Put the TV behind the treadmill. Put on a Jane Fonda workout video. Turn on the treadmill and get on and pretend as if you're running away.
If that doesn't work, eat a healthy, American breakfast, cut down on the size of your lunch, and eat a healthy dinner. Combined with a steady workout plan, you'll start losing weight. Oh, and go to bed earlier than you normally would. Chances are you get hungry before you go to bed and decide to have an extra snack, completely wiping out your workout.
A good idea is to stop drinking if you drink alcohol. The calories in alcohol are not the problem, however, hangovers and happy hour tend to cut into your workout time and generally are bad for your health.
The elliptical is a good workout, but you should couple it with some resistance/weight training. Strengthening your muscles and building up your muscles is a good way to burn more calories continuously and feel better than just aerobic elliptical training.
For Breakfast, eat a hardboiled egg and take out the yolk, the whites are only 30 calories,
Eat about 600 calories at lunch and about a 1000 calories at dinner.
Throw in some snacks like jello or Low calorie yogurt and you wont even be hungry.
You will lose a pound a week or more.
Just check the web for the calories in what you eat you will be surprised.
And do not drink anything with sugar at all, drink water, seltzer, unsweetened iced tea or if you must, diet coke.
And you don't need to burn 300 calories a day in exercise, 150 a day walking at a medium fast pace on a treadmill is more sustainable over the long run with less stress on the joints.
> How much do you exercise per day (or week)?
I walk several times a week, by leaving the car at home if the trip is less than a 20 minute walk one way. Saves gas and so far Helen Clark hasn’t discovered a way to tax walking!
And I Patrol once or twice per week as a Guardian Angel. Maybe four hours of slow walking, with plenty of stops along the way.
> What type of diet (eating style, foods, calorie intake) do you eat?
I eat a normal diet: plenty of vegetables, potatoes or pasta, and meat. That’s dinner. Lite lunch. Lite breakfast. Lots and lots of hot tea with milk throughout the day. Easy on alcohol: maybe once per week a couple pints.
> Are you over-weight?
Yup — but I am rapidly losing weight, and keeping it off.
> Were you once over-weight and how much weight did you lose?
I was 265 lbs in February. I am 215 lbs now (August).
> In what time frame did it take you?
Six months, losing just under ten pounds per month.
> What do you do for self-discipline (motivation)?
Martial arts — but not overly strenuously. Who needs an injury?
Don’t think about losing weight — it’s no big deal. Just like quitting smoking — no big deal. Just do it. The more you stress over it, the more it becomes a Big Deal.
There is no need to knock yourself out: just eat sensibly and get a little bit of exercize: your body will adjust to suit. Your liver and lungs and kidneys are your very best friends, so go easy on them so they can clean out all the guck in your body and burn off the fat.
Special diets and special exercises are for the birds. Expensive wastes of money. Your body knows what to do: just give it a chance to work properly.
I was overweight, and recently lost about 30 pounds. Breakfast and consistant sleep were vitally important. I like to eat something every two hours, with no single meal taking up any large portion of my daily intake.
As for exercise, I went for the P-90X routine, which was more than I could handle at first. But the cardio, yoga, and karate routines were real calorie-burners, and the weightlifting/resitance came with time. My philosophy of exercise is now centered around variety. If nothing else, it keeps you occupied.
How old are you?
I have been working with a personal trainer for the last 4 months. I also try to follow the Lindora eating plan (Lindora is a place on the west coast - www.lindora.com). The first phase is great - no hunger or cravings. You eat protein, fruits, vegetables and grains - I live on protein bars to curb any cravings. After gaining weight about 10 years ago, I lost like 40 pounds in 3 months following this plan and never felt better because I was eating all the right things.
5 days per week in the gym. 30 minutes cardio on the excercise bike followed by 35-45 minutes weight training - free weights whenever possible (very few machines). An apple right after, whey protein powder in milk (for the calcium) as a drink 15 minutes or so after with a banana eaten (for the potassium).
What type of diet (eating style, foods, calorie intake) do you eat?
High protein, lots of fruits and vegetables, medium carbs and fat - I try to avoid white flower and high sugar items. I haven't counted calories or fat in many years, so I can't help you on that front.
Are you over-weight?
6'1, 185-190 lbs (it varies depending on water and how much food I've eaten in the last 24 hours).
Were you once over-weight and how much weight did you lose?
Yes. I started exercising about 9 years ago and lost around 55 lbs over about 2 years.
In what time frame did it take you?
2 years. But I was more concerned with strength and cardio conditioning (heart rate and aerobic vs. anaerobic breathing) than just weight loss. It probably could have taken much less time if that had been my focus.
What do you do for self-discipline (motivation)?
I mostly needed it for the first 6 months or so. After that, my muscles began to get addicted and if I miss even a single day they start to ache for exercise. Once I reached that point, motivation was a non-issue.
The key is getting through that first 6 months. For me, as shallow as it sounds, going to a gym with lots of attractive women was an excellent motivator - it does work, believe me.
Also, keep a chart of your body weight, heart rate at a given level of exertion (eg. the challenge level on an exercise bike), and the amount of weight you can lift. Charting that info in excel and looking at the positive trends really makes you feel like you're accomplishing something and can help motivate.
I am only 8 or 900 lbs overweight...I hope to drop them in the next few months
How much do you exercise per day (or week)? 3 / Week.
What type of diet (eating style, foods, calorie intake) do you eat? Carb limitation.
Are you over-weight? No.
Were you once over-weight and how much weight did you lose? N/A.
In what time frame did it take you? N/A
What do you do for self-discipline (motivation)? Fear of death & dismemberment.
I’m glad you posted this. I’ve been totally disciplined with calories for a month now, eliptical 50 mins a day, and I haven’t lost A pound!
What the heck?
I lost 75 pounds in 10 months, and my wife lost 100 pounds in one year on the Michael Thurman “Body Makeover Diet” - Google for web site...it is the one used on Extreme Makeover. (body edition, not the house)
I'll catch up with further responses in the morning.
How much do you exercise per day (or week)?
About 3-4 ~1 mile walks with the dog each week.
What type of diet (eating style, foods, calorie intake) do you eat?
I use 3 rules:
-Minimally processed foods.
-Only high quality fats and oils (olive oil, sesame seed oil, real butter, real cheese, sour cream). I avoid corn, canola, soybean - I think those are truly that much worse for you and mostly touted for their economic efficiency. Only fresh vegetables, only low-fat high protein meat. Spinach, broccoli, asparagus, these are like jet fuel when added to red meat protein. (I live in the richest country that ever existed, I'm not going to pick my food based on what is easily mass-manufactured.) The first priority is taste & nutritional quality, but I more than make up for the extra dollar cost of the higher quality foods by cooking them myself.
-Third rule is very unique to my own immune system: No gluten proteins (wheat, rye, barley). Like I mentioned, this only affects 1-2% of the general population, but some 15-20% might have a similar problem with a different set of proteins and the likeliest culprits would be milk, corn, soybean, other types of beans & grains, even shellfish or generally anything that can trigger an allergic response... Even plants have chemical defenses and not every person is necessarily adapted to handle every unique type of chemical defense.
A more general rule of thumb would be to "eat similar to what your ancestors ate." Chinese medicine has advocated an elimination diet for thousands of years and Western medicine has only begun to confirm its benefits in the last fifty years (since actually just after WW2 cut parts of Europe off of wheat supplies): Cut back to a really simplistic diet of meat and fresh vegetables. Once you get used to the energy rush you can introduce other things back in slowly and make a mental note of what drags your own metabolism down. If it makes you feel particularly tired, its probably going add weight too.
Even with all that in my way, I consider a perfect dinner to include something like this:
-8-12oz steak fried in olive oil
-onions fried in that olive oil (and maybe some extra cane sugar)
-broccoli covered in mozorella
-mashed potato with mayo or baked w/ sour creme. And more cheese.
I can still have pastas and starches as long as they are rice-based so I have nothing against the massive consumption of carbs.
For snacks I'll drink a lot of coffee & tea with sugar and milk. Raisins, nuts, chocolate, any other fruit or maybe even some potato chips once in a while (ingredients potato, oil, salt)
Are you over-weight?
I easily eat 3,500 calories and I'm still trying to gain about 5-10 pounds.
Were you once over-weight and how much weight did you lose?
When I stopped eating wheat (and this includes bread and most convenience foods) I lost about 50 pounds
In what time frame did it take you?
2 months
What do you do for self-discipline (motivation)?
I feel better and honestly the food tastes better too. The most discipline I have to exercise is in the kitchen making sure I have food prepared in advance anytime I'm away from home - my alternative was to be pretty sick so it was extra easy...At first it was tough in the grocery store, but
Something i wish i could do...take off from work for 6 months and hike the entire Appalachian Trail...you’ll be thin as a rail by the end, no matter how much you eat :)
I’m on a see-food and sitting diet.
I would recommend that you lift weights - gain muscle, and increase your basal metabolic rate (the calories you burn while at rest). It will make fat-loss much more efficient, and relax the caloric restriction requirements a great deal compared to the cardio-only route. Cardio+diet has a tendency to result in muscle loss in greater proportion than fat loss - folks tend to look flabbier, despite the scale sporting a more cheerful number.
In terms of diet itself, the main shift if weight-lifting would be to increase protein intake somewhat, at the expense of carbs (though nothing near Atkins or keto or similar - diets are fairly benign unless you are trying to break into the sub-10% bodyfat threshold). If you can find a broad set of guidelines you like and just wing it thereafter, great - it is true that, within reason and with the right activity level, most diets will do. But if you are the kind of person who needs things to be better planned out, have a look at this site, which is something similar to what I found helpful in constructing my strategy.
The trouble one has with females when it comes to weight-lifting is in combating the notion that they will rapidly become mannish boobless muscled amazons (it won't happen without pharmaceutical enhancement, or dedication bordering sick obsession). With men, the main trouble is ego - it has to be left at the door. You have to be willing to lift what appear to be embarrassingly low numbers (at first), and it may seem silly to be lifting weights, especially if you are older; but keep in mind that 9/10 people lifting weights are NOT bodybuilders, they are just interested in general health and fitness). And a trouble for everyone is getting drowned in information, some of it unclear, some of it conflicting. There is no way around that, short of hiring a personal trainer. Find a strategy, go at it, and tune things later. The only thing to get right the first time is 'form'.
If you are willing to consider the weight lifting route, two free resources I would recommend are:
The first link is to an online fitness community - do not be intimidated by the connotation of "bodybuilding". I found the "Workout Programs", "Over Age 35", and "Workout Journals" sections to be particularly helpful, especially the "stickies" at the top of every subforum. There is some shilling for buying supplements, but most of that stuff is worthless.
The second link is to a dumbbell-only exercise routine (other routines are "better", but require barbells and a squat rack - it will take a few months of home workouts to be able to tell if investing in that equipment, or a gym membership, makes any sense). There are videos showing proper form and range-of-motion - proper form is CRITICAL for avoiding injury, and there is a fat-loss section there somewhere. Anyway, a dumbbell set should be fairly inexpensive (I bought mine from Wal*Mart, something like $40, though an exercise ball in addition would be helpful).
I went from 30% to 12% bodyfat with weight-lifting (2 years, upgrading to barbell set with bench and squat rack at month 4). Size 48 waist to size 34. At 2000 to 3000 calories per day (depending on specific routine and activity level of day). Protein shakes to keep food costs and kitchen time down, and that is it for "weirdness". Pretty good, considering a sedentary desk job and less than an hour of cardio per week. With a high BMR, weight maintenance is fairly trivial (but some explicit fitness activity is non-negotiable, as is reasonable dietary restraint).
Very good info. He also is big on low tech and also addresses variety and innovation. His training methods are usefull for competition as well as ordinary folks. I use his methods and have had good results. I fence foil & sabre for recreation and staying in shape using Enamaits methods to tune my basic physical condition