Best way to lose 2 and half stone fast?

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Hello, ok so i've joined my local gym (again:o) and basically at 5ft10 i need to get down from around 16stone 9 down to 14stone to be back to my normal BMI, lose the belly and upper legs (my arms and rest of body in general is in quite good shape and im not couch potato unfit) and what i would like to know is how can i proper lose the weight fast?

What i would be interested in hearing from is people that are either fitness instructors or nutritionalists/doctors ect or people that have done it before. This isnt a bar for all other posters, but these are the people i would be most interested in hearing from the most.

Basically im stuck in a rut sort of speak atm, and decided i need to do something so gonna join either royal air force or royal navy and i wanna do it now!!:D

I know i should work hard and eat well, thats obvious, and the 'one holes bigger than the other' such arguments dont help either, so please, useful advice welcome :cool: Thanks!
 
Good diet with a decent calorie deficit low carb I find works the best for me personally, I do 3-4 sessions of push pull split weight workouts a week plus 2-3 40-60min cardio sessions or maybe replace one or two of them with some HIIT. Also cut any alcohol right down.
I find this can drop me by 1-1.5kg a week if I stick to it.
 
I wouldn't neglect the advice of unqualified individuals, a lot of people in SA are quite knowledgable and most have undergone quite impressive transformations.

If it helps I'm a qualified instructor training to be a Personal Trainer come summer.

First things first I'd read GordyR's Guide To Bodybuilding at the top. Irrelevant of whether you want to drop fat or be the next Arnie read it as the information is relevant. Building muscle WILL help you to loower bodyfat and speed up metabolism.

Secondly your diet is crucial in achieving your goals so log for the next few days/week EXACTLY what you eat in as accurate quantities as you can. None of this a splash of this, a couple of that, bowl of this etc! mls, grams etc. Then we can help you improve your diet. (Yes it's a pain measuring things out a weighing them but if you want to shift the weight then you have to put the effort in!) Dish out your normal portions and then weigh them.

Thirdly how much time do you have to train? how long do you want to be spending in the gym each session? any injuries?

As tom_e has said; lower carbs and a calorie defecit with 2-3 cardio sessions per week, alternating HIIT & steady state cardio is what tends to work for most people. Realistically nutrition will have a bigger role in their loses or gains than hours spent slugging out CV.
 
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a lot of people will be against this, but it does work.

just eat special k (the normal one, dont eat the one with fruit, they have hidden sugar) 3-4 times a day for a month.
 
a lot of people will be against this, but it does work.

just eat special k (the normal one, dont eat the one with fruit, they have hidden sugar) 3-4 times a day for a month.

and for good reason as well, thats just downright crap and possibly health damaging advice
 
and for good reason as well, thats just downright crap and possibly health damaging advice

how is it health damaging? its healthy food, it just doesnt contain that many calories. its better than starving which is what models do. as long as he only does it for a month he should be fine
 
a lot of people will be against this, but it does work.

just eat special k (the normal one, dont eat the one with fruit, they have hidden sugar) 3-4 times a day for a month.

The reason it works is because it's a quick fix for calorie defecit.

Having 2 meals a day as pritty much just carbs really isn't advisable. Nor is creating such a massive defecit straight away.

Sure you'll drop weight but if you want to KEEP weight off then you need to re-adress your lifestyle. Once you stop eating special k and revert back to your old diet you'll be back at square one again.

There are much better foods to eat than special k, much better cereals even. There is no magic ingredient in special k it's just cereal and a poor one at that.
 
the quickest way, that could be seen as remotely healthy would be a protein sparing modified fast. you'd still have to think about the transition period when you began eating at maintenance though.
 
don't know how fast you want to lose 2 and a half stones but i lost that amount of weight in about 1.5years just by dieting alone. lost the weight pretty fast in the first few months, afterwards was slow but it worked and i'm still maintaining the weight.

when i say dieting, i mean calorie counting for me. i cut down to 1500 calories a day - recommended daily intake for women is 2000 calories, for a guy is 2500 calories so not too sure how much a guy should cut down to.. probably like 2000 calories or something? i read somewhere that you could lose 1-2lbs a week by cutting down to 1500 calories a day (for women).
 
don't know how fast you want to lose 2 and a half stones but i lost that amount of weight in about 1.5years just by dieting alone. lost the weight pretty fast in the first few months, afterwards was slow but it worked and i'm still maintaining the weight.

when i say dieting, i mean calorie counting for me. i cut down to 1500 calories a day - recommended daily intake for women is 2000 calories, for a guy is 2500 calories so not too sure how much a guy should cut down to.. probably like 2000 calories or something? i read somewhere that you could lose 1-2lbs a week by cutting down to 1500 calories a day (for women).



it depends on your metabolism and body mass. a 140lb guy is going to have vastly different calorie requirements to a 230lb guy. likewise a 230lb guy at 35% bodyfat will have different requirements to a 230lb guy at 10% bodyfat.
 
Listen to BennyC. He knows his stuff!

Don't bother with these crash diets like the special K thing mentioned or just instantly dropping to 1000 cals a day. It's really not a good idea.

Also, unless you're going to spend 2-3 hours at the gym going absolutely mental, your diet will probably be more important than your training schedule. You can never out-train a bad diet! Just cut out the junk and as suggested keep a note of what you eat, and how much of it. Try get rid of any rubbish carbs as well, e.g. swap white potatos for sweet potato, cut out the bread or at least switch to brown bread, and switch from white to brown pasta/rice. Make sure you get lots of veggies as well, particularly the green ones.

Good luck!
 
...or just instantly dropping to 1000 cals a day.
not quite 1000 calories a day.. you could easily eat the same quantity of food as a normal person would eat and still only consume 1500 calories a day. it's just a matter of seeking the healthier and lower calorie options. but this doesn't necessarily mean the quality of food is also compromised.. you could eat healthy and low fat foods combined with some junk that would still reduce your calories at the same time.

i wouldn't say cutting calories is bad, you will probably find that a normal healthy person probably won't even consume the recommended 2000 or 2500 calories a day anyway.
 
Well some great advice i've read so far and thank you very much indeed :) Just been down to the supermarket and bought myself a lettuce, some other greens like cucumber, tomatoes and few other stuff and about 12 packs of various cooked cold meats, checking that it was all low in carbs and fat but good in protein. These i will use for main meals at night. I hope this is a good choice?

As for rest of the day, i been having porridge in the morning with either treacle or jam, then my day at work starts 6 in morning until 3.30 afternoon. I am a warehouse order picker. Its quite a physical job and involves constantly jumping on and off a 2 pallet picking truck and loading pallets up with stock. Im sure burning some calories off this way :D

I do spend a fair bit of time at gym also, been going about 5 times this week for about 1.5-2 hours a time.

I will take all advice on board, and also will be sure to go read that guide (in the morning /yawn).

Thanks again :) Still following the thread...
 
Looks like you're going the right direction matey, ensure the amounts your eating are sensible also.

One thing that caught me out when I'm trying to slice a little fat off is when I have quite active days, I eat much more without realising, even though what I eat is pretty good for you.
 
Diet is the major thing here.

But look into doing some HIIT running, I enjoyed it and made a difference to my slight beer gut.
 
ok just an update (and thanks btw for all your support :)) im now fully qualified at the gym (had both parts of inductions and got the entry card /yay) and plan on using it every day straight after work and perhaps on some days off too. I have a session with a personal trainer tomorrow who will sort me out with a pure fat losing plan and i will tell them that im not too concerned about losing a 'little' muscle to start off with, although ideally i should avoid that.

About my diet this weekend. Yesterday as soon as i got up i went on a 7 and half mile pushbike ride took about 50 minutes before coming back and having porridge with a spoon of treacle to make it actually eat-able :D then it was mates birthday that day so it was only about 5 pints for me that day (roughtly 200kcal per pint with no fat/carbs?) then that evening had salad and cajan chicken (2.1% fat and very low carb) then today similar again porridge this morning then gym then tonight i had similar again (with 2 very naughty, albeit mini scotch eggs :D). Oh c'mon lol!

One question, is a bit of treacle ok to have on my porridge, providing its first thing in morning like before being active, or should i skip it altogether? What about a spoon of jam instead?

Cheers again!
 
Can't help with the treacle/jam question but I think jam would be the more favourable.

Don't be scared of fat! to loose fat you need to eat GOOD fats.

The occasional treat is also perfectly acceptable. It's quite common to have 1 (or 2) treat meals per week to reward yourself. They can also be a scapegoat for any missed goals so as not to de-motivate yourself ;)
 
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