Weight Loss Tips #3

Calories

Many people do not understand how important calories are in weight loss. The moment you understand how it works then weight loss will be a downhill task for you.Calories are units of energy that your body needs for you to go about your daily activities.

How are calories converted to fat then?

One pound of fat (450 grams) equals 3500 calories and to gain one pound of fat in a week you need to eat 500 extra calories per day. That also means for you to burn one pound of fat you need to exercise and lose 500 extra calories. Rocket science? no. This means if you just keep on piling your calories, your body will have more energy than it needs, and that will be converted and stored as fat.

See an active woman needs around 1200-1400 calories per day, and an active man needs around 2000-2500 calories per day. For ladies that means you meals should be approximately 400-450 calories per meal, three meals a day. Now lets have a look:

Most fruits and vegetables have acceptable amounts of calories, but i would like to focus on junk food:

• 2 stuffed Oreos have 140 calories.
• 500 ml bottle Coca-cola  has 210 calories
• 50g bar cadbury Chocolate has 260 calories.
• 1 piece of chicken has 306 calories
• 1 hamburger has 280 calories
• Small plate of fries has 365 calories
• 1 sausage has 143 calories
• 50 grams ice cream tube has 145 calories
• 1 piece of pizza has 285 calories
• 1 slice of chocolate cake has 352 calories
• 1 cookie has 78 calories

Etc

This means if you have Coke+Chicken+Chips+sausage= 1024 calories in one meal
or if you have a piece of pizza+coke+hamburger= 766 calories in one meal
If you decide to buy the small pack of Oreo that goes for 30 shillings (6 pieces)= 420 calories already.

And remember, all these are one meal (lunch), you haven't counted breakfast and supper and those in between snacks and sodas.

This explains why clean eating and exercise are very important in weight loss:
1. Clean eating ensures you avoid excessive caloric intake
2. exercise ensures you lose the excess calories

Now this doesnt mean that you avoid these foods altogether, you can set aside a day when you are allowed to have a piece of this and that (known as cheat day).
Also avoid being too petty on calories, but also ensure that you are aware at the back of your mind roughly the amount of work calories in fast food will put you to.

Now let us assume you have taken the above mentioned junk food, do you know how much exercise it would take you to burn it and avoid it piling into fat?

Ati to burn the calories in that piece of deep fried chicken you will have to cycle for 65 minutes!
And 4 stuffed Oreos would take you 1.3 hours of weight lifting,
For that small bar of Cadburys Chocolate, you would require 30 minutes of swimming to burn them calories.

It is time you started eating clean, drop junk food and without even exercising i will assure you that your clothes will start getting baggy within a month of clean eating. Then after that you can now include these light exercises we talked about. And there you have it, the possible reasons why you have been unable to lose that weight and keep fit.

Haya twende kazi!
Adhis ♥

Weight Loss Tips #2

Exercise

"A rolling stone gathers no moss" I am sure sure most of us wrote that proverb in our compositions in lower primary. In your weight loss journey, let us translate that to "A moving person gathers no weight" hehe. After you have eaten clean, the next thing is to get moving.

Most people claim that they are busy and don't have time for the gym, here are a few tips that can help you:

1. Dont take the lifts, use the stairs instead. It doesn't matter whether to 2nd floor or to 10th floor. You can start small, e.g add one flight of stairs weekly.

2. If you take public transport to and from work, alight one stop before your usual stop. Walk for 30 minutes or so.

3.Buy a skipping rope. Once you have used the stairs and done those 30 minute walks daily, you may want to start skipping. Skipping is quite intensive so you may want to start small. You can start with 50 skips daily for one week. You can then move to 100, then 200 etc. I can comfortably go for up to 2000 skips.

NB: Never skip ropes without the proper shoes, you risk injuring your foot, also land softly and not with a thump.

4. You can then advance to workout dvds. Most movie shops stock these dvds. The easiest to start with are the Zumba dvds. They are quite enjoyable since they involve some dance techniques. I would advice you to look for a workout dvd called "Look Better Naked" it is my all time favourite. The moves seem quite easy but i guarantee you you will be sweating by your 10th minute. There are other dvds also available in the market.

5. You can join the gym and also have a personal trainer.

See, you dont have an excuse for not working out now, do you?

Have a nice workout, Adhis ♥

Weight Loss Tips #1

Clean Eating
Its amazing that majority of people trying to lose weight believe that exercise is the most important aspect. How wrong they are. You have been working out very hard, walking, jogging, attacking walls and rocks etc, but you keep gaining weight.

The most important thing you should know in your weight loss journey, is that Weight loss is 80% diet and only 20% exercise. Now you know why you have stagnated at one point despite exercising frequently. If you are not eating clean, its no use exercising. You would be better off seated on a couch somewhere watching Tv.

What is Clean eating?

Clean eating entails ensuring that your plate is filled with healthy food. Its all about eliminating food, drinks and snacks that cause your body more harm than good. The point is to reduce processed foods to the best of your ability and the more natural the food, the "cleaner" it is.

What to eat

*The most important point is to ensure that you always eat a balanced diet, three times a day. always ensure that your meals include proteins, carbohydrates and Fat

*Its recommended that a healthy adult takes 4 fruits and 5 veggies DAILY. yes it is, check the CDC website.

*Instead of refined foods, choose unrefined foods. increase your intake of whole grains e.g brown rice, millet, amaranth etc. Also add beans and legumes.

What to avoid

*Junk food are your number one enemy! Avoid junk food at all costs. Try to settle for healthier food. Pizza, Chips, Burgers, Kebabs, Chocolate, Crips, Sausages, Samosas, etc

*Eliminate soft drinks 100%. Sodas, sodas, soda! The next time you buy that soda kindly check the label. First look at the ingredients (read chemicals) then check out the calories listed. I need not explain further. Coffees and sodas will add approximately 500 calories to your daily count. Calories are my next post.

* White flour is a stumbling block in your weight loss journey. Whit bread is one of the worst culprits. The same goes for Chapati and Mandazi.  Cookies and biscuits are a no-no. the same goes for cakes, pastries and muffins.Refined wheat is a very big demon most of us have to conquer before the Scale posts attractive figures.

* Sugar and sweets. Other than placing you in high risk of developing diabetes and other "lifestyle diseases", sugar intake is one of the reasons you will continue growing fat. I know it is a task for most of us to edrasticlly reduce our sugar intake. If you usually take 4 teaspoons per cup, reduce it to 3.5. One week later you can reduce it to 3. Then 2.5, then 2 etc. Right now i am comfortably taking sugarless tea. *sips some tea.

* Reduce your intake of red meat. Have you ever noticed people who love nyama choma are usually the fattest in the crowd. Your body doesnt need a lot of animal proteins. If you really love your meat, try white meat.

*Alcohol, yes believe it or not. Combine alcohol + Nyama choma= we all know the results.

*Processed foods. The next time you are in the supermarket pick any processed food and read the ingredients. If you cannot properly pronounce them what makes you think they are good for your general health? Yaye!

*Avoid excess salt. It is said that the best salt is the one that was cooked with your food. Avoid adding salt from the shaker at all costs.

Instead of snacking on junk food, have an apple, some nuts, a banana, a glass of fresh juice etc

I will add more items to this list as we proceed. But am sure you now know what to do and what to avoid.

Have a lovely evening 

Adhis♥

Weight Loss Tips

Its amazing how people in this century still believe that fad diets and magic pills will work wonders and they will lose weight. They wont. Effective weight loss is all about a healthy lifestyle. Its about adopting changes that you can maintain ten years from now, not fad diets that last a week long and after that you are back to where you started.

My Experience
By now you know that am trying to lose around 12 kgs. I want to get back to the 60's mark that i was in. Since January this year, I have adopted a lifestyle change and i am more than happy with the results so far. Clothes that were figure hugging are now all loose and at this point a wardrobe makeover is not an option.

Over the next one week i will be posting tips that have worked for me so far. Remember i am not weighing my self before August, but from what i can see my guess would be that i have lost not less than 5 Kilos so far. oh they joy!

Other than those tips i will post, here is some useful information:
* You did not gain all that weight in one month, it will not disappear in a month.
* Fad diets and weird pills will not work, once you stop taking them you will be back to square one.
* Have a clear target e.g I want to lose X kilos in Y months time.
* Persistence is very important.
* I would highly recommend you keep a journal for purposes of tracking your journey's progress
* weight loss is a personal journey, once you put your mind to it nothing can stop you.

And did i mention that last week  i wore my favourite dress which i stopped wearing early last year due to my size? And the best part is i didn't need assistance from my sister to fit in, actually the dress was flowing freely, nothing could wipe the smile off my face that day :) :) :)

Have a healthy weekend

Adhis♥