I am a complete newbie to dieting and working out. I am:
5 foot 8 inches
Male
173 pounds
Goals is to get to 150 pounds by mid April. So where do I start ?
2 Answers
You're not overweight by a huge margin, you want to lose 10 kg. This means that dieting alone is likely to cause problems with your energy levels, making it difficult to then start exercising. Given that you're not used to doing exercise, it's best to start first with exercise. Once you get used to exercising and are making fitness gains, you can start with reducing calorie intake to lose weight faster.
People who carry large excess fat reserves, say someone who is 50 kg overweight, will be able to drastically reduce their calorie intake and still be able to exercise hard, because they can burn fat at a much higher rate. The problem is that a lot of the weight loss programs are adapted to these people, but it's not going to work well for people who only need to lose 10 kg or less weight.
The sort of exercise you need to do is cardio exercise, like biking, running or swimming. You can burn hundreds of calories in a half an hour session, the fitter you become, the faster and longer you can do this, burning more and more energy. Strength exercises like weightlifting are not so useful for burning energy, but they are still good exercises for your overall health.
You should change your diet immediately toward eating more vegetables, fruits and whole grains. You should make sure you eat enough in the beginning, so that you don't feel hungry. This is to make sure your exercise program starts well. The level you're exercising at is then determined by your present fitness, if you were to start restricting calorie intake immediately, you would under-perform relative to your present fitness. It would then be difficult to increase your fitness.
After a few months, if you feel that your weight is not coming down fast enough, you can start to restrict your calorie intake. Since by that time you're used to sticking to an exercise routine, you can do this safely without that affecting your exercise performance.
The best method to lose weight is to follow a structured diet program along with adequate amount of exercises or some physical activity. Weight loss is all about a simple equation Calorie in vs Calorie out. When your calorie out is higher than the calorie in, i.e when you are in calorie deficit, that is when the weight loss happens. It is also important to understand the difference between weight loss and fat loss. Weight loss should not involve you losing the lean muscle mass. The importance of proper nutrition with exercise comes here. The key to lose weight is also to plan a diet with input calories slightly above your basal metabolic rate.
Also, it is important to take this fitness journey slow and steady and sustainable... Do look at this link - for weight loss / fat loss along with workourk plans - http://getsetgo.fitness/#/public/diet/
- Rajiv www.getsetgo.fitness