Advice on Weight Loss

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xina647

New member
I am new to the forum. I am 23 years old. I am 5'2 currently 155lbs right now. I have always wanted to lose weight but have dragged it on my entire life. How much weight can I loose per month by exercise and diet? Which cardio machines are the most effective to use at the gym and for how long should I use them each time? How much calories should I be intaking per day to see results? My long term goal is 130lbs. I just started working out recently.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section.
 
Hi I am in the same boat as you are i am 153 and would like to lose 23 pounds and be 130. I have also started working out recently. But I am so confused as to what to do when I get to the gym and how many calories I should be aiming to burn and how many calories I should eat and actually what should I eat. It is so confusing.
 
In the Nutrition section there is a sticky thread titled "How many calories should I eat?" There are also a number of stickies about exercise, which you should read.

A reasonable and healthy weight loss goal would be to lose 1 percent of your current weight per week.

Don't worry about those things too much. It isn't rocket science. There is no magic formula. Do the kinds of exercises you enjoy and will be able to maintain for the rest of your life.
 
raj said:
Hi I am in the same boat as you are i am 153 and would like to lose 23 pounds and be 130. I have also started working out recently. But I am so confused as to what to do when I get to the gym and how many calories I should be aiming to burn and how many calories I should eat and actually what should I eat. It is so confusing.
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Please don't worry about how many calories you are burning- the machines are wrong, at best about 25% additional to what you may or may nor burn and at worse- I have been on machines which are 300% wrong! I wear a Heart Rate Monitor whioch gives me a better estimate but even then, it is just an estimate, it is verly likely to be wrong (but atleast not as wrong as the gym machines!) See the other problem is, the more you do a form of exercise, the better you become at it, the fewer calories you burn despite the machines saying otherwise.

Best thing you can do is give exercise your best shot, work for a set time and try to enjoy rather then edure what you do to try to make sure you will return to it.

Try to vary what you do and try to change your workout every 6-8 weeks, add interval training and you have a comlex week of exercises which should keep you fit and able to boost your bodies calorie requirements. But please don't be under any impression you can eat what you want just because you exercised, there will be a slightly raised need for more food but your looking at numbers like 200 or 300 extra cals in a week- and thats when you have built the required muscles to be needing more fuel to support them. Exercise helps with weight loss as it gives your body more work to do and can help with toning and feeling better within yourself, but its not what works for weight loss alone.

For weight loss, what you eat matters more then anything else.
 
Hi Summer123,
Thank you so much for your advice also can you tell me something encouraging which you may have experienced during your weight loss time. This really feels like it is getting no where.
 
You can do Daily physical activity and then you can achieves fitness and balances energy expenditure with calorie intake.Balanced diet food such as Weight Watchers, rather than a fad diet.Use low-fat milk-dairy products in eating.
 
Stop Eating. Honestly, you are in very good health and building lots of muscle, which will help you lose weight long term and to maintain your weight loss. Muscle helps you burn more calories all the time.
 
Hey hey, theres no reason to make weight loss harder and more complicated than it really is.

Here, just follow these simple guidelines..

1. Do 3 full body workouts a week preferibly mondays, wednesday, and fridays
2. Only use your own bodyweight or dumbbells for resistance
3. Pick 2 days of the week to do HIT
4. The only machine I recommend is the stationary bike. Other than that, stay away from machines.

For your diet...

1. Stay away from anything your already know is unhealthy
2. Eat more fruits and vegetables
3. Drink 1-2 gallons of water
4. Eat just a little less than what you already do

Hoped I helped ;=)
 
raj said:
Hi Summer123,
Thank you so much for your advice also can you tell me something encouraging which you may have experienced during your weight loss time. This really feels like it is getting no where.
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Its hard,-for me it is anyway! I have learnt the hard way that its really about what you put in your mouth and far less about how much exercise you do. I then was quzzing a gym instructor on weight loss who confirmed (begrudgingly) that it affexts weight loss to about 15%. Where as what you eat affects your weight loss to about 65%. Thats all in-the-air % marks which I am sure do vary but its safe to say that what you eat matters much more then how much you think your burning. Added to that the machines overexaggerate to make you feel your getting somewhere and continue to use them (so the company stays in employment). Only thing is several weeks and months later your left banging your head against the wall when the weight just wont shift!!

The best peice of advice I can give is to eat 3 meals a day, 3 snacks a day. Keep them calorie counted, work out how many calories you need per day and reduce this by up to 25%, this would be a good weight loss ball park mark to keep to, if you have a bad day, don't kill yourself over it, just do better the rest of the day and from then onwards, with weight loss its very much you get out what you put in to a degree- but you do not to put in alot of effort, if it was that easy we wouldn't have such high rates of obesity!

Exercise is important, don't get me wrong- every little bit helps and 15% is enough to make some form of difference, so keep up with the exercise, as often as you can, but best thing to remember is to enjoy it. Its not going to make mind blowing differences, you wont lose 10 stone by going to a gym 3 days a week, but it can take the edge off and no onw would turn down any amount of extra weight reduction. Added to that it boosts your self esteem, your more likely to want to keep to your diet if you believe in yourself and what you can do. It can also prevent you from eating- how many would instead be at the bar/club/at home eating ice cream instead of at the ashtanga/step/gym being active? that way it cuts calories and that can make a difference.

I am not sure where but I read somewhere there is a max amount of calories your body will allow to be burnt off by exercise, eventually it just slows right down, goes into some form of conservation and doesn't help you when you begin to eat again as its still in that slow lane and trying to concerve calories so exercise well, but remember to do so without over doing it.

You can do this, it is possible to lose weight, its not easy, but then nothing worth having ever is! Keep going, a good weight loss will happen slowly and surely, keep a log of what you eat so you can make sure your not overeating and forgetting what you ate (you'd be suprized at how frequenlty this happens), keep up the exercise, it can help, but I wouldn't say as literally as your thinking.
 
xina647 said:
I am new to the forum. I am 23 years old. I am 5'2 currently 155lbs right now. I have always wanted to lose weight but have dragged it on my entire life. How much weight can I loose per month by exercise and diet? Which cardio machines are the most effective to use at the gym and for how long should I use them each time? How much calories should I be intaking per day to see results? My long term goal is 130lbs. I just started working out recently.
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How much weight can you lose per month?

How much weight you can lose per month depends on how the size of the caloric deficit you create initially, and this will largely depend on your current weight, how much weight you have to lose, etc. Safe guidelines always state 1 to 2 lbs per week. You will lose more "weight" (not just fat) in the initial weeks because you'll be cleansing the body as you start to eat more "lightly", start exercising and drinking more water, etc. After the initial "fast" weight loss (which can last 2 - 4 weeks), you will most likely continue at 1 - 2 lbs per week. (Again, however, your continued weight loss rate will largely depend on how overweight you are currently. For example, someone who is 100 lbs overweight will lose more weight per week than someone who's 25 lbs overweight. This has to do with the effort - energy expenditure - the body has to go through to move the body around during the day and during exercise.)

Which cardio machines are more effective?

As for which cardio machines are more effective? None. The "type" of machine does not determine how effective it is. Calorie expenditure is based on "level of exertion". For example, you can burn twice as many calories on the same treadmill (or other equipment) by simply running faster or by doing HIIT style cardio, versus doing a slow jog. So I wouldn't get caught up on which type of machine to use. In fact, I didn't use ANY cardio machines during my weight loss (I had to work out at home).

How many calories should you take in?

Check out this earlier post.
 
If you goal is to burn fat and lose weight, you should aim for compound exercises (multiple joint exercises such as shoulder presses, squats, rows, bench press, deadlifts, etc), basically any movement that involves more than one muscle group. Compound exercises burn far more calories than say... a bicep curl.

As for what machines work best for fat burning? I've personally have ever only used the treadmill and bike, so i can't comment on the others such as those fancy ski machines. But just think about this, which is more difficult? Sitting on a bike and moving just your legs with your hands on the handle? or continually running at a constant speed (without holding on the treadmill handles) and moving your entire body? Obviously the latter does a better job.

Regarding calories, don't be obsessed with counting calories. I did it once and it makes eating and life very complicated. Stick with a general rule of thumb, stay away from fast food, processed food and white food (white bread, potatoes, white rice). You will see results.

All the best!
 
Avoid Fast Food

You just need to avoid fast food to reduce your weight easily. At this age you can easily control your diet and obesity problems but in the later stage of life it becomes more difficult to control your obesity problems.
 
No exercise is created equal. You can run, and then click Run. Would you like jogging, so jog. Do you like bikes, so bike stationary. Losing weight does not necessarily mean spending money like buying special foods or register an expensive weight loss program.As you can see that when people look for simple ways to achieve a dramatic weight loss n is not really a quick fix.
 
Exercise cannot be alone for you to loss weight, from my own experience, I agree with the recommendations for more protein and healthy fat and way fewer simple carbohydrates. For snacks, I'm a big fan of nuts--raw and plain, not roasted or anything. Try this! :cheers2:
 
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