How does one start losing weight?

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Those studies do not mention whether the test subjects were couch potatoes or athletes. It wouldn't surprise if the metabolic rate doesn't change on a person who doesn't work out.

It's a given that exercise kicks your metabolism into overdrive. If you keep your energy levels steady with evenly spaced out meals, your workouts will be much more effective and consequently you will burn more calories.

Here's a study done on female gymnasts; one group eating frequent meals, the other eating 2-3 meals:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1099 ... d_RVDocSum

Dude... you are too ignorant. Not just ignorant, but ignorant as HELL. Not everybody's body is the same, and what works perfectly for one person, or most people, might not do jack for another. And vice versa. The root of one person's weight problem may be totally different than another's... but you can't see that, can you? You literally believe because YOU were successful, anyone could follow the same formula and get the same results. And that's the sad thing about ignorance- the ignorant believe they're right.

Walking an hour a day wouldn't do squat for me. I RUN an a day, and my body isn't chiseled. Then again, no matter how healthy I am, I never get thin. I'm not OBESE, but I've always been thicker than the average person. It's just my body type. And I know you're gonna respond to this with some more naive, ignorant garbage, so I'm not bothering with you anymore. Just keep pretending you know everything.

Lol I don't pretend to know anything. For example I don't know about Icyclan's alternative method whether it's good or not IDK that's why I didn't adress it BUT you said now that running is inefficient in weight loss. Everybody is different, I agree. Some people can run twice a week and eat healthy and they will drop weight. But some people have to excersize harder than that to drop weight. You might be running one hour a day, but that info alone can't really tell if you lose weight or not. Why? because if you sit the whole day near the computer or the TV, or eat junk that's going to like saying like running one hour a day is not a enough. You need a healthy way of life in general. The thing is I was not advicing this in general only to the OP, who was limited to running around her house.

BTW, body type is one thing, but it doesn't prevent you from losing weight at all. The OP didn't ask for a good body, only for losing weight.

You didn't lose fat buddy- it just relocated to your head.

I... didn't get it. really.

Well if you want to get interested in food you could research different types of diets and work out how much exercise you are going to do, how many calories you want to eat a day and the ratios of carbs:protein:fat that will make up those calories.

Otherwise I would say try and eat normal meals a day but make them healthy (limit saturated fat, eat wholegrain carbs and some protein, unsaturated fat could come from things like nuts and seeds) and if you have to snack try and make it a high protein, low carb, low fat snack. Go for a long walk or jogging every day.

Also one thing you might want to try is to cut out all or most wheat from your diet, I did this and feel better I have lentils as a staple now over bread, pasta etc.

I'm a guy and I know more about diets for men since I researched for myself. I know the best way to lose fat is to go on a very high percentage protein diet and do lots exercise but that is also including weight training so you might not want that exactly.


Also advice for running; don't run near the road, the car fumes are bad, the pavement is too hard for your joints and shins; run ideally on a level field but if not something like a cycle track/trail with trees around and no traffic would be better also. Get some running shoes if you can afford them and look at running tips on youtube to make sure you have a good form and don't get injured which is surprisingly easy to do from running.

A couple physicians web sights that might be of help as they discuss weight loss ideas, along with general health topics. Also enjoy greatly the director of the movie Fat Head's blog.

http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/

http://www.fathead-movie.com/

It's nothing to do with "increased energy expenditure",
but with both up-keeping metabolism and giving one's body smaller caloric and glycemic loads to process.

There's not a medical professional on Earth who would recommend 3 large meals,
a mere popular custom ungrounded in anything remotely scientific, over more numerous and lighter ones throughout the day.

Last edited by ValentineWiggin on 10 Jul 2011, 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Right, because fat people MUST be lazy at least PART of the time.
Bollocks.

Urm yeah.
It totally can.

On eat less exercise more....

You should eat for the weight you want to be. Find out how many calories some one at that weight should eat and eat that amount of calories in a day. I eat for a man weighing 220lbs. I used to weigh 325 now I weigh 275. Find out your BMR and the BMR for the weight you want to be. That way you will know how many calories you can have in a day.

And the following is going to sound completely wrong:

If you plateau and stop losing weight, you may need to eat more! Why? Because your body thinks it is starving and starts to retain the food to keep from starving!

Remember, losing weight is a balancing act between calories in and calories out. Slightly too many calories in and you gain weight. Slightly too few calories in and your body thinks you are starving and you gain weight.

And putting weight on even though you are eating less and exercising more...

You may have just put on some MUSCLE weight that is more weight than you lost in FAT! Remember the scale lies! Check your Fat percentage instead of your weight you might be surprised. I was. I have lost 66lbs of FAT and Gained 16.7 lbs of Muscle since I started losing weight.


And yes exercise. I work out with a trainer. But you just need to do it.

And yes, if you have Thyroid problems it can be hard to lose weight. I knew a girl who was 6'4 and 400 lbs! She worked out harder than the football players and could outlift them as well. She also ran in races 5k and 10k. and finished in top 20. However, her weight never went down! She did both Cardio and weight lifting. Nothing worked. Why? She had a HypoThyroid! But she kept fighting it. Her cholestral levels were fantastic and her blood sugar was right where it was supposed to be at.

I would recommend Lose It app if you have an iPhone or Ipod to help track your calories in and out. They do have a website as well. Highly recommended.

i would also recommend a food log. It is surprising how many calories we do eat when we aren't looking.

EDIT: Update weight lost info.

Last edited by Adventus on 15 Jul 2011, 3:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Umm, energy expenditure is the total calories your body burns (heat generated + work done on the outside world). "Metabolism" is an extremely unclearly defined blanket term. You lose weight when you burn more calories than you eat. If you space the same amount of calories into more meals a day, and you lose more weight (or gain less) than you otherwise would have, then you necessarily must have increased your energy expenditure. Your base metabolic rate is included in your energy expenditure. I am saying there is little more than anecdotal evidence to suggest that what you say is the case (despite the plethora of controlled experiments done on this exact topic).


If you burn more calories than you eat, you will either lose weight or die. Otherwise you are violating the first law of thermodynamics.

I'm no expert, but I can tell you that your best friend is the lowly apple. Eat lots of them while you're figuring out how you're going to go about your diet. They have almost no calories and they will keep you feeling full.

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Check out my IMDB page!

And you look cool eating one. People will come up and talk to you just because you are eating an apple.

One's body "type", as in uncontrollable physiological processes both normal and abnormal, can result in the inability to burn more calories than they eat even when said number is zero, hence too many "if's". That was the point, actually.

Don't worry about your weight and BMI and all that crap, unless you're in the Armed Forces and they fire you for height-weight standards, or you're competing in something with weight divisions. Worry about how you feel, and how you look (depending on body fat percentage rather than weight).

To get started, get your hands on a notebook and a pen, and write down everything that goes down your throat for a week. EVERYTHING. Then, you'll be able to analyze your diet, and how to adjust it to accommodate your needs (in your case, body composition / fat loss). It would also help if you wrote the time you consumed it. The main idea to start with would be to decrease fried foods, processed carbohydrates (white sugar, white bread, white rice, etc), and hydrogenated oils. Then to increase the consumption of vegetables and fruits, lean meats and seafood, and water. Regularity is the key.

On the other side of the notebook, start an exercise log. What you did, how long, etc. You don't need a gym to work out. (I used to work out at a local park playground.) The simplest program would involve just running every day, then increasing the distance gradually. Regularity is the key. It depends on what workouts you are willing to do. I would suggest getting your hands on Ross Enamait's "Never Gymless" and "Infinite Intensity" and "The Underground Guide To Warrior Fitness."

You can post your log here in a week, or you can PM me or something. And yes, I worked at a gym, and I've worked with athletes before.

Excellent advice, Pal. ^ There should be a daily diet/exercise check-in thread floating around these parts actually.
I read that many times people with weight troubles (and, rationally, those without) really do underestimate how many calories they're eating.
Between gum, drinks, condiments, the few tastes of the dinner you cook for the kids before having a salad yourself, I can understand how it's very easy to do.