weight loss help

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boston50

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I'm 5'4" and 149 lbs. I want to lose 10-15 lbs in the next 3 months. My diet is good (no fast food, lots of water, etc.) But just for a guideline, about how many calories should I be getting per day to reach this goal?

Exercise is the main part I need help with. I can't get a gym membership right now, or buy any expensive equipment, so that's not an option. So basically I have running, basketball, biking, jump roping, and other stuff like that available. How much of each of those specific activites should I do to burn a good amount of fat each day.
 
I'm no expert by any means, but here's what I've seen work for me and others:

Diet:
Your daily physical activity can determine how many calories you should consume as well as how many you expend. It has been mentioned in fitness sources that it takes an expenditure of 3500 calories to lose 1lb of body fat... That being said, it can be a very large number to cause discouragement. So, perhaps you could consume 1500-1800 calories, 5-6 meals daily, every 2-3 hours apart.

  • Water is good, especially for rehydrating during any cardio activity. Keep that up.
  • Eat within the 1st hour of waking up, this may help stimulate metabolism
  • Try to avoid highly-processed foods & foods high in sugar
  • Eat fiber rich foods (but not within 2 hours before working out...), fruits, vegetables, whole grains.
  • Avoid sodas
  • Eat from lean meat sources-fish, chicken, turkey

Exercise:
All the activities you've mentioned are aerobic. Maybe you can get in at least 45 minutes to an hour daily, keeping track of heart rate of course.

Weight training may be something to consider to help change the body fat % to muscle ratio. Most importantly, lean muscle can also assist in calorie burning.

Hope this helps...Research reliable sources for more detailed info. There's good info out there.

Good luck,
~K
 
Yeah, everybody says 45 mins a day, but I mean how many miles running/biking, how many jumps with a jumprope, etc. I want to get a specific number.

And like I said, I can't really afford to buy stuff like adjustable weights now, so what is a good weight of dumbells I can start off with.
 
You can use bodyweight exercises, and/or make weights using stuff you have around the house (water jugs, books in a bag etc.) The body doesn't know one sort of resistance from the other - dumbbells and barbells just put it into convenient packages. That said, compound movements are good - stuff like deadlifts, squats, bench presses (push-ups), pull-ups, rows, supplemented with isolation exercises like bicep curls to fill in any holes.

As for calories, try this . You'll basically be figuring out your metabolic rate at rest, and then using a multiplier (depending on your perceived activity level) to get the amount of calories you need. Just be careful in estimating the amount activity you put in - too low and you'll be shorter on calories than you'd like. Too generous and you'll be eating in a surplus and not know it til your pants don't fit as you'd like.
 
^your calculator and the BMR that Bally's gave me are at a 800 calorie difference....which one do I trust? The one in the calculator say I need 2100 and Bally's says 2900. I'm 5'9" 209lbs.
 
I'd say above average since I work out 1-2 every morning lately and sweating like crazy doing cardio workouts...


EDIT: Ok I redid the BMR calculator which was 2121.97 so I multiplied it by my activity level (1.725) and it was 3660.39. Basically means I shouldn't have a hard time losing weight at all...since I know what I eat throughout the day doesn't even come close to that number. Max it would be 2500, but I only started exercising vigorously for 2 weeks. So should I trust the calculation and try to eat 2500 calories everyday?
 
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If that's the case I think you were a bit too optimistic with your activity level. If you used 1.5 what would you come out with?
 
But what I need advice with is cardio. If I were to wake up each morning and jog or run two miles would that be a good number to reach my goal or what would be a good amount to do? And how often?
 
boston50 said:
But what I need advice with is cardio. If I were to wake up each morning and jog or run two miles would that be a good number to reach my goal or what would be a good amount to do? And how often?
Click to expand...

If you're looking to lose weight - get these in order (in order of importance):

1. Diet - Most of your results are determined by it.

2. Sleep - In addition to renewing your body, it seems to help you lose weight.

3. NEAT - Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - which is scientific jargon for "Get off your ass and do something".

4. Hydration - Keeping electorlytes balanced and your body watered certainly helps.

5. Working out - Yup, all the way down here at #5. Usually cardio seems to be necessary when controlling 1 isn't happening - as in - either eat the extra calories and do cardio, or just not eat them in the first place.

(Largely learned from Leigh Peele)
 
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