Dieting

[chequita guevara]

So, my main New Year's resolution is to look like van Diesel by year's end. Those of you who've seen me may laugh your asses off now.

Anyway, starting Jan 2, I've been excersizing and tracking my fat and calorie intake (though not dieting yet). While at the library, looking for a recipie for fresh tomato sauce (it turned out to be pretty good, except I put in a little too much salt and pepper), I came across a low-fat Italian cookbook. The book is written by a nutritionist and she makes that statement that the body needs 15 calories per pound per day to maintain itself.

My question, does this include fat weight as well? It seems to me that fat doesn't need as much energy to maintain itself, since it doesn't really do anything except store fat. My guess is that she means 15 calories per day per pound of lean body mass, which in my case would be about 160lbs. (I was a skinny boy before my metabolism betrayed me). The difference is almost 1500 calories a day.

BTW, I've lost 5.5 pounds in the last week, though I expect most of that is water weight.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

One small point. It's "Vin Diesel".

Otherwise you'll look like a truck.....

[lightblue]

I reckon it'd mean non-fatty tissue (me 200lbs 5% bodyfat - recommended intake about 2900 kcal, sounds about right).

Keep in mind that with heavy exercise you would need a lot more to support the muscle growth and repair.

As a fairly high level rower, I quite often hit 4000-4500 kcal a day on heavy training weeks. You can only do this if you train it off though otherwise you turn to Homer Simpson in weeks.

[orange]

good luck. I started something simillar in early november, and lost 20 pounds before break and looked decent (definition and all), put 5 pounds back on at home (christmas and new years ) but am back on track.

small meals, 20-30 minutes of moderate exercise semi-daily, and healthy choices will have you halfway to your goal by April...at which point you'll have to up the ante on your exercise if you want to look like Vin Diesel

[orange]

if you start your day off with a high fiber breakfast (cereal nuts and peanutbutter, perhaps) it will help you lose weight and stay full until midday, when you can have a light snack which'll keep you going until dinner (if you eat around 6:00-6:30), then if you get hungry late (though generally it is not recommended to eat too late) you can have another light snack.

[alva]

The only way to loose weight, is to loose it very slowly.
To quikly, and your body will go in 'save up for later' mode.
After you stop dieting every pound will come back fast, if you havn't trained/given time for your body to adjust itself to your new lifestyle !!!

Don't eat less(at least not at first), just moderate, look at what you're eating and cut down on a few things, yeah, the obvious ones.

Don't mix certain food; a good example is meat and patatoes.

Drink loads of water, and hang on

[Dis]

something to ponder. This applies to me- and very likely won't apply to most people. I didn't eat that much. I gained weight slowly over 10 years. I thin it it is safe to say that I only exceeded my ideal calorie intake by a little. So what did I do? reduce my caloric intake.

I heard that caffeine hurts people with anxiety. So I was intending on cutting that out. I figured hell, if I'm going to do that, I might as well stop drinking soda all together. That I did.

When I was working I ate fast food for lunch everyday. Believe it or not, I'm kind of sick of the way fast food tastes. So I decided. Screw this. I'm cutting down on fast food. I still eat taco bell occasionally. And occasionally pizza.

I cut my lunch from two sandwhiches to one. I cut my breakfast from 4 waffles to 2.

And I because of my suspicians about the effects of french fries and chips I have cut them from my diet as well. There was a study that shows these may cause cancer- not proven yet.

Also because chocalate can cause my face to break out, I have cut that from my diet as well.

Another thing to take notice is flavour. Too many people think sweet is the only flavour. I have found I like sour things almost as much as sweet things. And they have less calories in general.

This appears to be working. I'm not losing weight fast, but I am losing weight.

Oh and I walk my dog, and do moderate excersizes with dumbells. I also use a stair stepper twice a week- that is all I can manage to do right now. I think it is enough. I can't be bothered to do it anymore than that.

[statusperfect]

Orange knows what he's talking about. Fibres is the key.

[Dis]

just don't eat that fiber near me

[orange]

good job Dissident

[Pekka]

cheg, if you want to look like vin diesel and you're not very fat to begin with, then you want to eat and have all the protein and all that. Not too much of course.. so your muscles develop better, than just loosing weight. Loosing weight can make your muscles smaller if only dieting and eating less. If you want to beef up, you should eat about 5 times a day (not full meals of course), time it correctly so your body maintains good level all the time. Few light meals and then few snacks. You should place the eatings with your training correctly, to get the best results.

Exercise is the key word naturally, running, swimming and gym is good combination. You should get a program for gym, running and swimming from professional, it's essential to do it right, and not just do.

You are 160lbs? You sound light weight.. you still want to loose weight? If you have some extra on you, then sure, but if you're 'normal', you might want to start eating more and training heavily.. that is if you want to look like vin diesel . Also, I remember that you're not a child anymore, so you need to train even harder, and keep in mind that there are lots of injuries waiting!
I didn't catch if you wanted to just loose weight and be tighter, or build up some muscles?

Well anyway, and it's not all bad, you can have one day off a week to eat something that's not healthy food, body needs more than salads, and it can be beneficial even when loosing weight. Just don't over do it..
Vin Diesel has a big upper body, so you really need to train hard and eat correctly, and maybe get some of those nutrition stuff, extra meal snacks or stuff like that, maybe creatin would be good. But then you really need to train, or you end up fat .

[Pekka]

Also don't fall into what some people do. They eat like crazy for one day, and then won't eat at all for 2 days.. it's not good way to lose weight, in fact it doesn't even work. When you stop eating for few days, your body thinks it's tough times, and it storages fat instead of burning it.. and it burns (my english comes in a way) something else that you don't want to burn. So in fact you're in worse shape, and the fat is not gone.

Maybe the most important thing for modern people to do is to get their lives more steady and regular. Sleep the same hours, work the same hours, eat the same hours, train the same hours, so your body gets used to it, and it won't do any freaky stuff. Relaxing, dumping stress is good for your body, and increases the results of training. Leave coffee, soda, stuff that makes you anxious away. It's ok to have them every once in a while.. won't do damage.
Also if you start running, knee injures are looking for you if you haven't done it for a while, so don't run too much at first.. let your body get used to it. Same goes with all the training. If you train too much, it's again making your body go back instead going forward and to something better. I have found it best for me to do little sporting right in the morning for about 40 minutes, quite intensive, and then again in the afternoon for 1.5 hours.
In the morning I run or swim, afternoon something else like gym etc. I don't do this routine anymore, I did it when I was getting out of shape. Worked like charm! I called it 'the superhero workout' .

[orange]

i think Che is well over 160...i think he meant 160 is his normal lean body weight (what'd he be if he wasn't heavy)

[Pekka]

here I go again..

and remember to make things more permanent, and not just a thing for a month.. it works if you continue doing it! And don't worry if you don't lose fast, God's miracles are not usually in this business. First you might lose quite fast in fact, it's mostly water, and if you have some extra, you'll burn fat too, but then it slows down. This is the point where you must continue! Also, it doesn't show up fast, because your body tends to loose somewhere else first than the 'problem areas', making the belly, butt, what ever look even more bigger or worse.. but not any better. Fat burns pretty steadily from all over your body, not just the problem areas, so always keep it in mind, the problem areas will get better, just need to continue.

And no, I wouldn't laugh at you. I was always in very good shape, then I started drinking beer, eating like horse, and stopped training. I got in bad shape, and when I started working out again with determination, it didn't even take that long, and got me in even better shape. So everything is possible. Actually I'm eating like a horse again, and not training . I should continue fast, or I'll end up like that michelin dude again.

[Pekka]

orange, ah ok ! I thought he was 160 now, so that's why I talked about beefing up .