Really frustrated about weight!

[MisterLove]

I've been working out regularly since January and I'm paying a fortune for a Personal Trainer but results have been mediocre so far.

I'm 36 years old, 1.74m and started with 81 kgs (178 lbs). I currently weigh 77 kgs (169 lbs), so there was some progress but not enough.

I know I haven't always as disciplined and regular as I should but with my job that's not easy. I definitely need to improve my diet. And stress doesn't help either.

Any tips? I don't know what else to do.

[Edward]

Well I guess things connected with weight loss usually don't happen fast. You have to be patient and word hard, of course.

Also maybe you should change your trainer. Maybe he's not really a professional and is making you to do something wrong. A good trainer usually also explains diet matters.

[pellaz]

i your goal is primarily weight loss exercise is great but its primary diet, get your food intake and drinking under control. If you intake less than 1800 calories chances are you will loose some weight

has nothing to do with exercise sorry

[Jake]

I'm personally training a friend of mine and he had the very same feeling. Guys loosing weight is a full time job. You need to be committed to it and be patient. You are not going to see the changes right away but I've give my buddy some exercises to do and a specific diet to follow on a daily basis and last time I saw him he lost 10 pounds and he's starting to get his definition back. He really really wanted it and he sticked to my program. Be patient, and never let go. There's no magical way.

[kidchameleon]

Hmmm... few general ideas;

If you're not already, start drinking water. As much as you can. Like, instead of fizzy drinks, fruit juice (which mas more sugar than you think) and things like that, try to replace at least some of it with water. Your diet could be as healthy as anything, but if you're still drinking too much sugar, it won't help.

On the food side of things, try to focus on vegetables and protein (meat, fish, eggs, nuts, etc). You can get little freezer packs of vegetables for pretty cheap, and they're good enough. Try to make sure about half of your plate is comprised of vegetables for lunch/dinner, as they're high in fibre, low in calories, and full of nutrients - plus it'll help you reach your 5 a day.

If you're a meat lover, try to cut down on red meats (beef for instance), and focus on things like Chicken and Turkey, which are a healthier option by far. You should try to have at least one decent serving of oily fish (tinned tuna for example) at least once a week.

A lot of people say exercise is good for stress, so maybe you should try to find some time for it in a relaxing capacity, even if that just means going for a brisk walk and seeing the sights round where you live. One idea would be to get a pedometer, and measure your average amount of steps per day for a week, then try to increase your average the next week.

Weight-loss doesn't necessarily mean heavy-duty exercise, just making sure you do a little more, and avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Walking would be my best recommendation, but you'd have even better chance of success if you found an exercise you enjoyed; maybe an hour of sport with friends once a week, going swimming every now and again. If you enjoy it, you're more likely to stick to it.

Hope this helps

[MisterLove]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your replies.

I totally agree with you, diet is indeed the #1 factor here. I still live with my mother and she's a terrible cook, so hopefully things will improve when I move out this september - I will then be able to cook my own meals.

Before I started teaching, I looked really great. My life was less stressful, I went swimming two or three times a week and I weighed about 72 kgs! Everyone praised how I looked. I want my good shape back!

[mrk2010]

You have answered your own question. To lose weight as well as exercise you need a diet that is conducive to weight loss. Most people think that a typical calory intake for a man is 2500 a day, its a misconception. Your calorie intake should be realated to your age and how active you are, but you also need to take into account your weight loss. All i can say is use common sense with your eating.

Also I am a teacher and I can relate to the stress but sometimes we can use that as an excuse. Maybe look at your work-life balance. I do all my marking at school, I do planning at home and I have free time. I dont work past a certain hour on school nights and I dont work on a weekend unless I have to. I go to the gym 3 times a week so it can be done.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I've been working out regularly since January and I'm paying a fortune for a Personal Trainer but results have been mediocre so far.

I'm 36 years old, 1.74m and started with 81 kgs (178 lbs). I currently weigh 77 kgs (169 lbs), so there was some progress but not enough.

I know I haven't always as disciplined and regular as I should but with my job that's not easy. I definitely need to improve my diet. And stress doesn't help either.

Any tips? I don't know what else to do.

One of the biggest mistakes people do is they go on a diet. A diet is a temporary, and often punishing thing. what you need is a lifestyle change - a habit change which isn't going to feel like punishment.

Reducing calories in your diet doesn't mean your tummy is still rumbling after you eat.

One thing to understand is where the calories are coming from.

EXAMPLE: A tablespoon of fat (oil, lard, shortening, margarine, butter) has between 100-120 calories in it. 16 tablespoons is a cup. That would be 1600 to 1920 calories.

A cup of canned corn has about 133 calories. In order to get 1600 calories that a cup of fat would render you would have to eat 12 cups of corn.

There are a lot of places in cooking where people and food processors add fat to food. If you can manage to remove 1-2 tablespoons of fat in your diet each day, you are cutting out 100 to 200 or 120 to 240 calories a day. That may not seem like much, but if you are eating a 2000 calorie a day diet and replace 120 of that with nearly a cup of corn you are eating more by volume which may actually help you to reduce how much you eat since a cup of corn will fill you faster than a tablespoon or two of fat.

Sugars are the other time of high calorie to low volume 'food' that can be reduced in a typical diet and have the caloric value switched to something that has more bulk but less calories.

One of the easiest ways to reduce high calorie foods in your day to day diet is to divide your plate in half. Fill have of that with vegetables and fruit (without adding fats and sugars when you prepare them). The use the other half of your plate for carbs (potatoes, rice, grains) and meats.

Another way is to have 'healthy snacks'. Pieces of fruit, slices of veg over a candy bar or pastry.

Baked goods can be far more healthier. Things like muffins and sweet breads (carrot cake, zucchini bread) can be cut nearly in halve in their caloric intake if you bake them at home.

One way to do this is to substitute the 1/4 to 1/2 cup of butter/shortening/oil that a recipe calls for with no sugar added apple sauce. Then reduce the amount of sugar you use to 1/2 or 1/3rd.

There are 16 tablespoons to a cup. Remember a tablespoon of fat is 100-120 calories. 1/4 cup would thus be 4 tblsp (400-480 calories) 1/3rd cup is 5.33 tbs (533 to 640 calories).

A cup of sugar has 733 calories. If you reduce your sugar in your recipe by half, you are cutting out 366.5 calories.

A cup of apple sauce has 166 calories. So if you are substituting 1/4 cup you are adding back only 41.5 calories, 1/3rd is 55.33 calories.

So you can be cutting out between 725 to 945 calories. Assuming you are making 12 muffins this way you can cut out 60.41 to 78.75 calories per muffin.

Trust me, a muffin made with applesauce and only half the sugar and none of he oil tastes sweeter and is moister than the one loaded with fat and sugar. So by the time it hits your mouth you do not feel like you are being punished.

The trick is not to deny yourself good tasting things. We all love ice cream, cake, candy, etc. The trick is to find healthier alternatives (such as the reduced sugar no added fat muffins we just made) and have a little of that (moderation).

You can also eat 'junk foods' - Love your McDonalds Triple Cheese and Patty Mc Giant Butt sandwich - well don't set about never eating McDonald's ever again. Instead have one day out of the week where you allow yourself one McFatty-Fat meal.

If Saturday comes around and you have behaved on your diet for the rest of the week, then 'reward' yourself with a Fast Food meal - Pizza Night, or McDonalds or what ever it is you really like to eat. One meal a week ain't going to damage your diet.

When I used to eat I ate a lot - so much that people were always commenting that I always seemed to be eating. And it was true, I was eating, something on the order of six meals a day. But what I was eating was low caloric foods and I was eating small portions in those six meals. Instead of three big meals, I reduced that to halves and spread it out during the day. Then I loaded up on fruits and vegs which are low calorie to high volume foods. I felt full but was eating far less calories than it looked like.

That isn't to say I gave up on sugary and high fat stuff - there was a bit of that in my diet - the occasional candy bar, the scoop or three of ice cream here and there. I maintained my fat mass by keeping my caloric intake low, but my food volume high - I never felt hungry - and as long as you don't feel hungry you won't be gobbling up unneeded calories.

[MisterTinkles]

Here is what I have been told by Doctors.....

You can take all the diet pills you want, go on all the fad diets you want, exercise until you drop dead from a heart attack, join as many gyms as you want, and hire as many trainers as you want.........but the ONLY thing that will make you lose weight is if you burn off more calories by the end of the day, than you have consumed.

And yes, you MUST consume, otherwise you run the risk of organ failures and health problems.

There are also different kinds of fat in our bodies. Water fats are easily burned off, which usually show the "dramatic" weight loss, but is easily gained back. Its the "brown" fat that is the stubborn, hard to get rid of fat. Thats the fat you have to burn off after you have burned off the "water fat" and "yellow fat" layers. Once you burn off the "brown fat" you truly lose weight.

[justbry87]

Someone already mentioned it, but it's definitely a Lifestyle Change instead
of a diet which is temporary.

4-5 years ago I used to be 260lb's and then I had a diabetes scare since it runs in my
family. The doctor advised that I should change my diet and to get a bit more active. I remember I used to eat two double cheese burgers, super size fries, chicken Mcnuggets, Sundae, and a DIET coke and then having dinner an hour later like nothing ever happened ;D

I hated the working out and sports at that time so I started to ride my bike everywhere around town. I also started to substitute healthier foods into my diet. I stopped drinking soda, stopped eating fast food, and I started to eat a lot of fruits, nuts, and veggies. I also stopped eating red meats and stuck to chicken, turkey, and lots of fish and seafood.

I signed up for a gym, cause the bike was fun, but it got a bit boring after awhile. I did cardio and light weight lifting. And at that time, I was in hiatus from being social and only had three places that I went to everyday; home, work, and the gym. I started to love being more active and the healthy foods I used to hate I started to love and couldn't get enough of.

I got down to like 150lb's and now I'm around 160lb's. It's kind of funny now I'm trying to gain some weight with the weight training.

It definitely is a process and it took me a long time to get where I am now. There'll be a lot of trial and errors and a lot of back sliding, but if you really want to change it's all up to you in the end.

good luck! :]