Need to lose 50 lbs

[christie1]

I need to lose around 50 lbs. I don't like tuna and a clean eating diet is all new to me. I have started drinking a lot of water and eating more chicken. I workout 3 to 5 days a week. I have been lifting and doing cardio but lately I have been doing more cardio and not so much lifting. What is a great way to get the lbs to drop off?

[SuffolkPunch]

'eating clean' is a contentious topic. What's important is to count calories and get enough protien to avoid muscle loss. 1 gram per lb of lean body weight is a minimum.

If you eat 500 calories below what your body needs every day, you will lose a pound a week.

Don't try to lose more than 2lbs a week.

Split your time evenly between weight training and cardio (different days would be ideal). As far as weight training goes, choose exercises that use more than one joint (compound exercises) and where you can shift a lot of weight, e.g. leg press, barbell squat, deadlift, bench press.

[Sven Draconian]

Just an FYI, there is a "fat loss" section on the board with a lot of good posts. You'll get more answers then you would here.

As for your question;
Eat between 2000-2500 calories a day. Don't eat less or you metabolism will stall, and eating more is obviously going to slow progress.

Make smart choices with those calories. Chicken is obviously the preferred meat by most on this board (along with Tuna), and turkey is also good. All are high protein/low calorie foods that you can eat a lot of.

A few more dietary notes:
1) You want to eat a ton of protein for a few reasons, a) Avoid muscle loss and b Carbs make you hungry (by changing blood sugar levels) c) Protein fills you up for longer.

You are going to "suffer" a lot less eating "solid" foods like meats then you will if you eat pasta.

2) Pasta and bread are bad news. While they aren't "junk" food in the common sense, they have a lot of calories and a lot of carbs. Thus you can't eat as much and they'll make you hungrier later.

*Don't confuse this with completely avoiding all carbs, eat a sandwhich if you want. Just realize a pasta and breadstick meal isn't going to satisfy you very long.

3) Watch those hidden calories. Condiments and "extras" are the worst. For example, the subway Sweet onion chicken terriyaki is "only" 370 calories. However, that doesn't include the cheese or sweet onion sauce and accounts for wheat bread. Chaning the bread, putting on the sauce and eating the cheese puts it closer to 500. Read the fine print.

[SuffolkPunch]

carbs don't make you hungry. Try eating a plateful of boiled potatos. Some have a high GI but this a contentious topic too. GI on its own is not enough, GL is possibly more useful.

Keeping hunger at bay is a tricky subject. Generally, eating foods high in water, fibre and protien is a good idea. If it tastes sweet and/or fried it is probably not a good thing to eat.

[vicjg]

Originally Posted by Sven Draconian

Just an FYI, there is a "fat loss" section on the board with a lot of good posts. You'll get more answers then you would here.

As for your question;
Eat between 2000-2500 calories a day. Don't eat less or you metabolism will stall, and eating more is obviously going to slow progress.

This could be a 150lb woman... How did you get these calorie numbers?

[Sven Draconian]

Originally Posted by vicjg

This could be a 150lb woman... How did you get these calorie numbers?

I'm assuming that since they need to drop 50 pounds, they likely aren't 150 pounds. Most likely a little closer to 180-200 range.