Want to lose weight?

[Official_Eliot]

Welcome!
(Still a work in progress, I will be constantly updating this and will answer people's questions to try and help out! Also inform me of Grammatical errors! This is also not intended to be some professional joe stuff, it's just an easy guide without the science part and broken down into basics)


Well I keep hearing people feeding those who are in need with false information and fake knowledge. Which is why I've decided to create this guide to help out those who wish to make a difference, I'd be extremely proud if I managed to help even if just one person. I just wish to help out people and I really do hope this guide helps! I'm not a personal trainer, I'm just an ordinary person who's willing to share knowledge.

I will be updating this topic to add things I've missed out and details that people wish to know.

Ever wanted to start working out and lose weight but never knew where to start? I know many people who have suffered this problem. The first thing you have to know is losing weight can be different for everybody, not everyone share the same genes as you do. Some are blessed with extremely high metabolism, some are blessed with very low metabolism.

What is Metabolism?

For those of you who are wondering, "What the F-beep-ck is metabolism dude?!" Well to cut the science part it's basically the amount of energy/calories your body burns to maintain itself.

How do I increase it?!?!?!?!?!

The most common way is exercise (you saw it coming didn't you?).
However exercising isn't the only way to increase metabolism, muscle also takes part in speeding your metabolism since to maintain itself, it has to feed itself. (Basically it requires more energy to maintain muscle)

Eating consistently will increase metabolism significantly, however when I say eating I don't mean you just go and eat whatever, you have to choose what you eat. DON'T eat big portions at a time, that's not what you're aiming for, basically what you need is to have as many mealtimes throughout the day, however keeping the portions small. (Please keep reading, I will get into detail about what you should eat and what you should avoid in a few.)

Exercising, am I doing it right?!
Exercising, we all know what exercising is right? Right? Okay good. The most frequently asked question about exercise is, "How much exercise is enough?" and people tend to give different answers. My suggestion is everyday, not 3 times a week, not 6 times a week, it's allday e'ryday! (Not all day)

it only takes 20 f-beep-cking minutes!

Exercising does not mean 2 - 3 hours a day, in fact you can do an 8 minute workout with amazing results, exercising for long periods of time is not necessary, it can take up to 20 minutes of the 24 hours you have, a day. If you can't spare 20 minutes then wtf are you doing?!
Now don't get it twisted, although it's only 20 minutes, you're going to have to learn how to use that 20 minutes efficiently.


Warm up

Why warm up? Warming up is crucial, it can prevent injuries and all that stuff that can ruin your body. And how does it do that? Well imagine a stick of ice, when it's ice and when you try to flex it, it snaps. Imagine if you warm up ice and when it melts into water. It's more flexible and can move alot easier. That is the same for your muscles, if your muscles are warmed up and ready to do all this assasin's creed sh-beep-it, then it's a one way trip to the hospital.

Ways you can exercise

The most common type of exercise is cardiovascular workout (or just "Cardio" wink . Cardio isn't just common, it's also one of the most crucial exercises as it helps improve the amount of oxygen in your blood (Basically improves your breathing, stamina and all that fancy stuff), it's also most effective for losing weight.

So what is the most effective cardio workout? The answer to that is HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) or HIIE (High-Intensity Intermittend Exercise [Correct me if I'm wrong]), that's right it says it on the name, "High-Intensity".

So what do you do in HIIT? Basically it's High-Intensity workout and your rest period is a low-intensity workout. It's also a very short workout that it doesn't require more than 15 minutes of your time. The common way of doing this is doing a 20-30 second sprint (As fast as you can) and followed up by a 10 second jog, this is repeated for 4-6 sets. I suggest not to go straight into HIIT immediately, I suggest having your body get used to Cardio exercise before giving it a shot, a 2km (Sorry it's not miles, i'm British ;D) jog per day for 3 - 4 days before starting HIIT.

It's like an RPG!

Any RPG (Role Playing Game) nerds here? I'm one! Have you ever leveled up your character? Well imagine you're in an RPG. Imagine you're grinding the ******** out of monsters to gain experience and level up. Why? Because that's what it's like doing cardio. Each day you wake up you'll notice you're doing better than you did yesterday.

So just imagine one day leveling up yourself to become, I don't know, equivalent to Masterchief or Batman (Yeah you like that) heck you can even be like Cpt america or some sh-beep-it. There are many benefits to spending 20 minutes of your time a day to improve your body, not only by appearance but also by performance.

Personal Achievement

As I've just mentioned, exercising is like an RPG. Well does any of you have a PS3? An Xbox? How about steam, any of you have steam?
Well you know those achievement boxes that come out of your screen when you like achieve something? (Like getting past the tutorial....). Well imagine those coming out everyday in real life, and imagine they actually f-beep-cking mean something, which they do. It makes you feel good to look at that clock and say.. "I beat my record from yesterday, can't wait to beat this one tomorrow." Day by day you start noticing changes in you and it feels good seeing these changes. At first it sounds stupid, however it becomes addicting, it feels like everytime you improve, you're holding that trophy. Not only can you boast in front of your friends on what you've achieved, your children too will be able to look up to you, once you become that 50 year old who's as fit as a 20 year old, well... wouldn't that be awesome?


Push the limit

Let me tell you something, Pain is temporary and memories are permanent. Push yourself, extend your limit, your body can handle more than what you think, it's the mind that restricts it. If you're going to workout and be a b***h about it then you'll be a b***h about it for a loooooong time, it will be engraved in your memory, the time when you never had it in you to push past that barrier. Remember Pain is temporary, it's just a feeling you get for a very short amount of time, withstanding it won't kill you. If you don't have it in you to work hard to achieve what you get then give it up, half-assed efforts get half-assed rewards. NO PAIN NO GAIN! (Quote had to be added)

What food should I eat?

The obvious answer is veggies right? Well not necessarily. Vegetables are healthy and has a major role in weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. However what you should be eating is protein rich foods, basically meat, that's right meat. Meat is a good source for protein, especially fish (Does that count as meat?). Now you may be wondering, how does meat contribute to weight loss? well that will be explained in the next section.


What food should I avoid?

Carbohydrates! You should avoid potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, pastry and anywhere along those lines. They may sound like healthy foods, which they are to some degree. However they contain insane amounts of Carbohydrates. Carbs are our main source of energy, however if we don't burn this energy, it will then be stored as fat. We eat more carbohydrates than we can ever need, which results in storing these excess energies into fat. Protein on the other hand helps burn fat, which is why protein is important for weight loss.

Avoiding carbohydrates does not mean "Don't eat carbohydrates ever in your life!" it means avoid too much of it, every food contains carbohydrates however the ones I've listed are the ones with so much stored in them. Maintain a low carb diet and you'll be fine.

When it comes to eating meat, avoid the fat, because it's just fat going to be added to your.. fat. Just cut off any visible remains of fat on your meat and you're all good. Chicken fat usually resides just under the skin, chopping off the skin before cooking the chicken will not prevent the fat from spreading all over what you're cooking, it also decreases the calories available in the chicken.

Watch your calorie intake!

1 pound of fat is 3500 calories ^ ^ that's right! that's a crap a load of food. For the average male to maintain their weight, they must eat 2500 calories a day and for a female it's 2000 calories a day. "So should i just eat less than 2500 calories?!?!" Yes! oh my god that's correct! (Partially).

Burning 3500 calories a week with a 2500 calorie intake can result in about 1 pound of fat a week. That's also equivalent to an almost 8km jog. How about we start reducing our calorie intake into 1000 - 1500 calories? (Not doing the math!) This will almost double your weight loss speed. Now question is how do I do this? Answer is simple, avoid junk food. A chocolate bar is equivalent to a plateful of meat and some veggies (Mindblown).

Always, before you eat, look at the container of the food you just got and check the calories. Sometimes it will be located on the "Energy" part and look for the Kcal, or alternatively they're generous enough to just call it "Calories" because it's so much more idiot-proof and so goddamn convenient (Why don't they all just do this!?!??!).

Diet alone won't give results

Diet with exercise will give results, unless what you want to wait 3 years until you start seeing a difference.


You're not a child starving in africa

Stick to a healthy eating plan, drop your burgers, drop your greasy food, throw away your Kit Kats (.... I love Kit Kats). A diet plan cannot hurt, healthy eating will not only put you in great shape, it also helps with your body performance. You ever seen popeye? eat them spin'ich!
As I've stated above (Somewhere) that meat is a crucial part of your diet for burning fat, so I don't see any excuses why you can't maintain this diet. Some children in africa have been on a diet the day they were born! (No offense to all Africans, you are all great and wonderful people.)








Thank you for taking time to read my guide. It's currently unfinished, I'll be adding things I've probably missed out.
I'm also willing to answer questions if you wish to know something I haven't stated above. Don't be shy to ask for tips and advice! Note me on grammatical errors~!

hehe #YOLO

[Official_Eliot]

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[Kuniko_Sayachi]

I'm just going to go ahead and tackle some of the misconceptions that you have posted along your post wall. Whether people actually give my post a read through or not is entirely up to them, but I am putting the information out there.

I'll go ahead and start about the often quoted, but misleading rumor about "stoking your metabolic fire". There is no truth or actual science to constantly eating smaller meals and some scientific journals have actually shown the other to be the truth. While people should listen to their bodies and eat when they feel hungry, it doesn't actually matter if you're eating six small meals throughout the day or three big meals. While it does take some energy to burn down the food, this amount of energy almost doesn't matter. As you can see here, here, and here this is not true.

As far as warming up, there are some studies that show that warming up may not actually do anything to help during exercise and may lead to more injuries. When tested, those who warmed up before participating in an exercise and those who did not, there was no real increase or decrease in injuries. However, stretching after you are done with a work out is encouraged as your body attempts to "cool" down. Here are some sources to prove my point.

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Finally, the thing about carbs is all false. People keep giving some form of support to the carbohydrate being some form of bad energy. Also, the source of eating the "fat" on the meat will make you fat is just plain false. Food and energy don't work that easily and to get a better understanding for this, you have to understand how it is that your body processes these type of energy categories. Most people don't indulge in carbohydrates because they're bad, but because it's a lot harder to feel "satisfied" from eating them. There is nothing inherently wrong about them and are found in vegetables. When eating, your body needs to have a nice balance of all three forms of energy in order to function. You actually need fat, carbs, and protein to help keep you functioning. What a couple of people recommend doing in order to feel satisfied is eat more protein than you do carbohydrates. It's a lot harder to eat 400 calories worth of protein then it is 400 calories worth of carbs. However, when talking about vegetables, it's nearly impossible to eat 400 calories of food in one sitting.

As far as losing weight goes, running ins't necessarily the best. Along with losing weight, your body doesn't really adept or grow any muscle which is essential to function. Studies show that a great strength training program, (such as lifting weights) actually helps you lose weight and keep it off much better. You also don't have to worry about such problems as getting injured while running or having your bowel system get flaky on you. When researched and done properly, weight lifting injuries are some of the least reported occurrences.

I hope this clears up some misconceptions in your first post.

[Willow_T]

I really liked the way you described "leveling up" and about the momentary pain.

Though when you reached the carbs issue, saying that they're "bad" for you, it's not quite true. In order to exercise you've got to stock up some energy. I tried not eating carbs and ate an apple or something before running, it felt much harder because I didn't have energy. I always eat cornflakes and hour before my workout so i'll have the energy to do my best and not get tired too quickly (i'm running 40 mins a day - about 5-6 km).

Now, about working out every day. Depends what kind of workout you're doing, actually. 15 mins of workout a day is manageable. I'm running 40 mins a day so I take 1-2 days off a week, I actually feel that my body needs the rest. My legs won't handle running like that all day. Perhaps it's because I began working out only a month ago so, either way, you've just got to listen to your body. If you feel you can push your limit and run faster and longer - then do it. If you feel that you can't run today, you feel that your body needs to rest - so rest. Don't push your body too hard.

Now, back to the carbs issue - it is true you must avoid carbs like potatoes. Instead you must eat whole grains. They're "complicated carbs", not only they're much more satisfying and give you more energy than normal carbs, they have fiber in them and fiber is helpful if you want to increase your metabolism rate. I recommend on eating whole wheat rice/whole wheat bread/Bran flakes etc.

Now, about the protein - Meat is good. I recommend to not eat red meat (like pork), because they're full of fat and our body doesn't know how to digest red meat well. It takes us about 5 days to digest red meat!! Instead, I recommend lean meat like chicken and especially fish. Fish is very healthy because it has iodine and iodine helps with the metabolism rate.
Besides meat, there are other option to receive your protein: eggs, nuts (not too much though cuz they're high in fat) beans, soy beans, Quinoa, peas, etc. I do not recommend diary products though, but to each his own. I use soy milk instead of normal milk.

[Official_Eliot]

Kuniko_Sayachi

I'd also just like to say I'm not a scientist who speaks through "Research", it's actually my weakest when it comes to knowledge, however I'm speaking through my personal experience of being a sports active freak for 16 years.

Whilst true there are no real signs of having increase meal frequencies to increase metabolism, it will help out with the temptation of eating more than you should and satisfy hunger. It also helps out burn more fat, having eaten a small meal and worked out, you will burn those calories and will use up the fat as energy quicker. Let's just say we put a thin piece of wood on top of concrete, when hit with a pickaxe, you will hit the concrete underneath it. When you drop down a log of wood on top of concrete, the pickaxe will only bury itself halfway through the log. Also none of these researches include the fact that whether or not they did exercise.

Warming up actually can cause injuries, as I've said if you're going to be flexing your muscle alot whilst it's still cold. It induces adrenaline which leads to an increase of the oxygen in your blood and helps it travel greater speeds, it allows joints to move more efficiently since it increases production of synoval fluids in the joints. It will also prevent the release of lactic acid which is basically a stitch.

I never said Carbohydrates were a bad form of energy, I said avoid more than what's needed.

I also never said running was the best form of exercise, I said HIIT is one of the most effective cardio workouts. Yes lifting weights is a good form of exercise the reason to this is not only does your body have to use energy lifting those weights, it also burns more afterwards through muscle repair. And as I've said muscle takes energy to maintain, resulting in you burning energy passively. However you will face more severe injuries when it comes to weight training, if not warmed up properly. Most common is tendonitis, which is basically inflammation of the tendons. Weight training is more riskier than cardiovascular exercise.

Also as I've said there are many benefits to cardiovascular exercises, it helps increase your stamina, reduces your chances in achieving cardiovascular disease. Your heartrate increases on a regular basis. Why do you think you see some people who walk up a hill and say "I'm tired" whilst there are some who can walk up that hill and probably jog another? this is because those who get tired that easily is neglecting to work their heart muscle.

Thank you for pointing out some mistakes though

[Official_Eliot]

Willow_T

Yeah sorry, I think I worded the carbohydrates part wrong xD I meant to say don't eat more carbs than what's needed
DDDD:! also you've pointed out so many things I've missed out!!! I attempted to make this post a science-free friendly thing so it's easy to pick up and read and got caught up on simplifying it. Thank you for pointing out what i've missed and parts of my mistakes! ^ ^ Also thank you for taking the time to read my post~! it's just some voluntary thing I decided to do out of boredom after seeing some people fed with small false information on weight lost.

[keiiii]

Official_Eliot

Whilst true there are no real signs of having increase meal frequencies to increase metabolism, it will help out with the temptation of eating more than you should and satisfy hunger. It also helps out burn more fat, having eaten a small meal and worked out, you will burn those calories and will use up the fat as energy quicker. Let's just say we put a thin piece of wood on top of concrete, when hit with a pickaxe, you will hit the concrete underneath it. When you drop down a log of wood on top of concrete, the pickaxe will only bury itself halfway through the log. Also none of these researches include the fact that whether or not they did exercise.

Both of those really depend on the individual. Some people find it easier to forget about food all day and have a big pig-out session (consisting of healthy food choices). And just look at all those super-fit, athletic people doing intermittent fasting!

I don't do intermittent fasting; I just have three normal meals per day, plus a snack sometimes. My body doesn't respond well to intermittent fasting (I've got blood sugar issues). But my bro just has two meals per day: one small, one huge, and he's responding very well to it. Note that both my bro and I lost weight and became fitter over the past 1.5 year. It doesn't make us experts, but it does mean he and I have experimented with different eating patterns. Both of us have found what works for each of us, and what works for me doesn't work as well for him and vice versa.

Every person's body works differently. I'm not saying grazing/ mini-meals thing is bad... Some benefit GREATLY from it. But it's not for everyone.

Regarding your analogy, obviously our bodies are neither concrete nor wood. I would in fact say when it comes to burning fat, it's much easier to break a thick log than it is to break through a thin layer of wood. Generally speaking, the body is much more eager to lose the fat when there is a lot of it to lose. That's a topic for another day though; I'm just bringing it up briefly to point out that the analogy doesn't really apply to human metabolism/ fat burning.

[Official_Eliot]

keiiii

Official_Eliot

What you said is true, every body works differently. But the point I was trying to get is, imagine the piece of wood was the calories and the concrete was the fat. Once you burn through a thin layer of calories, your body immediately has no choice but to burn fat as energy. On my strict diet, I usually go for low carbs and high protein, I eat a Yoghurt (or Yogurt, I honestly don't know what the real spelling is) for breakfast which is 80 calories. I burnt through almost quadruple the amount of that in a 3 mile run. It's true that intermittent fasting won't show results immediately, it will only start to work once your body has adapted to your eating habits. Metabolic rate also increases whenever you have eaten, it takes up energy to digest food, intermittent fasting actually expands the duration of digestion which results in more energy burnt.

I'm also not an expert when it comes to this type of stuff, it's just knowledge I've picked up during my years of being a sport freak, I have many friends who are body building enthusiasts and many who are fitness prunes. Also I'm sorry if some of this is hard to pick up and understand, it's really hard to explain things in keyboard communication, I try my best to keep it easy to pick-up and basic to read and cut off the science part. I'll be updating the guide to improve it and word everything more correctly to make it more understandable. Thank you for taking your time to read my guide!

If there things you can suggest to add, I'd gladly add it ^ ^

[keiiii]

I appreciate that you're open to different opinions. smile

You don't need to dumb down the science for me. I would in fact appreciate a more science-based approach to this discussion. I was actually trying to avoid getting too science-y because you said in another post that research was your weakness.

Official_Eliot

But the point I was trying to get is, imagine the piece of wood was the calories and the concrete was the fat. Once you burn through a thin layer of calories, your body immediately has no choice but to burn fat as energy. On my strict diet, I usually go for low carbs and high protein, I eat a Yoghurt (or Yogurt, I honestly don't know what the real spelling is) for breakfast which is 80 calories. I burnt through almost quadruple the amount of that in a 3 mile run.

And from that, you conclude that out of the 240 calories burnt during your run, only 80 calories came from the breakfast, and therefore the remaining 160 must have come from burning your body fat? In addition, you theorize that if you had eaten a 240-calorie breakfast instead, you would not have burnt much body fat during your run because all or most of it would have come from the food?

That's not necessarily how it works. A healthy body has more than enough carbs stored in it that it wouldn't make a huge difference whether you had a 80-calorie, 240- or even 1000-calorie breakfast prior to your workout. If you are lean or at least within a healthy body fat range, it's very likely that muscle will also be eaten up along with fat and stored carbs.

But again, it really depends on your body. Some people benefit from your approach; for others, it doesn't make a difference so it comes down to preference. For still others it could even be detrimental to their progress. Especially for those with blood sugar issues (e.g. diabetics), a tiny breakfast + exercise = health risk, could possibly even result in death from hypoglycemia.

[Newaccountclub]

Avoiding carbs is for women.
Screw Cardio, lift weights.