Been putting off making this topic for a while now, and I figure since it's my New Year's resolution to get in better shape...

Some basic info about me: I'm about 5'4, 200 pounds. I do my best to eat healthy and avoid junk food but most of the time I'll wind up gorging and overeating food that my mom makes (like eat waaaaaaaaaaay more rice and beans then I should)

In the past I've tried overcompensating for being fat by putting on muscle but damn that's really not what I want at all. After having pneumonia and losing about 15lbs from simply not eating I felt better than I have and years but since then I've gained all that weight back and I feel like a blob again.

Basically I'd like advice on things that I should eat, shouldn't eat, things I should drink (I see a lot of you talking about workou shakes but I've been unsure if those are for gaining more mass or replacing food), workout routines, ect.

I'm not looking to lose an amazing amount of weight but if I could even lose 20lbs and keep it off by the end of year I'd feel fufilled.

Don't drink any protein shakes, diet shakes, creatine, etc when trying to lose weight.

I recommend a 1400 calorie diet...you can get a good amount of nutrition from it if you avoid empty calories such as chips or chocolate (empty calories == calories that don't really have any nutritional value). The biggest thing I can suggest is avoid HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. 40g of high fructose corn syrup is far worse than 40g of sucrose(table sugar) because it releases hormones that immediately store it as fat. Sodas contain a high amount of high-fructose corn syrup and I believe one of the side-effects of high fructose corn syrup is that it makes you hungry again.

I lost quite a bit of weight myself and I recommend you take a multivitamin along with this diet. If you want a snack take a fruit but don't overeat! I've noticed a part of losing weight is feeling hungry...you'll start to get hungry but it doesn't mean you should necessarily eat a meal, but rather, eat a fruit (be careful with fruits and veggies...some contain a surprisingly high number of calories like bananas have around 100 and avacados have like 300...google the calorie count of your fruit...I believe orange and apples have a low amount and make you feel full).

If you start eating sandwiches make sure that they contain vegetables too and not just meat + light mayo + cheese. You're going to need to take a lot more vitamins and minerals (unless you're currently eating a heckload of empty calories).

I gained 5 lbs over winterbreak from eating when I wasn't hungry and I just lost it all back by eating just when I was hungry (like 3.5 meals a day).

I cannot emphasize enough to avoid empty calories.

In addition to dieting it is good to do cardio. I usually do 30 minutes of cardio but I started at 20 minutes and made my way up. After cardio, go get your lifting on. The caution about lifting though is after you lift you get insanely hungry and may be tempted to eat a 4th or 5th meal. Avoid this as best you can.

If you have any questions feel free to ask

If you start to feel lethargic or weak, immediately quit this diet and see a doctor/nutritionist about an appropriate diet.

Eat somewhat healthy and run.

Just run 20-30 minutes a day. Atleast that's what most of my overweight friends did when they lost weight.

For some reason I got it in my head that running is the uber way to lose weight and stay healthy. Shame I don't run however.

One easy fix:

Don't drink soda. Use water as a replacement.

be a vegetarian for a while

EDIT: Actually, here: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessag...;topic=32585950

The best course for losing weight, I've heard over and over again, is high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

The diet tips you've gotten are also good ones. But 1400 calories seems really low to me. I'm too skinny, and I get at least 3000 or so a day. I am very slowly gaining weight on this, though.

Depends on your metabolism...I guess if you have a fast one like yours you might want to bring it down to 2000.

I had to bring it down to 1400 to lose weight cause my slow metabolism.

Good advice, just one or two points of contention.

For some really in-depth nutritional ideas, I recommend taking a look at the nutrition section at AbcBodybuilding

I suggest you gain lots of muscle first, since it's a lot easier when you're already big, and once you're super huge and super strong, the added calorie expenditures of your new muscle will enable your metabolism to melt away all the fat without you even really having to diet, and you'll look a lot better than if you just lost a shitton of weight and had skin flaps hanging off of you, plus you'd be healthier.

Speaking of metabolism, eat more meals of lesser size throughout the day. Someone else can go into detail with that because I am far too sleepy. G'day.

I tried that...the problem is you constantly feel hungry and that just sucks.

Mormegil..in my experiences protein shakes have just been terrible in my ability to lose weight. When I take them I notice my body becomes more stocky rather than that ripped appeal.

Sorry I haven't added a real response to this topic. I was gone for a bunch of the weekend (and a lot of the time I've spent while home has been fiddling with emulators >_>) and I've been doing some googling.

Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be going to a gym.

One more question: Aside from soda are there any other foods I should try to avoid? (I'm assuming things I like to eat every once in a while at the school caf like fries are probably out)

If you just like to eat them every once in a while, it's really not that bad. The main problem with people eating unhealthy is that many of them do it every day, often every meal.

As Bolt and Euphoria said, and Morm tipped on the with the shakes, it might not be a bad idea to bulk some first. It depends on how much of that 200 pounds is fat, and how much is muscle, really. It also depends on how buff you want to be, or how skinny. When you're skinny, it's really, really hard to put on muscle. That's why people do the bulking stage, where they just eat a ton to put on both muscle and fat, and then the cutting stage, where they shed the fat.

Either way, you're going to want to start doing some weight training. And if you decide you're only interested in losing weight, do a lot of cardio. If you want to bulk first, you don't need to do any cardio, really. Just work out, and work out hard.