What is better for losing weight? Need to know

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering what's the best steps to improve my body figure. Should I just do cardio and catastetics (like pilates and some yoga poses, etc) and eat a 1600 calorie diet to lose my excess body fat for the first few month, tone and firm up and get muscle. Or should I just do light strength training, cardio, flexibility stuff, and catastetics, eat healthy and eat a well healthy balanced diet? which one is better. My goal is to lose 60 lbs, tone, firm, lift, get muscle tone in some of my body areas and help prevent any more cellulite forming on my body. I'm 5'6, 220 lbs, my body fat is 44%.

[zombiefood]

There are a few fine points you've gotta think about-

First: Start off easy, work out maybe 20 - 30 minutes a day with something light, a fast walk to a slow jog. Drink water as you do, and when you're tired, stop. As you do this more extend the time, once you learn your body better push yourself a little. Now, fun fact I picked up from a gym/health class I'm taking at college- If you want to burn off the body fat it's better to do a medium work out, a middle jog, maybe a fast jog. It sounds like it wouldn't work, but it's the extended constant work that gets into your long term fat stores. You want to go for length not speed, the longer the work out the more you'll end up burning in the long run, and the more useful the stuff you burn will be.

Second: Simple things like eating a smaller meal will also help. Take one serving size and eat that, wait about twenty minutes and if you're still hungry try for some fruit or maybe a bowl of cereal or bread, those kinds of things will fill you up, and also won't add on to what you're trying to loose. Why you're waiting 20 minutes is because that's how long it takes for your body to recognize it's full. Along with this, try to walk more places, I lost a bunch of weight when I got to college 'cause I was walking a lot more and my meal sizes were cut almost in half, I just wasn't as hungry as I used to be. But also, DON'T SNACK that's the real killer. Most of the time you're hungry because you're bored. If this happens grab an apple or some other fruit, the sugar will give you energy that won't burn out and it doesn't give you fats that will counteract what you're doing.

THIRD: If you're looking for good activities swimming is one of them. It works all your muscles and really gets you going. Throw on a pair of flippers and you're burning even more, not becase of the speed increase but because it's more drag and it's more of a work out for you butt and legs.

FOURTH: Once you've gotten down a bit and you want to start muscle training it's good to start with no weights, do sit ups, and different variations there of, push ups, squats (though be careful of your knees with this one, especially once you start using weights. There are lots of things that I did in drum corps that were really great for muscle training, it all depends what muscle you're going for. If you look it up online there are some really great sites, there are also some halfway decent books you can find.

That's about all I can think of right now, I hope it helps.

[dunc17]

Another good activity to do is regular step aerobics. it gives you some cardio and resistance training. we do it as a softball team in the fall when we are done with our fall season and it helps keep us in shape. it can be fun too!

also, eating a bit of meat can satisfy cravings as well. I'm not saying go eat a cheeseburger or anything but eating a ham sandwich or something like that if you ever get hungry for a snack. drinking lots of water can help you not get so hungry as well.

[avksx]

Start with cardiovascular endurance training. It will help you massively in the long run. Then develop basic muscle strength through calisthenics and other weightless exercises. To burn off fat in specific areas, do weight exercises that target those areas. Low weight level, and a TON of repetitions. This will burn up the fat in those areas, and tone muscles at the same time. Do pilates, tae bo and yoga for fun and to mix up your normal exercise routine. Keep up the cardio!

As for diet, eat less simple carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, anything else that ends in -ose) and more complex carbohydrates (starches). Eat less red meat, and more fish. Drink a lot of whole milk and soy milk to supplement protein and healthy fat in your diet. Regularly snack on carrots, grapes, bananas, peanuts and whatever other bite sized vegetables, fruits, legumes and yogurts you can get your hands on. Eat out 3-5 times a month, no more. Don't buy into fad diets.

If you have the cash, hire a personal trainer. They will help you hugely when the going gets tough.

Good luck!

[dlop3z]

Ok I'm no personal trainer or doctor or health adviser but here goes: Cardio would probably best but you want to get a variety of exercises in i.e. Yoga, running, some weights, mostly cardio. And you DONT have to starve yourself! what I do is have a big apple and a glass of water before dinner so I don't eat as much (Apple will require much chewing which will trick the mind into beleiving you have already eaten, and the water will fill you up) also, exercise two days and rest the third, your muscles need to recover, and water is also key, and watch your sugar intake too.

NOT MEDICAL ADVICE!

DONT SUE ME! lol

Hope this helps!