Best way to drop fat

As Quiet Storm said, these are all techniques for eating fewer calories and
moving around more. (Does not have to be "formal" "exercise").

Look at foods which are calorie-dense: fats and sugars.
Cut down on them. A tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories.
Have a teaspoonful. Measure your portions. Use ground turkey
(very low fat meat) instead of ground beef. Avoid sugars.
Snack on vegetables and fresh fruits (not dried fruits like raisins).
Etc. Etc.


Keep a food log. Write down what you eat when you eat it.
At the end of the day you can have a very good idea of how many
calories you took in - and where you can cut down.

It's great to have a formal cardio and strength training program too.
You might want to get some professional input on that.

Certainly, something simple like a brisk walk (make sure you sweat)
for a mile a day, five times a week or so is a great start.

Regular exercise is key.
 
If you're not a huge tub of goo like me that dropping all take out food will make you lose a large amount of weight, you can do what I did when I was just chubby. Cut out ALL breads, eat only vegetables, fruits and meat, and walk three miles a day. I lost about 80 pounds from doing that every day. My lunch and dinner mainly consisted of kale greens and hamburger/chicken etc. After a while, the hardest part was eating a salad. I love salad but I have to have a loaf of italian bread in my hand. I don't eat the whole damn loaf (at least not anymore), but I could clear some bread.
 
Michelle said:
Cut out the alcohol if you drink. Amazing the difference it can make in calorie deficit.

m1
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Yes.

That's exactly what I did in January. Got tired of trying to shoe - horn myself into pants that used to fit, so I quit drinking. So far, I've lost 14 lbs. without any other kind of dieting.
 
Find some form of exercise that will actually keep you interested, otherwise you're just going to quit and gain the weight back. over the yeras i've used various different actvities to help lose weight or keep in shape. Latest is ballroom dancing. Certainly worse ways to burn calories than moving around dance floor with a beautiful woman in my arms. Plus women are impressed when you can dance, get something to keep them interested in you after just checking you out from across the room.
 
If you drink any non-diet sodas, cut them out or switch to diet. The average normal soda has around 150 calories. You drink one of those a day, and you're intaking an extra 1000 calories a week. Since a pound of body fat represents storing about 3500 calories, just one soda a day is worth about a pound a month.
 
Another vote for interval running, and cut out all sugar, refined carbs like white bread and pasta. Fruit is sugery but dont cut it out completely, just eat it before activity, or else the sugars quickly get stored.
Also I like working out in the morning, it helps keep me going all day and I sleep great at night.
 
lifterg,

While I agree to an extent (if you don't care about your diet at all you will in all likeliness eat just as much), at least some degree of monitoring your intake is required if you want to diet.

Uphill sprint intervals will actually give your legs a good muscle endurance workout. In people who lack leg muscles, they may actually build some muscle mass, as opposed to burning it.
As far as long-distance cardio is concerned, yes, too much of it and you'll lose muscle mass. But if you keep lifting heavy (which he does), eat enough protein (what I recommended) and don't overdo it, your muscles will be perfectly fine.

It's not about lifting vs. cardio, you should always do both IMO. In this case - someone who wants to lose a rather small amount of fat relatively quickly - weights aren't the key, cardio is. Trust me, I'm not biased against weights at all. I'd rather spend half an hour with a barbell in my hands than go for a quick run. To me, weights are fun and cardio is a chore. For some people, it's the other way round. But it's never a good idea to discard one or the other.
 
Eat less and move is the thing.
I started to eat less 8 months ago, to play soccer once a week and got to the swimming pool from time to time.
No more fries during the week, no more sweets during the week. A frugal beakfast, a normal 1 course lunch (meat for protein plus veggies or beans or rice) and a fruit, soup and fruit in the evening. Eating good (with sweets and all) in the weekend only.
Lost 35 pounds since (from 234 to 199), and I feel better. I'm still overweight for my height of 6' but not by much. The weight loss was very fast and first and slow but constant afterwards.
 
Three things made the biggest difference for me :
1) No fast food when it can be avoided.
2) Cut out beer and drink a little wine instead.
3) Eat 5 or 6 small meals a day instead of 2 or 3 big ones.

Not anything radical or magical, but now I have been losing a couple pounds a month without trying or making any big diet changes. I have dropped one pants size since Christmas.
 
weigh yourself, naked every morning after a shower and dump. That way you know if you are losing weight, staying the same or gaining. It makes a difference to what you eat during the day.

The most weight I ever lost was over the space of 6 months when I lived on a farm and trekked for 2 hours every day with a rifle over my shoulder. Exercise is the key and eating sensibly.
 
Quiet Storm said:
It's not about lifting vs. cardio, you should always do both IMO.... But it's never a good idea to discard one or the other.
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No arguement. Both should be included. I didn't mean to imply cadrio is bad, just it doesn't do much for long term weight loss and short term it is over rated.

Quiet Storm said:
In this case - someone who wants to lose a rather small amount of fat relatively quickly - weights aren't the key, cardio is.
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Small amount and quickly I will also agree with. But studies show it is about the calorie deficit created, not how it so much how it was created. I would rather not eat 500 calories than jog for an hour (9 cal/min X 60=540).

Here is a link to an article that shows no difference in calorie deficit between diet and exercise. The subjects do cardio, not strength training (you have to go to the original article in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology to find the exercise info).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16876565/

Also I agree with the food log idea 100%
 
Michelle hit the nail on the head. It is amazing the weight loss by cutting down on the afternoon beer.
 
1 - Bulk up on meat (this way you get fats, but won't lose muscle)
2 - Cut down on carbs (but not completely out....no carbs for lunch, save 'em for dinner)
3 - Hydrate yourself (helps flush out excesses, toxins, waste, etc.)
4 - Fruit snack after lunch to take the edge off
5 - Protein bar as a snack after dinner
6 - Cut out sugars, period.
7 - Take a "day off" now and then...just don't binge.

Follow these steps and you will lose fat and not muscle. It's been working for me. ;)
 
rifon2 said:
Measure your portions.
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This is very good advice. Get a digital kitchen scale and weigh out everything.

Also, any book store will have a "Calorie Counter" book which gives the fat, protein, and carb counts for just about every food in the world. This is like a five or eight dollar paperback book with small print. Get one and keep it in the kitchen and look up everything you eat.

There's no one food that you must cut out; you can eat anything you want to. It's just a matter of portions.

You need to cut about 3500 calories out of your intake to loose one pound. Or, you need to increase your exercise 3500 calories to burn one pound. That's the formula. It's that simple.

So, if you're currently eating -- say -- 2800 calories per day, cut back to 2300 and you will loose a pound per week (assuming that your weight is currently stable; if you're currently gaining a pound a week -- for example -- then cutting back to 2300 will just stop that).

The other option is to increase your exercise. For example, if you weigh 210lbs and you go for a brisk walk for one hour, you will burn about 350 calories. Do that every day for ten days and you will loose one pound.

Doing a bit of both at the same time is the best approach.

But diet is what hurts most people. You've got to get your intake under control. Getting and religiously-using a scale to measure your portions and getting that book to understand those portions is the key.
 
Something no one has mentioned so far is drink water. Have a cup before every meal. When you get dehydrated, your body often mistakes it as hunger.
 
Gollnick said:
Also, any book store will have a "Calorie Counter" book which gives the fat, protein, and carb counts for just about every food in the world. This is like a five or eight dollar paperback book with small print. Get one and keep it in the kitchen and look up everything you eat.
Click to expand...

Or click here.
 
Gollnick said:
The other option is to increase your exercise. For example, if you weigh 210lbs and you go for a brisk walk for one hour, you will burn about 350 calories. Do that every day for ten days and you will loose one pound.
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Is it true that one becomes more efficient at burning calories with regular exercise? In Chuck's example above for instance, if you exercise regularly would you get to the point where the calories burned in the one hour brisk walk would increase?
 
Yes. But you probably will have less "body systems" to support. So, it's a trade off, from what I understand.

That said, I know a few athletes that put down 5000+ calories a day during training....which can only mean that they are a lot more efficient at burning them than I am. IOW, one hour on the treadmill for me is not the same as one hour on the treadmill for them...they go faster, work harder, breathe better, pump blood better and so on. All things that require more energy (calories).
 
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