JQWeight Loss

Weight Loss - information on losing weight



When you think of weight loss and losing weight, the first things that probably come to your mind are either those "lose weight fast !!" articles that are in every magazine and newspaper in the world that never work and are written by some personal training idiot that has no idea what they're talking about... or maybe you're thinking of all of those weight loss pills that claim to be safe and allow you to "eat whatever you want and still lose weight because the pill will do all of the work for you" or whatever stupid line they are using to get you to buy their useless unsafe weight loss product. Or, maybe you're thinking of rice cakes and never eating and being hungry all day long.

Well, if you are thinking any of those things, forget it! Forget all of it!

What I am about to give you is totally FREE, detailed, easy to understand information on weight loss and losing weight and how to lose weight and fat without using any type of pill or supplement, without using some "fitness magazine" diet, and by eating not 1, not 2, not 3, but 5 meals a day! Sound impossible? Sound too good to be true? Sound like I'm going to make you buy my "book" or order my "product" first before I tell you? Well I'm not! I don't have a book and I don't a have product. I am not trying to sell you a damn thing! What I am trying to do, no... what I am GOING to do, is tell you exactly how you can lose weight. Enjoy...

Weight loss is simple, burn more calories then you consume. If you can fully understand that then you are on your way to losing weight. There are 6 simple steps. Here they are:

1) Count how many calories you eat in a normal day. That's right, wake up, and eat like you would normally eat and count the calories in everything you eat and everything you drink and keep track of it on a piece of paper or on the computer some where. You might be thinking to yourself, "yeah right, I'm not gonna sit around counting calories all day." Well, if you're thinking that, then you're obviously not dedicated enough to losing weight. If this is the case, then feel free to go waste your money on the newest useless weight loss pill. But, if you are dedicated enough to take 10 minutes out of your day and count the calories, then keep on reading.

2) At the end of that day, add up the number of calories you ate/drank. Be as exact as possible. Once you add it all up, you now have the total number of calories you consume daily. Also, weigh yourself.

3) Starting the day after you counted calories, eat 500 calories LESS then you normally do. So, lets pretend that the day you counted calories you counted 2000. For the rest of the week, you would eat 1500 calories a day. Understand? All you have to do is subtract 500 from the total number of calories you consume in a normal day, and eat this new number of calories every day for the next 7 days.

4) Instead of eating 3 big meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), or eating all day all the time, spread those calories out over 5 smaller meals. Eat one meal every 2 and a half to 3 hours. Doing this will speed up your metabolism.

5) Cardio. Cardio is an important part of weight loss. If you're serious about losing weight, but don't want to do the cardio workouts, then you are requiring your diet to do all of the work. Jog, walk, swim, jump rope, ride a bike, take an aerobics class, whatever... cardio + proper diet = better than just doing one of the two. All it takes is 30 minutes a day, 3 - 5 days a week. I say 3-5 days a week because I don't know if you have 5 pounds to lose, or if you have 50 pounds to lose. So, depending on how much your looking to lose, figure it out. 3 times a week is good starting point though.

6) At the end of that week, weigh yourself. You'll notice a difference just after one week! Now, don't expect to see a 20 pound difference. Losing anymore then 1 or 2 pounds a week is unhealthly. So look for a 1 or 2 pound weight loss at the end of the week. Don't sound like much? You can lose 5-8 pounds a month! That's around 75lbs a year! So if you have A LOT of weight to lose, you can lose it. If have just a few pounds to lose, you can lose it.

Important weight loss tips for losing weight effectively! (extremely important!)

- THE BAD FAT MUST GO! Stay away from "bad" fat! Get rid of all the chips and candy. No more fast food, nothing fried. No more cookies, no more cake, no more of these saturated fats. There is no question about it and there is no way around it, get rid of these types of foods. Don't get me wrong, you should NOT be eating 0 grams of fat every day, but the only places you should be getting your daily fat intake from are lean meats (not the fried fast food kind), chicken (again, not fried!), etc. as well as the foods that contain the "healthy" types of fat, which can be found in just about every type of fish (tuna fish, salmon, fish oil supplements, etc.), nuts, olive oil and flaxseed oil.

- LOWER THE BAD CARBS! Most people think that it is fat that makes people fat and that just by eating less fat, they are on their way to weight loss! WRONG! Certain carbs can be just as bad as fat when it comes to losing weight. Limit foods high in bad carbs. These carbs will eventually turn into fat. Foods like sugar, white bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. are high in simple (bad) carbs. Sure, your body needs carbs, which is why foods like these are ok to eat, but don't go overboard. Stick to high protein/good carb/low fat foods like tuna fish (and other seafood), chicken breast, turkey, whole grains, fruits and vegetables etc.

- WATER! Drink water! Get rid of the soda, get rid of the beer, and get rid of the sports drinks. Drink around a half gallon a day, more if you can. Spread it out throughout the day, just like your 5 meals. Yes that's a lot of water, but it's that water that will give you energy and speed your weight loss.

- STRENGTH TRAINING! YES! Weightlifting isn't just great for muscles, it's great for losing weight. Muscles burn calories.

- Weigh yourself at the end of every week. If you ever have more then 2 weeks go by without losing 1 pound, it's time to change something. Eat 250 less calories then you've been eating. And keep everything else the same. Each time you see weight loss stop for more then 2 weeks, decrease calorie intake by 250 until you get down to where you want to be. Remember, NEVER starve yourself!

- Sleep! YES! Sleep! The easiest, yet most over looked step. Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Trust me, you're gonna need it! =]

- Control food cravings!


There you have it. You now know everything you need to know about losing weight. You didn't have to buy any weight loss pills or books on losing weight, instead, you should use the money you just saved and go buy some good food or a gym membership.

Now, I never once said this would be easy. If it was easy, you would have done it already. Losing weight isn't something you can just do "on the side." You also can NOT lose weight fast. You are going to have to dedicate your mind and body and your time to doing it! So, you now have the information you need, all you have to do now is use it.



Diet Plans - free information about
diets, protein, carbs, fat and calories

A lot of times people who workout complain that they aren't getting the results they want to be getting. The #1 cause of not being able to get your body to do what you want it to do is usually NOT your workout. Most, if not all of the time, it is due to your diet. So, sit back and get comfortable. There is a lot of information in this (free) 2 part article, but it will contain EVERY SINGLE THING you need to know about diets and nutrition so that an improper diet plan DOESN'T stop you from getting the results you want to get.

"Diet"

Before we can start talking about diets and diet plans, you must first understand what a diet REALLY is and what it REALLY means. See, people tend to use the phrase "I'm on a diet" when they want to tell people that they are trying to lose weight. People who do this are... well... stupid. A diet IS NOT weight loss. Diets are just simply what you eat on a regular basis. You could eat McDonald's cheeseburgers covered in ice cream 4 times a day, and you'd still be "on a diet." While eating like this would certainly be the worst of all diet plans, you get my point.

If someone said, "that monkey's diet consists of bananas," would that mean the monkey has a weight problem? No, it would just mean that the monkey eats bananas on a regular basis. Saying you're on a diet really just means you eat food. That's why I think it's funny when people state that they're "on a diet" and expect it to mean something it doesn't. "You're on a diet? Wow... congratulations... so is EVERY OTHER LIVING THING ON THE PLANET!!" These people should be saying that out of the many different diets and plans that exist, they're "on a weight loss diet." Hopefully these people are reading this right now, and hopefully they have learned their lesson. It's ok, we forgive you.

Diet Plans For Different Goals

Now, chances are you ended up here for one of the following reasons:

A) Your goal is weight loss and losing fat.
B) Your goal is weight gain and increasing muscle.
C) Your goal is to lose fat AND increase muscle.

Which ever it is makes little difference at this point, because it all starts with your diet. You see, with the exception of a few small details, all diet plans are exactly the same. They all break down the same way. All diets consist of the same things. It's how you adjust those things that makes the difference between A, B and C. So, let's find out what exactly these "things" are.

Calories And Maintenance Levels

Now that you fully understand what diets are, let's break down what all diet plans consist of. Above all things, there are calories. All diets are made up of calories. Everything you eat and drink (besides obvious calorie-free things like water and celery, etc.) has calories in it. It's how many calories and exactly where those calories are coming from that effect your body and your weight.

The way the human body works is pretty simple. There is a certain number of calories that your body requires every day in order for it to maintain its current weight. I like to call this your "Maintenance Level" because, well, that's what it's actually called. If your diet plan is made up of less calories than this maintenance level, you will lose weight. If it's made up of more calories, you will gain weight. It's all really simple, actually.

If you just read that last paragraph you should feel good about yourself. Why? Because right now you already know more about diets and nutrition than at least 80% of the population. No, you're no genius yet. It's just that most people are clueless about the subject of "diet plans" and how to actually control their body and weight.

So now that you know that diets are made up of calories, you should be wondering what exactly calories are made up of. Basically, calories are made up of 3 things. Protein, carbs, and fat. Yeah yeah, I know. High protein diet!! Low carb diet!! Low fat diet!! Healthy fat!! Fat free!! Good carbs!! Bad carbs!! Those are probably the assortment of confusing things that enter your mind as soon as you hear the words protein, carbs and fat. It's ok though, relax. In a few minutes none of it will be confusing ever again. Let's take them one at a time.

Protein

Protein is an extremely important part of all diet plans. That's why you have most likely never heard of any low protein diets, and also why you probably HAVE heard of protein supplements. That's because your body needs protein, and lots of it. It is the building block of muscle. Protein is measured by the gram. 1 gram of protein is equal to 4 calories. So, if you are eating something that has 20 grams of protein in it, that means that whatever you are eating is at least 80 calories. In case you failed 2nd grade math, that was 20 grams of protein multiplied by 4 calories per gram... 20 x 4 = 80

Carbs

Carbs (or "carbohydrates" for the people who don't mind typing 8 extra letters) is another of the three main elements that make up calories. I have a feeling that of the three, carbs are the most confusing for people creating diet plans. I think the reason for that is because everything you enjoy eating has carbs in it. Hell, everything you don't enjoy eating has carbs in it. Carbs are in almost everything and therefore seem to be the hardest for people to manipulate within a diet plan. Just like protein, 1 gram of carbs is equal to 4 calories. So, if you were eating something that had 20 grams of protein and 10 grams of carbs, you just ate at least 120 calories (20x4=80, 10x4=40, 80+40=120calories).

Fat

Unlike protein and carbs which are both 4 calories per gram, 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. So if you eat something that has 10 grams of fat in it, you just ate at least 90 calories. This explains why high protein foods are usually low in calories, while foods high in fat are high in calories. This is also probably the reason why there are so many fat free foods and why people on diets think fat makes them fat. Guess what... it doesn't. That is a myth.

Fat does not make you fat. Eating too many calories makes you fat. It just so happens that a gram of fat has more calories in it than a gram of protein or carbs. However, the only thing that makes a person gain fat is when that person is eating more calories than their maintenance level, and then not burning them off through working out. Whether these excess calories in your diet plan are coming from protein, carbs or fat makes little difference.

Sometimes people on specific weight loss diet plans just try to eat less fat (or even fat free) and think that alone will work. What they don't realize is that they are probably replacing those fat calories with calories from protein or carbs. Yes their fat intake has become lower, but their calorie intake evens back out to what it was, if not more. And, since you now know that it is too much calories, NOT fat, that causes fat gain, the person's weight usually won't decrease.

Different Diets And Plans

So now that you know diets consist of calories, and calories consist of protein, carbs and fat, you should have just one final 4-part question. Exactly how much protein, how much fat, how many carbs and how many calories should you be eating each day in your own diet plan? It's hard to answer this because there are 100's of different diets out there whose "gimmicks" revolve around the answers to those questions.

Especially when it comes to weight loss fad diets. There's the low carb diet, the low fat diet, the high protein diet, the atkins diet, the south beach diet, the zone diet, weight watchers and too many others to even remember. While those diets have their place and some people like all of the gimmicky aspects of them, honestly... none are truly needed. If one seems ideal for you, then by all means, use it.

The Diet Plan

The diet plan my site recommends has no name. The reason for that is because well, it's not being sold to you. It's free. It's all based on fact, not gimmicks and generating sales. Right now we can just call it "The simple free diet that works every time." Catchy, isn't it? I can't take credit for inventing it though. If anyone can take credit for inventing this diet plan, it would be the human body itself. So, thank you human body... thank you for losing weight or gaining weight when simple diet adjustments are made to you. Ok, let's get down to business...

Basically this diet simply revolves around calories and eating either above or below your calorie maintenance level depending on whether you are looking to lose or gain weight. And then, just making sure that those calories are coming from good sources of protein, carbs and fat, as well as good amounts of each. But, for the most part... it all comes down to calories. Here's how to figure it all out...

How many calories?

First, the most important of all the numbers you will need to figure out... your daily calorie intake. The number of calories you need to eat each day is different depending on whether you're looking to lose weight or gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat less calories than your maintenance level. If you want to gain weight, you have to eat more. So, the first thing you need to figure out is what your daily calorie maintenance level is. To figure this out, follow these steps:

The first thing you should do is weigh yourself. Do it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.

The second thing you need to do is eat exactly like you normally would for a few days. Whatever and however you normally ate and drank during the course of a usual day, keep doing it like you usually would. The only difference is you will be paying attention to what you are eating and drinking. More specifically, you will be keeping track of the number of calories in everything you consume. Unless you have a really good memory, I'd suggest keeping a list of it all.

If you are eating something that has it's nutritional info on the package, be sure to take notice of how many calories are in it and write it down. If what you are eating/drinking doesn't give the nutritional info, you can buy a cheap pocket size calorie counter book (which is easy to carry around during the day). These books give a huge list of foods along with how many calories (and carbs, fat, etc.) are in them. This one even lists foods from fast food chains and restaurants. It can be extremely useful.

Once you've done this every day for a few days, it will be time to figure out the average amount of calories you consume in a day. So, go and look at your totals for the few days you've been counting calories, and then take the average. For the sake of explaining the rest of this, we will pretend the average came out to be 2500 calories a day.

Now that you figured out how many calories you are eating in a day (2500), you now need to decide what you want your weight to do. Do you want to lose weight or gain weight? If your goal is to lose weight, you should now start eating 500 LESS calories a day. So, sticking with this example, you would now start eating 2000 calories a day. If your goal is to gain weight, you would ADD 500 calories. In this example, you would now start eating 3000 calories a day.

All you have to do after that is wait a week and then weigh yourself again (first thing in the morning on an empty stomach) and notice what your weight did. If you wanted to lose weight, did you? If so, continue to eat those same number of calories every day. If you wanted to gain weight, did you? If so, continue to eat those same number of calories every day.

If your weight did NOT do what you wanted it to do, then make an adjustment. If you wanted to lose and you didn't, subtract an additional 250 calories from your daily total for another week. If you wanted to gain but didn't, add an additional 250 calories to your daily total for another week. Then weigh yourself at the end of the week and see what happened.

Once you finally have your weight doing what you want it to do (it usually will after the first 500 calorie adjustment), continue to keep track of it all and keep weighing yourself once a week. Eventually (could be weeks, could be months, could be never) it is possible that you will reach a stopping point where your weight stops doing what you want it to do. This is perfectly normal and just means it's time to add/subtract another 250 calories. I would say that if your weight stays exactly the same for 2-3 weeks, it's likely time to make another calorie adjustment.

The reason all of the calorie adjustments are always done is small increments is because removing or adding too many calories too fast will have a negative effect causing you to lose or gain too much too fast. This is unsafe and unhealthy. You should be losing or gaining typically 1 or 2 pounds a week at most. Even a half of a pound counts as a change. In the beginning it is normal (especially for weight loss) to lose a little more than these numbers a week. However, this shouldn't last longer than a few weeks before you reach the usual 1-2 pounds a week numbers.

So now you know how many calories to eat each day. All that's left to figure out now is where those calories should come from...

How much protein?

It is usually recommended that a person looking to increase muscle should be eating at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 180lbs, you should try to eat 180 grams of protein a day. That might sound impossible at first, but it is VERY doable and quite simple once you get used to it. This is also why they invented protein supplements. While the majority of my daily protein intake comes from actual foods that are high in protein, I use protein shakes and protein bars to supplement the rest. They are very helpful, and I recommend them.

Some high protein foods include:

Meat
Chicken
Turkey
Fish
Eggs (egg whites)
Nuts

How much fat?

For fat, I can't give you an exact number of grams. Instead I can give you a percent. Approximately 25% of you daily calorie intake should come from fat. It doesn't have to be EXACTLY 25%, but something in that range seems to be the ideal amount. And by fat of course, I mean GOOD fat.

Some foods containing "good" fat include:

Fish
Fish oil supplements
Nuts and seeds
Olive oil
Flax seed oil

How many carbs?

And that leaves carbs. You factored in that you need to eat 1 gram of protein per pound. So now do the math. Sticking with the 180lbs example, that means you are eating 180 grams of protein a day. 180x4 = 720 calories. So in this example, 720 calories of the daily calorie intake is accounted for from protein alone. You can now also factor in the 25% of your daily calorie total coming from fat. Once you factored in both the protein and fat, whatever number of calories you are left with... those will come from carbs. Got that? 1 gram per pound for protein, 25% of the total calorie intake is fat, and everything else should come from GOOD carbs.

Some foods containing "good" carbs include:

Oatmeal
100% whole wheat bread
Whole wheat pasta
Brown rice
Yams
Sweet potatoes
Beans
Green leafy vegetables

Organize It And Do It

Now that you have all of the diet information figured out, try to spread the calories out evenly over 4-6 smaller meals rather than 3 really big meals. Then, spread the 4-6 smaller meals out by eating once every 3 hours or so. That pretty much sums it all up. Be sure to drink plenty of water, get enough sleep, and of course... workout correctly. Oh, and one final math equation for you:

Everything you just read + dedication + consistency = results
The truth about ab workouts, infomercials and getting perfect abs...

WARNING: What you are about to read is what the people from the ab infomercials don't want you to read. What you are about to read is all 100% true! What you are about to read is the truth about ab workouts and how to get "the perfect abs you've always dreamed of." Enjoy...

I have realized that on average, at least once a day I see one of those infomercials about ab workouts. You know them, the ones that have a bunch of guys/girls with pretty good bodies all standing around talking about ab workouts and how great this product is. Maybe they will use it to show how it works, maybe there will be a diagram drawn to show what part of the ab muscles it works, maybe there will be a big speech about why it is better than ANY of the other abdominal machines and abdominal exercises, and better than anything you can possibly do for your abs. Personally, I love the names. The "Ab Doer," the "Ab Dolly," the "Ab Swing," etc., but my question is, why don't they just name it the "Ab machine that will totally waste all of your money and do absolutely nothing for you, except help us people in this stupid, bad acted, infomercial make money."

The truth is, no matter what Chuck Norris or whatever other idiot in the commercial says, it is all a big lie. The truth is, EVERY one of the ab machines you see in EVERY one of these infomercials is 100% useless. The truth is, the ab dolly, the ab doer, the ab slide, the ab lounge, etc. are all a big useless waste of money, and one big lie! The truth is everyone in these infomercials with the perfect 6 packs and flat stomachs all got that way WITHOUT using the dumb abdominal product they are advertising. There is only 1, I repeat, there is only ONE way to get a stomach like that and it has nothing to do with any kind of "magic" ab workouts or abdominal exercises. It's the huge secret that everyone in those commercials don't want you to know because if everyone knew this secret, these infomercial idiots would all have no jobs. So... the BIG secret is...

You have to have a low body fat. It's as simple as that.

You don't have to spend $19.95 to swing in the "Ab Chair" for 8 minutes a day, you don't spend $29.95 to ride the "Ab Dolly" for 3 minutes a day. All you have to do is have a low body fat; not do some kind of magic ab workouts. The brutal truth is we all have perfect abs. The 2000 pound guy who has to be lifted out of his house by a truck because he's so fat, has perfect abs. I have perfect abs, you have perfect abs. EVERYONE has perfect abs. The problem is most people just can't see them. Why? Because their fat body is too high. Eat a perfect diet, and do cardio, and your body fat will get lower, and your abs will be able to be seen. Sure, doing abdominal exercises and working out your abs is good, this helps strengthen and build your ab muscles, but that won't do much for you if you can't see them because there is a layer of fat covering them!

Everyone in these ab infomercials swear that the ab workouts they are advertising are "the best!" They swear that their stupid useless abdominal product is the best, fastest, and most effective way to get the "perfect abs you've always dreamed of." The truth is, you can get those perfect abs by doing 5 minutes of plain old crunches 2 days a week. Hell, that's what I do! My ab workouts consist of a few different types of basic abdominal exercises like crunches (weighted) and leg raises 2 times a week. No machines, no 8 minute abs video tapes, nothing. Just me and the floor. The workout usually lasts about 5-15 minutes. It's the diet and the cardio that give you the low body fat that allows your abs to be visible. Not the Ab doer dolly lounge swing fling thing useless piece of crap blah blah blah! You get my point.

So, the next time you see one of these infomercials, be happy. Feel good about yourself. Why? Because you know the truth. You know the big secret, you know that somewhere out there is someone who is ordering this stupid product right now... and you're not! Be happy that you know what you really have to do to get the perfect abs you've always dreamed of... and lucky you... you even got to save your $19.95!

Some of you are going to read this article because you really want to know if it's possible to turn fat into muscle. Don't worry, you'll get your answer. The rest of you probably think it's hilarious that I think there are people out there who truly believe something as stupid as this. Well, I do. Wanna know why? Because for about 1 week in 1998, I believed it too. And I figure if a workout and diet myth like this can actually get believed by me, chances are high that others believe it too.

Alright... go ahead... laugh it up. I'll laugh right along with you. For those of you who may not have realized it yet, it is 100% impossible to turn fat into muscle. Actually, the idea of turning fat into muscle is so idiotic that it is very likely to cause people to laugh right in your face if you ask them about it. You shouldn't feel too bad about it though, because like I said earlier, I was just like you. Really... I was.

Like I mentioned in the personal training article, I originally joined a gym with a friend of mine. I was the ectomorph (naturally skinny person) and he was the endomorph(naturally fat person). Realizing the difference in our body types, he came to the conclusion that he would be able to gain more muscle faster than me because he could turn his fat into muscle. At the time, I doubted it. So to settle our debate, we asked one of the personal trainers who worked at this gym.

Do you want to know what they said? They actually said yes, it is possible to turn fat into muscle. So, I believed it... for about a week. It was then that I was lucky enough to come across someone who actually knew what the hell they were talking about. It was then that I realized that first, this is just a stupid workout myth. And second, it is actually possible for a personal trainer to be a complete idiot. Allow me to clarify...

There is fat. There is muscle. They are two completely different things that can NOT magically become each other. The only thing fat can do is increase and decrease. The only thing muscle can do is increase and decrease. At no point can they change into each other. Only a proper diet plan and/or cardio workout will help with losing the fat, and only a proper diet plan and weight training workout will help with gaining the muscle.

What? What's that you say? You turned your fat into muscle? Really? Are you sure about that? You do realize it's impossible, right? Here's what I think happened. I think you lost fat, and I think you built muscle. It is very possible to lose fat and build muscle, but you must realize that they are two separate things. You did not turn fat into muscle. You just happened to separately lose fat, and separately gain muscle. One had nothing to do with the other. If anything, you replaced fat with muscle. You lost one and gained the other, you didn't turn one into the other.

So, there you go. You can not turn fat into muscle. If you want to lose fat and build muscle, you’re going to have to do both.