One thing that's really helped me was to compete with my brother. Which ever one of us loses the most weight before Halloween has to pay for the other guy's family to drive over and stay in a hotel in their town. I'm up on that fucker right now--11lbs to 9lbs since July 28th. But every time I'm tempted to let up I just picture him laughing at me as he wins, and it pisses me off and I lose my appetite. The basic rules I'm following: 1. Log everything I eat on Fitday.com. Also log my weight daily. 2. No more than one glass of red wine a night. 3. Nothing white. No bleached pasta, white bread, chips, etc. Whole grains in moderation. 4. All the veggies I can eat. 5. Never go more than 3 hours without eating. (Metabolism starts to shut down if you do.) 6. Eat breakfast as early as convenient, and never skip it. (The metabolism doesn't really kick in in the morning until you eat.) 7. Set a long-term goal. Myself, I want to be 180. 8. Nothing heavy after dinner. 9. I converted my desk so that I have to stand in front of it. I stand about 5 hours a day now instead of sitting. That burns about 300-400 more calories/day. If it takes 3500 calories restricted to lose a pound of fat, every 10 days or so of work automatically drops me a pound, provided I don't eat more. 10. Have a weight loss competition. Let people know you are losing weight. Add a little peer pressure. 11. Drink tons of green tea. Some say it helps lose weight, I have no idea. It definitely reduces chances for cancer and other nasty stuff. I just feel more relaxed, yet energetic, on it. 12. Get off my fat ass and exercise. 13. Follow the rules 80% of the time. Funny, I never really wrote them all down before. They all just kind of emerged over the last six months as I researched what I was doing.
HCP, you have a pretty good resource in the Blazers. You should be able to sit down with Bobby Medina and he should be able to map out a pretty good workout program for you. I know eating on the road is a B-I-T-C-H. Every time I went on a road show for a new fund, I would put on 15-20 lbs. Now when I go on the road, I automatically put myself on a meat and vegetable only diet (no starches, no sugar). If I have a drink, it's straight alcohol. I make sure I have an hour to work out every morning and walk a couple miles at the end of every night. And I make sure I take tons of supplements. Sure they may only be expensive coloring for urine, but I figure they can't hurt. Finally, I don't eat anything four hours before I go to bed. One more thing; it sounds like it took years to put on that weight, so have a realistic timeframe to take it off.
There are no exercises that specifically target the gut. There are two kinds of fat: Intramuscular and subcutaneous. The stuff that's around the gut is subcutaneous; it's just where your body stores fat. You can target your intramuscular fat by working those specific muscles, but you have to first rid yourself of the subcutaneous fat. The ridding of the intramuscular fat is what makes you look "cut". A lot of times, doing extensive ab work will only make your gut look bigger because you're increasing the muscle size beneath your fat. Drinking is a double whammy. It's not only empty calories, but it lowers your metabolism. I'd try to cut back if I were you. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Anybody looking to lose weight, I suggest some time on an arc trainer. You can really go balls to the wall on them without putting much wear and tear on your body.
Yeah, that sucker is a mofo. I thought it was just another version of an elliptical when my gym brought it in. It takes a while to get used to, but man is that thing tough.
Yes. But then you could make a similar argument against sex, listing all the bad consequences of sex. In fact, I think drinking is better for you than sex. Although doing both in excess is my own personal choice. barfo
That is no "answer". It is a diet tip. There are many diet tips. I happen to like this particular diet tip and have given it to receptive dieters for years. There are other good ones: Only eat at the dining table, never on the couch while watching tv or in bed. Get rid of large plates and bowls, use smaller plates to encourage sensible portion size. Always have healthy finger food ready to eat to help avoid a junk binge: grape tomatoes, baby carrots, grapes, etc. If you want to be healthy as opposed to just losing weight, you have to do more than focus on limiting calories. LA Times just had an article on diet and health gurus. This is what they said about Jack LaLane: http://www.latimes.com/health/aging/la-he-gurus13-2009jul13,0,7925223.story?page=1
I think there's a fair amount of research that suggests that people tend to eat more when they are "mindlessly eating." In other words, snacking while watching TV or on the computer. You tend to eat less when you eat at a table.
