exercise/diet regime

[captain]

any of you out there have an excercise/diet regime for me.id like to lose about 20 pounds in two months.i guess at that rate it
would verge on the brutal,but as long as its healthy.any ideas.
i dont wish to do weights,as i am short [but cute,ladies] and dont
wish to expand outwards.but do have a fairly new and great
execise bike.ok,guys.

russ.

ps.not 20 pounds because im fat,just would like to tone
some!

[reneritchie]

Body Weight Exercise is one option. here's a good site for info:

http://trainforstrength.com/index.shtml

You could also do a lot of ne-waza a few times a week, more fun than a bike.

As for diet, Dzu wrote out something great a while back. Most 'diets' are just tricks to get you to cut calories without realizing it (like Atkins). Eat healthy and eat 5-6 smaller meals rather than 3 large ones. Lots of fruit and veg, multigrain breads/healthy carbs in moderation, high quality proteins (carbs before and protein after workouts seems to work well for me).

Stay away from ketosis or water-cutting diets which give fast results but are not sustainable.

Hopefully someone smarter than me can give better advice...

[KingMonkey]

Hopefully someone smarter than me can give better advice...

Happy to oblige. :-) j/k Mr Ritchie

Why 20 pounds in 2 months ?

Anyway here is some advice.........

1) As well as what you eat, you may want to think about how much. In western culture it is the norm to stuff yourself at most sittings. In asian countries you tend to eat till you arent hungry as opposed to until you cant stack away anymore. This different attitude is responsible for the generally slimmer asian as much as what they eat. So first piece of advice would be try the 'push away'. When you're no longer hungry 'push away' from the table and leave the area. :-)

2) Dont just do cardio. This is a big mistake people make when dieting. Muscle metabolises a lot of energy and the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn, so include some resistance training. You wont gain a great deal of bulk unless you specifically train for this. Also if you are in martial arts, speed and power is probably a factor for you. Endurance style training will recruit more class I or slow twitch muscle fiber, this is inevitable up to a point but should be mitigated by some resistance training.
(Make sure you include stretching after resistance training.)

3) Dont get hung up on weight, take measurements of your vital statistics and set goals in terms of these. Lots of people start an exercice regime and put on muscle mass as they lose fat. If you dont understand what's going on this can be demoralizing.

4) Eat some carbs and proteins after working out, dont go nuts but your body is going to be crying out for something after your workouts and if you have an empty stomach the first place it'll go to to get it is your existing muscle mass.

5) The exercise bike is ok but whole body exercises are more efficient fat burners. ie elliptical trainer, running, swimming is good and also practically zero impact on joints.

6) When you do your cardio can be significant. If raising your metabolism and losing some fat are your goals first thing in the morning is a good time to do your cardio. The cardio elevates your metabolism not just during but for some time after, by doing it early on you benefit from a raised metabolism for hours after, not so if you exercise later in the evening.

[fa_jing]

What the others said, plus....

Don't skip meals. Eat small meals so that you can maintain your metabolism and the rate at which you burn calories.

Losing weight is 90% diet, and 10% exercise...

Don't stay away from weights. Instead, lift smarter. You will not put on muscle while you are losing weight. Your strength may go up because of neurological adaptation, but it will be all you can do to simply maintain lean muscle mass while dieting. In fact, your lean muscle mass will likely drop some anyway, but you can mitigate this through working out.

Finally, once you reach your goal (and it will probably take more time), you will still not gain much muscle mass unless you train specifically for hypertrophy, in other words a bodybuilding scheme of sets and reps. If you don't want to gain muscle mass, lift heavy, low reps, limited sets, lots of rest periods between sets. Don't go to failure. For endurance, keep the weight low and the reps high, such as bodyweight exercises, and unless you start to eat massively, you won't gain much muscle mass.

To burn the most calories, you can try a "Tabata" protocol - 20 seconds of intense activity followed by 10 seconds of rest. Example: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/sample2tabata.wmv
Not a good one if you aren't in good shape to start.

Other options are "roadwork" - run for a few minutes, drop and do some pushups, run some more, do pullups, run some more, do jumping jacks, whatever.

Or you can try the traditional long, slow distance training like jogging, jumping rope at a moderate pace, swimming, etc. This is the safest to start with so you don't go giving yourself a heart attack or cough up a lung ;)

Edit: since you probably aren't in the best of shape, maybe try "baby" Tabata with a jog/walk scheme - 20 seconds of jogging followed by 10 seconds of walking, repeat. You will probably be able to keep your heartrate up for a longer period of time this way and get more volume in if you train this way rather than trying to jog the whole way through off of the bat.

[Edmund]

Rene,

Atkins is a ketosis based diet.
It is not actually a calorie cutting diet. There aren't any calorie restrictions I believe. The amount of carbs is restricted.

Don't know why you are against cutting calories in the first place.
How many calories you consume does tend to affect your weight the most!

As for advice to Russ, I would say use the bike. You already got it.

Weights aren't bad but I don't advise them because:
1. Costs money when you already have the bike.
2. You said you didn't want to do them.

20 pounds in 2 months is too vague. It depends on how much you weight now, how much of that is fat, what exercises you currently do and what you are eating currently. Frankly you are going to have to radically change both diet and exercise for 20lbs in 2 months no matter what.

If you say you aren't fat but still want to lose 20 lbs then you actually have to lose muscle. Or water weight. Unless you feel like lopping a limb off.

To be brutally honest, if you REALLY want "tone" and you aren't fat and you got only 2 months, you probably need to lose some water weight actually...



Originally posted by reneritchie

As for diet, Dzu wrote out something great a while back. Most 'diets' are just tricks to get you to cut calories without realizing it (like Atkins). Eat healthy and eat 5-6 smaller meals rather than 3 large ones. Lots of fruit and veg, multigrain breads/healthy carbs in moderation, high quality proteins (carbs before and protein after workouts seems to work well for me).

Stay away from ketosis or water-cutting diets which give fast results but are not sustainable.

Hopefully someone smarter than me can give better advice...

[captain]

thank you for the input fellas.and some of what youre saying i shall try or i am already doing.though i should point out,you'd never look at me and say."hey,its the son from king of the hill".
i just would like to get into better shape.and why the time limit?
i have a nifty new job starting at the end of sep.so.....
im 31,and frankly i admit there is room for improvement,id like
to get into the best shape i possibly can.no ne-waza untill sep!

russ.

[reneritchie]

Atkins is a ketosis based diet.
It is not actually a calorie cutting diet. There aren't any calorie restrictions I believe. The amount of carbs is restricted.

Don't know why you are against cutting calories in the first place.
How many calories you consume does tend to affect your weight the most!


I'm not against cutting calories at all, just wanted to point out that many of the 'trendy' diets are just sneaky ways to get people to cut calories. I believe few on Atkins can eat enough protein and fat to make up for all the fries, chips, candy bars, and other stuff they give up. I personally, however, think you should just give that junk up and eat healthy, without the fad focus.

Go vegetarian,

Not natural, IMHO, although healthier than going humanitarian (cannabalism can lead to prion based infection). Just watch 'Discovery Channel' to see how herbivors like humans eat (if you aren't offended by their constant showcasing of animal p0rn and snuff content). Anyway, if you do go vegetarian, actually go vegetarian and eat a lot of veggies (most seem to really become carbohydratarians and fatarians, with high junk food consumption (no meat in a twinky, after all).)

[John Weiland]

Originally posted by reneritchie
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go vegetarian,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not natural, IMHO, although healthier than going humanitarian (cannabalism can lead to prion based infection).

.... Anyway, if you do go vegetarian, actually go vegetarian and eat a lot of veggies (most seem to really become carbohydratarians and fatarians, with high junk food consumption (no meat in a twinky, after all).)
Anthropological studies of cultures with a "vegetarian" diet reveal a high component of insect matter contamination which provides necessary nutrients. In the U.S., folks from these cultures have always suffered from malnutrition when they eat their traditional fare sans the inadvertent bug additions. B-12 supplements help if one is serious about being a vegan. Many kinds of so-called vegetarians. If you eat milk products or eggs are you a vegetarian?

Regards,

[kj]

Originally posted by John Weiland
If you eat milk products or eggs are you a vegetarian?


Lacto-ovo vegetarian vs. vegan. Also vs. or fish/foul eaters who "think" they are vegetarians. ;)

Regards,
- kj (former lacto-ovo vegetarian)

[reneritchie]

When I was in Ireland last year, most menus had both a vegetarian, and pescatarian (fish+veggie) option. If anyone knows the handy latin word for fowl, we can figure that out too.

It's also interesting to note how many western vegitarian women get profound and sometimes undeniable meat cravings while pregnant. Guess baby want beef...

[John Weiland]

Originally posted by kj


Lacto-ovo vegetarian vs. vegan. Also vs. or fish/foul eaters who "think" they are vegetarians. ;)

Regards,
- kj (former lacto-ovo vegetarian)
That's not a vegetarian. :)

Personally, I consider steak a vegetable. :p

Cheers,

[Edmund]

Hi Rene,

What do you mean by "make up for"?
Get the same calorie consumption via protein and fat that you had via carbs?

Though it's dependant on how many carbs you were on prior to going Atkins, it's not going to be hard unless you are a junk food addict. Meats are very high in calories.

We are all making assumptions about Russ's build, diet and exercise regime since he has provided almost no info other than wanting to lose 20 lbs in 2 months. Maybe he's sucking down a can of Coke and a bag of chips every hour between naps.
If he stopped that he could just make it. We don't know.

Russ,

Without more info from you, it's difficult to recommend anything seriously. All the previous advice by others has made rather quick assumptions about your current lifestyle. It makes a huge difference you know !


Originally posted by reneritchie

I'm not against cutting calories at all, just wanted to point out that many of the 'trendy' diets are just sneaky ways to get people to cut calories. I believe few on Atkins can eat enough protein and fat to make up for all the fries, chips, candy bars, and other stuff they give up. I personally, however, think you should just give that junk up and eat healthy, without the fad focus.