I want to go on a diet but am scared to tell my mom what do I do?

04-03-2007, 09:14 PM

Ok. if you had not noticed i want to go on a diet for obvious reasons and i was told that it will help with my stupid acne. but anyways back to the subject, my mom has gone on several diets and none of them has worked and well from what i can tell she thinks that i have no will power or even energy which is odd but yeah. and i just wanted help and if anyone has tips on diet things that would rock to. ^_^

**Kelley** · 04-03-2007, 09:22 PM

A diet to lose weight? A diet to gain muscle?
Just do some research.
If your mum doesn't think you can do it, prove her wrong.

**Ristaron** · 04-03-2007, 09:43 PM

I'd say, use your mother's lack of faith in you as further incentive for sticking to your plan.

As for what kind of diet you should follow... I'm not a nutritionalist, nor have I had any need to go on a diet, so I can't recommend any 'good ones'...

4n7hr4x · 04-03-2007, 10:45 PM

Well if you want diet advice, I'm the guy to talk to. I should have a fuckin masters in this shit, I mean what can you say about a kid who is 20 and has been on a diet since he was 10.

A diet is really simple when you boil it down, all it really is...

Eat less burn more.

So exercise is key and though many experts probably don't agree it is step one. If you can't get in the habit of exercising regularly don't bother worrying about food. Running is the best if you're willing to run several miles, otherwise a one hour walk once a day is perfect, although twice a day is ideal once will do, but YOU MUST AND I MEAN MUST DO IT EVERYDAY!!! (Tip: get a friend to do it with you and you can motivate each other and provide company).

Now that you've made it a regular habit to exercise regularly, food comes next. There are a lot of different diets out there, and most are crap, just scams and marketing gimmicks. So heres what I'll do I will lay down some rules and provide an example diet. Just know that everyone is different and everyone will tweak it slightly to fit their needs (i.e. some like more meat some less).

Rules:

1) Water Water WATER WATER!!! OMFG Lots of water. I used to drink 6-8 16oz. water bottles, and even more unaccounted water.

2) Eat lots of small meals. Eat every three hours. Three main meals with snacks between each. (Example: Breakfast-Snack-Lunch-Snack-Dinner-Snack(optional), and 3 hours between each)

3) Never eat after 8 or 9 pm

4) Throw out any large plates you have and always eat from a small plate.

5) Treat yourself everyday after your workout with something sweet, something small.

6) Forget about fast food altogether, from now on the only place you get your food is a supermarket, never buy or eat microwavable meals. Always prepare your own food. LEARN TO COOK.

7) Forget about soda, You may drink one glass of Orange Juice or Cranberry Juice (As Organic as possible, always mix with water)

8) Vitamins, any multivitamins will do.

9) VERY LITTLE BREAD.

Can't think of anymore rules...

Basically, you should have three solid meals a day and 2-3 snacks in between. Now in general what you want is a little bit of everything in your diet the more variety the healthier it is. But everyone's body is different so you have to customize. Heres an example:

Breakfast:
One small bowl of cereal, something rich in fiber and whole grains, and instead of milk a better alternative is soy milk which actually tastes just as good, remember different isn't always worse. Avoid coffee, A warm cup of green tea hits the spot.

Snack:
Some fruit or a Protein Bar/Energy bar and don't forget the water.

Lunch:
Some lean turkey meat or chicken. Salad, mix in any vegetables you want, never again use ranch dressing or any dressing, from now on its Vinegar(Apple Cider Vinegar) and Pumpkin Seed oil or Olive Oil(rich in Omega 3). Water

Snack:
Tuna, plain from the can, maybe with mustard for flavor. Just take it easy with the tuna... lots of mercury is bad.

Dinner:
Some meat, avoid red meat although its good to have a little now and then. Salad, same as lunch. Some steamed rice is also good.

Snack

optional)

Try to give yourself some variety, mix it up everyday, its hard to incorporate every food group into your diet each day. You also don't want it to get boring.

Before you do anything though you have to realize this is A HUGE UNDERTAKING. You are fighting your genetic code, the very thing that makes you, you. It will not be easy, and the will power needed is tremendous, it will be a solid month before you notice any real results whatsoever, so it gets discouraging fast. It will get so much worse before it gets any better. I'm not saying this worked for me because the truth is it didn't but I unfortunately have other issues that I have to deal with first before I can worry about my weight, you may or may not be in that position but it is important to be sure before you try or you will fail.

If you ever need any advice feel free to ask, I'm always happy to share my experience.

04-03-2007, 10:58 PM

If you're serious about losing weight, it's got a lot to do with attitude. If you constantly weigh yourself or cut out junk food all together it's going to fail. Keeping your moral high is key. Drink lots of cold water as well.. As cold as you can stand it without freezing your mouth out. The body's core temperature will be forced to rise to heat the cold fluid to the surrounding body temperature & the only way it can do it efficiently is to raise your heart rate & burn fat stores. The water also acts as a lubricant within the cells themselves & allows for stored fat to pass through more readily.

Exercise is also key.. I'm not talking extreme workouts. You don't want to over do it because if you work your muscles too hard, they're going to absorb the water your drinking to quicken their own healing process. The results of this are muscles that'll be underlying your fat stores & actually make your cloths feel tighter. This ties into moral again because if your cloths don't feel like they're getting baggier, you'll naturally lose faith in what you're doing. I'd suggest getting some 3 - 5 lbs weights. Stretch well & use the weights in a punching motion out toward your front. Rotate your arms to different angles when they start to get tired. If you do this for about a week you'll see the fat stores on the back of your arms start to disappear. That amount of weight won't be enough to build any serious muscle but it'll give enough resistance to force the muscles in your shoulder region to use nearby fat stores for rebuilding damaged tissue.
Stay away from sit-ups.. Not only do they suck but here again you have the underlying muscle issue. It'll push out the fat on the stomach making your pants not fit & basically crushing your self esteem. As an alternative, stand with your legs together & bend over with your arms across your chest. Try to bring your head down as low to the ground as you can without loosing your balance. Raise back to a standing position & repeat. Remember to breathe. I know that sounds stupid but bending over that far, you're going to have blood rushing to your head & I've seen people go down. lol.
For your sides:
You want your arms out to each side, elbows level with shoulders. Hands up, bent at the elbow. As you raise your left leg, bent at the knee, bend to the left. Go back to straight up as your leg his the ground and then do the same toward the right. If you do this right, you'll feel it immediately. Again don't over do it. Start slow and build up going one side to the other.
Push ups are also really important. If you keep your body stiff and rigid through the entire motion, & keep your stomach muscles tight, you should feel more in your belly region then you do in your arms. That's how you know you're doing it right.. Eventually your arms are going to get tired.. Maybe after only a couple if you're not used to doing it. Soon though you'll start crankin'em out.

Onto food.. Watch calories but don't starve yourself. Soups are good & fresh veggies but ultimately you want to try and eat less to get your stomach to shrink down so it takes less and less to fill you up. You may want to try a Coke Zero. I tried one the other week & they're really good. Stay away from the cherry one though unless you like really sweet stuff.
You're going to want to stay away from sugar as much as possible. Breads are pretty much off limits too.. You can have some occasionally but don't go eating like 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cause there's nothing good in any of that. lol. The idea here is you're trying to get your body used to eating healthy. If you eat right, your body will actually tell you what it needs. It's just a matter of reprogramming yourself to not think about junk food. With any luck it'll not even become an option in your mind, you'll just automatically reach for healthier alternatives..
At your age it's going to be tough because your parents probably have junk food in the house. Oh & don't even think about fast food.. Ever. There's really none that are good for you, even their healthy choices are horrible compared to something you could make at home. If you have to eat out cause you're with friends, try Wendy's. If you hate Wendy's don't eat out. lol. The freshcata sandwiches they make are pretty decent stat wise provided you tell them no mayo & if you have them put extra lettuce on them, they're pretty filling & taste good. Again though, you don't want to do this daily. If you can manage to cut your calorie intake down to like 1000 or 1200 a day you'll be doing great. Again though, if you count to strictly you're going to feel like a prisoner & eventually you'll snap. Alternate what you eat & try to stay away from dairy if you can. Soy based stuff tastes like shit but it does work if you can tolerate it. Haha. Mostly stay away from sugars, white flour, & starches. If you have to eat breads, aim for whole grain or a natural wheat.

Diet pills don't really work & the active ingredients are usually extracts from green tea. If you're feelin froggy, at any pharmacy they sell green tea pills on the vitamin isle. Be careful with these! They will work but with all things introduced into the body, it's messing with it's natural chemistry & altering it ever so slightly. If you take too many, too often.. It'll be bad. If you're going to get them, use them for like 3 weeks as directed on the back and take a break for a week to let your body re balance itself. You should be doing those exercises mentioned above a few times a day.. At least twice if not more so don't over exert yourself during any of the sessions. It'll just tire you out and you wont want to do it later.

If you run into any snags you can PM me & I'll answer. I'm not a nutritionist or a health nut.. I just like knowing what makes me tick.

El Pirata · 04-04-2007, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4n7hr4x

Well if you want diet advice, I'm the guy to talk to. I should have a fuckin masters in this shit, I mean what can you say about a kid who is 20 and has been on a diet since he was 10.

A diet is really simple when you boil it down, all it really is...

Eat less burn more.

So exercise is key and though many experts probably don't agree it is step one. If you can't get in the habit of exercising regularly don't bother worrying about food. Running is the best if you're willing to run several miles, otherwise a one hour walk once a day is perfect, although twice a day is ideal once will do, but YOU MUST AND I MEAN MUST DO IT EVERYDAY!!! (Tip: get a friend to do it with you and you can motivate each other and provide company).

Now that you've made it a regular habit to exercise regularly, food comes next. There are a lot of different diets out there, and most are crap, just scams and marketing gimmicks. So heres what I'll do I will lay down some rules and provide an example diet. Just know that everyone is different and everyone will tweak it slightly to fit their needs (i.e. some like more meat some less).

Rules:

1) Water Water WATER WATER!!! OMFG Lots of water. I used to drink 6-8 16oz. water bottles, and even more unaccounted water.

2) Eat lots of small meals. Eat every three hours. Three main meals with snacks between each. (Example: Breakfast-Snack-Lunch-Snack-Dinner-Snack(optional), and 3 hours between each)

3) Never eat after 8 or 9 pm

4) Throw out any large plates you have and always eat from a small plate.

5) Treat yourself everyday after your workout with something sweet, something small.

6) Forget about fast food altogether, from now on the only place you get your food is a supermarket, never buy or eat microwavable meals. Always prepare your own food. LEARN TO COOK.

7) Forget about soda, You may drink one glass of Orange Juice or Cranberry Juice (As Organic as possible, always mix with water)

8) Vitamins, any multivitamins will do.

9) VERY LITTLE BREAD.

Can't think of anymore rules...

Basically, you should have three solid meals a day and 2-3 snacks in between. Now in general what you want is a little bit of everything in your diet the more variety the healthier it is. But everyone's body is different so you have to customize. Heres an example:

Breakfast:
One small bowl of cereal, something rich in fiber and whole grains, and instead of milk a better alternative is soy milk which actually tastes just as good, remember different isn't always worse. Avoid coffee, A warm cup of green tea hits the spot.

Snack:
Some fruit or a Protein Bar/Energy bar and don't forget the water.

Lunch:
Some lean turkey meat or chicken. Salad, mix in any vegetables you want, never again use ranch dressing or any dressing, from now on its Vinegar(Apple Cider Vinegar) and Pumpkin Seed oil or Olive Oil(rich in Omega 3). Water

Snack:
Tuna, plain from the can, maybe with mustard for flavor. Just take it easy with the tuna... lots of mercury is bad.

Dinner:
Some meat, avoid red meat although its good to have a little now and then. Salad, same as lunch. Some steamed rice is also good.

Snack

optional)

Try to give yourself some variety, mix it up everyday, its hard to incorporate every food group into your diet each day. You also don't want it to get boring.

Before you do anything though you have to realize this is A HUGE UNDERTAKING. You are fighting your genetic code, the very thing that makes you, you. It will not be easy, and the will power needed is tremendous, it will be a solid month before you notice any real results whatsoever, so it gets discouraging fast. It will get so much worse before it gets any better. I'm not saying this worked for me because the truth is it didn't but I unfortunately have other issues that I have to deal with first before I can worry about my weight, you may or may not be in that position but it is important to be sure before you try or you will fail.

If you ever need any advice feel free to ask, I'm always happy to share my experience.

will this diet also work for those of us that would like to gain weight and muscle in a healthy way? (ie can I eat excess amounts of the food here)

4n7hr4x · 04-04-2007, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Pirata

will this diet also work for those of us that would like to gain weight and muscle in a healthy way? (ie can I eat excess amounts of the food here)

Well of you want to gain weight you need to stress the Protein. Cardio is healthy no matter what and we all need it, so some running or walking is still a good idea, however if you want to gain muscle you need lots of protein and weight lifting. Careful though red meat which is rich in protein had a lot of cholesterol as do other protein rich foods. So a protein supplement would be a good idea, and also more calories. Protein alone will not be enough, you also need calories and lots of them. And also eating larger portions will help. Just again I have to stress the importance of healthy eating, so NO JUNK FOOD.

El Pirata · 04-04-2007, 12:13 AM

kewl I have been looking around for a rather healthy diet to gain weight and muscle, so far what I have learned is that I should

A) consume more calories than my body can burn
B) stay away from transfat (aka fast food and stuff)
C) Eat lots of Carbs
D) Eat white meat like fish and chicken
E) Lots of water as well

problem is I have a pretty erratic schedule, sometimes eating once or twice during a day and am tempted to go get fast food, since it is closer than my place (and less waste of gas) I am thinking maybe a place like subways would help me eat healthy and fast, but it isnt open at my hours of the night

I also have whey protein so I guess I should use that up as well

ohsoindie · 04-04-2007, 01:00 AM

Find things that you like that are low in calories and snack on those when you get those annoying munchies. An entire cucumber only has 9 calories in it. And they're so yummy! A steady diet of 2000 calories a day will help maintain an active person's bodyweight. A 1500 calorie diet will maintain a less active person's body weight. I would suggest if this is your first time to try anywhere from 700-1000 calories a day. You'll lose the weight slowly if you include excersize. If you want to be a little faster about it, try 500 calories a day (sounds easy but its SUPER hard!!) and excersize 1 hour a day, twice a day if you feel like it. Stay away from fried foods and too much dairy. Drink a glass of milk a day, at least or a calcium supplement- plus 8 glasses of water a day. Water is REALLY important. It gives your body the hydration it needs to keep the weight coming off and it can curb a hungry stomach. Count calories... one starbucks drink has an average of 400-600 calories in it. A LOT! Vegetables are typically low in calories but you'll need protien to have the energy for excersizing. You can use protein shakes- but they are kind of high in calories, and they ALWAYS leave me hungry. STOP DRINKING SODA its so bad for you and it has a lot of calories. If you really need some cola, drink diet. It has some kind of bad chemicals in it, but a lot come with 0 calories. Don't forget to pay attention to sugars and fat, too. If you can manage it, don't eat after 7:00 PM, and spread your meals out. 5 tiny meals a day are more efficient than one big one.

Hope this helps

HI - RO · 04-04-2007, 10:22 AM

Jezzzz you make it sound like you wanna smoke crack to lose weight in the begining by not telling your mom.

I suggest you eat lots and lots of fruits plenty of water, tuna, and unsalted nuts. You can always trick your stomach by eating almonds cuz they fill you up and they got a lot od protein