Loose weight, gain confidence?

[Furious5k]

First I would like to say hi to everyone who reads this, I just came to the forum and it looks like a really good source of trustworthy information.

I am (just)18 years old and I am considering, among others things, starting to do martial arts in summer. I do not wish to start them right now due to the lack of time (college). These last two months are the hardest, with exams coming up and needing to do revision and such.

However, I noticed that I have a habit of not doing things because of having extra weight, I have put down going to martial arts due to this reason before and I quit my break dance class for it aswell. For one thing, it is harder to do things when you aren't as fit as you might want to which makes it less fun and also there is the lack of confidence involved, which is a major factor for me as I often shy away from things.

So I have decided to drop some of my weight before the end of June (which gives me roughly two and a half months). Now i realise this is not a lot of time and neither will i be going to gym due to, as I said, lack of time. Instead I wish to create a better diet for myself (I eat horrible amounts of sweets and fizzy drinks and generally stuff with loads of calories in it) and a light excercise every day(hopefully).

I do believe this shouldn't be too hard as I am not looking to drop massive ammounts or even get into my best shape (that's where the whatever practise I choose in summer comes into play), rather I wish to drop 10-20 pounds (5-10kg) over the period of these 2,5 months. I would appriciate any help on a not-too-strict diet (bearing in mind I won't put sweets away completely) and an excercise that won't make it too much of a chore that I might give up. However you are probably better at telling me what I would need to do to achieve this.

Thanks!

P.S. I am not very good with diet and or excercise terms, so a brief description of anything you suggest instead of just the name would be appriciated even more.

[patusai]

long walks (brisk) and eating in moderation is always a good place to start for a number of reasons. Good luck

[Furious5k]

erm..thanks, but i was thinking a bit more aggresive approach then that.

What I, myself, have figured out so far myself is to replace at least half of oven fried fries with rice and boiled potatos. Juice and spring water drinks in place of coke/sprite etc. More vegetables. Fish to replace at least half the chicken i eat.

+ some sort of excercise routine (15-30 minutes) before i shower every day.

Also, could you please define "long walks" (should i get one of them step counters?)

[patusai]

Your eating replacement idea seems like a good start at that end of it. My idea of a long walk is at least 5 miles. Perhaps one of the others who has a sports training background will be of more benefit to you. Good luck

[Sohan]

erm..thanks, but i was thinking a bit more aggresive approach then that.

What I, myself, have figured out so far myself is to replace at least half of oven fried fries with rice and boiled potatos. Juice and spring water drinks in place of coke/sprite etc. More vegetables. Fish to replace at least half the chicken i eat.

+ some sort of excercise routine (15-30 minutes) before i shower every day.

Also, could you please define "long walks" (should i get one of them step counters?)

It's really simpler than you think, especially at your age:

--Reduce your fat intake, control your portion sizes

--Eat more vegetables and fruit

--Eat 100% whole grains

--Drink 8 glasses of water a day

--Eat every 3-4 hours, but SMALL meals (@400 calories each)

--Never skip breakfast

--Don't eat within 3 hrs of bedtime, unless it is a light snack after training

--Aerobic exercise 6 days a week; moderate intensity for at least 30-45 minutes; the longer, the better

--Weight train. Short rest, medium reps (8-12), 3 sets per exercise. 2-3 times per week. Mix it up to keep muscles from adapting too quickly.

--Get 8 hrs sleep minimum every night.

--Watch your stress level

That's the basics. Just gave you advice that people pay $80 an hour for. Educate yourself as much as you can on fitness and nutrition. That's the best way to get lean and stay there.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[Furious5k]

Thanks, that's quite good advice.

Though it would be great if anyone could go into more detail with the following two, because like I said I don't quite have the understanding of excercise [having never done anything structured, nor knowing these terms in english (my third language)] :

--Aerobic exercise 6 days a week; moderate intensity for at least 30-45 minutes; the longer, the better

--Weight train. Short rest, medium reps (8-12), 3 sets per exercise. 2-3 times per week. Mix it up to keep muscles from adapting too quickly.

[jaymac]

An excellent source of exercise that will develop muscle, burn fat, and increase heart rate with good cardiovascular work out is swimming. Start out swimming (in the morning or evening) only as many laps as you can do, then gradually increase. Also, I know from personal experience that while cramming for tests, it is easier to get fast foods to eat, then healthy foods. (Pizza was awesome for study session at 2:00 a.m. ) Try not to eat late at night or eat sensibly. You will love Martial Arts and it may be just the thing you need for confidence booster. Although you are holding off until the end of classes, do not let your weight stand in your way, especially if you do not shed the weight you are striving for before summer. Many overweight people attend Martial Arts classes for weight loss and self esteem issues. I also hope you plan to stick with it even after summer is over. Good luck. Keep us posted.

[Aodhan]

Thanks, that's quite good advice.

Though it would be great if anyone could go into more detail with the following two, because like I said I don't quite have the understanding of excercise [having never done anything structured, nor knowing these terms in english (my third language)] :

--Aerobic exercise 6 days a week; moderate intensity for at least 30-45 minutes; the longer, the better

--Weight train. Short rest, medium reps (8-12), 3 sets per exercise. 2-3 times per week. Mix it up to keep muscles from adapting too quickly.

Aerobic - with oxygen.

Anaerobic - without oxygen.

Sprints, sparring, short term high intensity exercise is anaerobic. Jogging, distance swimming, cycling, are generally aerobic.

Best rule of thumb is to keep your heart rate at about 60% to 75% of maximum. If you can't carry on a conversation, you're working too hard (In general).

Muscle weighs more than fat, so don't be alarmed if you drop fat and gain weight. Muscle also burns more calories than fat, so as you add muscle, you are naturally increasing the calories you burn just sitting around.

8 glasses of water is a bit much. The old recommendation was 64 oz of fluid, which everyone took to mean you had to drink 8 glasses of 8oz of water. However, you also include the fluid that is in fruits, veggies, etc, as well.

Easy rule of thumb. If your urine is yellow and stinky, you're dehydrated. If it's clear, you're doing ok.

Weight training should be weights that you can do 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps to start. This will help tone and build, without adding a huge amount of bulk. Start with multiple muscle, core exercises. (Squats, lunges, dumbbell presses, dumbbell flyes, things that involve more than one muscle group).

To figure your max heart rate, take your age minus 220. So, if you are 20 years old, your theoretical maximum heart rate is 200. Aerobic exercise range would be 60-75%, or 120-150 beats per minute.

As you start, it won't take much exercise to keep you in that range. As you start getting more and more fit, it will take more exercise to get into that range.

Realize that you can have rock solid muscles, and be incredibly fit, and still have a lot of fat around the middle. It's the diet that will fix that. Many people think that all they have to do is exercise and it all goes away. Not so, you need to change both your diet and your exercise levels.

Don't try to drastically change your diet in one day. You will most likely fail, unless you have an incredible amount of iron will. Change gradually over a month or two, factor in "cheat" days or "cheat" meals, otherwise one day you will binge on bag of potato chips, can of jalapeno cheese dip, three sodas and a big mac meal. (I think I just described Saturday's dinner )

Hopefully that helps a bit.

Aodhan

[Sohan]

[

Muscle weighs more than fat, so don't be alarmed if you drop fat and gain weight. Muscle also burns more calories than fat, so as you add muscle, you are naturally increasing the calories you burn just sitting around....

8 glasses of water is a bit much. The old recommendation was 64 oz of fluid, which everyone took to mean you had to drink 8 glasses of 8oz of water. However, you also include the fluid that is in fruits, veggies, etc, as well.

Easy rule of thumb. If your urine is yellow and stinky, you're dehydrated. If it's clear, you're doing ok.....

To figure your max heart rate, take your age minus 220. So, if you are 20 years old, your theoretical maximum heart rate is 200. Aerobic exercise range would be 60-75%, or 120-150 beats per minute.

As you start, it won't take much exercise to keep you in that range. As you start getting more and more fit, it will take more exercise to get into that range.

Great advice, Aodhan. A couple of minor points:

---Muscle and fat have different densities, so fat weighs less for the same cubic volume because it is less dense. A fat person of the same weight will wear a larger size than a muscular person. Also, I was disappointed to read several well designed studies recently on metabolism that indicated that the "afterburn" effect of muscle tissue isn't as pronounced as we thought. It's not keeping me out of the weight room, though.

---8 glasses of water daily may actually not be enough for someone who trains regular in MA. I weigh 192 and drink at least 12 glasses of water, gatorade, or green tea per day.

There was a scare recently where several female marathoners have died from drinking only water during 5-6 hour slow marathon running which dramatically diluted their electrolyte levels. Because of this many lay fitness experts began advising people to reduce their fluid intakes when most people really aren't getting the fluids they need.

So the advice about evaluating urine levels is right on target. Fluid needs are really more dependent on weight, body composition, and activity level anyway, but for most people 8 glasses a day gives them a good target.

---The 220-age equation is really not accurate for most people any more, and today more sophisticated equations are used by professional trainers. I personally prefer that a client use the "breath test": when you hear yourself breath, you are at your target heart rate zone (Works best in a quieter environment). Less scientific and more user friendly, and it has been proven to correlate.

Getting in shape and losing fat is not a short term project. But with consistency and persistence, most people can achieve their goals.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[The Phenom]

For one, act now about it, and trust me you'll be so glad you did.

There's a lot of great advice here which is better than I could muster...so...

Here's my tip. For weight loss specific you don't have to do intense exercise (save that for when you're in shape).

What you should do is light exercise for a prolongued time: so when jogging, go slower but for a longer time.

** Stick to jogging/running. Every day go slowly but for an hour or so (you shouldn't get tired because you're going slow). Keep this up for about four weeks and the fat will come off so fast your friends won't believe it.

Instead of eating sweets, why not cut them completely and get addicted to grapes or some other fruit?

There might be better advice (I'm not a coach) but it's worked for me before.

Go for it and best of luck.