Boy, that's frustrating!
Not only that, but you end up spending your time trying to figure out what to do and not doing anything. STOP. Now START, exercising and eating right that is. This is a relatively simple, organic process; you learn as you go and adapt to your results.
First off, let me call bullshit! Everyone is not different to such an extent that you cannot take the same formula, apply it to 95% of the population, and achieve quantitative results in all cases. There are things you should do, no matter who you are (barring some illness, handicap or genetic disorder!).
This is a quick-start guide for getting fit, to give people a place to start. This is best for the first 6-12 weeks, to give you time to learn about your body and how you respond. You don't ever really have to get more complicated than this, but as you progress towards your goals you will find that there are more advanced topics you want to learn about and try, and you will want to 'fine-tune' your results.
There are three parts to being healthy and losing weight/getting fit - your goals, your diet, and your exercise. Your diet isn't a traditional 'diet', but describes how you eat, approximately how many calories you are eating, and where you are getting those calories from. Exercise is both traditional cardiovascular, as well as resistance training; and they both need to be a part of your program.
Goals
What do you want and when do you want it? You're not going to go anywhere, if you don't know where you're going. Set a long term goal, and then set a couple short term goals that will help you there.
My birthday is in September, and I turned 30 this year. For some reason that made me feel more accountable for myself; I decided I needed to change what I saw in the mirror. I've always been pretty happy with me, but I know I'm very overweight and unhealthy in that respect. I weighted 297 lbs - quite a lot for someone who is 5'8" (pretty much). Since I've been interested in health and fitness for about 13 years, I have studied it and, at times, practiced it quite a bit so it was only a matter of applying myself and taking a bit of a refresher. I decided that I wanted to weigh 190lbs by my next birthday.
Since then (two months ago), I have made smaller goals like working out 3x per week, increasing my weight in circuit training, moving from circuit training to targeted muscle days. These have given me things to look forward to. I am now setting a tougher, more focused goal of weighing less than 260 by the end of the year. This is a little aggressive as it will require me to maintain a 2lb/week weight loss, but I know I can do it. I'll be doing more cardio and keeping up with my healthy eating. But setting this goal helps me to reach my ultimate goal, and helps keep me from getting discouraged that my ultimate goal seems so far away (though 1 year is really insignificant, it's hard to tell that at this end of that year!).
Long story short - give yourself something to work for! If the reward of reaching the goal isn't enough, create other awards: new clothes, night out, lessons for a new hobby...
Diet
Eating right does not just mean eating less. It means you need to determine how much you should be eating, and then make healthy choices about where those calories come from. Then you need to fuel your body in a manner that is going to make you happier, healthier, and full of energy!
So, how much should you eat? There is a way for approximating this number, and it is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - the amount of calories your body will burn at rest during one day. From that you can figure out how many calories you should eat daily to stay at exactly the same weight. There are a few ways of doing this, but the one I like is at this website. Then, you take this number and use a multiplier (The Harris Benedict Formula) to determine how many calories you burn in an average day. Use the following chart:
Sedentary (little or no exercise) : BMR x 1.2
Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : BMR x 1.375
Moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : BMR x 1.55
Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : BMR x 1.725
Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : BMR x 1.9
Now we know how many calories we can have each day without gaining or losing weight, but how do we lose weight? It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound, which is why people commonly say it is only safe to lose 1-2lbs per week; any more and you are likely not getting the nutrients that your body needs. That said, if you are just starting out, you will likely lose more in the first few weeks due to water weight and your body's initial response to the change. To adjust your calories, try trimming off about 20% from your daily intake. My number is about 2400, so I try to eat 2000-2100 calories per day. Weekly, I have created a deficit of approximately 2100-2800 calories. Just in that step I'm losing over a pound every two weeks! Adding exercise will make up the rest, and we will go into that in the next section.
Important: DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF! If you eliminate too many calories from your diet, your body will think that it is not getting the nourishment it requires and react accordingly. Unfortunately, accordingly is to store fat and burn muscle for energy. Yes, you read that right. Muscle requires energy to maintain where fat does not, so to be more efficient your body will dump that muscle and hang onto fat as a way of preserving itself. This is horrible on two accounts - not only do you technically get fatter, but you think you are losing weight because you are dropping pounds. The net effect is that you have less muscle, more fat, and your metabolism is much slower... It can even be a good idea to occasionally eat your full calories or more (not much more) so your body knows that it's all right to keep burning that fat away.
How much to eat daily is only a part of the equation, now we need to know how to eat it!
First rule - eat 4-6X per day! This is important because it helps to increase your metabolism and stabilize your blood sugar - both improving your body's ability to burn calories and helping to control cravings throughout the day. It is also important to ensure that you are properly hydrated. You should be drinking at least a half gallon of water daily. I tend to drink about 96oz of water on a normal day, and up to about 160oz+ on days that I work harder in the gym.
The last part of all of this is what to eat. The first recommendation for that is to take a multi-vitamin! You will be altering your diet and adding/subtracting foods so it is important to supplement your vitamin intake with a decent quality, time-release multi-vitamin. The rest is to begin making better choices about what you put in your body.
You should also know where your calories come from. There are 4 categories: Protein, Carbohydrates, Fat, and Alcohol (basically a carb, but without any nutritional value). Respectively, 1 gram of each corresponds to 4, 4, 9, and 7 calories. A common model to follow is to get 40% of your calories from carbs, 30% from protein, and 30% from fat. I like to switch the carbohydrates and proteins and aim for at least 40% from protein, while minimizing the others as best as possible. Remember that you still need carbs and fats for your body to function so you don't want to eliminate them. For the sake of simplicity, try to eat 40% protein, 35% carbs, and 25% fat. There are a lot of useful tools out there to help you keep track of these things, I find that the online community, Traineo, is a great forum for discussion, and the website, FitDay, is perfect for logging your daily intake.
Time to start eating better. Some simple rules:
DO NOT:
Eat Fast Food
Drink Soda
Eat 'white' or highly processed carbs (white bread, sugar, regular pasta)
Eat foods high in saturated fats
Those few rules will go a long way to helping you reach your goals. You should be looking to increase your lean sources of protein, as well fruits and vegetables, while trying to limit your carbs to those that are high in fiber and low in sugar. Eat brown rice instead of white rice, whole grain bread instead of white; add things like lentils and barley to your diet. This is very important because these types of foods take longer to digest, require more work for your body to turn into energy, and leave you feeling more full. By eating sugar, you provide your body with a quick boost of energy that leaves you craving more sugar. If you want to learn more about healthier carb choices, do some research on the Glycemic Index of foods. To give you a quick primer, here is some information from The Glycemic Index website:
- Low GI diets help people lose and control weight
- Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin
- Low GI carbs improve diabetes control
- Low GI carbs reduce the risk of heart disease
- Low GI carbs reduce blood cholesterol levels
- Low GI carbs can help you manage the symptoms of PCOS
- Low GI carbs reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
- Low GI carbs prolong physical endurance
- High GI carbs help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise
7:00am - Breakfast - omelette w/ 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, cup spinach and either low fat cheese, cottage cheese added. optional - lean turkey or chicken that you happen to have in the fridge.
10:00am - snack - two pieces pepperidge farm 7 grain light bread with PB, small serving of almonds
1:00pm - lunch - bone/skin-less turkey or chicken breast with 1/2-3/4 cup of beans and a vegetable (usually broccoli). maybe some fat-free refried beans as well.
4:00pm - snack - apple or banana, small serving of almonds or peanuts. maybe another apple if I'm still hungry :) The low-fat string cheeses are also a good snack.
5:30pm - gym... 6:30pm - protein shake after workout
7:30/8:00pm - veggie burger with salsa and cottage cheese
This keeps my metabolism up and I've lost 26lbs in the past 2mos eating very much like this every day. Simplicity here is key - you don't need a lot of different foods. Yesterday I had 2 slices of pizza for lunch (and maybe a brownie after) and still lost a pound this morning, so remember that you can still eat other things, but your core diet has to be as healthy as possible while you still enjoy it.
Now, go shopping. Throw out your soda, white rice, white bread, etc. Start reading nutrition labels and planning meals for the week.
Exercise
The gasoline for your fire! To really see the success you want, you should be 'moving' 4-6 days per week, for a minimum of 20 minutes each time. This makes up for the rest of your calorie deficit and allows you to lose those 2lbs every week. I cannot overstate the importance of doing resistance training here - you need to increase your lean muscle mass to improve your body!
Adding lean muscle mass attacks the weight problem by speeding up your metabolism. Remember that it takes more energy to maintain muscle than fat? So that means, when you add muscle to your body, even when you are sitting in front of the TV you are burning more calories than when you didn't have that muscle.
So, incorporate circuit training into your schedule 2-3X per week (with at least a day of rest in between), and the other days do whatever cardio you like - go running, jogging, jumping jacks, elliptical - so long as you continually challenge yourself to go farther, faster, harder, etc. For this section I am going to assume you have access to proper gym equipment.
But what is circuit training? Basically this means that at each session, you work out your whole body. It is an efficient way to train and will also burn a lot of calories. Starting out, you shouldn't worry about sculpting your body, your goal is to add lean mass. Each exercise should be performed in 3 sets of 12 repetitions, with perfect form, resting about 90 seconds between each set. The weight depends on the person - you want to use a weight that is heavy enough so that you can do your last rep with perfect form, but you could not do another without a break. I would recommend doing some research or enlisting a trainer for a session or two if you are not familiar with the exercises. For the basics of form, remember to move the weight in a slow, controlled manner, exhaling as you lift the weight and inhaling during the negative resistance.
Do the following:
Bench Press 3X12
Seated Row 3X12
Military Press 3X12
Squat 3X12
As you progress, or if you have time, it is not a bad idea to do a second circuit for the same muscles, but with slightly different exercises:
Butterfly or Incline Press 3X12
Bent Row or Lat Pull-Downs 3X12
Lateral Raise 3X12
Leg Press or Deadlift 3X12
If you do not have access to a gym, the following can start you off:
Push ups 3X20
Pull ups (as many as you can do, or 3X12)
Dips (as many as you can do, or 3X12)
Squats 3X20
Lunges 3X20
Crunches 3X20
These exercises will work compound muscles, or those large muscles that incorporate the most muscle fiber and give you the most 'bang for your buck'. Increase the weight as you progress, and always work with intensity.
A note on intensity... The word intensity isn't entirely tangible, but there are some important factors to consider to ensure that you are indeed getting an intense workout. When lifting, always maintain control, go slowly, and continually push yourself. It is imperative to be focused during your workout, on your goal for the session and on each contraction. Visualize your successful lifts and what it is doing for you. Intensity applies to cardiovascular workouts as well - don't just go through the motions. Make sure that you are pushing yourself, set goals of extra minutes, more resistance, etc. A handy tool to have is a heart rate monitor, so that you can monitor your target range and track improvements in your cardiovascular health.
If you're going to be doing resistance training, take a few minutes to warm up and stretch. A 5-minute jog on the treadmill will get your blood flowing, and some passive stretching before and after will help to keep you injury-free. If you decide to do both cardio and resistance in the same session, save your cardio for after your lifting as the weight training is the highest priority on these days.
Fin...
There, that will work for just about everyone! Now there are no more excuses - get out and do it. If you get started, you can work on fine-tuning and improving your routine as you go along; you can't do that if you never start.
Do it right or don't do it.
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