losing weight.

Claudius

Professional
I recently got a physical exam and I was told to lose about 15-20 lbs. I don't look fat (just a little unnecessary baggage that's hardly noticeable). So I decided to limit my daily intake of calories to around 1500 (starting yesterday). However, tennis season is just about to start and I don't want to become frail and lose any strength in my shots. What do you recommend?

I know very little about fitness and nutrition.
 

Claudius

Professional
So I understand you need to burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight? Okay, I just ate 1760 calories today and did some conditioning...Will I lose weight if I keep this up?
 
Man thats a low amount of calories for a guy. Gaining / losing weight is just mathematics of burning more calories than you take in. The reason its so hard is because fast food and restauraunt portions are huge and very high in calories. One pound on a human is equal to 2000 calories. I would think of it as a new lifestyle and not a diet. Diets are proven not to work because eventually you go back to your old eating habits. I just eat 4 or 5 healthy meals to one good huge meal.:twisted:

Be sure to lift weights or do cardio once a day. Otherwise I feel like crap anyway. A good note to take imo is how good you feel after working out running etc. Its addictive.
 

Vyse

Semi-Pro
Make changes slowly and check your weight at the least once a week to see where you are. If you are not dropping, perhaps eat a bit less and cleaner or do more cardio. Slow and steady. Of course, if you are lifting, it may be muscle, too so maybe check your bodyfat levels.
 

supineAnimation

Hall of Fame
I don't know how far above your ideal weight you are, but I've always tended to go with increasing the workouts rather than lowering calories too much. But I should preface this by saying that I'm naturally thin, always have been and if anything, I've had more trouble keeping weight on than taking it off. A great way to burn calories when you can't devote yourself to working out is to replace your chair with a balance ball and do isometrics. They're a great way to supplement calorie-burning when you're stuck at work or just watching TV. Good luck.
 

Marshredder

Semi-Pro
Eat 4-5 smaller meals during the day rather than 1 or 2 larger ones, this keeps your metabolism moving all day.

Avoid high fat/carb food, give up cheese, sugary snacks and all drinks apart from water. Its really hard at first, but after 2 weeks its fine. When I started on the just water, i HATED water, couldnt stand it, but I learnt to like it.

Lots of Cardio, go for a 30 minute jog every day. HIIT can lose weight fast but you'll also lost muscle mass. HIIT is high intensity interval training, basically walking for 30 seconds, jogging for 30 seconds, then sprinting at top speed for 30 seconds, something like that.
 
u need to continue eating a lot but get the nesscisary exersicse as well here is what i do for the average day.
-lift weights in the morning eat a br
 
sry breakfeast then i have a snack like yogurt or fruit before lunch and then have a lunch have another snack run. do some more cardio. then i play and eat dinner. and ussaly a protein shake after that
 

WildVolley

Legend
So I understand you need to burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight? Okay, I just ate 1760 calories today and did some conditioning...Will I lose weight if I keep this up?

I don't know your body weight, but most likely you'll drop weight if you restrict your calories. I'm a man who weights 165lbs (lost weight due to illness) and I easily burn over 2,000 calories a day without a lot of physical activity.

If you have the discipline to count your calories, I'd suggest also making sure that you are eating quality foods. You want to lose weight but also provide fuel to build lean body mass. Doing both things is difficult, though not impossible, to do at once.

While it is still controversial, I believe that you should limit simple carbs and try to get most of your carbs in complex form: that means brown rather than white rice, whole grains, and limiting sugars.
 

rasajadad

Hall of Fame
Reduce your fat intake, cut carbs, lift weights, read The Abs Diet. The goal is to lose fat, not just weight.
 

mike53

Professional
What do you recommend?

I know very little about fitness and nutrition.

With very little knowledge or equipment or expense, you can immediately start one of my favorite programs, the 2000/10000. Specifically, you must

consume 2000 or less calories per day
walk,run, jog, ramble, amble or mosey at least 10,000 meters (6.2 mi) per day

7 days a week for 6 weeks.

Buy a calorie counter book at any bookstore or grocery store. You can use your local high school track for accurate distance measurement. 25 laps does the trick. Don't worry about stopping in the middle, just don't leave till you're done.
 

KenC

Hall of Fame
I wouldn't radically alter your diet in terms of calories. You should try to eat better, not less and then very gradually reduce caloric intake. If your body starts to think it is starving it goes into emergency mode and starts metabolizing protein and muscle to preserve the higher energy fat for harder times, even if you exercise. The easiest way to lose weight is up the aerobic exercise while maintaining the same caloric intake in the beginning and then gradually reducing the calories.
 

Vyse

Semi-Pro
With very little knowledge or equipment or expense, you can immediately start one of my favorite programs, the 2000/10000. Specifically, you must

consume 2000 or less calories per day
walk,run, jog, ramble, amble or mosey at least 10,000 meters (6.2 mi) per day

7 days a week for 6 weeks.

Buy a calorie counter book at any bookstore or grocery store. You can use your local high school track for accurate distance measurement. 25 laps does the trick. Don't worry about stopping in the middle, just don't leave till you're done.

This sounds horrible. I'd rather play lots of tennis and lift.
 

chess9

Hall of Fame
Losing weight can be difficult, and simply cutting out a few calories usually doesn't accomplish much after the first few days because your body will adapt to a lower caloric intake.

To seriously change weight most males over about 20-25 need a serious uptick in exercise VOLUME and/or a serious downtick in caloric intake. If you drop your caloric intake, however, you will be tired, difficult to be around, and hungry quite often.

You haven't said why you've been told to lose weight. Your weight is not bad, but how are your FAT levels? Fat percentage is so much more important than weight. I am 176 at 6'. I am currently at 12% bodyfat, with about 152 lbs of muscle.

You can be skinny and fat. Is that you? :) If so, you need to lose fat and gain muscle mass, mate.

-Robert
 
^^^But the only way to way to gain serious muscle is to lift near your maximum for about 5 reps. Lots of low weight work will not build muscle.
But the spring tennis season is upon us, so it is harder to lift now and see serious gains as well as have enough time and energy for tennis. The question is, do you have the time and willingness to commit to strength training, or at least commit to it right now, as it seems weight loss is your primary goal. (But it would be great to at least start doing some strength work.)
As for running/cycling, you will be burning at least as many calories (evidence suggests actually more) if you are doing high intensity interval training rather than just putting in long milage. Some distance work is good, but you will also be in better tennis shape if you are doing a lot of sprint work. And spending at least some of your time with agility drills done at full speed will burn calories and get you even better prepared for the quick starts, stops and changes in direction that tennis demands. Consider doing all your running drills with a watch that has a stopwatch. It is amazing how much a motivator it is to keep checking your times and see them come down.
At 175 pounds you certainly do not have to push the calories down a lot. I would think a gradual diet change with elimination of all junk food, fast food and high calorie drinks will put you on a diet you can maintain for the rest of your life.
 
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LameTennisPlayer

Professional
^^^
hypertrophy/muscle stimulus has been proven to be most effective within the 8-12 rep range. The other factor of muscle growth is variety to your weights program eg, no more than 4 weeks for a specific exercise. If you are lifting near-max lifts for less than 6 reps, your more likely to have bigger strength gains/ rather than muscle growth.
 

LameTennisPlayer

Professional
Reduce your fat intake, cut carbs, lift weights, read The Abs Diet. The goal is to lose fat, not just weight.

it's a great book, but he doesn't advocate cutting carbs or fat in general.....he does however advocate eliminating foods with trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup.
 

LameTennisPlayer

Professional
no reason to really cut fat unless your diet is really heavy into it

i agree....u just have to eat the right fats eg mono/polyunsaturated vs trans fats, complex carbs vs simple carbs, low GI (foods throughout the day) vs High GI (straight after a workout) etc
 

KenC

Hall of Fame
Its probably not a good idea to mess with your diet too much too fast. Half of the reason a lot of people are overweight or obese is because they messed around with too many of these fad diets that ultimately just messed up their metabolism. The minute they gave up the fad diet they were doomed because they started eating more against a lowered metabolism. Its a vicious cycle. Note that your body has a preference to burn carbs and protein before fat, especially if there is no physical need for protein and muscle.

Simple biochemistry and physiology suggests that we eat just enough to support more physical activity if we want to stay at a reasonable body fat percentage. And we have to maintain that physical activity throughout our lives.
 

Claudius

Professional
I've limited my calorie intake to about 1500-1700 a day and I look noticeably leaner. I've stopped eating sweets altogether, and I'm basically surviving off chicken breast, raw vegetables, and plain yogurt.
 

mozzer

Hall of Fame
I've limited my calorie intake to about 1500-1700 a day and I look noticeably leaner. I've stopped eating sweets altogether, and I'm basically surviving off chicken breast, raw vegetables, and plain yogurt.
No carbs? :s
 

chess9

Hall of Fame
Vegetables are generally low glycemic index carbs, so they are good. Unfortunately, most yogurt sold commercially is loaded with SUGAR.

If you tend to be an endomorph then eat slightly more protein, very few high GI carbs, and get plenty of cardio. Endomorphs tend to have insulin sensitivity issues that make them gain weight.

-Robert
 

mozzer

Hall of Fame
chess, i always see you post in this section and i have a problem too. I always seem to feel hungry, i never used to feel hungry at school but now i have to buy food at break time just because im so hungry! I have put on 5lbs in 2 weeks :|
 

LameTennisPlayer

Professional
chess, i always see you post in this section and i have a problem too. I always seem to feel hungry, i never used to feel hungry at school but now i have to buy food at break time just because im so hungry! I have put on 5lbs in 2 weeks :|

are you hungry because you are exercising more?.....heres an tip which might help, always eat breakfast, (low GI, high fiber) fiber makes u full for longer; then eat every three hours after that.... you should roughly have 6+ small meals per day, it would keep you full and should speed your metabolic rate.
 

chess9

Hall of Fame
chess, i always see you post in this section and i have a problem too. I always seem to feel hungry, i never used to feel hungry at school but now i have to buy food at break time just because im so hungry! I have put on 5lbs in 2 weeks :|

Any slow digesting protein/fat/carb like natural peanut butter, nuts, chicken/beef pieces (lean and clean!), etc. will help delay hunger. If you are hungry and eat something like a Twinkie you will be hungry again in 15 minutes.

Diet is extremely important for athletes, though a few jocks can eat candy, chocolate, and Double Cheeseburgers and go out and run a 5K in 15 minutes. I hate them! ;) For the rest of us, we must cheat only rarely.

-Robert
 

Vyse

Semi-Pro
Greek Style yogurt is the way to go. More protein. Yogurt is a milk product so it is going to have milk sugars in it but with greek style (at least most plain flavors) don't have added sugar and is loaded with protein.
 
Why do sweets make you hungry soon after you eat?

Answer: Sugar causes the pancreas to release insulin which drives down the blood sugar by moving the sugar into cells. Unfortunately the insulin tends to drop your blood sugar a little too low, so you quickly feel hungry again.
So to avoid feeling hungry very soon after eating/drinking sweets, don't eat/drink them in the first place.
 
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