Overweight. Need tips.

[Rensyk]

I'm no professional but I usually just read this and basically I've lost roughly 20kg in the past 2-3 months. In summer I was very sick and I put on a lot of weight as I was in hospital, no idea how but I gained weight from myself being 77kg at roughly 14% BF (183cm) to 107kg. I never knew that I had to make such a quick change to my life so all I done really was cut out of juices (only drink water and green tea), do weight training every second day (squats, anything really personally) and done cardio.

I've cut out all suger and other junk food substances and weight roughly 1200-1400 calories a day. This is just for myself personally of whats going on. Right now I'm at 87kg and I need to cut down to 83kg to make sure I can be in the normal BMI range again. Yet again, this is just for myself lol

[MAGAmobile]

drink more water, work out at least 3 times a week, cut down calorie intake, adopt a healthy and balanced diet and participate in some type of sport.

i don't see someone not losing weight if they commit to these things routinely.

Pretty much this. It will be painful and it will not be easy to lose weight, don't let anyone fool you otherwise.

[Mustakrakish]

Start off easy at first. Don't strain yourself. Don't cut your portions down a huge bit. Just little by little. Because of your size, weight will fall off in the kilos every week (usually). Do basic exercise like walking or swimming.
It got really dis-heartening for me during the last 5-10 kilos I had to lose as it was really hard. I was only losing like 100-300 grams a week because your body gets so used to your healthier diet and constant exercising. Try and aim for at least 30 mins of walking. It doesn't have to be strenuous walking, just enough to get you off your feet.

[skeebopshapow]

Hello there!

I didn't read through the entire thread (read a lot of it though) and figured I could offer some nuggets (mmm nuggets) of wisdom, seeing as how I'm in the process of working off a lot of, what I call, "wow weight" myself. 346 lbs, 5'11, and a wet paper bag could beat me at arm wrestling when I started.

First, of all don't listen to a lot of misinformation in this thread. Eat that bowl of cereal, or eat bacon and eggs, eat whatever the f--k you feel like (as long as its not just fatty foods for every meal). The devil is in the calories, keep an eye out for them. At your weight if you limit yourself to an intake of 1500 calories and casually stroll around the neighborhood you are 100% guaranteed to lose weight.

That leads me to my second point, people saying don't exercise every day are steering you wrong. Get off your fat butt and get moving! Every day do something. Don't kill yourself at the gym every day, make sure you can still move afterwards, but do something. Here's my work out schedule that I do not adhere to every day:

Sunday: gym, work arms and back
Monday: gym, cardio with some chest, focus mainly on the cardio
Tuesday: go for a bike ride or walk around for an hour or so.
Wednesday: back to the gym for light circuit training - most gyms have an equipment circuit were you go around and work your whole body. it gives great strength training, and great cardio. the trick is to find a weight setting that you can do for at least half an hour without destroying yourself.
Thursday: more walking around, biking, swimming whatever. you gotta change it up otherwise you will get bored and frustrated.
Friday: more gym, work in some legs and back, and don't forget the cardio!
Saturday: another "free day" where you just get out and a bout for an hour or two and don't strain yourself.

Like I said, this isn't my routine every single week without fail. I'm no robot, and I'm still getting used it all myself. Sometimes I will skip a day, and sometimes I will spend an hour at the gym while other days I have spent 4-5. Don't give yourself a heart attack, but don't take it easy on yourself. When you're thinking that you are tired and just "can't" do anymore that means you've still got 2 minutes left on your bike, or one more rep of your weights. Always do just one more.

IF all you're doing is a few jumping jacks and some pushups that's not going to really cut it, you're actually hurting yourself by doing that, because its just putting sporadic stress on your body now and again without ever getting it into a routine. Out of breath after 1 set of jumping jacks and push ups? Catch your breath and do more. If it doesn't hurt like hell the first week, you're not pushing yourself hard enough. Get up, do it every day, and make your body adjust. 20 minutes at least.

Don't ever "reward" yourself with an extra slice of pizza, or a mountain dew, or whatever. All that does is help you get into bad habits. Find something that you like the taste of just as much, and stick with that. For me? Subway sandwiches (the good kind not the BMT) and eggs were my diet for almost a month. I'm not saying being all crazy like that is right for everyone, but it was super easy to regulate my intake - one 6 inch is aprox 300 calories, so I ate four of them a day. Delicious! Find something that you can do consistantly, every day, and get into a routine.

Honestly, I make it sound like I am a total gym rat workout addict now, but I'm not. It amounts to 10 hours a week of workout, and another 3-4 of just being active. a good part of the rest of the week I just sit on my ass and play video games. How many hours do you play games a week? More than twelve?

Pro wow gaming tip: get an elliptical or some kind of home cardio thing, when you're queuein those dps queues hop on and do 15-20m - even if you just go real slow with little/no resistance.

Pro gym tip: GET THERE. Go to the YMCA - take your shirt off in the locker room, use the pool, don't be embarrassed if you have to start with the girl weights. Only HUGE ASSHOLES have anything negative to say about you. Most people are very friendly, and very helpful. You are there to make the most important change to your life that you possibly can, and nobody can look down on you for that. Thinking that a gym is only for the fit and sexy is like thinking hospitals are only for the healthy. Plus the fine ass bitches down by the pool are great motivation.

DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF EVERY DAY. You'll feel the difference, you'll have more energy, you'll be stronger, and your motivation just gets stronger as your routine gets cemented. I weighed myself and took my measurements on day 1, I'm 68 days in now and I refuse to step on a scale until day 90. Your body will let you know that the hardwork is paying off, the number on the scale will be disheartening. Losing a ton of weight is no easy task.

Its all very hardwork, and after four hours at the gym I've come home and cried. Biggest Loser style (i hate reality tv shows but this one is great motivation, too). Just be smart and don't work yourself into a coma - you gotta push, get that one more, but don't hurt yourself! Good luck, and keep us updated! Some days I still need that extra motivation... you're helpin me out too brotha

Q: how did you get 13/13 in tier 11?
A: lol cankles.

[Noomz]

Hey everyone, at the moment.. I am obese. My BMI = 38.4. Obesity = 30 or higher.

Now, as it stands right now.. I barely have ANY energy. I assume this is because I DO NOT exercise .. At all.
I want to change that, so.. Here I am.

My question, is it okay to start off small exercising? I tried doing 20 Jumping-Jacks and 5 Push-ups, after that.. I was already out of breath.

Thanks for any help anyone can give me

The best, most effective thing there is: Eat better and probably also less, and move more. Any exercise that leaves makes you sweat and breath hard is good exercise!
If you're untrained, don't overdo it , don't start with too intense training (like I did) or you might strain yourself (which I also managed to do) and actually hurt yourself that way.
Guaranteed to make you lose weight. But be patient, it takes months to lose weight. Weight is gained much faster then its lost, you can thank evolution for that.
Simply walking for 30+ minutes every day, whilst also keeping a good, normal intake of food will work for you.

But most of all, as already stated, be patient and believe in your ability to make this change!
If you crave sugar, try fruits that are naturally sweet. I've grown quite fond of grapes myself. It's green ones from Egypt, they're rather sweet! They actually taste better then the blue ones and the green from Spain. Not very environmental of a choice I suppose, but my focus is to not eat lots of crap so I feel I don't care

As others say, don't weight yourself all the time either. Exercise might actually build muscle on you, so your actually weight loss might not be massive. Fat is what you're gonna lose!


I'm 180cm tall and I weight 97 kilo's, way too much. I'm doing my best. Right now I'm atleast not gaining any more weight. But a tough life and the consequences of it make keeping regular training difficult from time to time. Just gotta stick in there, find that motivation and never forget it. My father is a diabetic due to being overweight, that's just one of my motivations. Another one was having gone through cancer. So yeah! I don't want to end up with a broken body due to neglect, definetly not worth squandering.

[Deleted]

I was never overweight but I had the same problem with energy. I just didn't have any.

I think you should start at proper daily schedule, make it really easy at first, like the time you get up, the time you go to sleep and when you go take a shower.
When you feel comfortable with it after a few days/week, start adding things to it and get used to everything before adding more. If you add to much at first, you'll most likely fall back to your old ways after a few days, thinking that this sucks and it's too much. If you have the energy, you could do more each day but follow the schedule to the letter, you MUST do at least as much as you've written there, more is a bonus. For example, running for 2 hours 1 day and then rewarding yourself with not following the schedule for 2 days would not be ok.

Another thing is eating. Don't starve yourself. Ideally, you could count your calories and drop all the fatty foods and foods with sugar and substitute them with good stuff, fish, fruit, white bread with boiled potatoes, rice etc. As for the energy, make sure you get enough vitamins and at least 1500 calories/day. And then you could start with something as simple as a 30m walk each day. It will help alot, trust me. And then, when you feel comfortable with it, add more exercices, change the walking to jogging etc.

[Grail]

Hey everyone, at the moment.. I am obese. My BMI = 38.4. Obesity = 30 or higher.

Now, as it stands right now.. I barely have ANY energy. I assume this is because I DO NOT exercise .. At all.
I want to change that, so.. Here I am.

My question, is it okay to start off small exercising? I tried doing 20 Jumping-Jacks and 5 Push-ups, after that.. I was already out of breath.

Thanks for any help anyone can give me

I happened to watch a documentary streamed from Netflix last night about this guy who goes on an all juice diet, using a high quality juicer to make his own juice from local fresh fruits and vegetables. He went on a 60 day fast, drinking nothing but homemade juice, and he lost a ton of weight fast, and was able to reverse and cure himself of some other medical conditions in the process. He also inspired other people along the way who used his method to great success.

The documentary is called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". You should have a look.

In regard to exercise, you might consider swimming. Easy on the joints, works all muscle groups, and it's simple to go at your own pace. Stretching is also good exercise, and doing alot of it will be beneficial if you're planning to ramp up any kind of exercise activity, from a place of dormancy.

[skrump]

I've lost 80 pounds in the last year without doing any form of exercise or dieting.

Get the dietary/energy supplement from stacker2 called yellow hornet (sold at most gas stations)

Of course I smoke to kill most food cravings thus I only eat one meal a day but I also drink like 8 pepsi every day as well which more than makes up for my daily calorie intake.

Not to mention I live on Carbs and red meat (very few veggies or fruits in my diet)
Also I do not consume any product labeled as low fat or Diet.

And yes I am the type of guy who will sit down and devour a entire box of cheese-it crackers or a large bag of jerky yet I still continue to lose wieght.

The reason being is the Pills themselves are the legal version of Meth. you take them and then temporarily become nauseated and your temperature rises
(both effects dissipate after your vomit which you will do but don't worry it will be nothing but saliva),
aftarword you feel 100x more energetic thus burning massive amounts of body fat while speeding up your metabolism.

The only other side effect which I should mention is that since your body is producing more waste your bowel movements will become larger or more frequent and your urine will have a slightly darker tint to it.

I don't normally endorse products but Yellow Hornet by stacker2 is well worth it if you can deal with the temporary nausea and it only cost around $4 for 5 pills) at most any gas station.

[TiduZ]

thus I only eat one meal a day

You could be losing a lot more weight and be infinitely more healthy if you split that meal into many meals throughout the day.

[Deleted]

You could be losing a lot more weight and be infinitely more healthy if you split that meal into many meals throughout the day.

No.
You couldn't.
Provided that one mean has all the macro and micro nutrients you'd get from smaller meals.

[Zylos]

No.
You couldn't.
Provided that one mean has all the macro and micro nutrients you'd get from smaller meals.

nooooooooooooo, one meal is a bad idea. What the body does is if you eat throughout the day is it keeps digestion working and and burns through the calories you eat more efficiently instead of storing them as fat. This builds a better metabolism which in the end can end up burning a lot of calories to just digest food. If you eat one meal your body's response will be a "starvation mode" and it will recognize that you FINALLY gave it something and store it in anticipation the next one won't be for some time.

As with anything however you will lose weight regardless of habits if your calorie intake is lower than calories burned in a day. The body's natural processes burn a lot of calories throughout the day even if you do nothing, so go online find a calculator for this and start counting calories.

Also if you are a motivated person or need a challenge try P90X (look it up), its a 90 day program (3 months) of 1 hour a day workouts that really really work. It works amazing but it takes commitment, and if you are obese it will probably take a few times doing it to get the results you want but you should notice results fairly quickly (starts showing after 1-2 months).

[DrgnDancer]

No.
You couldn't.
Provided that one mean has all the macro and micro nutrients you'd get from smaller meals.

Actually eating only one meal a day is very bad for losing weight. You "It's all math, eat less calories, burn more calories" guys miss a lot of the subtle interactions between your body, your diet, and your lifestyle. You are correct that "eat less, move more" is the absolute basic ingredient to any weight loss program, but lots of other factors, both physiological and psychological matter to weight loss. The problem with eating one meal a day, even if that meal is nutritionally identical to a three meal (or better yet 5 to 6 small low cal meal) diet is that your body interprets long periods without food (say 24 hours or so) as "starvation". Because you are "starving" your body will perform a number of nifty tricks in order to cope with your "situation".

The main thing it will do is cut your metabolism. Which means that when you do eat, it will try to be much more efficient about extracting energy from the food, while simultaneously not telling you that the energy is available. You will feel less energetic (which makes an exercise program all the harder to implement), and your body will squirrel away as much energy as possible to deal with the "famine" it believes it is experiencing. Under some circumstance (say your meal gets delayed so it's been more like 36 hours since the last time you ate) it may even start to shut down non-essential systems.

Understand that the human body is stupid, but also pretty big into survival. It takes about two weeks to starve to death (more if you manage it right, or are very overweight to begin with), but that's partly because your body will start implementing emergency measures very early on. Anytime you go more than 12 hours or so without eating, your body starts orange alert. Yellow alert starts about 24 hours in. Once you go more than 48 hours without food, your body is in full on starvation mode (obviously you aren't advocating this). The reduction to absurdity of your argument here is that we could just eat one very high calorie, nutritionally dense, meal a week and still be fine. Obviously this is not the case.

To the OP: there's lots of good advice in this thread, and some poor advice as well. The biggest thing I can tell you is to do something that you feel like you can keep up. One guy mentioned dropping to 1200 calories a day and losing 10KG in 8 weeks. That's great, but no one without superhuman willpower is going to be able to maintain that diet. Get onto a diet plan that you can maintain without cheating (Much, you're unlikely to be perfect everyday and don't eviscerate yourself when you stumble a bit, just do better next time), and find exercise you enjoy doing. I like to run, so running is something I can do. If you don't like to run, you're not going to keep doing it. You're a gamer, maybe look into getting Kinect for your X-Box and some exercise games. Some of them are *very* high energy, and fun besides. Also think about getting a "running buddy" or "exercise of you choice buddy". It's always great when someone else is pushing you at the same time you're pushing them.

[crabwheels]

NUMBER 1: figure out what causes you to eat, and avoid it.
for me, it was boredom and close proximity to kitchen.

NUMBER 2: quit eating so much.
i cut down to 1300-1500 calories a day. it sucks for a week or so, until your stomach shrinks.

NUMBER 3: put down the plastic guitar
quit playing guitar hero and go get a poopy job doing manual labor. its like getting paid to exercise

[sinny2]

Alright...im a Gym rat, i spend 4-5 days in thre gym a week for 2 hour sessions, mainly weights, bare minimum 2 days a week.

Now, not as a mass obese person like you, im a fit and healthy 19 year old. but i know my shit.

Basically, ALL anyone can really tell you before you begin, is that this takes time. for a skinny kid wanting to gain muscle or a fat guy wanting to lose weight, it does NOT happen overnight and you have to WANT it. and when i say want it this means it becoming your lifestyle. This will not become a side thing to lose weight. tihs will become your time issue with wanting to lose weight.

At first, i'd probably stick to a diet and weights if doing 20 jumping jacks is exhausting for you. cardio not right now.
Get a detoxer and start fresh. Clean your bowels and arteries out. Buy multivitamins and fishoil, BUY a magazine called 'muscle & fitness' Mens health etc. you will learn something about either gaining muscle, losing weight, increasing your metabolic rate, knowledge of food and good fats, even how to be better in the bedroom by the time you put that book down.

Now, whoever said on the first page to eat just 3 meals a day? wrong. this next part you will find easy... EAT every 2 hours. lean meals, im not talking maccas mate im talking a caeser salad with some fruit n veggies for one meal. then a cup of rice and some SEARED chicken breasts cooked in maybe avocado oil or something. HEALTHY & LEAN! every TWO hours.

This will increase your metabolic rate. With lifting weights, what this does is increase your bodies consumption of calories without running. Your lifting heavy weights for reps of 12 (on strength days lift REAL heavy for reps of 3-6) your body will want to put on muscle and grow. But muscle does not turn into fat thats a load of shit. what your body does is burn fat and put on muscle. because fat and muscle are polar opposites.

Another thing to help with the food. protein shakes. buy them. SLOW digesting or better known as complex carbs like oats, you know those little variety packs you heat in the microwave for 90 secs? genius. What complex carbs do is give you a slow release of energy, rather than scoff down 2 packs of 2minute noodles which will give you burst energy but once its over what you dont digest is stored at fat. PLUS slow carbs are slow for a reason. they're there longer, so you feel fuller longer which = you dont have to or want to eat as much.

[Deleted]

whoever said on the first page to eat just 3 meals a day? wrong. this next part you will find easy... EAT every 2 hours.

This will increase your metabolic rate.

This has been debunked so many times in this thread it's unimaginable.
Eat as many times as you'd like if it fits your macros.
Not everyone can eat every two hours.

Get a detoxer and start fresh. Clean your bowels and arteries out.

Provided you have a healthy diet and drink lots of water your body will do this naturally, it's pretty good at it, infact.

[sinny2]

With weights, you want to stay ambitious. Say for overhead presses or something, try and get 12 reps with 16kgs each arm. if your stronger? great. But say you do one set, then go up to 18kgs each arm for 12 reps. good again. then go 20kgs each arm, oh wait, whats happened? you only got to 6-7reps? thats your next goal. To get that last set for 20kgs to 12 reps. So, next week, for shoulders day and your doing overhead presses, start on 18kgs each arm. get 12 with 18, 12 with 20, then wait, hit the wall with 22kgs each arm for -6-8 reps? next week baby.

Its how you want to work, you will NOT get fit over night if your as fat as you say you are, this will take you a years worth if you do it properly, maybe 2 years. But one thing you wont be able to stand at the start is how hard it is. Get a mate to go to the gym with, take your ipod, have heavy metal playing, rap, some guy on a cd yelling cmon you fat F*** get it done. whatever your into, whatever helps for the first month of doing this PROPERLY. Not the occaisional ooh just a nibble of that snickers, drinking water. TAKE before and after photos. and after that first month. you will see results, and you will want to keep doing this.

Whats going to be a by product of this? you'll feel better, IF you decide to munch on lollies occaisionally after being so healthy, they will feel yuck in your stomach, same with coke/pepsi after drinking so much water, you will not want to drink it again and you'll feel its slowing you down. and you'll look good. be more confident. but this is a long road ahead of you my dear fatty.

And your biggest, BIGGEST enemy you can find out there is yourself. Procrastination. Dont do it. set yourself times for the gym that work for you, that dont get in the way of anything, aint a morning person? fine. Go in the afternoons with some mates, cbf after work? too bad, get your fat arse in there. this isnt trying to be slack to you this is teaching you two things. Self control and self respect.

But yes start with weights and learning the pros and cons of food, your schedule, on days/off days. Because if you try to starve yourself, or take some Jack3d and run 2miles on the treadmill? your just going to wake the next day and say fuck this. pick up a magazine, read. Take a mate to the gym, learn. People in the gym NEVER rip each other off if your consious about being seen in public. 50kg boys wanting to get big, fatties like you wanting to get small, Everyone has to START SOMEWHERE.

---------- Post added 2011-07-10 at 11:28 PM ----------

This has been debunked so many times in this thread it's unimaginable.
Eat as many times as you'd like if it fits your macros.
Not everyone can eat every two hours.


Provided you have a healthy diet and drink lots of water your body will do this naturally, it's pretty good at it, infact.

You really have no idea.

[Deleted]

You really have no idea.

Would you like to refute my statements or just plug your ears and go "lalala you're wrong".

[sinny2]

im not gonna sit here and debate over the tiny holes in each theory and get technical with people who scan forum posts to weed out mistakes. That isnt for anyone to do except the OP in this case. the best. Thing he can do right now is read over everyones opinions, read what OFFICIALLY works for him and decide what he wants to do and make of with all this information. Of course your body's good at detoxing, but right his system is probably full of coke and maccas and bad foods so its a starting point you fkn jerk. let the man read what works for certain people so he can study this.

---------- Post added 2011-07-10 at 11:35 PM ----------

/Shakes head slowly at DiceDice...

Anyway OP i hope you find what you're looking for and can do this for yourself, goodluck!

[Deleted]

Giving him misinformation such as "You have to eat every two hours to speed up your metabolism" isn't going to help either though.
Myths and bro-science do nothing but harm beginners looking to get off to a good start and propagating lies and myths harms more than helps even if the intention is good.

It just annoys me that there is so much bad info. out there.

[Deleted]

get smaller plates, its not a big change but it does help with having smaller meals, also drink a lot of water. if you dont want to go to the gym or anything like that, you can do simple things like walk/cycle to work/school depending on distance, if you have to drive, park a little further away just so you walk more. most of this stuff has probably already been said, but i dont really know much more :P