I'm trying to lose weight, not build muscle (yet). So I'm doing cardio because it works for me. I'm motivated to do cardio for health reasons as well, being an old todger wanting to keep my heart pumping for a good 30 minutes a day.
However, my appetite is HUGE. I'm always eating small snacks to keep my hunger at bay, but quite honestly, if I wanted to, I could probably eat a large pizza all to myself. Any hints or tips at reducing one's appetite? When I used to smoke, it was an easy fix since nicotine is an appetite suppressant, but now all I've got is regular old chewing gum and it doesn't work.
Handcuffed and Helpless, NY.
FACT: It's nearly impossible to cardio off a bad diet. For instance, someone your size will burn 616-656 calories, jogging for one hour at a speed of 5 miles per hour. You can consume that many calories with a few ill chosen snacks.
I think the best tool for reducing the amount of calories you take in is portion control. Keep a diet journal for a week (fitday.com is excellent for this and free). Eat whatever you would normally eat. The next week, try to reduce each of those meals/snacks slightly. If you'd normally have a snack sized bag of pretzels at 3PM, before you eat that next bag, toss 15% of them in the garbage. May not seem like much, but if you're consuming 3,000 calories a day, you've just saved 450 calories (<--- almost as many as jogging for an hour). Continue this path, of gradually eating less. If 15% is too much for the first week, make it 5%. Hell, toss one pretzel from the bag each week, and after a year, your caloric intake will be half what is.
Bottom line, weight loss and/or body recomposition is best attained through a combination of a lifting/cardio regimen and diet. The only thing you'll lack(once you've begun portion control) is lifting. Maybe add two days of weights? An upper day and a lower day? If you're interested, email me and I can put together a program that will have you in and out of the gym (on lift days) in 45 minutes.
Lastly, try adjusting when you get which calories. Try to take in your carbs early and your fats later. If you find you can't get to bed without a late snack, try the following:
1 Scoop of Chocolate Protein Powder (preferably casein, but whey will do)
1 TBSP of natural peanut butter (regular peanut butter will work, but natural is better)
1% or Skim milk
Splenda (to taste)
Ice
Toss it in a blender.
With the right protein powder, you'll be shocked that this is good for you. A good casein protein can be found here:
http://atlargenutrition.com/nutrition_detail.php?products_id=1
And interestingly, having the above shake before you go to bed, will actually promote faster weight loss than skipping it.
Zod
that's the first thing that went through my mind when i saw this thread, followed by "maybe it's a thread about the actual General Zod, then". it's a shame people think they can go around ignoring formalities like this...
