30 Days-Superficial Lose Fat and Achieve My Goals Challenge

Ok, I should probably finish up my report on the challenge, seeing that it was over almost 2 weeks ago.


Goal #1 Lose my excess fat to the extent that will surprise the people I see on a daily basis: Well I think I achieved it. I had a few friends comment on my loss of fat. It was good to see all the hard work I invested paid off.

Goal #2 Complete a community based running event within 1 hour: Ok so I didn't achieve this. Ended starting last (can't believed it happened, was literally running back to the finish line to start off..) cause I forgot my timing chip. The race was definitely easier than last time I did it. Ended up doing more exercise, cause I was feeling good an energetic. I really shouldve did more actually long distance running, then I could have achieved this goal.

Goal #3 Win an exercise competition with a friend: Well ended up being really sick during the comp, so basically didn't do it. We both weren't that motivated to actually do it, and the organiser wasn't very organised. A few of my friends did some of the challenges here and there, which turned out to be good fun.


Things I leart from the challenge:
#Having so many exercise goals was not a good idea. Did not end up doing enough training for everything. Really should stick with one or two simple goals.

#Exercise is really about having a good plan and sticking to it. A realistic believe and achieve attidude, definitely helps during lazy times. I'm now making it a daily requirement to exercise and to save the junk food for special occasions. The preperation, effort and pain was definitely worth it. I now feel fitter, have more energy, became less horny and look better

I don't mean to spoil the party, but what you're doing is not sustainable. Eventually, you're going to burn out and the weight will come back. Then you're back to the square one. Do you really think you can train that hard for the rest of your life? And as you get older, you're going to have to work out even longer and harder to keep the weight off.

Really, exercising is not necessary to lose weight. I'm 35, which is old. Guys my age are fat, but I'm about 2-3% body fat. This was even when I didn't join a gym. (I'm at one now because I'm too skinny, which chicks don't like. But you'll never see me on the treadmill or stair machines.) I hardly ever exercise or work out.

You're doing a lot more work than necessary to lose weight. Look at it this way: It takes about 3 minutes to eat a hamburger, but it 'll take you 5 hours to burn off that hamburger on the treadmill. So what would you rather do? Yeah, don't eat that hamburger. So the key is diet.

The reason why people are fat is because we consume SUGAR (ex fiber). Sugar causes your body to produce massive quantities of insulin. A little bit of insulin is necessary, but high levels is toxic. Insulin tells your cells to open up and absorb the sugar which gets stored as fat. But the insulin totally destroys your body. It causes you to age faster, your cells to turn cancerous, your organs to break down, prevents your body from telling your brain that it is full, etc. (This is why you see obese people constantly eating.) And as the insulin is produced, your body becomes more tolerant of it. So the next time you consume sugar, your body produces even more insulin and the vicious circle continues towards obesity and death.

We, as Americans, consume way too much sugar. It took us 2 million years to evolve, but only within the last 5,000 years did sugar (without fiber) get introduced in our diet.

So avoid foods with sugar such as soda, fruit juice (fruits are ok), and anything with high fructose corn syrup. Food companies put HFCS in everything to make it taste better and make us eat more. Since we eat more, we buy more of their food and they make more money. But the only result is us getting fatter.

The next step is to cut down on bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, etc. Anything that is considered starchy. (Actually, I actually eat about a bowl a rice/vermicelli a day). Starchy foods causes your blood sugar to spike, and thereby your body to produce massive amounts of insulin. To the body, eating a piece of bread is like eating a candy bar.

Then there is fiber. It's OK to eat the fruit, but not drink fruit juice because the fruit has fiber and the juice does not. Fruit has sugar, but the fiber slows down blood sugar spikes so your body doesn't produce that much insulin. Yet most food companies take out the fiber so the food lasts longer. McDonalds purposely removes fiber from their hamburgers and meals so it can be shipped and stored a lot longer. But at the same time, the missing fiber is removing nature's way of us consuming sugar without getting fat.

Note that I'm not saying to totally avoid sugar. Our body, especially our brain, needs sugar. Without sugar, we would die. That's why the Atkins diet is so dangerous because you're not eating any carbs (which gets turned to sugar in the body). I'm just saying we eat way too much sugar.

There's so much more to the obesity solution, but this is the heart of it. Good luck.

Yes I have to agree this is not a long term solutions. Initially it was just a way to challenge myself to try and achieve some results. I just wanted to lose lose a lot of fat fast (not that I personally care about fat, just that passively, slimmer people are more attractive), then eventually replace it with a more sustainable, healthier diet.

I have learnt quite a lot of things about my body, from this challenge. The fact that I managed to push myself out of my comfort zone, showed me of things I could achieve. I gained more energy, had less mood swings, lost fat (whilst retaining muscle) and a nice surprise was that all my facial pimples dissappeared (all my friends noticed and commented on this)

Have to agree on the sugar and white carb thing. The sugar intake thing is quite a killer, I'm never gonna be able to strictly avoid excess sugar, the most I can do is control it and make sure I do exercise everyday. I basically experiemented with ideas from Tim Ferris Lose a lot of fat in a month diet. Even though it was very rule based and full of airy theory, he has backed it up in other posts with research from medical journals, I thought I'll give it a go and see what effect it will have on my body. His hard core diet was basically a 6 day strict diet, of avoiding all excess sugar (including fruit), and avoiding all most forms of white carbs (except for after hard exercise), you could consume as much vegies, beans as you like (and also portions of meat). The remaining 1 day of the diet was basically a rest day, where you actually consume all the sugar you usually would in the week, or food you like (with the believe that caloric spiking, causes your body to burn more energy, due to constricted energy during the week). It works, but is probably too extreme for most people. As an asian, I don't think I can ever avoid rice for dinner. Tim Ferris, suggests doing at least 20 minutes of streneous exercise before consuming white carbs.

Another thing I like to add, is I was diagonosed with a mild chronic bowel disease, basically my body immune system is a little wacked, and my body thinks my bowel is infected. Everyday I have to take medication, to prevent my body from destorying my bowels. A low white carb diet and low sugar diet has definitely improved my condition and reduced flare ups, I now feel less pain during the day.

Hello

I am very passionate about nutrition and would like to add a great tip. Remember, once you get old, you won't be able to exercise as a 20-year old. I recommend getting good eating habits now.


Switch to brown rice

Pros
- Good source of fiber
- White rice turn into belly fat faster
- Fills our stomach for a good 4-5 hours
- Same price as white rice (in my store)
- Anti aging/ antioxidants
- Helps in weight loss
- Good body building food
- Low in the glycemic index

Cons
- My huge asian family will NEVER eat it

We as asians, especially the chinese, tend to think that brown rice is only for the poor. Its a culture thing. Its up to you to decide if you want to follow traditions.

Hmm, I heard about the properties of Brown Rice. I haven't tried it myself, but I heard brown rice taste very bland and tough. I know my family wouldn't eat it everyday, I think I'll buy some and see what its taste like...

I recommend watching this documentary which contains proven facts.
BBC 10 things you need to know about losing weight
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ksh7c

If you want to lose weight, you will need to concentrate on changing your diet.
As 80% of what you eat will determine your body shape.

Doing HITT workouts will help push weight loss along.

Here are good samples of Cardio routines:
http://www.ameliaburton.com.au/2008/04/honestly-when-was-last-time-you-really.html
http://www.hiitsource.com/

Personally, it took me about 8 months to lose ~10kg.
I do 4 days weights and 3 days cardio.
My diet is repeated daily with 1 cheat day on the weekends.

Happy running

Those tips are very good. Thanks for suggesting the documentary.