I want to lose some weight, but i've never worked out a day in my life!?

Its not hard at all to get into working out... And if you have never worked out before, you will actually see results faster than the rest of us who work out religiously... lucky you.

You will need about two months to be consistent to see results, and two weeks to get acclimated with a routine.

For example.... this weekend, wake up and before you do anything, before you eat, before you drink, put your workout clothes and sneakers on, bring a walkman, a watch or something where you can keep track of time and hit the streets. Start walking at a very fast pace around your neighborhood. Use your arms to have full range of motion, use your legs to take wide steps, full strides, in a heel to toe motion. Walk to the beat of the music. Dont stroll - WALK FAST, almost short of jogging. Do this nonstop for half an hour.... At the end of your half an hour, stroll around for five to ten minutes and when you get back home, stretch your WHOLE BODY. You muscles will be warm and wont know what you just did to them, so reward them by stretching them. Stretch your arms, your legs, your glutes, your back, your abs, etc...

When you are finished stretching, you are done.

The next day, do the same thing. When you are done stretching, try doing two sets of ten repitions of lunges, push-ups, crunches, squats and calf raises (find a step to stand on with your toes and slowly raise stand on your toes, and gently guide back down. one up/down motion = 1 rep) - If you need help with doing these exercises the right way, try looking them up, or email me and i will get back to you in the next couple of days.

After you do those exercises, stretch again. Drink a lot of water. Breathe.

The next day you will most likely be sore, so stick to walking the next day. Do these exercises every other day, and walk every day. When you stop feeling sore, switch to a light jog and increase your repititions to 3 sets of 10, then 3 sets of 12, then 3 sets of 15. Once you can reach 15 (probably in the next couple of weeks), you can turn to weights in the next month.

But remember. Working out is not everything to lose weight. When you want to lose weight, your DIET is KEY.

Good Luck

We all know the drill with dieting. You try to cut back, you slice out all junk foods and sugars, and then, temptation strikes. You crack. It's over. Its hard to lose weight. That said, here are some tips I have found super useful: 1. Excerise. You just have to do it. And I don't mean like wimpy excerise: I mean go for a run. Run until you are sweating and unhappy. And then go home, and drink some water, and have an apple or something as a snack. It is the best BEST way to burn fat, and it sucks at first, but you'll get used to it. 2. Try not to snack. Tell yourself you are only going to eat at mealtimes: and then do it. Think of some really good healthy snacks incase you crack though. -apple slices with peanut butter -frozen peas and corn (I LOVE this one) -celery and peanut butter 3.If you can, put a picture of this girl near your fridge or something. When you are going to snack, look at it AND REMEMBER why you are trying to lose weight. 4. In the end, it all comes down to you. There is no magic trick, or secret hint, that is going to slim down. You have to want it, and you have to be strong. You know what though? You can totally do it. Just stay positive, and focus on your goals. You have GOT IT man. Good luck!

Stop counting you re not going to be lose weight overnight Just concentrate on diet and exercise

you start by learning to read food labels - look for more protein and dietary fiber and less fat and carbs (sugar), sodium, cholesterol.
find daily calorie intake calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours - it optimizes your metabolism)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast - they give you energy
have protein (lean meat, legumes etc) for dinner - repairs muscle
cardio exercise (running, jogging, swimming, spinning, elliptical etc) 4-6 times a week for 30-50min (ideally 45min because the first 20-30min body burns carbs and only then starts burning fat), light weight training (more muscle=faster metabolism)
start with as much as you can and increase it by a few minutes every day - you will see you will be able to do 45min cardio in no time.
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, pasta etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried, oily.
ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)

Start slow. Just start by walking for at least 20 minutes a day or more if you feel like you can. Each week increase the time and your speed. After a couple of weeks start including some weight training that you can do with dumbbells at home or go to a gym.

ok I read all your answers so far and none of them seem to address the question about exercise. Yes, counting your calories and all that is fine and dandy but you asked about exercise, not eating habits. I used to be like you until here very recently. I hated to work out and didn't think there was any hope for me at all because as soon as I did any kind of activity I was so out of breath that I'd soon stop. Here's what I do now, and I'm not killing myself to do it. I love swimming so now that it's summertime (don't know if it is where you are) I go to the public pool at least twice a week. It's only $10 for 10 visits so it's pretty cheap. Plus it's great for toning the arms and legs, even if you don't do "laps". Next I joined a martial arts class. The first few times I felt like I was going to pass out because they have us do things like jumping jacks, running around the building stuff like that. A couple of times I had to sit down with my head between my knees to keep from passing out. But I kept with it, and now I find I can do the exercises no problem, and I am learning self defense techniques that are fun to do! Then I got out an old Ab lounge that was just collecting dust in the garage. When I started it I could only do a few but now I'm up to 50 a day on it. Do you have some kind of exercise equipment that you never use? Most people have something in their house. If not, try going to yard sales or flea markets to pick up exercise equipment cheap. Lastly, I got a bicycle (actually it's my husband's but I use it more than he does) and I take it to the park everyday and just ride around for about an hour. It really helps tone the thighs. None of these workouts are particularly strenuous, but they seem to be working. The point is to do something, anything, to become active. Any activity you get will be better than what you're doing now. Just find something you enjoy doing and it won't seem like so much of a workout. Just have fun!

You might think about trying this book called "The Movie Star Diet" by Steve Simmons. It helped me lose thirty pounds in 2 1/2 months when I didn't think anything would work. My goal to begin with was only 20 lbs! It has a really easy plan to follow and an excellent workout as well.

Losing weight is a matter of burning more calories than you consume. Walking or cleaning house are good ways to burn calories.

Here are fact/tips about weight loss....

Step 1: Find out what your basal metabolic rate is. Goto http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html
This is the amount of calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight.

Step 2: Do you exercise? Do you exercise right? Exercising right means that you monitor your heart rate and make sure that you reach your target heart rate and maintain it for the longest period of time while exercising. You have two targets a fat burn zone and an cardiovascular zone. The fat burn is usually 60% of your maximum an d is easier to achieve and maintain and if your goal is weight loss this is where you want to be. Just walking/excising is a good start but if you want to get the most out of your work out find out what your target range is. If you don't belong to a gym then I recommend the
Polar Fitness F11 Heart Monitor Watch.

Step 3: You need to decrease your caloric intake or increase the amount of calories your body uses in a day by 500 calories a day for a week to lose 1 pound. So you can decrease that basal number you got in step 1 by 500 calories and exercise very little(yes you still need to exercise). Or you can decrease it by 250 and exercise off 250 calories or any other combination. Remember that your basal number is the amount of calories you body needs to live. If your number were 2400 then your body burn 100 calories per hour. So if you walk for half an hour and burn 300, 50 of that is your basal.

Step 4: Count your calories, it's not hard and you'll find out that you eat a lot of the same things on a daily basis so you won't have to research everything over and over again. Balance what you eat(equal parts carbs and protien whenever possible) . One of the best websites out there is one from the FDA. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/
This database has almost every food on the planet counted and weighed. (Hint: they do a lot of their weights based on 100grams. If you put 0.28 in the serving size this equals 1 ounce). Get a reliable food scale, preferably digital. Weigh everything that you put in your mouth that is not prepackaged. You need to know what you’re eating and how much you’re eating. The number one mistake is "eating healthy". Everyone thinks because it's "healthy" the portion isn't that important. A handful of peanuts is "healthy" and has nearly 250 calories! Eat enough calories and it won’t matter how "healthy" it is your going to gain weight. Great ideas for people on the go are: South Beach Raisin Granola Bar, Snickers Marathon Multi-Grain Crunch(Wal-Mart diet aid aisle), Snickers Marathon Protein Caramel Nut Rush(Wal-Mart diet aid aisle)

Step 5: Adjustments and Variety. If you are doing your best and losing weight but your starving, increase the amount of calories your giving yourself by 100-200 calories a day. Losing weight and starving are not good bedfellows. If you starve eventually you will crack and lose the battle. The more types of exercises you do the more weight you will lose. You will work more muscles and keep your body guessing.

Step 6(optional): If you belong to a gym or have some free weights at home. Use them! Muscle takes up less space in your body than fat (pound for pound). A pound of fat sits
around and does nothing all day, while a pound of muscle, even at rest burns calories(increasing your basal metabolic rate).

Step 7: Sleep, Never underestimate the power of a goodnight sleep. Will power can crumble in a second if your going through your day tired. You end up with a diminished sense of self control and tend to “give in” to temptation.

Step 8: Find a distraction. Read a book, Ride a bike, Play a game. Whatever takes your mind off of food, do it. You will need something that you can turn to in a moment of weakness. Something that will distract you for a half an hour so that your will can reassert itself and help you to make a rational decision.


Good luck!!!

Hi, I am from Hong Kong and I am a weight-control specialist.

please visit the following website, and you will find a lot of useful information and a lot of live examples of how we can help other people lose weight healthily. (The site is in Chinese now, but the English version will be out in a month).

www.yourhealthyshape.com/shapeshake

please add "/shapeshake" after .com as Yahoo always truncate the last few letters.

I myself lost 27 pounds in 3 months and I spent only a little money on it. I am coming over to Singapore/Malaysia in two weeks. If you happen to be residing in Singapore/Malaysia, I would like to share my experience with you. If you are not residing in either place, that is also fine as our products are available in all S. E. Asian countries now.

Please, do fill in the form at the website so that we can get to know more about your eating habits, your determination, etc, in order to help you further. If you don't know Chinese, just send me your email address so that I can send you the questionnaire in English instead.

Hope to see you soon and good luck!