ACSM weight loss guidelines

I can't say that I've ever been obese, but I had quit smoking in an attempt to save money and better myself to end up almost 50 lbs heavier. When I started at 185 lbs and ended up 233 lbs at my heaviest, I can assure you that my knees and back were quite sore all the time. I knew I wasn't eating healthy at that time either, so I decided to take complete control by doing 3 things and 3 things only. For any of you who are smarter than I was at 14, you never started smoking and only have 2 things to do.
 
The first thing I did was obviously quitting smoking (this was in 2001 by the way...still smoke free in 2010).
 
The next thing I did was to always park farther away from the entrances of any store I went to so I'd have to walk that much farther. Of course, it's better to leave the car at home if you can walk the complete distance. Providing you can carry your purchases that far by yourself and assuming that your sore knees and back can handle it. All this extra walking is what really starts the exercise going for now. I'll get back to exercise later.
 
The final thing I did was start watching my food intake. It wasn't very difficult choosing the foods as opposed to getting used to a different eating schedule. I would generally try to eat at least 5 times a day. More if I could. Fruits and veggies are a must of course. Healthier cereals (a little sugar on them is fine, just don't over do it). When having a steak dinner for example, try to set up your plate with 25% meat, 25% starch (potato, noodle, rice etc), and 50% veggie. There are all sorts of things to eat that are quite a lot healthier than any fast food. Really all you're trying to do eat smaller protions every 2-3 hours. Think of it this way. When you eat less often your body will becomed accustomed to that type of eating habit. So regardless of the amount of calories you ingest, whether a full meal or just a salad, your body reealizes that it's only getting food once maybe twice a day and will use minimal amounts for the daily stuff and store the rest as fat cells for a later time just incase. The trick is to spread the food out evenly throughout the day to trick your body. In essence, your body will realize that it is getting food very regularily and doesn't have the need to store it and will automatically increase your metabolism which will automatically start you burning more calories away. So here is an example of the choices I made.
 
Breakfast: (1 choice)
1 bowl of cereal
2 slices of toast (butter, peanut butter, jam, etc)
1 banana (usually if I was running late and was eating on the way to work)
2 eggs with bacon or whatever and 1 slice toast (usually saved this for the weekends)
 
Lunch: (any 2)
soup (cream based or not...doesn't really matter that much)
salad (pretty self explanatory. Pasta salads are ok as long as they aren't mayo based. Too much bad cholesteral there)
sandwich (use your imagination. Doesn't have to be the healthiest thing everyday)
 
Dinner:
(It was never about particulars here. I just ate what I felt like eating that night. I did however change up how much of each type of thing on my plate as mentioned previously. Just avoid fast food and keep it relatively healthier. ei: a little less butter and sour cream on your baked potatos)
 
Snacks & Desserts: (I'm sure that there are a ton of healthy choices not listed here) granola/ceareal bars
puddings/yogurts
fruits (obviously plenty of choices here)
carrots/celery sticks
cookies/chips/donuts, etc.
 
This is the bottom line. Eat all the meals, and have at least 1 snack choice between the meals. 2 snacks if time permits. Careful not eat just before bed or during the night. As long as you're getting something to eat every 2-3 hrs roughly during the day this is all it takes to get it started. It should be quite obvious that you can't just have cookies/chips/donuts, etc for your snack everyday!!! Be reasonable...once, maybe twice a week!
 
So as for exercise, that kind of happened as the time passed on. I believe I looked at exercise as realistic as I could. We all drive or take transit everywhere we need to go if the distance requires it. We all need to shop. So I thought by parking farther away from the malls would make me walk that much more to start the exercise. After adjusting my food intake for about 2 months I stopped gaining weight at 233 lbs and stayed there for nearly a month then all of a sudden I started losing between 2-3 lbs a week! When I started losing the weight, My knees and back didn't hurt as much and I was able to walk a little more distance with a little more speed. Power walking is not necessary just try to keep the pace up a bit higher than you would normally walk. Now I decided I wasn't going to indulge in any junk food kind of snacks or any fast food whatsoever until i noticed a change in my weight for the better. So when I noticed that change for the first time, I had a huge serving of beef nachos for dinner that night. Bottom line, it's ok to treat yourself on occasion to something not so good for you, just NOT all the time. Maybe once every other week or so. The longer you stick to a regimen similar to this, the easier it will be to just walk which gets you your exercise needed to increase your heartrate which again increases your metabolism which again increases the calories your body will automatically burn. In the end, it took roughly 8-9 months for me to get to my desired weight and I have managed to keep it off for 9 yrs so far.
 
I hope this posting will help at least one individual get the life they are trying to achieve.
 
Sincerely
Mike in Ontario

This little news clip has nothing but discourgement written all over it!! For the ones reading walking is highly beifical for stress weightloss dibetics artheritis ect i could go on..
Its about a positive lifestyle change putting ur self first when it comes to your health changing your self esteem and how u feel about ur self..this lousy article is what it is. you need to support people in any amount of change whether its 10 min of walking or 30 min we all need a place to build from. it aint all about the stupid weight!! i lost 20 lbs walking building from 10 min day to 45 mins and weights iam a diabetic my sugars are under control anything is possible to all out there!

KEEP WALKING FRIENDS!!

Walk is what I am going to so - thanks for the encouragement!!

I disagree! I started a WALKING program and walked for 30 min. a day to start and the weight poured off me. I could NEVER run for 30 minutes and 60 is out of the question. You just lost a LOT of people by telling them that they couldn't lose weight with 30 minutes a day exercising. YOU CAN! Just walking. I don't power walk but I don't stroll either. I keep up a good clip but I can breath normally and I often sing (I'm rural, so no one hears). Maybe you're talking about those "stick girls" who don't need to lose, they need to gain. It might take them 60 min. of running a day to get anymore flesh off of their bodies but I'm here to tell you, if you're overweight you can MOST CERTAINLY lose weight by walking 30 minutes a day and watching how much at you eat. It's ONLY portion control, you can eat almost anything. I do Weight Watchers, it's for real people and how they really eat. Please, go for it, walk, it's FUN!