Fast and easy weight loss usually involves going on a crash diet or using diet pills. But these methods are unhealthy, and the weight loss usually isn't permanent. If you're an 18-year-old seeking permanent and healthy weight loss, follow a nutrient-dense diet that provides enough calories for daily activities, and adopt an active lifestyle that includes regular exercise. Gym memberships can be expensive, but try shopping around for a deal. Alternatively, emphasize outdoor and body-weight exercises.
Gym Machines
Go to the gym three or four times a week. Do about 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on equipment such as the treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical machine, stair climber or rowing machine. Cardio exercise elevates your heart rate, burns calories and uses fat as energy. Do 30 to 45 minutes of strength training, using a combination of free weights and resistance machines. Strength training builds lean muscle tissue, which ensures that you maintain a high metabolism and enhanced ability to burn fat.
Body-Weight Exercises
Body-weight exercises are easy to do and require little space and no equipment. They strengthen and tone your muscles and help you gain metabolism, boosting lean muscle tissue. Do a workout consisting of body-weight exercises such as push-ups, crunches, lunges and free squats up to four times a week.
Cardio Exercise
Go running or jogging three or four times a week to burn calories and fat. Run for a minimum of 30 minutes, and increase the time as you get fitter and stronger. For faster weight loss, incorporate some interval training into your running. For example, jog for two minutes, then sprint for 30 seconds. Repeat this sequence four times for an intense 10-minute workout or six times for a 15-minute workout.
This demanding routine is energy-intensive, and your body works hard to replenish the energy long after your workout. This blasts your metabolism into an intensive fat-burning mode.
Other Activities
Go bicycling with your buddies. This can be fun and will help you burn calories. A 160-pound person cycling for an hour at 10 mph will burn 292 calories. Backpacking or hiking with your buddies over a weekend can burn up to 500 calories in an hour. Sports like basketball and football not only burn calories, but also improve your coordination, balance, speed and dexterity.
Nutrition
Avoid junk and fast foods such as fries, burgers, milkshakes, chips, cookies, muffins, donuts and cakes. Avoid sugar-laden breakfast cereals and sodas. These foods cause an insulin surge, which deposits excess energy as fat. Eat more fruits and vegetables, and restrict your carbohydrate intake to complex carbs such as oatmeal, sweet potatoes, yams, whole-grain bread and whole-grain rice. To accelerate weight loss, eat carbs at only one or two meals a day. Eat protein such as lean cuts of meat, poultry, fish whole eggs, dairy products, beans and lentils. Carbs provide energy for your activities, and protein helps you maintain lean muscle tissue.
Warning
Do not go on a restrictive diet. Depriving yourself of food denies your body energy it needs for daily activities. To compensate, your body will slow your metabolism to conserve energy, hold onto body fat and sabotage your efforts to lose weight.
Member Comments