Best way to drop 20-25 pounds

[50 Mission Cap]

Alas,

It is the end of another school year, and in spite of my august work out plan, I have again gained 15-20 pounds over the course of the school year (I teach HS history). Anyone know of a good way to seriously drop 20-25 pounds over the course of a three month period?

MS

[elisdad]

The South Beach Diet is working for me. I've lost 6 lbs in the last week by severely curbing my carb intake. Not cutting them out completely though.

[AM Radio]

To gain 20lbs in nine months is a lot. It took me four years to gain 30lbs, and thats with lots of beer and meat. I lost 7lbs in four weeks riding Clinton and staying away from flesh, fries, and empanadas.(still drinking beer)

[rockyrider]

20 pounds is doable over 3 months, I dropped about 15 pounds in 2 months a couple of years ago just by cutting back on my food intake and getting a lot of regular cycling exercise (1200km in 45 days).

20 pounds = 70,000 kcal, so that's a lot of cutting back, or a lot of calorie burning. That's either 780 kcal less food per day, or 780kcal more exercise per day. That's about 1.5 hours per day of fairly fast riding. Or some combination of less food and more exercise.

780 kcal is equal to 86 grams of fat or 6 tablespoons worth of mayo or one BK Whopper (http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/junkfoods/burger-king-nutrition-burgers.html).

[myron]

Several years ago I did the two pizza's a day diet and lost 60lbs in two months.

2 Totino's frozen pizza's @ 500 calories each. One for lunch and one for dinner.


The fine print:
Run five miles per day every morning. Lift weights 1 hourX3 times per week. Get an 18 year old lady friend.

[rockyrider]

Up until the fine print it sounded like you could give Jared and Subway a run for the money...

[jerman]

To gain 20lbs in nine months is a lot. It took me four years to gain 30lbs, and thats with lots of beer and meat. I lost 7lbs in four weeks riding Clinton and staying away from flesh, fries, and empanadas.(still drinking beer)

I dont think this post was for skinny minnies to reply:D You probably weigh a buck o' five soaking wet.

[poison idea]

eat multiple small meals
drink 2 cups cold water upon waking every day -it kickstarts the metabolism because the body wants to heat up the cold stuff
eat a lot of salad -use vinegar/soy instead of reg dressing
drink a gallon of water daily
cardio cardio cardio
lift weights prior to doing your cardio
do pilates with your woman -they are tougher than you think and you get to trick her into thinking you are spending quality time together
drink coffee
take minithins/crosstops/trucker speed
if you are a tv watcher -ride a trainer/eliptical machine etc while doing so
do a little light exercise for 30 min before eating breakfast
get enough sleep
skip/limit unfermented soy. (tofu, tvp, protein powder) it increases estrogen in men leading to water retention man tits and a fat ass

[althegud1srtakn]

join crew team and you'll shed all the fat on you no matter what you eat

[Marticus]

Alas,

It is the end of another school year, and in spite of my august work out plan, I have again gained 15-20 pounds over the course of the school year (I teach HS history). Anyone know of a good way to seriously drop 20-25 pounds over the course of a three month period?

MS

20-25 in three months is very doable. But different people react differently to specific methods. Obviously, diet is a huge part of it. You can drop 20-25 simply by starving yourself, but this is a temporary fix. Once you get fed up with the constant hunger, those pounds'll come right back (and probably bring some friends.) Changing the basics of your diet is necessary. No matter what you believe, if you are in a position where you feel you need to lose 20-25 lbs., then your diet is out of whack. You could be eating good foods, but you're eating too much of them or eating at bad times given your metabolism. Something is wrong. If you aren't eating the right foods, then that's where you'll begin. The best advice I think I could give you is that you should talk to someone who knows this stuff better than any of us here do (with apologies, folks, to those who are nutritionists.) Most gyms now offer dietary consults. They're easy, quick, and give you a starting point to change your habits.

As for exercise, since you're on this site, I assume you already ride. Do you get to ride enough for the fitness benefit? Are you at a point where your riding has kind of leveled off (i.e., you've mastered the lcoal trails and can rip them up better than most, and you don't have to push to do it)? If so, you're probably frustrated that the stuff leading to the weight gain isn't being balanced by your riding. That sucks, but it is pretty typical. By getting better at riding, what's really happening is that you're body is adapting to it - becoming more efficient at it. This means that the more you ride at a specific level, the less calorie burn you'll gain from the effort. A much more succinct way of putting it is a quote from Greg LeMond. A reporter once famously asked him when it gets easier to ride like a pro. His reply nailed it: it doesn't ever get easier, you just go faster. In order to burn more on your rides, you need to go faster. And that's not easy, is it? One of the hardest things to convince yourself to do is go harder -- in the gym, on the trail, on the road, anywhere. And this is especially true if you are already pretty good at whatever it is you're doing. Recently, I started teaching half of a "body-blast" class at my gym. It's this class for women where we split their efforts between Spinning and weights. They'll start with a warm-up on the bike, then a lower body workout using plyometrics, then back on the bikes for a hard push and some sprints, and then we take them through an upper body workout. I handle the second spinning effort and the upper body workout. My group spans the range of fitness. I try to focus them on form as much as I can, but I really try to push the more fit folks harder because they're the ones I see getting complacent. I've been doing this for a month now and I've had about five people comment how they have been working out for years and yet this class still kills them. I tell them that's because every class should do that and they shoudl be proud when they can barely walk out because it shows they put up an honest effort. The mental part of tuning out the pain of going hard is the key and I'm always asking people "Are you really done? Could you have even given me one more rep (or five more seconds on a sprint)?" Just putting that thought in their heads gets some of them to wonder and then give it a shot. And that decision to do so is where their fitness BEGINS.

Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded. I'd say you probably want to get some direction with respect to your diet from a pro (seriosuly, most gyms do offer them as as part of your membership at least once a year), and then, whatever you do to work out, just keep asking yourself, "Is this all I've got?" Obviously, with cycling, you can't go balls to the wall the whole ride, but you can pick your spots, right? Next time you start that big climb or see a specific tree inthe distance, ask yourself how hard you can go and how fast can you reach that marker. Put together a few of these every ride, and you're on your way.

(By the way, I shouuld probably have mentioned earlier that I am a trainer, former bodybuilder, and a Spinning instructor whose had the great privilege of working with an encyclopedia of fitness knowledge who owns and runs my gym. I'm basically just repeating what I've learned from him and his fantastic staff.)

Good luck!

[S. cerevisiae]

Join an amateur wrestling club that works out in the summer. Become vegetarian, no white foods, gallon of water/day, oh and RIDE YOUR A$$ OFF.

I followed the Zone Diet for a year and lost 40 pounds without working out at all. It's a similar model to South Beach, and is probably more like your grandmother told you to eat. Loads of fresh veggies, and only very fibrous fruits for carb sources.

[davkatreb]

Ride the f*ck out of your bike. No brainer. It's summer, you're a schoolteacher; what else ya got to do?

Come September, shitcan the history class and teach phys ed.

[cMc]

I'll go with "eat less, exercise more." It's a radical new notion I've been reading about.

[JimS_99]

Nob Nob Nob

[Shkenblke]

Work out 2-3 times a day, for at least 2 hours each session. During those workouts make sure to wear at least 4-5 layers of clothes with the top two layers being some form of sweatshirt/sweatpants and windbreaker/warmup pants combo. Wear a wool hat too. I always liked to wear thermal underwear as a bottom layer, and if you really wanna get serious wear a trash bag under everything too. Just kidding, don't do that. Longer workouts at a slightly lower heart rate ( I believe around 130-140 bpm) is the optimal fat burning heart rate and the longer rides/other workouts help prolong that. Also, after a workout dont be afraid to eat a little snack, it keeps your metabolism going. Just make sure its something nutritious and not to high in fat. Lifting is a great way to boost metabolism as well. 20lbs is totally doable. I've done 25 in little over a month multiple times. Also, make sure to cross train and vary your workouts. IF you keep doing the same workout day after day or very similar workouts, you will have a much longer plateau period. If you change things up more you will have shorter plateaus ( which means much less frustration when you don't lose weight) and also helps to work different muscle groups. In all honesty it all truly boils down to burning more than what you consume. Also, try weight watchers. A lot of people make fun of it, but it really does work, especially if you have no problem working out as well. Good luck man, you can do it!

[poison idea]

here's another one i read at the gym -drink a fiber drink. apparently there is a lot of pooh inside people plus they are very filling and low call. sounds silly, yet effective

S. cerevisiae/Shkenblke had good points about wrestling. you can't keep weight on if youre grappling regularly. boxing and muay thai are fantastic as well. my buddy is 6'1 and weighed 205. after 4 months of muay thai 3-4x a week he was down to 160. we thought he had AIDS or worms or something. it was that drastic.

[althegud1srtakn]

I'll go with "eat less, exercise more." It's a radical new notion I've been reading about.

i don't know, it sounds like some hip new fad to me. i'd rather go with something tried and true, i was thinking atkins or something similar.

[Shkenblke]

Meant to include this in my last post. Don't always look at your weightloss by numbers because you very well could be disapointed. As your burning fat you will probably be increasing muscle mass (depending on your workout structure) and since muscle does weigh more than fat, as you lose one and gain another your weightloss numbers could look disapointing. The mirror in all honesty NEVER lies (unless you have one of those cool trick mirrors). Personally I always tell people that they should evaluate themselves more by how they look in the mirror then by a number because you'll see the results, where as you might not see results by the numbers.

[PutAwayWet]

As your burning fat you will probably be increasing muscle mass (depending on your workout structure) and since muscle does weigh more than fat, as you lose one and gain another your weightloss numbers could look disapointing.

True true. About 7 years ago I weighed 185 lbs, and was 27% body fat. After 4 months in the gym 4 hours a day, I was 175 lbs and 11% body fat. I may have only lost 10 lbs overall, but I went down two notches on my belt and went from an overhanging gut to cast iron frying pan belly. Of course, now the belly's back to "soggy wok" but I'm working on that.... :o