Weightloss/ Muscle Gain Naturally?

[Dizzle229]

Hi guys.

 

Basically, I'm slightly overweight and have noodle arms, and get a LOT of heat for it. So tonight I decided to change that. I've already started doing push-ups, and tomorrow I'm walking to my friends house rather than getting a ride.

 

Still, the reason I'm posting is because I need some help finding ways to accomplish this, without going too far out of my way.

 

The situation: I've spent my entire 14 years in my room. I attribute the fact that I'm only slightly overweight and not a massive fatty to not drinking soda and similar stuff. I'm hoping to walk around my neighborhood whenever I can, so that I'll eat far less. However, I'm not sure when, if at all, I can use my school's weight room, which would be a BIG help.

 

So if anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it :smile:

[Rebdragon]

For weight lifting live for every day, not the end goal. For weight you should be able to lose that easily at your age if you exercise and lay off the soda.

[Faux]

if you wanna lose weight, just go jogging. it's more effective than walking/push ups

[fastortoise]

or pick up a sport like soccer or hockey

[Dizzle229]

Thanks for the suggestions :grin:

[obfuscator]

Pick up a sport. I don't know how your school is but no matter how good you were at my school they always had room to do something. Try to bike/walk short distances, and if you are a gamer, do pushups while doing something afk'able. That or you can sit on an exercise bike instead of a chair ;)

[funnisam]

Even a fast paced walk is very good cardio, and weights unless at a low weight for very high repetitions will not provide enough time to burn fat.

 

Aim for a 1lb a week weight loss, too much drastic body weight change is unhealthy for the body. :smile:

[Laura]

I've never considered myself heavy, but I wanted to get back in shape for a swimsuit figure. My activity is moderately high with soccer three times a week for three hours and lifting (well, my father gave me his old Bowflex) two or three times a week. I lost four pounds this week by cutting out refined carbs. That is, no more bread, pasta, or ramen. I do not like meat or vegetables so my diet consists of mainly of nuts, fruits, and cheese. That said, I do not believe that I have cut my calorie intake by any drastic amount and I eat every two to three hours. I know they say it's healthy to lose at a rate of two pounds a week, but I feel great. No more mid-day bloating or tiredness. It's not as hard of a diet change as you think, as I've never been one to follow diets either. :)

 

Hope this helps. |^_^|

[stevepole]

Like some others have mentioned, make sure you improve your diet. I always think that a persons diet is just as important as working out itself.

[Faux]

I've never considered myself heavy, but I wanted to get back in shape for a swimsuit figure. My activity is moderately high with soccer three times a week for three hours and lifting (well, my father gave me his old Bowflex) two or three times a week. I lost four pounds this week by cutting out refined carbs. That is, no more bread, pasta, or ramen. I do not like meat or vegetables so my diet consists of mainly of nuts, fruits, and cheese. That said, I do not believe that I have cut my calorie intake by any drastic amount and I eat every two to three hours. I know they say it's healthy to lose at a rate of two pounds a week, but I feel great. No more mid-day bloating or tiredness. It's not as hard of a diet change as you think, as I've never been one to follow diets either. :)

 

Hope this helps. |^_^|

low-carb diets are so effective.

 

one of the fastest ways to lose weight is to put your body in a state of ketosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic

 

basically, you don't have to eat less, just stay away from carbs. i tried it for a week and decided it wasn't for me.

[Bloodstain]

Even a fast paced walk is very good cardio, and weights unless at a low weight for very high repetitions will not provide enough time to burn fat.

 

Aim for a 1lb a week weight loss, too much drastic body weight change is unhealthy for the body. :smile:

 

Fast paced walking is good cardio for old people, not young people. Jogging will do it much better, and 1 - 3 lbs is good, although 3 might be pushing it

[Stephen9o3]

To lose weight, you need to have a calorie deficit. Meaning you have to burn more calories than you consume on a given day. It takes 3500 burned calories to lose 1lb of fat, so if you have a deficit of 500 calories/day you'll lose 1lb per week. For most people this means restricting themselves to 1500-2000 calories per day, depending on a variety of factors. As a weightlifter on a strict diet, keeping a calorie log is essential. It's also not too hard these days with sites that have databases of all types of brand name and generic foods, all you have to do is type in what you ate, it'll come up and you click on it. It's a great way to put what you eat in to perspective. Consume lots of protein and good carbs (less-refined sugars).

 

A couple sites that have calorie counters:

http://www.livestrong.com

http://www.fitday.com

 

Good luck and don't give up. It's worth it.

[Iamdan]

Find out your BMR and use myplate or something to get a 500 calorie deficit. If you build muscle then your BMR will raise, which makes it effective in the longer term to lose weight.

 

Cut the processed and sugary crap out altogether. You'll feel noticeably better within a week. Avoid bread and white rice. Stick with fruit and veg, nuts, fish, eggs etc. It would pay to drastically cut dairy because it's really fatty and not that healthy anyway. Eat smaller meals more often rather than 3 big meals if possible.

 

If you're getting enough sleep and still tired then you need to eat a bit more.

 

 

Cardio is great if you do enough of it. I box for 7-12 hrs a week and it's dropping off pretty quickly. You need your heart rate to be in the aerobic zone for a good 1hr a day at least. My training sessions are 2-2.5 hrs. Jog, skip, core sessions, (pushups, chinups, crunches etc) hiit, whatever it takes you get it up high enough.

[tortilliachp]

Ah! the topic of my dreams:

 

A little about me, and why my advice on this topic isn't something I've made up myself: I'm 18, currently in traning for national championships in Tennis. I have coaches who go on about weight gain / diet all the day, every day. Nutritionists pester our every moves when we need to gain muscle, or loose fat.

 

These are the general pointers I get from those people:

 

To loose weight:

1. Don't eat after 5 pm

2. you WILL be hungry part of the time if you are loosing wieght. that's part of the game.

3. Drink at least 2 glasses of water before every meal.

4. Don't "cut carbs" or anything drastic. Just eat a little less of everything.

5. Eat less meat and more vegetables, less calories, more filling.

6. No juice, soda etc. A slice of lemon in your water if you're giving yourself a treat.

7. Alcohol destroys all possibility of weight gain. 7 calories per gram is more than pure protein, almost as much as pure sugar. Stay away from alchol if you want to loose weight, that's the easiest way of getting rid of excess ingested energy, that is ultimately stored in your body as fat.

 

7 and most important: your changes have to be permanent, or you will regain weight. Sense of hunger will go away after time.

 

Exersise to loose weight:

this is divided into 2 groups: active "calorie burning" and "increasing your metabolism"

 

Increasing metabolism: You want to build muscle, as that burns more fat / calories while you do nothing. How do you build muscle effectively? weights, training your large muscle groups. that means: pullups, situps, pushups, free weight (if you're 15+ years old), wheelbarrows, jumping on one foot (with weight), back-ups etc.

6-8 repetitions, add weight so you get tired after 6-8 reps. Do a minimum of 4 sets of these 6-8 reps on every excersise. Do not go lower weight-wise, rather fail, and go lower next session. Work different muscle groups every day, 20-30 mins of strength training a day will get you the figure you want rapidly, and increase your metabolism so you can eat more once you've lost weight as well.

 

calorie burning: This is where the running / jogging / simming /biking comes in.

For running, you burn energy based on the distance you run, it doesn't matter if you go fast or slow. Generally: bodyweight *number of kilometers you run = calories burned.

For other activities: again, it's the distance that's important, but calculating energy burned is a lot harder. Basically, go middle intensity (so you can keep going for at least 50 minutes at the same tempo). Hold a constant speed, don't jog then walk a little etc.

To burn fat, you need to be at it for at least 90 mins, preferably 2 hours or more. That is when you've used most of the glycogen storage you have. when burning fat, acetone will be on your breath. This has a very distinct smell. However, few people burn fat directly, the important thing is to use more energy than you are eating, that will make you hungry.

 

 

Good luck!

[Bloodstain]

 

To loose weight:

1. Don't eat after 5 pm

 

 

This is a very good point that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet. Reason:

 

[hide]

Should I not eat carbs late at night?

Eating carbohydrates at night can, under certain circumstances, cause you to store the calories as fat. Another reason to avoid or lower your carbohydrate intake late at night, when trying to get cut, is to harness the body's output of growth hormone (GH), which is released at night within the first 90 minutes of deep sleep. GH is beneficial if you wish to shed fat and hold muscle, because it initiates a moderate shifting of fuel sources so the body burns more fatty acids at rest at the expense of burning less glycogen and body protein. Taking advantage of your body's GH output results in additional fat loss without a loss in muscle. Carbs consumed before you head off to bed can blunt the body's natural release of growth hormone, since GH is released more readily when blood-sugar levels are low. That's why some bodybuilders try to avoid carbohydrates later in the day.

From http://www.jimmythomas.com/training/members/carbohydrates.htm

[/hide]

[fastortoise]

My friends and I want to take up a sport this summer with high physical and mental demands but wont tie us down to a schedule (we were convinced to sign up in a soccer league, but our schedules don't fit). We were thinking kite boarding too, but that's pretty expensive - so we're also looking for something relatively cheap to start up :smile:

[tortilliachp]

My friends and I want to take up a sport this summer with high physical and mental demands but wont tie us down to a schedule (we were convinced to sign up in a soccer league, but our schedules don't fit). We were thinking kite boarding too, but that's pretty expensive - so we're also looking for something relatively cheap to start up :smile:

 

basketball? all you need is a ball, and you can get together whenever. Just be sure to always play full-court and have fair teams. 5 on 5 full-court can be quite a work-out.

 

To be challanged mentally, chose any sport. Do it properly, and be a little competitive amongst yourselves, and the mental and tactical component always starts.

 

Many sports (tennis, squash, handball, water polo, martial arts sparring, volley ball) requires so much practice with technique before you get a real tough workout that it might be a good idea to start with something where you can get exhaused right off the bat :D

 

 

what're you interested in? that's what really matters.

[LegendaryStu]

 

To loose weight:

1. Don't eat after 5 pm

 

 

This is a very good point that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet. Reason:

 

[hide]

Should I not eat carbs late at night?

Eating carbohydrates at night can, under certain circumstances, cause you to store the calories as fat. Another reason to avoid or lower your carbohydrate intake late at night, when trying to get cut, is to harness the body's output of growth hormone (GH), which is released at night within the first 90 minutes of deep sleep. GH is beneficial if you wish to shed fat and hold muscle, because it initiates a moderate shifting of fuel sources so the body burns more fatty acids at rest at the expense of burning less glycogen and body protein. Taking advantage of your body's GH output results in additional fat loss without a loss in muscle. Carbs consumed before you head off to bed can blunt the body's natural release of growth hormone, since GH is released more readily when blood-sugar levels are low. That's why some bodybuilders try to avoid carbohydrates later in the day.

From http://www.jimmythomas.com/training/members/carbohydrates.htm

[/hide]

 

I'm sorry but this is complete rubbish. There is no evidence to hold up the theory that just because you consume carbohydrates after x time, you are more likely to store away fat than at any other time of the day. The rate of digestion in your intestines is just the same at night as it is in the early hours of the day, so it makes no difference when you decide to eat your carbohydrates.

 

If you don't eat carbohydrates, then your body will be losing the fuel it needs to function, and instead of losing actual body fat, you will be losing water instead, as carbs help store water in the body. Also, the lack of carbohydrates will cause for your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) to slow down, meaning you won't burn as many calories as you normally will. Also, you will be missing out on vital nutrients that your body needs to function, and so may experience dizziness, exhaustion and heart palpitations.

[Bloodstain]

^ Didn't say no carbs at all, just none after whatever time. And after your post I went and looked into it more,

 

The no-carbs-at-night rule was thought up by Dante Trudel (aka Doggcrapp), to my knowledge, because idiots would go "I'm bulking and NEED CALORIES therefore I need to eat a cheesecake every night before bed." Then they turn into abject fatasses. It's considerably harder to gorge on calories when you can't have carbs, so this helps keep people from gaining too much fat while bulking. Successful trainers like DC are experts at coming up with tricks like this to save people from themselves.

 

So looks like it's just a trick after all.

[tortilliachp]

 

To loose weight:

1. Don't eat after 5 pm

 

 

I'm sorry but this is complete rubbish. There is no evidence to hold up the theory that just because you consume carbohydrates after x time, you are more likely to store away fat than at any other time of the day. The rate of digestion in your intestines is just the same at night as it is in the early hours of the day, so it makes no difference when you decide to eat your carbohydrates.

 

If you don't eat carbohydrates, then your body will be losing the fuel it needs to function, and instead of losing actual body fat, you will be losing water instead, as carbs help store water in the body. Also, the lack of carbohydrates will cause for your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) to slow down, meaning you won't burn as many calories as you normally will. Also, you will be missing out on vital nutrients that your body needs to function, and so may experience dizziness, exhaustion and heart palpitations.

 

I'm not talking about a fancy theory. I'm talking about eating less: you can go perfectly fine without food after 5pm every day. eating too much is the main dietary problem of more than four fifths of westeners who have issues of diet.

[sithlord_man]

My friends and I want to take up a sport this summer with high physical and mental demands but wont tie us down to a schedule (we were convinced to sign up in a soccer league, but our schedules don't fit). We were thinking kite boarding too, but that's pretty expensive - so we're also looking for something relatively cheap to start up :smile:

 

basketball? all you need is a ball, and you can get together whenever. Just be sure to always play full-court and have fair teams. 5 on 5 full-court can be quite a work-out.

 

To be challanged mentally, chose any sport. Do it properly, and be a little competitive amongst yourselves, and the mental and tactical component always starts.

 

Many sports (tennis, squash, handball, water polo, martial arts sparring, volley ball) requires so much practice with technique before you get a real tough workout that it might be a good idea to start with something where you can get exhaused right off the bat :D

 

 

what're you interested in? that's what really matters.

Track and Field is all a mind race. Knowing when to pass an opponent up and when to start the kick at the end is all mental. Its all tactics. If you have speed after a long race, use it.

 

I would suggest jogging, once you get into better shape you can try going at a tempo pace (30 seconds hard jogging, 30 seconds light jogging).

[Saru Inc]

 

To loose weight:

1. Don't eat after 5 pm

 

 

I'm sorry but this is complete rubbish. There is no evidence to hold up the theory that just because you consume carbohydrates after x time, you are more likely to store away fat than at any other time of the day. The rate of digestion in your intestines is just the same at night as it is in the early hours of the day, so it makes no difference when you decide to eat your carbohydrates.

 

If you don't eat carbohydrates, then your body will be losing the fuel it needs to function, and instead of losing actual body fat, you will be losing water instead, as carbs help store water in the body. Also, the lack of carbohydrates will cause for your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) to slow down, meaning you won't burn as many calories as you normally will. Also, you will be missing out on vital nutrients that your body needs to function, and so may experience dizziness, exhaustion and heart palpitations.

 

I'm not talking about a fancy theory. I'm talking about eating less: you can go perfectly fine without food after 5pm every day. eating too much is the main dietary problem of more than four fifths of westeners who have issues of diet.

 

 

 

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what would you suggest with someone *like me* who works from 4pm-midnight. I'm always starving when I get home, as I work in a Restaurant. Atm, I usually bring home some food almost always consisting of basically protein. I have a huge amount of allergies (I'm basically allergic to all carbs and dairy) however, I've not had any junk food for a month (except for maybe 1 (or 2 :P) glasses of soda a night at work, (I make myself drink 3 20oz water bottles before the soda lol) and I'm losing on avg 3 lbs a week. I usually run about a mile at night, (not recently, as I've been sick for a while) so by 1am I am starving... I've tried eating a big meal before I go to work, it doesn't help though.

 

Any suggestions?

[tortilliachp]

 

 

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what would you suggest with someone *like me* who works from 4pm-midnight. I'm always starving when I get home, as I work in a Restaurant. Atm, I usually bring home some food almost always consisting of basically protein. I have a huge amount of allergies (I'm basically allergic to all carbs and dairy) however, I've not had any junk food for a month (except for maybe 1 (or 2 :P) glasses of soda a night at work, (I make myself drink 3 20oz water bottles before the soda lol) and I'm losing on avg 3 lbs a week. I usually run about a mile at night, (not recently, as I've been sick for a while) so by 1am I am starving... I've tried eating a big meal before I go to work, it doesn't help though.

 

Any suggestions?

 

sure! the simple solutions are often the best and most satisfying: bring a packed "lunch" so you can eat when you're hungry. yes it takes a little bit of time and planning, but food you make yourself is guaranteed healthy: you made it that way.

 

of course the "traditional" advice of many small meals instead of a few huge ones still applies.

 

If you have little experience cooking from scratch yourself, get a cook book for beginners. A lot of people work out for the girls / body. Being a proficient cook is also very practical (and cheap) for later in life :)

[Skeptical]

Diet: PALEONU

 

^It will do amazing stuff for you. And it's not a diet, it's not a pill, it's not a trick to make you lose weight. It's a way to change your life, your mindset, and your attitude about food.

 

 

Exercise: MARK'S DAILY APPLE the dude makes working out into playtime. It's awesome.

[NorthernHero]

Cooldog wins this thread. Hes so cool... (:

 

Only thing I find abit excessive about Paleonu is the nuymber 12 at getting started. I find raw milk to be very good for you.

Also number 7 is also somewhat questionable and debends on the person and how much he works out for example. I usually eat 3 to 4 meals a day. Only when I havent done any workout for days I can live with only 2. If im working out hard I can eat 5 or even 6 meals a day. These are big meals with lots of protein and fat in every meal mind you. Also I eat more carbs when i'm working out. But they never come from grains but vegetables, fruits, nuts or milk.

 

Marks Primal Blueprint is great for both, exercise and nutrition :)

 

You might also wanna check Undergroundwellness on Youtube

 

Always with these kind of things, like special diet, it's important to do a good research first before running head over heels to something. Veganism for example can be very dangerous for you if not implemented properly.