Best Way to Lose a Gut?

[RoJoHen]

You really need to be more concerned with your overall diet rather than, "Can I eat this food? Can I eat that food?"

Most food is fine in moderation. But things like bread (pretzels?), pasta, potatoes, rice...these are complex carbs. They're important and great for fueling your body, but you just need to make sure you're consuming too much.

Body composition is all about calories. If you burn more than you consume, you're gonna lose weight. If you consume more than you burn, you'll gain weight. Just try to eat a variety of foods, and make sure you get in protein, fruits, and vegetables.

 

[Lindley]

I'm just curious because I tend to get into food habits, and lately I've been wondering if I can shape those habits in better directions. I'll never be the sort of person who eats more than 7 or 8 unique meals (content-wise) per month, it's just the order that gets switched up a bit.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, here's my advice. If you like pasta, eat pasta. But eat less of it. Add some meatballs or something to it if it's not enough food. That way you're eating fewer carbs and extra protein, giving the meal a more diverse nutritional profile.

Make smaller portions. If you're still hungry, make more. But I'd rather you not make enough at first than make too much and try to finish it.

 

[Malcom]

Do as I do, eat pasta for lunch when you know you'll have a workout later.

 

[MetroKid]

Rojohen is right about portion control. If you find you are still hungry after a first portion wait 10 or 20 minutes then eat again ONLY of you did not feel satisfied after 20 minutes. Another way to fill up is in addition to pasta eat a dark green salad, skip the ice berg lettuce, it is worthless. Raw Spinach is good because it fills you up and is chock full of minerally goodness.

as for your salt question, salt inhibits weight loss because it causes your fat cells to retain water. water is heavy and will affect your weigh ins. sure it is purely a cosmetic thing, but it can be discouraging to a person if they didn't know.

 

[RoJoHen]

Good call with the water retention.

Weird fact: The more water you drink, the less you will retain, the skinnier you will appear.

 

[RAMA]

What's the most effective exercise/dieting way to loose a beer belly? I'm not fat except there, it just all goes right to my gut for some reason. And it's not beer I don't even drink alcohol!

Stomach crunches? Walking/jogging? Constant tantric sex?

Diet. Any decent ab exercise that works your abs or burns fat will do if your diet is clean and you don't have loose skin.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

Well, here's my advice. If you like pasta, eat pasta. But eat less of it. Add some meatballs or something to it if it's not enough food. That way you're eating fewer carbs and extra protein, giving the meal a more diverse nutritional profile.

Make smaller portions. If you're still hungry, make more. But I'd rather you not make enough at first than make too much and try to finish it.

Wheat pasta tastes better and is healthier for you. In place of a lot of pasta, eat a lot of brown rice for complex carbs.

RAMA

 

[RoJoHen]

Wheat pasta tastes better

That, my friend, is highly debatable. I think it tastes disgusting.

 

[Mr Light]

A friend just told me about the wonders of the Atkins diet, that she lost 40 pounds just doing that without a lick of exercise. That you just eat meat/protein and avoid eating bread, pasta, or soda. Except for that initial 2-4 day period where you can only eat protein and no carbs whatsoever. How bout that?

 

[RoJoHen]

It's debatable. A lot of bodybuilders do something like that before contests in order to cut their remaining fat, but it's not something you'd want to do long term.

 

[Lindley]

Side question regarding weights. There's a basic exercise room at my apartment complex which I use sometimes.

Which is more important, reps or weight? For instance, on the bench press machine I can manage 16 reps at 130 pounds, but I could probably do more if I limited myself to, say, only 100. Which provides more benefits?

 

[RAMA]

If you will be running a marathon, then spaghetti is great, if not, give it a pass.

Could I get more details on this please? Spaghetti (or other noodles) is something I eat almost every other day. Usually the whole-wheat or 7-grain kind. Is that bad?

Noodles are complex carbs. For a marathon runner, eating some pasta is great because it will provide long-lasting energy for the race.

But if you're not very active, pasta can easily make you gain fat.

Unfortunately white, enriched flour pasta is almost as worthless nutritionally as white bread is. It has less protein, isn't as easilly digested, and turns to sugar in the body. 30 nutrients are removed in processing white pasta! On top of that, white pasta has:

-62 percent of the zinc
-72 percent of the magnesium
-95 percent of the Vitamin E
-50 percent of the folic acid
-72 percent of the chromium
-78 percent of the Vitamin B 6
-78 percent of the fiber

..compared to wheat pasta!!

RAMA

 

[Daedalus12]

Side question regarding weights. There's a basic exercise room at my apartment complex which I use sometimes.

Which is more important, reps or weight? For instance, on the bench press machine I can manage 16 reps at 130 pounds, but I could probably do more if I limited myself to, say, only 100. Which provides more benefits?

To build muscle mass you should pick a weight that you can do about a few sets of 5 reps so 16 sounds good.

 

[RoJoHen]

Side question regarding weights. There's a basic exercise room at my apartment complex which I use sometimes.

Which is more important, reps or weight? For instance, on the bench press machine I can manage 16 reps at 130 pounds, but I could probably do more if I limited myself to, say, only 100. Which provides more benefits?

It really depends on your goals. If you're trying to bulk up and add a lot of muscle, you want to stay in the low rep/high weight area. For example, when I work out, if I can do 12 reps, it's time to increase the weight. However, if I can't manage 6 reps, it's probably too heavy. I typically try to keep it in that range (I start lighter with 12 reps on my first set, then I add weight until I can only do about 6, usually a total of 4 or 5 sets).

Higher reps and lighter weight will help build muscular endurance.

Either way, you need to push yourself. Muscles don't grow from half-assed workouts.

 

[MetroKid]

A friend just told me about the wonders of the Atkins diet, that she lost 40 pounds just doing that without a lick of exercise. That you just eat meat/protein and avoid eating bread, pasta, or soda. Except for that initial 2-4 day period where you can only eat protein and no carbs whatsoever. How bout that?

Your friend is remarkably ignorant. In your other thread we already talked about the long term dangers of a high protein/low carb diet.

You CANNOT safely loose weight without getting off your seat and getting active.

 

[Ariadne]

A friend just told me about the wonders of the Atkins diet, that she lost 40 pounds just doing that without a lick of exercise. That you just eat meat/protein and avoid eating bread, pasta, or soda. Except for that initial 2-4 day period where you can only eat protein and no carbs whatsoever. How bout that?

I knew a few people who did that - they wound up with problems with high cholesterol.