robwilliams

I'm not convinced that you can lose body fat by diet alone - you have to build some sort of cardio routine into the equation. I jog each morning for around 30 mins BEFORE breakfast so my body HAS to burn up stored body fat as I haven't consumed any nutrition since the night before. I try to maintain a mild calorie defecit throughout the day in that I try to burn up more calories than I consume. There is no real way of knowing how many you take in and how many you burn up, you just have to use your judgement unless you want to get real scientific about it. No more McDonalds, other fatty or sugary foods, ice cream etc. etc. for me. I eat a healthy diet and try to get a good blend of carbs & protein without getting too fussy about it all. Also, I eat a bit less overall than I used to, but now I eat more regularly. Some refer to this as the warrior diet. It stops your body going into fat storing mode because it thinks you haven't eaten for a while - which is what can happen when you only eat 3 meals a day. 30 mins after my morning run, I eat breakfast (bowl of cereal). This is essential in getting the metabolism going. After that, I eat some melon or a banana at 10:30 AM, a small healthy lunch at 1:30 PM, afternoon snack (banana or 2 rice cakes) at 4:30 PM, then a small healthy dinner at about 7:00 PM. Sometimes I have a small bowl of cereal before bed. During the last couple of months, I've being doing some work with dumbbells, working on all muscle groups. This has helped me build up some muscle tone, without bulking up and also helps with the metabolism. In 3 months I've gone from nearly 80Kg down to 73 Kg. My body fat loss is much greater than 7 Kg as I have put on quite a bit of muscle tone. Anyway, this is working for me and it is sustainable. Don't diet, change your lifestyle and eating habits!

Recently, I have been thinking about a holiday in Hong Kong in the near future. However, with the SARS scare, the Australian Government has issued a "Don't Travel" warning for all parts of China. Part of me is scared to go, another part of me wonders if I might get a great deal on airfare and accommodation given that their tourism industry is going to be hit hard by this. Maybe I should play safe, although I do wonder what the actual risk is of contracting the disease ......

I use a cheap hand grip from K-Mart. The brand name ones do not have a spring quite as strong as my cheap no brand version. I have 2 - one lives in my car so I can use it on commutes. The other near the TV so I can watch TV and strengthen my wrists and forearms at the same time. I tend to do between 10 - 20 reps per set, swapping wrists each set. The last rep of each set, I try to hold the grip closed for up to 10 secs. I've been doing this a long time now and have increased the power of my grip a HUGE amount. The sping clips mentioned by BKJ1216 are actually designed to hold weights on the weight bar, so they are not really designed for wrist exercise. They are the same basic shape, though, but lack the shaped grips for the fingers.

When I started Karate recently, I was out of shape, a little overweight and did not have much in the way stamina. I found that it was not so much the Karate training that got me back in shape as the other things I was doing in order to get through my Karate classes with enough stamina to maintain correct technique throughout the class. I jog 3Km most days, do weights 3 times a week (arms & upper back, abs & lower back, legs) and I follow an eating pattern similar to the Warrior diet. I'm happy with my progress in that I have lost a lot of body fat, increased my stamina/endurance (I could barely run 100 feet a couple of months ago) and feel better overall. I would not have had the results that I have experienced had I just done Karate a couple of nights a week.

Curls (with dumbbells) are the most effective for bicep building. Pullups work the upper back. Check out this link for a the full range of dumbbell exercises: http://www.huddsonline.co.uk/Sports_dumbbell_exercises.htm I also bought Weight Training for Dummies based on a recommendation from another weight training site. I highly recommend this book. Anyway, I think you might find doing curls with a school bag full of books a little challenging.

True, aspartame has been linked to the problems int he above article. However, in the past, Saccharines (E954) and Cyclamic acid (E952). E952 is banned int he US & UK, but the ban on E954 was lifted in the US and elsewhere providing labels identified the substance as being linked to cancer in lab animals. I'm going to play safe and avoid all artifical sweeteners. I'm quite comfortable with that and lowering my natural sugar consumption is not a hard thing to do.

Thanks for sharing that with us. When I was at a very young and impressionable age, I was told that some artificial sweetners were found to cause cancer in rats (when administered in large doses). Since then, I've not been able to bring myself to use any sugar substitute. I have cut back on the amount of coffee I drink each day in addition to the amount of sugar I have in each cup. I am now used to having less sugar in coffee and on cereal, but it does take time to get used to it. I'm more comfortable with this strategy than the use of articial sweeteners.

I do a bit of running and bike riding at least 3 or 4 times a week. When I work out with weights, I always try to incorporate some squats with dumbbells. In between doing this and some duck walking and frog jumping on training nights (Karate) I find this is enough of a workout for my legs.

I'm following a 5 - 6 small meals per day (every 3 - 4 hours) type of diet. SOme refer to this as the Warrior Diet, but I don't follow the one on the website, but my own variation based on this info. and what I've learned elswhere, including this site and some other books that I've read. http://www.fatlosstips.com/ Bottom line is to take in less calories than you burn in a day, eat less overall, but break it down into smaller more frequent meals. Drink LOTS of water too!!!

Check out these great sites from Anthony Ellis: http://www.fatlosstips.com/ http://www.fatlosstips.com/abs.html This guy recommends a eating small meals etc. and I don't think he is going to drop dead at 40! I got a lot of good info from this guy. Also, even though you're at school, you can still have a banana or whatever during a morning break, then a small lunch followed by a snack in the afternoon or after school, a small dinner and a snack later in the evening (I LOVE cereal at night).

Forgot one other thing that I'm doing as part of my overall strategy - gallons (litres) of water! A well hydrated body burns fat much more efficiently and disposes of waste products more readilly. I drink from a pop top sports bottle all day and all night. I don't know how much I drink in a day, but I've found that since my metabo has cranked up, I need to drink more.

My eating pattern (NOT diet!) is working for me, in conjuction with the other things I'm doing like cardio workouts, Karate, weight training etc. Have a look at this site for a bit of an overview http://www.warriordiet.com/about.html The do a search on these forums as Kickchick has some GREAT advice on eating right, working out etc. In fact, she has turned my life around by getting me thinking about this stuff and doing my own research to find what works for me. When I'm old (older) and have a healthy heart, good bone density and no osteoperosis, I'll be thanking Kickchick big time for putting me on the right track.

I've been doing the following for a couple of months: Warrior style of diet - small meals every 3-4 hours maintaining an overall calory defecit each day. 30-40 mins cardio workout 3-4 mornings per week (jog, bike etc.) before breakfast. Karate training 2 nights per week (1.5 hours) Weight training (free weights) 2 times a week for upper body. 1 time per week for lower body. So far I haven't lost too much on the scales, but the body fat has just dripped off of me. I need to buy new trousers as mine just don't fit any more. The weight training (strength training) has helped me build some muscle that burns calories and therefore counteracted the weight loss on the scales. The eating pattern has helped keep my metabo running nicely all day so my body doesn't go into "store fat" mode and the AM cardio workout burns up stored body fat. All up, I'm happy with what I'm doing, am able to keep it up and have been getting visible results from this lifestyle.

All the research I've done strongly suggests that skipping breakfast is BAD. You need breakfast to crank up your metabolism so you burn more calories during the day. Breakfast also helps you avoid getting the munchies mid morning, then making a bad food choice to satisfy the hunger. Eat small meals every 3-4 hourss, starting with breakfast (cereal or a helath bar will do). Get up 20 minutes earlier (for starters) and just do a bit of a jog or some sort of exercise before breakfast. It's all about commitment. After a week or so you'll feel so good (and feel good about yourself) that you'll look forward to getting up early and working out in the peace and solitude that you only get in the early AM.

From what I've read in various books and the doco. that came with my Polar heartrate monitor, I think it goes like this: Deduct your age from 220. In my case, I deduct 40 from 220 giving me 180. my minimum heartrate from a workout that is going to give me some aerobic benefit should be 50 percent of 180 ie. 90. My maximum safe heartrate during an intense session (ie. sprinting etc.) should be 90 percent of 180 ie. 162. I try to keep my heartrate between 130 - 150 when I walk/run/ride/rope jump in the mornings. Doing this for 30 - 40 minutes BEFORE breakfast burns up body fat. Doing it during the day just burns up calories you have taken in during the day. I'm also eating according to the warrior diet strategy (do a search on this forum for warrior diet) and it is also helping me lose weight.