Dropping Pant Size / Weight Advice

[StrongPolar]

I'm a 34 yr old male, the past two years I've gone from a size 34 to a 36. I have a bad sweet tooth, recently instead of buying cookies, I've chose some water and some fruit or tofu, or bought something with lower calories and sodium. I watch my sodium intake more then when I was in my 20's. I have alot of loose fat, it's not hard, as in beer belly hard, just loose, probably has to be toned up. I lost 100 Ibs when I was 17, I'm not new to loosing weight unfortunately it left stretch marks.

My goal is to drop back down to my size 34, I don't know how much I weight, yet as I don't own a scale. I have alot of things on my plate at the moment, so to much time exercising will interfere, what can I do to drop the pant size which obviously will drop some of my weight ? I do walk occasionally and I don't drink, smoke /drink coffee / fast food / drugs of any kind. As I said the only thing is at times over eating, as I got older, I can't do this as I use to as much either, only when I'm officially hungry, stomach growling, typical signs you need to eat, but not eight donuts or a double whooper or my issue, almost a bag of cookies.

Any advice ?

The amount of overweight people I see under 30, is extremely awful. There is slightly overweight, many are extremely overweight.

 

[Stephen Hatchfield]

Hi Strong Polar,

Given your time contraints, I would suggest eating small fist-sized portions. Don't eat too late at night and don't eat before bed-the majority of those meals will turn to fat. If you don't have much time to dedicate to exercise, just try to make every situation as active as possible. For instance, try doing 10-20 pushups for every hour of television you watch, or if you sit down a lot at home or at work, try getting up as frequently as you can and just walk around, stretch, get some circulation going. Other than that it seems like you already know what the issue is and you will just have to stop overeating. I do it too man, it's not an easy thing to just stop doing, but I'm workin' on it!

 

[StrongPolar]

Overeating and sweets. Then all I gain is water build up, pants tighter etc. Tonight I had some plain pasta with beans and some cheese, simple meal, alot of times simple is best. I did not eat until I was full, I stopped before hand, it's a step

Push ups I could start, not much room that I could start to build upper strength, hopefully tone the loose skin I have, it doesn't hang, needs to be toned.

 

[CrazyOldMan]

There is an old cartoon image I remember seeing that is unfair but still pertinent to many where a doctor is saying to a patient, 'Which fits into your busy schedule better training an hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?'
With work, family etc. it is easy to get to the stage where by the time everything is done you just want to collapse and anyone declaring they have never taken breaks because of time pressures has a life envied by the rest of us who wish we never had to.
Truth is however you don't have to have a stringent program etc. but you do have to train if ou want to pull in the slack. Diet will get rid of excess fat but only exercise will work the muscles and tighten your flesh. If you are convinced there is no time in your life to do this you are destined to fail, painfully simple fact.
There is good news, as there often is. Training doesn't have to be set times even set movements if you can't commit to this. Obviously if you can the results will be quicker but if you can accept a bit of delay in exchange for being able to live as well you can still do well.
You are basically me without the training, full on straight head not even a great deal of caffeine (there are occasional coke drinks in my life) but a major love of the sweet stuff. I have often declared the only reason I don't have type 2 diabetes (the fastest growing disease today, and fastest growing cause of blindness, take it seriously) is my training. I have started getting that more under control over the last year or so but distinctly remember eating virtually all of a 2kg bar of galaxy chocolate in one sitting without it even affecting my appetite, so it needed attention.
Don't try cutting out treats, you will just spring back and binge on them, but find a few you really enjoy and have the as reward treats.
Training wise go for balance, push ups are fine as part of an all over workout on their own they are like any other single exercise unbalanced and potentially harmful because of it. I don't know what you have available to you for training, if this is nothing check out the bodyweight section on here, JustinRVA often posts a link to a set of bodyweight exercises that are great. If you can go for a walk at lunch time, even 20 minutes, do some training later with bodyweight you will do well.

The eating times farce. I correct this with some venom because I was as sucked in by the dodgy research as many. The first study was so conclusive no-one argued, the group eating late all gained weight faster than those not. The study was checked and the late food was additional to the normal diet not simply the same food eaten later, they had proven eating more means gaining more weight. Every study since has shown nothing conclusive to prove this point. Results that have shown increase have been within inconclusive levels that could be due to genetics so have to be dismissed.
However the smaller meals more often is a good one, it gets called browsing now, when I started doing it years ago it was just known as constantly eating. I declare I have 1 meal a day with breaks for training and sleeping, and it works well. It is easier to increase or decrease intake without feeling it too much when your intake is throughout the day.

The world is becoming divided into people with eating disorders that make them skinny or fat at an increasing rate and that is genuinely scary. I see a number of people half my age who are struggling to do half what I can and many wishing they could look like the crazy old man which is disturbing on occasion.