re: PuttaDaForkDown

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at the risk of making this sound too simplistic; you eat fewer calories than you burn..you WILL lose weight. its a pain to keep up with calories no doubt..but if you do it for a month or so..you get pretty good at estimating the calories in food so hitting 1400 isn't so hard. here's a couple of 'rule of thumb' tips (enjoy or laugh at me or piihb):

- you burn about 10 calories lb/day if you're not active. potentially up to 12-14 if you are moderately active. so for a 250lb guy, assume your body will 'help you out' by burning roughly 2500 a day. to lose weight..eat fewer than that.

- 1/lb a week is a healthy loss rate. dont go fad diets and dont starve yourself..you will fail. the best way is to take it slow and do it evenly over time so you and your body adjust to a new way of eating. sure it feels great to say you lost 60lbs in 3 weeks..but you're likely not going to keep that off in the long haul..eventually you WILL GET HUNGRY

- at about 10% loss or so..you will likely stall. this is normal. you didnt gain that extra 60lbs overnight. you probably added 10-15lbs a year over 4-5 years. your body likes equilibrium so in the process of losing, dont be discouraged at periods of stoppages. in fact, i was reading recently in men's health magazine that you SHOULD plan to stop for a short period after you've lost about 10% of your body weight and let your body get used to it.

- buy a good scale and weigh yourself EVERY SINGLE DAY. ignore the 'only weigh on mondays' crap..your weight will fluctuate by as much as 5lbs in a given 7 day period and you need to see the 'lows' as well as the 'highs' so you dont get discouraged.

- chart your progress in a spreadsheet. nothing fancy..just put the date & weight each day on there. this is an extremely powerful tool as you can see your loss over time and its great to see that 'downward trend' average on a chart for those times you get stuck for several weeks.

- dont give up if you get stuck at the same weight for a day..or even several weeks. if it was working for you before..stick with your eating/exercise plan..it will eventually start to drop again.

- set little 'call of duty' perks/milestones. whatever you want...dropping to the next '09' for instance..or even weight goals like '10lbs down', '15lbs down', etc. these are also highly motivating to 'cross off' as you achieve them and give you little milestones to keep you on track the whole time

- find something to motivate you like getting that hot chick in the office to smile at you more when she walks by. amazing how motivating women can be when it comes to losing weight ;)

- dump soft drinks completely. stick with coffee, tea and water. you dont need any of that crap diet or not.

- find a good 'strength training/aerobic' challenge. p90x and all that other crap is based on the simple concept that you need to mix these 2 things in equal doses to maximize weight loss effectiveness. i have a routine where i go up 8 flights of stairs when i need to hit the restroom at work; and do 40 pushups..and take stairs 2-at-a-time. i do this about 2-3x a day and it makes a huge difference.

- stop thinking by running 3 miles you will drop 2lbs. DO NOT REWARD HARD EXERCISE WITH A BIG_ASS CHEESEBURGER. this is the hardest thing i tell people. yes, get a good workout in..but dont assume its going to magically cause you to drop lbs..in fact i would go so far as to say diet constitues 90% of your weight loss and exercise 10%. iow, people get discouraged when they workout to the point of collapsing and dont see the weight loss they want. limiting what you put in your mouth is FAR more effective than trying to workout for 3 hours a day. why? because eventually you'll get tired or pull a muscle..very few people can keep up a hard workout regiment but most CAN stick to an adjusted eating plan.

- finally, put your body's engine to work for you. i would highly recommend concentrating on your legs first..take a spin class or do something to fire up those thigh muscles and get those things working to help you burn fat. the more muscle you have, the easier it is to burn fat because the more of your body you turn to muscle, the more energy/calories it will consume to power those muscles.

- quit worrying about your abs..you can literally wait until you've lost almost all the weight you want, then do crunches for a month and see your abs..you dont have to do crunches for 2 years before you'll see definition..because UNTIL THAT LAYER OF FAT IS GONE FROM YOUR STOMACH YOU WILL NEVER SEE AB DEFINITION NO MATTER IF YOU DO A MILLION CRUNCHES A DAY FOR THE NEXT YEAR.

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