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hcw12

Start Weight:	(03 Nov 09) 165.0 lb
Current Weight:	(03 Nov 09) 165.0 lb
Goal Weight:	195.0 lb

following: hcw12's own diet
performance: Steady

FatSecret member since: 03 Nov 09

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How can I slowly go from a normal BMI of 22.5 to a normal BMI of 20 (-15lbs) and keep it off?
I looked at your profile really quick again when I saw this post on the main page and I saw that you're only 16; at that age, since you're in a normal BMI range, you shouldn'at really be doing any sort of Calorie deficit at all. You're still growing, so putting your body in a catabolic (fat-burning) state could have unintended consequences if you're not overweight. Instead, I'd stick with doing regular exercise and not necessarily counting calories but just eating unprocessed foods intuitively. Your body will naturally become leaner that way, since you're still growing.

posted 08 Nov 2009, 03:35

How can I slowly go from a normal BMI of 22.5 to a normal BMI of 20 (-15lbs) and keep it off?
You've got to be really careful at your weight with losing, especially if you don't think you are "toned" already. Since your main goal is to lose weight, you're first going to need a calorie deficit. Go to this website, http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html It will give you your BMR, the amount of calories you burn doing nothing daily.

I'm going to recommend that in addition to about 20minutes to an hour of exercise five days a week, you eat approximately as many calories as your BMR, though you will probably be fine if you add an extra 200 calories or so over this amount as you should burn this off doing daily activities. This should probably put you at a calorie deficit of 500cal or so--about 1lb weight loss per week. Try to eat as many grams of protein as half your bodyweight in pounds. I.e. if you weigh 140lb, try to eat 70grams protein minimum, hopefully more. This will prevent muscle atrophy. A protein shake can help with this. It doesn't really matter how many Carbs or Fat grams you have in your diet aside from this; the only thing likely to sabotage you are refined Carbs or high amounts of saturated fats. In other words, stick to olive oil for your fat consumption and stay away from added sugars or white bread. Try to make sure to get at least a fruit serving in daily.

As for the exercise, cardio is going to be your best friend for weight loss but it could sabotage you if you overdo it. Many people end up looking "skinny fat" because they, for example, only run without training parts of the body above the waist. If you don't have time for weight training, which I'd recommend, I'd say you should alternate between running and probably using a rowing machine or doing some other exercise that targets muscles of the upper body/torso. This will help build the muscles of your torso and your arms, giving you that "toned" look. Don't exercise every day, and especially don't target the same muscle group every day, as this will probably cause injury. If you feel up for weight lifting/strength training, some of the best exercises to consider are Rows, Squats, Bench Press, Deadlifts, Overhead Press, Pull Ups, Dips, Push Ups, and Lunges. If you do most of those, there is no additional need to target your abdominal muscles. If you're interested, you should search for proper technique on those and consult a site such as www.exrx.net because there's too much information for a single post.

So in summary, eat approximately your BMR, exercise no more than 5 days a week, and avoid refined carbs and large amounts of saturated fats. A sample weekly schedule for exercise might look like Monday: Jogging, Tuesday: Weights, Wednesday: Break, Thursday: Rowing, Friday: Weights, Saturday: Break, Sunday: Jogging. If you don't think you can do weights for whatever reason, I would simply alternate days doing rowing and jogging and take a break every two days. I recommend rowing simply because it is an excellent upper body cardio and conditioning exercise. If you don't have access to a rowing machine, you could probably substitute swimming as an upper body workout.

Sorry for the lengthiness of the post, but I hope the suggestions help.

posted 07 Nov 2009, 13:27

Food scale?
Most of the ones on amazon are well priced. Here's an example

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N07KUE/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Scales are definitely useful if you're trying to focus on portion control, especially since portions seem to be so mis-sized in the US. You can use them to get an adequate idea of what "1 serving" is of a particular food pretty easily.

posted 05 Nov 2009, 11:22

I need an atkineer friend to help me get thru this x
Have you been following the program intently, slowly adding up the amount of net carbs you intake? Generally if you stall, it means one of two things: A) Your carb intake is at the right place, but your calories are too high, inhibiting your weight loss B) Both your carb intake and your Caloric intake are too low, slowing your metabolism (the so-called starvation mode).

There's also a chance that your body simply does not respond well to the Akins diet. Though I won't discuss the raging debate, many recent studies show that both extreme low-carb and on the other hand extreme low-fat diets are less effective for long term weight loss. Many people do respond well to these diets, but some people don't -- this is probably due to the each individual's metabolism and genetics. But that's a factor for you to decide, and it seems you have already made a decision.

There is also a chance, especially with the Atkins diet, that you could be making progress but water weight is stopping the scale from budging. This is because a lack of carbohydrates prevents muscles and other tissue from storing as much fluid as they otherwise would.

Hope this helps.

posted 05 Nov 2009, 11:16

? CALORIE DIET
Try to use this
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-burned.php

In general, for weight loss at a rate of 1 lb weekly loss, you'll want to subtract 500 calories from your Basal Metabolic Rate--the amount of calories you burn being inactive--and aim to eat that amount. For more extreme weight loss, generally for obese people, you should aim for 1000 Calories less than your Basal Metabolic Rate. This would allow you to lose 2lb weekly. The site I gave you should give you reasonable calculations similar to this estimate for what you should eat based on your goals.

On the other hand, to gain weight at a healthy pace, you should either add between 500Calories or 1000Calories, but this goal is most applicable to athletes needing to increase performance/mass, and not to the average person trying to lose weight.

Aiming for less than 2lb weekly weight loss if you're only slightly overweight or healthy weight will likely cause your body to catabolize lean muscle instead of fat (adipose) tissue and should thus be avoided. Remember when you're considering your Calories to add Calories burned through exercise and other activities against the food you're consuming. For example, if you run at 8mph for 25 minutes at 170lb, burning about 500 Calories, you need to add these 500 Calories to your Basal Metabolic Rate. In other words, you are free to eat 500 more Calories of food to lose the same amount of weight.

Also, a bit off topic, to avoid losing lean muscle mass you should consider strength training of some kind. There are beginner guides at the site www.exrx.net Otherwise you risk the chance that you may end up what many people colloquially call "Skinny Fat," that is at a low weight but with a very unfavorable ratio of fat to muscle mass.

Hope this helped; I am considering a Health/Nutrition-related major in University currently, so it feels nice to be able to share my knowledge with others.

posted 04 Nov 2009, 16:52

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	2 large egg
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	replied to nanodoll's post - How can I slowly go from a normal BMI of 22.5 to a normal BMI of 20 (-15lbs) and keep it off?.
	replied to nanodoll's post - How can I slowly go from a normal BMI of 22.5 to a normal BMI of 20 (-15lbs) and keep it off?.
	replied to beets_yum's post - Food scale? .
	replied to lauralcurtis's post - I need an atkineer friend to help me get thru this x.

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