Author Topic: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)  (Read 698793 times)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #610 on: December 19, 2010, 12:48:34 am »

http://abetteryou.msn.com/?section=articles&category=3&contentId=23675950&source=msn&gt1=25067#/articles/3/23675950/


Weight Loss and Calories
Boost sluggish metabolism and shed fat faster


By Selene Yeager

One day you wake up and, suddenly, cutting back on calories for a few days or doing some extra hours of aerobics just won't get rid of those stubborn pounds. You're not crazy. Weight loss gets harder as you get older, especially after you turn 40. But it's not impossible!

Prevention's metabolism-revving program can help put your body's fat-burning engines on autopilot, so your body's working around the clock to slim you. With the right kind of weight-loss workout, you could burn up to 200 extra calories a day, many of them while doing nothing more challenging than watching your favorite movie, eating dinner, or, yes, sleeping.

The result: You could have up to 20 pounds of weight loss in a year -- without eating less.

Our metabolism-revving plan can help you burn more calories every day, lose fat, boost your energy, feel stronger and more fit, and look and feel years younger.

Managing your metabolism

The Metabolism Meltdown: Metabolism is all the work your body does that requires calories (energy): staying alive, thinking, breathing, and moving your muscles. Obviously, it plays a major role in how much you weigh, especially with each passing birthday.

Sometime in your 30s, your metabolism starts slowing down by about 5 percent every decade. That means if you eat about 1,800 calories a day and fit into size 10s when you're 35, you'll be shopping for 12s when you're 45, even if you're eating the same number of calories. By the time you're 55, well, you get the idea.

The culprit behind this decline in calorie-burn is muscle loss, says Steve Farrell, Ph.D., associate director of The Cooper Institute in Dallas. Every pound of muscle you lose can decrease the number of calories you burn by as many as 30 a day. During perimenopause, you start losing about a half-pound of muscle a year, a loss that can double once you hit menopause (blame it on lack of activity and just plain aging). If you're not careful, by the time you're 65 it's possible to have lost half of your muscle mass and see your metabolism slowed by 200 to 300 calories.

Firm and burn: To keep your metabolism chugging in high gear, you need strength training. If you work your major muscle groups twice a week, you can expect to replace 5 to 10 years' worth of muscle loss in just a few months. Lifting weights can reverse the aging process, so you look and feel years, maybe even decades, younger.

Lifting weights increases your calorie-burn in other ways, too. In one study, 15 sedentary people in their 60s and 70s who strength trained three days a week for six months increased their daily calorie-burn by more than 230 calories. Almost one-third of the increase was from a boost in their metabolism due to the muscle they gained.

The remaining calories were burned as a result of their workouts, their increased daily activity, and something called "afterburn," which is an added attraction of strength-training exercise. Depending on how hard you work out, explains study author Gary R. Hunter, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, your metabolism can stay elevated for up to 48 hours after you've finished lifting.

"As a bonus, strength training builds bone," says Dr. Farrell. "Though we tend to think of bones as 'dead,' they are very alive and highly active. Strong bones use more nutrients, and ultimately they burn more calories than weak bones do."

Stay away from the scale: When you first start lifting weights, the best way to measure progress is by how your clothes fit, not by pounds of weight loss, says Louis J. Aronne, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City. Muscle is heavier than fat. So, when you begin, the scale may not budge, or it may even go up a few pounds. Don't panic! Muscle takes up less space than fat, making you look smaller. The first changes you'll probably see will be in your waistline and clothing sizes. The scale will catch up.

Metabolism boosters
- Kick your cardio into high gear. Your metabolism may stay revved up to five times longer after a vigorous aerobic workout than after an easy one.

- Spicy food. A few small studies from Japan have shown that eating a fiery red pepper-spiced meal may boost metabolism up to 30 percent. One downside: They used a lot of red pepper — between 5 and 6 teaspoons per meal.

 - Sip green tea. In a study from Switzerland, six out of 10 men who took a green tea supplement (the equivalent of 1 cup of green tea) three times a day with their meals burned about 80 more calories during the following 24 hours than those who took a caffeine pill or a dummy pill. The researchers believe that flavonoids in the tea were responsible for the metabolism boost.

- Have a cup of java. The amount of caffeine (about 135 mg) in an 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee is enough to raise your metabolism for more than two hours. Drinking it before a workout may give you an extra kick. Caffeine may help free stored fat, so your body can burn it for energy as you exercise. (If you have high blood pressure, avoid caffeine before exercise.)

Metabolism busters
- Eat too few calories. When you deprive your body, it thinks you're stuck on Survivor Island. The result: your metabolism slows so you don't have to resort to eating rats to stay alive.

- Skip breakfast. According to one study, not eating breakfast may cause your resting metabolic rate to dip by 5 percent -- a small decline, but one that may creep up to a 10-pound weight gain in a year's time.

Beginner workout: Get shapely muscles
Go here:

http://abetteryou.msn.com/?section=articles&category=3&contentId=23675950&source=msn&gt1=25067#/articles/3/23675950/
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Offline CellarDweller

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #611 on: December 28, 2010, 09:04:24 pm »
Ok, are we ready to kick this thread into high gear for this coming year?

 ;D


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline southendmd

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #612 on: December 28, 2010, 09:34:35 pm »
Ok, are we ready to kick this thread into high gear for this coming year?

 ;D

Yeah, man!

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #613 on: December 28, 2010, 09:48:21 pm »
Certainly!! I have that nasty 6 extra pounds hanging around and I'd like to kick it out the door in the next few months!!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline serious crayons

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #614 on: December 28, 2010, 11:04:14 pm »
Let's just say I have more to lose now than I did at this time last year.

But the great thing is, losing anything at all -- even the first 5 lbs -- will feel better! I am looking forward to pureed vegetable soups, among other things.


Offline Meryl

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #615 on: December 29, 2010, 12:28:09 am »
Ok, are we ready to kick this thread into high gear for this coming year?

 ;D

Yessirree Bob!  ;D
Ich bin ein Brokie...

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #616 on: December 29, 2010, 07:00:00 am »
Well, I really need to kick it this year.

It's been over a month since I weighed myself, and I finally decided to face the music and get on the scale.

I've been eating all horrible stuff and doing almost no exercise.





So I'm back up to 225.  Bad news.  Good news is that I can do this, and I stopped myself before I got any further.  I'm going to watch what I'm doing the next few days, and then really get into it for the new year.

I want this year to be the year I hit that goal.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline southendmd

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #617 on: December 29, 2010, 09:19:22 am »
Bummer, Chuckie!

Holiday eating sucks for sure. 

I gained a bit while travelling, then lost it while being sick.  So, I broke even and am holding steady.

During the holidays, I tend to overcompensate and not eat as much.  I tell people I have a "no sweets" policy when there's lots of stuff around. 

I gotta back off on the carbs again.  As for exercise, since I know I will never join a gym, I got a city-apartment-sized elliptical, along with the free weights.  We'll see how that goes. 

My current goal is to lose another 10 before Alberta. 

Offline Monika

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #618 on: December 29, 2010, 12:01:49 pm »
Ok, I will have to get on this train too. I must lose weight before Alberta too since I wanna do more hiking this year.
That´s just how it is.  :-\

I hate dieting

Offline Lynne

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Re: I Wish I Knew How to LOSE You--The Weight Loss Thread (check first post)
« Reply #619 on: December 29, 2010, 12:34:11 pm »
I keep losing track of where I was when I started, so I guess I'll have to plough through this thread if I want to figure it out.  Since I originally said I needed to lose 50 lbs, my theory is that I've made no progress or gained 10.

In absolute numbers, I weigh about 198 lbs and should weigh 140...so 58 pounds to go.

I'm starting the new year off with that Couch Potato to 5K Program.  I am having delusions that I am going to run the 5K at the annual AIDS Action Committee Walk the first Sunday in June.  (Mark your calendars - you are all cordially invited!!!)

 8)

I've spread the six week program over a little less than six months and so far so good.  I figure if I make it, I will have accomplished something HUGE personally.  And if I don't, I can always go as far as I can go and walk the rest.  

In an interesting turn of events, and completely separate from my little plan, many women from my sorority with whom I've reconnected via Facebook, are training for the St. Jude's marathon in Memphis in December.  Our sorority (which I feel more a part of now than I ever did then) has had a bad year with cancer.  One sister (Joanne) died from kidney cancer earlier this year; another has just finished treatment for breast cancer and is undergoing reconstructive surgery (Carol).  I think the impetus and inspiration for the run is Carol, who ran cross-country at Sewanee and ran all through her chemo treatments.

I said 'Count me in.'  So we'll be Team Alpha Delta Theta or Team Sewanee, depending on who else we pick up along the way.

In any event, there's going to be lots of support around the running, and in this particular case for me it's more about reconnecting with some of them than actually "finishing".
"Laß sein. Laß sein."