What's your best diet/fitness advice?
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The best advice i can give is however hard you think you are already working, times by 10 and go harder. Your mind will tell you to stop faster then your body. PUSH and PUSH MORE0
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Ditch the scale, focus on measurements. I've gained weight in the past month, but have lost about 8 inches.
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perfect! I was 163 at my heaviest but 15% BF. i'm 5'3 LOL if i cared about the scale i would have had a heart attack! GREAT ADVICEDitch the scale, focus on measurements. I've gained weight in the past month, but have lost about 8 inches.0
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I have 2
1. STOP with the frigging EXCUSES. Every time you say "yeah, but........." the next words out of your mouth are an EXCUSE.
2. You didn't go to bed on Monday and wake up 100 pounds heavier. So, don't expect to go to bed on Tuesday and wake up 100 pounds lighter.0 -
Diet advice: Don't starve yourself; eat wholesome, healthy food (coming from someone who's recovering from an ED)
Fitness advice: Slow and steady wins the race; don't think you can make up a week of exercise in one day, and don't try to attempt making up a week in a day either! Start small with goals and slowly work your way up.0 -
Diet: if carb cravings are your problem, grit your teeth and go low-carb (and by "low" I mean "less than 100g a day") for two weeks. Inch back up until you find the number where the cravings start again. Keep your carbs below that number.
Fitness: do not shackle yourself to a cardio machine 7 days a week, even if you really and truly love it. Unshackle a few days a week and go lift some heavy weights with a trainer who knows what they're doing. You'll appreciate the results. And if you're following the diet advice, your protein intake will be high enough.
General: don't panic about fluctuations on the scale. Seriously. You didn't gain 4 lbs of fat overnight. Weigh however often you want to weigh, but don't let the number determine your worth.0 -
If you start a program, finish it. Don't quit two weeks in because you saw results the first week and then nothing week 2. It doesn't mean that the program doesn't work, but if you bail on it, then you will never know how far it could have taken you. Just give it time.
I had a major chocolate addiction for a short time and decided that I wasn't going to NEED chocolate every day so I went 7 days with no sweets and now it's no big deal to keep it in the house. If I want some fine but I'm not just eating it because I know that it's there. (I do eat chocolate on 90 cal snack bars but it doesn't register in my brain the same way that real chocolate does).0 -
Never stop.
This! My best days are when I make it through my worst days without giving up. As Dory says, just keep swimming!0 -
Ignore the Food Pyramid, embrace fat consumption and don't go overboard with the exercise, it's just not as important as nutrition.0
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Make a change for life. Whatever you do, make sure it's sustainable for the long term.0
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If you could offer your #1 piece of diet and fitness advice, what would it be?
My #1 piece of diet advice is to make one meal a salad everyday.
My #1 piece of fitness advice is to switch up your cardio during every session. For example, 15 minutes bike, 15 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes jogging.
To a newbie? Consider everything you've been told about weight loss to be a complete and utter lie until you can find scientific evidence to prove it's true.
"Switch up"? You mean "change".0 -
#1 diet advice: don't hate yourself for having an off food day, just wake up tomorrow and start over!
#1 fitness advice: get up and get your workout in even if you can barely move... you'll feel better when it's over and it helps with the stiffness!
About number two. I just got up and my calves are really stiff. I was thinking of not execising today. But you're right; I'll feel bettter if I do and I won't be so stiff after. Thanks.0 -
Diet: Don't be too restrictive; don't cut out foods that you like to eat, at least not to start with. Make this a sustainable lifestyle change, not just a temporary diet. You can gradually tweak your diet as you go along if you want to cut down on carbs, sodium, sugar or increase protein and vegetables etc. Completely cutting out sugar, caffeine, processed foods, alcohol, fried foods, wheat and dairy might seem like a good idea at the time, but how long are you likely to carry that on?
Fitness: Find an activity you like to do, and make it a habit. You don't have to do it every day, but try not to miss too many days as it's so easy to get out of the habit again. Make exercise a non-negotiable part of your lifestyle, like brushing your teeth.0 -
My tips -> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/656916-some-tips-may-or-may-not-help
Diet - Mix it up ... same foods everyday no matter how healthy will bore you eventually and lead to less healthy choices.
Fitness - Listen to your body but know when your body is lying to you and telling you what it thinks your lazy *kitten* wants to hear0 -
setting goals like "complete a 5k/mud run" are more rewarding and a little easier to obtain then "fit in size XX jeans"0
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bump..... love this thread :flowerforyou:0
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I agree with SavemyShannon. I tried a lot of the quick loss programs and this is a marathon. Calories consumption and calories burned in a lifelong change. The other advice is you will have moments but it is how do you recover that makes the difference. As Yogi Berra once said "99% of this game is half mental". Go with the flow and stay the course.....0
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Diet: Eat protein, drink water
Fitness: 5x per week, mix it up, push yourself0 -
Eat plenty of protein and eat enough, don't go for a stupidly low net calorie intake for the sake of losing quicker.0
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to tell everyone and I MEAN everyone that you're training for a race... its amazing how motivating it can be...0
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drop the word "diet." that alone shows you are missing the key point. diets don't work long term. make a lifestyle change.0
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My advice is to drink water and get rid of the soda. Exercise wise, get up and do something. It doesn't have to be much, but you have to be up and moving. My favorite exercise consists of putting on my mp3 player, putting on some dance music and vacuuming like a crazed dancing nut. (btw, my son thinks I'm insane, but laughs every time he catches me doing it.)0
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I give this advice to patients all the time. #1 nutrition advice: EAT! No 1200 calorie a day diet....eat to fuel your body, stay away from 100-calorie packs and eat real food! #1 exercise advice: Strength train over cardio if you only have time for 1. And, yes, I'm telling this to women. 0
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#1 diet - take a daily multi-vitamin to make sure you are getting all of your nutrients
#1 fitness - when you don't feel like exercising, make yourself do 10 min. after 10, you may decide you want to keep doing it, or if ur still really not feeling it, at least u did 10 minutes instead of none0 -
#1 - Count and log all calories!0
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Take from this what you want:I do not have before and after pictures.
But.
I've been training a young lady at the gym for the last month. I met her on MFP about three months ago, maybe a little more. She PM'd me, asking about heavy lifting and what kind of lifts she should be doing, etc. She was a member of another gym, and had her own personal trainer, but her results weren't what she wanted. She is a floor nurse, working 3x a week for 14hr shifts. She'd been exercising since the middle of March (lots of cardio, bodyweight at a park, gym 1x a week, and lots of hiking) and had lost some weight...but she said her clothes still fit her poorly, and she didn't really have a 'good' feeling about her weight loss. I told her what to tell her trainer...who basically refused. She'd tell him 'I want to lift heavy!', he'd say 'Ok...but we need to work on your form first'...then put her on machines with stupid light weight and hundreds of reps.
Machines don't teach form, first...and low weight/high reps do not make for an effective workout.
Anyhow, she messaged me back a bit later, told me what he was doing. I told her to get another trainer...she went to the management at her gym, and complained. There was a huge mess, in which the MANAGER stated to her that the freeweight area where she wanted to lift really wasn't for women, unless they wanted to bulk up (understand, this is an LA Fitness in Phoenix spouting this crap). After enough fight though, they gave her another trainer. He was no better. She was lifting with him one day a week. He would have her do cardio for an hour, then ask her what she did for exercise during the week...at which point he would throw random exercises at one body part or another. One week it might be legs, the next chest...etc. He would KILL whatever body part he was working...flooding her with reps on ten different machines for her hour of training.
She messaged me again. I told her the trainers she was working with were idiots, and she needed to be on a SOLID, FORMATTED PROGRAM, that would have her lifting heavy weights, with a progressive upload scale, and set parameters. She sarcastically (in a friendly way) asked me if I could do better. I told her to quit her trainer and come lift with me for just a couple weeks, and I would show her results.
This is the time line of her progression since she started exercising:
3/15 - 186lbs size 18+ - Started calorie counting and being active with walking outside of her work.
4/9 - 174lbs - Started hiking in addition to work and walking.
4/21 - 171lbs - Lifting 1 day a week (high reps, low weight) with a trainer, 1hr of cardio with trainer, working (floor nurse), hiking 2x a week, bodyweight 1x a week.
5/26 - 165lbs - Started intermittent fasting at my suggestion. Her trainer was VERY unhappy about it. Her food intake regulated (she was eating at a consistent deficit previously, but the amount was ALL OVER the place), and her total caloric intake increased on average.
6/1 - 161lbs - Lifting 1 day a week (high reps, low weight) with a trainer, 1hr of cardio with trainer, working (floor nurse), hiking 2x a week, bodyweight 1x a week.
6/25 - 159lbs tight size 12 - This is where we got rid of her trainer and she came to lift with me. I put her on a program based on HEAVY dumbbells/compound movements/some machines, and hitting every body part 3x a week. I cut her hiking to preferably only 1x a week, and her ONLY cardio is 10 minutes of warmup for lifting. We cut off the bodyweight as well, as I wanted her time for lifting. Overall, her activity DEACREASED.
7/27 - 154lbs size 6, she posted this on my wall this morning:Been a little over a month since I started lifting heavy. When I started I was in a tight (very tight) size 12. Last nite got into a pair of my old size 6 jeans. Scale has been bouncing around the same 6 lbs. Measurements havent changed much. THANK YOU. I havent worn those jeans in years. This **** works even if the scale doesnt change.
ETA - About two weeks ago, we ditched a lot of the dumbbell work. Lori's balance with dumbbells was poor at best, and her form was impacted badly. We integrated barbell squats and deadlifting (I know, you would think this would make balance worse...so not the case with her)...and her gains have literally skyrocketed since.
Just wanted to say- you rock Dude. Was way cool of you to take her under your wing and hook her up with a program that works. I quit my gym (worlds) because of this- no one really versed on how to show women how to lift and my favorite classes all turned to that zumba crap- they took away HIIT, Boot camps and the like. So a gym not being the best place to get fitness advice is no shock. This board has more experts than the gyms I swear. So again- just chiming in to say- I think its hella cool you took the time to help her get to her goal.0 -
Vary yuor workout to keep it fun. Find something you like to do and you are more likely to continue doing it.0
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My advice for both: It's hard, darn hard, extremely hard!
But it's also hard to go clothes shopping when nothing fits or looks good. It's hard to not be able to fly or ride roller coasters because you can't fit in the seat. It's hard to walk around and do everyday activities when your knees give out on you from carrying too much weight. It's hard to go to a social event when you know you're going to be the fattest person in the room.
So, everybody faces "hards" in their life. Choose yours.0 -
#1 Count ALL Calories.
#2 Water, water,water.
#3 Don't weigh yourself everyday.
#4 Walk everyday.0 -
Fitness advice: If you're really, really demotivated - and I suppose we all have these days - grab your mp3-player/ipod/whatever, turn on your favorite music and dance like an idiot. Always gives me some energy.
Food advice 1: If you want to save calories preparing meat, instead of frying it in a pan try cooking it. 1 or 1/2 cup of water and some spices are barely worth mentioning, especially compared to 1 tbsp of oil. This also has the nice effect that the meat doesn't get too dry~!
(While I know that fat is essential and healthy, sometimes you just want to save those calories.)
Food advice 2: Galia melons. Lots of fruity omnomnom.0
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