Questions on eating right, exercising and how to lose weight about mid-section page

[tyrha92]

I just recently turned 18, but I have started to notice that I have a lot of extra weight around my mid-section, butt and some of my thighs. I wouldn't say I am near obese, but even a five to eight pounds feels like a lot when you want to be perfectly skinny and have a toned body.
I am really confused on why I am not losing weight, I drink a lot of water during the day, I get enough sleep, I am doing 30 mins of cardio four times a week and I think I am eating right.
I really feel like right now I just need someone to explain why I am keeping so much weight around my hips, almost like a tire and it looks horrible when I am in jeans.
I weigh 108-109 right now I am 5 "3, but I am very petite so weighing around 100 pounds for me unless i gain muscle is about where I want to be. Can someone give me some insight on what I should be doing. Is cardio four times a week good and what kind of foods should I eat?

Tyrha S.

[Roach]

I would recommend forgetting about the number of pounds you weigh. If you want to lose extra dough I've found getting 60-70% of cals from fat, 20% or so from protein and the rest from carbs to be quite helpful. Just remember you may not weigh any less than you do right now but I think you'll eventually see that as unimportant. And of course, you want primal food sources. Coconut oil has been a great help to me for effortlessly losing some stubborn flab.

If you want to tone up as well I'd ditch the 4day a week 30 minute cardio sessions and replace them with 3 days of lifting and a day of sprinting.

[tyrha92]

Lifting weights for me is really not an option. I don't have the money to join a gym, but when I do I will lift weights. But what I really want to know is what kinds of foods should I eat for breakfast, and lunch and dinner and is five meals or more a day good like in small amounts to speed up metabolism? What exactly is sprinting and how long would I have to sprint? Also if I can't lift weights how is cardio not going to help me lose weight?

[prib81]

I'd recommend SimpleFit for someone without equipment. The only thing required is a pull-up bar, which is available reasonably at Amazon.com and can be placed in a doorway in seconds without any sort of damage or permanence. The website also describes alternatives to pull-ups. For sprints, read up on the Tabata Method. If you're not wild about feeling like you're going to vomit and/or pass out and don't mind taking 20-30 minutes instead of 10-12, the Little Method (same Wikipedia article) looks pretty solid too.

[canadianwoman]

Lifting weights for me is really not an option. I don't have the money to join a gym, but when I do I will lift weights. But what I really want to know is what kinds of foods should I eat for breakfast, and lunch and dinner and is five meals or more a day good like in small amounts to speed up metabolism? What exactly is sprinting and how long would I have to sprint? Also if I can't lift weights how is cardio not going to help me lose weight?

You can buy dumbbells and start doing exercises at home. I cannot afford a gym membership either but I use 5 pound dumb bells. When those get too easy I will buy a set of 7 pound weights. You can find lots of ways to use them online or in books and magazines at the library. Cardio is free. Get a good pair of shoes and go outside.

As for meals...protein, healthy fats and veggies. I eat 2 meals a day.

[merrique81]

This is what I was going to suggest. I have started simplefit and if you stick to it wow you will see a difference. And if you want a simple straight forward meal plan to follow the one under simplefit but use some imagination and the recipes on MDA and you cant go wrong. Do some homework their is a ton of info on both these sites play around and and read and see whats for you. Explore some you will be amazed at how much you will find. Start with what people have suggested and go from there. Good luck and if you get stumped always keep asking questions in ths forum

[SheGlowsPale]

Buy weights...much cheaper then a gym membership. Forget breakfast, lunch, dinner...eat when hungry...put in a lot of fats...get your carbs from veggies..there is NO reason to eat 5 meals a day.

But if your still not willing to buy weights try simplefit...you can get a cheap pull up bar...its not time consuming but its definitely challenging.

[MattyD]

Have you considered that this weight may be normally? You are still going through your teenage years and weight gain on the hips and bum is normal for woman. I am only 20 and thought I was done developing at 16, but in the last year I've grown a little!

From what I can see from your posts you have not read much literature on the Primal Blueprint or modelling your diet and exercise choices on what we know about Homo Sapien practices from the Paleolithic era.

You should read as much you can of the 101 articles on this site. Check out underground wellness on youtube aswell, he has some very good ideas, but I am not so keen on metabolic typing. If you are caucasian you are problem the "protein type" with high fat.

Don't worry about meal frequency, when you have been eating "Primally" for a couple of weeks you can listen to your body for mealtimes.

I would eat three large meals a day, no more, no less, for at least two weeks. These meals should contain some meat/fish/eggs and some vegetables. Salads count as vegetables only if you include peppers/carrots/spinach etc, lettuce and cucumber is NOT a substitute for proper veggies.

Breakfast: Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Mushroom, Broccoli.

Lunch: Homemade Soup and Chicken Salad.

Dinner: Meat joint slow roasted with veggies/look at recipes on here for ideas.

As shown above you don't need to join a gym to lift weights, at your bodyweight, bodyweight exercises will be easy to get into.

Apologies if I'm way off about your experience!

[batty]

you didn't say what kind of 'cardio' you were doing but i encourage you to read this:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/case-against-cardio/

and would you be able to share what you typically eat during the day?

[tyrha92]

Okay, thanks everyone for the great information. What is simplefit though? I am very interested in a lot of what you guys are saying, but I really am so bad at all of this I was wondering if any of you would be willing to email me information about how you stay fit, what I should do for exercise and how I should eat?
For cardio I am doing a video that is really high pace cardio for a good 30 mins, its a got a lot of kick boxing in it. I am also wondering if I should buy the book, because I have been reading a lot of Mark's posts, but I haven't decided yet on if I need to buy the book, since I am only looking to lose about 5-8 pounds. Also I know some people say this may be a normal weight for me, but I am not basing it off if I weigh a certain amount its how I look in the mirror and how I have fat that accumulates around my jeans when I wear them.
I think my problem is I have gotten so much advice from different people, some say dont eat more then a few meals a day, some say I need to eat 6 times a day and others just large meals, I don't know how to follow. So if anyone would really like to help me out, email me at tyrha92@hotmail.com