No idea where to start in meeting my weigh-in

P

pirieca

New member
Hi all,

I'm a newcomer, with a question about weight-loss. I'm an 18 year-old male who has never really had a massive need to lose weight until now. I am in my first year of uni, and train with the university boxing club, with a pretty decent shot at getting on the squad. In order to do this, I need to lose weight. I'm currently about 5' 10/11'', and weigh 70 kilos (154 lbs), and have been told i should be capable to get down to 64 kilos (140 lbs), which would be the upper limit of the weight category below the one i am currently in.

I see this as perfectly possible - I am a relatively slim person everywhere on my body, excluding my middle and chest, which for some reason seems to be perfectly happy to gather fat - never been thin there in any way.
I'm a pretty active guy. we train 3 times a week, and i try to play football at least once a week.

I have never been on a serious diet, as i've never felt the need to, but any dieting tips would be a great help to lose some weight. Also, any exercise tips for shifting some of the weight around my middle would be greatly appreciated. Ideally i'd like to be relatively close to my target by october/november, but that isnt necessary.

Thanks!
 
Hi, and welcome to the forum :)

I'm a big advocate of calorie counting. Work out how many calories you need to maintain and lose weight using this site: (I'm not affiliated with the company, I just find it a good one-page tool). Then start to have an awareness of how many calories are in things, and try to eat to lose a pound a week (given you don't have much to lose)- this is a 500 calorie/ day deficit. You don't have to go hungry- there are a lot of foods that give you good bulk for your calorie expenditure. Make sure you eat as nutritiously as possible.

Given you're involved in sport, you should also make sure you keep your protein levels sufficient. You can do this through the estimation technique, but it won't be as good as using a calorie counting program that will tell you what you need to know. I use one called cron-o-meter, and you can download an application of that for free (there are others out there, but I don't know how good they are at tracking macronutrients).
 
Thanks a lot!

Just a quick question, are there any particular foods that you recommend for staving off hunger while being quite low in calories?
 
It's a personal thing, I'm afraid. I have quite a big appetite, so this is an important one for me, but it's not something where I can give blanket recommendations. But try what's worked for me- fruit and vegetables (some work better than others but almost all- except particularly banana and avacado- are low calorie), porridge for breakast, low fat dairy, and substituting normal bread for rye bread.
 
Thanks very much. my last shopping trip seems to have fallen to the pulls of full-fat! I'll make sure i watch my intake though. thanks a lot!
 
You're welcome. I'd also recommend having a look around here- what other people are doing (I track my food intake in my diary, for example) and the stickied posts for really useful tips.
 
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