Male Weight Loss Now

Eating out and weight loss are not mutually exclusive. You can eat what you want and still burn belly fat. The biggest perennial failure in losing weight is when you follow hard and fast rules. Because when the male follows hard and fast rules, and then falls off the wagon, he goes into a tail spin. He thinks he will never lose weight because he fucked up. Not true!

You will need to learn to be smart though. I am not trying to tell you that you can go out and eat whatever the hell you want, though. That will not work for you, because if it did, you would not be here reading this piece. Right? In this snippet of wisdom, I am going to give you some ideas about how to be smart about eating, so that you can be, look and feel great.

OK, so what is the big issue here? Let me characterize it for you. The question is: how can I lose weight when I eat out when the restaurant I eat at does not publish nutritional information (specifically calories)? That is the problem. You may abhor watching your calorie intake, but if you want to burn belly fat, love handles and the dreaded “chin meat,” you are going to have to pay attention to what you put in the tank.  Here are some suggestions for you when deciding to eat out:

1. Ask For Calorie Totals – I do this when I go to restaurants. I ask the waitress, manager or owner for the calorie totals for the food that I am eating. If I am regular at that restaurant, you can be sure that they are going to do their best to accommodate. Let these people know what you want. Most of the time, I find that people really want to do their best for you. When you ask them to do something that is of great importance to you, they will often try to find out how to do help you. If you ask, you may well get it. If not, well, you gave it your best shot.

2. Be Selective – decide to eat only at places where you can find the calorie totals for what you will eat. I ate at Panera yesterday with my son, and like clockwork, they had nutritional information and could tell me that my bowl of cream chicken soup with rice was 320 calories and the piece of baguette was 150 calories.

3. The Restaurant “Worst Case” Scenario - this is the case where you are either in a restaurant, bar or someone’s house and they are serving something and you will never be given nutritional information. This is the case when you will need to get even more smart. Here is what I do:

• Use menu to find out the major ingredients – write them down or use your iPhone or other device to record these ingredients
• Look at the food – and estimate what ingredient uses up the most “real estate” of the dish. For instance, if it is a pasta dish, estimate about how much pasta is in there. Write it down Then look at the next most important ingredient, estimate it and write it down. Rinse and repeat…
• If you are with someone – ask them to help you try to figure this out with you, if you feel comfortable. If you are on a date, this might not work, but then again, who knows.
• When you get home – assess calorie amounts to the lists that you made. Health Canada has a great reference resource to find out a vast amount of nutritional information  for some common foods - click here to get your very own copy – Thanks Canada!

Also make sure that you include drinks in your calorie totals. Losing weight does not need be painful, but it does need to get done. As I always say, “you don’t need to like it, but you need to do it.” Lose weight now to save your life, to improve your health and to look God-awful handsome.

Well-intentioned or not, skipping breakfast actually packs on the pounds. Maybe you are just  too busy to eat in the morning or think that you will lose weight if you don’t eat breakfast. It doesn’t matter. Statistics show that if you do not eat breakfast, you are highly likely to get fat (or fatter). If you think you are cutting calories, or dieting by not eating breakfast, think again.

The better news, is that if you eat anything for breakfast, your body will automatically favor fat burn – all day long.

Here are some facts about this:

1. Upon Awakening – when you wake up, you will have already gone without eating for 6 to 8 hours. If you do not eat for another 6 to 8 hours, you will have gone without food for 12 to 16 hours. Your metabolism will have slowed considerably. Slower metabolism, slows your fat burn rate.  Therefore, you are not burning the fat reserves in your body. Most likely, you are not only NOT  losing fat, but gaining belly fat, love handles and chin meat (you know…..the jowls), because of the eating your are doing during the pig-out sessions throughout the uncontrolled eating portion of your day.

2. Statistics Show – research done by the National Weight Control Registry has shown that members that have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off (although the average weight lost per member is 66 pounds), 78% of them eat breakfast everyday. WebMD states that eating early in the day jumps starts the metabolism and keeps you from going into “starvation eating,” which is very uncontrollable.

Here’s What To Do:

Just eat something for breakfast. Something healthy, is preferable but  start by just eating anything – breakfast bar, half of a bagel or tortilla smeared with peanut butter.  What you want from a good breakfast is carbohydrates, fiber and protein.

You might be surprised to hear that carbohydrates are important. Carbohydrates are sort of the kick-start of the metabolic system in the morning. Carbohydrates gets the fat burning machinery running hot. But you want to eat the carbohydrates that include fiber. Why? Because: 1) fiber fills you up and makes you satisfied and 2) excellent for the exhaust system. Protein is necessary because it essentially, “sticks to your ribs,” and acts like “time release” calories in your system.  These calories do not get burned as fast a carbohydrate calories.

Here is the breakfast I eat on most weekdays.

• 1-1/2 Cups Bran Flakes
• 1 Cup 2% Milk
• 2 Tablespoon Flax seed
• 2 Tablespoon Wheat Germ

Why do I eat the flax seed and wheat germ? I have experienced higher cholosterol levels and flax seed has been shown to lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the bad kind). Wheat germ is the reproductive part (oooh, sexy) of the wheat plant. When you get refined wheat products (bread, cereal, etc), these naughty bits are taken out (who knows why?).  Wheat germ has a lot of vitamin E, zinc, and loaded with fiber. Oh, and I drink 2 – 12 ounce glasses of water before I eat anything.

Here are a few simple breakfast meal ideas that you can eat quickly.

Other Good Breakfast Choices:

Oatmeal – skip the sugar and put fruit on it instead

Hard boiled egg

Yogurt

Stay away from fruit juices and stick to whole fruit because fruit juice sometimes does not contain the fiber you need.

So, Here’s a crazy thought…..eat and lose weight.

If your plan to lose weight is by drinking diet soda, you better think again. Although you may believe that diet soda is your answer to reverse fat gain, you really should  know the truth. Diet soda, although the apparent panacea to losing weight, turns out to actually cause you to gain weight!

According to a study done under the direction of Sharon P. Fowler, MPH  with the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio,  the chances of becoming overweight or obese when drinking diet soda  are huge. According to this study, there is a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day. Here are 3 possible explanation as to why weight gain happens when you drink diet soda :

1. Diet Mentality – if drinking  diet soda is your secret weight loss plan, you know what I am referring to. It is believed that when people start gaining weight, they switch to diet drinks. Your diet drink is not a diet. If it is, you need to immediately look at what you are eating, not only what you are drinking. Think about the paradox of showing up at the drive-up window, ordering a Big Mac, large order of fries and a DIET COKE.
2. Taste Behavior – we have pampered ourselves into the inclination towards sweetness in your food and drink. You might say, “OK so what.” The thing is that when you give taste and no calories to your body, it is very possible that your body is not so easily fooled and will retaliate by craving the calories promised. Some diet soda studies have concluded that diet soda actually stimulates hunger.
3. Body Chemistry - from the excellent video below, when you drink diet soda, your body becomes acidic and removes iodine that you body needs to lose weight.  Further, according to this additionally excellent article, your thyroid gland needs iodine to aid in metabolism of stored fat (aka belly fat, love handles and chin meat).

What To Do

1. Drink Water – although you may dislike drinking water, water is the essential fluid for proper body functioning and in your particular case….to burn body fat. Find out here why you won’t lose weight without sufficient water in your body.
2. Drink Herbal Tea – If you hate water, try drinking unsweetened herbal teas.

By choosing not to drink diet soda, you will be giving your body more favorable conditions for losing weight. You will also save a lot of money.For example,  if you buy a single 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke  per day  at $1.95 per bottle, you will $ 711.75 for that habit.

I don’t know about you, but I was born lazy. I don’t like to work any more than I need to. That includes exercise. So if you think this article is about working out or exercising hard, you’re in the wrong place ! BUT, if you want to lose weight without working out hard, you need to read this article completely.

I think we need to be more like animals in nature. I like watching those nature programs. The BBC created a documentary called “Planet Earth” that I recently watched in its entirety.  I particularly appreciate those male lions lying out there on the Savannah. That is the way we need to be. This is purely natural for these powerful animals. It’s also natural for us.

In order to lose weight, exercise is necessary only as much, as your body naturally loses its own weight. If you look at ads for weight loss, you see a lot of glissening bodies of muscular male and female models working out.  I can tell you that I look great too, but I only spend 35 minutes in the gym 4 times per week.

Here are the scientific facts of how your body really loses weight on your behalf:

1. Resting Metabolism Rate - this is the number of calories your body burns per day while you are doing absolutely nothing…watching TV, sleeping,  arranging your little animals in Farmville. It is roughly approximated by the Harris-Benedict equation. This formula is the result of scientific studies and estimates your calorie burn rate (calories per day) based on age, gender, weight and height. If you are already eating less than this amount, you are already losing weight and  would most likely not even be reading this article. If not, read on…

2. Basal Metabolism Rate – Depending on your activity level, you can actually find out how many calories you will burn per day. This applies a factor to the calorie amount in Step #1 above based on your activity level. To lose weight, you need to eat less calories than this resulting number. This activity level elevates your metabolism both during activity and for a few hours after your activity. The problem is that for guys that need to lose a lot of weight, getting the cardio ramped up to a level where it really starts to burn significant calories is just not going to happen early on in the program. That is why the big burn comes from strength training.

3.Strength Training – This is the BIG BURN. When you build muscle mass, you are increasing the calorie burn all day long. You heard that right…..When you have increased your lean body mass with strength training,  you’re burning calories all day, not only while you exercise like aerobic activity. This is because when you do strength training, you are tearing down your muscles. When you tear muscles, the body repairs them with calories, nutrients and vitamins that you eat.  When muscles are torn, they repair WAY stronger than before. So your body is using up calories to build your muscles.

Here’s What To Do

From an interesting article on Strength Training and Weight Loss, it’s necessary to do about 30 minutes of strength training 2 to 3 times per week in order for your body to lose its own weight. Strength training for weight loss is the use of external resistance of exercise motion, against your normal muscular contraction to build muscle.

If you look at my strength training program, you’ll see that I utilize two separate workouts so that I don’t do the same workout, 2 days in a row. This is because muscles need some time to repair and I don’t want to work these muscles in two consecutive days.

1. Create a list of strength training exercises that you will do today. You need to work all the major muscle groups – chest, back, shoulder, triceps, biceps, abdomen, calfs, quadriceps, hamstrings. For today, choose only four of these – maybe work on chest, biceps, shoulders and quads.

2. Create a second list of strength training exercises that you will do tomorrow. Remember to include work on the abdomen muscles. Note that you cannot “spot remove” belly fat or love handles (or anywhere else either) by doing any type of strength training. Weight loss can only happen by reducing body fat evenly over the body.

3. Perform #1 and #2 alternatively throughout the week. At least two times per week. It is not necessary to do a total of more than 5 total workouts per week.

So, now you have 2 lists of exercises that you need to do to accomplish your weight loss goals. The best thing is to start right now. Notice, I didn’t say that you have to do these in a gym. For instance for chest, you can just do push-ups on your living room floor. So start now, with 15 push-ups.

Stay tuned. Due to the fact that strength training has such a profound impact on male weight loss, I will be writing in much more detail for your benefit.  Let me know what kinds of questions that you have by writing in the comments area. Thanks for stopping by.

4 Aces – Plus! I wish I had blue face paint. Because if I did, I would have put it on and a kilt to boot. I screamed results this last week. As you remember, I had a  pre-challenge goal of first breaking the 200 pound glass floor. I broke through On Friday, achieving 199 pounds. I had a private male smirk going on, as I strutted in slow motion from the gym scale.

On to the rest of my weight loss goals:

1. Win #1 – Kept the average calorie intake below the 2,000 calorie level. Specifically 1,787 calories was the average from Sunday April 25 through Saturday May 1, 2010.

2. Win #2 – The goal was to walk 25 miles last week. I actually walked 35 miles and loved it.

3. Win #3 – The goal was to do strength training 5 times. Right on the money.

Something I also did last week that I would never have considered…….I fasted for the first time in my life. I actually did not eat for a whole day on Thursday, because I pigged out on Wednesday. I really screwed the pooch with a 3,838 calorie day on Wednesday via 2 business networking meetings, cocktails, hors d’oeuvre’s, filet o’ fish sandwich meal on the way home and intercourse with 3 chocolate  Zingers after ripping off the plastic wrap, immediately upon entering my home.

So you see, I have got this thing dialed now. I am taking the weekend warrior challenge creating longer range commitments through the week. So the weekend goals will now be incorporated into the week view, early in the week.

I visited my 92 year old dad today and I just enjoyed being with him, holding his hand and rubbing his back. He is not feeling well, but I think I did him well today, because I was feeling great and I could really make my dad laugh and remember the old days.

Thanks to all of us around the world doing the Weekend Warrior Challenge this past weekend.

Here’s a list of everyone who’s signed up for the challenge. These are great people that I have bumped into on the net. Please visit their sites as well:

• Lauren from Less Lauren
• SeattleRunnerGirl
• Carla from The Right Fit
• Tara from 263 and Counting
• Scott from Minus 5 Times 10
• jord from A Journey of 26.2 Miles Begins with a Blog
• Gluten Free Pumpkins
• Sean from Learn Fitness
• Amy from Living and Loving Life
• Craig from My Life, Take Eight
• Jamie from I Can Heal My Self!
• Mac from Get Fit Slowly
• Josie from 35 and Shrinking
• Erin from Erin Takes Control
• Shelli from Shelli Belly
• 146 Pounds
• Jess from Half of Jess