Getting started

The easiest part of this journey is the thought of doing it. Doing it is the hardest part. Some people might ask, what is the fastest way to lose weight? What is the easiest way to lose weight? The answer is none. It will never be easy and you can't do it in a short period of time. You can't lose 10 lbs. in a week. Although some can but it is not the right thing. According to studies, it is safe to lose 2 lbs. a week. Going beyond that is not good anymore. For me, I go for 10 lbs. a month.

Now you already know that you can lose 2 lbs, the next question is how to do it? We just need to focus on 3 (three) things. Nutrition, Exercise and Rest. This is the foundation of weight loss. If you lack something, you won't be successful with your weight loss program. You should have enough of everything. Too much food, too much exercise or too much rest is not good. The secret for weight loss is you should consume more than what you eat.

The first thing that you need to know is your weight. How many pounds you need to lose to have a normal weight? You can use a online BMI calculator to do this. To check your ideal weight you can visit this site. My ideal weight is 160 lbs so I need to lose 59 lbs of pure fat.

BMI or the Body Mass Index is is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. High BMI means that you have a high body fat percentage. The normal BMI should range from 20 to 25. Some website says that it should be from 18.5 to 24.9 My current BMI is 32.3 which considered obese.

Nutrition:
This is the most critical for any weight loss program. This is getting out from our comfort. We need to control our appetite. We tend to crave for something and that will ruin our diet and will make us go back to our old habit. That is the thing that we must avoid. We should not go back to our old habit. We should know be aware of what food to eat and food to avoid. We should also start to count calories. We can't get the exact calories from what we eat, we just need to get the approximate value. Calorie deficit is the factor in losing weight. According to studies, in order to lose 1 lb a week, we need to have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories a week. That is 500 calories a day. To get the recommended calorie intake for your weight, you can simply multiply your weight in lbs by 10. This might not the exact calorie intake that you need but what important is you have an idea on how much you need to consume in a day to maintain your weight. For women, you should not go down below 1200 and 1800 calories for men. You should also start to read nutrition fact labels.

Here are some advices:
1. A day before you start your diet, eat everything that you want. Think of a food that you can no longer eat while you are on diet.
2. Eat half of everything. If you can consume 2 cups of rice a meal, make it 1 cup per meal.
3. Eat every three hours. Have small snacks in between. This will allow your body not to starve. When you starve, your body slows down your metabolism in order for your to survive. This will also make feel not deprived because you eat more often.
4. Don't eat 3 hours before you sleep. You can forget the after-six theory because you can still lose weight even eating after 6pm.
5. Write everything you eat. This a good way to see if you did the right thing.
6. Eat Less during your non-workout days.
7. Substitute rice with oatmeal, camote or brown rice.
8. Drink a lot of water. You can also drink water before every meal. This would make you feel fuller.

Foods to avoid
1. Beef and Pork
2. Egg yolk
3. Chicken Skin or Animal Fat
4. Sweets
5. Soda
6. Dark Meat
7. Starchy foods such as white bread, pasta and french fries

Foods to eat
1. Chicken White Meat
2. Fish
3. Vegetables
4. Fruits
5. Wheat bread
6. Oatmeal

Exercise
In order to burn calories, we need to exercise. This will allow us to reach or target calorie intake and aside from that, exercise will allow us to do more.
Our weight consist of Free Fat mass(bones, muscles and organs) and Fat Mass. During our weight loss program, we should lose fat mass not muscle mass.

You lose muscle for the following reasons:
1. Lack of food
2. Too much cardio
3. Lack of rest
4. Too much weight training

Everything should just be enough. Enough rest, food, cardio and weight training. Most of us have the thought of the longer you the better. This is not true. Don't lift weights more than one hour and if you do cardio, the maximum should be 45 minutes. Based on studies, After one hour of continuous training your testosterone levels decrease and cortisol levels increase. As you can see this is not a good thing and becomes counter productive. Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone, it is naturally produced by the adrenal gland and can be elevated by emotional, or physical stress. It is not the quantity, its all about the quality.

Things to remember when you workout:
1. You need to push your muscles to the limit. Gradual increase your weights because if you don't your muscles won't have the opportunity to grow.
2. Don't over train. Don't perform many exercises per body part. Overtraining may cause injury and would not let your muscles to recover.
3. Train one body part a day. Don't workout for two consecutive days. 3 times a week is the ideal. Your muscle needs rest. You need rest in between your workout days.
4. Make sure that you do the exercise properly. Quality is important. Wrong form may lead to injury.

Rest
This is the easiest part yet not all could do it. Everyone needs at least 8 hours of sleep a day. Lack of sleep will not allow you do more. It will make you feel weak. It is also important to rest in between your workout. Too much rest would also make you weak. I've tested it a lot of times.

That would be for now. If you have some questions or reaction, feel free to write a comment or send an email.