[silentxtears]

Chew gum!! It's done wonders for me, it keeps my mouth busy and it's also pretty pleasant tasting. Also drinking water helps me fill my stomach. Keep junk food away so you don't cave in and just grab it, it's so easy to do unfortuntely so just make sure it's not there in the first place.

Actually, I think gum makes people more hungry.. haha cuz it does to me and my friend >_<

[tsukushi_makino]

Hi

i'm 17
and 5'5" now
I'm about 140 lbs

i wanna lose 10-15 pounds before the end of July.
pls help.
can someone be my teacher and give me helpful advices???
pls help.
thanks

[onliyoo]

onliyoo, your face already looks thin in your picture...

lol yeah but thats just my face...my face literally never puts on any fat for some reason =[

My problem areas are my stomach..i think its coz i eat too much junk and binge heaps.
I wish i had a nice tone stomach >~<
Does anyone know what exercises would help tone the area?
Beside sit ups because...i'm not sure if i'm doing them right since i only seem to feel the after effect on my upper abs

Would hula hooping help?
what exactly does hula hooping achieve?

[janiie]

I'm doing the whole thing where i don't eat past 6:00 pm..
for those who do that as well..what do you guys do when you get super duper hungry??
im struggling! haha

well wat i do is when i get a craving sit down get a glass of water and for 10-15 mintues i just drink that glass of water. don't get up and walk around. it'll start the craving again. focus on the water. and then after 15 minutes get up again. it was weird cause it actually worked for me

[yunakue]

Wow. I like this thread.
I'm on a diet right now and i've read some of those few comments. And yep.

Before:
weight:119

Now:
Weight:110

Now now:
Weight:112 TT^TT

I didn't jog for a week and I gain two freaking pounds!!!

... ...

My goals is to be 100 pounds!

[chopsuey]

Actually, I think gum makes people more hungry.. haha cuz it does to me and my friend >_<

Yes, chewing gum does make you more hungry, because you keep chewing and chewing, but nothing is being digested. So, your tummy thinks food are going to be digested and gets hungry faster.

[leeMinJ]

5'1"
121 lbs.
doctor said i'm 15 lbs overweight so that's what i plan to lose !

[m_i_c_k_y]

i just gained 10 lbs. in a couple months...T.T
i am so sad...
and i gained 10 lbs. earlier this year...
omgad....................wtfreakkk.

anyone want to help me lose weight~~^^
please?

[YOUNGJOOx]

I'm 5'5 and around 125lbs atm and I want to get down to 115.

But I completely have no self control when it comes to food lols

Anyone want to be "dieting" buddy to keep me motivated?^^

im just about the same as you....
xept im 5'4 and about 122lbs.

i wanna get down to 112 or so.
i had a previous diet buddy, but she wasn't really serious about it so things didn't really work out.
if you're reallly motivated, sure...pm me and we'll get started! =D

[purein-e]

i was just wondering how you guys stop yourselves from eating past 6-7. i can't seem to control my portions either >.> any tips? advice on restraint? :x

[janiie]

i was just wondering how you guys stop yourselves from eating past 6-7. i can't seem to control my portions either >.> any tips? advice on restraint? :x

chew a lot! see, your body takes 10-20 minutes to tell you that you overate. chew your food atleast 15-20 times per mouthful. it really works. i tried it. i lost like 1-2 pds in a week or so. but i was also exercisinga lot then so yeah. hah. and eating past 6-7, that just needs some time. you're not going to be able to do it like in a snap. but if you start at like odnt eat past 8. then after a weeks or so, dont eat past 7, and so on.

[bluebear922]

im started kumdo in march and it really works cuz u move alot try it!

[YOUNGJOOx]

how many calories does an hour of taebo burn off?

[MzLina]

i want to lose weight too and i can't stop myself from eating. T~T

but for those of you who have access to a pool since it's the summer~~ i suggest you swim swim swim. seriously it works. plus swimming is fun~

this girl i knew used to be ROUND she was fat but we were a yr around school and we had 2 months vacation. during those 2 months she didn't eat junk food and swam everyday and she came back stick skinny. seriously. i wish i had a pool. >;(

[seraphic.shot]

i want to lose a few lbs too, but i'm a food addict or maybe i just have too much time on my hands. last summer i dropped almost 10 lbs because i didn't have much time to eat (and some dieting and walking too of course), but during the winter i gained back 5.

[tsukushi_makino]

We here at SoYouWanna noticed that nobody has ever written an article or anything on the subject of losing weight, so we decided that we might as well go ahead and do so. Well, maybe some stuff has been written about losing weight, but most of it is crap. The crappy articles tell you that you can, for example, "lose up to four pounds a week, in only five minutes a day!" Wrong. You can automatically tell that an article is worthless if it makes it sound like it will be easy to lose weight. We hate to be the first ones to tell you this, but it isn't easy to lose weight. Your body wants to stay the way it is, and it thinks that attempts to change it are harmful. We think losing weight is simple in theory but difficult with regard to the hard work and willpower you have to put in. We don't have the time or expertise to go wading through the sea of elaborate theories that claim to have found the secret to easy weight loss. We're pretty confident at the outset that there is no such secret. We're just going to show you a weight loss method that won't be easy, but that will work if you do it right. Just so you don't think we're being mysterious, here's the method: eat less and exercise. Surprised?

If you're an overweight young adult, you probably eat too much. By "too much," we mean more than you need. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to keep itself going, and if you eat more than that amount, you will gain weight. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight. It's that simple, and you must not allow charlatans and mountebanks to persuade you otherwise. Unless you have some sort of illness, this method will work for you. So read what we have to say, discuss it with your doctor, and follow it if he or she approves.
The equation described above is complicated by the fact that your body doesn't like you to eat less than it needs; it will think you are starving. If you go on a severely limited diet, your body will do a bunch of irritating things, such as: giving you hunger pangs, making you feel tired and sluggish, drawing the energy it needs from your muscle tissue as well as your fat, etc. Therefore, you shouldn't try to lose weight by dieting alone.

You have to exercise in addition to eating less, so that your body knows that you are still doing just fine and is forced to maintain your lean body mass and live off your fat. If you eat fewer calories than your body needs, but don't go under your requirements by much, and exercise enough that your body keeps going and burns even more fat to do so, you will lose weight. And all the unpleasant nicknames that go with being a tubbo.

A pound of fat represents approximately 3500 calories of stored energy. In order to lose a pound of fat, you have to use 3500 more calories than you consume. It's best not to do this over the course of a day; you'd probably hurt yourself, and your body (knowing it, the uncooperative creature) would probably have some extreme reaction which did not involve you losing any actual weight. It's better to spread this out over a week, so that you aim to exceed your caloric requirements by 3500 to 7000 calories per week, resulting in weight loss of one to two pounds per week. It's not healthy to try to lose more than two pounds in a week, and if you do attempt to do so you're unlikely to be successful.

Let's say you want to lose two pounds per week. To do so, you need to figure out how many calories a person of your age, sex, and weight usually needs in a day (see Eat Less), subtract 500 from that amount, and follow a diet that provides you with that many calories. For example, if you would ordinarily need 3000 calories in a day, you would follow a 2500 calorie per day diet. Then you figure out how much exercise a person of your weight would need to do to burn 500 calories per day (see Exercise), and you get off your lazy ass and do it. The result is simple. 500 fewer calories consumed plus (minus, actually, but we don't want to confuse you) 500 more calories expended equals a 1000 calorie per day deficit, which, over the course of a week adds up to 7000 calories, or two pounds. Your mileage may vary, but there's no getting around it. If your body is consuming fewer calories than it's expending, something's got to go (see God, "The First Law of Thermodynamics").

That's how it works. Now you just have to learn how to eat less (see Eat Less) and exercise (see Exercise) and you will lose yourself some weight. We'll even tell you how to keep it off (see Keep the Weight Off.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Calculate your needs

In order to eat fewer calories than you need, you have to determine how many calories you actually need.

Adults can calculate their approximate energy needs using the following formula:


Note: This assumes that you are almost totally inactive. In order to determine the caloric requirements added by excercise, go to step 3
A Basal Metabolic Rate Body weight multiplied by 12 (for men) or 11 (for women) e.g., 160 lbs. x 12 = 1920
B Activity One third body weight multiplied by the number of hours you don't sleep, typically 16 hours 160 lbs. x 1/3 = 53 x 16 = 848
D Required Calories A + B 1920 + 848 = 2768



Thus, we determine that a 160-pound man requires approximately 2768 calories per day. The "Basal Metabolic Rate" is the number of calories a man of that weight would burn just to keep the heart beating, the lungs pumping, etc. You would just burn your basal metabolic rate worth of calories if you slept 24 hours per day. "Activity" is approximately the amount of calories a person would expend by spending his or her whole day sitting around. This attempts to hit an average between the hours you spend sitting around and actually doing things (e.g., pretending to work, driving, talking on the phone) and the amount of time you spend just sitting there and watching TV. If you spend more time watching TV than walking around, you may want to decrease your activity level a couple of hours to get a more accurate "Activity" number. Conversely, if you are an exercising machine, you may want to add a couple more hours to your "Activity" level.

Any deviation from sitting around can be considered exercise and added to the amount expended when you get to step 3.

Adult females can calculate their approximate energy needs using the same formula, except that A (the "Basal Metabolic Rate") is determined by multiplying body weight times 11 (e.g., 130 lbs. x 11 = 1430).

Children and teenagers require more calories by body weight, but we're not going to tell you how much. There's no way we're going to recommend that you take some course of action with your children so that you can screw it up and then come and sue the hell out of us. You should talk to your pediatrician or family physician for advice on the caloric needs of your young.

Cut back

Once you've determined how much you need to eat, stop eating that much. In order to reduce your calorie intake to an amount less than you require, you'll have to keep track of how much you eat. The best way to do this is to buy a book that includes an extensive list of foods and the number of calories each item contains. A good, thorough listing takes many, many pages; don't buy something that just contains a one-page list of "sample caloric values," because you eat lots of different things. We recommend some good ones in our related books section. If you don't want to buy a book, you can just eat nothing but packaged foods that indicate the number of calories they contain. This works if you only eat at home, but if you eat out at all you need the listings to help you estimate the caloric intake from your restaurant meals. Some chain restaurants really have their acts together and they can tell you the caloric content of their menu items; ask a non-drooling staff member who seems potentially literate.

Now that you have the means to keep track of your caloric intake, you need to set a daily allowance and stick to it. As we noted earlier, you could lose two pounds per week by reducing your intake by 500 calories worth of food and increasing your expenditure by 500 calories worth of exercise. If you want to lose two pounds, simply take the daily caloric requirement you've already calculated and subtract 500 from it (e.g., a 160-pound man would subtract 500 from 2768 and come up with 2268). If you want to lose one pound per week, subtract 250 from your requirement. It is very difficult to function on a diet that is more than 500 calories under your requirement, and we don't recommend trying to follow such a diet. Under no circumstances should you reduce your caloric intake to fewer than 1200 calories per day.

Now that you've calculated your daily allowance, you just need to keep track of what you eat and stick to your diet. Let's say that your daily requirement is 2500 calories and you've lowered that by 500 calories to a 2000-calorie per day diet. That means you can have three meals of 600 calories each and one snack of 200 calories or a couple of 100 calorie drinks throughout the day. Don't forget to include drinks, by the way. You must include everything, from mints to "nibbles" to "healthy things that don't count." Don't play yourself that way. A calorie is a calorie, whether it came from a doughnut or a glass of organic prune juice. One exception: you can eat as much celery as you want. Celery is composed almost entirely of water and fiber, and the few calories it contains are burned up in the process of chewing it. Celery is great to chew when you're feeling hungry, which will happen. When you knock down your intake by 500 calories, your body notices and it lets you know by making you feel hungry. Ignore this. Eat lots of celery, eat low-fat, high-fiber meals, and drink lots of water.

Be strong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For many people, this part is even more unpleasant than setting aside the economy size tubs of ice cream and chewing celery all day. Yes, we really do expect you to get up off your fat ass and shift it around in some kind of aerobic activity. If you want to lose two pounds per week, we recommend that you do exercise that will burn 500 calories every day (in addition to reducing your caloric intake by 500 calories per day; see Eat Less). If you want to lose one pound, you do 250 calories worth of exercise per day (and eat less).

How do you know how much exercise you'll have to do to burn your target number of calories? Well, it depends upon your weight and what kind of exercise you do. Heavier people burn more calories during physical activity than lighter people do. More intense physical exercise, such as running, burns more calories than easier exercise, like walking.

There are several ways you can find out the calorie expenditures of various forms of exercise for a person of your weight. First, you can look in a book about exercise that has a robust listing of different exercise forms and their caloric expenditures based on various weights (some do not specify weights). Second, you can use this excellent online activity calorie counter. Third, you can use exercise machines, such as stair climbers, treadmills, or stationary bikes that prompt you to enter your weight ahead of time and tell you how many calories you burn during your workout.

Here are some examples of the energy expended by a 150-pound person in 30 minutes of continuous exercise:

Aerobics 200-250 calories
Bicycling, Stationary 250-300 calories
Bicycling, Actual 300-400 calories
Running, 5-6 mph 300-350 calories
Stair climber 200-250 calories
Swimming laps 350 calories
Walking briskly 150-180 calories



As you can see, none of these activities is going to burn up 500 calories in 30 minutes, unless you're much heavier than 150 pounds. We told you it wasn't going to be easy. There are three ways to deal with this: 1) pick a strenuous exercise and do it for 45 minutes to an hour in one session; 2) do a half hour of strenuous exercise and burn the rest of the calories in a second session later (e.g., go for a run in the morning and take a walk at night); or 3) abandon your earlier ambition and just lose one pound a week, which only requires you to burn 250 calories in a day.

Figure out what sort of exercise you're going to do, where you're going to do it, and when you're going to do it, and create a schedule you can follow. It's important to do this before you start, so that you don't become frustrated and quit when you can't figure out what to do. If you like to use exercise equipment and you don't want to buy any, you're going to need access to a gym. If you want to run or bicycle, you need to figure out how to do that without hurting yourself. Sort it all out ahead of time and it'll be a lot easier when you're actually working out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The diet and exercise program we outline above is pretty hardcore. Most of us like to eat more and exercise less. The reason we have to eat less than we need and exercise more than we're used to is that we have to shock our bodies to force them to lose weight. Once you've reached your target weight (note that it is not weight that is important, but bodily fatness -- look at yourself, not the scale), your life can become less hardcore.

Your life should not, however, go back to normal. "Normal," to most North Americans, means complete inactivity coupled with near-constant corn chip consumption. In order to keep the weight off you need to keep some moderate aspects of the extreme weight-losing life you've been living.

If you've been on our diet for a number of weeks, you've learned to count calories pretty well. You know what a 600-calorie meal looks and feels like, and you know that if you eat twice that much at a sitting, every sitting, you're almost certainly eating too much. Be conscious of how much you eat and remember the calorie counting tips you've learned, such as the number of calories you can unconsciously add through drinks, and the insane number of calories in high-fat foods. You don't have to keep religious track of every morsel you eat anymore, but you do need to be aware of what you eat. That should be good enough.

Now that you've slimmed down, you don't have to exercise every single day. We're not discouraging it; in fact, it would probably do you some good to get in at least a walk or something every day. We are aware, however that it takes up a lot of time and that it can be a pain. Why don't you try exercising three days per week? Or try four days. We aren't going to set an upper limit on it, but we'd like to propose a lower limit: more than nothing. Don't go back to a completely exercise-free life because it's not good for you, and it's going to be much harder to keep the weight off if you're sedentary. You've gotten used to doing a lot of exercise, so it's going to seem like a holiday if you cut that in half. Walk to work one way four times a week, or go swimming, or get in fights with cops (we're definitely kidding about this last one). Just do something.

credits go here

[kimbap&ramyun]

i just posted this on someone's thread, but i'll post it here too.

i'm on a diet right now...and will continue till july or august. it's pretty easy for me because i like the stuff i eat.
i started about 3 weeks ago and i lost weight. i don't know how much...but i feel much lighter and healthier than before.
i eat 5 small meals a day(i'm always hungry 20 min after i eat, but it's a good sign) and i jog 2-3 times a week for 30 min

this is my school day/weekday food schedule.
-soup or energy bar for breakfast (6:30 or 7am)
-sandwich(wheat bread/lettuce/deli mustard/turkey or chicken/cheese) and salad/soup for lunch(11:30am)
-eat a snack (veggies/salad/fruits) (2:30pm)
-korean food or salad or sandwich for dinner (5pm)
-then another salad at around 7pm

beverages: i drink water, 1% or skim milk, and green tea(unsweetened)
meats: lean meats
salad dressing: don't use ranch, thousand island, caesar, or anything with lots of sugar/calories.
i use italian dressing.
if you eat rice, eat only 1-1.5 scoops(the spoon that comes with rice cooker.)

on weekends, i don't eat breakfast and i eat veggies/fruit or salad at night.

WATCH WHAT YOU EAT. count your calories.

but don't EVER eat too much of one food. for example- too many fruits are bad because they have sugar in it.
too much veggies is bad also.
if you feel that you are not getting enough nutrition, take vitamins.
if you're not used to eating so little, cut down a little bit each day.
if you eat too much, then eat so little all of the sudden(vice versa), you'll gain weight.

[tsukushi_makino]

Watch your drinks.
It's amazing how many extra calories can be lurking in the sodas, juices, and other drinks that you take in every day. Simply cutting out a couple of cans of soda or switching to diet soda can save you 360 calories or more each day. Drink lots of water or other sugar-free drinks to quench your thirst and stay away from sugary juices and sodas. Switching from whole to nonfat or low-fat milk is also a good idea.



Stop eating when you're full.
Lots of people eat when they're bored, lonely, or stressed, or keep eating long after they're full out of habit. Try to pay attention as you eat and stop when you're full. Slowing down can help because it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to recognize how much is in your stomach. Sometimes taking a break before going for seconds can keep you from eating another serving.

Avoid eating when you feel upset or bored - try to find something else to do instead (a walk around the block or a trip to the gym are good alternatives). Many people find it's helpful to keep a diary of what they eat and when. Reviewing the diary later can help them identify the emotions they have when they overeat or whether they have unhealthy habits. A registered dietitian can give you pointers on how to do this.


Eat less more often.
Many people find that eating a couple of small snacks throughout the day helps them to make healthy choices at meals. Stick a couple of healthy snacks (carrot sticks, a low-fat granola bar, pretzels, or a piece of fruit) in your backpack so that you can have one or two snacks during the day. Adding healthy snacks to your three squares and eating smaller portions when you sit down to dinner can help you to cut calories without feeling deprived.


Forgive yourself.
So you were going to have one cracker with spray cheese on it and the next thing you know the can's pumping air and the box is empty? Drink some water, brush your teeth, and move on. Everyone who's ever tried to lose weight has found it challenging. When you slip up, the best idea is to get right back on track and don't look back. Avoid telling yourself that you'll get back on track tomorrow or next week or after New Year's. Start now.

Try to remember that losing weight isn't going to make you a better person - and it won't magically change your life. It's a good idea to maintain a healthy weight because it's just that: healthy.



credits go here

[asianguyno2]

Is it really that important to eat 5-6 meals a day? Or can we just stick with the regular 3 meals a day routine?

And is it bad if I eat after 6pm?

Eating 5-6 meals a day isn't absolute but here's why it's helpful: It keeps your metabolism revved up all day since your body is constantly burning food that you've eaten. 5-6 meals a day doesn't mean big sit down meals it can be snacks and stuff. Just something to keep your metabolism going.

6pm is an arbitrary cut off. The idea is to just eat more of your calories earlier in the day so you still have a chance to burn them off. The later you eat the less likely you'll be able to burn the calories you just ate. That's all. Some people use 8 pm as a cut off. I say if you're hungry eat....at least a little.

i have a question^^

for those who are working out(toning) while dieting...
i have a pudgy lower stomach and i understand that theres no such thing as spot reduction, however i dont want to lose anymore weight because i think im at a healthy weight right now...
so...will doing crunches make my bulge look less noticable? or is it better to loose maybe a couple more pounds then toning?

Toning and losing weight aren't isolated events, they go hand in hand. Toning the underlying muscles will help because it should tighten you up but it's not going to make a huge difference if you don't lose it. Assuming you're a girl, the pudge is a pretty normal thing and hard to get rid of.

[angelfightrJ]

hm...do elliptical machines help out a lot? what parts of the body does it work out? cause i have one at home...the problem is that after two minutes of constantly staring at the wall in front of me, i start to get extremely bored and i step off and say that i'll do it again in 5 minutes. which never happens. basically, any motivation tips would be helpful. also, for crunches and stuff...are there different ways to work out your abs?