Loose weight, gain confidence?

[Aodhan]

I ran the BMR calculator, and I need around 2100 calories, which is good, since even if I eat 5 meals of 400, I am still taking 100 less, although I will try to aim for 1600, to loose 3500 a week.

I also ran the body fat calculator, I am not completely sure on the info I input, it might be an inch off here and there, I got a 23.4% so including the room for error it would be safe to say I am at 25%, which I am guessing is pretty bad.

What should it be? I don't recall where, but I heard about 8% being great (for a woman), so I am guessing I should have 10%-15% for a decent figure?

P.S. yes, I meant squats, since I've never used any excercise terms in English, sit ups sounded like the right word. Oh well, now I know.

Actually, 25-30% is pretty much average for a woman, since you carry a lot more fatty tissue (chest, etc) than men do. 10-15% is great for an athletic woman. If you start getting too much below 10%, you can expect to have such things as amenorrhea (lack of a period). This is normal for highly trained female athletes, but for general public, 10-15% is great for women.

Aodhan

[Sohan]

I ran the BMR calculator, and I need around 2100 calories, which is good, since even if I eat 5 meals of 400, I am still taking 100 less, although I will try to aim for 1600, to loose 3500 a week.

I also ran the body fat calculator, I am not completely sure on the info I input, it might be an inch off here and there, I got a 23.4% so including the room for error it would be safe to say I am at 25%, which I am guessing is pretty bad.

What should it be? I don't recall where, but I heard about 8% being great (for a woman), so I am guessing I should have 10%-15% for a decent figure?

P.S. yes, I meant squats, since I've never used any excercise terms in English, sit ups sounded like the right word. Oh well, now I know.

Don't drop your calorie intake too low, you'll feel awful and your training will suffer, besides you'll lose some of that hard earned muscle you've worked for. Take a longer term approach, and you'll feel much better.

Also, regarding bodyfat, most BF calcs are highly varying in their predictions. Take them with a grain of salt. Use a BF caliper and just keep track of your measurements. If they decline, then you're losing bodyfat. Use your measurements in conjunction with your bodyweight to gauge whether you are losing fat or muscle.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[Furious5k]

er..i'm male. I ment the information I heard was about woman, so I added an extra 5% since..well I don't know why I assumed a man needs more. So tell me what i should have.

I am dropping calory intake as much as I can BUT I am eating enough that I don't feel hungry.

Although I believe that changing what I eat without taking any less calories in itself should give me a good boost, because I ate rather large amounts of bad stuff and sweets Previously I was eating lots of bad stuff and probably consuming around 3000-4000 calories a day, which is a lot more then I need.

[Aodhan]

er..i'm male. I ment the information I heard was about woman, so I added an extra 5% since..well I don't know why I assumed a man needs more. So tell me what i should have.

I am dropping calory intake as much as I can BUT I am eating enough that I don't feel hungry.

Although I believe that changing what I eat without taking any less calories in itself should give me a good boost, because I ate rather large amounts of bad stuff and sweets Previously I was eating lots of bad stuff and probably consuming around 3000-4000 calories a day, which is a lot more then I need.

Men average is 10-15%. Around 12% you can start seeing the "six pack", although the shape is genetic and you arent guaranteed to have six. (Some guys I've seen have 8, it's just how the connective/support tissue forms) Women have more siimply because they have fat structures (breasts, other areas) that men don't have in the same form.

Don't worry so much about the bodyfat. As Sohan said, measurements can vary by as much as 10% (Those BF measurement scales? Can be as much as +10% or -10% from your actual). Calipers used by someone that knows that they are doing still have an error rate of about +/- 4%.

Best method is underwater weighing, but can be hard to find and might be costly.

Just worry about how you look and to some extent your height/weight ratio, and let the BF take care of itself.

Also, even if they are "good" calories, eating more than you need will still end up being stored as fat. The body can metabolize about 1000 calories a meal, so if you eat more than that, some is going into storage. And, you could eat nothing but broccoli and cauliflower, but if you eat 4000 calories worth in a day, and you only need 3000, then you will store ~ 1000.

Aodhan

[lordtariel]

Here's a trick I used with the sweet stuff. For every 8 oz of pepsi I drank, I would have to drink 16-24 oz of water before I could have another 8 oz. This usually cut me down to 16 oz in a day as opposed to the 44 I used to drink. That simple cutback eventually lost me about 26 pounds over a period of 3 months. Of course, I was 230 at the time and only 5'9"

[Furious5k]

I was wondering if you had any tips on what things I could have as snacks (the normal ones, fruits aside) that would be decently low on calories (I don't like them low fat yogurts).

I've been doing rather good, 4 days practice in a row (decided to take today off since somebody said I shouldn't do all days of the week and this is the most tiresome day of the week for me).

I ate a decent meal, trying to stay in the calorie range which I did and I really wanted something sweet. I went down to a shop and picked up a small 150g 25% Reduced Fat Choc Chip Cookies. I won't lie, I did look at the calories first but I really wanted something for my "hard work".

The thing is like 2000 calories per 100g..I do realize that having been eating these kinds of things every two or even every day I will need some time to get the craving away, but I really need some alternatives that aren't fruit for when I want to have a "cheat meal". I know for sure that I won't be able to do away with sweets completely.

Now I know that I have reduced the calories I have been eating daily by a huge amount (because so far I've been over-eating a lot, in fact I am suprised that I got so little over weight over 6 or so years of somewhat passive and 3 years of extremely passive life and huge amounts of calorie intake. Although this may somehow be linked to the fact that before this I was very, very skinny [in a good way, not annorexic] and that might be lending or something. Honestly, I don't know). But I am rambling, as I was saying, even though I am reducing the amount of calories I take by at least 200%-300% (Yes, looking at how much a pack of cookies is, I could have easily been eating 6,0000 calories on some days) I need to stay below my calorie need to loose weight. So any alternatives, throw them my way.

I'll try to drink more water, although I already consume large amounts of fluids, and since I dropped "Coke n' the gang", I drink tea (black) which is my second favorite drink.

P.S. Thanks guys (and girls), I really appreciate your help!

[ebff]

I think if you cook your own food you'll lose a lot of weight, purely cos all that pre-packaged stuff and stuff you buy on takeaways is full of fat and sugar and additives to make you want more and stuff. Btw, microwave pizza doesn't count as cooking. Just do simple pasta, rice and stuff, you know, healthy eating, and don't snack between meals. Also use olive oil rather than sunflower oil, it's better for your arteries in the long run (and tastes better too). Not only is it healthier, it also fills you up better so you end up eating less than if you were wolfing down pizza, burgers...

Advice from my doctor (physician for you yanks) mum who has practiced it for 30 years now and noone is fat in our family. It's easy, simple is best.

If you want snacks, dried fruits like almonds, mangoes, apricots, raisins, prunes even, but especially dates pack a LOT of energy, and aren't designed to make you more hungry (don't believe me? I bet you were never full after eating a Lion bar) so they'll fill you up.

I used to eat like that... now at uni i feed on chocolate, fried stuff and alcohol... no time to eat properly anymore

And let me tell you... you feel the difference!

[Furious5k]

I don't even own a microwave since i moved

But yeah, I have started cooking and I have "arranged" to dump anything that is still left in my refrigirator of fries, chicken fingers and such to be replaced by vegetables, boiled chicken, fruits, juice and what not.

However, you can't possibly be telling me that even after I loose weight and get a good figure that unless I put fingers down my throat after a desert, do helluva lot of excercise or have a damn fast metabolism that I won't be able to eat "real" sweets. Don't take my dreams away!

I mean sure, I am likely to pick up better eating habbits on the way to a healthy body, it's an inevitable effect, but I will still want to slam a pizza in the oven, get coke, some chocolate and eat my behind off at least once a week. So how do people deal with that?

[Aodhan]

I don't even own a microwave since i moved

But yeah, I have started cooking and I have "arranged" to dump anything that is still left in my refrigirator of fries, chicken fingers and such to be replaced by vegetables, boiled chicken, fruits, juice and what not.

However, you can't possibly be telling me that even after I loose weight and get a good figure that unless I put fingers down my throat after a desert, do helluva lot of excercise or have a damn fast metabolism that I won't be able to eat "real" sweets. Don't take my dreams away!

I mean sure, I am likely to pick up better eating habbits on the way to a healthy body, it's an inevitable effect, but I will still want to slam a pizza in the oven, get coke, some chocolate and eat my behind off at least once a week. So how do people deal with that?

Nope. When I started programming for a living, I put on 20 lbs in 6 months by drinking pepsi. 18 months ago I got serious about it again, and dropped from 206 down to my current weight of 180. I still eat fast food for lunch 3 or 4 times a week. The rest of the time is sensible food, and some serious workouts.

I'm going to cut out the fast food, we have our Worlds coming up and I want to drop 5 lbs of bodyfat.

I like gorp. take cashews, almonds, pecans, whatever nuts you want, mix it with raisins, dried cranberries, dried apples, dried bananas, whatever fruit you want, and M&M's. Dump a bunch in a plastic bag, great snack.

Slice potatoes really thin, bake your own chips with whatever spice salt you like. Takes care of the "I need something to crunch" factor.

I still have a beer almost every night (Although none now until after Worlds in June ), and every once in a while I will binge on an entire bag of chips and jalepeno cheese dip

Aodhan

[ebff]

I don't even own a microwave since i moved

But yeah, I have started cooking and I have "arranged" to dump anything that is still left in my refrigirator of fries, chicken fingers and such to be replaced by vegetables, boiled chicken, fruits, juice and what not.

However, you can't possibly be telling me that even after I loose weight and get a good figure that unless I put fingers down my throat after a desert, do helluva lot of excercise or have a damn fast metabolism that I won't be able to eat "real" sweets. Don't take my dreams away!

I mean sure, I am likely to pick up better eating habbits on the way to a healthy body, it's an inevitable effect, but I will still want to slam a pizza in the oven, get coke, some chocolate and eat my behind off at least once a week. So how do people deal with that?

Well, the thing is moderation. I think the problem with many people in the UK and the US (as opposed to the rest of Europe, at least where I've lived) is that whenever they feel hungry and it's not a major meal yet they'll just go get a choc bar or something. So you end up eating 2-3 bars a day, sometimes up to 5-6, which is why some people get very fat (if they don't move). Don't make yourself throw up! That's REALLY unhealthy man... But yeah, sweets are alright... in moderation, like alcohol... (says I after having vodka shots for breakfast... hey it's exam term...). If you allow yourself say one bar a day, and then if you miss a day you can have two the next day, that's the easiest way (willpower wise) to limit your intake of stuff which will make you fat. But not snacking between meals is what will keep you slim more than anything.