Good for you guys for making the decision to lose weight and be healthy. The truth is, many diets work if you stick with them and make eating healthy a priority.
That being said, try this if you want to kick it up a notch. It takes dedication to do, and you will undoubtably need to change some of your current habits to accomplish it.
Breakfast: As many eggs as you want. Feel free to add cheese if you wish. 1-2 pieces of whole wheat toast. 2-4 pieces of bacon. A marginal amount of butter is acceptable. The corner stone is the eggs - the rest should be reduced as much as you can tolerate without going insane.
Lunch: Grilled chicken salad, double meat. No croutons, no ranch. Italian or balsamic dressing. Hard boiled egg is good if you can get it.
Dinner: Steak or salmon, raw brocolli, and a baked potato. Cheese and butter, in marginal amounts are fine. No sour cream, no steak sauce. Do not cook the brocolli, it loses its nutritional value unless you do it correctly.
Snacks: As many low calorie protein bars and apples as you want. Walmart has 5 packs of peanut butter flavored protein bars for cheap. they taste ok - not great, but tolerable. Raw carrots and brocolli are good snacks too. Fruit cups, yogurt and granola, are also great. The staple is the protein bars... Everything else is so you stay sane.
Beverages: Water and black coffee only. The 0 calorie flavored waters are ok, but I'm sure they have aspertane and I personally avoid them. No soda! Not even diet.
Exercise: 3 days a week: As many push-ups, crunches, pull-ups, and squats as you can do in half an hour. Do a set of each with minimal (15 seconds) rest inbetween exercises. After you have done a set of all the exercises, rest for 1-3 minutes, no more. Your goal should be to do at least 4 sets of each exercise. If you can only do 3 at first, do what you can. The trick is to rest as little as possible. Eventual goal should be 5-6 sets of each exercise in the half hour. Notice the only equipment you need is a bar. Get a decent one off Amazon for 30-60 bucks. The best ones are mounted, but if this isn't an option you can get a decent one that uses friction to hold itself up and mounts in a door frame.
3 days a week: Do 30 minutes of cardio, anyway you can get it. Do it on alterrnate days of the strength exercises, ie one day of strength exercises and one day of cardio. Jogging is fine, obviously the harder you work the better the results but take it slow until you know your limits. Ellipticalls are best, especially if you are overweight. Don't want to stress your joints out running on pavement if you can avoid it, at least until you are in better shape. Injury is a big set back and will hurt your progress more than going slow.
Do this for a month and you'll feel and look great. Do it for a year and you can audition for the next X-men movie.
