i am wanting to lose weight in a healthy way. I know i should eat 6 small meals a day. i have no clue where to begin. i take a multi vitamin.(dont know if its the best one or not-dont know if theres a difference) i recently starting taking cla 369. and i started drinking a protein shake after my tae kwon do class. my weight right now is 148 and should be(or i want it to be) around 125. im 5ft tall. I must tell you i was anorexic about 15 years ago for app 5 years and over came it thru the grace of God. but now im suffering on the other end b/c i ruined my metabolism. ive had 4 kids in the past 12 years. i wear a pedometer to track my steps and force my self to hit the 10,000 mark every day. sometimes i exceed it(i do not wear it in tae kwon do-which i do 2x a week). i hear so much about different things that i am confused. I am very body conscious and very critical of myself. i enjoy exercising so that is not an issue for me.i do not understand all this professional weight loss talk so i need it to be in plain english. i am also a very picky eater. should i go get that vegtable powder stuff you pour in your drinks, should i stay away from starches, should i eat all protein, what is acceptable fat content, etc..... i am just soooo confused. please help. i DO NOT WANT TO BE FAT!!!!!! that scares the crap out of me. my weight consumes every sec of every day and i beat myself up when i do something bad.

First thing, you need to do is except that losing the weight is going to take time. Except that and don't put too much pressure on yourself. Having a positive attitude will take you much further in the long run then any diet!! You need to start off slow. Make daily and weekly short term goals. My guess is you have all the knowledge you need to get started you just need to sit down and develop a plan. If you give me your age and your body type (endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph) I can give you a very good breakdown of what you should be consuming protein/carbs/fat wise. :)

I know how frustrated you are because a few people in my family have gone through it for years. I think they have some bad habits as well as a lot of misinformation coming from the diet and fitness mega industries. The diet folks tell you fats are bad, fitness gurus are obsessed with glycemic indexes. I have to tell you right off that I am no expert on weight loss and have never had an overweight problem, (I am thin) but I do know a lot about healthy foods and I love to eat and prepare tasty whole food dishes.

You shouldn't be afraid of fats and oils or high glycemic fruits and veggies. Here's why:
Fats make up a large part of what our body is made of, and so we do need to eat lots of them each day--but real fats, not fake fats like hydrogenated oils. The brain is 60% fat - EPA, DHA, Lauric acid. EPA and DHA are essential fatty acids. That means we can't live without them and can't produce them in our body. We must get them from fatty fish like wild salmon (farmed salmon lacks complete omega 3), sardines, mackerel and anchovies. Smaller amounts of the fatty acids are in tuna and shellfish. Lauric acid comes from coconut oil - yes it's healthy and helps you lose weight. As long as it has NOT been hydrogenated. Chicken and beef also contain fatty acids that we need. Conventionally raised beef is lacking in CLA. This fatty acid is formed when cows eat grass, so you are smart to keep taking CLA capsules if you don't eat organic beef or butter. All of these fats and oils are also good for the heart. Did you know that LOW FAT diets are associated with sudden massive heart attacks and strokes? Trans fat (hydrogenated) is bad, real fat is good.

Healthy oils:
olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, peanut and other nut oils, avacado oil.

Not so healthy oils:
soy oil tends to promote weight gain, safflower oil, canola oil, corn oil

The healthiest diet isn't really a diet but consists of the 40:30:30 approach. That is 40% carbs 30% fat and 30% protein.

Thin people always eat breakfast. Overweight people rarely eat breakfast. This is bad for the metabolism and teaches the body to store fat.

About sugars. Another dangerous misconception running around is that all sugars make you gain weight. Refined sugar like white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, glucose are best avoided altogether. It's not hard if you prepare your own foods and stay away from almost anything in a box. White sugar began from a beautiful complex sugarcane plant and has been stripped of its minerals vitamins and enzymes. They bleach it, cook it at 1200 degrees F and what is left is pure carbohydrate. We can't absorb this properly without all of the nutrients attached. It sends blood sugar sky high, and gets stored as fat. The processed corn syrups, fake syrups, and glucose that are added to boxed foods are also "extracted" from the original food source without its surrounding nutrients to make it digestible and have a similar toxic effect on our body.

Real sugar, unprocessed, in its original form attached to its associated nutrients is good for us. These sugars are complex and are known as polysaccharides, oligosaccharides or fructo-oligosaccharides. They fight illnesses and prevent cancer just like anti-oxidants do. Complex saccharides are in fruits and carrots and corn and beets. Yes, high glycemic foods, and no they don't make you gain weight in their whole food form. Eating sweet fruit snacks like oranges, raisins, dried cranberries, carrot sticks can stop you from craving the bad sugar in fake foods. The food industry sells things with processed sugars added. The food mega industry knows fat people eat more and they can make more money if they keep the consumer fat.

It is good to snack on fruit, veggies and avacado / sesame dip, trail mix, mixed nuts (full of good fats that reduce bad fat and bad cholesterol in your body.) Oils become less healthy when cooked in high heat. This forms acrylamides, a damaging carcinogen. Coconut oil is stable in high heat to 375 degrees. Grapeseed oil is high heat stable too and adds no flavour.

Reducing and working towards eliminating packaged foods would be the most effective route to weight loss. Increasing your raw foods is a major help as well.

first off, to you maxot26, i took a test at a web site and it told me that i was inbetween an endomorph and a mesomorph. i am 34 years old. and whether or not it makes a difference i have had 4 kids. youngest one being 3. so this is not baby fat. im very strong willed, so when i set my mind to something i always achieve it. but i know that my metabolism comes in to play here, and i have totally ruined mine. i can look at food and gain weight. i dont eat after 6. but, i am soooo terrified of being fat that i read all my food labels and if it looks like it has too many calories/fat. i wont eat it, even if its supposed to be good for you. i welcome any and all advice, but remember i am truly terrified of trying to do this the "healthy" way. all i know is starvation. and that it worked for me before, but i have kids now that i have to take care of. so thats not an option for me any more.

to you "gort" the above also applies to you. like the snacks you were talking about. that trail mix and nuts and all, they just have too much fat in them and it scares me to death that i am putting that fat in my body. i dont want to be "thin". but i do want to lookk good, feel good and enjoy a long healthy life. but for some reason i just cannot justify putting fat into my body and still losing weight from it.

I understand your fears about fat. It is the anti-fat propaganda in the media that has conditioned people into thinking all fats are bad. But it is true that the good fats help you lose weight and that avoiding good fats can cause weight gain and heart disease and depression. I suggest you keep to what you believe in for now but to also check some books on fat in the library or buy them. Two I can think of to set things straight are "Fat Wars" and "Eat Fat Look Thin." It will take some time for eating fat to make sense but I think when you understand it through research, you will not be so nervous about eating the healthy fats, eventually.

It is also worthy of note to know that the Atkins diet involved eating high fat low carb foods and resulted in substantial and longterm weight loss of its followers.

ok, lets start this thing slow. i am highly addicted to dr pepper and i know that if i quit, i will get terrible headaches, i already tried. water is so hard for me to drink, and tea is no problem. so starting off with one thing at a time, this is one of the things id like to change. any suggestions. i tried tea with splenda and it was ok, i also tried those fruit water drinks but they are too fruity, if i force my self to drink water, what is a good starting point for me

Ok you need 1900 calories a day. 239 grams of protein, 173g of carbs, and YES 27g of fat. This is the optimal nutritional breakdown for you to build lean muscle and reduce bodyfat. But in order for this to be effective you are going to need to start strength training. I suggest you break done your workouts into five days a week Mon-Fri. The weekends are yours! Train a different muscle group everyday and each muscle group once a week. Your workouts should be short 30-40 minutes is ideal, but always keep them under and hour.

For optimal results I suggest you seperate your cardio and your weight training if at all possible. If not then do your cardio after your weight training. Try to spread them out 8-12 hours apart. Keep your cardio sessions SHORT AND WITH HIGH INTENSITY. 20 mins max for cardio. Start off with 4 days a week and we can work up from there. There are a number of reasons I am telling you to train this way all of which help accomplish exactly what you are trying to acheive in the most effective way current research has to offer.

Again with the diet, definitley start slow. Daily and weekly eating goals! If you drink 3 sodas a day cut it to two or get a total for the week and reduce it everyweek. As far as water, Idealy at your body weight you should be consuming around 90-100oz a day. But start slow. Keep a 20oz water bottle in your car and only drink it when your in you car. Make sure it is gone every day. And slowly increase the amount. Subsitute water for one or two meals a day that you usually don't drink water with.

One more thing on the fat issue, I will use myself as in example. I have been into bodybuilding and fitness for over a decade. I never focused on consuming healthy fat and my body fat always hoovered around 8/9%. As soon as up my fat intake, in about two months my bodyfat dropped to 6%. Healthy fat is a must!! I expect more questions so feel free to ask.

how do you feel about protein shakes. do they help, hurt or nothing at all? The lady at gnc told me that i should take the cla 369 and drink protein shakes after my tae kwon do classes which i do twice a week.
as far as the fat intake, that is an incredible amount in my eyes to be consuming every day. i beleive you may have told me previously, but if not, how do i know the difference in good and bad fat?(i'll check your previous responses-if you have already told me dont worry about it). if i do this, how long(realisticly)would it take for me to see a change, whether good or bad. will i pack on a few pounds at first and then it will go away or what. i need to know what to expect so that i dont see negative results and get scared and stop

If you start following this diet and exercise program you should start noticeing strength increases every week. With that will come muscle gains. Putting a time limit or a time exceptation on it is unrealalistic. It is completely relative to each individual. I know your probably don't like hearing that but it is the truth. Remember, with everything, you get in what you put in. If you are sticking to your diet and exercise program, and training hard; you will make steady and noticeable progress. You will definitley want to take protein! It is essential to the muscle building progress, which in turn will led to lower body fat levels. Good fats are unsaturated fats. You get them from nut, avocado, fish, red meats. CLA is a good supplement for good fats as well.

I would not go overboard with the diet. Like I said just establish a plan and shoot for short term diet goals. However, focus very intently on you exercise program. Get it down and get consistant with it and week by week tighten the screws on your diet.

you said that CLA is a supplement for good fats? so in turn what that is, is i am taking CLA which is putting the good fats into my body? therefore i do not need to worry about finding and eating my good fats?. i know i sound dumb, but i honestly have no clue what i am doing. should i not be taking the CLA? should i do both?(cla and "good fats")uhhhhhh, i am so frustrated!!!!! i dont know what i am doing. Please help. i know you are trying. i just seem to be getting lost somewhere. and i just want to make sure i am doing the right things.Most of the fat on my body(i'll say 90%) is my stomach. i DO NOT know how to get rid of it. And i really dont want to starve myself. i read somewhere that i need to trick my body into thinking that it doesnt need to save up my extra calories by not eating the same foods every day. but its already saving all my calories b/c i messed up my metabolism and i dont know how to fix it. Why would one have excess stomach fat. and not all over body fat?
sorry, just having a bad day. so let me see if i got this somewhat right. polyunsaturated and monounsaturated are good fats and trans are bad fats? anything hydronated or processed is bad as well? what about my carbohydrates?i know i can subtract the dietary fiber from the total carbs, but when it says "other" or "sugar" how much is too much. i normally look at a label and read the calories, fat, sodium and carbs. i pretty much understand them except the carbs. and where it says how many calories comes from fat. i dont know what it should be. i need to eat raw foods, nothing from a box, or lunchmeat?(like subs) remember i am very picky and there fore i do not eat fruit or veggies. i LOVE p-nut butter. i like butter beans and corn, i like cucumbers and watermelon. thats the most healthy stuff i eat. i eat whole wheat bread(100%ww) oh and i do like pinto beans. what about baked potatoes w/fat free spray butter. i do not like condiments at all.(ie:dressings,ketchup,mayo,mustard,b bq,sour cream etc) i know i am bombarding you. and i am sorry. i just want help

Sorry it has been a while, I had computer problems. Let me give you some advice, and if you follow it you will be much better off and much less frustrated.

STOP trying to do everything at once. Small short term goals. You are way over thinking this for now. Start small and as the weeks progress and you get into a good habit of exercising your metabolism is going to start speeding up. The more intensly you do cardio, the harder you rev your metabolism 24/7. The more muscle you build, the faster your metabolism will run 24/7. See the link to the exercise. Make your diet changes in little bits. LEARN TO LIKE VEGTABLES, they are truly a secret weapon getting lean. You already sound like you know the right things to eat. Just make sure every meal has some protein. And eat at least 6 a day, again this will also speed up your metabolism. The fat on you stomach will be reduced through diet and exercise. It is that simple. It is not going to happen over night and you can't lose it all at once! So don't try!! You will burn yourself out. Genetics determine when and where your body stores fat. It is different for everyone. Don't worry about the fat intake for now just stick with the CLA. Just think protein.

Give me a break down of what you are doing for training.

First, thanks for not getting tired of me and for trying to help. i must say that i am really impatient when it comes to this. it took a while to gain and it will take a while to lose. Like i said in the beginning, i do wear a pedometer and MAKE myself walk atleast 10,000 steps every day. i take tae kwon do on tues and thurs which consist of 30 min of warm up exercises and stretches. then 1 hour of intense workouts(kicking, punching, linedrills, and sparring) we are constantly moving. on the other days i walk anywhere from 30-60 min. sometimes with the stroller and sometimes not. i do ALOT of yard work as well.(raking, shoveling, etc) twice a week, i work out at home on my kick bag along with sit-ups,push-ups, etc for about 30-45min. other than that i really dont do much. i am a stay at home mom w/4 kids who also are involved with extra cirricular activities. so most of my free time is first thing in the morning after taking 3 of them to school. i would love to come up with a better plan as far as exercising goes if you know of one. ive also been doing some research on ketosis. i went and bought those strips to see if i was in ketosis or not(and of course im not) it said i need to drastically cut my carbs to do that. i did find some flavored water that i like. so im trying really hard to cut back on my dr p. I also looked at the tools on this web site and looked up how many calories my body was burning every day.(1900 and something) which in my eyes is not alot. i need to cut back on 3500 calories some how to lose just 1 lb

You sound like you are pretty active and that is good. I would try and find at least two days a week when you can do some weightlifting. Also on you off days from martial arts, instead of walking for 30 mins do something high intensity, like running or jumping rope for 20mins. High intensity exercise is the key to really spiking your metabolism and getting a maintaining a lean physique.

thanks for all your input. its really nice to know that even strangers are willing to help. especially when they dont really have to. i will try the high intensity and see what happens. ive read somewhere that the only way to get off the belly fat is to do cardio(along with weight lifting b/c muscle burns more fat). i do have jump ropes here, so thats not a prob for me. my husband is an ex-marine, so we have plenty of exercise stuff laying around. he just works out of town for months on end so he cant really help me in that dept. also, one last question, do you know anything about the ketosis stuff? is it really neccessary? where would i start with it? etc...

Your husband is a FORMER Marine(no such thing as ex marines) tell him, Semper, I did five years myself. 3/1 Camp Pendleton. All ketosis is is a fancy name for the biochemical process your body undergoes to burn fat for fuel. It applies to low carb diets. I don't recommend these type of diets for anyone for longer then about two weeks. A better way to lose weight is just to eat properly and exercise intensly. You need carbs to build muscle, you need muscle to burn fat. That is why vetables are so important. They are the best source of low-glycemic carbs. For starts just focus on eating healthier and more frequently and establishing a good exercise program that incorporates weight training and high intensity cardio. Come up with a program that fits into your schedule and then outline it for me.

My hsband was at camp pendleton too. prob around 94/95. not sure. well, ive read not to eat the same things everyday b/c your body gets used to it and it will plateau. so im gonna try a mon/wed/fri schedule and a different one for sun/tues/thurs and i figure i will let sat be a free day. do you think that'll work? i'll start out w/ a 15 min power walk and alternate jumping jax and jumping rope for app 10 min. everyday.(i hope) after that i want to do 2 sets of 12 of each- crunches,pushups,sidebends with weights, lunges,squats, and jack knifes with a stability ball. am i going overboard? should i reverse the order? for every 8 oz of water i drink, i'll earn 4oz of dp. (not immediatley after) i need rewards of some type.now, question, is sweet tea acceptable? also, i read that extra protein is stored as fat. is that true? so there is a thing as too much protein? which worries me with my shakes. i also read in one of your posts something about not using the kind of shakes you mix, to use the kind already made. does that apply to me or is that for only certain results desired? also, what do you recommend when the labels on food only say how many carbs it has and it isnt broken down?the same for fat?

I dont know which post your read where I said to drink pre-mixed protein shakes, but you definitley want to stay away from any protein drink that is pre-mixed, protein breaks down in water and after about 24 hours or so it is pretty much useless. Don't drink pre mixed.

Excess anything will make you fat. When you are on a good exercise program, protein is the last thing your body will store as fat. Gaining weight is simple. If you take in more Calories (doesn't matter what kind) then you burn, you will gain weight. The opposite is true for losing weight. Since you are lifting weights you are stimulating muscle growth, the trick is to eat enough calories at the right times and of the right stuff, to fuel your muscle growth without putting on fat. Building muscle is the simplest and best way to change your physique. If you eat to little, you will lose weight, but if you are losing muscle along with your fat then your physique really isn't changing you will just be getting smaller and weighing less. Your bodyfat will stay the same which will not benefit your metabolism. Maintaining an efficent metabolism will not only help you burn fat 24/7 it will make it much easier to keep weight off.

There is really no need to switch your food intake. Again calories in vs. calories out determines weight loss not if you are eating the samething everyday. The leanest and best natural bodybuilders in the world eat the exact samething everyday. But if you want to change your diet around it can help mentally.

Your workout program sounds good, only do the weight lifting twice a week though and cut the reps down to 8. The last rep should be at failure. Remember everything you do exercise wise needs to be short and INTENSE.

They don't ever breakdown the type of carbs it is. Just look at sugar content and that will tell you where most of the carbs are coming from. Plus it depends on the food what kind of carb it is. Vetables remain king for good carbs.

8oz of water to 4oz of DP. NO WAY try like 12oz of water to 4oz DP.