Want to go lean? Here's a tip or two.

[trackfire]

If you want to get fit, but not get buff, here are a couple of basics to follow.

QUALIFICATIONS: Using these rules, I went from 190 lbs and un-toned anywhere in 2007 to 155 lbs and having lots of lean muscle and tone today.

THE POINTERS:

1. Like getting a woman, weight loss takes WORK. Maintaining a weight AND KEEPING IT requires work, dedication and motivation. There are lots of fad diets out there that will yield results, however almost all of them are built on one critical flaw: in order to maintain the weight, you MUST continue with the diet verbatim. Since a lot of these diets place many (unnecessary) restrictions, that model is unsustainable, which leads to rapid weight gain for lots of people.

For me, becoming fit required a COMPLETE OVERHAUL in my dieting and lifestyle. I eventually grew to like that better, since it was never really a burden for me in the first place. It just came naturally.

2. The golden rule for weight loss is: CALORIES IN < CALORIES OUT. There are a few elements that are not taken into consideration with this model, but this is pretty much the golden rule for weight loss. The main difficulty comes in knowing HOW to sustain this model in a HEALTHY fashion. This is where proper dieting and exercise come into play.

3. EAT MORE OFTEN, BUT LESS FOOD. For most people, doing this alone leads to a lot of weight loss in itself. The idea behind this is that instead of following most people and INCREASING your intake as the day progresses, eat frequently throughout the day, but at a LOWER intake rate. For instance, I usually eat a big breakfast (since I ride my bike hard in the morning), eat something small two hours later, medium lunch, small two hours later, LIGHT dinner, and LIGHT eat a few hours later.

The reason why this works is because you are constantly feeding yourself, but just enough to curb your feeling of hunger WITHOUT GETTING FULL. Furthermore, you are taking in fewer calories than you would from big meals, which results in a decreased caloric intake overall.

4. EXERCISE. Exercise is KEY to maintain a lean composure and low body fat. Cardiovascular exercise is probably the best way to lose body fat, though it should be noted that it does little to help gain muscle mass or build muscle.

I'll post more later!

[TrueStory]

Trackfire,

Awesome post.

Couple questions, more of a general questions.

1. How to stay motivated and disciplined to eat healthy and proper. I have ridiculous food cravings. I've tried drinking water, tea, ice tea, coffee, smoking (yeah i know, mom), and will power...but all in all my stomach is growling and a small snack just irritates my appetite.

2. Give us examples of foods you eat. I know, there are plenty of advice on bodybuilding.com but for sake of this thread.

3. Also, from personal experience, taking Multivitamin typically decreases your hunger, but even then I still get cravings. What supplements if any were you taking on your weight loss program?!


I am 6'2'' @ 225lb (went down from 230lb) and last few pounds are hardest to lose; I started P90X and my goal is to go down to 215-217lb and single digit body fat.

What kind of exercise do you do?

[ASUSkiBum]

For my cravings I use protein shakes. The ON Nutrition Whey Protein is 24g a scoop and helps me avoid the snack machine at work.

Plus, the protein will help you feel full and will hep with muscle development. I'm 6' 174lbs, oh yeah, since this is the internet - I can bench 1700

[trackfire]

Sorry that I cut my post short earlier; I was pretty busy at work.

Here are some more tips for those aspiring to get lean:

5. MAINTAIN YOUR LIFESTYLE. This might seem like the hardest aspect of staying lean, however you will find that when done correctly, this will be the easiest to do. In fact, you may even hate yourself for having lived the lifestyle you had previously!

For me, I think it's impossible to suggest a common lifestyle everyone should lead. Some people have different physical goals than others, which ultimately means leading different lifestyles. However, there are some common points that I think will help everyone:

• Are you eating junk food? STOP. Do you find yourself eating fast food, greasy food or food with zero nutrition often? Eliminating these foods will cut out a lot of unnecessary saturated fats, simple carbohydrates, and other fat contributors, thus helping in decreasing body fat.
• Keep tabs on nutritional contents. Yes, reading the labels in the back of your food (which every food must have, as mandated by the FDA) will help you significantly in controlling your diet. Counting calories is VITAL to upholding the golden rule discussed above. However, getting your day's supply of nutrients will help you be on top of your game (women or otherwise).
• Get enough sleep. This is a sticking point for me, since my commute is rough and leaves me with little personal time when I get back home. Getting a good number of sleeping hours will help keep you awake (obviously), but more importantly give your muscles enough time to rebuild themselves throughout the night. This is ESSENTIAL if you are doing any sort of exercise or are involved in any kind of sport. Also, TRY NOT TO GET TOO MUCH SLEEP. This will actually make you feel MORE lethargic throughout the day.

Problems you might run into:

Here are some issues that I've come across as I reached my current weight:

1. Constant hunger. Nothing you eat seems to make you full. You could eat a house, and still get hungry two hours later. When this happens to me, normally I either eat or something with a lot of sugar. Sugar in food actually helps control the feeling of hunger, and can help inhibit it for a while. You don't want to do this ALL of the time because (nutritionists and/or chemists, please correct me here) I believe sugar (sucrose) converts to fat somewhere in the digestive process, and too much sugar can cause insulin spikes where you feel like you could run the NYC Marathon, but get completely burned out a few hours later.

Also, ensure that you're getting enough water into your system. Sometimes, when you haven't drank a lot, your stomach will tell you that it's hunger instead. You know you need food if you're hungry, but drinking doesn't help.

Some people have suggested that I eat fruit when this happens, but I find that it does VERY little to control those hunger pangs. The above solution works, just use it in moderation.

2. Diets. Most of the diets you see out there DON'T WORK. As I said in the first post, they create strict regulations on what FOODS you should and shouldn't be eating, which will work against you when they are re-introduced into your diet again. Keeping a calorie deficit, exercising to keep your muscles working and being knowledgeable about your nutritional intake works the best.

LINKS:

• FitDay: Great lifestyle management system. Though I'd be wary about their burned calorie information from activities; it seems a bit off for some things. INCLUDE SLEEP AS AN ACTIVITY DAILY to get a more accurate representation of your recommended caloric intake. Also choose your right kind of lifestyle (if you have an office job, you should pick the one right above 'Sedentary').
• The Daily Plate: Has nutritional contents for just about all of the outside food you can get. Great site.

[Vapor]

I know some of the folks here with training/nutrition backgrounds will take issue with certain points, e.g. meal frequency, role of cardiovascular exercise in fat loss. TF is sharing his personal experience, which is permitted under our rules.

[trackfire]

This is my last post, I promise :-)

Some people have asked about what my eating habits look like, and how I got to where I was. So here's a summarized background:

When I was 19, I looked at myself in the mirror and be totally disappointed in my huge gut and the man boobs I've had since I was a kid. Everyone told me that I looked fine, but I knew that I could look much better. I tried going to the gym, but they bored me to death after a while...except the spinning machine.

I loved biking when I was a kid, but I tried doing a small jump with some friends and broke the fork off of my only bike, and my family couldn't afford to get a new one at the time. I knew I wanted to bike again, but just because I missed that feeling of taking long trips and being liberated. So when I got my second corporate co-op (who paid me A LOT) last April, I bought my first bike from Costco.

I upped the mileage most of the time I got on, and was doing 40 miles pretty easily before the seatstay sheered (mysteriously). I got a road bike, and the rest was history.

The weight loss never really dawned upon me until I looked at the mirror and noticed that I was changing. I was getting skinnier, and people constantly said that I should eat more. Then I weighed myself and was shocked to know that I lost 25 lbs that summer.

What was even MORE interesting was that the food I was eating wasn't really changing that much. I did stop eating junk late at night, and cut down a lot on fatty snacks, but I remember eating pizza for lunch pretty much every afternoon...and still losing weight. When you exercise hard, it almost doesn't matter how much you eat because you are already burning a VERY HIGH amount of calories daily.

Fast forwarding to now, thanks to my commute being 45 miles away, I can ride at least half of it a few days out of the week. I can easily burn 2000 calories on a ride or more depending on length and effort, so I would need over 4500 calories just to break even. Since I normally take in about 2500 calories or so daily, I'm always at a deficit.

So here's my normal eating pattern:

BREAKFAST: Three-eggwhite omelet with turkey and cheese, sided with whole-wheat toast (buttered) or waffles (with syrup)

OR Strawberry Banana super smoothie as prepared in another thread

SNACK 1: Either a Strawberry Banana yogurt or mixed fruit with a banana. Always drink a large cup of coffee with WHOLE milk (my office doesn't stock 2%; only WHOLE milk or SKIM milk).

I just discovered this Kashi GoLEAN cereal that tastes FREAKING AMAZING. Better than Cheerios for sure, and loaded with fiber.

LUNCH: 1 cup (usually less) of some kind of grain (rice or pasta) with tuna, mixed in french dressing and shreds of American cheese, sided with some green (Broccoli or green string beans). I drink water or Sprite.

SNACK 2: Anything goes. Sometimes, I eat a few pieces of dark chocolate or one of those Honey and Oat granola bar things. Today, I had a banana, but I may have something else since I'm cycling.

DINNER: Recently, I've been home cooking stuff. I would make a small bowl of rice with marinated and sauteed chicken, tilapia or pink salmon (yes, I use this to my advantage when I talk to women). Other days, I am perfectly content with a Jamba Juice shake two hours after my last snack, and then cereal about an hour or two before bed.

[trackfire]

Originally Posted by Vapor

I know some of the folks here with training/nutrition backgrounds will take issue with certain points, e.g. meal frequency, role of cardiovascular exercise in fat loss. TF is sharing his personal experience, which is permitted under our rules.

As I mentioned, this is NOT for everyone. Body builders will obviously have to eat a HELL of a lot more than cardio-centered people.

Just some tips to give back to the community, since women DO like men who are concerned about their physical appearance :-D

[TrueStory]

Keep in mind you're were only 19 and now 20 your metabolism is fast,

once you get older it slows down

[bravo29]

Originally Posted by TrueStory

Trackfire, .... I have ridiculous food cravings. I've tried drinking water, tea, ice tea, coffee, smoking (yeah i know, mom), and will power...but all in all my stomach is growling and a small snack just irritates my appetite....

Doesn't sound like a motivation problem but an appetite suppression issue - try taking an EAC stack (ephedra and caffeine...)

[Button_to_Button]

Just thought I would chip in with some things I found when I lost weight - Between May and October last year I went from a 40 to 34 waist, didn't follow any of these diet plans just thought logically about it and decided that my body could cope with some punishment to kick things off.

Generally I would only drink water, I would sometimes let myself have one small glass of juice or squash per day - NO coke etc as I believe drinks are the fastest way of taking excess calories in. Also for the first month no bread!

- Started eating breakfast which I never did before - we get these low fat yoghurts which have whole grain clusters with them and they really help to curb hunger;

- During mid morning I would eat a satsuma to stop myself from feeling hungry;

- Lunchtime I would head to the gym and do both cardio and weights, when I got back to work I would eat 6 or so egg whites or 2 chicken breasts which a. made me feel full and b. I guess good timing with going to the gym.

- Mid afternoon I would have another satsuma to stop the temptation to go to the snack machine;

- Dinner would be chicken 5/7 days of the week with a variety of veggies - very versatile!

This will probably be controversial but I let myself have one treat per week to stop from going mad and it could be anything - chinese takeout, Burger King whatever but only one per week.

After a few weeks started feeling tired a lot and started eating red meat again and vitamin supplements to address anything I wasn't taking in.

This worked for ME, a relative tried to do this and gave up after a week as it is tough and pretty boring eating the same every day!!