Need help with a diet.

[twfdisturbed]

Hey I’m wondering if anyone here can help me with a diet to lose weight. I’m about 6’2 and about 280 pounds. If anyone can point me in to the right direction of a good diet plan I would appreciate it. I just went out and bought a treadmill and I will be using it for 45-minutes to an hour everyday. And I’m also doing some Shotokan Karate twice a week..

Also which is better? Low carbs, or low calories or low fat? Thanks for any help.

[MizuRyu]

the real trick to weight loss is not giving your body enough fuel to run off of. My buddy went from over 200 lbs to 140 over the summer through eating one meal a day and running his brains out. Just be active as much as possible. I don't personally like treadmills at all because the backwards motion allows your glutes and quads to be lazy... the real money is in outdoor running or a high resistance exercise bike in my opinion.

[ninjanurse]

A balanced low fat diet is the best because you need enough calories to fuel your muscles or your body will take what it needs from your mass not your fat. Eating 6-8 small meals per day keeps your metabolism (and fat burning) going as long as you are doing at least 30 minutes of AEROBIC exercise 3 time a week. Keeping you heartrate down and running for a longer period of time equals increases fat burning too, as does weight training to increase your muscle size-more muscles equal more calories burned eat day!

By balanced I mean and equal number of protein gms and carb gms at each meal-the actual amount will depend upon how many calories you need daily to reach your ideal BMI. You can google BMI to find a formula to help you calculate this.

Good luck!

[Ben Martin]

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Edited October 5, 2013 by Ben Martin

[twfdisturbed]

Well I started a new diet today where I will eat 3 small meals a day and drink 3 protein shakes also. I read I need to eat or drink one every 2-3 hours. The hard thing is I work at Wendy's as a manager so most the time I have to grab a burger or a chicken sandwhich. I like to cut bread out but in a fast pace job like mine its hard to find the time. Does this sound like a good idea with the 3 small meal and 3 shakes?

[Ben Martin]

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Edited October 5, 2013 by Ben Martin

[DokterVet]

Avoid low carb diets. They will deprive you of the energy you need for Martial Arts and their benefits are not what the media makes them out to be.

Start counting your calories. I like https://www.fitday.com for that, but any method of counting will do.

A good guideline for a starting point is your bodyweight in pounds x 12 for maintenance calories.

To lose weight, gradually decrease your daily calories until you are losing 1 - 2 pounds per week. If you lose any more per week you risk losing muscle mass in the process.

[Ben Martin]

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Edited October 5, 2013 by Ben Martin

[Aodhan]

Hey I’m wondering if anyone here can help me with a diet to lose weight. I’m about 6’2 and about 280 pounds. If anyone can point me in to the right direction of a good diet plan I would appreciate it. I just went out and bought a treadmill and I will be using it for 45-minutes to an hour everyday. And I’m also doing some Shotokan Karate twice a week..

Also which is better? Low carbs, or low calories or low fat? Thanks for any help.

Heres the best thing to do.

Take your normal diet (If you've already changed to the three meal/3 shake thing, fine), and write down EVERYTHING that passes your lips for 3-5 days. Find a good calorie converter, and see what your percentages of each are (Carbs, protein, etc).

Then find out what you are burning each day. Find your basal metabolic rate (BMR, do a google search, there are a few good ones out there), and then find out what your activity level is as far as caloric expenditure.

Then do the math. Intake less than the calories you need for base and activity level, you will lose weight. More, and you will gain. (Simplistic, but basically true).

You need about 2500-3500 calories extra expenditure to permanently lose about a pound a week, which is about 400-500 calories a day. No more than 2 pounds a week is a fairly healthy, permanent weight loss. All these claims of 15 lbs in a week are mostly water weight, or severe caloric restriction diets, which generally don't last.

Don't worry about low fat, low carb, etc diets. They are fad diets, and will result in early weight loss, but generally not good for long term maintenance.

Grazing throughout the day is a good thing. 5-6 small meals, with the heavier meals being around lunch/afternoon rather than dinner. Since you work at a Wendy's unsafe food abounds, but your chicken breasts on a salad would be pretty good, just watch the dressing. Plain potato with cottage cheese is great, the chili is decent. If you snack a lot, I would go to a good health food store and get a lot of nuts/dried fruit. Great snacks, fairly caloric dense, and will take the edge of the urge to nibble.

Soups are great for weight loss, as they tend to fill a little more, and make you feel satiated easier.

Also, one of the things that people never think about is speed. Eat slower. Satiety occurs when the stretch receptors in the stomach send a signal to the brain saying "Hey, we're full down here!" This signal generally has a lag time, so if you cram food down fast, you're stomach is trying to signal that it's full, and you eat for another 10-15 minutes, and boom. Extra calories.

Follow the current food pyramid (It's not too bad), eat 5 or 6 smaller meals or medium meals with the shakes (But be careful, some of the shakes pack a lot of calories), and write stuff down. It's much easier to stick to a diet plan if you are writing things down.

Aodhan

(Sorry, got kinda long winded there. )

[Ben Martin]

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Edited October 5, 2013 by Ben Martin