Losing Weight

[Seil]

So here's what I hear from various sources - including my profs; way back when we were cave-men... or cave-ladies, we went out to hunt. Now, I can't get a group of guys to help me move, let alone get a group of guys together to take down a wooly mammoth - they ate mammoths back then, right? Anyways, since we didn't really know where our next meal was coming from, our bodies stored energy as fat, so that when we came out of our cave in the morning, griping that coffee won't be invented for a few hundred years, we had the oomph to run away from the sabre-toothed tiger who was napping at our front.... cave entrance.

Anyways, fast forward to the present and our bodies still store energy as fat. Though, because there's less sabre-toothed creatures running around and more food, we're storing more than we need to.

I've been warned off of things like Atkins, as that does damage to your kidney and liver, diet pills are a cornucopia of fun side-effects and I'm hopefully never going to ingest a tapeworm. (Why is it that weight loss is the one thing people willingly ingest parasites for?) I've looked into the matter through five minutes of intensive internet searching, and found that really, I should eat less calories. Or more. Or something. Really, it's all about calories.

I've been told to look at myself like a bag - the more you put in, the bigger it gets. The more you take out, the smaller it gets. What I have to do if I want to lose weight is to not only decrease what I'm putting into the bag, but to also increase to quality of the stuff that goes in.

As a fairly active person - I bike to school, a half hour ride each way; I do a set number of push-ups and sit-ups three or four times a day, and I jog on the weekends for about twenty minutes. The problem here is that I'm going off of all this information from friends and people and I've got no idea how to piece it all together:

What is the proper caloric intake for someone who wants to lose weight?
What foods should someone eat on a low-cal diet?
Can I still turn to my vices (alcohol/candy) if I'm on the diet?
I try to go for a protein shake instead of a meal, is that okay?

So I'm going to ask you guys if you know or can direct me to any pertinent information that I can use. (I'm at 200lbs, and hoping to drop about 15 - 30lbs.)

[Squall Leonhart]

Originally Posted by Seil

[...]
What is the proper caloric intake for someone who wants to lose weight?
What foods should someone eat on a low-cal diet?
Can I still turn to my vices (alcohol/candy) if I'm on the diet?
I try to go for a protein shake instead of a meal, is that okay?
[...]

Basically, you should take care of what you eat, as in avoiding beef and switching for chicken and fish, and eat a lot of it. It really depends on the diet you want to go with too.

As in vices, you're better of kicking those habits, especially alcohol. If you're taking something along with the diet, that might be a problem.

I'm not very into that stuff myself, but I can tell you I go to the gym for about an hour weekdays, and that usually works, as long as you're not in some sort of hurry. Just be sure to punish yourself while you're at it to get best results.

[pochercoaster]

You have to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound, so what you try to do is create a deficit, e.g. a 500 calorie deficit a day to lose a pound in a week. Burn 250 doing exercise and then lose another 250 by skipping junk food.

By the way, how much weight are you trying to lose? If it's just like, 10 lbs and you eat candy bars every day you could probably just skip the candy bars and eat fruit and see results soon. If you want to lose a larger amount of weight you need to do more than that.

Now, you can lose weight by changing your diet. This is especially important if all you eat is junk and you eat way too much- say, 4,000 calories a day if you're sedative.

However, if you're closer to average, i.e. every meal doesn't consist of McDonalds and you eat close to a regular amount of calories (around 2,000- 2,5000 for a male) then I recommend you focus more on doing cardiovascular exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.

Why? It is far easier to lose weight by exercising regularly than trying to eat lettuce for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's not to knock nutrition- however, if all you're doing is dieting and you go out with friend one night and have no choice but to grab some pizza (gasp!) then you're going to feel its effects a lot more readily than if you exercised regularly. And who wants to skip eating pizza? You don't have as much leeway.

Nutrition-wise, I personally just follow two rules:

1. Minimize corn syrup intake as much as possible. Soda is the biggest culprit. I don't particularly like soda so this isn't hard for me. Excessive juice isn't good for you either, despite what commercials for OJ may lead one to believe. If you drink a ton of soda, you need to cut it out. Your body seriously doesn't like metabolizing sugar and it will generally store it as fat. The exception is when you get natural sugar from fruits and veggies and such. Honey isn't good for you in large amounts either, btw. Alcohol, likewise, is metabolized very poorly, hence beer gut.

2. Everything in moderation, including terrible junk food. It's just overly demanding to count exactly how many vegetables and fruits you eat in a week and then feel guilty when you go out for poutine one night. Likewise sometimes I need some serious caffeine at work and that means a super sugary latte.

Aim for, say, 75% good food and 25% junk food. That still sounds like a lot of junk to your typical health nut but if you do relatively high intensity exercise every day your body isn't going to be hurtin' if you have a slice of pizza.

Edit: Although my vices lean more towards greasy/fatty/salty than sugary and alcohol-y, so you might want to watch that...

Edit 2: I also forgot to mention that crunches and push ups, while great for building your core, and yes, while burning more calories than sitting at a computer would, does not nearly burn as many calories and boost your metabolism as much as cardio does. Certain exercises, such as running and cycling, also utilize your core muscles and can do a lot to strengthen your abs and whatnot. I run 5 miles 3 days a week and cycle 20 km two days a week and never do crunches (because I'm too lazy to bother with them) and have gone from a 0:45 second plank to a 2:15 second plank this way.

Edit 3: I'm an idiot and didn't see that you specified how much weight you want to lose in your last paragraph. Deeerp. Maybe it's time for me to go to bed.

[McTahr]

Ditch the booze. Alcohol slows your metabolism.

Candy is a shit ton of empty carbs and sugar. Soda too.

Lots of tea and water are ideal, as these days people often mistakenly interpret thirst as hunger.

Red meat is generally bad, but if you pick up extra lean for a weekly treat it won't kill you. Turkey is the shit for diet programs.

People who are afraid of carbs don't understand how fiber works. Just get whole grain forms of your usual carb monsters and it's not a big deal anymore.

Also, meal planning can have a huge effect on your metabolism. Two-thousand calories a day in seven meals can actually amount to a lighter person than fifteen-hundred at two or three meals a day. More meals of smaller size means your metabolism is constantly churning, which takes energy, and it gets your body accustomed to being "on" like that constantly. Fifteen-hundred calories a day and decent exercise is generally enough to lose weight gradually (See: Safely) and not feel like you're starving yourself.

Also, don't knock muscle-building. Muscle takes more calories to sustain than fat (50 calories per day per pound) and a weekly workout is enough to sustain, while two/three times is enough to build. The best early gains are in your legs, followed by the upper body in general for males.

Shakes/smoothies are great. Throw in strawberries. The pectin helps fight hunger.

[katiuska]

I use a daily tracker. A lot of people are horrified by this idea, and I sympathize, I really do--that's kind of how I ended up needing to cut back--but you can't genuinely know how you're doing if you don't know what you're putting into your body vs. what your body needs. It doesn't have to be exact and you don't have to be perfect, you just can't eat like crap all the time. It pays to do a bit of research here, because you'll probably find some surprises as far as what's in certain foods.

You're probably getting a lot of confusing information because not only is there a lot of misinformation, there's no one right plan for everyone. Going off what you have, let me try to address the questions in order:

Originally Posted by Seil

What is the proper caloric intake for someone who wants to lose weight?
What foods should someone eat on a low-cal diet?
Can I still turn to my vices (alcohol/candy) if I'm on the diet?
I try to go for a protein shake instead of a meal, is that okay?

1. It varies a lot, depending on different factors like sex, age, height, activity level, and current weight. Based on what you've said, you're going to start off needing about 2,200 calories, and to keep losing weight you'll have to deduct about 50-100 calories for every 10 pounds you take off.

2. As far as being healthy/good for weight loss, there's always the old standards: vegetables, fruit, lean protein (e.g., poultry, fish, legumes), and whole grains. A lot of healthy foods are low in calories and have a decent amount of fiber and/or water, so you feel full. Popcorn has a bunch of air, so it's also relatively satisfying and (as long as it's not movie popcorn. Popcorn by itself is pretty harmless, but movie popcorn, and a lot of store-bought popcorn, has a lot of shit added to it even before you get to the butter). I've found carrots to be decent for munching, if you're a snacker.

3. Yes, with some qualifications. You'll have to forgo having a lot of it and probably avoid more than one indulgence on any given occasion (e.g. have a drink or some chocolate, but not both), but in general, it's better to have these things in moderation than never enjoy yourself. You're not going to be successful if you're constantly feeling deprived of the things you like. The only exceptions might be things you just can't keep yourself from having too much of or things that are obscenely bad, even in small quantities (see: movie popcorn)--those are cases where you're probably better off not having any at all.

4. You can do this, but it's not recommended for similar reasons to above. It's why they tell you not to skip breakfast: if you don't have a proper meal, you're going to be a lot hungrier and run a greater risk of eating too much later on because you're starved. You're better off having a good-sized portion of something filling (e.g., a small omelet with fruit on the side).

[Aldurin]

Seil, your lifestyle sounds at least three times as active as mine is. I generally walk about a full mile each day and then do like five minutes of weight lifting 2 or 3 times a week, and I don't feel the need to lose weight.

200 lbs is not necessarily bad if you fit most these criteria:
All flab areas are suspiciously as tough as muscle (i.e. it is muscle).
Your belly button is not the farthest part forward on your torso.
The last time you punched somebody you hit faster and harder than you expected.
You don't wear fat clothes (anything beyond XL in shirts, make your own judgment for pants),

And don't try to measure your BMI as that doesn't account for whether or not you're big-boned.

In short, you're probably overreacting, unless you're in wrestling and you have to lose like 5 pounds a week or something for the next match.

[Grimpond]

200 lbs is damn good. I was sitting at about 290 lbs in highschool, but I'm down to 265 after....uh, 8 months of treadmill for a half hour each day. I'd love to be at 200 but I seem to be in a zone atm. I've pretty much cut my meals to half of what I used to eat, which is to say a normal serving.

[TDK]

Originally Posted by Grimpond

200 lbs is damn good.

Alternatively, it is dependent on height.

[Grimpond]

Originally Posted by TDK

Alternatively, it is dependent on height.

it's better than being more than 200 lbs, regardless of height, although that plays an important role as well

[Aldurin]

Originally Posted by Grimpond

it's better than being more than 200 lbs, regardless of height, although that plays an important role as well

We need more info from Seil before we can determine whether or not he actually needs to be worried.