Trying to lose weight---any tips?

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I find the easiest (and best) way to go about losing weight is to try all kinds of different things and find a form of exercise you enjoy.

Yoga, martial arts, swimming - anything you can do regularly, and practice on your own for confidence, and most importantly keep to a timetable is best. If you keep a set day to do exercise on (minimum 2 days a week, ideally 3) you'll find it a lot easier to do the amount you want.

There are various advantages and disadvantages to each type of exercise though.

Weightlifting will burn huge amounts of calories, and can dramatically increase your strength. However, you need to allow a minimum of 48 hours recovery period between exercising a muscle group. That means that unles you have a very carefully planned exercise schedule thats split to different areas, you cant do it as and when you feel. In addition, you have to be very careful about getting a proper warmup before starting and stretching to cooldown afterwards, else you run the risk of doing serious damage to your body.

Yoga will improve strength slightly, and does wonders for flexibility. So long as you don't push yourself there's very little risk of injury, and is easy to practice whenevers convenient, at home from a DVD or in a group. The downside is that because its trendy, there are a lot of crap instructors and DVDs out there. If you decide to try it, you'll need a lot of patience finding the right style or the right instructor, and patience with the fact that progress is slow and gradual.

Martial arts are my favorite - once you've got the hang of it, you can practice basics (movement, strikes, patterns etc) on your own, and prettymuch any type of exercise supplements it. The downside is you *need* to have a good instructor, and unless you're careful, there is a fairly serious risk of injury. Like weightlifting you *need* a warmup and stretching cooldown, and like yoga you need patience - the increase in proprieception, strength, speed, reflexes and balance is a slow one. However, with patience you will reap huge amounts of benefits.

My personal weight control system is pretty simple. I practice TaeKwonDo under an instructor I hugely respect, and I throw in other stuff however I feel like. I occassionaly do yoga if I'm in the mood for it, weightlifting once a week at my own convenience, and I try out new styles once in a while. I've practiced Aikido, Taekwondo (first lesson was free ), Wing Chun Kung Fu (for free ) & Judo (for free ), and next week I'm trying out Wado-Ryu Karate (for free ). As you might have noticed, a *lot* of different martial arts groups offer free first lessons with no pressure or obligation.

Exercise is essential. It's a matter of finding what you enjoy. I love belly-dancing (as you can see from my avatar), cycling and taekwondo (this is me with 2 of my 3 sons).



Also, lifting weights is an excellent way of increasing your metabolism and reducing stress.

I love all the advice about fresh, good quality food. I shop at organic markets 1/week and the food comes from organic farms in our local area. It is all picked within a couple of days of the market so it's fresh and delicious.

Have you considered attending cooking classes? It can be 'boring' to eat healthy food if you don't know how to make something delicous and nutritious.

Good luck!

Helen

I started eating 2-4 medium size apples a day with meals a few months ago and I don't crave chocolate anymore. I also lost 13 pounds. Eat the apple(s) first.

I've always found that the key is to start small... losing weight usually needs to be more of a lifestyle change and can't occur over night. I used to be 30 lbs. heavier, and still have a few more I'd like to lose, so I'm trying with you. I always started with something like drinking more water (which made me feel more full and I ate less, naturally). Cutting down portion sizes. Eating breakfast as your biggest meal in the morning, and cutting down for lunch, and even more for dinner. That's my favorite, because it seems to keep my metabolism where it should be, and I lose weight quicker. Anyway, every body is different I know, but these are just the few things I always keep firmly in my mind when dieting.

That is incredibly unhealthy.

What are you on? You said once you were on Prozac. Is there any reason they didn't give you Celexa (which makes a lot of people lose weight)?

If it worked for Ghandi it should work for me.

Ask yourself if you need to lose weight in the first place.

Phagocyte is correct. If you don't mind being a little withered person with no muscle as well as no fat (no offense to Ghandi, but he was withered at the end), well, go for it. If you want *health,* then you need to be careful not to lose muscle when you're trying to lose weight. The best way to do that is to exercise and eat healthy, not to starve yourself.

Yes, I do. My doctor has told me i'm unhealthy and at a risk for diabetes, which runs wild on both sides of my family.

Fair enough.

Here is a PDF that might be of some use:
http://www.tinaja.com/glib/dontsick.pdf
(Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

I've lost 15 pounds so far on Strattera. I just don't have an appetite anymore. I take it for ADHD.

I was on Topamax, and i lost all my appetite, but i couldn't take the side effects, and it made me crazy.

Bummer!

Not sure what advice I can give, as I'm very much overweight... and don't have that great of a diet. But, I haven't gained weight in years. And have slowly started to lose some pounds.

The only good thing about my diet is that I rarely ever snack. I know how I am, and if I have a box of cookies or chips or whatever in my appartment. I'll eat them, go to the living room... grab some. Go to the bathroom, hmm I'll just go have a little snack. It's addicting, and hardly noticeable.

Growing up I probably ate healthier main meals, but had so many snack foods around that I had more weight problems.

Nowadays, I'll eat fast food every other day or so... but it's basically the only thing I eat all day. Which works for me, since once the meal is done... it's done no more food.

This probably doesn't work for most people though, I appear to have a camel like ability when it comes to eating.

But yeah, watch those snacks and side meals during the day...