This is going to be a longer thread. It's all my advice, not professional advice and should be taken with a grain of salt. Any professional advice is to come from your doctor, dietician, etc. and even more so if you are very much out of shape. The advice below can be applied to anyone, but I will stress take this with a grain of salt! I will continue to update this thread as I learn and go farther into my field. I will also recommend other sources where I am knowledgeable. TL;DR please go to the bottom of this first post. As people have said, there is no way to target fat areas for fat loss. But there is a way to burn fat wherever you like! Personally, I don't recommend it as taking a blow-torch (or the likes) to your stomach, thighs, arms, or any other part of your body with fat for that matter will be painful and detrimental to your body/life! Instead I would rather you sit back and read at leisure. Start mentally If you decide to undertake a diet or workout plan, don't start eating less today and going balls-to-the-wall in the gym today. Might sound counterproductive, but even a few days or a week of reading and planning will help you stay on track. Once you start this process, don't stop. Always learn and always plan ahead. Let's start with food. Google will give you more than supple links (and now homepage facts) to nutrition on most any food you enter. So if you don't know for sure, take a minute to look up some information on what you are ingesting. At the same time log EVERYTHING you eat and drink. Sound too hard? Then you aren't serious enough about getting fit, loosing fat, gaining muscle, or whatever your goal is. Crucial!!! I want you to log what you eat and drink so you see for yourself what your body has to process and deal with because it tastes soooo divine and you just can't pass it up. Do this as you are learning about your foods, and before you start to change your diet (as well as from here on out). Grab your phone and download Calorie Counter or any app similar. You can log food on there and it will have nutritional information logged simultaneously. You can bar-code scan, manually enter, search, browse, etc. foods and drinks and recall previous meals for logging. Easy. Also easy is carrying a pencil and paper folded in your pocket or purse and writing down what you eat and drink. Do this no later than straight after you are done with the meal! It is so easy to forget something in a meal, and it does add up. You can prove this to yourself by remembering your meals for the day by memory at night, then cross-referencing them with your food log. More than likely you missed something or had a hard time remembering everything. Now that you are starting to log meals I want you to chew your meals. What?! Yes. Chew your damn food! I know it sounds insignificant and like something you already do, but there are benefits to chewing more thouroughly. You will aid in the breakdown and digestion of the food resulting in more nutrients absorbed. You might eat slightly less because you are now filling up more completely on the nutrients food have to offer. Analogy? Sure, read below. Person 1 and person 2 make two firecrackers each, one to consume and one to share with the other person. Person 1 throws in a few nugs and makes the firecracker the rest of the way as you should. Person 2 grinds his medicine down to a powder and makes the firecracker the rest of the way as you should. Day one they eat person 1's firecrackers with the full nugs, they get buzzed. Day two they eat person 2's firecrackers with the ground up herb. They get blown! Why? More THC has been absorbed into the fat of the natty PB/nutella/etc. Same general concept. You are not only reducing the work of your digestive system, but also allowing for more to potentially be absorbed and energy to be created, used and stored in the body. About a week has passed and you're ready to add-on to what you know. Calories, the stuff that makes you fat. But does it? Yes and no. To keep it simple, you have to be at a deficit for weight loss and a surplus for weight gain in comparison to your TEE. Online calculators, your friends and family, online forums, etc. will be able to help you figure this caloric surplus/deficit out to a point. But since everyone is different in mind and body, you will also need to learn on your own. Some generals are as follows... -3,500 calories is pretty much a pound. That's not saying eat 3,500 calories a day and you'll gain a pound, but if you have 3,500 surplus calories in a week then you will gain a pound that week. -2,000 calories is the general guideline for adults in the US. I personally do not believe in this as more and more people fall out of the general healthy adult lines. People are obese, anorexic, morbidly obese and so on. Instead, use the formula below for a good TEE calculation (Total Energy Expenditure, or the calories you will burn in a given day): 1. Weight (lbs.) x 10 = Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) 2. RMR x Activity level = TEE - 1.2-1.3 mainly stationary, office work, stoner on an off day - 1.5-1.6 above + 30 minutes of moderate activity or exercise/day - 1.6-1.7 above + 3 additional hours of biking 10-12 mph, walking 4.5 mph, etc. - 1.9-2.1 full time athletes, physical-laborers, road workers, etc. 3. example: 150 lbs. x 10 = 1,500 RMR x 1.5 Activity Level = 2,250 calories expended per day. -The above can be up to 20% off in either direction, and that is why I said some self-learning is required. Over the next few weeks you will notice that you have to eat more or less food to maintain your current body weight. If the example person at 150 wanted to lose 10 pounds, it should be done over 3 months or so. Weight shouldn't be lost at more than 0.5-1 lbs. a week if you are to stick to your weight loss plan and do it with health in mind (as well as a healthy looking body). Fit people can more readily tell a healthy skinny body from a skinny body. At 2,250 calories TEE, a deficit of 125-250 will result in the person losing 10 pounds around the 3 month mark (2,000 calories a day, would you look at that ;p). Height, age, gender, foods, exercise, etc. all play a role, but this gives you a much better starting point than just guessing or listening to hearsay. I would also recommend not dropping below 70% of your TEE when trying to lose weight. You may initially lose weight faster, but it will hurt you in the long run. A 150 lb. person at 5'9†loosing 2 lbs. a week is much less healthy than someone at 180 lbs. 5'9.†Lots of reasons for this and I advise you trust me. If you don't, do your research further such that you aren't harming your body in the process of rapid weight loss (if not recommended for you specifically by a licensed doctor or dietician, I wouldn't do it). Recap Remember those little pieces of meal information you forgot to enter? That snickers bar was a whole day's worth of progress lost for the 150 lb person looking to lose 10 lbs in 3 months! That monster put you another day behind, and it's still the same day! Track your meals for your own sake. The same goes for weight gain when at a surplus. Just a little something for you to chew on for a decent amount of time ;p Kind of corny, but to reiterate chew your food! Speaking of corn, I have not seen a kernel of corn in my feces for years because I fully chew my food, even if it takes longer and actual concentration for the first few weeks. Also feces lets you know a decent amount about your body and digestion, don't be afraid to look and Google abnormal sights. It's your health, plus a private bathroom so nobody will know what you do anyway. Cardiovascular Exercise With some note-taking and caloric advice under your belt, let's start to work that heart and respiratory system of yours! Here I'm going to keep it real simple. Take 220-your age for your estimated maximum heart rate. Beginners to fitness should stay between 65-75% of that maximum heart rate. Don't be gasping for air, but don't be falling asleep either. You want to try and work out a good sweat through a relatively constant pace. Try to get 3-5 sessions of 30 minutes a week in, but in the beginning 3-5 sessions of 5 minutes is ok! Even though the body needs to be worked, it needs a proper break-in and conditioning from being so inactive. Know your limits and reach for them, don't be lazy. If you have followed the initial steps and are at a good caloric amount for your goals, this shouldn't be unreasonable. Continue this for at least 4-6 weeks. From there consider upping your intensity from 65-75% to 75-85% of your maximum HR. Some ways the human can benefit from cardiovascular training: -Longer life expectancy -Lower risk of injury and/or disease -Increased energy -Increased metabolism (higher and for longer) -Increased blood flow (carrying oxygen to muscles, organs, etc.) -Increased mental function -You may just feel great after a workout J On a personal note, smoking/vaping/edibles/etc. all have a more profound effect after a good workout. Make sure you warm-up for anything from cardio to resistance training and so-on. 5 minutes is normally adequate. Stretching can be done before and after, but for least injury and easy of mind stretch only after your workout. The warm-up should be designed to get blood flowing through the body and less on digestion and the like. For the same reason, don't eat too heavy before a workout. A piece of fruit and some simple carbs you can eat closer (30-60 minute window) and most heavy meals (full meals, complex carbs, steaks, etc.) should not be eaten within 90 minutes of a workout if it can be helped. Otherwise too much blood will be elsewhere in the body and you may get a poor workout with nausea or fainting even. What to eat? 4-6 meals/day, even caloric distribution among them is recommended. Unfortunately this is something that ethically and legally needs to be answered by a nutritionist/dietician/doctor or other qualified professional. I can give advice, but just generalizations that should be applied to the other information in this thread. Eat your calories, don't drink them. This includes juices, milk, alcohol, sports drinks, anything. Water is the choice beverage. Water should be consumed thorough the day, aim for a gallon or more (8, 8 fl. Oz. cups = 64 oz of water as a minimum if you drink other fluids like milk, juice or anything else). As with meals, don't consume a bunch of this right before a workout. It will only hold you back. Instead, try getting into the habit of drinking throughout the day and throughout your workout. Avoid sweets, fast food, and fatty foods. However, do not neglect good fats such as those found in extra virgin olive oil, unsalted nuts (raw almonds and pecans are great), natural peanut butter, and others. Carbs are not your enemy or friend if you don't know what to look for. Look for complex carbs low on the Glycemic Index (GI) that won't spike your blood sugar and leave you feeling like crap later on. Find slow-release/digestion carbs such as a potato, whole wheat and whole grain pasta/bread (careful not to overdo these, and not to eat these too close prior to a workout), fruit, vegetables, skim milk, and beans (pinto, red kiney and black). This too can be found using Google if you are curious what a food might score on this scale. Low is under 55, moderate is between 56 and 69, and high is 70 and above. Ingesting low and moderate GI foods are complex carbs (good), higher in fiber, high in overall nutrition, give sustained energy release, help regulate protein and fat digestion and utilization, fuel your brain (rather literally), stores as glycogen in your liver and later released as glucose (the fuel for your mind and body before it was stored in the liver), lowers risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer, etc. As you can see carbohydrates are seriously important to a healthy lifestyle. Most people think of them as evil, fat builders. True they will store as fat eventually for your body to use, but if you are following everything in this thread it shouldn't be that big of an issue. Caloric deficit with cardiovascular exercise will allow you to tinker with weight loss as you still feed your body what it needs to survive (without compromise at the minimum). In addition, the initial weight lost on a low-carb diet is going to be water weight. Don't fool yourself into fad diets, weight loss/gain programs, or anything too good to be true. Patience and perseverance with dedication will yield you results! This holds true for many aspects of life. Try keeping your daily fat intake at 25% or less (preferably 10-20%), protein between 25-35% (35% for those highly involved and typically looking to gain muscle, too much past this will stress your kidney), and carbs the rest (usually 40-60%). Even for most people gaining muscle, more than 0.6-0.9 grams of protein/lb. of body weight is not helping any. It will either be discarded from the body or stored as fat. I do not suggest drinking or smoking cigarettes. Though your choice, many studies can show the negative impact on health, weight loss/gain, brain activity/function/health, respiratory function, disease, and injury. 1 gram of fat = 9 calories 1 gram of protein = 4 calories 1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories 1 gram alcohol = 7 calories Vitamins and minerals are also important; just try to keep up on them. Whole foods will help here which is one more reason to eat proper. Start with all of this and ask questions for more advice, I will answer what I know. Refer to anything and everything for more information. Even bad information is good information if taken with a grain of salt (compare it with knowledge you trust and believe, this way you can actively avoid bad advice and expand your knowledge/ability to help others). Though a lot may be general information, or even common sense, I hope this has helped some in one way or another. Please continue to expand your knowledge in other areas such as resistance training. Combining healthy eating, cardio and something such as resistance training will amplify the weight loss/gain affects you desire. The more you know and integrate, the more your body and mind will love you and respond! Remember to strive for 8 hours uninterrupted sleep, preferably trying to go to bed before midnight. Drink lots of water! Train smart, train safe, live better. TL;DR: Sorry, there isn't actually anything here for you. I believe you need to start strong mentally when you plan to actually make a change in your life. Here it might be losing some fat, but it holds true elsewhere and I work on integrating it where I can. Please take the 20 minutes to read through here for how to lose fat and other general tips on health. Results from following the above advice will help with overall fat loss, just remember you can simply not target fat loss and have to work it all off with a planned program. Expect to feel results within the first few weeks. Expect to see results in 2-8 weeks. Expect a transformation in 1+ year if you aren't generally healthy (this goes for any safe, healthy and natural transformation). Expect to be done never, always learn and improve! -carrotcake
I didn't include other specifics because it would end up becoming ridiculously long. I am open to questions here and through private messages. If posted here it could help others, so please think about posting it here.
Lovely impression at all, Your positive thinking inspire me alot. Weight loss can be achieve through eating good diet and doing proper exercise. You have define it very breifly and I think there is no more to add. Be realistic and set simple goals.
I think your title is misleading, you can't specifically target body fat. A person may carry their fat in different proportions in areas than others might, but that's because of their individual genetics... and the amount of muscle mass underneath I suppose. I do agree with the rest though. Proper diet (Calories and nutrient watch) and exercise would be the way to start any healthy weight loss.
I know you can't; it's partially a joke (maybe an odd joke, I was high on BHO for the first time ever). I also said that because at a point in time I believed in misleading titles and topics/threads on gaining muscle mass, what workouts to do, nutrition, etc. My hope is that if someone is caught in that stage they will at least click on this topic and read the rest of the information. If I did it over I would have a better title haha Maybe a mod has that power, who knows. Anyway you're spot on, and thanks for the reply!
That's fine, there are plenty of ways to lose weight. Some are more effective than others for an individual, whether it's on the mind and/or body. I personally believe in what I posted, but thank you for taking the time to read and stop by. HIIT training, for those who are curious, is High Intensity Interval Training. This is a shorter duration of cardiovascular exercise that can achieve the same results as a longer and more moderately paced cardio session. Something along the lines of 15-20 minutes of HIIT compares to 40-60 minutes of cardio in the 75%-85% max HR range. It is something that I don't recommend daily, and if you can walk away after 20 minutes day after day then you are going too light. An example is running for 30 seconds at a sprint, 60 seconds at a jog to regain energy while still maintaining a raised heartrate. This is going to work your heart pretty hard, so just starting out in fitness I still do not recommend it without a few weeks (minimum!) of properly adjusting your body--- building the correct motor learning patterns, work out muscular and postural imbalances, and hopefully eating properly for the healthiest way to lose weight (and keep it off).
Anyone starting to plan for their new years resolution of fat loss? Planning ahead is always good, especially when it comes to your health. The easiest thing to start doing is drink more water! Carry a water bottle with you, a refillable BPA free one, or simply visit a water fountain often. The more water you drink throughout the day, the better. You will have a stronger handle on your appetite, function better (physically and mentally, no matter how little the difference), and hopefully learn to lessen the sugary drinks (this includes juice!).
Diet / watch your calories (create a calorie deficit) and do moderate exercise for thirty minutes a day three to five times per week =weight loss
Da fuck? Heres how you lose weight, burn more calories then you take in. Thats it, and thats all. I eat one meal a day and have no problem maintaining weight.
Youre 100% right when you said you have to get there mentally. I was too caught up in feeling bad for myself I couldnt get the right motavation to lose the weight. I found that motivation and I have lost 12 pounds since New Years. I havent started exercising yet, still trying to get sitters set up. But the calorie counting alone has helped!!
You lost 12 pounds in a week? Thats like almost 2 pounds a day. Losing weight that fast can have a negative effect on your health.
new years was just a week ago. if you don't get your body moving soon, you'll gain all that plus more in a second.
yeah, I had a NASTY hang over and couldnt eat much more than broths and gatorade for four days. Then when I was able to eat again I just cut out all the shitty foods. I have just been eating fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, no dairy, no simple carbs. limiting my sugar as much as possible and lots and lots of water. I have been losing about a pound a day.