Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

? asked in HealthDiet & Fitness · 10 years ago

How to diet properly?

I am 18, and for the last year i have been going to the gym and built up decent but of muscle, however without a diet nothing will change so i want tips on how to improve my diet so i lose the layer of fat covering up the muscle.

any tips on snacks would be good as well.

Update:

(I'm 11stone and 5ft11 so really trying to shed that last bit of fat covering the abs)

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Robert
    Lv 5
    10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    The first thing you will need to do is determine how much you should actually be eating each day. Use one of the many online, free calorie calculators to determine your daily caloric requirements based on your age, gender, height, weight, and activity level. In order to lose weight, you will need eat less than this value. Aim for a 20% reduction. Eating less than this will put you at risk of losing lean muscle mass.

    Next you need to actually count up the calories you eat each day. Guessing doesn't count. Use a journal to write down what you eat. A small food scale is useful for weighing things like produce and meat that don't come with nutrition labels.

    Personally, I find that eating 5 or 6 small meals a day is more satisfying and easier to stick with than 2 or 3 large meals. The reason is simple. After you eat a meal, you are full for at least an hour or two. On a 6-meal-a-day schedule, you are eating a meal every three hours. So as soon as you start to get hungry, another meal is due. This eliminates the need to desire to snack, but it does require more planning on your part to weight out and prepare the numerous meals throughout the day.

    Over time (months, not days), you will become very accustomed to proper meal portions and will not have to record and measure everything so carefully. You will also develop a feel for what your body requires to lose (or maintain) weight.

    For most people of average height and weight, a 20% caloric reduction will result in a weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week. This is a small amount, and can be masked by the large swings in your weight from things like drinking lots of water or eating salty foods. Once again, losing weight faster than this will cause you to lose the muscle you have worked hard to get so be patient. Understand that if you want to lose 10 lbs, for example, it is going to take anywhere from 5 to 10 weeks (one to 2.5 months). Stick with the plan and the weight will come off. Good luck!

  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    restrict oily meals and stuffs with carbohydrates coz those are those with higgest energy. in no way starve. devour recent end result and greens. drink lots of water. hav plenty of small foods an afternoon as an alternative than havin a heavy holiday speedy or lunch or dinner. But devour ample until u are convinced. as for recreation u rather needn't stroll or run. if interested u can become a member of dancin categories and even dance on my own if u are very concious of ur frame. set a small goal like three kgs. as soon as u attain it have a good time with ur fav meals. thn set ur subsequent goal. tell everyone round u that u are on a vitamin so they're going to encourage. attempt to discover a buddy hu may be in ur identical situation in order that u each can plan matters in combination and u will in no way suppose tempted to devour ur fav meals coz it's going to be like betrayin ur buddy...

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    There is actually this great site that I told someone about, I believe just yesterday about getting rid of the fat around the abs. It's so much information to get into great detail here, however. So it is best to go visit it. The link to it is below.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.