Dear EoFf /fit/ or whatever you call yourself now

[Pike]

I need to get in shape. Should I get an exercise bike/elliptical or something or should I get a gym membership?

Disclaimer: I'd just use the gym membership to derp around on the exercise bikes and ellipticals anyway.

[krissy]

i used to do 20 push ups every time i died in prince of persia
it lasted like two days
and i used to play ff13 with one hand with dumbells in teh other
that lasted 1 day

maybe you'll com eup with something cooooler!

[Jiro]

Get a personal trainer to do a fitness program for you using mostly just bodyweight exercises. The trainer can make sure you aren't doing anything that might be bad for you, you won't need to purchase any equipment and with a program you will have something to stick to and won't have to work as hard to motivate yourself. Plus once you have the program you don't need to pay anyone

[Psychotic]

The important thing is to do something for about 6 weeks and then get bored of it. It doesn't matter what you do other than that.

[NorthernChaosGod]

If you do only that you're going to just lose a bunch of weight indiscriminately. You should at least do some form of strength training as well to lose fat instead of just weight.

[Slothy]

What are your fitness goals? This is probably the most important question to answer before I can give useful advice. Are you looking to lose body fat (not strictly the same as losing weight and lots of people do it wrong)? Get stronger? Faster? Run a marathon? All of the above?

[KentaRawr!]

Insanity Workout. DO IT.

Actually don't. You might die. Listen to Vivi.

[Pike]

What are your fitness goals? This is probably the most important question to answer before I can give useful advice. Are you looking to lose body fat (not strictly the same as losing weight and lots of people do it wrong)? Get stronger? Faster? Run a marathon? All of the above?

Well basically I gained like ten pounds over the last two months (even though I don't look like it, but you can't argue with like three different scales) so I want to fix that.

[Slothy]

Ok, so fat loss then. First up, weight loss is mostly based on diet. I could say 99% based on diet and I'm probably not far off, so that's where you want to look first.

I seem to recall you like drinking pop don't you? If yes then try cutting back, but don't replace drinking pop with drinking something else that's loaded with sugar, including fruit juices. You want a glass of juice with breakfast, fine, but water is the preferred drink of choice throughout the day. A cup of coffee or two or some tea isn't going to do any harm if that's your thing either so long as you aren't loading it with sugar (notice a theme here).

As far as the actual food you eat, I'm going to say some things I've said before on the forum which goes against the conventional wisdom. Try to base every meal on meat, vegetables, some fruit, nuts and seeds, and oils like olive, avocado, coconut, etc. Try to skip over vegetable oils and canola oil for cooking when possible. Avoid bread, pasta and other grain based foods (oatmeal, rice, etc.). Wheat is the big one there so definitely avoid bread and pasta as much as possible. Some people can do rice and oats and stuff without issue but try eliminating as much as you can of all of it for now. You can reintroduce things like rice gradually after you lose some fat to see if you have any issues with them, but wheat based foods are no better than sugar for weight loss/gain so ditch them. Same thing goes for really starchy vegetables like potatoes for now. Some people are perfectly fine with them, but if you're trying to lose fat they will probably slow down the fat loss at best and undue it at worst.

I'll warn you in advance though that if breads and pastas have been a big part of your diet before you may be in for a rough few days after you phase them out. Many people literally go through a form of withdrawal where they crave the stuff, their mood swings between all kinds of extremes, and other fun things. You'll be fine once it passes and it doesn't usually last more than a week for most people but it can be a bitch if you don't know about it before hand.

Also, don't count calories or weigh and measure your food or even worry about how often you're eating. If you're basing your diet on meat, vegetables and good sources of fat you're not going to have any issues with overeating. If anything, you may find yourself feeling satiated with less food. That's totally normal. Just eat until your full then stop. Eat again when you get hungry.

Don't worry too much about what kind of meat you're eating too. Want some lean chicken breast? Eat it and include some almonds with the meal or something to get some fat in there. Want to load your plate up with some medium ground beef? Perfectly fine, and you may be able to skip some almonds. Just learn to listen to your body when it's telling you if you're hungry or full.

And because I know it's not always possible to carve out the time to cook all of your meals in advance (though I will say that slow cookers can be brilliant for easily preparing a weeks worth of lunches in a day), if you have to eat out then try and make better choices. Going to McDonald's? Grab a Caesar salad and toss the bag of crouton's they give you in the garbage. Not in the mood for salad and just really feel like having a burger? Get the burger, toss the bun, and pass on the fries and Coke.

I'm going to stop myself there because I just through a lot at you at once and I'm already worried I may have overwhelmed you. Just know that if all you take from this right now is to base your diet on meat, vegetables, some fruit (not too much) and nuts and seeds and oils then it will help guide you towards making the changes you need and moving in the right direction. If you want to know anything else or need me to clarify anything I just mentioned, don't hesitate to ask.

EDIT: One last thing I need to mention, if you weren't eating a lot of protein before then take any scale results with a grain of salt. Might be better to pay more attention to how your clothes are fitting if you're not seeing any changes on the scale. When you start eating more protein the body likes to use it to build muscle mass, even if you aren't necessarily working out more (or at all), so depending on your activity levels when you gained the weight and after you start trying to lose it, it's not unheard of to lose no weight or even gain, despite losing body fat. Now, that probably won't happen unless you start strength training or do some intense physical activity on a regular basis, but it's important to be aware of so you aren't discouraged if you see no change.

And if you try this for a month or so and don't notice any changes then we can always talk more specifically about what you're eating and changes you might want to make.

[Madame Adequate]

But I like your tummy ;;

[Miriel]

Get a set of hand weights and a copy of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It's way cheaper than a gym membership, takes up so much less space than a big machine, and it works. I lost a good inch off my stomach after doing the shred everyday for a month.

Also, go to the pound/shelter and rescue a dog. Then go running with the dog 3 times a day. It works for me!

[KentaRawr!]

But I like your tummy ;;

Way to call your girlfriend fat, man.

[Pike]

I knew I could count on you guys for advice <3 I'm trying to improve my eating but it's so difficult, I'm such a nut for pizza and pop.

[Jiro]

But I always think of Pike when I think of Mtn Dew, you can't cut back on that!

[Mirage]

Well if you really want to eat your pizza and drink your pop, you will have to excercise enough to still use more calories than you consume on your pizzapop diet . That could mean a lot of extra work.