Want to loose weight quickly (newbie)

[lawrencep93]

So I have read that diet is 80% so I am using myfitnesspal to count my calories. (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/lawrencep93)

Aiming for 1,400 calories per day.

Exercise wise I am playing about 1 hour of soccer 3 times a week.

Here are my questions:

I tend to eat too much because I have a large appetite, will drinking a glass of water before I eat and at night when I get hungry a good idea?

Can I do the beginners home circuit on this site 3 nights a week that I am not playing soccer for better weight loss?

Soccer season ends soon, what should I do to keep the training up if I find running boring?

Is it good to aim for 1KG loss per week? (2.2lb)

[Lefeux]

I have lost almost 15 lbs in the last 5 weeks (8 August 195 25% BF - 11 Sept 181.5 19% BF) and most of it has been fat loss. I have been calorie counting like you have but I have also been doing an intermitent fasting (I will hunt down some of the links) on a 18/6 routine - fasting for 18 hours and a 6 hour window to each your meals in. Currently I am fasting from noon until 6 am which allows me to eat a hearty breakfast (bacon, eggs, fruit - about 800 calories) and then have a hearty lunch and usually clock in at around 1600-1800 calories for the day. I am also doing 100% Paleo. I find that with the IF I am not snacking like I was prior.

I also do a barbell routine 2-3 times a week that consists of squats, bench press, overhead dumbell press (don't like the overhead press bench thats available) and leg curls. The beginners/angry birds workout will probably suffice pretty well to start. Eventually you will likely want to move to some sort of free weight workout to keep your lean muscle mass, or even add some.

Hope this helps and Ill toss the links in here as soon as I find them.

[Lefeux]

Here are the links, copied from another thread:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/healt...ttent-fasting/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasti...tions-answers/

http://www.warriordiet.com/content/view/24/35/

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting

And yes safe weight loss can be up to 2-2.5 lbs a week. I would monitor your body fat % so that you have an idea if you are loosing lean muscle mass or not (dropping 10-15 lbs and the BF% staying the same is an idicator that you are loosing muscle mass and need to adjust your diet some)

[blindasutsutsu]

So a couple of things. First of all welcome to the forums. Second lose weight quickly has a bad connotation to me meaning you want it to go away right now like 2 months and while the goal is fine (and not inherently bad for you) I would recommend you get on a good diet plan that you like that you can stick to and get good habits and lose the weight more gradually as those habits form. This will prevent you from reverting back to old ways later on. I would say 90% of watching your diet is committing to it for a long period of time. As for the exercise thing lifting weights, preferably heavy ones, not cardio is the best way to lose weight. (If you keep yourself at a calorie deficit) Lifting gets your heart rate up much quicker and maintains that high level of activity. If you don't belong to a gym try body weight exercises at home like pull ups, push ups, body weight squats, etc. I would say the beginners home circuit is a great place to start.

Again though I will stress not focusing on losing weight quickly but rather developing good work out and eating habits!!!!! Diet is 80% of it but if you just hate life everyday then it will not work because eventually you will just say F it as you aren't enjoying what you are eating/doing.

Hope I helped a little and good luck!!!

[lawrencep93]

So a couple of things. First of all welcome to the forums. Second lose weight quickly has a bad connotation to me meaning you want it to go away right now like 2 months and while the goal is fine (and not inherently bad for you) I would recommend you get on a good diet plan that you like that you can stick to and get good habits and lose the weight more gradually as those habits form. This will prevent you from reverting back to old ways later on. I would say 90% of watching your diet is committing to it for a long period of time. As for the exercise thing lifting weights, preferably heavy ones, not cardio is the best way to lose weight. (If you keep yourself at a calorie deficit) Lifting gets your heart rate up much quicker and maintains that high level of activity. If you don't belong to a gym try body weight exercises at home like pull ups, push ups, body weight squats, etc. I would say the beginners home circuit is a great place to start.

Again though I will stress not focusing on losing weight quickly but rather developing good work out and eating habits!!!!! Diet is 80% of it but if you just hate life everyday then it will not work because eventually you will just say F it as you aren't enjoying what you are eating/doing.

Hope I helped a little and good luck!!!

Thanks for the advice,

The reason why I said quickly is because I personally find that the warmer weather as I approach summer in my country motivates me to stick to diets and loose weight, just want to make the most of it, then change old habits into Autumn as it cools down, I will need to change habits of eating more to keep warm kind of thing.

@Lefux

Interesting that you starve yourself, I will have to read into it, but the hardest thing with my weight loss is dealing with hunger urges I find it hard to go for more than 5 hours with out eating after I have had my first meal of the day.

[esteel]

Interesting that you starve yourself, I will have to read into it, but the hardest thing with my weight loss is dealing with hunger urges I find it hard to go for more than 5 hours with out eating after I have had my first meal of the day.

Heh, Intermittent fasting has nothing to do with starving. It simply means not eating for a longer while then usually. Most people already don't eat for around 9h per day, namely the time from supper till breakfast. Its usually not called fasting though .

Intermittent fasting just extents the amount of time you are not eating and science (as shown in some of Lefeux's links) has found that it can improve health. If you eat enough its far from starving.. actually even when using IF for weightloss it CAN be great that when you eat its still eat much at once and a lot of people feel more happy doing that then eating several tiny portions per day but never feel full. Some however feel that its more like stuffing yourself.. its a personal thing.

I came to the conclusion that IF fits me quite well.

But on an other note.. I think 1,400kcal are really on the low side especially if you are doing lots of sports (well unless you are a really small and light person). How did you get to that number?

[Lefeux]

Lawrence,

I don't starve myself at all. Do I feel hunger pangs? Sure 34 years of eating 6 noon and 6 set up a difficult pattern for your mind to break. The last link (http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting) talks about how the doctor fasts for a full 24 hours once a week for 2 months I believe. He notes in the review of that fasting plan that the 24 hour fast teaches him what real hunger feels like verses mind hunger.

I eat 1600 calories on average (right where I want to be when my BMR is 1855 coupled with my 4-6 days of exercise a week). The reason I do it this way is because it is much easier for me to skip a meal and eat 2 larger meals than going the full calorie counting route. I am pretty much stuffed/saited at the end of both meals. Now when I get to a target BF% that I want (less than 15% is my goal right now) I will add dinner back in and have to be more mindful of my calorie count.

[lawrencep93]

Sorry meant fasting not staving my bad.

When I say 1400calories I mean net calories from the myfitness app, so just say I do 1 hour of soccer, just say it burns about 500calories then I will eat 1,900 calories that day, so I guess it's net calories in relation to BMR, which I think is 2,100 calories (228lb, 5ft5", 19, male) So the more exercise I do in a day I can eat more I guess.

[Eurydice]

Sorry meant fasting not staving my bad.

When I say 1400calories I mean net calories from the myfitness app, so just say I do 1 hour of soccer, just say it burns about 500calories then I will eat 1,900 calories that day, so I guess it's net calories in relation to BMR, which I think is 2,100 calories (228lb, 5ft5", 19, male) So the more exercise I do in a day I can eat more I guess.

Be careful about that, though. It's hard to judge either calories in or calories out that accurately. I lost almost no weight counting calories, and I think trying to eat back my exercise calories was partly why. Eat enough to support your activity, but don't think 500 calories on the heart rate monitor translates well to 500 calories' worth of extra plate space.

[lawrencep93]

Be careful about that, though. It's hard to judge either calories in or calories out that accurately. I lost almost no weight counting calories, and I think trying to eat back my exercise calories was partly why. Eat enough to support your activity, but don't think 500 calories on the heart rate monitor translates well to 500 calories' worth of extra plate space.

Calorie counter calculated the value as 707 for one hour of soccer, training goes for about 1.5 hours, so I understate it to 500calories, to be safe. I understand what you mean though, on days that I do have soccer training my body craves more food than other days.

[notanartmajor]

I tend to eat too much because I have a large appetite, will drinking a glass of water before I eat and at night when I get hungry a good idea?

Can I do the beginners home circuit on this site 3 nights a week that I am not playing soccer for better weight loss?

Soccer season ends soon, what should I do to keep the training up if I find running boring?

Is it good to aim for 1KG loss per week? (2.2lb)

I would say that the water thing might be beneficial, but you're going to need to train your willpower as well.

If running gets boring, try lifting weights! Stronglifts is a free, effective program for beginner strength training.

[lawrencep93]

I would say that the water thing might be beneficial, but you're going to need to train your willpower as well.

If running gets boring, try lifting weights! Stronglifts is a free, effective program for beginner strength training.

I will have a look at the strong lifts.

At home I do have a dumbbell and barbell set. No weight bench though, I think I'll try doing body weight circuits an stuff that doesn't require a weight bench like squats.

Think I will do push ups in the place of bench press.

Might give this site a try http://hundredpushups.com/index.html

[rtalencar]

The reason why I said quickly is because I personally find that the warmer weather as I approach summer in my country motivates me to stick to diets and loose weight, just want to make the most of it, then change old habits into Autumn as it cools down, I will need to change habits of eating more to keep warm kind of thing.

I don't think bulking to keep warm is an effective use of your time. If it really is just to keep warm, wear extra layers in the winter months so you have less to cut for summer. Obviously if you're bulking during the winter to build muscle mass that's another matter entirely, but just to keep warm? The money spent on the food it would take to pack on weight would be better spent on a thermal or a jacket or something.

Interesting that you starve yourself, I will have to read into it, but the hardest thing with my weight loss is dealing with hunger urges I find it hard to go for more than 5 hours with out eating after I have had my first meal of the day.

I tend to think that the benefits of IF are a bit overstated. There might be some small additional burn for the already very lean to training fasted and boosting GH and what not. The real (again in my opinion) benefit of IF, and the reason I often do it, is because you get to eat big meals. A 300 calorie snack isn't going to do a darn thing to help with my hunger, I'd rather suck it up for a few extra hours and then eat a monster meal that will fill me up. If you have problems stopping yourself when you're eating because you're hungry, doing IF might help. However, at the end of the day, if you have trouble sticking with it, it's not what you should do. Any additional benefits you might gain from a certain intake paradigm is worthless if you can't adhere with the program long term.

MFP is a great tool, but it also helps to double check. As with what esteel said, check your BMR and TDEE. If your BMR is over 1400, you probably need to be eating more. Ideally you want something between your BMR and TDEE.

[Maj. Bloodnok]

Well Lawrence, you've asked the classic question, to which there are a multitude of answers. Everybody's system works a little differently. Personally, I couldn't manage an 18-hour fast due to medical issues. I do much better eating several small meals and planning ahead. I'm also focusing more on good eating habits rather than hitting a goal weight.

The bodyweight circuit is a good starting point; you can make the exercises harder by changing the leverage points. For pushups, change your hand position, or put one hand on a raised surface, or raise one leg. For squats, put one leg on a football, or jump in the air from your bottom position. There's a lot of variations you can use. Generally speaking, fewer repetitions of a difficult exercise will add muscle; more repetitions of an easy exercise will build endurance. Football requires both. (I had neither for most of my childhood, which was why I sucked at football.) Play around with exercises, find something that works for you, and keep asking questions!

[lawrencep93]

I don't mentally eat in winter saying I want to get warm. It's the colder weather leaves me hungrier and my food cravings kick in, could be that the cold weather makes me depressed when summer goes, I am not sure, all I know is that over winter I don't want to put on weight but I find it hard to eat a small amount and the only factor I can put it down to is the colder weather.

My BMR= 2100 TDEE= 2900

Tuesday I ate 2400 calories, although that will be a little in accurate.

The only problem I have is that on average I think I would eat 2500 calories which is under my TDEE, and keep about the same weight. I do admit when I put on most of my weight I would have binge weekends of McDonalds and other crap but still, I think that it's better for me to aim lower if I can get all the nutrients that I need.

Also as stated already my fitness app is net calories, so I obviously eat more than 1,400 calories, but sticking to that will hopefully keep me on some sort of path to loosing weight, if this doesn't work after a few months I am happy to try other things