Losing the Weight -- How?

[Jennifer]

All right, I do need some advice and/or help.

I need to lose about 40 pounds or so. I can take a year or more to do it, but I need to start and seriously work at it.

I did it once before in the late 90's, but the weight slowly crept back on starting in 2001-2002 or so... most of it due to lots of comfort eating and lack of exercise. And I feel like I had more will power in the 90's. This particular decade of my life, I feel mostly worn out and not as resolute as I once was.

I need ideas for easy exercises that burn calories. I do not want to gain a lot of muscle mass (especially on top) although obviously some muscle gain will help me burn extra calories. [Since I have large bone structure, jogging is not the greatest exercise for me anymore -- it hurts my knees and feet easily.]

Also, any ideas for an easy way to structure a diet / get into a routine will be good.

Advice or links or whatever, please let me know. I'm looking around, but maybe one of you will have some good advice too.

Note: Any advice to have my head or limbs amputated, resulting in fast weight loss, will be promptly laughed at and then ignored.

[ptgatsby]

1) Make your family do it with you.

2) Don't talk about it, do it.

3) See #2.

Seriously, I think everyone knows how to do it. Less calories in, more calories out. One of the dangers of asking general questions... especially motivation related... is that you aren't going to get a specific plan to stick to. That never works.

Asking for specific advice, like "I have only about 30min a day to exercise and need to burn roughly 700 calories" can be answered and guide you to achieving the goal. Same with diet - "I want to eat 1900 calories but ensure I keep myself balanced nutritionally" can be answered.

What can't be answered is "I like to eat chocolate at 3:00 AM, how can I stop doing this?"... Well, except for saying that you shouldn't have chocolate in the house. Anyway, the point is that you can break your motivation and nothing you do now will change that. Almost everyone knows what needs to be done to achieve it - it's the willingness to do it that is lacking. Tired after work? Get up earlier and excersize then. Stuff like that.

(BTW, the answers to those two questions are "Elliptical machine at roughly 6 miles per hour at a mild to moderate setting for 30 minutes" and "Get a damn planner and put in the time". )

[targo]

WATER!

Think of a way to cut out just 100 calories a day from your diet. For some that may be as easy as not eating the chips, having more veggies and less carbs at dinner or not eating those 4 cookies.

Also think of something that you can do for 30mins a day..... walking, riding your bike, taking the stairs, parking farther away from the door.....

[FineLine]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

All right, I do need some advice and/or help.

I need to lose about 40 pounds or so. I can take a year or more to do it, but I need to start and seriously work at it.

I did it once before in the late 90's, but the weight slowly crept back on starting in 2001-2002 or so... most of it due to lots of comfort eating and lack of exercise. And I feel like I had more will power in the 90's. This particular decade of my life, I feel mostly worn out and not as resolute as I once was.

I need ideas for easy exercises that burn calories. I do not want to gain a lot of muscle mass (especially on top) although obviously some muscle gain will help me burn extra calories. [Since I have large bone structure, jogging is not the greatest exercise for me anymore -- it hurts my knees and feet easily.]

Also, any ideas for an easy way to structure a diet / get into a routine will be good.

Advice or links or whatever, please let me know. I'm looking around, but maybe one of you will have some good advice too.

Note: Any advice to have my head or limbs amputated, resulting in fast weight loss, will be promptly laughed at and then ignored.

Just something I've learned as I get older: It gets harder and harder to exercise off excess weight. When I was younger, I could lose 10 pounds just by upping my exercise level a bit. But nowadays, even with a pretty vigorous level of regular exercise, I'm having to resort increasingly to reducing my calorie intake just to stay at an even weight level.

So yes, go ahead and get on a regular exercise level. Better yet, try to figure out a way to do a couple small bouts of exercise during the day. But don't count on exercise to do as much for you as it did back in the 90s. Your body won't burn the calories as efficiently as it did a decade ago. Also, you don't want to have to up your exercise level to a point where you hurt yourself (which gets more likely as you get older). You want a steady, comfortable level of exercise that you can maintain for life.

As for dieting, I find that I'm not all that successful when I simply eat less of the same foods as usual. Because once I've lost some weight, I'll tend to drift off the diet and go back to the previous consumption levels, regaining the weight over time. So I have better luck by simply changing to new eating habits and new foods once and for all. If the habits and the foods are new, then I'm able to redesign my intake and stick to it (since I don't have previous set levels for those foods and habits). But the change has to be permanent; if I go back to the old foods, I'll tend to put the weight back on.

Anyway, those are just a couple quick considerations that I've noticed as I get older. You can judge for yourself how much they might be useful for you.

FL

[Natrushka]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

I need to lose about 40 pounds or so. I can take a year or more to do it, but I need to start and seriously work at it.

A year is a good start timewise. Slower fat loss is fat loss that is more maintainable. Thinking big picture is key. But don't just focus on the scale, it can lie. You want to use a measuring tape and fat calipers if you can get a pair. Test pants, skirts, etc, help as well. It's not about what you weigh, it's about your size. I weigh a good 20 pounds more than most women my size because I've been an athlete most of my life.

And I feel like I had more will power in the 90's. This particular decade of my life, I feel mostly worn out and not as resolute as I once was.

Willpower is a crock. It revolves around all or nothing mentality and that's the worst thing if you're attempting to improve your lifestyle. All or nothing thinking sets you up for failure, especially for us women. Even the best athlete doesnt bat 1000.

I need ideas for easy exercises that burn calories. I do not want to gain a lot of muscle mass (especially on top) although obviously some muscle gain will help me burn extra calories.

Use exercise to keep you motivated and in 'good shape' Use diet to manipulate body size. What you eat, and what you don't eat, is far more important than what you do. For women, however, exercising keeps us motivated and more likely to follow through, especially if we exercise earlier in the day.

Forget bulking up; it's also a function of diet. If you're eating to lose mass putting on mass will be next to impossible. The exception being if you're new to heavy weight lifting; newbies to weight lifting can shed fat and build muscle at the same time, for a limited time. That being said, muscle gain is also a function of hormones; women aren't made like men, we don't 'bulk' up by squatting 100 pounds 3x a week. I know your situation might be a little different, Jen, but diet will still apply. You require a caloric surplus to put on mass.

Also, any ideas for an easy way to structure a diet / get into a routine will be good.

Know yourself. Start small. Learn about nutrition. Lyle McDonald's book "A Guide to Flexible Dieting" is a great place to start. He used to sell it as an ebook, I don't know that he still does, though. I have a review of it somewhere, I'll try to dig up if you're interested.

Some books worth reading:

Intuitive Eating - why diets don't work and what to do about it.

Dr. Shwarzbien's The Transition is another good read. Especially if you're 40+ and struggling with fat loss. She gets across that metabolism is a function of your hormones, not your size. Her diet's spot on, but the 'transition' involves healing things that are broken before you can lose any weight; most people gain before they lose.

[Zhash]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

All right, I do need some advice and/or help.

I need to lose about 40 pounds or so. I can take a year or more to do it, but I need to start and seriously work at it.

I did it once before in the late 90's, but the weight slowly crept back on starting in 2001-2002 or so... most of it due to lots of comfort eating and lack of exercise. And I feel like I had more will power in the 90's. This particular decade of my life, I feel mostly worn out and not as resolute as I once was.

I need ideas for easy exercises that burn calories. I do not want to gain a lot of muscle mass (especially on top) although obviously some muscle gain will help me burn extra calories. [Since I have large bone structure, jogging is not the greatest exercise for me anymore -- it hurts my knees and feet easily.]

Also, any ideas for an easy way to structure a diet / get into a routine will be good.

Advice or links or whatever, please let me know. I'm looking around, but maybe one of you will have some good advice too.

Note: Any advice to have my head or limbs amputated, resulting in fast weight loss, will be promptly laughed at and then ignored.

Keep a food diary. Cut out anything made from white flour products (yep, it means, pasta), anything made from dairy products, anything with sugar in it and drink no calorie beverages. You will loose 100 lbs. in a year.

"Advice given while sitting at the computer, eating cookies"

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Zhash

"Advice given while sitting at the computer, eating cookies"

Brat!

But thank you.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed advice. What I enjoy and find astounding is how everyone approaches it differently. I certainly have a lot to consider.

Keep a food diary. Cut out anything made from white flour products (yep, it means, pasta), anything made from dairy products, anything with sugar in it and drink no calorie beverages. You will loose 100 lbs. in a year.

Well, I don't drink calorie beverages (that was one thing I cut ten years ago... it made a big difference). But pasta and dairy and sugar? I've got three children to feed, whose meals I share!! I thought banning Hamburger Helper from the house was a large step in itself.

[darlets]

1.) Search fo healthy food you like.

Make it a goal to try a new healthy food every week for the entire year. You don't have to eat it all, just try it. You should be able to add add 10-15 different healthy alternatives to your diet over the year. Initially you might want to try 5 new foods a week for 3 weeks. Bonus points if you can find a healthy snack food or two.

2.) Find exercise you enjoy (Again this will involve searching)
Finding a sport to do can also help with motivation. I don't do exercise I don't like. Try and use your human nuture to your advantage not to your disadvantage. Human tend to be lazy towards themselves but alturistic towards others.

You may be more likely to exercise for a cause like a charity ride/run. Say you choose to go in a charity bike ride in 3-4 months it can serve to help you with your training.

I would find an event that's 3-4 months away and train for that. A charity walk could be good. Do you have any fitness fanatic friends???? I'm not suggestion you join them but they might be happy for you to tag along for some of their mildier exercises.

3.) This is again a point on human nature. This is in general is called the "Pit of success" tactic. Try and control your environment so you desire outcome is as easy as possible (i.e you fall into it). If you're not a morning person planning on getting up at 6 am to do exercise isn't real bright. Identify the days and times in your week that are the most likely to promote exercise.

Typically I don't exercise on Mondays because I'm lazy and suffer from Mondayitis. If I aim to do something hard, I try and make it on a Tuesday-Thursday.

4.) Find a store that is a suitable distance from your house either a reasonable walk or ride and make that your one and only junk food purchasing store. If you want junk food you have to walk/ride to the store to get it. Don't have junk food in the house.

[sundowning]

For one week keep a log of everything you eat. Don't treat it as a record of shame, don't feel guilty about a single entry and for fuck's sakes DON'T count calories. In fact, take pride in what you eat and record - eat all the stuff you want - you want this to stand testament to all the great food you enjoy.

---

intermission of one week, doot de doo...

----

...Now that the first week is done, NOW you count the calories. Figure out what you have been eating per day (everything has nutritional info on it), and as well roughly what you should be eating per day to maintain your body weight. Adjust your intake to reflect that. Focus more on the 'good' foods, but don't deny the 'bad' stuff, because after all, if you can't enjoy what you eat you might as well be dead.

Okay, not quite, but you get the point.

Then exercise cardio three times a week. Not four, not five, and for fuck's sakes NOT seven. By doing something silly like that, you're going to destroy your motivation after about a week and a half (if that long - I wouldn't bet on it), and your body won't thank you for it. Over-exercising is probably worse than doing nothing, because it's hard on your body and makes you feel like shit when you could be doing something fun like loafing on the couch in your underwear, eating nachos and drinking beer.

What goes in -> should go out.

It's a simple equation that runs the universe - if you don't believe it, you don't believe in the universe, and therefore, need to worry about other, more pressing things than, say, your weight (i.e. your entire perception of reality). If you're eating reasonably and exercising reasonably, then over a reasonable period of time you will lose weight.

There's a reason starving Africans aren't fat.

That's my advice as a skinny guy who can't be arsed to eat more than he burns.

[wildcat]

Originally Posted by Zhash

Keep a food diary. Cut out anything made from white flour products (yep, it means, pasta), anything made from dairy products, anything with sugar in it and drink no calorie beverages. You will loose 100 lbs. in a year.

"Advice given while sitting at the computer, eating cookies"

If you cut everything made of dairy products you get cancer. You get many other serious illneses also, only they appear at a later date.
This is because of the Neolithic revolution and the human mutations that went along with it.
Eat fatty cheese. Do not eat skinned milk products.
The calory game is not about what you eat. It is about how much you eat.