A bunch of my friends requested me to write a blog about weight loss. So here it is!
When people think of weight loss, the very first thing that comes to their mind is Cardio. That's actually not entirely true according to what I know. In term of weight loss, I'm a true believer of a combination of dieting, lifting, and cardio. Let's start with diet.
Diet
When people try to lose weight, they try not to eat ANYTHING and starve themselves to death. That's actually counterproductive because when you stop eating, your metabolism basically stops. So it's really important to eat small meals throughout the day. Those small meals are like triggers or ignition for your engine (stomach) to keep your metabolism going. It's also important to eat those small meals instead of three big meals so that you will actually be able to burn them instead of storing them up as fat. The key idea is "Never STARVE yourself and never STUFF yourself".
What you eat is pretty crucial too. You don't have to cut out your carb intake completely, but make sure not to eat anything about 2 hours prior bedtime and not to eat any carb about 4 hours prior bedtime. Your body has to finish consuming all the carbs before burning fat for energy. So if you got a lot of carbs in your body, then those fat won't get burned so easily. However, I think it's okay for you to eat some complex carbs like brown rice and oatmeal in the morning and noon to sustain your energy. Take a little less carb each day (especially for dinner), your body will eventually adjust.
Here's a list of stuff you shouldn't eat (* It's okay for you to eat it, but not too much. ** Try not to eat it, a little is okay. *** Don't even think about, stay away from it as far as possible)
* Bread, pasta, rice
** Diary (milk, yogurt, cheese...), fruit juice, pastries (bagels, muffins, danish)
*** Soda, ice cream, desert(cookies, cake, brownies), junk food (McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's...), candies
Stuff you should eat
Vitamin and fiber: LOTS of vegetables and fruits
Protein: Lean meat like chicken breast and fish, beans, eggs
Carbs: Oatmeal, multi-grain whole wheat bread, brown rice
"Hunger killers": Nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews...), potatoes, sweet potatoes
(Despite the fact that nuts have some fat (good burnable fat) and potatoes have a lot of starch, they do save your butt from being so hungry, because they fill you up by suppressing your body from releasing those hormones that makes you hungry)
Weights
For weight loss, you really have to crank up your workout's intensity by increase the number of reps, lower the weights and shorten rest time, 3 sets of 15 with 1 min rest between each set for example. When you do cardio, you are only burning calories while you are doing it. When you do weights, your metabolism will be sped up for the next couples days because rebuilding your muscle takes a lot of calories too. That's why I think lifting is a really effective way to lose weight.
Here's a sample workout for weight loss. This workout actually belongs to my former boss Jsully, who is a NFL retired safety and a professional personal trainer. Every set in this workout is done by super setting, which means going to the next exercise without any rest.
Warm-up: 10 mins jog
Squat super setting with RDL (Romanian/stiff leg deadlift): 3x15
Bench press super setting with seated row: 3x15
Leg curl super setting with calf raise: 3x15
This workout may seems short and easy for you, but trust me, it's absolutely brutal and burns a lot of fat. When I tried it, I was dying.
Cardio
Personally I prefer HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) over long distance endurance cardio. For a low intensity jog, you really need to run for more than 30 mins to reach the fat burning zone, which I think it's boring, takes a lot of time, and strips away your muscle. HIIT such as hill sprint (what I do) and circuit training is a great way to tone your whole body and maintain (even stimulate) your muscle growth. For example, just think of a sprinter versus a marathon runner. The marathon runner is very slim with a lot of lean (slow twitch) muscle, that is smaller in size and lasts for a longer period of time. Whereas a sprinter is more muscular and explosive with a lot of fast twitch muscle, that is larger in size and lasts for a short period of time. Personally, I'd pick the sprinter's body type over the marathon runner's.
A simple HIIT program could be running on a treadmill for 20 mins total, with 1 min sprinting and 1 min slow jogging alternating. Or you can do hill sprints. Just spring up a decently steep hill (Dwight hill is my favorite) with about 80% speed and walk down the hill.
For more information, you can refer to this article on simplyshredded.com
HIIT vs Low Intensity Cardio
Sample HIIT Workout
Before
After
So this pretty much my weight loss program. If you like it, give it a shot. However, I can guarantee you that if you don't do this with absolute dedication and discipline, it will NOT work.
Lastly, I just want to make it clear that, I know, in today's society and modern culture filled with sex and vanity, it's almost crucial for girl to be slim and sexy, and for a guy to be muscular. This is not what my blog is about or what I encourage you to do. If you are overweight (fat), I just want you to know that I'll still be your friend, your parents will still give you money, and God still loves you. And it's okay for you to not do everything right. As long as you are doing something, you will see some results. Please do not make exercising into one of your burdens, because most importantly, I just want you to have fun :D
