@Modath-

The article is indeed irresponsible, headline grabbing/ limelight hugging journalism by the writer. He expouses blatant misinformation as fact, and twists factual information to support his stance. Funny enough, the article actually exposes what litte he (John Cloud), knows about human physiology, and the relationship between exercise and diet in losing weight.

For example:he says fat turns into muscle. Any layman know this simply isnt true. He also contradicts himself numerous times in the article. E.g, he notes that despite all the exercise he does, he is not "overweight". Duh!, and concludes that some type of exercises do make you lose weight - "Another British study, this one from the University of Exeter, found that kids who regularly move in short bursts — running to catch a ball, racing up and down stairs to collect toys — are just as healthy as kids who participate in sports that require vigorous, sustained exercise."

His main gripe seems to come from the fact that exercise stimulates hunger, thereby causing you to eat more. Therefore, it is not effective at making you lose weight - which seems a pretty illogical conclusion!

Everyone knows that a good diet is the cornerstone of a weight loss programme. Exercise is simply an additional factor in the equation.

All in all, a very confused article that is not being taken seriously by any health professional.

@Chrystal25 -

You should definitely see a doctor. It could be as a result of several things. From acute bursitis/tendinitis, to a Labral tear. In the meantime, take it easy. Do not carry anything heavy. If you have access to swimming pool, try to exercise the area gently. The water lessens your weight on the joint, thereby making rehabilitation a lot easier.

Also try seating with a cushion under you. This may alleviate the pain in the short term. You may also want to take anti-inflammatory tablets. Make sure they do not interfere with any medications you are currently taking, and you do not suffer from ulcers.

@Romeo,
My grouse with the article is in the simple fact that he is a slowpoke who didn't even have the common sense to confuse anyone but the straight up lazybones.
Of course the body will rebel initially but when it realises that you aren't giving up,it will be come get used to it and make the necessary adjustments.i don't think as moronic and asinine as he is,he wouldn't put up a fight if anyone is trying to deplete his resources/savings for the rainy day,which fat happens to be for the body.

@Eja & Aladunni -

Ingestion of Artificial Sweeteners and their subsequent various side effects will be one of the biggest health problems affecting people worldwide in the next 10-15 yrs. Despite clear evidence of their dangerous side effects, they have been cleared for use by most governments and are in almost everything we eat.  The Diet and Exercise industries also contributed by demonising plain sugar, and claiming artificial sweeteners were the answers to unwanted weight gain as they contain zero calories.

They are usually created by the chlorination of Sucrose, oxidation of Potassium salts or Hydrocarbons, or from Sulfumides - none of which are natural processes. Most common are Sucralose,Saccharin,  Aspartame, Acesulfame Potassium or Acesulfame K. These are marketed under varius names - Splenda, Saccharine, Sweet'N Low, SucraPlus, Candys, Cukren, and Nevella, Equal, NutraSweet, Canderel, etc.

They are KNOWN to cause a variety of cancers, migraines, bowel diseases, skin diseases, diarrhea, gastrointestinal problems (bloating, gas, diarrhea, nausea), skin irritations (rash, hives, redness, itching, swelling), wheezing, cough, runny nose, chest pains, palpitations, anxiety, anger, moods swings, depression, and itchy eyes, etc.

My advice - Stay away from ANY artificial sweetener. Check EVERY label of ANYTHING you eat or drink. Check your children's drinks, snacks, yogurt, etc. Check anything that says "Sugar Free" and is still sweet. I used to have problems (headaches, migraines, gastrointestinal problems) until i made sure i removed every thing that contained artificial sweeteners from my diet, even chewing gum (most gums contain Aspertame or Acesulfame K)!

@Aladunni -

Its fine. Breaking it up into 2 parts will still achieve the desired effect. If you can do it before breakfast (morning session), and before dinner (evening session). If you cant, make sure at least the evening session is before dinner.

don't think as moronic and asinine as he is,he wouldn't put up a fight if anyone is trying to deplete his resources/savings for the rainy day,which fat happens to be for the body.

LOL! That's exactly what it is!

@CC - you def found me here This is where i take refuge when the other parts of NL become too much/hot to handle! And its nice to help peeps as well.

OK, firstly,  Nigerian foods, and our cooking methods are not the most healthy. There are certain things that may need cooking in a certain way, or need a specific amount, or type of oil. This can create difficulties. E.g - will you fry your Dodo with extra virgin Olive oil? Do you prefer your Egusi or Ewa with Palm oil? Do you cook your Jollof rice with Beef or Chicken stock?

- In any case, you need to reduce your Red Meat intake. Eat more fish instead Red Meat contain lots of saturated fat, which raise your cholesterol levels, which in turn is quite bad for you. Moreover, the stock (water after boiling) also contains most of this fat. Nigerians usually use this in the preparation of other meals.

- Reduce your intake of sugary drinks - Malt, Soft drinks, etc. Also reduce intake of any drinks that contain artificial sweeteners. Drink more water instead.

- Reduce your intake of salt and flavour enhancers (Maggi, etc). This is a major factor in High Blood Pressure.

- Eat more fruit and vegetables. At least 2 whole fruits a day, and one good serving of vegetables. steamed.

- Cut out ALL unnecessary sugar and fat from your diet

Also how do i motivate myself to exercise? I have a treadmill but I find using it the most boring thing ever. I even positioned it so that I can watch TV while on it but I still just dont have the motivation.

This is not surprising. Look at it this way. How much do you think you can grow as a Christian, whilst never attending church, mixing with like minded people, in the right environment (church), listening to sermons from good preachers, and attending Bible study? Not very much. How much do you think you can be motivated to read, study and meditate on your Bible without doing all these things?  Not very much as well.
Also, watching TV whilst exercising is a NO NO! Whilst many gyms, or even treadmills have TVs in them, you need to focus on the task at hand. It is not possible to watch TV, whilst putting 100% effort into any exercise.

Whilst you do not have to join a gym, having access to one makes the whole thing a lot easier. It makes it more structured and specific.  You can use different machines, different weights, and different exercises to achieve your aim. U can even join  a cardio or aerobic class, which makes the weight loss thing a lot more fun! Moreover, no matter how good your treadmill is, it was designed for home use, and subsequently it cannot be as good as one created for the gym. If you can, do join a gym, or at a minimum, have a structured food/exercise plan. Put aside 40mins at least  3 x a week to implement your exercise plan. It will be one of the best things you have ever done!

--

Romeo4real:

@Aladunni -

Its fine. Breaking it up into 2 parts will still achieve the desired effect. If you can do it before breakfast (morning session), and before dinner (evening session). If you cant, make sure at least the evening session is before dinner.

Thanks Romeo4real, i will surely do that.

I need to take a lil permission off the thread, I have exams to write and am really really lagging, i may breeze in once a while to paste my progress and ask questions but daily routine i may not do for some time. You will be seeing my mails in your in-box too. I will catch up fully by early December. Thanks and cheerio

@Chaircover -
Sorry for the delayed response. Been at a seminar all week!Ok, here goes.

I will also cut down on the red meat business, although to be honest turkey & chicken are my favorites.

I use very little oil when I cook. I tend to use rapeseed oil or sunflower oil and I eat a lot of fruit.

Great! You seem to have this "healthy eating" biz sorted already!

Now to the gym. Over the years I have spent thousands on gym memberships. I register every first working day of the new year . . . .attend one or 2 sessions and thats it. I really honestly don't know why I dont like gyms.

Not surprising. Most people don't. It can be boring, but like any other thing that's good for you, it needs mental focus, effort and commitment. Look at it this way - its not something you need to like, but something you need to do.

We have a staff gym at work which is heavily subsidized and I beleive it costs only £10 a month

If i were you, I'd jump at this opportunity. 10 quid a month!!!! ! Wow! It may be easier for you to work out before you get home, because once at home, it may be more difficult for you to find time (chores, kids, etc). No need for grunting, a 40mins brisk walk on the treadmill should be OK to start off.

Currently I have a personal trainer who comes round to the house once a week. He makes it fun; especially the boxing . . . which the gym isn't.  I know that to start seeing benefits I need to exercise in between his visits but as I said I just find it so boring.

You are so so lucky. You can afford gym memberships, you have a subsidised gym available, you can afford to have a personal trainer, and he comes to your home! Make use of ALL these benefits! All you need is 3 x 40mins - 1hr session each week. That's 2 days in the gym, 1 day with the trainer at home. Since you enjoy the boxing so much, you may want to look up boxing/kick boxing classes in your local area - It really is a great , fun way to stay healthy and keep fit - If you want, I'll look it up for you.

Though you need resistance exercises (as well as the cardio), you do NOT need to join a gym for this (if you don't want to). There are exercises you can do at home, and you can buy dumbbells to use. The only problem is that it will be hard to find the motivation to exercise at home.

Also Do you have a diet sheet that I can follow for the diet?.

Don't worry about this. Just follow these simple guide lines.

- ALWAYS eat 3 main meals a day
- A meals is anything that supplies calories - not just eba, or rice.
- ALWAYS eat breakfast ( you can have fruits, cereal, etc for breakfast)
- ALWAYS keep your portions small (fist sized)
- ALWAYS drink a min of 1L of water a day
- NO cakes, Chocs, Sweeties, etc
- NEVER eat anything between your meals
- If hungry between meals, ONLY eat fruits, or drink more water
- If hungry after meals, eat more fruits and veg

All this must be done in a very consistent manner. Ths is where the results comes from.

@Aladunni - hope you got my reply.

Romeo4real:

@Aladunni - hope you got my reply.

yes i did romeo, thanks so much for the reply, all i do now is just portion control as exercise is still tiresome. currently on another round of medications and the preparation for exams is making me quite desperate now, am sure when am done, i can give all. thanks

Hello ,
I can see you are doing a great job , I will like to inform you about the Nigeria Sports Fair that is coming up next year Jan 2011(20th -22nd) at the National Stadium ,Surulere for all sports related businesses to come together and exhibit the business side of sports in Nigeria and how sports can be use to reduce unemployment in present economy.

This fair is not a football fair , our organisation is trying to tell nigerians that football business is not the only sports and not the only source of income in sports in Nigeria .The more reason why we are organising this sports fair .Let us turn sports into a big source of income .

For more inform on how to register to exhibit your business contact 08033396203(Ebi)

This is a great opportunity to spread ur market based and enlarge ur target audience.

@CC -

Its 2011! Let us make this the year you start and stick with it.
Dont let it be another resolution that simply fades away.
Do let me know if u need any help!

@Aladunni -

How r u? Hope alls going well and ur feeling much better. Hvnt heard from u in a while, both on this thread and the other.

Thanks Rome4real for all this info. I agree with you 100% that a new post centered on fitness be created.

@romeo4real please i want to loose weight( about 14kg) within 2months and also develope my abs?
how do i go about it? thanks

Hi my name is Brian and I was poor and needed money and I found a company that helped me.
I'm now bringing a new product to market. 

212-990-7383 is the Pre-recorded call about the business, how it works and pays you.

Go to my website, watch the four videos,
and if you like what you see then get on my waiting list.
http://yah.124online.com

Prosper and stay healthy.

If you have questions email me or call me 941-806-8907
Thanks,
Brian

waow!

I am training for another season of Mtn Bike racing. I need to loose 15 pounds. I eat well. I keep a food journal. My formula is this; 1600 calories daily goal - exersize calories + food calorie intake. I should be loosing weight, but I am not. My gut/love handels are definatly big enough that my 15 pound goal is well with in reason. Is my body in a defence mode?
On a side note - I trained more last year than ever, and my performance was worst ever. I truly understand the importanc of good recovery after working out, and I dont think I overtrained? Can you help?

hi Romeo..... i have gone through the thread and to be sincere i'm really happy with what i read so far. Now i weigh 100kg. Used to weigh 103kg before but i changed my diet from the normal nigerian diet to eatings foods like Wheat bread, wheat, black amala,unripe plantain brown rice,basmati rice, beans and i cook with olive oil. i also registered at the gym mid last month and its really subsidized. i've dropped fizzy drinks and malt...if i crave sweet things i take Fumman juice which contains no added sugar and its once in a while. Now the *ish* is i still love meatpie, chicken pie .....and i feel guilty when i snack on dem and infact i totally love bananas .....now is it possible for me to drop down to 85kg by september or even less cuz thats my target for my next birthday ....and what do i need to incorporate into my current lifestyle.. .i'll be expecting ur response.

@yinx007 -

Apologies for the late reply. The very very late reply. I took a hiatus from the site for quite a while.
It seems you are doing all the right stuff, and congratulations on the weight loss so far. I take it that you have lost more since your post? (i hope so). Nothing generally wrong with Meat/Chicken pie as there are a lot worse things to eat. However, you cannot consider them as "snacks" as thay contain a decent amount of calories - unless you are expending a significant amount of calories in your exercise regime to balance the consumption out.

Also nothing wrong with Bananas, but hey are quite calorific, so again, unless you are expending significant amounts of calories exercising, you cannot consider them as a "snack".
So in a nutshell, A meat pie counts as a meal. You can have a meat pie + 2 small bananas or 1 large bannana as a meal.
Remember, its not only what you eat, but in what quantities, and how/what time you eat them. Any kind of food is fattening if eaten in large quantities with no exercise regimen.

The key foundation to maximising weight loss is small quantities of food, at consistently regular intervals, with regular exercise on a consistent basis. Stick to thhis simple plan and you can't go wrong.

@Jeremy -

am training for another season of Mtn Bike racing. I need to loose 15 pounds. I eat well. I keep a food journal. My formula is this; 1600 calories daily goal - exersize calories + food calorie intake. I should be loosing weight, but I am not. My gut/love handels are definatly big enough that my 15 pound goal is well with in reason. Is my body in a defence mode?
On a side note - I trained more last year than ever, and my performance was worst ever. I truly understand the importanc of good recovery after working out, and I dont think I overtrained? Can you help

Again Jeremy, Apologies for the late late reply. I assume that the bike challenge has come and gone, but i will still attempt to answer your question. 1st question is - Are you weighing yorself to verify your weight loss? Or lack of it...Or are you simply looking in the mirror to judge? Weight does not come off in the same way it came on, and usually to loose weight in a specific area, we need to loose a LOT of weight overall.

I do not calorie count (it's a bad habit and not indicative), but 1600 calories is certainly not enough for a man who is regularly physically active, so it may be your body has slowed your metabolism down to reduce the calories it is loosing. It is difficult to diagnose overtraining as i do not have your training regine. But to put it simply for you, there is really nothing like "overtraining". No matter how hard/how much you train, if you rest enough, your body will recover. So you may be "under resting". So if you train hard, then you MUST also rest hard and sleep hard. Simple. Also look at your rehydration. if it is simply ater, the your perfomance/ recovery will not be optimum.

I have always said, to lose weight,or increase performance (you are trying to do both) you have to eat more. Not necessarily more quantity, but the right foods, more frequently. Hope this helps.

Glad to have you back Romeo4real. How have you been?

Hey Dominique, I've been good! Just been busy dealing with life's travails, plus i had a baby too! Hope you good too!

Welcome back Romeo. You were missed.

Thanks Sammi...hope u good!

Hello Romeo,
For some time I've been losing and gaining weight and it has caused stretch marks on my skin which I have tried to get rid of to no avail but that's not the point.
I weighed myself last week and I weighed 72kg. That's the heaviest I've ever been in my life. I need to go back to 60kg. I gained the weight too fast. Please give me a student-friendly meal table to follow. I don't have access to a gym but I can skip 1000jumps everyday.

Thanks.

Hello Gazelleh -

Stretch marks are usually caused by rapid weight gain or loss; though the full picture is a bit more complicated than that. How "healthy" your skin is plays a very important fact too. If you are losing and gaining weith, there is inconsistency somewhere - it may be in your diet, your motivation or your eating habits. The key to any exercise/meal plan is consistency; otherwise you will be on a constant revolving door or weight gain/loss.

A meal table is difficult to do, as i do not know what foods you have available to you, but one thingis certain, if you are serious about this, you will have to make sacrifices regarding what your eating habits. So the guideline are -

- Cut out any sugar from your diet. This means ALL sugary drinks, confectionaries, etc.
- Cut out salt from your cooking. if you must, you can add a little salt the meal itelf.
- Reduce your consumption of fats and oils. This means cooking with less oil, or cutting out any oily food
- Drinks lots of water. At leats 2Ltrs a day. If your urine is any colour, you are NOT drinking enough water. If it is colourless, or slightly green, the you are drinking enough.
- Eat loads of vegetables (not vegetable stew) and fruits
- Eat 3 regular meals a day (Small portions). Regular means regular and at the same times. If you are still hungry, snack on veg,nuts and fruits.
- Exercise regulary. As you do not have a gym, bodyweight exercise at home will suffice. How long does it take you to do 1000 skips? Is this done in one go? Let me know and i can write you a home exercise plan.

- Be CONSISTENT. I cannot emphasie this enough. Without consistency, you will be wasting your time, as any gains will simply be reversed.