burning fat and losing weight, plus healthy snacks

F

feebs21

Active Member
Hello all!

I have several questions here...if you are losing weight does that automatically mean you're burning fat? My bf and I have been arguing about this and I said that just because you lose weight does not mean you're losing fat...right? I'd just love to tell him I'm right:D Also, are there specific workouts designed for fatloss? Intervals, circuit, etc? I've heard your heartrate should not be as high to burn fat.

Okay, my next question. I've just finally graduated from graduate school which i've been in forever!! (7 years!) I've just gotten my first, "real" job in the working world. Now, I don't enjoy cooking that much, but I was wondering if people could recommend some healthy, convient snacks that I can take to work. I will cook if I have to, but don't enjoy it much. I just want healthy eating ideas that are simple and cheap to make or buy! Thanks so much in advance!
 
Congratulations on finishing graduate school! I really like soy crisps and soy nuts. The ones I buy are made by Genisoy. If you try them and want to keep buying them, you can get a discount for buying larger quantities off of their website.
 
Well, let's clarify first.......you're body only has X number of fat cells. When you lose weight it's not b/c you lose fat cells, it's b/c your fat cells are getting smaller.

Now you can lose weight simply by dieting. I wouldn't necessarily call that "burning" fat, but it is losing fat. Anyway, I hate to say this but your boyfriend is right--losing weight is basically losing fat, unless you chop off a limb.

Workouts specific to fat loss are cardio--not circuit (strength training)--workouts. You can do an interval w/o or a regular cardio w/o--actually both, on different days of course--to lose weight. Bearing in mind that strength training will increase your fat burning capabilities as larger muscles help burn fat more efficiently.

Congrats on the job! Jeez it took me two years after I finished grad school.......of course that's b/c I lived in hell, AKA southeastern Virginia........anyway, much of that depends on your diet. I do low carb so I always have some kind of peanuts or pistachios or some such nuts around. Also on occasion I cook up an entire package of bacon & stick it in a ziploc baggie, so for a morning snack I'll have hardboiled eggs & cold bacon. Celery/carrots/cucumbers etc. & cream cheese and/or peanut butter are also good foods to have handy for a low carb diet. Someone else will have to comment re. snacking on a low fat diet.;)
 
Any kind of fruit is great for a snack, especially grapes, apples, bannanas, peaches, pears...and they're good for you. I get the individual containers of non fat cottage cheese and mix them with fresh fruit or sugar free jello.

Like Maximus said, pistachio nuts or almonds are great. Problem is, I have a hard time stopping at just a few pistachios.

Also yogurt and yogurt smoothies.
 
If you lose weight, it could be water weight (which is probably what it is if you lose a lot of weight quickly, and which happens when you start a low-carb diet); muscle (if you do a lot of aerobic exercise without doing any resistance work, you could be burning up your muscle tissue); or fat. You could get your body fat tested to see if you are actually losing fat, or you could get an idea by pinching various parts of your body and seeing if you can pinch less (what you are "pinching" is both skin and subcutaneous fat).

As for what works best for fat loss: lower intensity exercise does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat, but the overall calorie burn is lower than during higher intensity exercise, so the actual amount of fat burned is often less. Good for fat burning is a combination of interval workouts (the bursts of more intense exercise helps burn more calories) and weight training (full body workouts are best for fat loss, as they cause the most post-exercise calorie burn) which will add muscle which is more metabolically active (burns more calories) than other body tissue.

Some healthy snack ideas:
sliced veggies (I like red peppers, jícama, cucumbers) with hummus (you could buy it, or make a lower fat version by mashing up some canned garbanzo beans with some garlic, parsley, lemon juice and whatever else tickles your fancy, omitting the tahini and/or olive oil);
An apple with a handful of walnuts and/or almonds.
 
You are right- You can loose muscle and fat with weight loss. And as someone else mentioned h2o. I am reading a book called fitness and health written by the former American College of Sports Medicine (so I'm sure he's the expert.). He actually recommends not to try to loose wt when trying to do intensive training like strength and endurance training. He goes on to say some of the loss can be muscle esp if your calorie intake/and other nutrition factors are not correct.

Catherine
 
From what I understand, Katherine and Maximus are correct on the fat loss. We maintain the same amount of fat cells. Now they can shrink or expand. If you overdo cardio you can burn muscle mass as well as fat. I think you always have the same amount of muscle, you just build density/mass into what you have. I think different people will do this, lose mass, at different rates. I read in a fitness article once that anything over 6 hours of cardio will burn muscle. I think it is individual. As far as healthy snacks I have often had to grab something after an early morning workout because I do not eat breakfast. I take grandchildren to school. I usually grab a carton of sugar free light yogurt or low carb yogurt. Sometimes a handful of nuts and a few grapes. Probably not much help here.
Diane Sue
 
When you lose weight you could be losing a combination of fat and muscle and water, from what I've read. If you lose it in a controlled healthy manner and you "need" to lose weight, it is supposed to be mostly fat but is likely some muscle also, but that is minimal if you do it right. hope that makes sense. I did ask this question, similarly, once under the subject heading (in this forum) "You lose the fat first....right?" and got some good answers from mogambo and icklemoley.

I have heard if it is 2lbs a week of loss, it is supposed to be mostly fat.

Healthy snacks:

Nuts
Pumpkin seeds
Grapes
Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Baby carrots
cottage cheese

Nothing fancy. You will stick with it if you don't have to "prepare" a lot. Those above meet my requirements for low preparation time! 3 kids under 6. I barely have time to sit down! :)

Jen
 
Thanks so much for all the great answers. I think I'll compromise and say we're both a little right (my bf & I)...I was thinking that when you lose weight you could be losing water and muscle in addition to fat, while he was thinking it was fat (probably not considering the other two)...so, as I like to be positive, we'll both be kinda right:) ha ha. Also, thanks for the healthy snack ideas. I will probably bring in fruits, but I dont have a fridge so I don't want to bring in anything that might need to be cold. Thanks again!
 
Feebs~you can pick up a very small cooler for cheap and put either bags of ice in Ziplocks or buy a couple ice packs to keep food cold for hours. Just an idea.
Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!
 
I was under the impression that fat cells can breakoff and form new ones. Once you have a new fat cell you will always have one.

Healthy snacks:

Depends whom you talk too:

Mine:

Full Fat cottage cheese with pineapple (only has 60 more calories) and tastes like a pudding. Honest!

String cheese and a apple.

Cup of pineapple with yogurt (full fat or any other fruit).

Peanut butter spread on a cut up apple.

Etc...

I usually eat 5 times a day, sometimes 6, so i eat more snacks than meals. But i usually eat fruit or veg at every meal.

Wayne.
 
Actually i was just reading about it last night. I cannot give you the name of the cell now, but when your fat cells increase too much (another cell comes into play that mutates into a fat cell) and onces you have a new fat cell you will always have it. I can give the correct terms if you like tomorrow (i'll bring the book in). Scary eh?!!? That is why if you put on lots of weight as a child it is harder to lose than if you gained that weight as an adult. Cause you will always have the new fat cells that you created.

Wayne.
 
You can also make new muscle cells. Certain stem cells can differentiate into muscle cells with the right stimulation such as muscle cell damage induced by physical or chemical forces.
 
Yes, if your existing fat cells fill up too much, more fat cells are created, at least that's what I've read. And it's probably a good idea to keep a hold on your weight during pregnancy, since at that time, your body produces hormones (? is it?) that encourage your body to put on more fat. Good for the baby, but not good for mom's figure!
 
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