weight loss tips?

Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:35 pm

considering I spend my entire day at work at a desk infront of a half dozen Computers, I have become slightly overweight... (The Fact I have a mini-fridge in the office doesn't help..)

I was wondering if anyone has some good weight loss tips?

I try and go for a run once a day, but it does not seem to help much...

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Jonathan Egan
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:11 am

Eat less. Exercise more.
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Johanna Van Drunick
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:40 pm

When you get right down to it, it's actually very simple; if you burn more calories than you take in, you'll lose weight. If you take in more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight. Having said that, the key is finding a way to track what you burn and what you eat.

The first thing I'd suggest is to start keeping a log of what you eat. There are tons of apps for computers and smartphones out there that will allow you to track your calorie intake from food. Lots of them will let you create "favorite" recipes that you can save, or even enter names of prepared foods and pull the information in from a database. Get in the habit of reading labels on food items, and try to develop a feel over what size of a food item constitutes a portion. Most importantly, be absolutely honest with yourself when you log in your meals and snacks - don't "forget" to record that bag of chips and that soda you grabbed from the vending machines. That just defeats the whole purpose.

Similarly, there are apps that allow you track your physical activity and get a rough idea of the number of calories you're burning in a day. Most of these will approximate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) with empirical formulas that calculate the number of calories you burn in a given day. This is based on your weight, your age and the overall physical activity you engage in based on your lifestyle. You'll also be able to log in exercise periods, which will calculate the approximate number of calories you burned in the time you engaged in exercise. After a short amount of time, you should start to get a handle on what those intake and burn numbers are, and then come up with a plan that will let you burn more and eat less. Or at the very least, find alternative foods that satisfy you but don't pack so many calories and other crap, and find some kind of physical activity that you enjoy doing.

Lastly, don't get discouraged and beat yourself up when you "cheat." You will have "cheat" days - the trick is to minimize them as much as possible. Try not to think of it in terms of going on a diet for a short while until your weight is normal - you probably will lose weight, but you'll also likely just put it right back on later. You need to think long term, as in making a permanent change to your lifestyle that will allow you maintain a healthy weight, but not be miserable doing so.

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Alyesha Neufeld
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:43 pm

Sacrifice the mini-fridge. Run longer and harder. Really push yourself. Don't conserve. You will be tired at work more for a little while but after a little while you will have tons of energy once you are in better shape and your body becomes used to the extra strain. Should be about 2 weeks till you notice any results.

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x_JeNnY_x
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 9:22 am

Ooh ooh ooh!

I also work a sedentary job, but I've been able to maintain my weight; I think the fact that I work from home helps 'cause I have no co-workers to look at me oddly if I work out.

Big, big thing would be to see if you can stand up and do a lap around your area (walking) every half hour to an hour. I'd have to look it up further, but your body's ability to metabolize goes down a lot while seated. If you work in an area alone or rarely visited, try seeing about bringing in weights (5-10lbs) to work out your triceps and biceps while seated.

Another thing is that you can do is do leg raises from your chair. I usually brace myself on my armrests, or tuck my hands under my thighs and do 20-40 depending on the time and how tired I am.

I wouldn't recommend exclusively sitting on an exercise ball, but having one around for switching back and forth every hour or two would make for some nice variety. I tend to start out in my chair, then after my first 15 minute break, I switch to the ball, then I switch back to the chair after my lunch break, then kneel until my last break (will explain below), then usually sit in the exercise ball for the tail end of my shift. Again, might not be very practical. I make sure I kinda rotate on the exercise ball to get my abdominal muscles flexing. I've found a way to sit at my desk with it so that my back doesn't hurt, my legs are raised, and my abs are engaged, but I don't see that practical unless A.) you have your own private area, and B.) your desk is against a wall and not too deep and you can put your feet on the wall without damage to your desk or kicking cables--I know your said you're an IT consultant so I'm not sure what your specific working conditions are.

As far as kneeling goes, they do makehttp://www.officechairadvice.com/images/assets/reviews/wing-kneeling-chair-large.jpg, which might not be practical in your situation. I personally lay my backrest on the ground and kneel there. While doing that, I strap 1.5lb ankle weights on and raise my legs so that my heel hits my rear and they work out the backs of my thighs and get good circulation going.

I've seen some people able to fit http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00lCWEHpDJnwkP/Foldable-Mini-Treadmill-FT-F354-.jpginto their offices. I have an actual treadmill in my office but this looks cool if your desk is a bit higher; maybe do a half hour on it. It's cool how it can be folded, too. Doing a lap around your area every half hour to an hour, as mentioned above, would probably be more practical.

If you get the munchies at work, bring things like strawberries, bananas, cucumber and/or tomato slices (with some salt and pepper on them), nuts, and the like. That'll help curb your appetite while making sure you're not having to make trips to a vending machine or a convenience store. I get the munchies a lot so I make sure I have those things on hand.

If you tend to wear pants to work, you can wear ankle weights and walk around with them too.

And that's all I can think of for now, haha. This is something that I do a lot because this was my first sedentary job and I was afraid that I'd undo 10 years of weight maintenance. Recently, people have told me that I've lost weight, so maybe it's working better than I thought.

I mainly recommended things you can do at work because you can work out all you want outside of work, but those 8-12 hours of sedentary work can really kill your efforts outside of work.

EDIT: I wouldn't say to ditch the mini fridge as well as replace what's in it with punnets of strawberries and blueberries and/or other similar things that you like. Bring water with you. Lots and lots of water. Even if people look at you weirdly for pissing every hour.

There are different ways to lose weight for everyone; some people like to remove things from their diet and other people like to improve things by adding good things until there is no more space for the bad. I personally also ditched soda, chips, wheat (I kinda had to due to an intolerance, or I wouldn't have done it so readily) and most candies, and found good in other non-processed foods. For energy, I buy a bag of dark chocolate chips and get a pinch of them every once in a while.

If you find it difficult, one thing that helps me when I'm making a diet change is to tell myself that I've been doing whatever that change is for 6 months. It makes me take myself more seriously, and the best way to lose weight is to make lifestyle changes, not diet plans. When I had to give up gluten, it was much easier for me when I would tell myself that I had been doing it for "months" instead of days. It could be seen as lying to myself, but it helped a lot. I felt more confident in my abilities because I got that rush from already feeling like it was easy for me.

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Bee Baby
 
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Post » Mon Sep 09, 2013 12:04 am

Drink only water, and eat light meals low in carbs and fat.

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Michael Russ
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 5:30 pm

This, I've gone down about... 20 pound sin the last few months just by taking it easy. Would have gone down more, but I like to have the occasional bad eating session.

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JESSE
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:33 pm

There are 3500 calories in a single pound. And going by what i heard the rough estimate of what a person eats in calories a day is 2000. What i try to do is go to the gym and loose 500 calories a day that's 3500 a week subtract that from what you eat daily. So i guess it is important to track your calorie intake.
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Joe Bonney
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 2:25 pm

Slow and easy is the best way to do it. Otherwise your weight just ends up "yo-yoing" up and down.

A good goal to work for is one to two pounds per week. If you're counting calories and tracking your exercise, one pound of fat contains about 3,500 calories.

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Kate Murrell
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:29 am

It only goes back up if I get too busy to exercise and then eat too much that day, and not much. I'm looking at a gradual plan here, as long as I'm losing weight over a few months I'm good. It's not even the main reason I'm doing this. I just like going for walks these days.

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carley moss
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:40 pm

Poop more.

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Rinceoir
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:11 pm

Eat less, poop more using one weird old trick.

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hannah sillery
 
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Post » Sun Sep 08, 2013 7:59 pm

Don't snack. Drink a lot of water. Don't have seconds unless it's a meal low in fat.

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JAY
 
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