Effective ways to lose weight.
A 30-minute walk every day will help. Running, cycling, raquetball, basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis all are good for burning fat. Find some things you like and do them a lot.
Weight-lifting is not a fat-burning exercise but it can increase overall muscle tone so you burn more fat than before even when you're not exercising. This includes pushups, pull-ups, knee bends, sit-ups and leg lifts.
Also, watch your fat and sugar intake. Eat at home, use low-fat or fat-free ingredients and only eat when you're hungry. I tend to eat when I'm bored or just want flavor on my tongue. I chew gum a lot.
_________________
To eliminate poverty, you have to eliminate at least three things: time, the bell curve and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Have fun.
Try to incorporate small amounts of exercise into your routine. Going for walks is very helpful. If you don't have time to go for many walks, try increasing the distance you walk to go about your normal activities, such as parking farther away from your destination or getting off one bus stop early.
You could get some cheap, light weights (a few pounds) and lift them while you're reading, doing stuff on your computer, watching tv, etc. Stretching is good too. It will give you energy.
If you do these minor things every day, you'll start to have more energy. Then you'll start to feel like walking longer distances and you won't need as much sleep so you'll have more time. If you don't do any kind of physical activity, you'll be likely to have a hard time losing weight and keeping it off.
I stay away from gyms, and the only equipment I use is a pair of 5lb weights from a girl's yoga kit. You do not really need anything but your own body weight and your imagination.
The big trend in fitness now is to use low weights at high reps. This is a better workout because you do not get discouraged, and the muscles are properly isolated making the exercise more effective.
I am pretty big with long limbs, and I have trouble with a lot of exercises because of the square cube law and loose ligaments, which cause random and painful dislocations.
A total body exercise which I came up with is a combo of yoga techniques (so I found out later) and a traditional squat.
Start with your feet shoulder width apart, and place your hands together like you are praying. Press your hands together while exhaling while you count to five. Then, push your hands out in front of you, holding and pushing against nothing for another 5-count. You will feel your muscles stretch and rapidly twitch at the same time, and possibly get that "post-pins and needles feeling". This is good!
Now, keeping your hands out for balance, slowly squat down and balance on the balls of your feet - don't be afraid to break form to keep balance, as this is all about improvement, not showing off. If you can balance, try pushing your hands out to your sides, again through a five-count.
Now, lower your hands to your side, and place your thumb heels against your regular heels, keeping your arms straight. Stand up, keeping your thumb heels along the seam of your pants, until you feel your back straighten. If you look in a mirror, you will see that you now have perfect posture.
At the end of this, you will be sweating! Do not worry about doing a bunch. Just try ONE of these for a start, then wait to see how you feel the next day. After about a week of doing this you will begin to feel very SOLID, because these exercises work the tiny muscles that attach to your bones, which in turn make you more able to do advanced exercises in the future without hurting yourself.
Again, be gentle with yourself, and don't overexert yourself. Muscles are destroyed during exercise, and developed in the periods of rest between exercise, like a callous on your hand. Using low weight lets you know when you have reached your limit and helps guard against pulling muscles.
I used to use heavy weights and gained a lot of SIZE, but I am much stronger now that I use low weight exercises. It's funny, but doing curls with 5 pound weights is much harder than with 50lb weights because you isolate your muscles instead of using swinging motions and leverage.
And if you don't own weights, who cares? Do the motions with empty hands, and before long you will feel that deep burn that lets you know that progress is being made. Instead of counting reps, watch TV or listen to music, and do the exercise until you can't.
In a month you will notice some pretty drastic results.
Oh, and don't feel bad about the pushups! I started barely being able to do 5 in a row, and now I am doing 50 Hindu pushups a day. The part that works your muscles is the descent, so "cheat" on the way up, and lower yourself down to the floor of you want to. I cannot do situps because my hips will dislocate, so I use pushups to strengthen my abs - the constant flexing builds muscle and burns fat.
Just be careful with pushups if you weigh a lot like I do, because it can be pretty debilitating on your elbows if you go too hard. Again, the square cube law can be ugly.
So, to sum up, just take your time, and make sure you are doing this for you, and not for someone else. In time you will look forward to your exercise, as it's a great stress reliever and a great place to focus your AS energies. As an added bonus, these gentle exercises increase your body awareness, something we all need help with to one degree or another.
Good luck!
And once you become advanced, try some of these crazy exercises!
http://www.streetworkout.com/
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A son of fire should be forced to bow to a son of clay?
Eat high fiber, low GI (glycemic index ) food. You should be able to find a list of low GI food on the web. Basically this is a lot of fruits and vegatables, but also whole grains, nuts and legumes. You should be getting about 35 grams of fiber if you're male, or 25 if you're female, a day. That's standard for anyone, slim or overweight, but especially if you're overweight. Getting enough fiber regulates blood sugar, slows the intake of sugar and fat, cleasnes the digestive take and keeps your metabolism in check. Most people in industrialized nations who are overweight and having trouble losing weight suffer for metabolism disorders brought on a poor diet that is too low in fiber and too high in sugar and fat. The math's is simple. These metabolism disorders are usually a form of insulin resistence, where the body doesn't metabolize sugars efficiently and the unused insulin combines to all the excess dietary fat (especilly saturated fat, trans fats and cholesterol) to make excess hormones like cortisol and estrogen (even in men) that pack on the pounds. This unhealthy process is the precusor to type II diabetes and heart disease. Good news is switching to a high fiber, low refined sugar and fat diet can reverse that metabolism disorder and prevent those worse conditions.
In order to get that amount of fiber, you'll likely find yourself eating veggies and fruit literally morning, noon and night. This is good, because it's filling and relatively low in calories (many raw veggies often have a negative or insubstantial calorie count, since you burn so many calories off just digesting them). This means you'll decrease your caloric intake even though you're eating a fair amount of food, and decreasing calories is the PRIMARY thing you need to do in order to lose weight.
Eating fruits adn veggies also help because they contain a lot of vitamins, mineral and antioxidants that you need daily, and especilly when you're under stress, like when you're losing weight.
Avoid artifical sweeteners - these can actually make you feel hungrier. Avoid processed food too - additives and flavor enhancers like MSG can also make you feel hungrier or trigger salt, sugar and fat cravings. Also avoid eating when you feel stressed - you are more likely to overeat, and also your body is more liekly to convert clroies into stored fat when you eat while feeling stressed or sad. Instead, do some physical activity or do something that makes you laugh or smile.
Second, you need to do some physcial activity. Liek or not, it's very important. The more lean muscle you build, the more fat you burn. Also, many overweight people have weaken, overworked heart muscles that makes them feel fatigued. Strengthen teh heart will make you feel a lot better, and so helping you stick to you weight loss regime. If you are not used to physical activity, do only 30 minutes a day for a few weeks and then increase it to 45 and then 60 minutes as you lose weight and get into better shape. Good news is, the heavier you are, teh more calories you burn, so don't feel bad about only doing 30 minutes - to your body, it's a lot!
I know you want this to be free, but it's a very, very wise thing to have your blood sugar level, blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked. If you're a woman and struggle with depression, have your thyroid checked too. This is just for you to be aware of what state of health you're really in.
I used to be around 2 stone heavier and then over a period of about a year I lost it. This is my advice to you, based on what I did:
- Eat wholemeal (brown bread, brown rice, wholewheat noodles, wholemeal cereals e.t.c) instead of refine carbs (white bread, white pasta, potatoes)
- Plenty of fruit and veg and a good variety of them too
- Cut down on the fizzy drinks
- Increase the amount of lean proteins you eat (white meat, fish, pulses) and decrease the amount of red meat, especially very fatty red meat like bacon
- Only eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full (harder than it sounds)
- Put moderate exercise into your daily routine. I walk 1 mile to the station, then 1/2 mile to college, then the same on my return journey. I take the stairs instead of the lift. I'm pretty much always continuously moving, even sitting here typing on my comp I'm still fidgeting around.
- Put a couple of hours away for some more strenuous exercise. Doesn't matter what it is. As long as it makes you sweat and run out of breath. I do a couple of hours of dancing a week.
- Drink lots of water!
Eat less, move more? I've read several places that it's not really healthy to lose a lot of weight at once. Maybe 5 pounds a month would be a good goal? Literally any movement burns calories. Walking is good, if you can, as it doesn't put a pounding on your knees like running does. Take the stairs instead of an elevator whenever you can. Walk to and from the store when you shop, if that's an option. Definitely eat less, and try to switch what you do eat to lower calorie foods while ensuring that their nutritional content is good.
I did lose about 40 pounds a few years ago by eating a Breakfast Jack sandwich (egg, ham, cheese, on a bread roll) for breakfast every day, then drinking a cup of coffee or hot tea for lunch, then having a very light supper. (This was not doctor approved, and I'm sure some cardiologist would have a fit about the Breakfast Jack part, but my LDL/DHL levels stayed fine.) I went to the gym every day and walked on a treadmill at about a 20 minutes per mile rate for a half-hour and then did an easy round on the weight machines. It took about 6 months, but the weight is still off. I'm an old broad, with a slower metabolism than a younger person, so hopefully it would be easier for a younger person....
Good luck!
richardbenson
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Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 13,553
Location: Leave only a footprint behind
Don't force yourself to do any kind of exercise you really hate, as you will get sick of it very quickly and give up.
If you snack a lot during the day, just be aware that it adds a lot more calories than anyone might think it would. Sugar free candy and diet jelly/jell-o are better choices, but even they can add on too many calories if you're not careful.
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richie
Supporting Member

Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania
Here is a PDF that I keep handy.
Needs Adobe Acrobat to read it.
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Weiner's Law of Libraries: There are no answers, only cross references.....
My Blog: http://richiesroom.wordpress.com/
Hey speaking of cycling,how do i learn to ride a bicycle? I tried to learn when i was younger,back then i was terrified of screwing up and crashing so i enevr learned.
Maybe a stationary bike? Otherwise, a bike shop may have some ideas.
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To eliminate poverty, you have to eliminate at least three things: time, the bell curve and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Have fun.
richie
Supporting Member

Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania
Hey speaking of cycling,how do i learn to ride a bicycle? I tried to learn when i was younger,back then i was terrified of screwing up and crashing so i enevr learned.
Maybe a stationary bike? Otherwise, a bike shop may have some ideas.
I use a bike for both transportation and exercise. If it is just for exercise start with a stationary bike so you get the feel
of pedaling, then learn to ride.
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Life! Liberty!...and Perseveration!!.....
Weiner's Law of Libraries: There are no answers, only cross references.....
My Blog: http://richiesroom.wordpress.com/
Brittany2907
The ultimate storm is eternally on it's

Joined: 9 Jun 2007
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,718
Location: New Zealand
My mother is a personal trainer so I know quite a bit about weightloss tips...
First things first, you don't want to spend to much time on it as you said...so here are some ideas that take basically no effort!
Eat in moderation...you don't have to stop eating take out, or cheese, or anything! Just moderate what you eat. Make sure that you have a lot of whole grain foods, they are high in fibre and give you energy that lasts long. Have atleast 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day...that takes up no more time than it would if you were eating junk food.
Instead of having 3 solid meals a day, try having 6 small ones. That way, you have more energy throughout the day, are less likely to go on an eating binge and you burn more calories as when you eat food, your metabolism speeds up.
For excersize, do atleast 30-40 minutes per day. The most important thing is to do something that you enjoy. If you do that, you are likely to put in more effort and then you will burn more calories! It could be simply replacing driving the the local dairy, with walking there. Or if you are really into excersize, going to the gym would be a good idea.
Strength training is important aswell as cardio. Cardio burns the calories a there for reduces fat, while strength training will increase muscle mass and make your body look for firm and tone, rather than just skinny!
Hope I helped!
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