Please don't reduce your meals, that's the worst thing you could possibly do! You'll actually gain weight if you decide on a few big meals a day. The key is to have a LOT of small and healthy meals, like 6-7. A big breakfast, a small healthy snack (a fruit or yogurt), lunch, about two snack meals, dinner and something in the evening.
The rule is that you should always eat at least something every 2-3 hours, so your body has the energy to burn these calories!! You're right in treating yourself to something on saturdays, it's actually encouraged.
The key to losing weight is just to size down the portions, not skip meals. I don't remember the exact numbers but you need like X much calories a day to keep your weight (just google it), and if you want to lose it you just eat a bit less than that (but within safe limits, of course!)
I was with a personal trainer for like two months and that's what he told us, so it's actually coming straight from a certified and educated trainer and not just some person on the internet you don't know o:
Don't worry if you see no results right away! The good things happen slowly, and it may help to take a picture of yourself and then another one a few weeks later to see results, because you could easily miss it otherwise. And please keep in mind that the slower you lose weight, better chances are it'll stay off, because some people make the mistakes of dieting too strictly and exercising too much and see really big changes really fast, only to eat it all back in half the amount of time once they "quit" the program.
Please don't take me as like a super athlete or dietitian, I don't really follow these rules myself because I'm a lazy bum o: The whole point of my getting a personal trainer with my friends was just to get in better shape and get healthier, and it felt very good!
Mixing up cardio and weightlifting is also pretty important, because with cardio you're burning fat and increasing your endurance, but weightlifting trains up your muscles and strength.
sorry for the essay answer but just remember that you should enjoy it because you'll accomplish more if you're having fun right
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