What to eat to lose weight quickly?

[Anonymous]

I am an MMA fighter and I want to lose about 15 pounds. But here's the thing, I need to eat so I don't pass out while training. What can I eat to lose weight quickly? Doing one of those juice diets simply would not work for me.

[brettb]

You want to use a preworkout drink other than coffee. You'll notice significant muscle tear and notice your performance ini your workouts are more intense. To keep your muscles toned, drink/intake about a gram of protein per pound. Especially if your daily regime is what you say it is under "notjustanotherguy's" post. You should be able to take a gram a day just fine. If you wanted to lose weight, intake more greens and fruit. Preferably blueberries to keep up your antioxidants and add lemon to your glasses of water. I do agree with the greek yogurt as a healthier thing to eat. Keep your caloric intake up though since you do NOT want to burnm more calories than you intake. Eat you almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pecans as those all contain some form protein and will add to your caloric intake. Make sure you get the unsalted kinds. I'm sure you probably drink some powerade/gatorade which is good in mdoeration to keep your electrolytes up. Other than that, you should be good to go.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

"Keep your caloric intake up though since you do NOT want to burnm more calories than you intake."

I think you meant she DOES want to burn more calories than she intakes/consumes(?).. since she's trying to lose weight .

[dan123z4]

its very hard bec you need the energy which means more food but to lose weight you need to cut cals. I had this when training for fighting too. The thing that worked for me was the zig zag diet which means on lighter training days or non trainong days I cut cals by about 300 less than I need. On hard training days I ate enough. The most important part it timing what to eat when. So have a fast digesting carbs mixed with protein a half hr bef you train. After you finish believe it or not studies show chocolate milk is really good since it has more electrolights than gateraid and the fat and protein help you recover. So a lot of times after training I have a smoothie or milk shake. This should keep your energy levels up. A great book on this is called nutritional timing for peak performance. Written by the nutritionist of the ny giants

[Anonymous]

All you need is to keep this simple thing in mind.

In order to lose weight, you need to make your body use up it's reserves.

In order to start that process, you need to work off more calories than you take in.

You can eat near anything you want (but the healthier the better), and still lose weight AS LONG AS you work it off!

If you eat a candy bar, dedicate the proper amount of time to working off that candy bar, and THEN do a bit of extra work so that you can tap into your body's reserves.

That's the best possible way I can think of to lose weight without going on any weird diet, and without really limiting your food intake.

[Asker]

I already exercise 3 hours a day and am not losing any weight AT ALL. It's highly frustrating.

[Opinion Owner]

You're probably only burning off what you eat, and not really burning anything extra. That'll make your weight come to a stand still and you won't lose or gain. Also, as I keep seeing topics asking about how to lose weight quick, I can't stress enough how unrealistic it is to really expect to do that. If you're wanting to lose 20lbs in just a week, it's not happening, not even if it were just 10 lbs. In realistic terms, you want to be losing like, 2 maybe 3 lbs a week.

[Opinion Owner]

It's not happening 'naturally, I should say...you'd have to take some pretty drastic or dangerous measures (such as fasting) in order to lose weight lightening quick.

[Asker]

Yeah but I'm talking I've lost 8 pounds in a year. That's not OK. and maybe that's what it is; I'm eating too much.

[Opinion Owner]

Perhaps. If it's something you haven't tried yet then go for it, just be careful.

I'm hypoglycemic, so I constantly eat. Instead, I just snack all day on little things instead of having big meals. Have you tried something like that yet?

[Asker]

Yes--I have tried it. I always need to eat something because I get lightheaded & very grumpy if I don't eat often enough. I am just concerned though because the exercise I do is really intense stuff and I do NOT want to faint.

[Opinion Owner]

If you've lost weight in a year (even though it's only a little bit) then you're doing something right. So I'd say if you want to increase the rate of weight loss, then you need to eat a bit less (not sure if you need to work out more than it looks like you do, you've got a wonderfully active schedule it looks like) and take vitamins. Your body *should* be able to get used to it, even if you are prone to passing out. Don't hurt yourself though, and good luck on your journey.

[Asker]

No the 8 pounds I lost was when I first went on birth control & couldn't hold down any food for a week.

[brettb]

Horrible idea. Calorie is a sourcce of energy that are needed for your muscles to tear and rebuild. you'll either become a slave to working off the calories you find yourself desiring to have, or become a slave to your metabolism because ocne that goes, you want gain muscle but begin to build fat as your metabolism takes a direct hit

[icarainbow3]

I'm sorry I don't know. But today I watched an infomercial about the Sensa Weight-Loss System. It was hilarious. Apparently you sprinkle this stuff on your food and you don't have to change what you eat but you lose weight. It was great.

[Asker]

I don't want to use any of that stuff--it scares the hell outta me.

[Asker]

They are just dangerous for atheletes; they mess with your heart rate/blood pressure.

[icarainbow3]

Yeah, I wasn't exactly recommending it, but I thought it was hilariously interesting.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

Cut calories / increase cardio modestly and use a preworkout formula like N.O. Explode.. Alternatively you can drink coffee 20mins prior to a training session for an energy spike, but preworkouts usually have less of a jittery effect. That will solve your problem of energy levels during a training session while on a calorie deficit.

I wouldn't advise trying to "quickly" lose weight, while strength training. The idea is to lose weight, while maintaining strength (particularly for a sport like MMA), by modestly cutting calories rather than depriving your system of micro/macro nutrients with a drastic calorie cut. So, I'd aim to have a calorie deficit that helps you lose no more than 2lbs of FAT a week while maintaining muscle weight.

[Asker]

What kind of a calorie deficit? I am 5'2" 130 right now, the goal is to be somewhere between 105 and 115.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

It's hard to tell how many calories you're burning a day.. so you can either guesstimate and just eat less frequently or train more frequently.. or start counting your calories while observing your weight and body fat % then once you get an idea on how much calories you're consuming versus how much weight you're gaining/losing then you can cut back your calories accordingly (knowing that 3,500 calories = 1lb).

[Asker]

Ok here: Sunday: ballet (3 hours), Monday: zumba (1 hr), yoga (1 hr), karate (45 minutes), weights (30 minutes), Tuesday: kickboxing (1 hr), yoga (1 hr), brazilian jiu jitsu (1 hr), Wednesday: zumba (1 hr), karate (45 minutes), running (10 min), weights (30 minutes), Thursday: Kickboxing (1 hr), karate (1 hr), brazilian jiu jitsu (1 hr), Friday: kickboxing (1 hr, 45 minutes), yoga (1 hr), Saturday: brazilian jiu jitsu (1 hr), karate (1 hr), running (2.0 miles), weights, 30 minutes.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

Ideally, you'd want to go about 750 calories under your required intake. So if you're currently maintaining weight with your current diet.. cut off 750 calories, but don't go less than 1500 because then you're starving your body of it's ability to recover and get proper nutrients for daily functioning. You work out, so you probably eat more than 2250 calories a day, so you should be fine cutting out 750. Since you'll be on a low calorie diet, try to make most of the calories come from protein.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

Yeah, you're eating a lot to maintain weight with that much work load. So you can definitely afford a 750 calorie cut back. But try to cut 750 calories of carbs or fats, while keeping or increasing the amount of protein intake. You may or may not want supplements like BCAA 3:1:2 (for muscle recovery), musclepharm assault (preworkout formula) and/or vitamin supplements like Optiwomen or Musclepharm Armor-V. They help a lot, without adding much calories to your daily net.

[Asker]

I've been using a tracker thing, but I keep coming up with mostly fat & carb. I try to eat protein things, like roast beef and cottage cheese and peanut butter and greek yogutr but they all have fat too. I like beef jerky but it makes me super thristy and I like chicken too. Are those good? I also have protein powder but it makes everything taste nasty.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

Those are good. Muscle milk light is a great protein shake that tastes good. You can buy them premixed and they taste delicious (vanilla/chocolate is awesome)-- but as a powder you mix yourself MuscleMilk tastes awful. AMP amplified wheybolic extreme chocolate is a good tasting protein powder. Greek yogurt varies by brand, but the greek yogurt I get is "taste of inspirations" and 50% carbs 50% protein which is a great ratio. Beef jerky is 100% protein (drink water with it :D) so it's amazing.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

You want at least 30% of your calorie intake to be from protein. 35% is a good goal to strive for. If you can get it while eating tasty foods, that's great. But if you can't, time to gulp down that nasty protein powder ;) But really, there are some actually good tasting ones out there. You just have to sample some to find out which one tastes good to you.

[Asker]

OK I will try that and see if it helps.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

Best of luck, hun.

[FlamingoHunter]

High protein, vegatable, and fruit diets. Drink coffee or tea just before exercise. Caffeine will help metabolise fat cells and improve your endurance during the exercise routine. Do not use energy drinks or caffeine pills to achieve the same effect.

[kheserthorpe]

Cyclic ketogenic diet timed to workouts.

You may want to message me :p

[Asker]

What does that mean?

[Asker]

I mean ketogenic obviously will have something to do with proteins...

[kheserthorpe]

Moderately high protein, low fat low carb except for carbs appropriately timed to your workouts.

[Anonymous]

I heard that ufc fighters dehydrate themselves before a fight. Guys lose like 20 lbs in a day from this. Its obviously not healthy though.

[Asker]

They do not. They'd pass out in the ring and no one keeps 20 pounds if water weight..

[brettb]

There would be no poingt in dehydrating themselves once they get weighed for their weight class. Their muscles would get fatigued and be mroe prone to submission than anything else. And I hope you know the average has more than 20 lbs of water weight to them.

[Opinion Owner]

Exactly they dehydrate themselves before the weigh in and then gain it back before the fight.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

Anonymous is right. They will dehydrate themselves as a means of temporary weight loss before the weigh in, then after the weigh in they will hydrate themselves again. A hot sauna 5 hours before the weigh in, allows them to have 10-15lbs more muscle and still make their weight class, without fatiguing their muscles on fight night. But I think the QA wants permanent weight loss, and not just one nights worth of weight loss.

[Anonymous]

Low carb and vitamins