only thing I have been doing is working more and eating less. I cut out sodas, now drink sweet tea, but I am sure that isn't enough
Cutting out soda is a
HUGE towards losing weight! Soda is the #1 reason most people in the U.S. are overweight.
1) Soda has a ton of sugar
2) Because the sugar is highly refined, the body quickly absorbs it leading to a drop in sugar levels and an increase in hunger. More hunger = more weight.
3) People who drink soda tend to substitute it for water. This leads to a slight dehydration which in turn causes thirst. Dehydration = fat storage
Soda basically creates a nasty cycle, and each time you go through it, you add more calories.
Thirst --> Drink Soda --> Hungry/Thirsty --> Eat/Drink Soda --> Thirst
The tea isn't much better than the soda though.
Sweat tea has a bunch of sugar in it as well.
Good News:
If you're interested in losing weight, you can definitely do it. Considering your current BMI (body mass index), you can probably lose up to 2 lbs/week if you really wanted to. It sounds like you have the drive to do it as well.
Bad News:
You're going to have to count calories. I don't care what they say, unless you've dieted several times in the past, you're not going to lose weight unless you count calories. If you stick to it though, you'll eventually be able to
estimate calories and it won't be much work.
First off, you need to know what your metabolism is. You can calculate it here:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
It's probably around 2,400 calories a day. Since 3,500 calories = 1 lb of fat, in order to lose 1lb of fat per week, you would need to cut out 500 calories per day. Chances are you'll underestimate your calories, so you'll want to create another 100 calorie deficit to compensate for miscalculations, etc.
2,400 - 500 - 100 = 1,800 calories per day. Try to eat this amount of calories each day (+/- 100 calories) and you should expect to start losing 1 lb/week.
Here are some tips. Remember these; they will help you.
- 3,500 calories = 1 pound of fat
- Muscle increases your metabolism and burns more calories while at rest
- Protein is necessary to burn muscle
- Cardio exercise is
not necessary to lose weight. It's good for you though.
- Always round up when calculating calories. If something says 325 calories, I round it up to 400 calories. This offsets the manufacturers' tendency to round down and your tendency to miss-calculate.
- You will drink
much more water than you normally do while dieting. Water is
required to convert fat into energy.
- The storage of fat releases water. If you're dehydrated, your body will store fat in order to get the water it needs.
- If you cut carbohydrates severely (or even start a diet) you can expect psychological changes. I'm serious here. You may be come angry/irritated frequently until your body fully adjusts. If you stay dedicated, you'll probably feel better all around. Your body will become better at burning and storing energy, and a stable energy supply makes for a happy brain
- The more fat you have, the faster you can burn it without damaging your body. For example, you could burn around 2lbs/week if you'd like, but once you hit 175-185 lbs or so, you should drop down to no more than 1 lb/week
- Start slowly. If you suddenly decrease the amount of calories you consume, your body will freak out and try to hoard every calorie it can get. If you wanted to drop down at a rate of 2lbs/week, consider starting like this
Week 1
Mon: 2,300 calories
Tues: 2,200
Wed: 2,100
Thurs, 2,000
Fri: 1,900
Sat:1,800
Week 2
eat 1,800 calories per day
Week 3
Mon: 1,900 calories (give it a few more calories before you drop)
tues: 1,800
Wed: 1,700
Thurs: 1,600
Fri: 1,500
Sat: 1,400
Sun: 1,300
- You'll have a much harder time losing weight at 2 lbs/week, but since the rate is quicker, you'll see changes quicker. If determination is your weak point, losing weight at a faster rate may help because seeing changes helps boost your willpower.
- Don't cheat your diet! Don't bother starting one if you think stuff like the following and then give in to the urge: "I'm gonna start tomorrow, so today I'm going to eat an entire pie since it's my last day of freedom" We all think that, but that's the stuff that kills a diet. A diet doesn't really take away your "freedom to eat whatever you want." It just restricts the
quantity. If you know what you're doing, you can eat fast food every day and lose weight. (your heart might not like you much though)
- If you screw up one day, it's not cause to quit! You will sooner or later mess up and eat too much. It happens. Don't let it get you down and discourage you. Screwing up one day will just slow the rate down for that week, but it's not a huge deal.
- Do not weigh yourself! I'm serious. Your weight will jump around a lot. Your weight loss will be on the order of 1-2 lbs/week, but your weight can vary by 5 lbs any given day based on water weight. Do you see where the problem is? Weighing yourself does nothing but confuse you.
- If you do use the Atkins diet, learn more about it first. It causes a bunch of changes in your body, and it can have some nasty side effects. They usually don't tell you much about them though. I suggest keeping it simple. You know how many calories you should eat in a day, so eat that many.
- Take a multivitamin. You probably won't eat the same variety of foods you did, and this will compensate for it. I know when I started, I ate a lot of sandwiches because I knew exactly how many calories they had as opposed to the wide variety of random stuff I ate beforehand.
- EAT OFTEN! Eating actually requires your body to burn calories, and protein burns even more. By eating often, you'll increase your metabolism and decrease your hunter. Most people say eat 6 meals per day. I typically eat about 8-14 times per day, but I only eat about 50-250 calories each time.
- Vegetables are not necessary, but since they contain very few calories, you can practically sit and eat them all day. If you just want something to eat or chew on, grab a carrot. It's like a former smoker who sticks a pencil in their mouth since they can't have their cigarette.
- After you have lost about 25 lbs, consider yourself experienced at dieting. You know what you need to do to lose weight, and you'll probably be able to do it again in the future. This is a good time to learn more about dieting and to start using more advanced techniques. (Atkins, ketogenic, zone, high protein, etc) There are many different types of diets, and they all have different effects on the body. Example: I almost always use a ketogenic diet to lose weight. Lots of women prefer zone diets. If you find the right diet for yourself, you'll feel a lot better overall,and you'll lose weight easier. Again, don't mess with this stuff until you've proven to yourself that you can lose at least 25 lbs.
- Different foods have different effects on your diet. Again, don't worry about this until you lose 25 lbs or so, but eventually you'll want to learn about the glycemic index and various kinds of fats.
There's so much to learn on the subject, but it's pretty simple to get started. Just watch the calories and don't lie to yourself.
Good luck and keep us posted!
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