Question for athletes and health nuts...

<p>I'm 5'8 and 130 pounds. I just make sure I eat the right things and exercise every day. I am a little underweight due to wrestling but I still think im healthy. Playing sports is huge for keeping the weight down and I find weight lifting to be really good. I burned alot of fat that way during the season.</p>

<p>5'8" and 130 lbs? And you wrestle? </p>

<p>Boy do I feel obese at 5'9" and 175. JEEEEZ.</p>

<p>I hear that running in layers helps you cut pounds quickly... supposedly wrestlers do it when they need to cut weight. Is that a good idea?</p>

<p>Yeah, those suits really make you sweat</p>

<p>I've been avoiding a box of Pop Tarts in the pantry now for about three weeks. My mom bought them for my brother but for some reason he hasn't eaten them, and every time I open the pantry, there they are staring me in the face. Finally, yesterday I caved. What the hell, it's summer.</p>

<p>Okay, Im starting out my weight loss plan today.</p>

<p>No, running in layers is not a good idea. You will only lose water weight, so anything you lose is temporary. This can also be very dangerous. Excercise and eat right, but there are no short cuts.</p>

<p>yeah wearing layers is just a technique we use to loose that extra 3 -4 pounds before a match day. we usually gain it back really quickly afterwards. however I have found that doing this through the whole season has caused an overall drop in my weight at the end that I have managed to keep off. Last year I was 135 and I dropped to 119 in 2 weeks by starvation and running in layers. The weight came off and it stayed off though I became really unhealthy because of it. I dont reccommend that route at all.</p>

<p>It's pretty simple, if you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you eat. It's up to you whether you exercise a lot more or eat a lot less, or just do a little of both. There really isn't a short cut or easy out like running in layers--I suppose if you needed to fit into an outfit or something, fine. Or cut a few pounds to wrestle--then losing water weight temporarily would be ok. Otherwise, you are better off the more water weight you have, because drinking a lot of water will keep you from wanting so much food. I'm a vegetarian too, and not eating meat does help. Of course, some people would argue that you shouldn't eat carbs, in which case being a vegetarian would be a bad thing.
But really...you know what is healthy and what isn't. This is what bugs me about diets. There is always some theme that is supposed to make you lose weight, but you could just not eat the things you KNOW aren't good for you and do better. I mean, everyone knows eating donuts for breakfast = bad, eating fruit or whole grain cereal = good.
It sounds like you have the exercise thing down pretty well, but if you aren't doing any weight training type stuff, you might want to add it. Building muscle will boost your metabolism, and it doesn't take huge amounts of time or effort.</p>

<p>About the pop tarts. Your brother must be a food miser. That sucks for people with no will power. My sister would always come home with candy for some reason or another and not eat it and leave it sitting ont he counter for days to weeks. When I'd eventually eat it b/c she left it sitting out for so long that of course was the day she WANTED IT. I mean she had of course "saved it" for that very day. I stopped eating so much junk food after I went to college. B/c of my mom and my sister always buying it and me eating it. It sucked but I couldn't help it.</p>

<p>Funny story now tho, there is the same amount of candy and sweets around but I haven't eaten any. I just can't eat them anymore.</p>

<p>IlliniJBravoEcho: your post made me roll laughing. You see, my brother could have written that exact thing. I don't eat much candy, but I crave it sometimes, and I'll buy a box of chocolates or something, eat one, and put the rest away. Then big bro comes along and polishes off the entire box in one sitting, and acts like there is something wrong with me when I go looking for them and they aren't there. So, from the sister's point of view: she wants some now and again, and she expects it to be there when she is good and ready to eat it.</p>

<p>this is what I learned in psych class this year:</p>

<p>if you give rats what they are supposed to eat daily, they don't get fat.
if you let rats eat as much as they want (buffet style), then they get fat.</p>

<p>... that's not the only thing I learned =P, but it echos what others here have said.</p>

<p>google for "The Hackers Diet"</p>

<p>I cant remember the link but it provides some really good analysis and theory of diet and weight loss (along with a lot of excel charts to track your progress...thats where the hacker part comes in). </p>

<p>The theory is very good and for being free, it has more helpful content than any diet book.</p>

<p>It's not as simple as calories in vs. calories out. Success is greatly dependent on nutirent timing as well. Though you may not be interested in bodybuilding in particular, the following program will help regardless:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/13weekstohardcorefatburningdiet.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/13weekstohardcorefatburningdiet.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>forum.bodybuilding.com
Forum.athletes.com</p>

<p>Drink water - 8 glasses a day. I agree with the poster who said that thrist can mimic hunger. However, if you are not consuming water, your cells retain the water they get. Once your body sees it will be getting regular amounts of water, you'll lose that water you've been retaining and you'll weigh less and appear trimmer.</p>