The least expensive way to lose weight.

[Jagger341]

I've decided today that I wish to lose weight. My brother told me his secrets to losing weight (he's slim, by the way) are to eat just two big meals a day, drink about 6-8 glasses of water a day, and do cardio. What do you think is a good way to lose weight without breaking the bank?

[CarrieT]

The best way - in my opinion - that is the cheapest is to give up carbs. Some of us need more than two meals a day and I am happier eating four or five small meals (or bites) throughout the day than two big ones.

 

Price-wise, I go to a lot of Chinese markets for cheaper vegetables and I always keep on hand nuts for in-between snacks.

 

Water is vital, yes, as is exercise but it doesn't cost anything to power-walk daily.

[loveunlimited]

eat less food, do more exercise. believe it or not it really is that simple.

[Ross MwcFan]

Eat less food.

 

Seriously though, eat less food, and make sure that the food that you do eat is more filling (but not more fattening if that's possible) to compensate for eating less.

[carhill]

Since vegetables and fruits are local fresh and really cheap around here, I found adding more of those into diet and cutting back on processed foods not only saved money, it knocked off some weight. Another cheap assist is merely walking. Jogging might burn more calories, sure, but just walking is free and it gets one somewhere and burns calories and improves cardiovascular health.

[Titanwolf]

Eat less calories than you expend. If you want an indefinite solution, go keto and remove all but fibrous carbs. Be warned though, you will gain back water weight if you start eating carbs again.

[RiverRunning]

I liked jump-roping...except without the rope for cardio. You can do that without any equipment (and there are plenty of jump roping work-outs you can do on the web). It's a quick calorie burner...I can burn in 10 minutes what I'd burn walking for half an hour at 3 MPH.

[tman666]

Anything they do out on the prison yard is probably a good bet.

 

That and decreasing calories...

[yoman38]

one major recommendation, I would recommend eating 4 smaller meals a day, this way your body won't think it's starved and slow down your metabolism (BMR).

[Minka333]

i have been relatively slim all my life.

But when i got depressed, i never imagined i'd balloon to 160 (my height is only 5'4)

 

I started with cabbage soup diet. You can google how to do it. Then i also walked and walked. It was hard initially but i got used to eating less.

 

Another tip is to let go or reduce rice/bread/sweet intake. Cut the carb. It will make a huge difference!

 

Now i'm back to my 116 lb weight. And i easily maintain it by eating salad, fish or anything light. Don't forget to take supplements/vitamins too.

 

Goodluck. You can do it.

[Els]

Depends on how 'inexpensive' we're talking. As long as you can afford vegetables and some lean meats, you should be fine. If you can't, you need to look into why you can't, because you need those for good health anyway.

 

A gym certainly helps but most of the gym workouts can be reproduced elsewhere, albeit with slightly lesser returns or more inconvenience.

[fucpcg]

I don't get this, it's cheap to be overweight, but expensive to lose weight?

 

Don't eat any meals out at restaurants, that will kill two birds. Don't replace them with microwave meals. Make something healthy at home. 2 meals a day is a horrible idea, go buy the book The Zone Diet so you can learn nutrition.

[Els]

I don't get this, it's cheap to be overweight, but expensive to lose weight?

 

Don't eat any meals out at restaurants, that will kill two birds. Don't replace them with microwave meals. Make something healthy at home. 2 meals a day is a horrible idea, go buy the book The Zone Diet so you can learn nutrition.

 

It depends on how 'cheap' we're talking. The very cheapest foods are pure and very unhealthy carbs - bread, potatoes, instant noodles, etc. If you want lean meats and veggies and fruits and nuts you will need to fork out substantially more than that. It is well worth the $$ though.