well for some reason i was thinking about this today so i thought i'd post this, may help some of you who may be trying to lose a few pounds.
i myself weigh 193 pounds right now, and am 6 ft tall, a couple of weeks ago i was 206 and wasn't even trying or wanting to lose weight, i work out so most of my weight is muscle, i'm not sure what my body fat % is but if i had to guess i'd say it's probably about 10%
here are three things you can do that will pretty much guarantee you to lose weight unless you have a thyroid problem or something
1: strength training - simple fact: muscle increases metabolism and burns fat, the more muscle you have the more fat you can burn.... about 20 minutes 3 times a week and u'll start getting the benefits, but u gotta do stuff that's actually hard for you, something you can't do more than 8-10 times in a set. if you aren't sore the next day you aren't working hard enough. strength training works better than cardio for fat weight loss. i like to do hard workouts 3 times a week for over an hour (twice for upper body and once for legs) although I haven't been completely sticking to it lately cause of college.
2: don't eat bullshit - number one thing you gotta cut out is soda and other sweet stuff, shit's just not good for you - eat fruit instead it's sweet and good for you, don't bother with fruit juice cause they fucking pasteurize that shit which makes it not nearly as good for you as the actual fruit. if you really really want something sugary there are two times when you can have it - in the morning cause your body has been fasting for 8 or more hours and it could use the quick energy boost, and right after you do your strength training to replace the sugar in your muscles and help them recover faster. you definitely don't want to eat it before you go to bed though. Fast food is another thing you should cut down on, it's not necessarily too bad, but obviously not that good. food that's good for you doesn't have to taste like shit, just learn how to cook a little bit and you can make some healthy shit that tastes really good yourself.
oh yeah another thing is eat breakfast, i've been bad about this for a long time cause i never feel like eating in the morning, but it's important to kick start your metabolism for the day.
3: well you've heard this one before.......drink water - 6 glasses a day should be enough, but if you work out and do cardio you'll need more. if you just replace the rest of the shit you drink with water you should get enough. this is actually not as much for weight loss as it is for not losing muscle while you lose weight. if you diet but don't get enough water you're actually getting less healthy because you're losing muscle, muscle is about 65% water while fat is only about 30%, so drink enough water and you won't lose the good weight.
these 3 things aren't hard to do if you have some semi self control you'll be able to do them and you'll definitely lose weight
here are a few more things you can do to lose weight even faster
exercise for no more than 30 minutes after you wake up - since your body doesn't have any fuel it'll have to burn fat, but going too long isn't good for you (i find this a bit too hard to do though)
do cardio in short bursts - if you do cardio for about 15 minutes your body will go into stress mode and start burning fat, but if you start getting over 20+ minutes then it will go into survival mode and try to hang on to its energy supply as much as it can (that's about how I do my cardio)
do cardio after lifting weights - lifting weights will use up your sugar and glycogen reserves so cardio right after will make you burn fat (i don't do this because im more concerned about building muscle than losing weight so i replenish my sugar instead)
eat smart - you don't even have to be that strict about what you eat, you just have to pick the right time to eat it, like don't load up on carbs in the evening or before you go to bed, eat some lean protein instead, try not to eat processed shit go to a local grocery store and get some fresh beef chicken or fish it'll make you feel a lot better, also eat a variety of foods so you get all your necessary vitamins and minerals (i don't take any vitamins or supplements and have always felt that even when you work out if you just eat right you don't need to take anything extra)
stop eating once you get full - this can be hard to do cause we're programmed to eat as much as we can while we can for survival purposes so most people don't stop eating til they're way too full, but if you pay attention you can be surprised how little food it takes to actually get full, and you'll feel a lot better, then you can eat again when you get hungry just listen to your body. i tried doing that eat a little bit every 3 hours thing but it didn't work for me, i don't have a very fast metabolism so maybe if yours is faster it would work but if you ask me you're better off just listening to your body.
oh yeah and it's also important to get enough sleep and reduce stress
well hope this helps someone
peace
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