Posts by thermal

The best way to tone up and lose fat, which you said you wanted to do, is to lose fat via eating less and doing cardio, and to hold on to and tone the muscle you have by eating protein and doing weights.

If you only eat less and do lots of cardio, you will find that you will also lose a lot of muscle and then it will take longer to be able to see results, plus you will have to lose a lot more weight before you are rid of all your soft bits.

If you only lift weights, you will find that you lose some fat, because working your muscles helps boost your metabolism (more muscle=higher metabolism), but the results will take a lot longer and you may gain muscle mass, which might be good if that's what you want.  But I have a suspicion that you don't really want to add mass...

SO, make a plan that involves a bit of both.  Make sure you eat enough to support all the exercise (a 500cal or less deficit with food and the rest with exercise) and that what you are eating is healthy, so that you can feed your body and repair muscles between workouts.

Good luck.

Angel's right, a calorie is a calorie, eating anything in excess means it will be stored as fat, not specific foods.

Try something that will be easily digested is generally good.  I find bananas work for me, something in liquid form like a protein shake (watch out for caffeine though) could work. 

If you wake up hungry or find yourself super starving right before bed, try eating something a few hours before you go to bed with some fat and protein (both of which will help make you feel full at the time) and fibre (which will help you feel full for a long time), although I wouldn't have something super fiberous right before you lay down.  So some PB on some wheat bread would be a good snack, or a smoothie with fruit and protein powder.

Here are some things that I find help:

- Make small changes that you can live with.  Don't jump in at 300% because you will probably be overwhelmed. Start by making some goals, like walking x mins every day, drinking tons of water, doing resistance training a few times a week, not eating after dinner, etc.  Pick one or two goals and add a new one each week until you are eating well and regularly exercizing hard.

- Make small goals and reward yourself with food-free prizes when you meet them.  Make sure these goals are reasonable.  Trying to lose 5lbs a week while exercising and eating 1000 calories a day is too extreme, pick a healthy weekly loss (usually about 1% of your current body weight in a week) and make up the extra deficit with exercise, rather than starvation.

- Tell people.  Don't be embarressed, most people aren't 100% happy with their bodies and will be super supportive.  To hell with the people that aren't.

- Be honest with yourself when it comes to what you put in your body and your exercise, it doesn't affect anyone but you.

- Don't think of it as a day-to-day project, look at the big picture.  If you screw up one day, just get back on track the next.  Try not to weigh yourself too often, once a week or less often is sufficient to see the losses and not see the daily (natural) fluctuation.

Good luck!

Stop moving, full stop.  The only way to lose muscle is to NOT use it.

FYI, that will also make you weak, have a soft body and make it easier to gain weight in the future (since you metabolism is based on how much muscle you have, the more muscle, the higher the metabolism).  But you're right, the number on the scale IS the most important thing ever, happy wasting!

Cheese is solid, so in its natural state (full fat), it would have a lot more fat and because they are both animal products, they both have a lot of saturated fat.  Dairy in general also contains a lot of sugar so watch out for both on this, but especially with sweetened yogurt.  Yogurt would likely be more filling because there is more water content, but because cheese has more fat it will keep you full for longer.  Yogurt usually has fruit added, which can add fibre, which is great.  Cheese has more salt, so if you have been exercising, this may be helpful in replacing some salt you have sweated....it all depends on what you are trying to get out of your dairy snack.

So you really need to be specific if you expect specific answers.

Original Post by nicolepund1:

Well I just watched a PETA video that made me remember why I gave all those things up. So Vegan I am. I won't cheat anymore. I will just have to watch a couple a these videos every few months and it will def keep me on track.

 PETA is the biggest load of propaganda bull***t.  There are so many great things about laying off the animal products, but they still feel the need to completely focus on the negative:  how evil you are if you use animal products, how fat and horrible meat-eaters are....blah blah blah.  Even if I was a vegan, I would be completely ashamed of their terrorist tactics, not motivated by them.  Think for yourself, jeeze.

Original Post by clairelaine:

It only works if the substance you are measuring is a liquid, but a tablespoon of a liquid = 15 grams.  If it's something light and fluffy, like puffed rice, then this wouldn't apply.

 Moreover, it only works with water and things that weight exactly the same as water.  This won't work for oil or alcohol, for example, as they are lighter than 1g/mL. 

If you want to be accurate, you really need a scale, unfortunately.

Being pregnant isn't the worst thing that could happen from unprotected sex.  Pregnancy lasts (at most) 9 months, while AIDS, herpes, hepatitis, and many more VDs last FOREVER.  So suck it up and get yourself to a doctor, get some BC and buy some condoms. 

If you're old enough to be drinking and having sex, then you are old enough to know you must protect yourself.  Grow up.

If you eat healthy, than you are stuffing your face on healthy food, right? How many calories are you actually eating? Are you eating 2000 calories in a day and running 7km? Because this is likely just your body telling you that you actually need this food to be as physical as you are, and you will likely still lose weight eating that much (depending on your stats, of course).  Or are you eating 3500 calories?  Check how much you are actually consuming before you assume that you are 'stuffing' yourself.

Breakfast at 9 and a snack at 11 doesn't seem at all strange, if I don't snack by 10.30 I get super punchy and will likely eat the first this I come across.  Same in the afternoon.  Having an appetite isn't a bad thing....

I find running on a treadmill completely unbearable for longer than about 5 minutes, but I can run for hours outside.

First, treadmills are boring.

Second, there is little to no air movement when you are running on a treadmill, so i find I get a lot hotter a lot faster.

Thirdly, when you land on a treadmill, the belt is moving the same speed regardless of how you land.  When you run outside, you are the one that is moving, so I think it's a more natural landing for your feet (that sounds silly, but hopefully you know what I mean).  I find treadmills yank my feet back as I run, which is kind of unnatural, I get some pretty intense leg pain from this pulling, and I have met a few other people that also get leg pain when they run on treadmills but can comfortably run outside.

Long story short, it's not weird that you can run longer outside than inside.

Original Post by dbackerfan:

Original Post by miso_soup:

dbackerfan: I've seen a lot of references to this book on this site, and I'm intrigued. Can you work through most of the exercises in the book with just free weights, or do many of them require access to 'professional' lifting equipment?

There is very little "machine" work -- its mostly using free weights- also it gives alternative workouts for those with no access to any equipment if necessary.

 

 Although I'm a huge advocate of free weights, if you have a muscle that is particularly weak, using a machine (like a preacher curl, or something like that) to start may help you safely build up the strength while using a reasonably effective amount of resistance.  You could actually hurt yourself trying out new free weight exercises that you are unfamiliar with and may not have the strength to do properly.  Have you spoken to a trainer at the gym??  Maybe they can give you some help.

You look great, and younger!  Healthy bodies always look much younger.

No, 1200 is not enough.

The 1200 minimum is based on an average height, average weight, middle aged, sedentary woman.  Which you are not.  You are under 21, and are likely burning well over 2000 a day just being alive, if you weren't losing weight with 1800 calories, you may have slowed your metabolism by undereating, or are possibly eating more than you realise.

I would suggest eating at least 1800 calories (probably closer to 2000) and adding exercise to lose weight, rather than attempting to slash your intake to an unhealthy low.  Adding both strength and cardio is the most effective way to lose weight and tone your existing muscle (so that once you lose some fat, you have some nice toned muscle under to show off).

As a vegetarian, it is easy for you to get quality calories by eating healthy fats (nuts, avocados, oils) which will help you feel full, fibre and protein by eating beans, lentils and other complex carbs (split peas, bulgar wheat, brown rice, qinoa).  Make sure that you are eating a varied diet so that you get all the necessary nutrients.

When you have the info already and are entering an item, instead of doing the search option on the left of the Food Log page, on the right you can add your own items, you can call it whatever you want, it will only be there on your account.

The item may be in the search engine, so check for it, but if the calorie info isn't what you have on the package, take the package info and add it yourself.

You need a set number of calories for your body to function (heart beating, breathing, staying conscious, the important stuff...), this is your BMR (calculator here), you NEED to eat at least this number otherwise your body will not be able to perform these tasks...and ultimately if you continuously undereat your body will stop the non-neccessary processes, your metabolism will slow, your body will eat your muscle for nutritents (muscle has more punch than fat, so you will eat that first), then you will be unable to maintain consciousness, etc, etc.

The number that the CC tool calculates is your RMR, resting metabolic rate, this is what you will burn in an average day just doing your thing.  Add excersize on top of this, subtract 500-800 calories and then eat this number.  Having any greater deficits can damage your metabolism for life, undereating can basically condemn you to a life weight/metabolism issues.  It's really important to fuel your body if you want it to function properly...you wouldn't drive without putting gas in your car, or expect it to be able to run, would you?

This is why undereating is bad. 

ALSO.  You can't gauge your progress on a few days worth of calorie counting, you will likely not see results for at least a week, your body lags behind your mouth, so don't be too worried about the scale until you have been counting for at least a week or longer.  Don't weight on a daily or more basis, your body fluctuates a few pounds either direction depending on water intake, salt, bowel movements, altitude, whether or not you exfoliated...etc, etc.  You'll drive yourself insane weighing constantly.  Also, be sure to watch your sodium and sugar levels as both these things can cause you to retain water, and drink lots of water.