I'm going to brag a little about losing excess weight and offer a little advice to guys (or gals for that matter) who want to lose some.
From January 31st 2011 until today I have lost about 84 pounds. I weigh about 170 which is about what I weighed when I was in the Navy....but, to keep me humble, I was 2 inches taller and my waist line was 3 inches smaller then.
And here is the advice....might not work for everyone but it works for me.
1. Do NOT go on a rigerous diet. If you do that you will lose weight fast but the odds of keeping it off range from slim to zero.
2. Do decide realistically how much you want to weigh btw don't set your target at 150 if you weigh 300 set it at 250. Write it down.
3. Find the number of calories per day needed to sustain your target weight. A good place to start is 10 x your target weight if you are a couch potato and 15 x your target weight if you are very active. That will tell you about how many calories you should eat per day.
4. Set aside at least an hour a day to exercise. If you are capable of walking that is enough time for about a 2 to 4 mile walk and walking at any speed above 2 miles and hour is a great exercise... Find a variety of places where you can walk. I wouldn't jog - it's hard on the joints and is no better than walking for weight loss. Increase your walking speed as you go. Don't think that because you're active you don't need to do this and don't make excuses. Keep in mind -- it is better for you to be fat and fit then thin and a couch potato. So even if you don't lose a pound this is great for you.
5. Set an intermediate goal that is easily within your reach - maybe a loss of 5 or 10 pounds --- when you reach it set another. I used 5 pounds loss. So my goal was never so far away I would get discouraged. It was easy to say "Hey I've only got to lose another 3-4-5 pounds and I'm there"
6. Do not try to starve yourself but recognize that if you are going to go from that 3X or 4X to a X or 2X you will have to change the way you eat. I found that the easiest things to cut out were the "Junk" and the easiest way to cut them out was don't bring them in the house. You can reduce them gradually but if you want to keep weight off -- they gotta go. If you think otherwise you are kidding yourself. You can snack more calories during a football game than you should eat in two days. And - take the Fast Food places off your list of places to eat.
From January 31st 2011 until today I have lost about 84 pounds. I weigh about 170 which is about what I weighed when I was in the Navy....but, to keep me humble, I was 2 inches taller and my waist line was 3 inches smaller then.
And here is the advice....might not work for everyone but it works for me.
1. Do NOT go on a rigerous diet. If you do that you will lose weight fast but the odds of keeping it off range from slim to zero.
2. Do decide realistically how much you want to weigh btw don't set your target at 150 if you weigh 300 set it at 250. Write it down.
3. Find the number of calories per day needed to sustain your target weight. A good place to start is 10 x your target weight if you are a couch potato and 15 x your target weight if you are very active. That will tell you about how many calories you should eat per day.
4. Set aside at least an hour a day to exercise. If you are capable of walking that is enough time for about a 2 to 4 mile walk and walking at any speed above 2 miles and hour is a great exercise... Find a variety of places where you can walk. I wouldn't jog - it's hard on the joints and is no better than walking for weight loss. Increase your walking speed as you go. Don't think that because you're active you don't need to do this and don't make excuses. Keep in mind -- it is better for you to be fat and fit then thin and a couch potato. So even if you don't lose a pound this is great for you.
5. Set an intermediate goal that is easily within your reach - maybe a loss of 5 or 10 pounds --- when you reach it set another. I used 5 pounds loss. So my goal was never so far away I would get discouraged. It was easy to say "Hey I've only got to lose another 3-4-5 pounds and I'm there"
6. Do not try to starve yourself but recognize that if you are going to go from that 3X or 4X to a X or 2X you will have to change the way you eat. I found that the easiest things to cut out were the "Junk" and the easiest way to cut them out was don't bring them in the house. You can reduce them gradually but if you want to keep weight off -- they gotta go. If you think otherwise you are kidding yourself. You can snack more calories during a football game than you should eat in two days. And - take the Fast Food places off your list of places to eat.
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