asker]

True, if the granola bar is chocolate chip they will probably have about the same amount of sugar anyway.

[Anonymous]

Drink around four cups of green tea with lemon juice per day. It burns on average 50 calories per day. For breakfast have this:
A hand full of almonds, an apple, a small piece of dark chocolate, almond milk and I like to take a fish oil pill.
Everything in that breakfast has fat burning compounds and I highly suggest you try eating a breakfast like that when ever you can.
One thing you don't want to do at all costs though is skip meals. That will put you body in starvation mode and the next meal you eat your body will store fat, thinking it needs it to survive. That will cause serious bloating.

[princess9089]

check and see if the diet " Ideal Protein" is in your area or near. Its amazing and you don't have to cook or exercise till they advice you to. You'd love it!

[Cheekkky]

Eat less, exercise more. you can google most of the stuff. Even calculate how much you should eat (calories) in order to lose weight. Try apps life sum or my fitness pal

[genericname85]

diet and exervise. no pills needed go for at least 1 hour training every other day and eat 1700 calories max a day.

[Asker]

What kind of training do you recommend?

[genericname85]

does depend on what you are going for. cardio for weight loss only; weight lifting for a bit of muscle growth. both would be optimal. if you have a split schedule, you can even train every day.

[Asker]

I'm looking to burn as many calories as possible so I don't have to give up beer mainly.

[genericname85]

you don´t need to give up beer but you´ll have to count it into the 1700 calorie limit
also you can have a cheat day, where you ignore your diet once a week. to burn maximum calories, you should do a split plan.
1 day: lat, biceps
2 day: pecs, triceps
3 day: shoulders, traps
4 day: leg day
you can do cardio 15 minutes everyday and additionally 1 hour a day in between the days

[lumos]

Diet and exercise. Just stop eating all the useless shit and eat more healthy stuff. When eating right, you can easily lose most of the pounds you've gained fairly fast.

[Asker]

How do I eat right? What's healthy?

[lumos]

Uhh hello? Just use your common sense. Vegetables are healthy. Make vegetable smoothies for breakfast or something. Don't eat fast food. Make your own food, and try to use high quality ingredients. Don't eat food that's overly rich in fat and salt, and also don't eat fried food. Just google some healthy recipes or something.

[Asker]

Well I can't really cook, I depend on a microwave. Are those oriental meals you heat up healthy? Or are noodles fattening?

[lumos]

Anyone can cook. All you have to do is follow the recipe, which is quite simple most of the time if you aren't aiming to make a gourmet type of food. Not "knowing" how to cook is a stupid excuse. If you want to eat healthy, you need to learn how to cook healthy. Because anything pre-made that you just need to heat up in the microwave is 9 times out of 10 unhealthy (if you want to lose weight). Yes, instant noodles are unhealthy.
Just make your own damn food, it's not that hard. Do you want to lose weight or not? If yes, learn how to cook by using raw and healthy ingredients. If you don't want to lose weight, keep eating pre-made fast food that contains a shit ton of extra fat and useless and unhealthy food additives.

[kambo_trick3y]

...

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+are+healthy+foods

[Asker]

So what about scrambled egg sandwiches?

[lumos]

Scrambles egg sandwiches are potentially healthy if you use a healthy type of bread (like rye bread) and you don't drench the bread/egg in salt and butter. A plain scrambled egg on rye bread is fairly healthy, yes. Could be a good breakfast paired with a tomato or two, and maybe some unsalted nuts too.

[Asker]

Okay how about granola bars? I picked up a box of them earlier at the store, but my fat ass had to pick chocolate chip instead of the healthier fruit flavored ones. :P

[lumos]

Go awaaayyyy. Google it or something, Jesus. I'm not your walking health encyclopedia.

[Asker]

Excuse me, but you answered this question. I didn't message you asking for advice. If you don't want to help people why are you answering questions?

[lumos]

I already did my best to help you and suggested twice that you should just try to google this stuff and find it out on your own.

[Asker]

Fine I just won't reply to any of your comments from now on since you're so damn hateful. This is a site for advice, if you're just going to tell people to google it whenever they ask you something you don't belong here.

[lumos]

I'm being hateful for telling you that google has more in-depth answers for you? You can literally learn anything from google, whereas people's knowledge on here usually is quite limited. But ok, whatevs.

[Asker]

"Go awaaayyyy" is a pretty hateful response to someone simply asking about granola bars in reply to a comment on THEIR question. Whatever though. BYE!

[goretcki]

Lay off the beer, eat clean, and exercise.

[Asker]

Do you have any suggestions on how to eat cleaner? My diet is horrible. :P

[goretcki]

Mainly eat whole foods.

[Asker]

Like granola bars?

[goretcki]

Meat, veggies, fruit, whole grains, nuts, seeds.

[Asker]

Well I've been eating cashews and bought some granola bars so that's a start I guess? The cashews are a bit salty though.

[goretcki]

I'd stay away from processed food. Many boxed foods like granola bars have lots if chemicals in them.

[Asker]

Okay thanks.