Proper way to lose weight?

What are your eating habits like now?
Exercise is really vital to losing weight and being healthier though, just relying on lower calorie intakes isn't a long term solution.

 

As above poster said, exercise is pretty key to be honest. I'm gradually getting back into shape, thankfully. Giving me the motivation to continue. Honestly, eat sensibly, don't snack, drink water. Avoid soda/fizzy drinks like the plague.

I've found that ensuring to have breakfast helps and I've been less bloated and therefore looked thinner by swapping to wholemeal bread. They say that 4 small meals is better than three bigger ones, but I've not tried that because my routine won't allow it.

I'm trying to stick to a low GI diet, used for diabetics mainly I think. Haven't had to eat less, or even 'perfect, healthy' food 24/7. But it helps categorise which foods are good or bad and why and how to balance it all out better, so you can have a treat without it being a disaster, which reduces the 'uh, fed up of this diet' feeling.

 

I can speak from experience, having lost 15 myself over the course of 5 months ... You need to eat healthier and go to the gym as much as you can, coupling cardio and muscle training Ditch the bad carbs, eat more proteins, fruits and veggies. Drink water and avoid juices... I mean, you can put them back into your diet later really... You have to find what works for you long enough (That is not too restraining, otherwise, you will stop really fast). It's better to control your caloric intake, but if you're eating healthy when you're hungry, and do not overeat, you could do without counting

 

I don't think it's that easy to do it by diet and caloric intake in and of itself.

Assuming a person is an adult male with a sedentary job, they need to take in about 2,100 calories to maintain their weight, assuming everything else about their health status such as metabolism are in check.

Currently, I'm not exercising that much, but if I wanted to lose weight, I'd have a light breakfast (oatmeal, fruit, juice) and a light dinner (salad, chicken or fish, no calorie drink), but would go out for lunch, for pub fare, Mexican, Italian, etc.

When I exercised, I figured I wanted 1 lb. a week to come off. That's 3,500 calories, or 500 calories a day. With 30 minutes on an elliptical, 10 minutes on a treadmill, and a resistance circuit through the gym lasting about 30 minutes, that's easily 500 calories. The weight came off just as predicted! And, yes, you should cheat on your diet once a week, either with a big caloric meal or a good dessert.

Good luck. Exercise needs to be a part of the plan, and you will feel better.

 

Low Fat Food & plenty of Exercise

 

Low fat food does not mean losing weight While dieting, I ate loads of nuts, salmon, olive oil, etc. Of course you should cut out bad fat such as french fries, hamburgers, and all, but good fats are actually good for you if you take them in reasonable amount - beside specific benefits for each different good fat, they also prevent you from being hungry because they're more complex to digest

 

Figure out the amount of calories that you need to maintain your weight, and lower your intake by 10-20%. Also, eat healthier, and exercise!

 

Your body is an equilibrium that will shift in either direction under certain conditions.
Two factors are calorie intake and calorie burning.
To maintain weight, you burn as many calories as you eat.
To lose weight, you burn more calories than you eat.
To gain weight, you eat MORE calories than you burn.

Having said the simple stuff, the only true proven way to lose weight is done through both exercise and eating.
You have to eat the right foods. Fiber (in veggies and some fruits) will help in the long run. Avoid having a "reward system" in which you exercise for a long time and deprave yourself of sweets and fatty foods and then return to it as a "reward". That risks overeating. It is easier to just have a schedule where you can say something like "Oh I'm only going to eat an ice cream bar every __ days. It also helps majorly to DRINK WATER.
A huge obstacle for most people when trying to maintain good eating habits is that they don't feel full. Before you eat a meat try drinking a glass of water. It will not only keep you hydrated, but it's also an old trick to help you feel full faster and prevent overeating.
This is sort of a scientific tip, so if you don't understand it don't worry. Carbohydrates (bread, pasta, etc.) are the body's main source of energy, and a recent study shows that processed carbohydrates, that have high glycemic indexes are addictive. They make you crave food sooner, despite eating a satisfactory amount. Examples are whitebread (you can replace with whole grain), soft drinks (try sparkling water), regular potatoes (sweet potatoes are great and taste great too), and a large number of commercial cereals.

Now on the exercise part. There are several different types of exercises but for your purposes stick to aerobic exercise. There are countless ones, so the internet is your friend. Examples are brisk walking, running, swimming, dancing, cycling, and jogging. You should design a routine with 3 things to maximize the calories burnt.
A warm up - get your heart rate up and stretch to prevent injury.
Work out - the height of the routine.
Cool down - Don't abruptly stop if you are doing a particularly vigorous activity, 5 minutes before you stop begin to slow down your activity.

The key thing to aerobic exercise though, is to do it for prolonged periods of time. If you are doing cycling on a machine, obviously 20 minutes will do a lot more for you than 10 minutes. That said however, don't push yourself too hard.
Most importantly, don't feel bad if you can't do everything immediately. The body you're imagining for yourself will take time to achieve and acquire. Most of the top fitness people have worked there way up to their most intense routines. So if you feel like you need to stop at 15 minutes, don't feel bad. In fact, congratulate yourself and then set a goal for making it 17 minutes next time, and 20 minutes after that.
Essentially: Do what you can!

Hope this super long response helps. The internet (and me) is your friend for questions.

 

There's no single "proper" way to do it

But here's how I lost 35kg in 9 months:

High protein, low carb diet. try to avoid fat where possible BUT, carbs/sugar are the main thing to worry about. fruit juice is terrible for you. you need to get vitamins BUT fruit is chock full of sugar, particularly juice. Same with sugary soda.. Dont cut carbs completely unless you've read up about ketosis - it can be a very quick way to lose weight but it is not sustainable for long periods of time and can be bad for your body if not done carefully.

Meat, eggs, leafy vegetables are your main food. If you're hungry eat a high protein food. If you can't get full stuff your face with salad/leafy veg and drink water/nonsugary/nonfat drinks.

Exercise is an important part of losing weight. If you're really heavy you'll lose weight with that diet alone, but youll reach a point where your weightloss slows to a crawl. From then on you need to exercise. Exercise is also important for health, its not all just about weight - your heart is a muscle, you need to develop it with cardio, your muscles support your skeleton and affect posture/etc, your bones need impact to develop their strength to prevent osteoporosis in old age. Exercise is also very beneficial to mental/psychological welfare and a great antidepressant. Exercise also gets your metabolism going.

Be careful with high protein bars / shakes etc as alot are high carb too - you need high protein BUT low carb bars/shakes. AKA mostly the 'dieting'/'weightloss' ones.

You can use things like caffeine to your advantage, but be careful of milk, cream, sugar - even skim milk - it has less fat but more sugar.

 

I personally just don't eat or drink when I want to lose more than 10lbs fast. It works, but then there's the pain and the lack of energy. I don't desire to exercise and my natural metabolism keeps me an average range of 190-210lbs. To drop below 190, I had to not eat or drink for a week. I don't reccomend you do anything I did. I just wish I had a better alternative that doesn't involve exercise.

 

I think you should discard most of what's been said here and just go to bodybuilding.com and learn your shit

---------- Post added 23rd Jul 2013 at 04:32 PM ----------

I will keep it short, you lose weight by having a calorie deficit. Too little of a deficit, as in deprive yourself of carbs and fat, and your body will lose muscle and store fat.

So to defeat this, find your calorie maintenance, and then subtract 300 calories if you already work out 3 or more times a week. If you don't subtract 500 calories.

I weigh 200, so I found out my bmr, n then I used a good calorie maintenance calorie calculator online.

So I should be eating 1800 calories myself to lose weight, based apon how fast I myself want to lose weight which is fast.

Honestly, I have injuries from competitve sports, so that's the only thing holding me back from getting to where I need to be. Or else I would have a six pack in a month if I could run n play hockey as much as I used to
I see no excuse for people who don't have scar tissue holding them back, hobbys and goingto the gym= science says you will lose weight and feel better

 

Cardio alone isn't most effective mix it in with some abs and it will be much easier, there are workout videos online that are specific for weight loss.