Okay, so I'm a physical mess. Some questions.

W

wraahel

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I'll cut to the chase. I'm 24, 6ft 2 and pushing 17 stones (238lbs). Having been physically fit, active and much, much leaner just a couple of years ago this is quite hard to take, however I'm under no illusions as to why I'm in the state I'm in. In no particular order:

- I do not take anywhere enough care of my diet. I eat out maybe twice a week, plus a takeaway thrown in. Lunches usually consist of high-carb, high-fat sandwiches and evening meals are not much better, if at all

- I drink heavily - typically between 5 and 8 500ml cans of lager a night, every night

- I do very little exercise

So, I'm under no illusions that the way I find myself is entirely my fault, and my responsibility to put right. I also know that my diet must improve considerably, I must stop drinking completely and that I must work out frequently. However, I have some questions I'd appreciate some help with. Here goes:

1. I intent to go to the gym for an hour, 3 - 4 times a week, but what would be the best use of this time? In the past when trying to lose weight I've spent time on treadmills, etc. However, as my understanding has got a little bit better I've learned that I'd be better spending time on weights with high intensity exercises - low weight, high reps.

In summary, my question - how should I spend this hour at the gym? Should I consider swimming?

2. How can I help boost my metabolism in order to make the most of my efforts? Exercise and dietry suggestions appreciated here.

3. What foods should I absolutely avoid? Obviously fatty red meats, dairy products and foods high in sugar etc. are no-no's, but what other food types which are not immediately apparent as unhealthy will limit my fat burning? I'm thinking bread and pasta as examples here.

4. Are there any foods that will assist fat burning and weight loss as such, other than simply being low calorie / fat / carb etc.

Apologies if this is all a bit long winded, I'm just trying to make the very most of this.

Thanks! :)
 
Before I go answering your questions, bare in mind first and foremost that healthy weight loss is a gradual thing. Cutting out all the bad and doing what you should have been doing all along will put your body into system shock and most likely result in your body entering into starvation mode, injury, or both.

1) I'd start with 3 days a week, and increase to 4 only after a month and if you enjoy exercise. While it would be ideal that we'd all exercise most days of the week, you don't want to overdo it starting out. If you look into spin classes and pump classes (as an example), these are the sorts of classes that will burn a lot of calories during and after the session. If your gym doesn't provide these classes, or charges clients for them, then I'd look at organising your own resistance (RT) and cardio (CV) program. If you plan on being there for an hour, then I would dedicate the first 40 min to RT, doing compound exercises starting with the legs and then trunk and arms, with 2 sets of 15 reps per exercise. Then do 15-20 min CV (depending on whether you stretch after or not, which you should). At this point in the workout, your energy is most likely depleted, so HIIT may not be appropriate, but I'd still try and work in some intervals. Swimming may be particularly beneficial as aquatic activity aids in recovery, but any cardio should be fine.

2) Do something physical frequently throughout the day. Parking your car 10 min from work will pretty much guarantee 2 bouts of 10 min activity during the day. Go for a walk before or after lunch, and you're set. Every time you increase your activity, you increase your metabolic rate during the activity, and afterwards. So 3 sets of 10min throughout the day will be more metabolically demanding than 30 min straight. Obviously what you do in the gym should be very metabolically demanding, and if you go ahead with RT or HIIT, it'll be metabolically demanding for a day or more after the activity. Speaking of activity, you know what your smooth muscles and tissues do every time you consume food or drink? They increase activity. At the most, you should have 4 hours between meals (except for while you're sleeping, of course), but ideally you should eat every 2-3 hours, and have drinks at seperate times. This will keep your internal organs active throughout the day, thus increasing metabolic demands of the body.

3) I've never been one to say absolutely avoid anything (unless it's soft drink with "diet" on the label). If it's natural and nutritious, it's not inherently bad. If it's unnatural and has toxic ingrediants in it (as is the case with diet coke), then it is inherently bad. Red meat should be in your diet, just trim some of the fat off the edge (some people say cut all the fat off, but I say that makes the meat cook bad) and eat sensible portions of it. Same with dairy, milk in particular. Cheese and cream are high fat dairy products, but milk itself barely has any fat in it at all, and you can even buy reduced fat versions of it. As for high sugar foods, most fruit is full of sugar, yet it's still recommended that you eat 2-3 serves of it a day. Point being, most natural foods are good for you, if you eat them in appropriate portions. Even carbs aren't the enemy to healthy weight that their reputation gives them. Just go for the least processed version of the food. For example, wholemeal and multigrain breads are generally considered good for fat loss, whereas white bread isn't, not because white bread has anything wrong with it, but because your body digests it so easily that your body gets hungry again quickly, thus more calories in LATER. Take home message: Buy food that is fresh or has been through minimal processing. Use natural ingrediants in moderation. Refer to the healthy eating pyramid.

4) Spices increase the metabolic rate slightly. Other than that, I don't know of any wonder food that, on its own, makes people lose weight.

Now, things you need to know:

To lose weight effectively, as I said at the start of this post, it's a gradual process. You should be at a caloric deficit of 500kcal/day to burn 0.5kg/week. This may not seem like a lot, but spread that out over a year, and you've (theoretically) lost 26kg, or 57lb. Putting exercise on top of this may increase the caloric deficit to up to 500kcal/day, but should average about 300kcal/day, which is another theoretical 15kg, or 34lb. This adds up to a potential 90lb in 12 months, though I would not expect to achieve that (in fact I'd recommend not pursuing that much weight loss in one year, as it increases the risk of ending up with flabby skin which needs to be surgically removed).

Your 500mL lagers would most likely each contain 200-300kcal in them. So for a month or so of your weight loss challenge, you could probably lose weight simply by stopping at 3. So it would probably take a month of doing nothing but drinking a little bit less before you'd even have to do ANYTHING about your diet. Remember, it's about gradual progressions. If you went from what you're doing now to eating near perfectly, I doubt you'd stick to it, but even if you did, you'd possibly be at a 1000kcal deficit or more, which could convince your body that it's being starved, resulting in a reduced metabolism, thus hindering your weight loss. So for a lot of your meals, instead of choosing the reduced-calorie meal, you should start with choosing the more natural, nutritious choice between two meals that have the same amount of calories in them. Then you should slowly reduce portion sizes throughout the year.
 
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Thanks, Goldfish, for such a helpful and informative response. Probably the best and most useful reply I've ever had on any forum, anywhere, regarding anything.

Seriously appreciate the time it must've taken you to write that. Thanks! :)
 
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