Working out 3x a week but CANNOT lose the weight.

[sophia34]

Oh, as to how to count calories. I used the side of the boxes and a measuring cup for packaged foods, then I used the Internet for most everything else.

 

Also, some restaurants like McDonald's (yes, I still do my hamburger and small fry at McDonald's once in a while! Bad me), Subway, and others post the calorie counts of their meals on the Internet. Otherwise, you can get a general idea of restaurant calorie counts by knowing how many calories things like butter, steak, fish, and chicken and various salad dressings have, knowing what a serving looks like, and just guessing well. Also helps to eat only half your dinner entree and save the other half for lunch the next day (you get to enjoy it not once, but twice!)

[tiki]

Alpha, I had no idea that a slice of pizza could have 300 cals. That's crazy! But I need to do some caloric research. Thanks so much you guys.

[alphamale]

Originally posted by tiki

Wow. Thank you Sophie. I guess it's pretty obvious that I need to take a totally different approach. I'm going to work on that.

 

the best way to lose weight and keep it off permanently is to reduce you calorie intake by 200-300 cals per day and exercise regularyl.

 

the slower you lose the weight the greater your chances of keeping it off. try to shoot for losing around one lb per week, so around 3-4 lbs per month.

[savethedrama4allama]

Hey tik-

You have to calculate your basal metabolic rate (google it and you'll find calculators). This will tell you how many Cals your body burns just doing its basic functions (resting).

 

If you eat that many calories, you will maintain. To lose weight, create a caloric deficit through diet (count your intake values which can be found for most foods on the packages or online) or exercise (just subtract the amount you burned from your BMR, you can find the cal counts for your age, weight, gender online for basic fitness activities).

 

You must create a deficit of 3700 calories for each pound of fat you want to lose.

[thebeesknees]

I recently lost alot of weight by pre-making all of my meals, I would make a freezer full of the same meal one night and then I wouldn't have to worry about making hard 'food decisions' later, I would just grab a meal from the freezer and know exactly how many calories and fat were in it.

 

It got boring sometimes but it helped me start to see food more as a needed nourishment and I only ate when I was hungry, as opposed to before when I ate when I was bored, happy, angry, frustrated, blinking, breathing......

 

Good luck!

[tiki]

Man, you guys are the greatest!

 

Okay, my BMR is 1490. How much so I take off of that to know how much I lose? Take the calories I burn at the program I'm in - but I have no idea how much that is. Then that's only every OTHER day, MWF's.

[corythosaurus]

Originally posted by tiki

I'm sure I probably am dehydrated, no doubt. But I only eat two meals a day. I'd hate to cut out one of those, then I'd only be eating one meal a day. Um, which is what I was doing post eating d/o and pre-pregnancy. It kills me to see people like alpha lose weight since October. I've been working out since June or July. Sorry alpha.

I think this maybe the problem.

 

Eating only twice a day will cause your body to retain, and save/store everything. Eat 5-6 times a day. Healthy foods. Protein, clean carbs and healthy fats. One or two of these can be a meal replacement shake if necessary. Eating often increase your body's metabolism, which will increase fat burning.

 

Muscle does weigh more than fat, so if you have been strength training, you will possibly see weight gain rather than weight loss at first.

 

You also need to do three days of 20-30 minutes of cardio activity. Treadmill, Elipitical, Stationary Bike, Jogging, whatever. Increasing cardio activity will also increase your metabolism.

 

Again, water, as others mentioned, is essential.

 

Pick up the book Body For Life. Great dietary/exercise plan.

[savethedrama4allama]

I bet that your program can give you an estimated number of calories you burn in each workout.

 

So, here's what you might do:

food intake today = 1400 calories

exercise = 300 calories

so you took in 1100 calories today, a deficit of 390 calories from your BMR. If you did this every day of the week, you would lose one pound every 9 days. Thats a pretty safe amount, so you probably want to aim to create a 400 calorie deficit every day by diet and/or exercise. Also keep in mind that your BMR rises as you build more muscle, helping you lose weight.

[tiki]

I'm going to get working on this. After lunch yesterday, I drank one bottle of water in a four hour period - yay me!

 

I'm going to attempt to increase my fluid intake gradually. I found myself gagging at the taste of the warm water yesterday, idunno why. So I'm going to gradually increase that. Then start eating less, more often.

[Pocky]

Studies performed by Wayne Westcott, PhD, from the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts, found that the average woman who strength trains two to three times a week for two months will gain nearly two pounds of muscle and will lose 3.5 pounds of fat. As your lean muscle increases so does your resting metabolism, and you burn more calories all day long. Generally speaking, for each pound of muscle you gain, you burn 35 to 50 more calories each day. That can really add up.

 

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/women/a/aa051601a.htm

 

Contrary to what many people think, strength training is as important, maybe more important to successful fat loss than aerobic exercise. The reason lies in the amount of calories that are burned when you aren't exercising. Depending on the intensity and your weight, an aerobic workout (walking, cycling, stair stepping) will burn approximately 300 calories per hour. If the exercise is strenuous enough (which is unlikely in the beginning exerciser) the RMR will be elevated temporarily up to a few hours afterwards. Compare this to strength training which elevates the RMR permanently. The RMR accounts for 60 to 75 percent of your daily calorie expenditure, so even a modest increase will help burn off more fat.

 

One study (Campbell 1994) found that a three-month basic strength-training program resulted in the subjects gaining three pound of muscle and losing four pounds of fat, while eating 370 more calories per day (a 15 percent calorie increase). Remember, aerobic exercise generally doesn't increase muscle tissue. In fact, excessive amount of aerobic exercise combined with a low-calorie diet can cause the loss of some muscle tissue. This is not to say that overweight individuals shouldn't do aerobic exercise--it offers many health benefits and is a part of a weight loss program. It's just that aerobic exercise by itself may not be the best solution for permanent weight (fat) loss.

 

Don't think that you need to workout in a gym for two hours to strength train. Significant gains can be made with a consistent 30-minute workout performed 2 -3 times per week.

 

http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/article887.html

[savethedrama4allama]

Those are really good ideas. I've also tried the slimfast breakfast deal and I found it made me become really hungry later. Oatmeal and carrot or celery sticks gives me a better blood-sugar base to start the day, so I get less cravings and feelings of intense hunger.

 

But you're the hotness the way you are- don't lose those tatas or that ghetto booty please!

[tiki]

llama, how'd you get so smart about all this? It makes sense, perfect sense. I think I'm just afraid of what I don't know. It's being naive, I know.

[tiki]

Originally posted by savethedrama4yrmama

But you're the hotness the way you are- don't lose those tatas or that ghetto booty please!

 

LMAO, you are soooo not right llama. And you saw my wedding pics. I'm in a freakin size 12 and have been battling with this for some time. But I'm so uneducated about this crap. All you guys are really helping me tremendously, thank you.

[alphamale]

Originally posted by tiki

LMAO, you are soooo not right llama. And you saw my wedding pics. I'm in a freakin size 12 and have been battling with this for some time. But I'm so uneducated about this crap. All you guys are really helping me tremendously, thank you.

 

lets talk about sex and burning calories....

 

if you can get you hubby to last around 5 mintues instead of 14 seconds I estimate you can burn an additional 34 calories per sexual encounter.

[tattoomytoe]

cory kinda touched on this subject... but if you deprive yourself of too many calories, your body will go into Storage mode, thinking that the lower caloric intake means that starvation may be ominous. so instead shedding, your body starts storing and slowing down metabolism....making it more difficult to lose.

[tiki]

HAHA I wonder how many calories masturbation burnz?

[Leikela]

Tiki,

 

Water is very important and I'm glad that you've started drinking some. Water is so vital to all aspects of good health and especially when you're building musle and exercising. You need to replace the sweat that you burn off.

 

Good luck to you and let us know how you're making out! It's really important to count those calories.

[gridiron]

Originally posted by tiki

I found myself gagging at the taste of the warm water yesterday, idunno why. So I'm going to gradually increase that. Then start eating less, more often.

I like water, beer, and sodas to be ice-cold. Plus, you actually burn more calories if you load your cup with ice and then drink the water. If the water is almost freezing when it goes in your body, by the time it comes out, it is quite a bit warmer. What has to occur for that to happen? That's right, your body will burn a few calories warming up the water. So drink ice-cold water because it tastes better and you get the benefits of a few extra calories per day. It adds up.

 

Spreading out your meals is advantageous too. First, it allows your metabolism to work harder throughout the day if it is burning up food on a regular basis, instead of just two or three times a day. Second, it will help you not feel like you are starving when you do hit your regular meals. Third, it may help you want to drink more water to wash down the food with your increased meal frequency.

 

I am in a maintenance mode right now, so I am ok at three meals a day, but I lost about 50 pounds a couple of years ago over a six month period, and I tried to hit at least five, sometimes six meals a day. I usually ate breakfast around 7, lunch around noon, and dinner around 7 pm, so I just made sure to add a meal around 9:30 and one around 3:30. It doesn't have to be a big meal, as that would be pretty inconvenient, but make sure it is not just a snack. Sandwiches are convenient. Lunchmeats are ok, but if you can get some real chicken breast or tuna, those would be better since they have more protein and have more stuff that is good for you in them, versus processed slices of ham or turkey. I also ended up buying several boxes of protein and Balance bars because they are just much more convenient to bring and eat. I was working out religiously, so the protein bars worked for me, but for you, you can check out the balance bars, as they are made with a good formula of 40% protein, 30% carbs, 30% fat. And they have several that taste great.

 

Having a general idea of how many calories are in the foods you eat is good, but I could never be a strict calorie counter. It just takes too much time for me to be that exact. Know roughly how many calories are in a meal. Know how much sugar and how much fat is in there, and make sure it is not too bad, and you shouldn't need to count religiously.

 

You can see how it goes after incorporating some of these changes in your diet. If you are still not getting anywhere after a few weeks, then you may need to modify your workout regimen a bit, and start getting 3 30-min sessions of cardio AND 3 30-min resistance training sessions a week. Cardio and resistance training are both important to losing weight and getting the body you want. I have some further suggestions there, but the changes to your diet and water consumption may be good enough to get you where you want to be. And oh, don't worry about how fast or easily others lose weight, as each of our bodies is a little different, so don't get discouraged by someone losing a lot of weight quickly, they were probably just more overweight to begin with or already have a higher base metablic rate. Anyway, good luck!

[tiki]

Thanks, grid.

 

I went to the store last night and spend $170.00 in groceries. Almost everything was decent food, only two things were 'junk food' in the whole cart. I've brought a gallon of water to work to drink on. And I also brought food for inbetween my regular meals. But they are snack foods....like carrots and crap.

 

So I drank my slimfast at 7, I'm supposed to eat again soon...but even if I'm not even hungry? I think that'll be the hardest part.

[tiki]

I'm less than one week into this and I've lost 10 pounds!

 

I'm drinking water like it's going out of style, even bought a water cooler for my home - hooray!

 

I'm eating healthy meals often. Oftentimes veggies and some ranch dressing. I'm still not crazy about fruit, but I had two bites of a tangerine for the first time since I was a kid. I've actually eaten bananas too!

 

You guys, I'm so ecstatic! Thanks so much!

[savethedrama4allama]

Wow tiki, congrats! What an accompilshment! Don't lose those tatas though

[Leikela]

That's great news Tiki!!! WHOO HOO!!!

[tiki]

Thanks...I'm still working out three times a week.

[Naive]

Well Congrats to you Tiki!!!!!

[Anais]

Tiki

 

I want to lose 10 pound too. I am 125 now. I am not regularly exercising but I walk to work and home everyday. It is about 25 minutes each way. Hope it counts.