Hi, I know this is probably one thats been mentioned over and over again, i cannot seem to find it on here so apologies if its a repeat. What is the best way of losing weight? I am 224lb (16 stones) - i want to reach my target of 14 stones, I do not want to be ripped or anything like that. I have stopped traiinning for the past 3 months due to having back problems and ended up having a limp in my leg but have been doing basic stretches and seem to be ok. I want to find out a) the best way to lose weight and fast (as in 2 stones by December) b) would anyone reccomend any training tablets to take? If so, as only a temporarily fix to reach my target. Thanks in response. Pasqo Chicano :Angel:
Funny you should ask, I am doing a two week warrior diet challenge, I don't know what the results will be just yet but you can follow it here. http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95561
Thanks, i plan to go back to the gym in 2 weeks time which gives me time to stretch, diet and simply do a 10min jog on the spot until I go back to the gym where I would normally do 40min of cardio then pretty much a quick circuit training of weights. What is the warrior diet all about? I am reading your post, looks interesting but cant seem to find the information. Good luck with it, hows it going so far?
You can't out-train a bad diet, but it basically comes down to eating less and doing more, but in a way that is sustainable. If you are planning on going on some ridiculous diet and workout regime until you reach your goal weight and then returning to your old lifestyle then you are wasting your energy.
I be honest, a few years ago i did try all these "super diets" and none of them really work, Ive always found as long as you have a controlled diet and excersise it works out best way - my best training session was in fact when I ate sensibly and training. I keep stopping on the 16 stones and just remain there, i dont seem to drop further than that. grrrr lol
Okay, here's a real simple diet and exercise plan. Diet: Monitor calories, eat whole unprocessed foods, eat meat, veg, eggs and fish. Cut sugars and don't rely on complex carbs for a basic food or for energy. Keep them for post workout if you can. Drop alcohol but an occasional drink wont hurt. If you do all this and weight isn't dropping, consider if your calories are low enough or possibly that they are so low that your body is holding on to your energy stores. Exercise: Lift for strength primarily, nice big compound exercises and keep reps lowish increasing weight whenever you can. If you want to do cardio pick something you enjoy, my wife likes badminton, I don't. Unsurprisingly I much prefer some kind of sparring or martial arts, my wife doesn't. We stick to what we enjoy and have no problems getting out of the house to do it.
Thanks for the advise coma I will definently plan ahead and see what goals I will achieve. I normally do really good during training, its the after care that always gets me a drift, where i do not train because I may injure myself or just an unfortunate happens (my back going out on me recently). At the moment, i enjoy jogging and wouldnt mind hitting the boxing bag but prefer not to join a boxing club for it, so i think im going to stick with the badminton as my friends seem to play it all the time and see what its like. lol... if not can always hit them with the racket.. (of course we will be padded) lol...
As other people have mentioned, your diet is priority. You can train as hard as Schwarzenneger but still look like The Blob unless you eat right. Seeing as how you have a limp in your leg, i'd stay away from any form of cardio that puts too much pressure on it. So that takes out running, skipping, jogging etc for now. Once you have your diet sorted, I would suggest you start walking at a fast pace for about forty five minutes to an hour or so every day (or at least four times a week). This will get your lungs and your legs working (without you having to yet commit to a a gym) and will prepare you for harder training later. Cycling is even better if you have a bike. Once you get yourself in a gym, I would build upon the cardio by cycling and through using the rowing machines. Rowing gently should again get your back and leg used to a bit of strain without hurting you. You can then build up the pace/resistance when you feel ready. Make sure you don't hyper-extend the legs though, if you do decide to row. From here, you can start jogging when you feel your body is ready. You should also incorporate weights. Someone here suggested lifting heavy, but I think that it's a bad idea given your situation, and given the fact that you want to lose weight (lifting heavy requires longer rest periods, which is somewhat counter productive). Use compound exercises and lift lighter- going for between 12-15 reps per set. Rest periods should be a minute long MAX. Both weight training and cardio should be done. How you mix them up is your choice. I personally do them on alternating days. You should be working out for around an hour, four/five times a week. If you find this too difficult, go for around three times a week and build it up from there. Hope this helps. PM me, if you need to ask anything else. BTW- don't look for quick fix tablets etc. They're not worth it.
Hi, and welcome to MAP! General rule of thumb: do cardio to get fit, lift weights to get strong, adjust diet to lose / gain weight. Reason being, cardio is massively inefficient for weight loss. Even if you managed to rack up a 500 calorie deficit in an hour's cardio, you're still looking at 7 hours of work to remove one lb of fat. And then on top of that is the fact that cardio tends to make you hungrier so you end up inclined to eat more afterwards. You could always resist this urge but then there's no real difference between that and dieting in the first place. I wouldn't advise on weight loss pills for broadly the same reasons as above. That said, if you train for any other reason, I'm personally a fan of taking a stimulant before training. The idea being it'll allow you to train harder and therefore get more out of it. I don't see the point in spending cash on pricey ones, however. A coffee is more than enough, IMO. If you do decide to diet, a nice simple rule of thumb is to cut all the crap (especially sugar) out of your diet and track your calorie intake and weight, adjusting calories up or down to keep weight loss at a steady rate of between 1-2lbs a week. www.fitday.com is a good site for keeping track of daily calorie intake. I'd also advise using digital scales on a hard surface (carpet tends to skew the reading).
You can still lift heavy without spinal compression, I should know, I've been doing this with L4-5 and L5-S1 degenerative disc protusions for almost a year now. Lifting heavy means low reps, not using your back. Furthermore, what evidence do you have that short rest periods or high rep sets increase fat loss? Apart from the old training myth there's little evidence that this is true and if you're adding cardio in as separate workouts all you really achieve is making a weight session more cardio oriented.
I agree. I disagree. Just move. You don't have to go storming around getting out of breath to get the benefits of walking. Humans are built to walk a lot at a reasonable pace. Walk moderately, and walk often, and you'll benefit a lot from that. I'd recommend incorporating interval sprints when your body is ready. Much better than slogging it out for hours on a variety of cardio machines. Yes. No it's not counter-productive. If he gets stronger and builds more muscle, it will assist him in his weight management. If he's already walking and sprinting, he won't need any more endurance and he's already said he has no interest in 'getting ripped', by which I infer he has no interest in body-building. Walk every day, lift heavy a few times a week, and sprint occasionally. I agree.
I will be totally honest, i always do a bit of cardio then follow it with weights, I tend not to lift heavy at all, i always start light and do lets say 30 reps x 3, if i find it to easy, i will move 1 weight up and keep it there until i find it difficult to push but I am not a lover of pushing heavy weights or in one go due to bad experiences, well due to the fact I used to try and lift as heavy as I could and realised I am injured for the next 2 weeks - one of my trial and error moments when I first started. *blush*
If there is a secret* to weight loss it is this The best way to lose weight is to lift weight. More muscle = faster metabolism = faster and greater returns on a diet. *and by secret I mean something that isn't really a secret at all but isn't as widely known, because Women's magazines are turned on by pink plastic dumbells and aerobics classes.
OK - so let me clarify, the most effective and best way to lose weight.... Eat less and lift weights... Quick question, does lifting weight mean taking in more food though to build muscle? So i would need to eat more protein.
It's best not to spread that around, it's true but a bit misleading. 40lbs of muscle is the equivalent of about 250 Kcals a day extra to your metabolism, or about a 2 finger kit kat. Considering how tricky adding 40lbs of muscle is and that you're going to gain a fair bit of fat getting there it's better using heavy lifting to maintain the muscle you have.
Yes. Fundamentally, exercise has been shown to be fairly ineffective for weightloss, but helpful for maintaining results.
Yeah, Holy, as coma says, strictly speaking you're right but the effect is a lot less pronounced than you might think. IIRC, best estimates are that each lb of body fat will consume about 2 cals of energy per day in terms of the extra metabolism required to maintain it, whereas each lb of muscle requires about 6 cals. In relative terms, that's three times as much, but in absolute terms it's still a fairly small figure. Oh, and that's metabolism only, of course. It doesn't include the extra energy required to carry the extra fat or muscle around with you during the day.
