UPDATE:
YodaNell (imported) wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:42 am
I must be 97kg to become permanent. So, my boss pushes me hard to loose weight because he really wants me to work there.
Hey, in terms of weight loss exercise has very little to do with it. Diet is much more important. It is a common mistake for people to think that exercise is the key, but it isn't. Exercise can have other benefits (feels good, builds strength, diffuses stress), but not in weight loss.
I'm an expert on this as I have lost 80 lbs (from 290 down to 210) since September, and my wife lost 60 lbs (from 200 down to 140) in same amount of time. I have always been very active, usually one of the strongest guys in the gym. However, I was always soft and overweight. It turns out it had nothing to do with my effort, it was purely eating too much (and the wrong things). I finally figured it out.
The reality is that the body is very (too) efficient at storing food, which historically was a good thing but unfortunately food is abundant in our modern society. For example, if you do vigorous exercise on a treadmill at the gym for 60 minutes you only burn 500 calories. A handful of chips is more than 500 calories! I am 210 lbs and still very active and only eat 2200 calories a day, instead of the typical 3400 that average larger guy eats.
Even more important is your body stores fat based on insulin levels and these are spiked by carbohydrates. If you want to get skinny without general starvation, then you need to go extremely low carb. Carbs are responsible for the prevalence of diabetes and obsesity. There are doctors and studies now that show that you should essentially consider carbs as toxic.
So definitely count your calories. I recommend using the online tool at
http://caloriecount.about.com/ which I use every day. First of all it counts the calories and analyzes the nutrition. It is most effective though if you PLAN your eating for the day in advance -- then you don't take any chances with overeating.
In terms of low/no carb, it means that you NEVER eat rice, potatoes, bread, cereal or sugar. It is a little difficult at first if you're used to eating those things, but after a while it gets pretty easy. Instead of a sandwich, just eat the meat and cheese like cold cuts. For breakfast have the eggs but no toast or hashbrowns (and especially no cereal). Note that large amounts of fruit or fruit juice are really bad -- the carbs and fructose have huge glycemic load (meaning it spikes your insulin). Never drink orange or apple juice. I think it okay to have one raw orange or apple a day, but I even stay away from that. The only fruit I eat regularly is one banana and a cup of raw blueberries.
I assume you eat alone, so the best thing is to simply not buy carbs or allow them in the house. Once you have potato chips in the house, it is too tempting to snack on them. But I find if they're not there, then I don't miss them that much.
Note that in low carb diets you don't need to avoid fat particularly. In other words, it is better to eat a sausage than cereal for breakfast. The only thing with fat to watch out for is that it has the most calories and so you need to count the calories (like with the tool mentioned above).
Anyway, I don't know what your current weight is, but if your target is 215lbs then I suggest you aim for 2200 calories. That's what I eat and am maintaining at 210lbs. I am still muscular and energetic and can exercise hard. So you really don't need any more calories than that.
I hope that helps!
(Sorry for the bad pun, I couldn't resist) 