I have about 15lbs of fat to lose (i have about 1 month to lose them, not cause of a tournament but because i'm tired of looking fat).
you can lose 15 lbs in a month... but no way you're going to lose 15 lbs of fat in a month.
Is there a question?
The question was how :) well i need to lose 15 lbs anyway as i'm totally out of shape.
at this level of generality it's hard to answer the question.... an increase of exercise, including some resistance training to maintain muscle, along with a slight Caloric deficit (to the tune of up to about a 20% decrease from your maintenance level of Calories).
If you go low-carb you can lose 5-10 lbs of water weight in a week or two.... it's coming back as soon as you add carbs back, but if you're really after a magic number, that's one thing you can do.
Up to about 2 lbs of fat is all you can lose in a week... even that is optimistic, especially if you really only have 15 lbs to lose. Any more than that will also be muscle or water or both. I don't really recommend losing muscle or water, but you make your own choices.
Cardio in the morning, before breakfast, seems to burn fat 1/3 again as fast as done at other times. Avoiding refined carbohydrates will go a long way toward helping most people.... avoid sugar, cut down on breads/pastas and processed grains. This is not a magic bullet, but at least seems to play a major part in the way most people eat.
Lift weights 2-3 times a week, concentrating on compound exercises. morning cardio (prefereably, but whenever) a few times a week for 20-45 minutes depending on what kind of shape you get into and how much you can stand; if you can, do an interval-workout at the end of one of the cardio sessions. If your fitness improves dramatically, add another interval workout. 5 minutes of either 30 second or 1 minute intervals is plenty to start. Increase from there.
I know this is VERY general, but so is the question... without knowing anything about what you're already doing in terms of food or exercise, that's about the best I can do.
Would make a great archive addition IMO- "must lost fat rediculously fast!" threads seem to appear regularly.
Good reply Ali!
"Cardio in the morning, before breakfast, seems to burn fat 1/3 again as fast as done at other times."
Ali-
Is this becuase you are doing it on an empty stomach? This might be a stupid question, but if I wake up later on Sat..lets say 11am. and then go for a run (without eating) will I enjoy the same benefits? Or is the increase fat burning because of your body's internal rhythm and not due to whether you eat?
Thanks
-Tony
tony--
the 2 studies done, to my knowledge, say that the point is a 12 hour fast. Nothing about 'internal rhythm' was even considered as a variable; whether doing the cardio after 12 hours of not eating w/o sleep in between was not studied, etc. The assumptions made were that 12 hours of fasting is not the best idea in general, and not the most workable solution for fat loss anyway, except if 8 or 9 hours of that 'fasting' was spent asleep, as most people do anyway.
So get up late and go do your cardio on Saturdays, if you want the fat loss.
There are all sorts of other assumptions you hear, like 'since the carbs are not available, you burn fat for fuel'. Personally, I think this makes very little sense, actually, and in any case the 'cause' was not studied, so people who say such things (and if I'm not mistaken Bill Phillips' 'Body for Life' book says th is) are guessing. Just as likely it's due to hormonal factors, not having carbs available increases blood lactate levels, or some such. I'm guessing too, because the fact is the studies did not go into the why. Just the fact that fat loss was significantly increased for those who did their cardio before breakfast, after an overnight fast of 12 hours. Would it work just as well for 8 hours, 6 hours, 10 hours etc.... again, a guess. Probably it would, but it wasn't studied. People who tell you the 'why's' and such are guessing.
Ali,
Could you be a little more specific regarding "interval training"?
I try to do cardio in the morning (run, treadmill, stationary bike), and it works out great, I just can't stand to go for more than 20-30 minutes, and I'd like to add a little something to my am workouts.
Gary
I can't believe no one has said it.
Old joke.
How do you lose 10 lbs of ugly fat?
Cut off your head
Not funny but hey it had to be said.
Garry--thanks!
Gary--for purposes of this thread, interval training means alternating going as hard as you can for a given time period, and going slow for another one. So 'sprint' and then 'jog'.... for simplicity's sake, say, 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy, alternating. Or one minute.... etc.
For some puroposes, maybe 2 minutes hard and one minute easy would be better, or vice versa.... there are many considerations and reasons to vary the 'work' and 'rest' intervals. But for someone trying to get into shape, without a more specific goal, those details are unnecessary and, possibly, overwhelming.
Of course 'sprint' and 'jog' are running terms, but the same principle applies to rowing, or cycling, or rope-skipping, or whatever.... Just go as hard as you can for your chosen interval, and take it easy for the rest period, but don't stop. Obviously you have to pace yourself, because going as hard as you can for 30 seconds gives a different rate of work from doing it for 3 minutes.... really, though, precision matters more when your goals get more precise. The term 'fartlek', which means 'speed play', is used for less precise measuring of these intensity variations. But I think it's best to use the second hand of a watch and try to pick reasonable work intervals, rather than go 'intuitively'... and vary your level of intensity according to what condition you're in, what you can stand.
Anyone else before this gets archived?
I have one comment and a question. The comment is that you don't necesarily need a stopwatch for interval training or fartlek. You can just count one thousand one, one thousand two, or you can just go all out for a given distance. My question is this: Have there been any studies anyone knows about that compare strict interval training with fartlek training (in terms of VO2 max or fat loss or both)?
Excellent comment, sundevil--if on a machine, or a track, or some other way having pre-marked distances, you can go for a given distance at each interval instead of time.... for fartlek, this is even roughly where it 'came from'since often it depends on terrain--if you're training outdoors.
As far as studies comparing, I don't know of any, and even have a hard time imagining how to design one, since the parameters of fartlek or so much more loose... but the principle is the same, that more total work can be done in a given time period by going hard for periods of time, rather than keeping a 'steady state'.
Has anyone here tried jump roping to loose weight? I seem to loose weight the fastest when jump roping. I tried the 5 mile walking, the jogging, the situps, etc.. and none of them did much. I jump roped for a week (1000-2000 times a day) and lost like 10 pounds so far and my waste and stomach are shrinking. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me why this is and if jump roping is all thats needed to loose weight and keep it off. Mainly because I hate running, speed walking, etc... Also, if anyone knows how much one has to jump rope in order for that workout to equal running 5-10 miles, please let me know.
Thanks, Soundmind...
id like to know how kimo lost all that weight between his fight with shamrock and varlens
he stopped the juice...kimo that is.
Other way around. The term "cutting cycle" doesn't ring a bell?