Running To Lose Weight

I want to tell you about this guy I saw on the news last week. This man about 40 give or take a couple of years weighed over 400 pounds when he decided to lose weight. He found a trainer that put him on a diet and started him on a walking routine to get exercise. After a few weeks the trainer changed the walking to jogging. So this man started slow but was jogging everyday. Because he had a job would only run less than one hour during the week, but on weekend when he had more time he runs 31 miles on this long days. I thought that was incredible for someone that big to be able to run distance.

He lost 200 pounds in 10 months. He now weighs 240 pounds and woulds to lose 40 more pounds. I know he can do it, anyone how runs 31 miles can lose as much as he wants.

I don't want you to get turned off because you think there's no way you could ever do this. I subscribe to many newsletter and I get one from "Runner's World". Yes, I started running again and most people would think I'm just an old man. Even my relatives think I'm crazy for running again after 50 some years of not running. Back in the early 1970's, I was hit by a car and my left leg had severe damage. I had stopped running long before that but after the accident, I never thought I'd run again.

Just recently I read an article on "running for beginners" and how you can use a walk and run routine to interval train and even if you have knee pain, this type of exercise will strengthen the knee and reduce the knee pain. I've had knee pain for years and I even had a repair job on the left knee about 5 years ago, so I was "all in" if this can reduce knee pain and help me control my weight, I'm for it.

I started running a few months ago. I do the walk, run routine I read about and you really can lose fat.  Most of the fat loss will be in the belly, hips, butt, and thighs. But don't think the fat will just falls off,   You have to change the way you eat. That part was pretty easy for me, I already changed my diet and lost most of my body fat, but if you want to "Run To Lose", I suggest you look at the Runner's World website and consider investing in their new book "Run To Lose". It's not expensive, check it out.

Or you could read my blog and over the next few day's, I'll tell you what I did and how it worked for me and reading my blog is free. Or if you like to hold paper in your hand when you read, You can download my ebook from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or iBook, it's $3.99 and then you can print it.

Enough about books, I was a real skeptic when I first started to run. But I followed my tried and true methods for any exercise and I started slow. At the Park near my house, there's a 2-mile jogging track; when I jog at night I go to the High School and use the track. I start by walking 1/4 mile or one lap around the track just to warm up, then I start jogging for about 100 yards and then go back to walking slow, after I catch my breath I start jogging again and keep that up for 2 miles. At the High School, that's about 8 laps. I have a personal goal to run a 10K in the city marathon. I'm sure by January I'll be ready.

What you want to realize before you start any exercise program is that the pace I set for myself can be more than you can do and that's understandable. I workout more and I'm in very good physical condition for my age. Depending on your health and you can't be comparing yourself to other overweight, out-of-shape people you might know. Compare yourself to the way you were in High School. The age of your body has very little to do with time. Sure, we calculate age by calendar years, but your real age has very little to do with the calendar.

When you first start a walk, run routine you want to do mostly walking. Your body has to get use to exercise all over again and depending on the amount of weight you gained over the years, this may take you a few weeks. You want to do just plain walking for a few weeks, don't push it. If you're in middle age and are overweight, it's possible to do damage to your heart by intense exercise. If you get out-of-breath easily, talk to your doctor about exercise. There is a safe heart rate to achieve when exercising, and to exercise at a heart rate more than that can be dangerous.  Building up your endurance for a heavier workout is called "conditioning". This is important if you want to achieve your goal. Running is by far the best way to condition your body, lose body fat and become a healthier person.

I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote ebooks that will give you all the info in one read. They are how-to books that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebooks are available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

How Does Weight Loss Happen?

So you’re finally ready to lose weight. Now the question is: How?

The standard advice -- to eat less and move more -- isn’t so helpful when it comes to the “how.” You probably know you need to cut calories, but how many? Are you better off getting those calories from low-fat or low-carb foods? And what’s going on with your metabolism, your personal energy-burning furnace? Is it programmed to keep you overweight? Is there any way to fan the flames so you can dream of one day eating a piece of pie without gaining a pound?

Even science is still stumped on many of the basic questions of weight loss.

“Amazingly, in this era of obesity, there are still many things that we really don’t know,” says Robin Callister, PhD, professor of human physiology at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Here’s what we do know about some of the most persistent mysteries of weight loss.

There are new calculators, like the Body Weight Planner available from the NIH and the Weight Loss Predictor from Pennington. Give them a few key details, like your sex, age, weight, height, activity level, and the date you want to hit your goal, and they’ll give you a more realistic daily calorie goal to get you there.

Once you know how many calories you need to eat every day, where should they come from? Is it better to cut carbs or cut fat? How much protein do you need each day? Will having a drink torpedo all your hard work?

Let’s start with the alcohol.

“There’s a big debate on whether alcohol calories are even useable, whether you can even turn them into fat. It’s not easy,” says Ken Fujioka, MD, a weight loss expert at Scripps Health in San Diego, CA. “When you look at various studies you actually get mixed results. Some studies say it’s not a problem, don’t worry about it, others say it’s associated with weight gain. So it’s a real open mess.”

Fujioka counsels his patients to pay attention to how alcohol affects their eating.

“Some folks, when they drink alcohol, feel like they have license to eat whatever they want to, and they get into problems.” If a glass of wine weakens your will to resist that plate of cheese and crackers, it’s not doing your waistline any favors.But if booze doesn’t affect your eating, then one or two drinks is probably OK, he says.As for calories from fat, carbohydrates, and protein, this is where one size, or one eating plan, really doesn’t fit all. 

There is good science to show that people who have high blood sugar levels -- associated with conditions like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and fatty liver disease -- benefit from diets that are lower in refined carbohydrates and higher in healthy fats and lean proteins. Examples of this kind of diet are South Beach, the Zone diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the low GI diet.

If insulin levels aren’t a concern, there’s little difference in the amount of weight people lose if they cut their calories from fat or from carbs, says Kevin Hall, PhD, a senior investigator and expert in metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, MD. But he says protein calories are a different story.

In the lab, researchers have shown that higher-protein diets tend to increase the number of calories a person burns, Hall says. “So in that sense, a protein calorie is not equivalent to a carbohydrate or a fat calorie,” he says.

Protein helps you burn more calories during the day and helps preserve muscle. When people lose weight, they don’t just lose fat -- they also lose muscle. The more muscle you lose on a diet, the more your metabolism slows. That can make it tough to keep the weight off down the road. Protein also helps you feel satisfied for longer after your eat.

But people can eat only so much protein without changing their kidney function. U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that adults keep their protein in a range of 10% to 35% of total calories each day. Most diets fall into that range. Atkins, for example, one of the highest protein diets around, supplies 35% of daily calories from protein. 

“The potential to gain weight and become obese is in everybody. But for some people, the potential is clearly genetically much, much higher,” he says.

So far, more than 30 genes have been flagged as being linked to body mass index. The one most strongly tied to obesity is called the FTO gene. Researchers recently reported that people who get a faulty copy of that gene are more likely to store calories as fat instead of burn them for energy. The discovery, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, should pave the way for better weight loss treatments.

Though FTO is the most powerful single gene found to date, it doesn’t explain all obesity. Fujioka says obesity is probably the sum of many genes working together.“The more genetic flaws you get that lead you to obesity, you’re more like a loaded gun. The environment will pull the trigger and you’ll just get heavy.” Whereas people who don’t inherit those risk genes will be protected, to some extent, from weight gain, no matter how badly they eat.

Men vs. Women

If losing weight with your mate has you discouraged, ladies, take heart.

Yes, it’s true -- pound for pound, a man on a diet will drop 10 pounds faster than you can say “please pass the celery.” And researchers think that’s probably more of a size problem than a sex difference. Men are bigger than women and naturally carry more muscle, the tissue that burns the greatest number of calories. So they do have an easier time losing weight.

But here’s the thing about men: They start strong, but they often can’t sustain the effort.

“At 3 months, men are ahead -- definitely ahead on absolute weight loss,” says Callister, who recently conducted a study of studies, or meta-analysis, to look at the big picture of sex differences in weight loss. “But by 6 months, there’s no difference,” she says.

But do men really lose a bigger percent of their overall weight when they diet than women do?

Surprisingly, few studies have looked at that question. Callister says we still don’t know the answer.

One interesting study, though, compared the weight loss between men and women who had gastric bypass weight-loss surgery. The study found that after 24 months, there was no significant difference in the percent of weight lost by men or women after bariatric surgery. On average, men had lost about 66% of their excess weight, while women had lost about 73% of their extra pounds.

And here’s more heartening news: While women may take a little longer to shed the same weight as men, Callister says they seem to do a better job keeping it off, perhaps because they lost it more gradually in the first place.

What’s the Best Exercise for Weight Loss?

When it comes to dropping pounds, there’s no substitute for pushing back from your plate. But what about exercise?

While it’s important for overall health and mental well-being, it’s probably not going to help you dramatically shrink your size.

“It has dozens and dozens of benefits, but when it comes to producing clinically meaningful weight loss -- weight loss of 5% to 10% or more -- you really want to focus on dieting,” Martin says.

Exercising when you’re trying to lose weight is tricky. It does help burn calories, but not nearly as many as not eating those calories in the first place. And exercise increases appetite, so if you’re working out intensely, it’s really easy to eat back all the calories you just burned.

Martin recommends that people who are trying to lose weight focus on moderate-intensity physical activities, like brisk walking or gardening.

The National Weight Control Registry, which tracks people who’ve successfully lost 30 pounds and kept it off for a year or longer, reports that 94% of members have increased their physical activity in some way. The most frequently reported form of exercise is walking.

Where exercise becomes critically important is for weight maintenance. Martin says most people who successfully lose weight and keep it off exercise a lot -- nearly an hour a day.

Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight. The internet is full of free information. But the quickest way and cheapest way is to buy an ebook online and get everything you need in one short read. I have two ebooks on Amazon:

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight

Getting To A Healthy Weight

Check out one of them, I think you can find all the info you need and plenty of tips on how I lost my body fat. 

Look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find these e-books. These books give you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my books at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

What's My Blog All About

I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. today I want to talk about food. 

We all know by this time that when you cut calories in your diet, you have to pack all the nutrition you can in everything you eat. You can’t waste calories on food that isn’t giving you something in return. So, in order to give me energy, I try and eat all I can of the super-foods. 

One of the new ones is Quinoa.

What is quinoa?

Well, some consider it a grain and some do not.  Either way, it's definitely in the grain/rice/cereal family, and that's a family I enjoy eating.

Even better news is that quinoa (pronounced Keen-Wah) is actually a pretty good source of protein when compared to most grains, packing in 8 grams per cup.

Even better news is that quinoa is the only grain that contains complete protein, each gram containing all 26 amino acids.

Even BETTER news is that quinoa is extremely low glycemic coming in at an extraordinarily low 35 on the scale while offering a generous 5 grams of fiber per cup.

Do you now how AMAZING quinoa is?

It's the grain of all grains.  You can mix it with beans, you can eat it by itself, you can mix it in "salads", serve it alongside steak, chicken, or fish...you can pretty much do whatever you want with it anytime you need a quality, low glycemic, high fiber, protein-packed carb source.

In case, you're not familiar with the “super foods” just do a search on the internet and there’s plenty of websites like “Health.com” that will give you a full list. Just to name a few: Blueberries, tomatoes, oats, avocados, salmon, broccoli, green tea, eggs, and almonds. There’s actually about two dozen more which gives you a big variety of choices. Try to eat some every day. 

Quinoa is a good alternative to rice or potatoes. A 4 oz. piece of meat with a cup of quinoa, vegetable and beans and you have about 40 gm of protein and every few calories.

When you're trying to lose weight and lose fat, it's important to maximize your protein. Try and eat protein at every meal, yes even breakfast. As you lose weight you want to avoid losing muscle mass and that's not easy. But eating lots of protein will help you to maintain your muscles. The challenge is to avoid red meat. Red meat has protein but also has animal fat and too much animal fat will cause you to gain fat, not lose it. Fish and poultry has protein but most of your protein should come from plant protein. If you can get about 80 gms. a day of protein, you won't get hungry. Protein at every meal will keep you feeling full.

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.
My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com,  Scribd and more.

So how many calories do I need every day?

I started this post last week. It's a two-parter because this is a complicated question. Everyone burns a different amount of calories and every day the amount will change. The amount depends on several factors. First and the most important is your size. Your body will burn calories to give you energy for body functions like thinking, pumping blood and breathing. Besides that, it takes more calories to walk, talk, bend over, etc. Also, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body has to burn to maintain those muscles. About 30% of the calories your body burns comes from fat, 20 percent from protein and the other 50% from other foods your eating.

Science claims that we eat too many calories, actually, North American on average eat twice the amount of calories we should. How can that be you might ask? Because we eat mostly processed foods and we drink too many high-calorie drinks. If you eat fresh and cut out the processed foods and high-calorie drinks you will cut your calories in half.

If you track your calories by using a food journal for one week before you start a new meal plan you'll see what I mean. You can lose body fat just by eating real food instead of processed food. Buy your food fresh, and stick to real food. Fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, poultry and lean meat. Only eat red meat once or twice a month. Red meat has animal fat and your body will store it in fat cells.

After you start to eat only fresh foods you won't eat as much and there are fewer calories in real food than processed food. On average,  women should be eating about 1200 to 1500 calories a day. A man about 500 more calories a day. These are averages and it all depends on your activity level. The averages are pulled down because most people spend most of the day sitting.

Even those people who workout every day for one hour will only burn about 300 calories at most which shouldn't make a big difference in your diet. On my heavy workout days, I'll have a protein shake after the workout which does add almost 300 calories but it helps the aching muscles recover.

Two heavy workouts a week or maybe three if you're under 30 and then go easy on the recovery days
swimming or yoga; let your muscles recover and keep the calories under 2000 a day and you'll lose body fat.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Do Portion Sizes Help You Lose Weight?

Portion control is said to be the answer to losing weight. I don't think so. I have tried dozens of ways to lose weight and for most of us my way is not going to work for everyone, but I think it's the easiest plan to stick to and you can eat all you want, just don't cheat.

Portion control for me was a form of starvation like those diet plans that sell you a meal in a box and it looks like a child's portion. Really, how long do you think you can stay on that diet? When I decided I had to lose all this fat I had; I did some research and decided to change all the food I was eating. I gave away almost all the food in my kitchen, including the alcohol, All the alcohol, beer and wine included.

I kept the bottled water, coffee, tea, rice, and seafood I had in the freezer. I read a lot about the Mediterranean diet plan, it's not a weight loss diet, it's the meal plan that Mediterranean people have eaten for generations. I found that I could eat all the food I wanted if I stuck to my plan. I would eat something every three hours, that way I was never hungry. I started with breakfast. I'd fry up some eggs and potatoes with some frozen peas, a glass of water and some black coffee. And whether I was hungry or not I would eat something nutritious like Greek Yogurt or fruit every three hours. Some times I would bring a half of sandwich and eat that around lunch time. I would never go over 300 calories at one time and I would eat 6 times a day. The last meal was around 7 pm and I always had a salad for the last meal. You should only use extra virgin olive oil and use a wine vinegar or lemon juice, nothing with sugar or anything sweet. You're want to keep the calories down.

If you take suggestions from the Mediterranean diet plan and stick to those foods and only drink what they suggest, you will never be hungry and in time, you will lose body fat. Part of the Mediterranean diet is more walking and with any plan you have to increase your activity level every day. When I first started I was skimping on breakfast and that's a big mistake. Whether you eat breakfast or not, that's the time to eat the heaviest foods. I was skimping and then during the day I was getting hungry but I increased the breakfast foods and then I didn't have any trouble getting through the day.

If your not losing fat on this diet plan you must be cheating. You're either eating food you shouldn't or skipping some meals and trying to make it up later. If you follow the plan it will work, but it will take time. Your body always needs a couple of months to adjust to a new diet. Have patients you will lose fat and become a healthier person. I lose most all my body fat. My BMI shows 20%body fat and I'm off the medications, I'm 71 and I jog, ride a bike and do yoga and my knee pain is gone. If you lose body fat and eat nutritious food you'll become a healthier, happier person and you can enjoy life.
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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

How Many Calories Do I Need?

I think you're going to be surprised, you don't need that many calories. Many people eat less than 1000 calories a day. For instance, Vegans and many vegetarians. What's the difference, you might say? If you do a little research on vegetarians you'll find there are three different kinds. A very strict vegetarian will stick to all the rules, others eat dairy and vegetables, and others will not eat meat or poultry, but eat everything else, like fish. Vegans are very strict and only eat plant food, and rely on protein supplements from soy and rice.

I know for most of us, we think a diet without meat is just crazy, but science has proven that a diet without animal protein will extend your life and you'll be a lot healthier. 

Every diet should start with basic questions about calories. To begin with, you should know how many calories you need each day. It sounds simple, but depending on the method you use to get your number, you might get different answers. So how do you know which number is right? Something  you might not be aware of; Americans and Canadians and part of Northern Europe are the only places in the world where most people  consume about 3500 calories a day.  That's about twice the caloric intake  the average person needs. Most of us consume just as many calories from drinks as we do in food. I would have to workout 8 hours a day to burn all those calories.

There are different ways to determine your caloric needs. You can get a quick estimate online or a more specific (and expensive) test performed in a lab.

There are pros and cons to each method. The best method for you depends on your goals, how much money you want to spend, and your access to various health services.

Look at these five different methods for determining your caloric needs and evaluate the pros and cons for yourself.

One of the simplest ways to determine your caloric needs is to keep a pre-diet food journal. Before you start a weight loss program, take one week to evaluate your current caloric intake. Don't make any changes to your diet, just write down everything you eat and drink and the number of calories in each one. You should do this at a time when your weight is stable and your daily activity is typical.

After a week of recording your food intake, add the total number of calories for each day and divide by seven to get an average daily caloric intake.
This should provide a general guideline for the number of calories your body needs to maintain its current weight. To lose weight, you need to decrease that number by roughly 500-600 calories per day.

Pros: Inexpensive, reinforces good weight loss habits such as food journaling. Online or smartphone apps make this method simple to use.
Cons: Requires tedious recording and may not be accurate if you aren't specific about measuring and recording your food portions.

There are several easy-to-use online caloric needs calculators, like the one at CalorieCount.com. These tools provide a quick and easy estimate of the number of calories you need to eat to lose weight. To get the most accurate number, you need to know your current weight, height and goal weight. You also need to assess your daily activity level.

The number generated from these calculators is usually based on the Harris-Benedict formula for determining basal metabolic rate (BMR).

The formula is widely recognized by experts as a reasonable estimate for daily caloric need. However, it is only as accurate as the information you provide and the answer is based on general guidelines. Daily activity level, for example, varies widely from person to person and there is no way for a single formula to accurately predict the metabolic impact of your specific activity level.

Pros: Provides a fast answer, free to use
Cons: Only based on general guidelines and estimates

Many gyms and other health centers now provide metabolic testing for a fee. Metabolic testing measures the number of calories that your body burns at rest (RMR) and the number of fat and carbohydrate calories your body burns while exercising at various exercise intensities. As part of your metabolic assessment, many trainers will also provide a metabolic training plan that will help you to burn more fat calories during exercise so that you lose weight more effectively. While this seems like the most accurate way to find out how many calories you need, there has been some criticism of this testing process. The accuracy of your test may depend on the quality of equipment used, how often it is calibrated and the skill level of the person doing the testing. The service can be expensive and may require a gym membership.

Pros: Results are personalized and based on your specific performance.
Cons: Expensive and not widely available and some say that results are not as accurate as advertised.

So, back to the question, How many calories a day do I need?

The answer isn't easy, I don't think it's just a number. If a person is eating Pizza, Hamburgers, Carry-out chicken, Chinese carry-out and Sausage sandwiches, just cutting back on the quantity isn't going to help. These are foods that will pack on the pounds. It's not just the calories in these foods but the amount of fat, salt, and other food additives. The average guy on this kind of diet may be eating about 3500 to 4000 calories a day when you add in the drinks and just cutting back on the quantity say to 2500 calories a day isn't going to reduce the amount of body fat. Yes, he might lose a few pounds but most of the loss will be muscle weight.

I don't think counting calories will reduce body fat. People get to engrossed in losing weight and aren't concentrating on losing body fat. That should be your goal. And the only way to lose body fat is for your body to use the fat as fuel. I'll write more about this next time.

Meanwhile, you can go to my website and see more articles about losing weight.     blogonlosingweight.com

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when your trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?

My new ebook is in online bookstores now. You can go to Amazon.com and type the title in the search bar: How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight? The price is $3.99. I think you'll find it interesting. I write about myself and my battle with weight and all the mistakes I made and how you can avoid the mistakes and lose the unwanted body fat.

The ebook is also at http://barnesandnoble.com and they have a special introductory offer right now $2.99. Also available on iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, and others worldwide.

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Learn how to get in shape, lose body fat and become a heathier person without spending a lot of time and money by reading my new e-book,

 How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?. This e-book features my extensive research on weight loss, as well as my journey towards fitness. Grab a copy of my e-book now and improve your health, have more energy, and be a happier person with a positive attitute. Available in online book stores now. Amazon, B&N, iBooks for $3.99

Losing weight wasn’t my main goal when I was growing up. Always tipping the scales between being chubby and thin, I never really felt the need to watch my weight. It wasn't until I became a senior that I realized how hard it was for me to carry around that extra, unwanted body fat. I decided to change my lifestyle, and I lost a lot of weight ever since. I'm proud to say that I weighs the same now as I did in high school.

I weighed 220 pounds 30 years ago and today I weigh 158. No expensive equipment, no diet pills, no surgery, and the gym membership I had only gave me temporary weight loss.

I made up my mind after 10 years of yoyoing up and down that I had to find a way to lose the extra fat for good. I read a lot of posts on a lot of websites and decided the only way was to change my diet. A normal guy will burn about 1800 calories a day if he spends his work day on his feet and does 30-minute workouts every day. 

So from research, I found the 30% of the calories are from fat and your body doesn’t care where it gets the fat. That means my body will burn about 550 calories from fat everyday. So if I eat less fat the 500 calories the body will have to get the extra fat from my stored fat. 

I decided I’d have to help the process along so I started an interval training program. It’s easy and it didn’t cost anything. I jog for 10 minutes to increase my heart rate and then walk for a few minutes to cool down and then jog for 5 minutes and walk for 5 minutes and then jog for 5 and walk for 5 and keep going like that as long as I could. If it gets too hard just walk more and jog less, but try to workout at least 30 minutes total.

Changing my diet was much harder. I had to start over. I gave way all the high-calorie food and drinks in the house. I went to the market and bought fresh foods for two days. All I was eating was fruit, whole grain bread and pasta, vegetables, fresh fish some fresh meat, water, tea, and coffee. For snacks, I bought the salted peanuts you had to shell.

The good news was I could eat all I wanted if I stick to the fresh foods and nuts. When I start the diet I stopped drinking alcohol, that’s important. After a few weeks and 10 pounds, I would have one glass of red wine occasionally. It works and I lost the fat. I did add a little variety to my diet after I lost the weight, but I can’t go back to my old way. No more processed foods of bake goods with enriched or processed flour, no high calorie drinks and very little dairy. 

The upside is that I love being 158 pounds again, I jog now, ride my bike, do Yoga, swim laps and lift weights. I have so much energy I can even work out after dinner.  At 71, I’m in good shape and I don’t take prescription drugs. Life could”t be better.