The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: Villanelle on November 05, 2018, 02:17:15 AM
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I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore. (Please spare me the lectures on how fat is okay, or that it's a mean term to use, or any of that. I'm well aware my worth as a human person isn't based on my BMI, and I don't use the term "fat" pejoratively, even though that's how it is usually interpreted. It's a simple, true statement. I am overweight, which means I have too much fat on my body, ergo, I am fat.) I'm working on sorting out some diet stuff, but I need the exercise component as well, and I'd like the benefits of exercise beyond weight loss, so diet alone won't work for those anyway.
I have not always been fat. I spent many years being quite lean and fairly muscular. I wouldn't say I was naturally that way, but nor did I ever "workout". I was very active, including for a while spending 30+ hours a week in dance class, practice, performance, etc. It just so happened that the things I chose to do with my life kept me very slim and healthy.
I didn't understand fat people. Now that I am one of them, I realize that exercise as an in-shape person is an entirely different thing. I've always hated running, but if I felt compelled to do so, I could put on some headphones and pound the pavement pretty much indefinitely. Now, I don't have the stamina for that, of course, and also, it hurts, and not in a good way. I'm not morbidly obese or anything, but the increased weight on the older joints mean many activities hurt, and in ways that don't feel good or healthy. So coming up with things that will push me enough to make progress, but not injure me or hurt me so much that I will not continue them is a real challenge.
Walking doesn't seem like quite enough. I don't get winded, or barely so. Running--nope. Any recommendations for a healthy way to start cardio for a fattie? (I'll also do some strength training, likely just body weight stuff for now -- lord knows I have enough of that so I can put it to good use!-- and have that mostly covered, although even that is more challenging than it should be because after a couple dozen lunges, for example, my legs are wobbly enough to make me concerned they might not hold me up.
Seriously, as a slim person, I never understood how hard it was to start working out when you are fat!
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You should without question join a good gym and lift weights consistently for 3-4 times a week and watch the fat melt away. Follow a programme so that you know what you are doing.
It's 80/20 diet to training.
Eat no sugar, nothing processed, eat only things which are pulled from the ground or grown on plants.... and you will be lean in no time.
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You should without question join a good gym and lift weights consistently for 3-4 times a week and watch the fat melt away. Follow a programme so that you know what you are doing.
It's 80/20 diet to training.
Eat no sugar, nothing processed, eat only things which are pulled from the ground or grown on plants.... and you will be lean in no time.
Joining a good gym isn't really an option right now as I currently live in a place where the people at said gym would speak a different language than I do. I'll be moving back to my home country early next year, but don't want to wait that long. I think I have enough experience with movement and training that I can do okay on my own WRT the strength training. Not ideal, but I think good enough until March/April when I get settled, although there are a few nomadic months in between now and then that might prove challenging (all the more reason to focus on body weight stuff rather than machines or even free weights). I've found a few specific programs online (basically just a list of exercises and the order in which to do how many reps, grouped together on which days) and that's my loose plan, but I absolutely can't make it all the way through (yet!). I hoping 20 squats becomes 22, and so on....
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Hey, have you considered taking up swimming? It's a great exercise that trains basically all of your muscle groups and definitely gets the heart pumping. I don't personally like swimming because for whatever reason my body barely floats, so it's quite an embarrassing struggle for me to just keep my head up, but I know it's good exercise that anyone can do. I have direct relatives that are overweight, and they all enjoy a good swim. See if you have a local pool or gym that offers reasonable membership or something. :)
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Sorting out your 'diet stuff' is the key. I have a method that works for me, but I don't know enough about nutrition to feel comfortable giving advice to strangers.
Then start with some walking and body weight exercises that you can do in a park during your walk or at home (particularly if you are self conscious about your weight).
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You should without question join a good gym and lift weights consistently for 3-4 times a week and watch the fat melt away. Follow a programme so that you know what you are doing.
It's 80/20 diet to training.
Eat no sugar, nothing processed, eat only things which are pulled from the ground or grown on plants.... and you will be lean in no time.
+1 Diet is almost everything. You will see loss from cutting out processed garbage for a few months. It's hard though, and this is why people cheat and fail. Cut things out slowly maybe? Stop drinking soda, diet or otherwise, cut out the booze. Drink water. Cook your own meals. Eat less salt. Get into a routine. Give yourself a cheat item so you don't go crazy.
Weights are important to lose weight too. Make sure you wright down what you did during your routine so you can track your progress. If you don't get winded walking, walk faster and longer. +1 on swimming. If you don't know how, take some adult classes or check this book out from the library: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Swimming-Phillip-Whitten/dp/0679746676
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In addition to what everyone said above, just because you don’t get winded walking, doesn’t mean it isn’t burning calories. It is. But I agree that you should have 3-4 days of resistance training as well.
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Yep, MikeTheSalesman posted just as I was about to write to not underestimate walking. If you can do it, then do it. Look for ways to incorporate it into your day - if you drive to the shops, don't go mad looking for a spot right beside the building, just drive into one of the empty ones a bit further away and walk for a minute. Honestly, it all helps. Stairs is the other big one - if you don't already, and if it doesn't cause you much joint pain, start taking the stairs anywhere you have the option.
I'm unfortunately at a stage where I've started to see the beginning of arthritis in my knees which has meant a huge restriction in how much I can walk. I can still walk but even 5km can leave me with swollen knees for a couple of days afterwards and having to do almost nothing to allow the swelling to subside. Anyway, doctor told me cycling in the best thing to do as the movement in particular helps and so far it is. I'm hopeful that when I lose more weight, I'll be able to get back to more walking as well.
Swimming or any kind of aqua-aerobics, aqua-spinning or similar is also a good idea.
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+1 on walking. If you want a more vigorous workout, try adding wrist and ankle weights. Likewise lifting weights and swimming. As a fat person, holy hell do I love swimming. Yoga is pretty great too.
I've always been fat. Depending on my habits at any given point, I've been healthier fat and I've been less healthy fat. One thing you may consider is focusing on achieving fitness milestones rather than not being fat anymore. Lifting more, walking faster, more days of exercise per week, etc. Given that you were once not fat, maybe it's possible for you to get yourself back to your not-fat state. But, honestly, people's bodies and metabolisms change over time, and it's possible you may never be as lean as you once were. But focusing on what you can control--really good diet and exercise habits--will improve you health outcomes and quality of life.
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Cycling
Swimming
Walking with walking poles, at fast pace uphill. If no hills are available, this can be imitated on a treadmill with hill function.
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+1 for doing what you can do (walking) walk faster, longer, what ever. Do few lunges in the middle to get the heart rate up. Find a hill if you can. Or some stairs.
I have used Sparkpeople.com (free) for a long time. Good exercise advice and demos, diet and exercise tracking, community etc. You can put in that you want a 30 minute weight training body weight only, and it will make you a plan. I also use. I have also used bodybuilding.com when I needed more specific information or alternative exercises.
There is so much you can do with body weight exercises too. You are heavy so you just have more weight to move around.
The more you move, the more moving you will be able to do. If you like dance, start dancing again. Sure you will be slower but you can learn it again.
LV
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Let me add to the diet points how important vegetables are. They are low calories, lots of fiber that reduces the feeling of being hungry, but are often substantial enough to make you feel full.
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Exercise won't make you skinny, but it will make you feel better. Walk a couple of miles/day. Get a Fitbit and get serious about your steps.
Swimming is easy on the knees, and so is an exercise bike. Zumba is fun, but was too much for my knees, but something fun with music is a lot less boring than weights, as far as I'm concerned. If you can't do a class, there are lots of videos, but a class is more motivating.
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I'm going to chime in - disclaimer, I've never been in this position, but both my wife and I come from families with different levels of obesity and a lot of adult onset diabetes.
80% Diet, 20% Exercise. Don't underestimate the addictive properties of sugar and carbohydrates. I'll still eat plenty of them but I have to be more conscious of this as I age. Was reading a Tim Ferris book recently with some interview questions to some ivy league health researcher. The researcher said something along the lines of "Our body is programmed to crave sugar. It was natural selection because ripe fruit was the end of harvest season. You had to eat as much of it and store it as fat to survive for tens of thousands of years"
Don't underestimate the value of walking. My 60 year old father with all the bad joints managed to shed his extra 40 pounds by converting his insomnia into walking over the course of a year. He's lighter than me now.
Its also about consistency and it can be done. Exercise more days than you don't and be conscious about what you eat. There's no quick fix.
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I live on a long distance walking path. None of the people doing that walk are in any way fat, and most are skinny. They are of course walking 8 or 10 hours a day on up and down terrain. So I'm piling in on the walking option here.
There are two ways to make it work for you: walk faster or walk longer. Walking faster- walking as fast as you can will make you out of breath and give you a cardio workout. The fitter you get the faster you will get. You can do interval training in walking - walk as fast as you can until you are out of breath, walk slower until your breath is back, walk faster again.
Walking longer will probably take several hours a day to get weight off, which you may not have. But if you do have that time, and there is good walking where you are, just build it up over time.
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I'm a HUGE fan of the elliptical machine. I absolutely HATE running, but I'll do 45 minutes on the elliptical without feeling like I'm breaking my joints. A month ago I weighed 230 lbs, and I'm 5' 9", so about 50-60 lbs overweight. I decided that it was time to get serious about losing weight, and here's what I've done:
I workout 5 days/week right now, more if I can spare the time (I work too much and my mom's in the hospital, so my time is fairly scarce right now). 45 minutes on the elliptical (target heart rate 145), and ~30 minutes with weights. I aim for at least 15,000 steps per day between the exercise and walking currently. If you don't have access to exercise machines, and don't want to buy one, walking to get at least that many steps (or more) should help anyway.
I plan my meals and track my calories using Myfitnesspal. This is a great free tool for seeing what you're doing with your eating. You have to be honest and log everything though, or it won't really help. Salad with every lunch and dinner (with low calorie/low fat dressing) helps me stay full without having to eat as many calories. Alcohol is a HUGE amount of empty calories, and a relatively easy way to cut back on how many calories you're consuming by just dropping it out completely.
I have made myself accountable for losing weight - I joined dietbet.com and am in two challenges, a short term challenge to lose 4% of my weight in 4 weeks, and a longer term one to lose 10% in 6 months. I paid money to be in these challenges and will win money if I'm successful, or I'll have waste the money if I fail. The 4 week challenge is over next week and I'm on track to just barely pull that one off, but I'm ahead of my needed progress on the long-term one.
The biggest thing for me was recognizing that it's just not healthy for me to be this fat and out of shape, and I decided to make a difference. It does require a lifestyle change (eating better and working out), so ensure that whatever change you make is a change you will be happy/content with long-term. Losing weight just to go back to your old habits won't help in the long-run.
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A few suggestions:
1) Find exercise you like and figure out a way to stay motivated to do it (like listening to music, podcasts, or audiobooks and being outdoors if you like fresh air)
2) Start small. Commit to 5 minutes every day for the first week. Then up it to 10 the following week. If you find yourself skipping days, go back down to five minutes for a full week and try to increase the following week again. Really, you are just proving to yourself that you can make a commitment to exercise.
3) Don't underestimate the power of exercise + manual labor (like gardening, cleaning the house, laundry, washing the car, etc. While this is not intense, you are on your feet and actively moving/working).
4) If you incorporate weight training, start with higher reps (12-20) and no weight or very light weight. This will help your body get stable and used to exercise again. The NASM personal training program advises to stay in this strength training stage for 4-6 weeks before adding intensity. Even 1-2 days of strength training combined with activity other days is enough, especially when just starting out. Don't be intimidated by all those saying 3-4 days. That is hard for someone just beginning. Make that your end result goal. If you do try 3-4 days, choose a small amount of time at first so you can get used to the strength training without burning out.
5) For the initial strength training, focus on plank work to build a strong core, bridges, bodyweight squats, and light deadlifts (if your knees can handle them - if not bridges tone glute muscles, which are one of the largest muscle groups), and of course upper body work like push-ups (modified to knees if needed), rows for good shoulder and upper back posture, biceps and triceps.
6) Mixing meditation and yoga into a consistent exercise program has been helpful for a lot of people. There are many overweight people who practice yoga so don't be intimidated. It's fabulous for aging joints and very therapeutic.
7)Commit to a day and an amount of time and get started! Then try not to break the "some form of active movement" cycle.
8) And yes, a healthy diet is beneficial but it may be easier to start with diet or exercise for a month, then start working on the other. Too many changes at once can be hard to maintain.
9) Really know your goal. Losing weight may be part of it but what happens when the weight is gone? Will you keep exercising? Try to hone in on what you're really after. Is it to feel good? Is it to age well? Is it be healthier indefinitely? Is it to gain more confidence in the long-term? That will help you devise a goal that you can stick with for life.
Those are my two cents! Best of luck to you!
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I've lost 110 pounds over the last year. Lots of good advice already on this thread. Going to the gym weighing 305 pounds was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But you know what, I did it! I learned not to care what other people thought about me and just went back again and again. My first goal was to just walk 10000 steps a day for a year. I am 11 months into it. Without fail I walk 10000 steps a day, even if it's in front of the tv watching a movie. I worked from walking on the treadmill and doing the exercise bike to spinning classes. Spinning is great because it's low impact on your joints, but you burn tons of calories and build endurance. I also walked my neighborhood. Walking somehow turned into running, and I have never been a runner. But building up strength a little at a time really helped. I ran a 10K this September and run at least 3 times a week, 3 miles a time.
So working out really helps burn calories, increase your mood and builds endurance. But what you eat is probably 80-90% of weight loss. I eat lots of protein, fruits and veggies, at least 80 grams a day. It really fills me up. I eat to fuel my body now. I logged all my foods for a good 9 months until I figured out what worked for me. I also drink a lot of water.
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You have gotten great advice. Walking works but it sounds like you may need to do for too long a period to feel results. I also second any kind of machine like cycle machine, elliptical, rowing machine to both work muscles and get heart rate up. It's going to be cardiovascular and also weight resistance that is going to burn fat and increase muscle.
You have lot of background in dance, which is awesome because it is not just exercise, but a skill and which makes you more graceful, coordinated, better posture. Any other type of dance you can do, either on your own or with other people? I don't have much time for a traditional workout routine but one of the things I do is play Wii Dance and also put on music and dance with my daughter. Sometimes we will watch old Soul Train clips and try to imitate the movements. It's fun so it doesn't feel like a workout.
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Hi fellow fat person! I've lost 70 lbs. Here's my advice:
1. Most weight is lost in the kitchen. Your fork is your weapon in this battle. More veggies!
2. Some exercise is better than no exercise. Just start. A little bit here, a little bit there. Worry about getting the best plan for you later.
3. The best exercise program is one you don't hate. If you hate it you'll quit, so find something you want to keep doing.
And come on over and join us in the weight loss challenges over in Throw Down the Gauntlet!
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Lots of great advice, around importance of diet (outrunning the fork and all that), and a good balance in training.
Seems like few people picked up that you are already looking at bodyweight exercises. Big thumbs up. Mustachian, and safe. If it gets too much, I'd just do a few burpees. they are an amazing exercise, and it's easy to track progress as you just count them. Start with like 5. Increase by one every other session, until you can do 2-3 intense one-minute rounds of them.
For me, kettlebells are a winner. Get yourself a 12kg one to start, use a mirror or film yourself to make sure you do them right. 5x5 feet of outdoor space is all you need. I've cancelled by local gym membership after getting one; between cycling, martial arts, and kettle, I can get all the workout I need. Funk Roberts on youtube has good videos, and there are tons of others for beginners. Once you've seen a few you'll be able to tell what's working.
The problem I have about lifting weights is that inevitably you'll hit your biceps, triceps etc a lot, and that's not where the money is. Whole-body exercises that hit all your "big" muscles incl. core, legs etc will help you more. People did point out importance of legs etc but really, gyms seem to be organised for cosmetic training (biceps shoulders etc). That's why I much prefer walking into my back garden, pick up my kettlebell from the shed and swing away for a half hour. Then DONE!!
Others may say it's a bit of a fad. No doubt it is, but it does help. Your whole body will feel the burn, start slow so you don't pull anything. You obviously know that.
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Lots of great advice, around importance of diet (outrunning the fork and all that), and a good balance in training.
Seems like few people picked up that you are already looking at bodyweight exercises. Big thumbs up. Mustachian, and safe. If it gets too much, I'd just do a few burpees. they are an amazing exercise, and it's easy to track progress as you just count them. Start with like 5. Increase by one every other session, until you can do 2-3 intense one-minute rounds of them.
For me, kettlebells are a winner. Get yourself a 12kg one to start, use a mirror or film yourself to make sure you do them right. 5x5 feet of outdoor space is all you need. I've cancelled by local gym membership after getting one; between cycling, martial arts, and kettle, I can get all the workout I need. Funk Roberts on youtube has good videos, and there are tons of others for beginners. Once you've seen a few you'll be able to tell what's working.
The problem I have about lifting weights is that inevitably you'll hit your biceps, triceps etc a lot, and that's not where the money is. Whole-body exercises that hit all your "big" muscles incl. core, legs etc will help you more. People did point out importance of legs etc but really, gyms seem to be organised for cosmetic training (biceps shoulders etc). That's why I much prefer walking into my back garden, pick up my kettlebell from the shed and swing away for a half hour. Then DONE!!
Others may say it's a bit of a fad. No doubt it is, but it does help. Your whole body will feel the burn, start slow so you don't pull anything. You obviously know that.
Can you tell me anything about starting martial arts as a fat/out of shape person with crappy stamina? I'm interested in this, especially as I see a lot of overlap with dance. It's not an option now (language barrier) but may be in March/April after I relocate. So too might be an adult ballet (or maybe jazz) class. But I'm struggling with the fact that most likely everyone in those dance classes is like far more fit than me, even if they have less underlying technique. I may be able to do a better jete, but they can do more/faster! The potential humiliation of having to go sit down during floor work in order to catch my breath is a bit much. (Hopefully by then I'll have made enough progress that it won't be an issue.) What about a martial arts class? If I can find a beginner adult class (not sure which martial art specifically, and it may not matter much for my purposes), do you think it would be problematic for someone with lousy stamina? Can a fat girl learn karate in a group class?
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Good luck on this journey! I would second what others say about walking. My goal lately has been to do much more of that, but I am failing miserably so far. In the past, however, walking has definitely made me feel strong.
This might be controversial, but I'm thinking about getting an ebike so I can do my very mountainous ride to work. This article makes me feel a little better about how much exercise I would get doing that: https://www.bicycling.com/training/a23610389/how-e-bikes-affect-fitness/?fbclid=IwAR0F_q5DxUzj1a6CyHpG2w9d9twORfEax2qsBrFWjLnGuZM6mEXBczTFCUk
Damn, those things are pricey, though!
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Can you tell me anything about starting martial arts as a fat/out of shape person with crappy stamina? I'm interested in this, especially as I see a lot of overlap with dance. It's not an option now (language barrier) but may be in March/April after I relocate. So too might be an adult ballet (or maybe jazz) class. But I'm struggling with the fact that most likely everyone in those dance classes is like far more fit than me, even if they have less underlying technique. I may be able to do a better jete, but they can do more/faster! The potential humiliation of having to go sit down during floor work in order to catch my breath is a bit much. (Hopefully by then I'll have made enough progress that it won't be an issue.) What about a martial arts class? If I can find a beginner adult class (not sure which martial art specifically, and it may not matter much for my purposes), do you think it would be problematic for someone with lousy stamina? Can a fat girl learn karate in a group class?
As well as working on fitness, you should try and work on the mental aspects of trying not to care what other people are doing better/faster/more than you. I know it is so difficult and this kind of embarassment holds me back from doing an awful lot of stuff, but if you can at all, try not to let it stop you.
Tai chi is a martial art, too (takes about 10 years to get to the level you could actually use it for defence/fighting, IIRC) and definitely doable for less fit people. I have also seen yoga for fat people* classes on offer, so you could check that out, too.
*It had some less obvious, more cutesy name but I've forgotten now what it was
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Find an activity you enjoy doing that gets your heart pumping and use that as exercise. There are so many people who think exercise needs to be something you suffer through and then get pulled into something they hate (running, lifting weights, etc) and can't understand why they can't stick with it. If you don't like running, DON'T RUN. It drives me insane when I hear people signing up for marathons and then talking about how much they can't stand the training.
That being said, even if you do find something you enjoy, it helps to have a partner or partners to meet up and do the activity with. I run because I love it, but there are the days when I just don't feel like getting out the door. To combat this, I have a group of about a half dozen people I run with on a rotating basis and all I have to do is meet them, and the run takes care of itself.
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There are few activities you can't do as a fat person so try out what works for you. You may also have other problems that limit but being fat usually is not that limiting in itself. I suggest water aerobics, swimming, cycling (outside or an an exercise bike) or a cross trainer as easy things to start with if you are already doing walking. Spinning classes, lower impact aerobics, yoga or weight training are other options that may be fun too. I know fat people who exercise in all ways you can think of really but if you already have some problems with your knees for example try one of the ones I first suggested. My personal favorite is water aerobics, it is easy to start with but as you get better at it, it actually gets harder since you get better at using the water as resistance.
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Walking for one hour a day, 7 days a week can do wonders for the body. This can then become a light jog for 30 seconds, ever so often, while walking. I would check out the "Couch to 5K" app after that.
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Do you know why you were fit before? It's because you were a dancer. Say that again because it's at the core of the issue. You were a dancer, that was your lifestyle and your IDENTITY. I bet there were many behaviors and habits that went along with it. Being fit was simply a byproduct of your identity.
I strongly encourage you to first work on your identity as a fit person of some sort. It's the difference between "Oh no, donuts at work, I want one so bad, can I hold out, oh no I ate one, I'm horrible, I'm pathetic, maybe if I take a walk after lunch it'll help offset it...." vs "I don't eat that shit, I'm an athlete. Can't wait to get out of this box and onto the trail, shitty food just drains my energy."
I'm not saying do nothing but try to will yourself into being fit, you should absolutely start eating for health (not fucking dieting!!!!) and performance now, and you should absolutely start doing physical activity. But with the mindset that you're a fit person. That way as you're building those small habits, each time you complete one it will be reinforcing your identity as a healthy person. And in turn that identity will reinforce the habits, building the consistency that is CRITICAL for this to work.
About the original topic, swimming and cycling. Both super fun and low impact.
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Build up a good base walking, then progress to working in a few intervals of jogging (like a city block or two). Once you feel you've built up a good base, SPRINT. Just do it in intervals. Walk for 10 minutes, sprint for a block, walk again for 10 minutes, sprint for a block. Continue doing this until you see noted improvement and gains, then begin to work in other exercises (i.e., drop for 10 push ups on the sidewalk right after a sprint interval, or 10 air squats, 10 lunges, etc). Your body will adapt, keep pushing it each time the routine starts to feel a little easier. MAKE IT FUN -- hell, skip down the street, ring your neighbor's doorbell and run away, do whatever you have to do to make it engaging, so you stick with it.
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Sorting out your 'diet stuff' is the key. I have a method that works for me, but I don't know enough about nutrition to feel comfortable giving advice to strangers.
Then start with some walking and body weight exercises that you can do in a park during your walk or at home (particularly if you are self conscious about your weight).
I think that eating differently is the right answer if you're most interested in fat loss.
I think it was on Tim Ferriss's podcast, but I've heard the advice that "you can't outrun your mouth". I had really good success with his Slow Carb Diet, which was fairly straight forward. I lost something like 50 lbs doing it, but then put most of it back on over 3 years with a new job.
I'm also a fan of walking (with a weighted vest if you want to burn some extra calories).
I've also recently started doing some simple body weight stuff (mostly push-ups and air squats) as well as kettle bell swings (which you could also do without weight to get used to the motion).
I also have a recumbent bike at home that I do for 45 - 60 minutes while playing video games. I find that sports games are better for doing this than story based games (like Horizon Zero Dawn) because I don't have to concentrate as much.
This has been most effective when I end with a Tabata type sprint at the end (I do 20 seconds of full effort then 20 seconds of rest for 8 cycles). It feels great when I'm done, but it's hard to get back into doing it if I skip it a few times.
The other thing I've started doing lately is 30 minutes in a dry sauna (~ 190 F). I was turned onto this by Dr. Rhonda Patrick of "Found My Fitness" (although I first heard of her from interviews she did on Joe Rogan).
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Lots of great advice, around importance of diet (outrunning the fork and all that), and a good balance in training.
Seems like few people picked up that you are already looking at bodyweight exercises. Big thumbs up. Mustachian, and safe. If it gets too much, I'd just do a few burpees. they are an amazing exercise, and it's easy to track progress as you just count them. Start with like 5. Increase by one every other session, until you can do 2-3 intense one-minute rounds of them.
For me, kettlebells are a winner. Get yourself a 12kg one to start, use a mirror or film yourself to make sure you do them right. 5x5 feet of outdoor space is all you need. I've cancelled by local gym membership after getting one; between cycling, martial arts, and kettle, I can get all the workout I need. Funk Roberts on youtube has good videos, and there are tons of others for beginners. Once you've seen a few you'll be able to tell what's working.
The problem I have about lifting weights is that inevitably you'll hit your biceps, triceps etc a lot, and that's not where the money is. Whole-body exercises that hit all your "big" muscles incl. core, legs etc will help you more. People did point out importance of legs etc but really, gyms seem to be organised for cosmetic training (biceps shoulders etc). That's why I much prefer walking into my back garden, pick up my kettlebell from the shed and swing away for a half hour. Then DONE!!
Others may say it's a bit of a fad. No doubt it is, but it does help. Your whole body will feel the burn, start slow so you don't pull anything. You obviously know that.
Can you tell me anything about starting martial arts as a fat/out of shape person with crappy stamina? I'm interested in this, especially as I see a lot of overlap with dance. It's not an option now (language barrier) but may be in March/April after I relocate. So too might be an adult ballet (or maybe jazz) class. But I'm struggling with the fact that most likely everyone in those dance classes is like far more fit than me, even if they have less underlying technique. I may be able to do a better jete, but they can do more/faster! The potential humiliation of having to go sit down during floor work in order to catch my breath is a bit much. (Hopefully by then I'll have made enough progress that it won't be an issue.) What about a martial arts class? If I can find a beginner adult class (not sure which martial art specifically, and it may not matter much for my purposes), do you think it would be problematic for someone with lousy stamina? Can a fat girl learn karate in a group class?
I knew several people who started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu weighing 250+ lbs, and lost 60+ lbs. each. The thing is, you have to LET YOUR EGO GO. You are likely going to feel out of place when you first walk in, and probably self-conscious as you will meet a lot of fit people, and people much smaller than you will be kicking your ass with ease. Don't let this get you down or deter you. If you choose the right school, one where there is an attitude of helping one another, while still also being a little competitive, you will make gains and lose weight. Embrace the learning aspect of it -- it's a lifelong learning process -- and it will be really fun and addicting, and I daresay, life changing.
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Can you tell me anything about starting martial arts as a fat/out of shape person with crappy stamina? I'm interested in this, especially as I see a lot of overlap with dance. It's not an option now (language barrier) but may be in March/April after I relocate. So too might be an adult ballet (or maybe jazz) class. But I'm struggling with the fact that most likely everyone in those dance classes is like far more fit than me, even if they have less underlying technique. I may be able to do a better jete, but they can do more/faster! The potential humiliation of having to go sit down during floor work in order to catch my breath is a bit much. (Hopefully by then I'll have made enough progress that it won't be an issue.) What about a martial arts class? If I can find a beginner adult class (not sure which martial art specifically, and it may not matter much for my purposes), do you think it would be problematic for someone with lousy stamina? Can a fat girl learn karate in a group class?
Watch out for brain dump!
Fat is fine for most martial arts - it's a performance issue! A friendly place will allow you to go at your own pace.
First thing is to decide what you want out of it. Specifically, how realistic are you about self-defence. Many styles will try to sell you on that, but really, it's mostly a sham. Look up "McDojos" on youtube for a chuckle. No style will make you into a fighter that doesn't incorporate real sparring with non-compliant partners.
So to get this our of the way, if you want to actually fight/spar, then it's really about how much pain you want to take:
- Even the "mildest" martial arts (and the quotes are important) will injure you once in a while. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is extremely popular, partly because you can spar non-compliant opponents with less risk of injury, since striking isn't allowed and you can tap out before something breaks. HOWEVER you do still get hurt, another beginner can put their weight on your lowest rib leaving it sore, you can twist a toe etc... But that said, as imperfect as it would be in a real-life situations (as the sparring situations don't reflect real life), as least you gain real skills and have a shot as hurting your attacker. Also, it's trendy, so there are tons of clubs, they usually have female members who are keen to recruit more, people are nerdy/friendly... good for meeting nice people. Of course there are exceptions, if you take a class in a gym that teaches to wannabe MMA fighters then forget what I've just said.
- For striking arts, if you don't constantly carry some injury as you do it then it's likely fake! To be clear, I am referring to striking arts that incorporate meaningful sparring. Like muai thai. I really don't think that's for most people, and doesn't sound like it's for you, but I'm just including it for completeness.
So that's my own take on "real" fighting martial arts. Now if you want to improve coordination, fitness, etc, then you have a much wider choice. Some suggestions in decreasing order of my preference. But it's very personal, and you are very smart (I can see from other posts), I think when you get where I'm coming from you can do your research and find something very suitable.
- Join a fitness class in a boxing gym (not a boxing class in a fitness gym if possible)! you'll get a super workout, but with actual boxers. from then you could try your hand at light sparring, body sparring etc. only if you want. Google the gym to make sure it's not run by psychos, and that they are friendly to beginners... Perhaps you can observe a class. Knowing how to throw a punch isn't a bad skill. You can shock someone and run away. I've heard it said that for real-life situations boxing and wrestling is the best combo you can have. Make of that what you will!
- Taek Won Do very good also for a flexible dancer, clubs are big and everywhere, they often take adult beginners, and while some sparring can get rowdy they aren't shy about using protection. that's not a concern for beginners anyway.
- If the dance aspect appeals, you could look at capoeira (sp?). If you fancied you could always take up kickboxing after, having picked up flexibility
- Karate is good for coordination and such, but for a lot of styles (that you are likely to sign up for) it seems like it's a lot of repetitive moves, and katas. Repetitive drills (say the same punch for a half hour) can get you injured. not sure you'll get so much out of it.
In terms of what to avoid, again read up on mcdojos and you'll get an idea. Not a fan of boxercise taught by Personal trainers (explained above). Why not learn it right? And things like Krav Maga I'm dubious about. Firstly because I've heard they don't teach the full curriculum to outsiders, too dangerous, second, I don't see how you can practice an art that's meant to kill people without faking it.
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Find a friend or neighbor with a dog and walk it. Exercise, good karma, and maybe even some side cash in it for you! And it’s always nice to have an exercise companion. :-)
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In my experience, controlling diet (e.g. cutting out ALL sugar and simple carbs) was a much more effective way to lose weight than any intense exercise regimen. Yeah, be active. Go for walks. But the amount of effort to burn calories by intense/gym exercising is way way more difficult than making choices about what you eat.
Just my two cents.
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Can you tell me anything about starting martial arts as a fat/out of shape person with crappy stamina? I'm interested in this, especially as I see a lot of overlap with dance. It's not an option now (language barrier) but may be in March/April after I relocate. So too might be an adult ballet (or maybe jazz) class. But I'm struggling with the fact that most likely everyone in those dance classes is like far more fit than me, even if they have less underlying technique. I may be able to do a better jete, but they can do more/faster! The potential humiliation of having to go sit down during floor work in order to catch my breath is a bit much. (Hopefully by then I'll have made enough progress that it won't be an issue.) What about a martial arts class? If I can find a beginner adult class (not sure which martial art specifically, and it may not matter much for my purposes), do you think it would be problematic for someone with lousy stamina? Can a fat girl learn karate in a group class?
I used to do martial arts as a kid/teen. Got to black belt, too. I trained with all kinds and shapes of people, and honestly, it really isn't an issue :)
Sure, I wasn't able to properly practice certain throwing techniques on a guy that was too heavy (without fully going for it, putting myself and them at risk of injury,) but it certainly didn't stop us learning together.
If you're considering martial arts and are looking for recommendations, it has my vote. You get plenty of cardiovascular workout, bodyweight training, and they'll be sure to promote good healthy attitudes towards you like self discipline and respect (not saying you lack either of these). Oh, and as a byproduct, you also learn how to effectively kick someone's arse if they make fun of your weight*.
* But you'll likely not want to, because they'll have also instilled self-control into you, as well as knowing when to fight and when not to.
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I found leslie sansone videos great. Walking plus some light cardio and can do from home. Thinking i need to start again myself... arggg just got winded running for bus the other day and am so out of shape and not happy about it. Hope it goes well for you!
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Another vote for walking! I lost over 100 pounds with a careful diet and I walked! I aimed for 10,000 steps a day. I started out at a very easy pace and eventually became quite an amateur speed walker. It is really, really good for you no matter what else you do.
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There's good advice in this thread already.
1. Find a physical activity that you really enjoy doing. If you like it, you'll be motivated to do it more often. As you do it more often you'll become healthier.
2. Ramp up your activity slowly. If you're bigger, you're going to get tired out more quickly simply because of the weight you're carrying. You will be more at risk of injury (be careful about your knees and ankles).
Be smart about your training. Develop a training plan with clear goals. Something like this:
Week 1 - Walk a mile a day
Week 2 - Walk a mile a day with 2 30 second bits of jogging
Week 3 - Walk a mile a day with 2 minute long bits of jogging
...
Week 10 - Half walk, half jog a mile a day
...
Week 20 - Jog a mile a day
Week 21 - Jog a mile and a half every other day
Week 22 - Jog two miles every other day
...
The key is that there is constant, measurable improvement. If you're not regularly improving, you're wasting your time. Once a year or so, re-evaluate your goals. Are you still having fun doing what you're doing? Should you mix up the training in some way to keep things fresh?
3. Get yourself a journal, and write stuff down every time you train. This forces you to think about where you are, where you want to be, and how much progress you've made over time. You will go through weeks and months where your progress is so slow that it seems like nothing is happening. Having a training journal helps you put it all in perspective, see the slight improvements, and not lose hope.
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@Villanelle,
Congratulations on making the decision to be healthier. Can I please offer you some advice from the psychological/physiological stand point.
1) Picking the right goal will set you up for success. Please do not pick the goal of losing x pounds in y weeks. It is a failing proposition. Instead choose goals that are not only achievable but good for you as well. For example your #1 goal should be getting healthier. Another goal you should have is to exercise x minutes y times a week. Lastly, your goal should be to cut out 1 bad eating habit every few weeks. These are very simple and easily achievable goals that over time will not only lead to weight loss, but it will actually make you healthy.
2) Do not diet. I know this is strange to say, but diets don't work. I don't care if it is the Atkins diet, the California diner, the Paleo diet, or the nothing but pomegranate juice and 3 enemas a day diet. they all fail eventually because what you do is extreme and non sustainable. Instead your goal isn't to diet, but to eat healthy. The best way to do that is to eliminate 1 unhealthy item every 1-3 weeks from your intake. Again the goal isn't to starve yourself but instead the goal is to learn to have a healthier lifestyle and the weight loss will follow. For most people the biggest issue for overweight people are the empty calories from soda, iced tea, and juices. If this is you, that should be your first healthy lifestyle change and either eliminate it totally, or limit it to no more than 8oz (1 cup) per day. BTW, diet sodas and drink are garbage that increase your glycemic index and should not be part of a healthy lifestyle. Again, your goal is healthy and diet drinks are not healthy. After a few weeks pick another unhealthy eating habit and change that for 1-3 weeks. Again, this is't about dieting. This is about lifestyle change and making your lifestyle healthier which is your real goal.
3a) Exercise. You need to start burning calories during the day. Weight loss is a simple math problem. Burn more calories than you eat, and you will lose weight. In addition having more muscle mass burns calories at rest which is why weight training is so beneficial. Not only do you burn calories throwing those weights around, once you are done, because you have more muscle you continue burning more calories just sitting on your but watching TV.
3b) The most common mistake people make trying to gain muscle mass is running or biking. Physiologically speaking, running long distance does not burn fat. It actually burns muscle. I don't want to get into too much detail unless requested, but you will actually loose muscle mass by jogging or stationary bike riding. It is possible to avoid this by doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training.) Google it. But the reality is, if you want to build muscle, have a higher basal metabolic rate, you will need to do some type of weight training. If you want, for the next few months do body weight exercises, walking, and using the stairs every chance you get. After that you will need to start adding some weights to your regimen.
3c) Which leads me to your excuse for not going to the gym. SMACK....that is me smacking you across the face for giving a damn what a few foreign speaking people have anything to do with you trying to be healthy. Screw them. You don't need english to work out. You need weights and the gym has weights so you need to go to the gym or build a gym at your house like MMM did. If you need some assistance on how to work out check out this guy. Athlean-x on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0TLA0EsQbE-MjuHXevj2A (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0TLA0EsQbE-MjuHXevj2A)
This guy is a physical trainer, understands anatomy, and muscle function. He has a ton of great videos on how to work out correctly and he speaks English. Start off with the following workout schedule:
Day 1 - Chest and triceps
Day 2 - Back and Biceps
Day 3 - Cardio (yes, running, biking, swimming, whatever you want and ideally using HIIT training to do it)
Day 4 - Shoulders and stomach
Day 5 - Legs.
Make sure you watch any Athlean-x videos regarding his exercise graveyard. (These are common exercises people like to do, but have a high risk of hurting yourself in the process.)
Also feel free to check out bodybuilding.com which explains many of those exercises as well.
4) It is okay to cheat every now and then. We are human and sometimes we get lazy or crave something unhealthy. It is okay to indulge every so often but make sure you do it smart. If you are going to give in and lets say want candy. Buy 1 candy bar instead of an entire bag. Eat the candy bar and be happy. Again, if you want ice cream, then buy 1 serving and move on. Don't buy a gallon tub of the stuff.
5) Congratulations again on taking the first step to being healthy. Keep this thread open and report back or ask questions over the next few months.
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. The best way to do that is to eliminate 1 unhealthy item every 1-3 weeks from your intake. Again the goal isn't to starve yourself but instead the goal is to learn to have a healthier diet and the weight loss will follow. For most people the biggest issue for overweight people are the empty calories from soda, iced tea, and juices. If this is you, that should be your first healthy lifestyle change and either eliminate it totally, or limit it to no more than 8oz (1 cup) per day. BTW, diet sodas and drink are garbage that increase your glycemic index and should not be part of a healthy lifestyle. Again, your goal is healthy and diet drinks are not healthy. After a few weeks pick another unhealthy eating habit and change that for 1-3 weeks. Again, this is't about dieting. This is about lifestyle change and making your lifestyle healthier which is your real goal.
Following "Sober October" I'm now doing "No-Sugar November" right now. I *think* I've invented it. I'm cutting out all desserts and candy and bread and drinks with added sugars... and maple syrup and honey. I know there's more foods with sugar in them but it's MY thing so I don't care. I just want to cut down.
Anyway join me if you want!
BTW purists will say that deprivation isn't the answer. I agree, but these challenges are fun (to me at least), and it's easier to cut back when I know I can do without if I wanted.
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I have never had a weight issue, but pain associated with exercise is one I've struggled with for years and I know how challenging it can be to find exercises that make you feel good, as opposed to causing 'rebound pain'. I seem to have a fibromyalgia-like pain disorder (or myofascial, it's hard to tell). Plus, I have moderate scoliosis that causes an uneven pelvic girdle. Many exercise routines would make feel physically better for a few hours, but then rebound pain (NOT delayed onset muscle soreness) would set in and it would feel like every joint and tendon was locked up, grinding and cracking and hurting. I would feel 100 years old.
Because of this, I have always struggled to establish a regular consistent exercise routine.
When I was younger, and in decent condition from a more active daily life, walking never bothered me much (though running did). But if I slipped out of shape as I got older, even walking more than 10 minutes at a brisk pace would set off rebound pain later. So I'd started to avoid even that. It was a terrible spiral.
I finally broke the cycle with swimming, which I've always been good at. Minimum of 3 times per week for 1.5 years now, and I feel better than in a decade. It feels great to do in the moment, and doesn't cause 'rebound' pain unless I fail to do several minutes of compensatory stretching immediately afterward (usually in a hot shower) for each muscle group worked. By compensatory, I mean stretching the front and sides of my body extensively b/c most swimming builds and shortens muscles in the front and sides (and most of us desk workers already struggle with that).
Gradually, I built up some basic shoulder/chest and glute conditioning (areas where I was totally deficient). After about 6 months I was able to start brisk 1-hour walks again, with less rebound pain. Then I started yoga and body weight exercises to improve the stuff swimming wasn't working (back, quads, etc).
It has been a lifesaver and an absolute life changer, as far as reducing my pain levels and increasing my mental and physical health. I'm hoping to gradually transition to weight training soon. And I realize now I can no longer live somewhere that I can't access a pool year round.
Note: I was a good swimmer to start (competed as a kid), but I tended to suffer from swimmer's shoulder (essentially, repetitive impingement that irritates tendons), and I had to relearn some stroke techniques to fix that. So make sure you are swimming with proper technique or you could hurt yourself.
Note 2: I suspect if you are just starting from scratch, stationary cycling would also be a pretty good option. Relatively little chance of pain or injury and good cardio buzz. Personally, b/c of my job hunched over a computer, I need things that open up, activate, and stretch my upper body and neck.
Note 3: I also find yoga to be really helpful for light strength conditioning, and it helps with my pain flares as well.
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I do whatever strikes my fancy. Hula hoop, swimming (ok, I can barely swim, I splash around a lot, which burns more calories than efficient swimming), biking, tons of walking and hiking (add in hills and steps if you aren't feeling challenged enough), Zumba, yoga, swing dancing...
I am still fat because I eat too much. I lost about 25 pounds earlier this year with what I called "near keto," but then I tried keto for a few weeks and it messed with my head and I rebounded.
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i'm not reading through all these posts -- which I'm sure are spectacular -- but has anyone brought up like indoor rock/wall climbing yet? That would be just kind of amazing all around, right? Learning new skill, burning fat, it's fun and interesting, and with experience you can start climbing outdoors.
I'm a formerly gorgeous person who is now mediocre and fat. I joined that burpee challenge thread. Burpees are probably good for fatties.
I find myself quite intrigued by this as well, given that I pass the wall every time I go to the pool.
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My training regimen after any periods of inactivity has to include multiple forms of exercise, or else I end up injuring myself. I tend to mix up running and biking and climbing, with one absolutely mandatory rest day between workouts for at least the first month. Doing back to to back workouts is how I incur injuries that prevent me from continuing the workouts.
As I have aged, I have crossed the point where my cardio fitness now improves more rapidly than does my joint fitness. The first few weeks will be tiring, but eventually I'll get to the point were a workout that feels only moderately taxing will obliterate my knees or ankles if I push too hard. I've had to modify my workout progressions to account for slowly rebuilding joints and tendons, instead of just rebuilding cardio capacity. Remember you're training your entire body, not just your aerobic fitness. You still need aerobic exercise to burn fat but you can't get aerobic exercise if you've hurt yourself, so at this age I now have to increase the workouts much more slowly than my body wants me to.
Go slow, and plan on six months to a year to see measurable results. I can't train for anything in only three months, the way I used to.
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When I was my most out of shape pre babies, I got back into really good shape starting with the laziest, easiest exercise ever:
https://www.amazon.com/Gaiam-Pilates-Beginning-Mat-Workout/dp/B00DSBKGYI
This one is so old, it's not offered anymore, but I'm sure there are similar ones. As I regained my core strength, I added in some biking. It was such an easy start, because nearly the entire workout is done sitting or lying on the floor.
More recently, after babies, I dug out this, that I had sitting in my closet from a clearance purchase a few years prior:
https://www.amazon.com/Millers-Calorie-Burner-Workout-Kettlebells/dp/B001K3GO60
Again, it's old, but there are similar ones available. This one wasn't as easy to get into, but I did what I could, and then with consistent effort, worked up to doing the entire series of 3 workouts in one session. This did incredible things for my strength and stamina, and was all achieved with a 5 pound kettlebell. Later, I added a pilates reformer/rebounder workout on off days, and yoga. These workouts helped me feel spectacular, but I didn't really lose too much weight until I started tracking food with My Fitness Pal.
ETA: I also used to dance, but not as much as you. That's one reason Pilates and Yoga appeal to me so much, though I now find yoga frustrating because it was so much easier for me to do well back when I was a dancer.
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Walk / bike anywhere you can within reason. If you need groceries (and it isn't a 10 mile one way ride nor do you need to pick up 50 pounds of dog food or a bulk pack of paper towels) either walk or bike. Going to a restaurant? Same thing. I gained 70 pounds after leaving the military and carried it for probably 7 years, but lost it and have kept it off since 2015. I didn't do it by truly dieting (I still eat whatever I want, had a 1lb german chocolate cake slice yesterday and probably 6 beers), but by changing my lifestyle to incorporate at least 120 minutes of exercise a day, whether walking, biking, hiking or a combination.
My weight fluctuates quite a bit. Sometimes I weigh 215, other weeks 222, etc... depending on what I eat, how much water I drink, but since I'm active at least 2 hours a day and don't eat to excess on a regular basis it stays in a healthy range. FWIW I am 6'2" and lift weights regularly so 215 is a healthy weight for me.
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I lost 30 pounds last year through diet and exercise. The #1 key for me was downloading myfitnesspal and tracking EVERYTHING I eat. This is so so so so so important.
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Calorie restriction is what gets the weight off. Exercise is good to, but don't think it will loose you weight. You need to count every single calorie and limit it. Like clockwork the weight will go away.
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Calorie restriction is what gets the weight off.
Technically I think it's calorie deficits that get the weight off, so a thousand calories of exercise is just as good as reducing a thousand calories if food intake.
The problem is that a thousand calories of exercise makes me a lot hungrier than not eating a thousand calories of halloween candy. It's easier to just eat less.
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The key with keeping diet in check is to avoid eating stuff that is packed with calories that doesn't make you feel full.
I can eat 10 mini candy bars no problem. I will lose steam after like six or seven apples. If both foods are sitting out on the table though, I'll probably eat the candy bars . . . so I don't buy candy bars. I buy apples.
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Calorie restriction is what gets the weight off.
Technically I think it's calorie deficits that get the weight off, so a thousand calories of exercise is just as good as reducing a thousand calories if food intake.
The problem is that a thousand calories of exercise makes me a lot hungrier than not eating a thousand calories of halloween candy. It's easier to just eat less.
They say a 6 pack is made in the kitchen. But, it is much easier to be at a calorie deficit if you have more muscle mass since you basal metabolic rate is higher and you utilize more calories doing nothing. Also, if you sustain too much of a deficit your body will go into starvation mode and try to minimize calorie utilization which is why too much of a deficit is not ideal.
Ideally one is looking for many small meals as opposed to starving and eating one or two large meals. What we are looking for is when we are hungry to eat just enough to fill up our glycogen storage in our liver and muscles. If you eat more than that, the excess will be stored as fat. After eating you start utilizing that glycogen for energy as it is broken down into glucose. Once that is used up we break down fats and protein for energy. Fat breaks down into acetyl CoA which is the basic precursor of energy. Proteins are broken down into glucose which is then broken down further into acetyl CoA. The protein that is broken down comes from our muscle cells and we do not want to utilize this is a source of energy too much which is what happens with long distance jogging.
Now, you eat a small meal below your glycogen threshold and then utilize that glycogen for energy. Once used up we keep ourselves hungry for a little while to burn down some fat and then replenish our glycogen with another small meal. Repeat this process all day long while staying at a calorie deficit will lead to weight loss.
Add in 30 minutes of weight lifting will help use up some of that fat when you are glycogen depleted. If you had a good weight training workout, your muscles were brought to fatigue and will need to rebuild bigger which will utilize some of the food you eat into building up protein stores as muscle mass. This muscle mass increases your basal metabolic rate which in turn burns more calories.
Sure one can lose weight just by eating less, and eating less is a must. But the whole process is improved with exercise.
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The key with keeping diet in check is to avoid eating stuff that is packed with calories that doesn't make you feel full.
I can eat 10 mini candy bars no problem. I will lose steam after like six or seven apples. If both foods are sitting out on the table though, I'll probably eat the candy bars . . . so I don't buy candy bars. I buy apples.
That really is so key. Don't buy bad foods in bulk for your pantry. If the pantry is full of kit kat bars, then guess what, you will eat kit kat bars. If your kitchen is full of apples instead, then when you want a snack you will have an apple.
In our house we do not have any junk food. Seriously, no chips, crackers or candy. When we desire something sweet we go to the store, get 1 serving of it and only eat that 1 serving. In our home we always keep plenty of fruit on the counter and fridge. We always have apples, bananas and grapes available.
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The key with keeping diet in check is to avoid eating stuff that is packed with calories that doesn't make you feel full.
I can eat 10 mini candy bars no problem. I will lose steam after like six or seven apples. If both foods are sitting out on the table though, I'll probably eat the candy bars . . . so I don't buy candy bars. I buy apples.
+1. If I buy noodles, I will noodle myself to death... if I buy broccoli and potatoes... cool, I'll just eat those. For me it's about accessibility. I can 100% for sure eat 2 large pizzas by myself... so... no frozen pizza for me.
Everyone has already said that it's 80/20 Nutrition/Exercise and that's true.
The exercise piece NEEDS to be enjoyable though.
If you've done dance before, you most likely enjoyed the routine, the community, the music, or a combination of all of those. See if you can find something else that will fulfill the same parts of dance that you enjoyed.
Also, I have ALWAYS been self conscious when working out in a group, BUT I can't work out alone- it's not enjoyable or encuoraging. So I go to meetups, I do CrossFit (yeah yeah, I know), and I do Run Bet (that one works not because of community, but because I refuse to lose money- I can walk at a pace fast enough to meet the running time caps if I'm having "a day" and don't want to run).
It takes practice to learn to shake off other people's opinions of you... it's a skill, just like the exercise... or learning any other skill.
I modify the HECK out of plenty of the exercises I do and over time I have learned to care less and less what people think of what I'm doing.
ALSO: I have heard great things about www.streetparking.com for at-home programming with very little to no equipment.
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There's good advice in this thread already.
1. Find a physical activity that you really enjoy doing. If you like it, you'll be motivated to do it more often. As you do it more often you'll become healthier.
2. Ramp up your activity slowly. If you're bigger, you're going to get tired out more quickly simply because of the weight you're carrying. You will be more at risk of injury (be careful about your knees and ankles).
Be smart about your training. Develop a training plan with clear goals. Something like this:
Week 1 - Walk a mile a day
Week 2 - Walk a mile a day with 2 30 second bits of jogging
Week 3 - Walk a mile a day with 2 minute long bits of jogging
...
Week 10 - Half walk, half jog a mile a day
...
Week 20 - Jog a mile a day
Week 21 - Jog a mile and a half every other day
Week 22 - Jog two miles every other day
...
The key is that there is constant, measurable improvement. If you're not regularly improving, you're wasting your time. Once a year or so, re-evaluate your goals. Are you still having fun doing what you're doing? Should you mix up the training in some way to keep things fresh?
3. Get yourself a journal, and write stuff down every time you train. This forces you to think about where you are, where you want to be, and how much progress you've made over time. You will go through weeks and months where your progress is so slow that it seems like nothing is happening. Having a training journal helps you put it all in perspective, see the slight improvements, and not lose hope.
I see I'm not needed here. One thing that worked for me was "Running and Walking for Women over 40" (even though I was 30 when I bought it). It basically gives recommendations on how to go from walking to running.
I had to work to lose a bunch of baby weight, and yes, things hurt a lot. I never thought I'd be able to "run" again because: older joints, things hurt, and I was overweight. I was settled into a run/ walk program. This was good for me because it was low pressure. If it hurt to run? I walked. My average was about 50/50 and my average pace was 13:00 using this method, but I could go a really long time, until about 7 miles. Then my hips started to ache. Then I started making progress.
Things that helped me:
- weight loss, you know this
- working with a trainer on proper running form. A trained running coach basically got me from 13:00 miles to my last half marathon at 10:42 pace. In a little over a year.
- regular, dedicated, hip and core exercises for proper running form and prevention of injury (this was HUGE).
- hills. If walking doesn't make you sweat - go for a hike, or walk up stadiums at a track or walk or run up hills.
- intervals (like the run/walk method), you could just sprint for a short period of time.
(none of which prevented me from tripping on a rock while running downhill on a trail, resulting in being carried off by emergency responders with a nasty hamstring tear).
For me though, diet was the biggest thing. I love exercise, have a preference for cardio but am forcing myself into weight training. Exercise should be as fun as you can make it. For me that means - somewhat challenging, a specific measurable goal (race, time, etc), a short calendar (I can train for 2 months for something, but then need a break), and people. I like working out with people.
I also like to swim and use the elliptical at the gym with my bestie. I mostly run now (when not injured) because it's efficient and I don't have an hour a day to work out.
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I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore. (Please spare me the lectures on how fat is okay, or that it's a mean term to use, or any of that. I'm well aware my worth as a human person isn't based on my BMI, and I don't use the term "fat" pejoratively, even though that's how it is usually interpreted. It's a simple, true statement. I am overweight, which means I have too much fat on my body, ergo, I am fat.) I'm working on sorting out some diet stuff, but I need the exercise component as well, and I'd like the benefits of exercise beyond weight loss, so diet alone won't work for those anyway.
I have not always been fat. I spent many years being quite lean and fairly muscular. I wouldn't say I was naturally that way, but nor did I ever "workout". I was very active, including for a while spending 30+ hours a week in dance class, practice, performance, etc. It just so happened that the things I chose to do with my life kept me very slim and healthy.
I didn't understand fat people. Now that I am one of them, I realize that exercise as an in-shape person is an entirely different thing. I've always hated running, but if I felt compelled to do so, I could put on some headphones and pound the pavement pretty much indefinitely. Now, I don't have the stamina for that, of course, and also, it hurts, and not in a good way. I'm not morbidly obese or anything, but the increased weight on the older joints mean many activities hurt, and in ways that don't feel good or healthy. So coming up with things that will push me enough to make progress, but not injure me or hurt me so much that I will not continue them is a real challenge.
Walking doesn't seem like quite enough. I don't get winded, or barely so. Running--nope. Any recommendations for a healthy way to start cardio for a fattie? (I'll also do some strength training, likely just body weight stuff for now -- lord knows I have enough of that so I can put it to good use!-- and have that mostly covered, although even that is more challenging than it should be because after a couple dozen lunges, for example, my legs are wobbly enough to make me concerned they might not hold me up.
Seriously, as a slim person, I never understood how hard it was to start working out when you are fat!
It’s walking, yes, walking. Walk an hour first thing in the morning before you have breakfast, after a good night of sleep. Then try to get another 30-60 minutes of walking the rest of the day. That’s it. Do that every day, no matter the weather for 3 months and you will see a difference.
Also, avoid the white stuff: sugar, salt, white flour, white rice and white potatoes. Eat more green stuff, pick your faves. And have one day a week of eating no carbs at all.
Seriously, that’s it!
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I did Tae Kwon Do for 13 years; it is a time commitment and can be costly but I really enjoyed it. You could do a trial lesson.
Most places love to take on anyone and even moreso people who think exercise is a challenge; i.e. at my school the Masters and Grandmaster (that is what they call the teachers) loved getting a new student that was overweight, old, or somehow lacking in confidence and transform them. "I can do it" is a core teaching. I saw many out of shape people get into great shape. They know how to work with beginners and build them up.
If that is not your thing - bicycling, swimming, roller blading also have good cardio benefits and much easier on joints than running.
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See, my doctor flat out told me that just walking wasn't going to get me there. I was fat, but not quite obese but close, according to BMI. She said that I needed to do more than just walking, because getting anywhere with just walking would take way too long. And she was right. Put your information into a treadmill, and see how few calories you actually burn. I mean, incorporating more walking throughout your day is awesome. I think that does burn more calories. But just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around. I don't know, maybe you do, but I had neither the time or the patience for that. I have other goals, too.
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just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around.
When discussing biking, I prefer to think of it in terms of time saved working out instead of time lost in transit. Like if it takes me 45 minutes to bike somewhere that I could have driven to in 20 minutes, then I have gotten a 45 minute workout in while only losing 25 extra minutes of my day. By that math, I've actually saved 20 minutes by biking instead of driving, since I want/need the exercise anyway.
I agree that walking just for walking's sake is an inefficient way to burn calories. But your body is not designed to walk in circles for the fun of it, it is designed to walk all day as its primary means of going about its life. If you just walk to the places you need to go anyway, you're not really losing anything.
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See, my doctor flat out told me that just walking wasn't going to get me there. I was fat, but not quite obese but close, according to BMI. She said that I needed to do more than just walking, because getting anywhere with just walking would take way too long. And she was right. Put your information into a treadmill, and see how few calories you actually burn. I mean, incorporating more walking throughout your day is awesome. I think that does burn more calories. But just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around. I don't know, maybe you do, but I had neither the time or the patience for that. I have other goals, too.
It is all a math game. But basically walking for 1 mile will burn 100 calories. If walking 1 mile takes you 20 minutes then a 1 hour walk should burn 300 calories. Is that not enough? What if you incorporated that 1 hour with extra things throughout the day such as always using the stairs and parking your car at the other end of the parking lot. Before you know it, you are looking at burning an extra 400-500 calories per day. 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound of weight loss.
I think your doctor is wrong. Walking is one of the better exercises out there. Honestly I believe it is even better than jogging because it is less stressful on the joints with decreased risk of hurting oneself. Also as I mentioned before continues jogging burns mostly muscle mass and not fat while walking will burn mostly fat and not muscle.
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See, my doctor flat out told me that just walking wasn't going to get me there. I was fat, but not quite obese but close, according to BMI. She said that I needed to do more than just walking, because getting anywhere with just walking would take way too long. And she was right. Put your information into a treadmill, and see how few calories you actually burn. I mean, incorporating more walking throughout your day is awesome. I think that does burn more calories. But just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around. I don't know, maybe you do, but I had neither the time or the patience for that. I have other goals, too.
It is all a math game. But basically walking for 1 mile will burn 100 calories. If walking 1 mile takes you 20 minutes then a 1 hour walk should burn 300 calories. Is that not enough? What if you incorporated that 1 hour with extra things throughout the day such as always using the stairs and parking your car at the other end of the parking lot. Before you know it, you are looking at burning an extra 400-500 calories per day. 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound of weight loss.
I think your doctor is wrong. Walking is one of the better exercises out there. Honestly I believe it is even better than jogging because it is less stressful on the joints with decreased risk of hurting oneself. Also as I mentioned before continues jogging burns mostly muscle mass and not fat while walking will burn mostly fat and not muscle.
Well, I did mention that incorporating walking throughout your day is awesome. But for me personally, my doctor was right. Since the choice of workout is not only walking vs. jogging, I found other ways to burn fat and increase fitness that worked really well for me.
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See, my doctor flat out told me that just walking wasn't going to get me there. I was fat, but not quite obese but close, according to BMI. She said that I needed to do more than just walking, because getting anywhere with just walking would take way too long. And she was right. Put your information into a treadmill, and see how few calories you actually burn. I mean, incorporating more walking throughout your day is awesome. I think that does burn more calories. But just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around. I don't know, maybe you do, but I had neither the time or the patience for that. I have other goals, too.
HIIT style training is one of the most the most time efficient way to exercise that I know of. It's possible to achieve a reasonable general fitness level on a few hours a week. However, it depends on your ability to push yourself very intensely. Unless you're in good shape to begin with, you will not benefit from the training because you won't be able to maintain the level of intensity necessary. Because it's so short, without the intensity you may well lose fitness.
If someone has been sedentary for a long time, they are not able to their body initially. They need to slowly train their way up to be stronger to avoid injury. Walking absolutely won't cut it forever, but it's a safe place to start. There needs to be gradual increase in intensity/distance/difficulty over time. After a baseline of fitness has been established, that's when optimizing of the workout routine can take place.
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Some good advice here.
For exercise, find something you actually enjoy doing.
I actually think walking is one of the best exercises for weight loss, because it doesn’t stimulate hunger hormones as much as higher intensity exercises do. I find that when I do higher intensity exercise, I tend to overeat unless I am particularly vigilant.
I definitely find that strength training helps reduce pain and strengthen the muscles around joints, preventing injury. I have actually slacked off from strength training, and I need to start again.
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Also wanted to add that if you really want to start swimming make sure you find a real lap pool- not one of those small gym wading pools. Shower before getting in, get yourself a normal swimsuit (Speedo makes quality swimsuits- if you're swimming a lot, the chlorine and wringer outter machines can beat swimsuits down.) Get some midrange swimming goggles $14-$30) and learn how to breathe in the water. The book I mentioned before will teach you how to breathe in the water etc. Focus on learning the freestyle or crawl stroke first it burns calories second only to the butterfly.
I started to learn how to swim when I was 21 or 22 for fitness and that book helped me through the whole process.
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There are a 1000 different claims of "All you have to do is XYZ." Many are from armchair dieticians, armchair weight lifters, and skinny SOB's who have never had to deal with this struggle for real. Dig up studies for yourself to see what works, and what does not. Most schemes work under controlled circumstances, and not in the real world. If there was a magic pill out there we would not be in the bad shape we are.
Dedicate a minimum of 1 hour a day to brisk exercise, preferably 2 hours. There is a consistent theme for folks who have shed pounds and kept them off, and this is one of them, Biking, running, weights, swimming, or brisk walking are all great, as long as you are getting your heart rate up and are building some muscles. Exercise E-V-E-R-Y day you are not sick or dead. It helps to get a workout buddy if you can, or to have some medium term goals like a big bike ride, big hike, or running race to keep you focused rather than feeling like you are just trudging along. I can easily motivate to run or bike 7.5 miles to work, but running 5 miles in my neighborhood only to end at my house feels pointless and torturous (your mileage may vary). Dedicate time to exercise, rather than expecting it to magically happen. Put it on your schedule and make it happen.
Track your calories and have a heart to heart with yourself and your food journal every week about your eating habits. Just logging your food will decrease mindless eating. Adding a salad to dinner does not mitigate a weekly half gallon of ice cream, but our brains will happily help you think that it does. Halving your portions while cranking up the exercise will lead to late night snacking and soul crushing hunger pangs. Ideally you will cut down the processed foods and simple starches/sugars, and ratchet up the veggies rather than just depriving yourself. Pack your own lunch, don't eat out. Don't eat within a couple hours of bedtime. Find healthy foods/recipes you can replace your old stand-by meals with and stick with them (or swap in similarly healthy ones as needed).
Stay off the scale. It can be an emotional roller coaster. Concentrate on eating right while maintaining a healthy and sustainable workout schedule. If you feel healthier and have more energy, your actual weight will matter much less and will go down slowly and steadily. Hitting your weight while being starved, sickly, and constantly exhausted is a recipe for failure and reversion.
The calorie-in-calorie-out folks are repeating a well debunked common sense fairy tale. Your body will shut its self down to maintain weight if you simply starve yourself, this often results in yo-yo dieting and an even higher set-point in the end. Eat well, eat enough to be sated, get regular exercise, and ignore the scale.
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Do you think walking is most beneficial not because of calories burned but because you are not sitting at home eating?
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Stay off the scale. It can be an emotional roller coaster.
+1 You may actually see an increase in weight in the beginning as you build muscle.
Also don't look at yourself in the mirror after every workout. You're not going to see change that quickly.
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Do you think walking is most beneficial not because of calories burned but because you are not sitting at home eating?
Getting off your arse and moving makes you feel better. I find that a brisk walk before lunch or after dinner just elevates the mood and does not leave me worn out like a run might.
It also does not trigger my hunger near as much as a big workout does. My current daily habit is 7.5 miles of biking to work (~35 clock minutes), a pre-lunch 4.4 mile brisk walk, and a 7.5 mile bike ride home. My blood pressure is lower than ever (99/62 at last check), and my resting heart rate is down to what it was almost 20 years ago (mid-40's). My weight is not where I would want, but it is roughly 15 lbs below my peak but it is stable (I only weight every 2-3 months). My weekends involve chasing my kid around the zoo, backpacking, bike riding to the grocery store, or long training runs up to 9 miles if I have an event coming up (currently just one a year that motivates about 5 months of training runs ahead of it). We do not penny pinch on exercise and health related expenses the way we do other items, health is well worth prioritizing.
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I lost 40 pounds over the course of a few years. I’ve kept it off for several more now. I stick w two big rules.
I don’t eat if I’m not hungry and I stop eating when I’m full.
I also don’t deny myself if I’m craving something that may not be so great. Like a burger or pizza. I just won’t stuff myself w it and I don’t eat again til I’m hungry.
So far so good. I started resistance training several weeks ago and I’m enjoying the benefits many have mentioned here. Just try not to overdo it and make yourself sore. That’s no fun.
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Start by walking and focusing on diet. Check out some healthy cookbooks and choose recipes you will enjoy. Make sure to pack your lunch with you when going out. You should be eating every few hours at least a small snack or medium size meal.
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Find an activity you enjoy doing that gets your heart pumping and use that as exercise. There are so many people who think exercise needs to be something you suffer through and then get pulled into something they hate (running, lifting weights, etc) and can't understand why they can't stick with it. If you don't like running, DON'T RUN. It drives me insane when I hear people signing up for marathons and then talking about how much they can't stand the training.
That being said, even if you do find something you enjoy, it helps to have a partner or partners to meet up and do the activity with. I run because I love it, but there are the days when I just don't feel like getting out the door. To combat this, I have a group of about a half dozen people I run with on a rotating basis and all I have to do is meet them, and the run takes care of itself.
This is what I'm trying to do. I am just struggling to figure out something that is decent exercise (more than walking) but that is achievable enough that it's not miserable. That's the main reason I mentioned the stuff above having been fit and not understanding then what it's like to be fat and trying to exercise again. When you reaching the point in your un-fitness that stuff becomes not just challenging, but actually not really possible (like making it through all of the floor work portion of a dance class, for example), suddenly it's a different world. What can I do that is enough that it is efficient and pushing me, but that it is still achievable and safe. That's the challenge.
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Do you know why you were fit before? It's because you were a dancer. Say that again because it's at the core of the issue. You were a dancer, that was your lifestyle and your IDENTITY. I bet there were many behaviors and habits that went along with it. Being fit was simply a byproduct of your identity.
I strongly encourage you to first work on your identity as a fit person of some sort. It's the difference between "Oh no, donuts at work, I want one so bad, can I hold out, oh no I ate one, I'm horrible, I'm pathetic, maybe if I take a walk after lunch it'll help offset it...." vs "I don't eat that shit, I'm an athlete. Can't wait to get out of this box and onto the trail, shitty food just drains my energy."
I'm not saying do nothing but try to will yourself into being fit, you should absolutely start eating for health (not fucking dieting!!!!) and performance now, and you should absolutely start doing physical activity. But with the mindset that you're a fit person. That way as you're building those small habits, each time you complete one it will be reinforcing your identity as a healthy person. And in turn that identity will reinforce the habits, building the consistency that is CRITICAL for this to work.
About the original topic, swimming and cycling. Both super fun and low impact.
I agree whole heartedly, and this is why I included the stuff about dancing. It never felt like working out, and I didn't ever really think about being thin or fit or improving my cardio. Or about "don't eat that slice of pizza because you are trying to be healthy". I was to busy to eat mindlessly, I was getting exercise without doing anything specifically for that purpose, and even food just sort of fell in to place because it was part of the lifestyle. I'm not sure I'll ever find all of that again (it was a pretty encompassing thing), but finding some hobby that includes working my body but doesn't feel like it is solely for that purpose would be amazing. It's why I'm interested in finding an adult dance class or maybe even taking up a martial art of some kind. My guess is that those will feel far more like "get to do!" than "should do".
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It's why I'm interested in finding an adult dance class or maybe even taking up a martial art of some kind. My guess is that those will feel far more like "get to do!" than "should do".
Someone else mentioned Capoeira above - are you familiar with it? It's the Brazilian "dancing martial art". Check out some videos on youtube. It's really beautiful to watch and might hit the sweet spot of dance/sport for you, while still being something unusual enough that if you do a class, most people will be just as much beginners as you.
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just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around.
When discussing biking, I prefer to think of it in terms of time saved working out instead of time lost in transit. Like if it takes me 45 minutes to bike somewhere that I could have driven to in 20 minutes, then I have gotten a 45 minute workout in while only losing 25 extra minutes of my day. By that math, I've actually saved 20 minutes by biking instead of driving, since I want/need the exercise anyway.
I agree that walking just for walking's sake is an inefficient way to burn calories. But your body is not designed to walk in circles for the fun of it, it is designed to walk all day as its primary means of going about its life. If you just walk to the places you need to go anyway, you're not really losing anything.
^This stuff is gold. You're combining two needs here - the need to get from A to B AND the need for exercise, when you frame it like this in your mind. By combining the two, you're optimising your time and killing two birds with one stone.
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Can you tell me anything about starting martial arts as a fat/out of shape person with crappy stamina? I'm interested in this, especially as I see a lot of overlap with dance. It's not an option now (language barrier) but may be in March/April after I relocate. So too might be an adult ballet (or maybe jazz) class. But I'm struggling with the fact that most likely everyone in those dance classes is like far more fit than me, even if they have less underlying technique. I may be able to do a better jete, but they can do more/faster! The potential humiliation of having to go sit down during floor work in order to catch my breath is a bit much. (Hopefully by then I'll have made enough progress that it won't be an issue.) What about a martial arts class? If I can find a beginner adult class (not sure which martial art specifically, and it may not matter much for my purposes), do you think it would be problematic for someone with lousy stamina? Can a fat girl learn karate in a group class?
Watch out for brain dump!
Fat is fine for most martial arts - it's a performance issue! A friendly place will allow you to go at your own pace.
First thing is to decide what you want out of it. Specifically, how realistic are you about self-defence. Many styles will try to sell you on that, but really, it's mostly a sham. Look up "McDojos" on youtube for a chuckle. No style will make you into a fighter that doesn't incorporate real sparring with non-compliant partners.
So to get this our of the way, if you want to actually fight/spar, then it's really about how much pain you want to take:
- Even the "mildest" martial arts (and the quotes are important) will injure you once in a while. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is extremely popular, partly because you can spar non-compliant opponents with less risk of injury, since striking isn't allowed and you can tap out before something breaks. HOWEVER you do still get hurt, another beginner can put their weight on your lowest rib leaving it sore, you can twist a toe etc... But that said, as imperfect as it would be in a real-life situations (as the sparring situations don't reflect real life), as least you gain real skills and have a shot as hurting your attacker. Also, it's trendy, so there are tons of clubs, they usually have female members who are keen to recruit more, people are nerdy/friendly... good for meeting nice people. Of course there are exceptions, if you take a class in a gym that teaches to wannabe MMA fighters then forget what I've just said.
- For striking arts, if you don't constantly carry some injury as you do it then it's likely fake! To be clear, I am referring to striking arts that incorporate meaningful sparring. Like muai thai. I really don't think that's for most people, and doesn't sound like it's for you, but I'm just including it for completeness.
So that's my own take on "real" fighting martial arts. Now if you want to improve coordination, fitness, etc, then you have a much wider choice. Some suggestions in decreasing order of my preference. But it's very personal, and you are very smart (I can see from other posts), I think when you get where I'm coming from you can do your research and find something very suitable.
- Join a fitness class in a boxing gym (not a boxing class in a fitness gym if possible)! you'll get a super workout, but with actual boxers. from then you could try your hand at light sparring, body sparring etc. only if you want. Google the gym to make sure it's not run by psychos, and that they are friendly to beginners... Perhaps you can observe a class. Knowing how to throw a punch isn't a bad skill. You can shock someone and run away. I've heard it said that for real-life situations boxing and wrestling is the best combo you can have. Make of that what you will!
- Taek Won Do very good also for a flexible dancer, clubs are big and everywhere, they often take adult beginners, and while some sparring can get rowdy they aren't shy about using protection. that's not a concern for beginners anyway.
- If the dance aspect appeals, you could look at capoeira (sp?). If you fancied you could always take up kickboxing after, having picked up flexibility
- Karate is good for coordination and such, but for a lot of styles (that you are likely to sign up for) it seems like it's a lot of repetitive moves, and katas. Repetitive drills (say the same punch for a half hour) can get you injured. not sure you'll get so much out of it.
In terms of what to avoid, again read up on mcdojos and you'll get an idea. Not a fan of boxercise taught by Personal trainers (explained above). Why not learn it right? And things like Krav Maga I'm dubious about. Firstly because I've heard they don't teach the full curriculum to outsiders, too dangerous, second, I don't see how you can practice an art that's meant to kill people without faking it.
Wow! Thank you so much, both for the great information and the compliment!
Mostly it would be a fitness, discipline, and interest thing. Any self-defense aspects would be a very distant fourth, at least initially. If I end up really enjoying it, I could see proceeding at some point to wanting to spar, maybe.
Based on your descriptions, I think Taek Won Do sounds best, although it may depend somewhat on what I can find in my area with a vibe I like. For some reason that I can't articulate, boxing doesn't seem like something I could connect with quite as well, though I could be off base with that.
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I love hiking but in the absence of a hill stairs work in a pinch. Low impact and more strenuous than walking. I live in a high rise but office buildings and parking garages all have stairs.
Second HIT training. Once a week for 20 minutes and you should see real gains.
I eat vegan and as much as possible avoid processed foods. I pressure cook a lot and make my own beans and lentils. I recently did a a detox and lost 5-10 pounds. I am 5-9 and weigh about 136. I am also 58 and look and feel a lot younger. You can do it!
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Wow! Thank you so much, both for the great information and the compliment!
Mostly it would be a fitness, discipline, and interest thing. Any self-defense aspects would be a very distant fourth, at least initially. If I end up really enjoying it, I could see proceeding at some point to wanting to spar, maybe.
Based on your descriptions, I think Taek Won Do sounds best, although it may depend somewhat on what I can find in my area with a vibe I like. For some reason that I can't articulate, boxing doesn't seem like something I could connect with quite as well, though I could be off base with that.
You're very welcome! Another poster spoke of TKD and made it sound really good, so I agree it's a really good choice. I really liked boxing in terms of intensity of training; but it's truly hit or miss in that friendly gyms aren't that common.
I do kickboxing that combines TKD kicks and boxing punches (badly, but I like it). While it's not dancing as such, it probably shares some of its appeal. As a dancer, your balance, awareness of your body in space, control of movements, and the flexibility you've hopefully retained since "retirement" should stand you in good stead.
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One further thought that has occurred - the few serious dancers I've known have been seriously fit, much fitter than the general run of the "fit" general population. So you may be underestimating your current level of fitness as against the usual middle aged office worker (I was one, I know how unfit we can be) and may also find that you gain fitness a bit more quickly than someone who hasn't previously undertaken that level of athletic ability.
So please don't underestimate where you are and where you can get to.
Also, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, many years ago I started my walk/run to fitness in November, going out in the early evening after work The early evening darkness was definitely my friend when feeling selfconscious: by the time it was light when I was going out I was feeling a lot better about being seen.
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Calorie restriction is what gets the weight off.
Technically I think it's calorie deficits that get the weight off, so a thousand calories of exercise is just as good as reducing a thousand calories if food intake.
The problem is that a thousand calories of exercise makes me a lot hungrier than not eating a thousand calories of halloween candy. It's easier to just eat less.
I think it's not unlike "being frugal" vs. "increasing your income". Both work.
But my guess is that most North Americans (myself included) eat way more than they need to. So, eating less (and eating better) are probably the low hanging fruit.
I don't think this is unlike the "typical" 6 figure earner. They could reach FI by increasing their income, but it's probably worth looking at spending first because they probably waste a lot of money.
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Find an activity you enjoy doing that gets your heart pumping and use that as exercise. There are so many people who think exercise needs to be something you suffer through and then get pulled into something they hate (running, lifting weights, etc) and can't understand why they can't stick with it. If you don't like running, DON'T RUN. It drives me insane when I hear people signing up for marathons and then talking about how much they can't stand the training.
That being said, even if you do find something you enjoy, it helps to have a partner or partners to meet up and do the activity with. I run because I love it, but there are the days when I just don't feel like getting out the door. To combat this, I have a group of about a half dozen people I run with on a rotating basis and all I have to do is meet them, and the run takes care of itself.
This is what I'm trying to do. I am just struggling to figure out something that is decent exercise (more than walking) but that is achievable enough that it's not miserable. That's the main reason I mentioned the stuff above having been fit and not understanding then what it's like to be fat and trying to exercise again. When you reaching the point in your un-fitness that stuff becomes not just challenging, but actually not really possible (like making it through all of the floor work portion of a dance class, for example), suddenly it's a different world. What can I do that is enough that it is efficient and pushing me, but that it is still achievable and safe. That's the challenge.
If you like walking and don't think it gives you enough burn, you can
1) Try walking with 20 - 40 lbs in a back pack (I use two plates in a back pack stuffed with old clothes so they don't slosh around too much); and / or
2) Try walking / hiking in a place where there are a lot of hills.
I think both of these things will increase the number of calories you burn. And if it's something you like doing, you'll probably keep doing it after you reach your goal.
One of the mistakes I've made is doing something I don't like doing until I hit a goal. Then, I stop because I don't like doing it.
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My recommendation is start with diet first. That takes quite a bit of focus to figure it out, meal plan etc, and then add new exercise routines after you have lost 15 or so pounds about 4-6 weeks later. The confidence and increased energy from the initial weight loss will naturally help motivate you to exercise. The chance of burn out from making tons of changes at once is high.
I think it was said before, but I recommend yoga. I have lost 25lbs since September 1st doing yoga twice a week and using Weight Watchers online. WW is a paid service which sucks, but it works and is quite simple to use, and really, I am spending less on food as a result so it is likely a neutral expense.
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@Villanelle
In the "4 hour Body" by Tim Ferris, he describes a interesting twist on walking. Walk for only 15 minutes a day BUT everyday you must walk farther than the day before AND you cannot run. It does not matter if its one step, one mailbox, or one block farther. In a short while you will be straining to go farther without running and thats where the fat burn happens.
I started using Carb Manager. Its a simple app to use that help track your macro nutrients, calories, and water intake. The program is based off of ketogenics, or a low net carb/high fat/high protein food intake. It has been extremely helpful for me to curb my sugars and I have trimmed 7 pounds in 14 days.
Finally, break your fitness goal into smaller chunks. You have 5 months until you move. Set a goal for each week, each month, and a 5 month goal.
Come back often for some more motivation if you need it!
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See, my doctor flat out told me that just walking wasn't going to get me there. I was fat, but not quite obese but close, according to BMI. She said that I needed to do more than just walking, because getting anywhere with just walking would take way too long. And she was right. Put your information into a treadmill, and see how few calories you actually burn. I mean, incorporating more walking throughout your day is awesome. I think that does burn more calories. But just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around. I don't know, maybe you do, but I had neither the time or the patience for that. I have other goals, too.
HIIT style training is one of the most the most time efficient way to exercise that I know of. It's possible to achieve a reasonable general fitness level on a few hours a week. However, it depends on your ability to push yourself very intensely. Unless you're in good shape to begin with, you will not benefit from the training because you won't be able to maintain the level of intensity necessary. Because it's so short, without the intensity you may well lose fitness.
If someone has been sedentary for a long time, they are not able to their body initially. They need to slowly train their way up to be stronger to avoid injury. Walking absolutely won't cut it forever, but it's a safe place to start. There needs to be gradual increase in intensity/distance/difficulty over time. After a baseline of fitness has been established, that's when optimizing of the workout routine can take place.
I think it's a combo. Long ago and far away, I read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. The one thing that I really took from that - was his exercise / fitness routine. It seems like a lot of people duplicate it now. It also seems to be "sensible" to me.
I'm paraphrasing based on memory:
1. Move frequently at a slow pace. Walking/ hiking/ biking. The body is meant to move, so you should move it. And no you don't have to run marathons.
2. Lift heavy things. Weight training is good for gaining and maintaining muscle mass, particularly crucial as you age.
3. Sprint once in a awhile (and/or HIIT). This has benefits for your heart and your metabolism. And it's efficient. I hate jumping rope and burpees are the devil, but they are efficient!
I'd add flexibility.
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-fitness-plan-so-easy-a-caveman-did-it/
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just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around.
When discussing biking, I prefer to think of it in terms of time saved working out instead of time lost in transit. Like if it takes me 45 minutes to bike somewhere that I could have driven to in 20 minutes, then I have gotten a 45 minute workout in while only losing 25 extra minutes of my day. By that math, I've actually saved 20 minutes by biking instead of driving, since I want/need the exercise anyway.
I agree that walking just for walking's sake is an inefficient way to burn calories. But your body is not designed to walk in circles for the fun of it, it is designed to walk all day as its primary means of going about its life. If you just walk to the places you need to go anyway, you're not really losing anything.
This is the way I see it too. On the commute home it also gives me the flexibility to leave whenever I want to no matter how bad traffic is and I often beat the time it would take me to drive.
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When I had a back injury, my athletic chiropractor suggested belly dance for strengthening my core muscles. Worked out great.
There are some great beginner videos on YouTube. Learn some moves and build up your vocabulary, just like you did with ballet.
I don't like the music that traditionally accompanies belly dance, so I turn the YouTube video sound off and put rhythm and blues music on.
btw - now that temps are cold, I do my leg stretches in bed while listening to the news in the morning. Nice way to warm up.
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Exercise is wonderful, but I've never seen it change my weight. I lost my weight by restricting calorie intake, period. (Lost 70 pounds last year, kept it off so far this year.)
Results of studies on exercise as a method of losing weight are pretty consistently "meh." The trouble is that your appetite increases along with your calorie burn. You'll be healthier, but you won't be slenderer.
I would really strongly encourage you to de-couple exercise from losing weight, to think of them as separate projects. Because if you try to burn calories for weight loss, you'll probably look to the long-endurance cardio, and long-endurance cardio is murder on the joints, when you're fat. I know a lot of people who have trashed their knees with it, and some swimmers who have trashed their shoulders. Joint injuries can mess you up for years, and long repetitive sessions are exactly the way to trash your joints.
For me, the solution was resistance training every other day or so, and being a goddamn Nazi about calorie intake, until my body was light enough that other sorts of exercise became attractive. Now I love to walk. When I was 230 lbs? -- not so much. And running was just not even an option, not until I'd built some serious leg strength and joint resilience.
When you've lost the weight and are stronger, you'll *want* to move like you used to.
So that's my two cents' worth! Anyway -- go for it, try different stuff, track what works for you and what doesn't. You'll find a way to do it.
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I think it's a combo. Long ago and far away, I read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. The one thing that I really took from that - was his exercise / fitness routine. It seems like a lot of people duplicate it now. It also seems to be "sensible" to me.
I'm paraphrasing based on memory:
1. Move frequently at a slow pace. Walking/ hiking/ biking. The body is meant to move, so you should move it. And no you don't have to run marathons.
2. Lift heavy things. Weight training is good for gaining and maintaining muscle mass, particularly crucial as you age.
3. Sprint once in a awhile (and/or HIIT). This has benefits for your heart and your metabolism. And it's efficient. I hate jumping rope and burpees are the devil, but they are efficient!
I'd add flexibility.
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-fitness-plan-so-easy-a-caveman-did-it/
I do point 1 and 2 often in my daily life. Always chose stairs instead of elevator. At home I regularly do heavy stuff, like carrying heavy things or chopping wood. But point 3 I do seldom or never. If I walk, I tend to walk fast in uphills. But it is still not sprinting. I am not in a high heart rate zone.
I think I would not hate jumping rope, but I hate doing burpees. Although the latter would be more practical to do in the living room, given the autumn/winter season. Maybe a sort of sprinting on the spot, lifting knees and moving arms rapidly would be sufficient?
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I also do some walking, but also not sure it’s enough. For free on YouTube I like the channel Yoga with Adrienne. I would just put down a bath towel on my floor, in my regular clothes, and follow along as best I can. Fighting fat and getting fit is a struggle for sure.
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I've had a lot of luck with Jazzercise classes. They sound a little outdated, but have kept up with the times and have more stretching and weights than Zumba, which I like. Also very approachable and accepting of beginners. (Lots of low-impact modifications, which I've found helpful as I get into it and slowly increase my fitness.)
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I agree with the people who say it's 80% diet. Until I was very mindful about calories (esp alcohol and dining out!) I worked out like a fiend and got mediocre results. The best all around workout for someone like yourself is Tony Horton's Power 90. The first phase is just 37 minutes of cardio and I think like 27 minutes of weights. All you need is a set of adjustable dumbells. You can find them all day long on craigslist for less than the cost of one month at a gym. The key is consistency. 6 days a week. No excuses. Everyone has 40 minutes a day.
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@Villanelle -- there is lots of good advice in this thread so far. You might also want to get a check-up if you haven't recently. Routine bloodwork will show if you have any other issues that might make it hard to lose weight (especially thyroid, but probably others). It can also give you a good baseline for comparison. In a year when you've lost some fat and improved your fitness, it will be gratifying to see that certain indicators of health -- cholesterol/triglyceride profile, blood sugar, etc. -- have improved.
And one thing I didn't see discussed much is the importance of sleep. If you have inadequate quality/quantity of sleep you may have elevated cortisol, a stress hormone that makes it much harder to lose weight. Being stressed out can also cause chronically elevated cortisol. If stress is a factor for you, then hopefully as you embark on a diet/exercise change you can also learn how to manage and improve your stress.
Best of luck!
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Seeing a lot of claims about links between diet, exercise, weight loss, and health on this thread. If you want science instead of conjecture, these will get you started:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fCtn4Ap8kDM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw
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Seeing a lot of claims about links between diet, exercise, weight loss, and health on this thread. If you want science instead of conjecture, these will get you started:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fCtn4Ap8kDM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw
Ah. Youtube videos. The epitome of science.
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Seeing a lot of claims about links between diet, exercise, weight loss, and health on this thread. If you want science instead of conjecture, these will get you started:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fCtn4Ap8kDM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw
So that YouTube channel released two videos a week apart that almost contradict one another? Is that right? It's not a complete contradiction, but to say 'exercise is good' then a week later say 'exercise does NOT promote weight loss' seems to lack continuity. I'm sure the videos are academically researched and stuff... but yeah.
Also, +1 to GuitarStv's comment.
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Seeing a lot of claims about links between diet, exercise, weight loss, and health on this thread. If you want science instead of conjecture, these will get you started:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fCtn4Ap8kDM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw
Ah. Youtube videos. The epitome of science.
Lol. I was going to point out that the linked videos basically say what most people on the thread have been saying: diet is a much bigger factor in fat loss than exercise, but exercise can also help with weight loss and is critically important to health regardless of fat loss.
I'm not going to discount the videos because they appear to be just a synopsis of good research that you would find in peer-reviewed journals, PUBMED, etc.
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So that YouTube channel released two videos a week apart that almost contradict one another? Is that right? It's not a complete contradiction, but to say 'exercise is good' then a week later say 'exercise does NOT promote weight loss' seems to lack continuity.
The August 11th video talked about how exercise is the most important component in overall health.
The August 18th video talked about how diet is the most important component in fat loss.
Two separate topics with some slight overlap, and I didn't think there was any contradicting information at all.
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Seeing a lot of claims about links between diet, exercise, weight loss, and health on this thread. If you want science instead of conjecture, these will get you started:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fCtn4Ap8kDM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw
Ah. Youtube videos. The epitome of science.
I said they would get you *started*! Don't blindly watch the videos: go read the studies and results they are summarizing.
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Almost all of weight loss is down to diet, so get on top of that. You don't have to do a complete overhaul. Just make small changes, one at a time and stick with them. The simplest are things like cutting out high calorie drinks including alcohol.
Walking is the best exercise by far. It won't have the cardiovascular impact that your running used to, but it's great for strengthening and conditioning, which it sounds like you need. Walking has the same benefits for gut health and activity as running does, so there's that also.
The big secret is really consistency.
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You people who are dismissing walking for 1-2 hours a day as exercise for fat people honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. Walking is the most doable exercise for fat people. It’s sustainable and it works. I was part of group who advocated that as the sole exercise for fat people and was amazed at the results for everyone. Diet also played a role, but the question here is exercise. Get up early and walk for an hour before breakfast. Find time to walk throughout the day. It will work if you move every day. Don’t worry about gyms or exercises or anything complex. Walk, lose the weight and then, when you’re stronger and healthier and happier, look into doing more. But first, just walk.
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Are there hills where you live? Hiking is a great way to ratchet up plain ol walking. If you've got hills you can increase or decrease the intensity as you see fit.
Cycling is a great activity for folks carrying a bit more weight. You don't have to wear lycra either. But padded shorts are very important imho.
Any activity you do is going to be difficult when you start. Start easy and build your way up.
Edited to add: I had a friend in high school, his dad was quite overweight and headed to an early grave. His doc told him to lose weight and reduce stress, now. He started walking laps at the high school track. Just walking laps. He spent a god awful amount of time just walking laps at the track and slowly over time, he started losing weight, a lot. It became a social thing for him too, he made a lot of new friendships because people would just chat while they walked laps around the track. I don't think he ever did much beyond work on his diet and walk laps on the track. He did pass away a few years ago, but those lifestyle changes probably gave him an extra 20 years or so.
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You people who are dismissing walking for 1-2 hours a day as exercise for fat people honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. Walking is the most doable exercise for fat people. It’s sustainable and it works. I was part of group who advocated that as the sole exercise for fat people and was amazed at the results for everyone. Diet also played a role, but the question here is exercise. Get up early and walk for an hour before breakfast. Find time to walk throughout the day. It will work if you move every day. Don’t worry about gyms or exercises or anything complex. Walk, lose the weight and then, when you’re stronger and healthier and happier, look into doing more. But first, just walk.
This.
Anyone not believing it should try wearing a 50lbs backpack for the entire day and then report back on the subjective intensity of the physical activity performed during the day.
Physical activity is the key for normalizing the metabolism. We know a lot about this and it is actually encouraging. One to two hours non-exercise physical activity, such as walking, per day has a major positive impact on fatty liver (very common, if you are overweight/obese and sedentary you most likely have it) and insulin resistance and the consequent dyslipidemia. It also has effects on mitochondrial utilization of fatty acids which in turn is key for slow but sustained decreases in body fat. Resistance training does the same things and should be considered complementary.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954622/pdf/GE-18-089.pdf
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpfsm/3/1/3_43/_pdf/-char/en
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There has been a lot of good advice in this thread on exercise in general, but I feel like a lot of the posts are overlooking the OP's specific original criterion of exercise that is easy on the joints/low-pain to start. Adding a weighted backpack to walk etc sounds to me like the opposite of what the OP needs right now. I also struggle with severe pain caused by exercise (though not b/c I'm overweight), which is why I suggested swimming or stationary bike or other non-load-bearing exercise to start to build conditioning.
OP, please let us know if the discussion is getting too general, and not specific to what you asked.
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There's a reasonable amount of good-quality research directly assessing the effectiveness of exercise for weight loss, and for the most part it's not very encouraging.
Which doesn't mean any one person won't get wonderful results from it, of course.
I don't see anyone on this thread denying the huge importance of exercise for health. We're talking tactics here, not strategy -- how do you get back to "active" from "sedentary," if you're overweight? Some people can go straight there, which is terrific, but others may have take a more roundabout route.
I tried walking as a primary strategy a couple of times -- careful, months-long progressive programs -- and fucked up my knees pretty bad both times, without seeing any results on the scale at all. Now that I've lost my weight, I'm able at least to walk a couple miles per day, which is great: but it's weight training that built my knees up to that point -- stressing the joints hard a couple times a week and giving them plenty of time to rebuild in between.
Of course those of us who have successfully lost weight and recovered an active life are all gung-ho on the way we happen to have pulled it off. But different people, different bodies, different circumstances. You have to find the way that will work for you.
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There has been a lot of good advice in this thread on exercise in general, but I feel like a lot of the posts are overlooking the OP's specific original criterion of exercise that is easy on the joints/low-pain to start. Adding a weighted backpack to walk etc sounds to me like the opposite of what the OP needs right now. I also struggle with severe pain caused by exercise (though not b/c I'm overweight), which is why I suggested swimming or stationary bike or other non-load-bearing exercise to start to build conditioning.
OP, please let us know if the discussion is getting too general, and not specific to what you asked.
I didn’t suggest a weighted backpack to the OP but to people who do not understand that normal physical activity is already relatively intense activity for the obese - and that is well documented.
What I think the OP needs to understand is that exercise at an even higher level of intensity can be counterproductive. Not only because of the higher risk of injury in the “fat” individual but because of the disproportionately high level of exertion which, in the deconditioned, may lead to even more inactivity due to the need for recovery or to giving up on physical activity. This has also been looked at and self-selected intensity of physical activity has been found to be superior to prescribed intensity above self-selected intensity. The implication is that walking or cycling or swimming at one’s own pace is preferable and is best done by incorporating such activities into daily life.
So there is pertinent information for the OP and it is:
Start with non-exercise physical activity such as walking, which is at sufficient intensity for the OP who describes herself as a “fat person”, until basic conditioning has been achieved. Getting up to two hours worth of daily activity should not take longer than a couple of months and then it’s time for more if so desired.
Of course, there is no money in this for the fitness industry and physicians are reluctant to recommend it because they think that the time commitment is too great.
Hence the recommendation to hit the gym or exercise at levels inappropriate for the deconditioned obese individual, which flies in the face of the serious research (which has been done - and a lot of it).
The OP has voiced concerns in that respect by worrying about not being able to keep up with others in the chosen activity. This is a real concern not to be dismissed and what I am saying here is alao supported by research.
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There's a reasonable amount of good-quality research directly assessing the effectiveness of exercise for weight loss, and for the most part it's not very encouraging.
Which doesn't mean any one person won't get wonderful results from it, of course.
I don't see anyone on this thread denying the huge importance of exercise for health. We're talking tactics here, not strategy -- how do you get back to "active" from "sedentary," if you're overweight? Some people can go straight there, which is terrific, but others may have take a more roundabout route.
I tried walking as a primary strategy a couple of times -- careful, months-long progressive programs -- and fucked up my knees pretty bad both times, without seeing any results on the scale at all. Now that I've lost my weight, I'm able at least to walk a couple miles per day, which is great: but it's weight training that built my knees up to that point -- stressing the joints hard a couple times a week and giving them plenty of time to rebuild in between.
Of course those of us who have successfully lost weight and recovered an active life are all gung-ho on the way we happen to have pulled it off. But different people, different bodies, different circumstances. You have to find the way that will work for you.
You are quite right in saying that physical activity as a method of weight loss doesn’t show very encouraging results, at least at the volumes that have been looked at.
But weight loss is actually not the main problem. Keeping it off is where the failures occur, and that is where physical activity comes in. Without normalizing the metabolism the formerly obese person will remain an obese person in a leaner body just waiting to get heavier again.
Physical activity at the appropriate volume (quite a lot) and resistance training do normalize the metabolism even in the still overweight - this is without any doubt.
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There's a reasonable amount of good-quality research directly assessing the effectiveness of exercise for weight loss, and for the most part it's not very encouraging.
Which doesn't mean any one person won't get wonderful results from it, of course.
I don't see anyone on this thread denying the huge importance of exercise for health. We're talking tactics here, not strategy -- how do you get back to "active" from "sedentary," if you're overweight? Some people can go straight there, which is terrific, but others may have take a more roundabout route.
I tried walking as a primary strategy a couple of times -- careful, months-long progressive programs -- and fucked up my knees pretty bad both times, without seeing any results on the scale at all. Now that I've lost my weight, I'm able at least to walk a couple miles per day, which is great: but it's weight training that built my knees up to that point -- stressing the joints hard a couple times a week and giving them plenty of time to rebuild in between.
Of course those of us who have successfully lost weight and recovered an active life are all gung-ho on the way we happen to have pulled it off. But different people, different bodies, different circumstances. You have to find the way that will work for you.
You are quite right in saying that physical activity as a method of weight loss doesn’t show very encouraging results, at least at the volumes that have been looked at.
But weight loss is actually not the main problem. Keeping it off is where the failures occur, and that is where physical activity comes in. Without normalizing the metabolism the formerly obese person will remain an obese person in a leaner body just waiting to get heavier again.
Physical activity at the appropriate volume (quite a lot) and resistance training do normalize the metabolism even in the still overweight - this is without any doubt.
Ah. Weight loss actually *is* the main problem, though, if that's where your motivation lies. People quit if they feel like they're failing.
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There's a reasonable amount of good-quality research directly assessing the effectiveness of exercise for weight loss, and for the most part it's not very encouraging.
Which doesn't mean any one person won't get wonderful results from it, of course.
I don't see anyone on this thread denying the huge importance of exercise for health. We're talking tactics here, not strategy -- how do you get back to "active" from "sedentary," if you're overweight? Some people can go straight there, which is terrific, but others may have take a more roundabout route.
I tried walking as a primary strategy a couple of times -- careful, months-long progressive programs -- and fucked up my knees pretty bad both times, without seeing any results on the scale at all. Now that I've lost my weight, I'm able at least to walk a couple miles per day, which is great: but it's weight training that built my knees up to that point -- stressing the joints hard a couple times a week and giving them plenty of time to rebuild in between.
Of course those of us who have successfully lost weight and recovered an active life are all gung-ho on the way we happen to have pulled it off. But different people, different bodies, different circumstances. You have to find the way that will work for you.
You are quite right in saying that physical activity as a method of weight loss doesn’t show very encouraging results, at least at the volumes that have been looked at.
But weight loss is actually not the main problem. Keeping it off is where the failures occur, and that is where physical activity comes in. Without normalizing the metabolism the formerly obese person will remain an obese person in a leaner body just waiting to get heavier again.
Physical activity at the appropriate volume (quite a lot) and resistance training do normalize the metabolism even in the still overweight - this is without any doubt.
Ah. Weight loss actually *is* the main problem, though, if that's where your motivation lies. People quit if they feel like they're failing.
You are right. As long as people focus on body weight, failure is going to be the most common outcome because it ignores the harsh reality of physiology, which doesn’t care one bit how one feels about it.
Refocusing on maintaining functional status while aging, eating a decent diet because it is better for you and lifting weights because you want to be strong is the way to go. With that mindset translated into action, weight control is a much easier thing to achieve.
Probably not a thing achievable in the general population but this crowd is already interested in lifestyle change and is ready to question society’s norms. If I thought otherwise, I wouldn’t waste a minute of my time to write this.
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I agree with Pete.
Weight loss is kinda a shitty motivation. There are many unhealthy ways to lose weight that will take pounds off, but make you feel awful. Improving your fitness and diet will not only help you take pounds off, but you'll feel better every day. That helps you to stick to the plan over the long term. Changing your body is very doable, but it's a marathon . . . not a sprint. To have it work long term you need to be able to permanently live a healthy life, and that's a lot easier to do if what you're working on makes you feel good.
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Lots of overthinking this here.
If one is way overweight, low impact exercise is ideal to be easy on the joints. Walking, elliptical, cycling, swimming, low speed stair climber. Lots of options.
Also, as mentioned, diet also needs to be in check and can make or break any weight loss program. Combining exercise and a changed, optimized diet, is the best way to go about it.
Beyond all this, the best diet and exercise program is the one that someone sticks to. Even if it’s not “the best” it’s better than quitting and going back to the old ways.
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LOL. I have to admit it's a pretty lame motivation -- being tired of being sneered at by strangers -- but it's the one that worked for me. Being healthier and more mobile is nice, too, of course.
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Lots of overthinking this here.
If one is way overweight, low impact exercise is ideal to be easy on the joints. Walking, elliptical, cycling, swimming, low speed stair climber. Lots of options.
Also, as mentioned, diet also needs to be in check and can make or break any weight loss program. Combining exercise and a changed, optimized diet, is the best way to go about it.
Beyond all this, the best diet and exercise program is the one that someone sticks to. Even if it’s not “the best” it’s better than quitting and going back to the old ways.
Sauna is no impact and has positive benefits for heart health.
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just relying on walking as your sole workout isn't going to cut it unless you're up into at least the obese category, or if you have hours to spare every day just to devote to walking around.
When discussing biking, I prefer to think of it in terms of time saved working out instead of time lost in transit. Like if it takes me 45 minutes to bike somewhere that I could have driven to in 20 minutes, then I have gotten a 45 minute workout in while only losing 25 extra minutes of my day. By that math, I've actually saved 20 minutes by biking instead of driving, since I want/need the exercise anyway.
I agree that walking just for walking's sake is an inefficient way to burn calories. But your body is not designed to walk in circles for the fun of it, it is designed to walk all day as its primary means of going about its life. If you just walk to the places you need to go anyway, you're not really losing anything.
^This stuff is gold. You're combining two needs here - the need to get from A to B AND the need for exercise, when you frame it like this in your mind. By combining the two, you're optimising your time and killing two birds with one stone.
This is why bike commuting is such a wonderful thing. The sweet spot is to have a ride be long enough to count as exercise but not too long that it becomes a burden. The best I had was in Germany where I took country roads 40 minutes each way. I could stop at a number of small markets on the way home and it was totally enjoyable.
A few weeks ago I was at a "benefits fair" (yay for open enrollment) and there was a commuting options table. I talked to the lady at the table and recommended increasing the benefit for those who bike to work. They currently give some terrible, 1 time "prize" which most people probably wouldn't collect. I mentioned all the benefits of bike commuting, including some things the employer might actually be interested in, like reducing amount of parking needed for employees, etc. She looked at me like I had creatures coming out my ears. Most people think riding a bike to work is absolutely crazy.
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I'm obese, 25kg ago I was morbid obese, here are a couple of observations I made in my quest:
1) Weight isn't the issue, never was never will be, it's simply a byproduct, either from medical issues or from an unhealthy lifestyle.
To my knowledge I fall in the latter category, as none of the medical issues I've had so far can explain my weight, so it's my lifestyle I'm fixing and my weight just gets fixed with it.
As a result after my weight is in order I accidentally a healthy lifestyle.
2) The best weight loss / lifestyle change exercise is simply the least terrible one you can stick with.
I've had so many suggestions about changes from so many people, do this exercise, eat this, stop doing that, cut that out of your diet etc.
No amount of research backing the method up in theory matters if you can't keep up with it in practice.
So here is what I'm doing that is working for me:
- I traded public transport for bike when bike would take <45 minutes and bike for walking when walking would take <10 minutes.
- I've started going to bed an hour early every day and waking up half an hour to an hour earlier as well, in this time I go to the gym and do 30 minutes of simple cross fit.
- I reduced (but not cut!) a lot of stuff, alcohol, energy drinks, soda, fast food. I still consume it but less in both frequency and quality.
- I count calories to make sure I don't eat too much, my daily intake limit is usually 2k, though I on occasion make an exception for a party or if I did significant more exercise that day.
- Also meal prepping, since I started aggressively meal prepping I've only eaten fast food as part of a social activity.
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I just want to throw my two cents. I don't think I've ever been terribly overweight, but I did tear my ACL and balloon up to 199 pounds (BMI = 31.2 at that time) last year. I'm now down to 180.2 pounds.
I really haven't changed terribly much (diet is alright I guess, still drink whenever I go out, etc.), except that I walk A LOT. And I think the most important thing I've done regarding this is make it a habit. For that, I can't recommend this book highly enough: The Power of Habit https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X (https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X)
Basically, habits boil down to three things: cue, routine, reward. Something cues you that you should do something, you then do that on auto-pilot, and then you correlate that with a reward.
For me, this has meant that I correlate my walking with entertainment. I'm an avid college football and soccer fan, so when it's nice out, I take long walks and listen to podcasts relating to these topics. I have my two favorite podcasts alert me when a new episode is uploaded (cue), I walk (routine), and I get to listen to my podcast (reward).
Right now with the weather turning, I've changed to the same thing, but only for crappy TV shows that I love watching. I don't know why, but I could watch Hell's Kitchen for three or four episodes straight. And I did just that yesterday morning, all on the treadmill, and burned something like 550 calories while watching Gordon Ramsey yell at these poor folks.
The other big thing for walking -- I don't like pain and pushing myself and sweating and exhausting myself. Sorry, I get nothing from it. Barriers like this block you from forming habits. But walking -- there's absolutely no psychological or physical barrier there, and it's a relatively easy activity that allows me some alone time and let's me listen or watch things that I enjoy.
Best of luck to you.
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There has been a lot of good advice in this thread on exercise in general, but I feel like a lot of the posts are overlooking the OP's specific original criterion of exercise that is easy on the joints/low-pain to start. Adding a weighted backpack to walk etc sounds to me like the opposite of what the OP needs right now. I also struggle with severe pain caused by exercise (though not b/c I'm overweight), which is why I suggested swimming or stationary bike or other non-load-bearing exercise to start to build conditioning.
OP, please let us know if the discussion is getting too general, and not specific to what you asked.
Even if not all the advice is 100% applicable to me, it likely will be of use or interest to someone, so that's wonderful.
I'm on day 3 of what will be 100 days (or more) of at least 30 minutes of intentional activity! I've already mapped out some days that are going to be challenging (I've got 4 days of international or trans-oceanic travel in there, for example) and am making strategies for them. (Once I get to the airport gate and have 2 hours to kill, I can walk!) We will also be in 4 countries during that time and semi-nomadic for a couple months, but I can walk or do body weight exercises anywhere and in a small space, so this seems like a very manageable goal. It if feels too easy, I'll bump it it up 45 minutes.
I'm defining "intentional movement" as mostly, "I'll now it when I see it", but it's either anything done just for the sake of moving (going for a walk, doing lunges for a few minutes before jumping in the shower, etc.) or just sustained significant movement (yesterday I was at DisneySea and surely walked for well more than 30 minutes!) I'm also trying to not fill that time with just walking, and hope to get a decent mix of walking and strength training.
Thirty minutes isn't much. It's probably not enough. But it's a manageable number, and there's nothing to stop me from doing an extra few laps once I'm out on the track.
Also dipping my toe into meal prepping and trying to come up with a list of 5-6 quick, easy recipes that I don't hate making. Over time, that will get boring, but should be good or a couple months, and during that time I can hopefully find a few more to add. I wish I didn't hate cooking!
Also growing more committed to being a one car family when we move. I'll likely still have the car most days as DH will have a free metro commute 3-4 days a week, but I'm sure this will cause me to walk and bike a bit more. But that's not until March.
Weight loss will be great, but largely (ha!) because I think my body will feel better. I'm not so fat that I think I stand out. I'm probably an average American, perhaps even slightly smaller than average. But sadly, the average American is still quite unhealthy. I want to feel better and be healthier, and if I end up looking better, that's a nice side benefit, but not related to the goal.
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I know several people who have lost over 100 LB bicycling. As long as you're comfortable on the bike -- which should be achievable -- it's easier on your body than anything else for the calories you can burn. And you can train to a high level of fitness while still being very overweight, which makes it easier to stick with.
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Thirty minutes isn't much. It's probably not enough. But it's a manageable number, and there's nothing to stop me from doing an extra few laps once I'm out on the track.
Also dipping my toe into meal prepping and trying to come up with a list of 5-6 quick, easy recipes that I don't hate making. Over time, that will get boring, but should be good or a couple months, and during that time I can hopefully find a few more to add. I wish I didn't hate cooking!
30 min is more than 0, so I'd say you are in fact off to a great start. Maybe even throw in some jogging for a few min at a time every now and then. Light interval training. Walk for 10, jog for 2, walk for 8, jog for 2, walk for the last 8. Play with your walk/jog min. Don't shoot for picking up where you left off right away because you aren't where you were back then or you wouldn't be here.
I think a lot of the problem is people thinking they can go from their current less than ideal lifestyle and do a complete 180 (Cut this out, cut that out, don't drink this, only drink that, etc) and think it'll stick right away and you wont have your downs. You will fall and get off track while making changes and learning what works for you, you have to know this going in and be willing to get back on track even when you have a few bad days in a row. No one is perfect, don't shoot for being perfect, shoot for better than you are.
I challenge you to do this, instead of getting burnt out on your 5-6 meals over a month or two and hoping you come across more asap, start with one meal a day for your healthy meal or even something like two days a week for healthy eating for the full day. The easiest one for me was Breakfast, so unless something crazy happens I know I will make a healthier choice for breakfast everyday. For some it might be lunch or dinner. For lunch and dinner I still try to make better choices, but I don't get bent out of shape if my friends want to go out and drink a beer and eat wings and fries or I need to grab some fast food for a quick lunch, because guess what, the next morning for breakfast I will be getting back on track and I know those choices continuously aren't my everyday lifestyle anymore and I don't want them to be. I also try to pick a few days a week I wont drink anything but water, coffee, and/or unsweet tea. I literally started with one day a week doing this. Some weeks I pick 5 days, some 2, some 3. I have hard weeks and I have easy weeks. Everyone does and everyone will.
You have to make choices that work for you and your lifestyle that will put you in a position to succeed and that is different for everyone. Do what works for you, even if that is starting with 30 min of intentional activity a day.
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Yep. 30 minutes is plenty. The important thing at the start is not the time that you spend, but that you make it a regular habit. You want to get to the point where it will feel weird when you don't get 30 minutes of activity in a day. As you get stronger and more capable, you can do things like increasing the intensity or duration of exercise.
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Yep. 30 minutes is plenty. The important thing at the start is not the time that you spend, but that you make it a regular habit. You want to get to the point where it will feel weird when you don't get 30 minutes of activity in a day. As you get stronger and more capable, you can do things like increasing the intensity or duration of exercise.
This is exactly right. It's weird, but keep at it and exercise will become part of your habit and routine. Not doing it will feel like not brushing your teeth in the morning. And this is coming from a person who is the furthest thing from a workout freak you've ever met.
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Plus a zillion on "habits." It's ALL about what you do when you're on autopilot, basically. You have to wire in the habits, make the healthy behaviors the easy and automatic defaults. "The Power of Habit" is a great book, and so is Baumeister's "Willpower" book. You can't be riding herd on yourself all day every day -- you'll wear yourself out doing that. Just focus on getting one habit in place at a time. When it's really running automatically, you can redeploy that willpower to getting the next one in place. I made a twenty minute walk to the train every morning part of my commute -- so I get 40 minutes of walking in, five days a week, without ever "trying to exercise" or "deciding to go for a walk" -- I'm just getting to work and coming home. I'm out the door and walking before it even occurs to me that there's any other way to get to work.
Prepping it beforehand is a good hack -- I pack my stuff for the walk to the train the night before and plunk it down in front of the front door. So it's already sitting there telling me what to do when I get up. I've already checked to see if rain is likely, and if so my umbrella's already sitting there on top. My mind is already made up because I've already got the task physically underway. In the morning I'm not *deciding* to walk to work. I'm just continuing something I've already started. Those little prior physical commitments are really important, for me.
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Plus a zillion on "habits." It's ALL about what you do when you're on autopilot, basically. You have to wire in the habits, make the healthy behaviors the easy and automatic defaults. "The Power of Habit" is a great book, and so is Baumeister's "Willpower" book. You can't be riding herd on yourself all day every day -- you'll wear yourself out doing that. Just focus on getting one habit in place at a time. When it's really running automatically, you can redeploy that willpower to getting the next one in place. I made a twenty minute walk to the train every morning part of my commute -- so I get 40 minutes of walking in, five days a week, without ever "trying to exercise" or "deciding to go for a walk" -- I'm just getting to work and coming home. I'm out the door and walking before it even occurs to me that there's any other way to get to work.
Prepping it beforehand is a good hack -- I pack my stuff for the walk to the train the night before and plunk it down in front of the front door. So it's already sitting there telling me what to do when I get up. I've already checked to see if rain is likely, and if so my umbrella's already sitting there on top. My mind is already made up because I've already got the task physically underway. In the morning I'm not *deciding* to walk to work. I'm just continuing something I've already started. Those little prior physical commitments are really important, for me.
All very good points. I'm currently reading The End of Overeating, by David A. Kessler MD. The book is about a decade old. I bought it and read it when it came out. I saw it on my shelf and decided to read it again. The section I'm in right now is about habit, willpower, and setting yourself up for success.
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My biggest motivation to exercise isn't weight, because I generally actually maintain or gain a few lbs when I exercise because my appetite increases dramatically. It is physical and mental health. I tend to fight off colds or other illnesses when I am exercising regularly, plus I feel less anxious.
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My biggest motivation to exercise isn't weight, because I generally actually maintain or gain a few lbs when I exercise because my appetite increases dramatically. It is physical and mental health. I tend to fight off colds or other illnesses when I am exercising regularly, plus I feel less anxious.
Speaking of health, everyone -- fat and thin alike -- can likely benefit from strength training. There's been plenty of research on this over the years, and here's (https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/publishahead/Associations_of_Resistance_Exercise_with.96766.aspx) some recent research suggesting a 40-70% reduction in cardio-vascular disease events among those who strength train < 1 hour per week. Interestingly, the effect is completely independent from sustained aerobic exercise (which has its own benefits). Do both!
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My biggest motivation to exercise isn't weight, because I generally actually maintain or gain a few lbs when I exercise
I think it really depends on where you're starting from. If by "weight" people mean "appearance" then I think there's a strong case to be made for strength training over aerobic exercise for people who are not currently obese, because replacing fat with muscle can have a huge impact on your appearance even if your weight stays the same. If you're currently obese then it would take years to add enough muscle to get your weight back up, so maybe focusing on lowering the scale number is still useful for a while. Eventually, it should start to plateau as you keep getting stronger.
(https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d061bf697a78d595e08abb26fe2365836585007a504a7abe45dbaffd5fb49b2e.jpg)
Bodybuilders are crazy heavy, because muscle is heavy. Ronnie Coleman used to compete at 300 pounds and he was a shorter than the average American male. I don't think measuring your weight is necessarily a terribly useful way to gauge your fitness level or your appearance, once you're below the "obese" BMI category.
But everyone's situation is different. Some people can't add muscle, and some people definitely need to lose a hundred pounds of fat before they can even consider strength training as an option. Sometimes there are emotional or social issues involved, either the type that can cause a person to eat too much or the type that can cause a person to work out too much (e.g. Ronnie Coleman). This is why I think it's virtually impossible to give fitness advice on the internet without knowing an individual personally. You could get the best workout advice in the world, but if you have a glandular problem or a drug habit then it's not going to help you. It's like adding more hp to a car with bald tires; sometimes you're just solving the wrong problem.
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Yeah, wot Sol said. The complexities are mind-boggling, really.
health.gov's new physical activity guidelines, interestingly, ditched the "in ten minute episodes" language about aerobic activity, though they kept their total time thresholds.
Exercise is one of the few things in life where the rewards are front-loaded. 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week gets you half of the longevity benefits that exercise ever gits you. It's a deal, folks. Low-hanging fruit. Grab that stuff.
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Stick to whole foods. Start simple and work your way up as you learn how to cook if you don’t already. By simple I mean have hard-boiled eggs and some fruit in the mornings. A salad without processed ingredients (diy dressing with black pepper, garlic salt, vinegar and oil)....no cheese or deli meats....only chicken or steak. Make stews from whole foods. Snack on crudités (raw or slightly cooked veggies). If you stick to the rule of not eating anything processed, it takes away a lot of bad options.
Do something you enjoy. That doesn’t feel like exercise. For me it is dancing and hiking. You won’t catch me on Gym equipment. I just can’t do it. I don’t want to spend my life dreading something I have to do every day.
I also drink coffee and tea all day. No more than 2 cups of black coffee per day, but mostly only one. I drink a lot of green tea and different herbal teas throughout the day. A lot of times when we feel hungry it’s because we are thirsty. So for me keeping something in my stomach, even if it’s just liquid, helps me feel satiated longer. It also helps with ahem...regularity.
I am also in the habit of eating large meals, or small meals very close together with large gaps of not eating in between. It’s just how I’ve always eaten. I’m no skinny mini, and not fat, though I am referred to by some as “thicka than a snicka” lol! I enjoy eating and my favorite breakfast is a T-bone, egg whites, and a fresh sliced tomato with a bit of salt, a
couple handfuls of raw mixed greens and a whole grapefruit (good to eat citrus/fruit with high cholesterol meals.) Obviously I don’t have that every day but when I do it is filling and nurturing, and provided I sip on beverages throughout the day, I don’t need to eat again until dinner time. It’s high in fat, but it also has a lot of protein, some fiber (veggies and grapefruit), and since many of the vitamins are fat-soluble (ADEK), Eating them with fat is a good thing. it comes from whole food sources. More and more research is coming out on the effects of preservatives on our weight and well-being.
If I eat dessert or something high in sugar, I eat something high in fiber along with it with minimal sugar. My favorite go to is celery sticks or fresh greens. I just eat it raw after eating my brownie or whatever. Sometimes I’ll have some cinnamon tea with that which also helps to counteract the effect of glucose in the body.
It’s just balance. If you eat ying find the yang to go with it. You’re eating cholesterol eat it with high fiber options. The pectin in the fiber binds to cholesterol molecules and helps to block some of the absorption. Learn food combinations because we are learning that it’s not the food itself but the combination of what makes up the food that determines our reaction to it.
Recently I have been learning about Ayurveda (the science of life), and it is creating so much clarity for me in terms of what my body requires from food to be optimal.
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There are quite a few really good videos on you tube. Search low impact cardio and you will find some (check out joanna soh, i am usually doing hers). The sad truth is, overweight people need a modified program, so you would benefit from a couple of personal training sessions, where the pt sets you up with a program and teaches you the correct techniques. It is money well spent. I was doing it last year and by now exercise is a habit, I get cranky if I can't go to the gym(I am still fat, but stronger). It is also worth trying different pts, everybody has a different training philosophy, you learn different things. I personally can't do classes, so I had to go the machine route, but whatever works for you.
walking is great for general fitness but does not burn that much fat. Try nordic walking to move additional muscles if all you can do is walk. You will benefit more from 30 mins gym on the machines than just from a daily walk. Also, don't underestimate housework. It apparently burns 14 calories just to make a bed ☺ . My house is much cleaner since I perceive housework as cardio.
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walking is great for general fitness but does not burn that much fat. Try nordic walking to move additional muscles if all you can do is walk.
That's incorrect. Fat burning needs a lot of oxygen. The moment you develop an oxygen debt, ie, you're puffing, you're burning blood sugars. This is why runners 'hit the wall'. It's when they exhaust the easily available blood sugars. This is why they carboload before a race. The fact is that walking and running move the same mass the same distance. The fact is that simple walking will build muscle mass if you're unfit. The fact is that walking uses the largest muscles in your body and will help with circulation, gut health, balance and a range of other things besides weight loss.
But the more important fact is that DIET is everything. You can't outrun a bad diet.
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walking is great for general fitness but does not burn that much fat. Try nordic walking to move additional muscles if all you can do is walk.
That's incorrect. Fat burning needs a lot of oxygen. The moment you develop an oxygen debt, ie, you're puffing, you're burning blood sugars. This is why runners 'hit the wall'. It's when they exhaust the easily available blood sugars. This is why they carboload before a race. The fact is that walking and running move the same mass the same distance. The fact is that simple walking will build muscle mass if you're unfit. The fact is that walking uses the largest muscles in your body and will help with circulation, gut health, balance and a range of other things besides weight loss.
But the more important fact is that DIET is everything. You can't outrun a bad diet.
Purely anecdotal, as a hiker (in FL...don't laugh), I find that I don't get a good cardio workout from walking...no matter how fast I walk. It's only when I walk with even just the slightest incline, that I start breathing harder. I've done several 27 mile single day "hike-a-thons", with 10 hours continuous and fast-paced walking, and other than muscle fatigue, I did not feel any cardio impact. Because of that, when I do hike somewhere with elevation, or go up stairs, it reminds me how out of shape I truly am. I hate running, so I've been just doing stairs when I can, or doing some trail jogging to work on my stamina.
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Purely anecdotal, as a hiker (in FL...don't laugh), I find that I don't get a good cardio workout from walking...no matter how fast I walk. It's only when I walk with even just the slightest incline, that I start breathing harder. I've done several 27 mile single day "hike-a-thons", with 10 hours continuous and fast-paced walking, and other than muscle fatigue, I did not feel any cardio impact. Because of that, when I do hike somewhere with elevation, or go up stairs, it reminds me how out of shape I truly am. I hate running, so I've been just doing stairs when I can, or doing some trail jogging to work on my stamina.
I am there as well. I only start puffing for breath if I walk fast uphill. You still get some cardio impact, much more than when you are at rest, but it is less than a good workout. Maybe you could start hiking with a heavy backpack. Not especially good for knees of course, but it gives a good work out.
Trail jogging is a form of running.
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walking is great for general fitness but does not burn that much fat. Try nordic walking to move additional muscles if all you can do is walk.
That's incorrect. Fat burning needs a lot of oxygen. The moment you develop an oxygen debt, ie, you're puffing, you're burning blood sugars. This is why runners 'hit the wall'. It's when they exhaust the easily available blood sugars. This is why they carboload before a race. The fact is that walking and running move the same mass the same distance. The fact is that simple walking will build muscle mass if you're unfit. The fact is that walking uses the largest muscles in your body and will help with circulation, gut health, balance and a range of other things besides weight loss.
But the more important fact is that DIET is everything. You can't outrun a bad diet.
Purely anecdotal, as a hiker (in FL...don't laugh), I find that I don't get a good cardio workout from walking...no matter how fast I walk. It's only when I walk with even just the slightest incline, that I start breathing harder. I've done several 27 mile single day "hike-a-thons", with 10 hours continuous and fast-paced walking, and other than muscle fatigue, I did not feel any cardio impact. Because of that, when I do hike somewhere with elevation, or go up stairs, it reminds me how out of shape I truly am. I hate running, so I've been just doing stairs when I can, or doing some trail jogging to work on my stamina.
This is part of what I was getting at with the OP. Running/jogging is too intense (and hard on the joints when I'm carrying some extra weight, especially given all the years of dance which were not especially kind to the bending parts) but walking doesn't feel like enough. But perhaps that's where I need to start, regardless.
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walking is great for general fitness but does not burn that much fat. Try nordic walking to move additional muscles if all you can do is walk.
That's incorrect. Fat burning needs a lot of oxygen. The moment you develop an oxygen debt, ie, you're puffing, you're burning blood sugars. This is why runners 'hit the wall'. It's when they exhaust the easily available blood sugars. This is why they carboload before a race. The fact is that walking and running move the same mass the same distance. The fact is that simple walking will build muscle mass if you're unfit. The fact is that walking uses the largest muscles in your body and will help with circulation, gut health, balance and a range of other things besides weight loss.
But the more important fact is that DIET is everything. You can't outrun a bad diet.
Purely anecdotal, as a hiker (in FL...don't laugh), I find that I don't get a good cardio workout from walking...no matter how fast I walk. It's only when I walk with even just the slightest incline, that I start breathing harder. I've done several 27 mile single day "hike-a-thons", with 10 hours continuous and fast-paced walking, and other than muscle fatigue, I did not feel any cardio impact. Because of that, when I do hike somewhere with elevation, or go up stairs, it reminds me how out of shape I truly am. I hate running, so I've been just doing stairs when I can, or doing some trail jogging to work on my stamina.
This is part of what I was getting at with the OP. Running/jogging is too intense (and hard on the joints when I'm carrying some extra weight, especially given all the years of dance which were not especially kind to the bending parts) but walking doesn't feel like enough. But perhaps that's where I need to start, regardless.
Walking up stairs is great cardio. When I used to work on the ninth floor of an office building I walked up and down all nine floors 2 to 4 times a day. After doing that for a couple of months, I decided I wanted to try the treadmill and was shocked I was able to jog a mile without being so out of breath. Cardio is just a label for a particular type of exercise, but any exercise that raises your heart rate is going to be beneficial in a similar way.
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walking is great for general fitness but does not burn that much fat. Try nordic walking to move additional muscles if all you can do is walk.
That's incorrect. Fat burning needs a lot of oxygen. The moment you develop an oxygen debt, ie, you're puffing, you're burning blood sugars. This is why runners 'hit the wall'. It's when they exhaust the easily available blood sugars. This is why they carboload before a race. The fact is that walking and running move the same mass the same distance. The fact is that simple walking will build muscle mass if you're unfit. The fact is that walking uses the largest muscles in your body and will help with circulation, gut health, balance and a range of other things besides weight loss.
But the more important fact is that DIET is everything. You can't outrun a bad diet.
Purely anecdotal, as a hiker (in FL...don't laugh), I find that I don't get a good cardio workout from walking...no matter how fast I walk. It's only when I walk with even just the slightest incline, that I start breathing harder. I've done several 27 mile single day "hike-a-thons", with 10 hours continuous and fast-paced walking, and other than muscle fatigue, I did not feel any cardio impact. Because of that, when I do hike somewhere with elevation, or go up stairs, it reminds me how out of shape I truly am. I hate running, so I've been just doing stairs when I can, or doing some trail jogging to work on my stamina.
This is part of what I was getting at with the OP. Running/jogging is too intense (and hard on the joints when I'm carrying some extra weight, especially given all the years of dance which were not especially kind to the bending parts) but walking doesn't feel like enough. But perhaps that's where I need to start, regardless.
Hills.
I trained for and ran ("ran") an uphill half marathon the last two years. I got faster in between but would still get frustrated at how much walking I have to do. My heart rate was getting above 190. Am I THAT out of shape?
Nope, when I run flat I can run much faster (average pace 10:00 mile vs 15:00 mile up hill), and the heart rate doesn't even come close to 190.
I actually had a training group where we'd go all up hill and the coach would drive us back down.
I also found it to be much better on my joints - knees/ hips.
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Going downhill has certain health benefits, too. Why not do both?
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What's been helpful for me is a lot of walking with occasional stairs (2-3 stories each at home and at work). And I also try to jog up the stairs at work, for a short burst of higher intensity.
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You can't out train a poor diet.
Walk wherever possible.
If you can't walk, then bike.
Take the stairs at all times.
If you only do one exercise, do kettlebell swings.
Get enough sleep.
Drink lots of water.
Repeat.
If you need motivation, I highly recommend listening to the Jocko podcast. Discipline = Freedom!
GOOD LUCK!!!!
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Do some reading about ketosis and fasting. Everyone has a different metabolism. Fat is stored energy. Proper fasting will allow the body to tap into this energy. However, beware the yo yo effect. When the body sees starvation, you can actually gain weight whilst you are eating less.
Truth can be stranger than fiction:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/ (https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/)
Side Note: Fasting is known to give a sense of mental acuity.
Another approach:
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/ (http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/)
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Chewing.........food on a ketogenic diet. After a couple of weeks, incorporate fasting(i like 16/8) into the ketogenic routine. Exercise is not mandatory, at least not in the beginning. But, basic walking is good. work up to more strenuous exercise when walking feels too "easy".
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Late to the party, I hope the OP is still paying attention.
ON THE MERITS OF DIET
Diet dwarfs the exercise in addressing overweight/obesity, science and clinical practice say. Diet not as in “dieting” but as in “normally eating what human organisms have been evolutionary designed to eat”. (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/loose-weight-recover-health!/)
ON THE MERITS OF EXERCISE
A few nuggets for pondering and using as you see fit:
Longest lived and healthiest people do not exercise, however, they live in motion. (https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100?language=en#t-938323)
The chair is the killer. Insulin sensitivity is the key. Intervals improve your shape, but be careful with HIIT, first do a medical check and consultation if you have a pre-existing condition. (https://documentarylovers.com/film/the-truth-about-exercise/)
Really, Insulin sensitivity is the key. (https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?t=4272)
The pioneering, science based bodyweight HIIT programme (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force_Exercise_Plans) has been discontinued due to injury risks, but it is still in the wild and has served well for decades even to admired celebrities (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/helen-mirren-fitness-advice-best-ever_n_6994370.html). My personal experience is very positive, but use at your own risk.
I second suggestions on swimming and walking. To relieve load on joints , try Nordic walking. I have joint issues and have very good experience with Nordic walking.
Finally, I have very good experience with stationery bike and two simple programs:
• Cardio programme: 5 minutes low intensity, 15 minutes medium intensity (pulse at 65%-75% of your max heart rate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate#Maximum_heart_rate), e.g. 220-age) 5 minutes low intensity. This maintains your current shape
• Interval programme: 5 minutes low intensity, 5 minutes medium intensity, then alternate a minute of high intensity (75-85% of max heart rate) and a minute of low intensity for 10 minutes, then 5 minutes of low intensity
The beauty is that you can adapt the timings and intenisty (low or high), but still get in better shape with interval training.
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Just adding my comments. Yoga is something everyone should practice on a daily basis. Basic breathing exercises like Pranayama will help you achieve more concentration and keep many diseases away. When you combine Yoga with Ayurveda (https://www.ayurvedamaster.com/ayurveda/), life becomes tranquil.
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I've got nothing against yoga (stretching and meditation are generally pretty good for everyone), Ayurveda is a bit of a different matter. I take offense at any form of psuedoscientific 'medicine' that people make bold claims about.
Ayurveda is not an effective treatment of cancer (https://web.archive.org/web/20140222053347/http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/mindbodyandspirit/ayurveda (https://web.archive.org/web/20140222053347/http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/mindbodyandspirit/ayurveda)). It is not an effective treatment of cardiovascular disease (https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00045415-200505000-00011 (https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00045415-200505000-00011)). In fact, I am unaware of any study that shows Ayurveda is an effective treatment for any malady. Traditional Ayurvedic remedies have been found to contain dangerous levels (above recommended daily intake) of toxic heavy metals including high quantities of lead, mercury and arsenic (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755247/ (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755247/), http://www.bioline.org.br/request?ph08015 (http://www.bioline.org.br/request?ph08015)).
If Ayurveda is something you find fun to do, cool. Many people enjoy smoking and drinking too. As long as you don't claim that it's healthy for you, and don't pretend that it's medicine there's no problem.
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Hey Villanelle, I hope you're still motivated and that you have progress you're proud of!
I know the thread should be about exercise but I can't help but chime in with nutrition advice.
If you have to put in effort to prepare food, it makes it a lot easier to stay within your diet. I don't know if you have issues with snacking, but whenever I visit my parents (who have hordes of snack foods and prepared foods) I snack a TON. At home, I try to limit my supplies to whole foods that need a bit of prep to eat. You mentioned that you hate cooking. I hate cooking for normal meals, too. (Cooking on the weekends or trying new fun recipes is different to me). Luckily that aversion to cooking can help as well. In my experience the biggest issue with weight for me is snacking, so being able to control when you eat is a huge step in the right direction.
Of course, if you do snack now, don't expect it to be easy to change habits. As an adherent to Mustachianism, I found it easiest to make the changes in the supermarket: just don't buy certain things. It was natural for me to forgo certain purchases after adopting frugal principles. And it doesn't have to be all at once. Cut out one thing until it's a habit, then another and another.
These changes will help you decide when you eat. To change how much you eat I would recommend intermittent fasting. Note this recommendation might be controversial. You should probably do your own research and not trust me.
I don't eat lunch. I eat a pretty small breakfast and a large dinner. I don't limit myself at all on dinner, but because I don't eat lunch, I still end up eating less in one big meal than I would in two meals. Sometimes I get hungry during the day, but I've learned to deal with it pretty well. My breakfast is usually low in carbohydrates and high in fats and proteins (eggs usually). This helps abate hunger for the day and gets me closer to ketogenesis by the end of the day. I workout at the end of my workday before dinner. When I started this routine I would feel lightheaded during my runs, but I don't anymore.
I say all this because I think it's one of the easiest ways to lower the amount you eat. With this lifestyle I have maintained a much better weight than when I lived differently. I've heard lots of (admittedly anecdotal) success stories about One Meal A Day (OMAD) plans. The way I see it, OMAD is a way to avoid a lot of the mundane, necessary cooking; is an easier, more sustainable way to diet (if you buy the right foods); let's you enjoy more filling meals with no guilt; and makes your workouts more effective.
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Interesting @SecondEngineer
Most people who IF do lunch and dinner not breakfast and dinner. Why did you decide to go this route?
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I didn't realize this was even a thing. I don't ever eat breakfast because I just don't feel hungry until around noontime.
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I didn't realize this was even a thing. I don't ever eat breakfast because I just don't feel hungry until around noontime.
I've long since learned that there's no point in me eating an early breakfast; I'll still be just as hungry come lunch time, if not more so! As long as I have my (black) coffee, I'm fine until mid-morning at least.
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I didn't realize this was even a thing. I don't ever eat breakfast because I just don't feel hungry until around noontime.
I've long since learned that there's no point in me eating an early breakfast; I'll still be just as hungry come lunch time, if not more so! As long as I have my (black) coffee, I'm fine until mid-morning at least.
You just described me. If I feel a little hungry in the morning, I just have my morning coffee, black and I’m good for a couple more hours. The later in the day I start eating, the better. When I eat my lunch, I’m just as satiated whether I had breakfast or not.
I informally follow the 8/16 IF schedule. So typically I will only eat between 9-5, or any other 8 hour window, As long as it’s not too close to when I wake up, or go to bed. And I say I skip breakfast, but I still manage three small meals, or two larger meals and a snack, in that time frame.
It feels good to start the day with an empty stomach. I feel energized and not as sluggish, And more likely to fit in a morning workout before work, because I feel motivated. I also noticed my skin started looking great after I began going to bed on an empty stomach. If I fall asleep shortly after eating I will wake up with greasy skin and possibly some forming pimples. Now it’s just my water before bed, I wake up with clear and moisture balanced skin. I drink 8 ounces of water before bed, and as soon as I wake up.
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The simplest are things like cutting out high calorie drinks including alcohol.
I was waiting for this comment this whole thread (although if I missed a reference to booze earlier forgive me). Being conscientious of alcohol intake along with moderate (1 hour of cardio/resistance training each day) combined with moderate intake of refined sugars and carbs should be more than enough to stay trim. I’m 35 and weigh only a couple pounds more than when I was a college athlete training 20 hours a week with only about 10 hours of exercise a week now, and most of that is probably due to a way healthier diet (lots of vegetables, minimal breakfast burritos) compared to when I was 18-22.
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OP, feel free to PM me if you want to discuss weight loss.
I went from BMI 31 to 21, with serious injuries that made exercise very difficult. I'm happy to share my experience and education on the matter.
I will share though that I would be cautious when considering fasting if you are overweight and don't eat a low fat/low alcohol diet, due to the gallstone risk.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQbuzsY_34Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQbuzsY_34Q)
So here’s an old YouTube video from 2009 that I’d saved because it makes the point brilliantly. Ignore the slight sales pitch at the start. The video highlights an incredibly important and easy to understand point that some people on this thread have already mentioned. Your weight loss is a dietary issue, not an exercise issue.
In this video you’ll see a guy who starts running on the treadmill at roughly 55 seconds into the video. He runs at 10.5 miles per hour on a 0.5 incline. He keeps running until around 3 minutes and 20 seconds into the video. That’s a total of 145 seconds of running. In that time he burns roughly 42 calories according to the treadmill. That may or may not be totally accurate, but it’s accurate enough.
That’s 0.29 calories per second which would be somewhere in the region of 1040 calories at hour. That might sounds great, but running at 10.5 miles per hour for an entire hour without stopping is something 99% of the population will not be able to do. Ever. They don’t have the desire to put in the years of training to get there, and unless they are some kind of competitive athlete, they probably don’t have the time. I’m guessing you don’t have the time either.
On the other hand look at the guy eating the pizza and drinking the root beer. He’s no desperately trying to cram it down as fast as he can, but in the same 145 seconds, he eats 800 calories. Now it might actually only be 400 calories or it could be 1000. It doesn’t matter. You get the point. Consuming calories is quick and effortless. Burning them off afterward is incredibly strenuous and time consuming. If you’re continually overeating, even by just a little, you will be wasting time and effort thinking that you can just quickly burn off the excess within 20 minutes of light, borderline pointless exercise.
People will often say that they have friends who are in great shape and they exercise all the time, or they will point to Olympic athletes etc. and say how they train for hours a day and they are in great shape, so I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Imagine you could spend all day, every day with an Olympic athlete of your choice for an entire 7 day week. I don’t care if it’s a sprinter, a long distance runner, a rower, swimmer, diver, gymnast or weightlifter. What do you think the CONTENT of their diets would look like? I’m not talking about portion size. Some of them will eat relatively large portions in order to fuel lengthy workouts. I’m talking about CONTENT i.e. what they actually eat.
Do you think you’d see any of those athletes eating cookies, chips, fries, burgers, chocolate, pizza, cakes, ice cream or pastries? I doubt it. Would you see them drinking Coca-Cola, Wine, or Beer? I doubt it.
The analogy I like to use with food consumption is that it’s like filling your car up with gas.
Even if the gas tank on your car was completely empty, how long would it take you to fill it to the brim at the gas station? I’ve never timed it, but when I’m at the gas station, I would estimate that it takes me no more than about 2 minutes to fill my car up.
Now, how long do you think it takes me to burn that gas off? Hours. Lots of hours.
Either many consecutive hours on a single day of driving across the country on highways, or many weeks if I just make the occasional short journey around my local area where I live. Either way, the cumulative time spent driving will be HOURS.
Gas – Only minutes needed to put it into your car, but hours needed to burn it off.
Food – only minutes or seconds needed to put it into your body, but hours needed to burn it off.
The point I’m attempting to make is that if burning calories is your main reason for wanting to start exercising, don’t bother. You’re wasting your time. Concentrate instead on your diet i.e. putting fewer calories into your body in the first place.
If however you’re exercising because you enjoy it and it makes you feel good and you’re doing it for other health benefits associate with it, then by all means continue.
Before anyone says anything – the only reason any diet works is because it reduces your calorie intake. I don’t care if it’s Atkins, SouthBeach or some other low carb, low sugar fad. Whatever the current trend is, somewhere, somehow the diet will have a mechanism built into it that reduces your calorie intake. It may not say that explicitly, but if doesn’t reduce your calorie intake, then it can’t possibly work.
All this say no to sugar stuff makes me laugh. It’s as if people have spent years pouring bags of sugar into their mouths and are now being told to stop. Nonsense. They’ve been consuming sugar in the form of things like donuts, candy bars and crappy soft drinks.
So wait, you’ve needed the anti-sugar/low carb diet movement to come along and tell you that eating too many donuts and candy bars will make you fat?
That’s not a sugar or carb issue, that’s a calorie issue. You don’t need to get overly complex and vilify certain ingredients or macro nutrients.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/a-science-teacher-lost-37-pounds-from-an-experiment-where-he (https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/a-science-teacher-lost-37-pounds-from-an-experiment-where-he)
Also – Remember the craze for workouts like Insanity, Beachbody and P90X that were fronted by people like Shaun T? They had you jumping around like an idiot doing things like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLK28BHJDd8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLK28BHJDd8)
Well, it’s never talked about in the infomercials but these workouts also come with a diet plan. If you look at the diet plan it has people eating things like fruit, vegetables, lean protein and brown rice in small quantities and drinking nothing but water. If you don’t follow these corresponding diet plans, you won’t achieve the fat loss they promote in the infomercials. But why don’t they talk about the diet plans in the infomercials? Because they aren’t good marketing. You can’t sell basic common sense eating like your grandmother would have done. But what does sell, is rock hard abs, glistening with sweat in the sun after the most awesomely intense fat burning workout that you’ll ever experience etc etc. What a load of shit. The diet plan alone would get you 90% of the results.
Modern scientific studies have now shown that the daily energy expenditure of African tribesmen to be the same as Western office workers. The difference is energy intake.
In 2019 you can walk into a convenience store, slap $2 on the counter (which is nothing, even if you’re on minimum wage) and you can purchase about 1000 calories of utter shit.
In 1919, you’d have been lucky to have enough calories to get through the day without feeling at least somewhat hungry most of the time and $2 would have a been a big deal to anyone. Back then, the majority of the foods and restaurants we have today didn’t exist. Pizza, donuts, candy bars, ice cream, McDonalds, Subway, Dominos, KFC etc. It’s not inactivity that makes you fat, it’s too many calories.
The best form of exercise is weight training/resistance training/strength training. Call it what you like. Why? Because inactivity, whilst it doesn’t make you fat, does make you lose muscle, strength and bone density. Spend time reading about what sarcopenia is and what it does to you as you age. Realise that every human on the planet is affected by this. Then realise that cardio/aerobics don’t address those issues and may actually exacerbate them.
Weight training works like saving for retirement. Start at age 60, you might be too late. Start at 20, 30 or 45 and never stop (30 minutes 2 or 3 times a week is all you need) and you could reach the age of 70 with more muscle, strength, vitality and physical capability than an untrained 50 year old.
Think of anyone you know who is obviously old and frail. That’s sarcopenia and its cousins, osteopenia and osteoporosis in action right there. What they are suffering from isn’t lack of running, lack of walking, lack of swimming, cycling or boxercise. They don’t have the physical strength to even consider doing any of those things. What the lack is strength. Muscles are what allow us to move. They allow us to exert force to move things or resist forces placed upon us. Many elderly people don’t have the physical strength to get out of a chair unaided, walk up a flight of stairs or do things like get dressed or stand up for more than a few minutes at a time.
Society sees this as “What happens when you get old.” But it’s not. It’s what happens when you do no deliberate resistance training for you entire life. I’ve been involved in online communities where people who do a couple of short workouts a week over the long term (think of the parallels with saving a high % of what you earn and investing it) end up looking and feeling half their age.
I’m not talking about CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting or bodybuilding. I’m just talking about sensible and safe, basic weight training. Yes, it involves many of the same exercises and equipment that the aforementioned may use, but the execution doesn’t have to be anything like them. Also, you don’t have to take large doses or steroids. The image of incredibly muscular, borderline manly physiques on female CrossFit competitors is the kind of thing that turns many uninformed women away from weight training and that is tragic. They believe that they will automatically begin to look like that if they even lift weights for a week. Ladies, let me tell you, you couldn’t get like that if you tried. Not without steroids.
If you’re over 40, particularly if you’re a woman, you owe it to yourself to begin weight training because it will stop you from wasting away.
Best free diet advice online - http://www.nosdiet.com/ (http://www.nosdiet.com/) I bought the book to show my support because he's a family man, just a regular guy. PM me and I will send you the PDF copy if you'd like. It's so good. You know it all already, but it's a wonderful wakeup call. All the information is on that webpage if you want to read it.
I think I’m done.
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A ton of great information already. My 2 cents on walking and diet.
Walking: I walk a lot, at least an hour with the dog per day, plus breaks at work to walk at the park, plus long hikes on the weekends. Rule of thumb, about 100 calories per mile of walking.
Diet VS exercise: I'm in the camp that the diet is far more important for weight loss. Exercise is important, for building muscle and a healthier cardiovascular system, but it's much easier to control the diet for losing weight. Consider that your body burns a ton of calories just keeping you alive. Your heart is exercising 24/7. The average calories burned just keeping your body functioning is around 1800 per day. That implies a 2,000 calorie diet assumes very little exercise. However, if you add 1 donut(200 calories) to your diet you need to walk 2 more miles is make up for it. IMO bringing the calorie intake down is significantly easier than trying to exercise enough to burn excessive calorie intake.
Also consider, lots of exercise also makes you hungrier. I eat the most on days that I hike, especially in terms of protein, which is normal since I want my muscles to recover, BUT that means many of the extra calories burned from that hike will be offset by eating more. This is another reason it's hard to rely on exercise alone.
Per the BMI chart I was overweight a few months back, so I decided to lose 20 lbs, which would put me back at my weight in my late 20s. I went mostly vegetarian. Salads, soups, blended up smoothies with fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts as a snack, etc. I looked up vegetarian receipts. No processed carbs(chips, snack food, white bread, etc.), and only ate meat about 1-2 servings per week. I replaced milk with almond milk for the smoothies. I did leave in one processed carb, Mini Wheats, the cereal, just because 1 serving packs 90% of your daily iron. This diet lets you eat a lot of food in terms of volume, it's very filling, but the foods are less calorie dense so you end up eating less calories.
Another advantage of a plant based diet is that your energy levels are more consistent. You don't feel tired or lethargic after eating and you don't have the energy peaks and valleys associated with processed carbs. Consistent energy levels makes it easier to exercise.
Hope this helps, and whatever you do just make sure to stick to it! That's why permament diet changes and exercises that you enjoy tend to give the best long term results.
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I struggle with health issues that leave me in constant pain, the only workout I can count on that won't make my issues worse in rebounding (you know, those little trampolines). I can get 10000 steps while watching television and I don't even get D.O.M.S. (delayed onset muscle soreness).
You need to spend a little more money to get a good one, the cheaper ones are like walking in a ditch, they bend your knees inward. You want one that provides a flatter surface. I have a Jumpsport 250 and I wear supportive shoes to avoid overpronation.
Diet is also very important, I recommend itrackbites. You can get the basic tracking app for free, the premium is a one time fee of around $10 which provides you with tracking apps that mimic all the most popular (and expensive) diet plans and online support forums. Choose the diet plan that makes sense for you and go for it.
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I struggle with health issues that leave me in constant pain, the only workout I can count on that won't make my issues worse in rebounding (you know, those little trampolines). I can get 10000 steps while watching television and I don't even get D.O.M.S. (delayed onset muscle soreness).
You need to spend a little more money to get a good one, the cheaper ones are like walking in a ditch, they bend your knees inward. You want one that provides a flatter surface. I have a Jumpsport 250 and I wear supportive shoes to avoid overpronation.
Diet is also very important, I recommend itrackbites. You can get the basic tracking app for free, the premium is a one time fee of around $10 which provides you with tracking apps that mimic all the most popular (and expensive) diet plans and online support forums. Choose the diet plan that makes sense for you and go for it.
Thanks for the info on rebounding. That might be a great option for me, and I didn't really know anything about it.
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I have a pilates reformer machine with a rebounder. It's horizontal rebounding, but it's still a really good workout because holding your legs out vertically really works your abs, too.
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Can you jump rope? That's a major heart rate booster. Or jumping jacks.
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Interesting @SecondEngineer
Most people who IF do lunch and dinner not breakfast and dinner. Why did you decide to go this route?
I guess I've bought into the whole "most important meal of the day" stuff (I know it's not quite right). I feel more energized in my day if I eat breakfast, and not eating lunch is pretty natural to me when I'm focused on work. I also find it easier to prepare breakfast at home instead of having to pack a lunch.
But that does mean my meals are ~8-9 hours apart and so there's a lot less fasting than might be had by a lunch-dinner IF schedule, which might be 4-5 hours apart. I guess another point is I don't like feeling full when I start dinner.
All in all it isn't a position I stand too firmly on, but just the way things have turned out. I might need to look into it more.
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I can't speak to how well this works for anyone else, but I purchased a mini elliptical (basically just the foot pedal portion of the elliptical) that can be used sitting or standing and I am happy with it. I'm normal weight, but I sit at a desk almost all day and this allows me to be less sedentary while still sitting. It's easily transportable and small enough to be hidden. The elliptical was around $80-90 or so and it's been worth every cent. Another thing I like about it is that you can track your time, steps, distance, etc., which will allow you to set goals. You can start by doing the machine while sitting and when you're more comfortable, you can use it standing and add in hand weights and/or ankle weights.
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Lots of good stuff written herein. You guys are providing a lot of encouragement to some of us. One thing that hasn't been mentioned about the weight training is that I read once that it not only strengthens muscle, it also will strengthen your bones. Any builder knows how important a strong foundation is.
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+1 for low impact exercises, biking and swimming
I used to hate swimming but started using a snorkel and mask. It is like night & day. Instead of using all my energy trying not to drown, now I can focus on my form and on using my muscles to pull through the water.
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I can't recommend resistance training highly enough. Obviously free weights are ideal, but no need to start there if you're not able to use them safely. Increased bone density, increased muscular and tendon/ligament strength, increased metabolism, better glucose uptake and usage (GLUT-4 rather than insulin, so helps with insulin resistance), and a sense of accomplishment when you set a new personal record.
What I don't like is seeing people follow advanced routines from magazines or websites when they're novices. That's how you end up getting hurt or with tendonitis. A basic strength routine shouldn't take more than 30-40 minutes and only needs to be done twice a week to see great improvements. Obviously if you want to get maximal results, you'll eventually need more training, but starting slow is good.
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Lower impact is probably more beneficial for someone overweight who is just starting out (biking, swimming). With running, each foot strike will be with a force more than your body weight, which can be horrible for your joints if you're overweight. Leading to injury, then the risk of falling into old habits, etc...
Diet aside, the single most effective thing I've done (granted I've never been overweight, but wanted to improve my build) is regular free weight lifting. 2-4 times a week, just pick up the dumbbells. Just having muscle will burn fat, even at rest. But, diet is still the most important part of pure weight loss.
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I can't recommend resistance training highly enough. Obviously free weights are ideal, but no need to start there if you're not able to use them safely. Increased bone density, increased muscular and tendon/ligament strength, increased metabolism, better glucose uptake and usage (GLUT-4 rather than insulin, so helps with insulin resistance), and a sense of accomplishment when you set a new personal record.
What I don't like is seeing people follow advanced routines from magazines or websites when they're novices. That's how you end up getting hurt or with tendonitis. A basic strength routine shouldn't take more than 30-40 minutes and only needs to be done twice a week to see great improvements. Obviously if you want to get maximal results, you'll eventually need more training, but starting slow is good.
I agree with nearly everything in this post. I'd only argue with one point - in my experience, someone who is completely out of shape will benefit much more from multiple short sessions (at least 4) per week. They won't be able to physically push themselves as hard as necessary to get away with just two short sessions a week until they build up a base of strength and endurance. After a couple months though they can switch to fewer sessions and start to ramp up intensity.
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I can't recommend resistance training highly enough. Obviously free weights are ideal, but no need to start there if you're not able to use them safely. Increased bone density, increased muscular and tendon/ligament strength, increased metabolism, better glucose uptake and usage (GLUT-4 rather than insulin, so helps with insulin resistance), and a sense of accomplishment when you set a new personal record.
What I don't like is seeing people follow advanced routines from magazines or websites when they're novices. That's how you end up getting hurt or with tendonitis. A basic strength routine shouldn't take more than 30-40 minutes and only needs to be done twice a week to see great improvements. Obviously if you want to get maximal results, you'll eventually need more training, but starting slow is good.
I agree with nearly everything in this post. I'd only argue with one point - in my experience, someone who is completely out of shape will benefit much more from multiple short sessions (at least 4) per week. They won't be able to physically push themselves as hard as necessary to get away with just two short sessions a week until they build up a base of strength and endurance. After a couple months though they can switch to fewer sessions and start to ramp up intensity.
good point. I actually had to do that for my SIL last year. It had been so long since I was in that bad of conditioning that I didn't even think about it until I saw it.
Note: I'm not knocking people who are out of shape here. I used to be there. Over 360 pounds and zero exercise. I would get winded walking down the hall. More my appreciation for @GuitarStv for reminding me of something that I hadn't considered.
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Note: I'm not knocking people who are out of shape here. I used to be there. Over 360 pounds and zero exercise. I would get winded walking down the hall. More my appreciation for @GuitarStv for reminding me of something that I hadn't considered.
Congratulations man - I applaud you. There are too many feedback forces in our culture preventing us from your success. I have my old Bowflex in the basement and when I retire in a few months, I will emulate you.
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I really enjoy water walking. The water helps take the weight off your joints so you can push harder than if you were simply walking on the sidewalk. My local pool offers water walking in their “lazy river” at certain hours of the day. You get current to walk against and you can still talk to others or use waterproof headphones.
Many fitness centers offer a free or reduced session with a trainer. Some college/university programs in exercise science may also help put together a training routine for you as a way to start working on basics. Yoga classes for beginners can be helpful for flexibility and stability.
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I really enjoy water walking. The water helps take the weight off your joints so you can push harder than if you were simply walking on the sidewalk. My local pool offers water walking in their “lazy river” at certain hours of the day. You get current to walk against and you can still talk to others or use waterproof headphones.
Many fitness centers offer a free or reduced session with a trainer. Some college/university programs in exercise science may also help put together a training routine for you as a way to start working on basics. Yoga classes for beginners can be helpful for flexibility and stability.
In the water, I think your body uses energy to keep your temp from falling too.
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I thought I posted an update a few days ago, but it looks like it didn't post.
For a few months, life was insane and I changed nothing. Starting in Jan/Feb, I started making some small changes to diet. Nothing drastic, but the kinds of things that are likely to actually last--forcing myself to get used to drinking my iced tea unsweetened, for example. And I'm cooking and eating way more fruits and veggies, among other shifts. As I mention, knowing what to do food wise has never been a problem. Now that I'm doing it, it's working as far as weight.
We've moved, and I can do so many of my errands by walking, so I'm getting more movement, but not necessarily exercise.
All in all, I'm down 9 pounds in a few months. Slow and steady progress, but I'm not really more fit than I was was when I started this thread. I'm hoping to swim this summer (the heat and I are not friends). I'm actually not sure of the depth of our pool, but water walking might be an option. I'd never heard of it, so thank you!
So I'd say I've made some solid progress in overall health, but not in actually working out and improving strength and heart health, which was the focus of this thread. Having a pool in our backyard will, I'm hopeful, be helpful. The landlord just finished opening it for the summer so I'm hoping to get in tomorrow!
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Congrats--you're doing great so far. It all goes together, and losing weight and eating healthier helps you to be more fit as well. I'm in the opposite boat. I've been exercising again, but the food has gotten out of hand enough that I need to really focus on that. I'm trying another calorie tracker app that was mentioned in another thread. I can already see it's all the little extra snacks that are the culprit.
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Not sure anybody pointed this one out:
OK - You exercise. You may weigh the same. However, you've been exercising. The fat has been replaced with muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat. It's nice to have more room in the clothes.
You've been exercising. You are a little like a racehorse. You are ready to go. You have more energy. Given that you are now sitting in your chair with a lot of muscle instead of a lot of fat, your resting metabolism is higher. Fat, well it just kinda hangs around until it's needed, but muscle is like a machine. It needs to be maintained. It needs to be fed. It's a nice bonus that it will help burn them Oreos by just sitting.
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for exercising, if you can get to swimming pool, SWIM.
it burns lots of calories, but do note that you will feel hungry, don't eat too much.... stick to vegetables without too much oil or salad dressing.
swimming is healthy.
and if u can't get to water, do it like me, i use stationary bikes whenever i want to watch tv. and i do it intensively.
and i go for a stroll after dinner. the stroll helps me relax.
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On a basic level it's simply a case of calories in vs calories out. If you burn more than you eat you will lose fat.
You can't "spot reduce" fat from any particular area. If you lose fat overall you will also lose fat from your chest and belly. (Where we store fat... so which areas you will lose fat from quickest... is pretty much genetic so there's nothing you can do to make fat go from one area quicker than others).
The shape of you chest and abs you can improve with weight training - but bear in mind that gaining muscle mass underneath a layer of fat will just push the fat further out...
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Just to again clarify since this is thread has been bumped up. If it's becoming a general fitness/weight loss/whatever thread, from which anyone can benefit, cool. But I'm not looking for diet info. As I mentioned I danced and was pretty much a physical machine for years. I know the diet stuff. And I know the exercise stuff when it's just trying to carefully fine tune an already maintained machine. It's getting that machine from rusty and corroded and leaking fluids and in need of some new belts and empty of all gasoline, to up and running and reliable. And doing so without actually causing more damage to it along the way.
That said, this morning I did some (very few) basic squats and lunges and stepped up and down my bottom step until I was winded (embarrassingly short time). None of it was enough for me to feel it in my creaky dancer's knees, but if it's a small part of my daily routien, that's something. Hopefully I can keep that balance--enough to make some progress but not anger my body. As I continue to lose weight (the diet piece), hopefully that naturally allows me to ask for more body weight exercises from my joints.
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Track everything you do. It helps to progress, and you want to continue to progress your level of fitness until you're able to do high intensity exercise again. Having stuff physically written down can also help emotionally . . . because you can look back at where you were three or four months ago and see the improvement - even if there haven't been big changes in the past while.
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What helped me lose weight in 2017/2018 was lots of walking. Grabbing a vivofit pedometer and walking around town listening to health podcasts. Food/diet is big but you said you had that under control. My goal was 13k steps per day and I spent over 90 days in a row getting there. Although I spent 9 months on the whole weight lose goals. In the end I went from 216 down to 169. I also did DEXA scans to ensure that I didnt lose muscle mass. In that time only 1lb of muscle was lost.
I agree track everything you can.
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Things that have worked for me when I was either overweight or just injured...
- swimming. I still love swimming.
- walking, particularly hills. Walking is therapeutic.
- At home workouts like yoga, weights, HIIT. I have a Beachbody on Demand membership - so many choices! I do much better when I pick something and schedule it. My favorites (you can find similar things on line):
PiYo. Body weight exercise, sort of Pilates/ Yoga-ish, with HIIT. What I liked was that everything was modifiable, like burpees. I would always step back, not jump back, and those are still hard yo!
21-day fix: also easily modifiable and only 30 minutes. Weights, pilates, yoga, cardio
LIIFT4 - my BFF. Weights and intervals. This is what I did when I had my running injury and could not longer run, for 3 months (and I also swam).
Elliptical - my actual BFF is injured and this is currently the only thing she can do without pain. So that's our Sunday morning bitch session.
Stationary bike - Did this during both pregnancies.
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No one who looks at me would say that I'm fat, but I was a hefty 240 lbs. I spent $1k on an electric bike, which has an assist to help me when I am struggling up a hill. It is much easier on the joints than running or even walking. Combined with reducing my carb intake, I've dropped ~8 lbs in about a month. It's certainly an expensive way to lose weight, but it looks to be providing some results.
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Bicycles also do a much better job of keeping you cool in hot weather. This is an incentive for their use.
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I found another video that I had stashed which is great for this thread. It’s only 5 minutes long and is definitely worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTiiz99p9o (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTiiz99p9o)
One of the key points is at 1:35 where it says that one study found that if a 200 pound man ran for an hour, 4 days a week, for a month, he’d lose about 5 pounds at most, assuming everything else (namely his diet and amount of “non-running physical activity”) stayed the same.
If we take this month (June 2019) as an example, that would take 16 hours of running (assuming he runs for an hour every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for all 4 weeks of the month) to lose 5 pounds. Could you be bothered to do that for such a small payoff? The return on investment is awful.
Don’t think you’re the exception to the rule because you do something else instead of running. If you’re a swimmer, a cyclist, a rower, a dancer, or you do CrossFit, triathlons, aerobics, boxercise, boxing, martial arts of any kind or sport of any kind, it’s the same for you. General physical activity is useless for burning enough calories to lose weight.
At 2:25 the video mentions metabolic compensation as a factor that causes a slowdown in weight loss.
There are a number of ways this happens.
Firstly, if you’re lighter, you will burn fewer calories when you move around than someone who is heavier. The body has less weight to move, and it takes less energy to do that.
Secondly, if you do a lot of running, cycling, swimming or rowing, your body (nervous system) refines these movements in very subtle ways that over time. Subtle enough that they can’t be seen with the naked eye. Basically, your body becomes extremely efficient at whatever your frequently practiced movement is. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing burpees, jumping jacks, skipping, punching a heavy bag, ten pin bowling, squats, deadlifts, power cleans, roundhouse kicks, moving furniture, even walking, whatever.
If you practice something over and over and over and over again for months, years or decades, your nervous system is going to fine tune the shit out of that movement or sequence of movements to ensure that you can do it as efficiently as possible in terms of energy expenditure (calorie burn). That means, someone who has been doing ballroom dancing for 10 years will burn fewer calories doing it than a total novice (all other things being equal).
This is supported by what the video shows at 2:38 – the study on the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, Africa. Despite being much more active, the tribe who lead an active lifestyle out on the savanna didn’t actually burn any more calories than test subjects from America and Europe who lead a traditional, relative inactive, modern Western lifestyle.
The difference? Food intake. The Hadza simply don’t have access to any high calorie foods. Nothing artificial. Nothing processed. They either grow it, rear it or hunt it. If the calorie burn of Westerners and African tribes people is the same, why then do sedentary Western office workers get so fat? Answer - because they spend all day shovelling calories into their faces whilst they sit at their desks. Nothing more scientific than that. The Hadza don’t have that choice of mindlessly eating loads of calories. Yes, it’s a fucking choice. We Westerners don't HAVE to do it either.
As far as exercise is concerned, resistance training is king. Firstly if it protects you against sarcopenia, osteopenia and osteoporosis as I described in my previous post on this thread. In that respect it's the closest thing we have to a fountain of youth. It really is physical medicine. Secondly, he main aim of resistance training on a diet is to preserve muscle mass and keep that resting metabolic rate from dropping (the yellow bar in the video above won’t shrink when you lose weight). Muscle is far more metabolically active than any other tissue in your body. It takes something like 2 calories per day to maintain a pound of fat. With muscle, the figure is higher. How much higher, is the source of much debate, but it's estimated to be somewhere in the region of 6 to 20 calories per pound of muscle. At a minimum, that's 3 times more metabolically active than fat.
Here’s a great study to illustrate what resistance training can do for you when dieting.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10487375 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10487375)
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological effects of a weight-loss dietary regimen with or without exercise.
METHODS:
Thirty-five overweight men were matched and randomly placed into either a control group or one of three dietary groups.
There were 6 men in the control group.
There were 8 men in the diet-only group.
There were 11 men in a diet group that performed aerobic exercise three times per week
There were 10 men in a diet group that performed both aerobic exercise and strength training three times per week
RESULTS:
After 12 weeks,
Diet only group lost 9.64kg (69% was fat = 6.65kg)
Diet and aerobics group lost 8.99kg (78% was fat = 7.01kg)
Diet, aerobics and strength training group lost 9.90kg (97% was fat = 9.60kg)
Aerobics on its own, 3 times a week, whatever format it took, lost an extra 0.36kg of fat over 12 weeks compared to diet accompanied by no exercise at all.
This is more evidence that aerobics are just dreadful for weight loss. Is it really worth the effort? Whilst it doesn't say how long they were doing aerobics for in each session, or how intense it was regardless, it's massively inefficient, yielding only 360 grams greater fat loss than if you didn't do it at all.
That said, aerobics seemed to spare an extra 1kg of muscle. It is however blown away by those who also did strength training.
Diet Only = 2.99kg of muscle lost.
Aerobics = 1.98kg of muscle lost.
Aerobics and Strength = 0.3kg of muscle lost.
The diet-only group also demonstrated a significant reduction in fat-free mass, not just muscle, but also bone tissue and organ tissue etc.
Sadly I couldn't find any details on exactly what aerobics or strength training programs these people undertook. I would love to see the results of the study if it were conducted again with the addition of a 4th group who did only diet and strength training, but no aerobics. Chances are they would come out on top as they would obtain all the benefits of diet and strength training, but wouldn't have aerobics needlessly eating into their ability to recover from the strength training sessions, meaning they would gain more muscle and strength and possibly lose even more fat.
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Although I fully support the idea of doing resistance training and cardio, coupled with fixing a diet . . . that study of less than 40 men is way too small to draw conclusions.
I've never been able to lose much weight simply by doing strength training alone . . . at least partly because if you want your lifts (and therefore the intensity of your workout) to increase, you need to put on mass. My deadlift is way higher when I'm 220 lbs than it is when I'm 190. I've kept the same waist measurement from 175 lbs all the way up to 220lbs, but at 220 lbs I get noticeably winded when jogging or going for a long bike ride. At 175 my endurance for running/cycling is very high, but I'm noticeably weaker.
I've done strength training for two decades now. I'm a fan. It's good for you. But that said, I've always lost weight more easily with a mix of strength training and cardio. I went from 195 to 170lbs in three months doing three hour and a half sessions a week boxing and an hour or two of barbell exercises each week. Hell, I'm 200 lbs right now . . . and depending on the heat I'll lose 10 - 16 lbs just going for a long (160 km) bike ride (yes, some of it is water weight . . . but three days later I'm still down 5-6 lbs from one session).
One of the key points is at 1:35 where it says that one study found that if a 200 pound man ran for an hour, 4 days a week, for a month, he’d lose about 5 pounds at most, assuming everything else (namely his diet and amount of “non-running physical activity”) stayed the same.
If we take this month (June 2019) as an example, that would take 16 hours of running (assuming he runs for an hour every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for all 4 weeks of the month) to lose 5 pounds. Could you be bothered to do that for such a small payoff? The return on investment is awful.
5 lbs a month is pretty good for weight loss. That's 60 lbs a year. For getting about what the average person is recommended to get in exercise each week. That's an awful return on investment to you?
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Although I fully support the idea of doing resistance training and cardio, coupled with fixing a diet . . . that study of less than 40 men is way too small to draw conclusions.
I've never been able to lose much weight simply by doing strength training alone . . . at least partly because if you want your lifts (and therefore the intensity of your workout) to increase, you need to put on mass. My deadlift is way higher when I'm 220 lbs than it is when I'm 190. I've kept the same waist measurement from 175 lbs all the way up to 220lbs, but at 220 lbs I get noticeably winded when jogging or going for a long bike ride. At 175 my endurance for running/cycling is very high, but I'm noticeably weaker.
I've done strength training for two decades now. I'm a fan. It's good for you. But that said, I've always lost weight more easily with a mix of strength training and cardio. I went from 195 to 170lbs in three months doing three hour and a half sessions a week boxing and an hour or two of barbell exercises each week. Hell, I'm 200 lbs right now . . . and depending on the heat I'll lose 10 - 16 lbs just going for a long (160 km) bike ride (yes, some of it is water weight . . . but three days later I'm still down 5-6 lbs from one session).
One of the key points is at 1:35 where it says that one study found that if a 200 pound man ran for an hour, 4 days a week, for a month, he’d lose about 5 pounds at most, assuming everything else (namely his diet and amount of “non-running physical activity”) stayed the same.
If we take this month (June 2019) as an example, that would take 16 hours of running (assuming he runs for an hour every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for all 4 weeks of the month) to lose 5 pounds. Could you be bothered to do that for such a small payoff? The return on investment is awful.
5 lbs a month is pretty good for weight loss. That's 60 lbs a year. For getting about what the average person is recommended to get in exercise each week. That's an awful return on investment to you?
I agree with this completely. There are a couple reasons I'd never suggest anyone go completely without cardio. First, your heart and lungs are pretty important. Like, you kind of die if they don't work. Second, improved cardio lets you push harder in weight training. If you're still sucking air 10 minutes after a set of heavy squats, how intense can your training really be? (Caveat for those of us who are only interested in hoisting maximal weight. But we're not the topic here).
I dropped over 150 pounds in a single year with diet and cardio. I SOOO wish I had been weight training at the time. I looked like a cancer patient, people constantly asked me if I needed anything or how long I had. (Given that no one ever asked that when I was ACTUALLY on chemo for 2 years, kind of irritating). I have trouble losing weight when I train with heavy loads though, the increase in appetite is almost unbearable.
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Everyone says it's 80/20 diet/exercise but for me its opposite. Basically exercise is what does it for me. Every time I think I can lose a bit with calorie counting I fail. What works is hard exercise. I am a naturally muscular person so I think my body just wants to go hard. When I lose weight you see the muscles more and people think I spent hours lifting weights, but no, the muscles were just hidden. That said, I need to do strength again. Just started looking into that Athlean guy and doing bodyweight exercises as I no longer go to a gym.
Another idea that works for me: Don't pay to exercise, get paid to exercise! So, teach a dance or yoga class! I have done this before and would like to set up a regular class near me. Being fat is definitely not a negative, and I have had (and have been) many non-thin dance/zumba/aerobics teachers.
Also, RunBet and StepBet have been consistently making me $$ and are addictive.
Final thought, it's always fun for me to read someone talking about age as a limiting factor, and I sit there nodding my head thinking yep it's a little bit true, this is what the future holds for me... then I read their age and they are 15 years younger than me haha! Exercise has made me eternally young.
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I would highly recommend a service that tests your gut microbiome (the bacteria in your digestive tract). i did this about 18 months ago and followed the food recommendations based upon the gut bacteria i did or did not have. i easily lost weight with just changing in and out a few foods. everyone is different through, my wife has a completely different set of stomach bugs and its hard to cook for both of us.
we used viome, i highly recommend it, i just did a retest because of some antibiotics use several months ago
diet is where everything starts with loosing weight and getting the ball rolling
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On strength training: does anyone have suggestions for how to motivate or incorporate strength training into daily life? I've never been able to stick to a fitness routine, or any sort of "exercise" for its own sake; I need some other motivation.
MMM helped me with getting moving, with all the arguments for walking, biking etc. for practical Mustachian reasons. I walk to lunch, dance to music, jog up stairs since it's faster than the elevator, etc. But aside from maybe carrying groceries occasionally, I've struggled to come up with similar rationales for strength exercises. Ideas?
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I was going to write a long reply to GuitarStv and brute and get into a debate etc but this thread is about exercise for fat people and I feel I've started to derail it. Your avergae fat person is probably too self conscious to go to a gym or get on a bike. It mihgt not be possible
Guitarstv - a 160km bike ride is not something a fat person is going to be doing any time soon. I didn't get what you meant about that study on less than 40 men being too small to draw conclusions.
brute - I'm sure you realise this, but there is a whole spectrum of strength training out there. At one end you have 1RM attempts on major barbell movements with 5+ minutes between sets, and at the other you have lighter weights (possibly bodyweight) performed in a circuit training fashion with very little rest between sets. I opt for a halfway house between the two and get plenty of "cardio effect" without doing any cardio. Recently sprinted up a steep, rocky hill, roughly 100 yards, faster than a teenager who was out running and when I got to the top, I had plenty left in the tank, more than him. I don't do any running. But I do perform relatively heavy leg work in the 12-20 rep range 3 times a week with no more than 2 minutes between sets, some time as little as 45 seconds between sets. It's far more demanding on my thighs, glutes and cardio system than a quick sprint up a hill. Our heart and lungs are slaves to our muscular system. It doesn't matter how you work your muscles. If you place demands on them, your heart and lungs have to kick into action to supply them with what you need. People have now idea of the simultaneous conditioning and muscle building effect that weights can give you. It gives you everything traditional cardio does, and a load more benefits that cardio doesn't.
When you lost 150 pounds - what dietary changes did you make? That would have been responsible for most of the weight loss.
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Youtube "yoga with adriene." It's gentle and strength training and won't strain knees or make anything bounce that you want still. She's really great. She says the 5 min of yoga that you do is better for you than the hour of yoga that you don't do. She has lots of short videos, some 5 min long for office use. She's got some 30 day programs that build on themselves and vary in length. It is not just stretches--it can really be a workout. But you can do it at home whenever so weather doesn't matter. You don't need special shoes or clothes or equipment and you feet and knees won't hurt. It won't cause more damage to already aging and strained body parts. I don't like bringing this bod to the gym or the pool. Weight lifting sounding good but you need weights. Running is a no-go if you're currently heavy and have had past knee issues--wait until you're more fit for that. Really yoga is the perfect excercise if you're over weight--or anybody really.
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Totally disagree with biking and swimming for overweight people who don't excericse. I'm overweight and do not want to change in a locker room, and squeeze into a swim suit and the sight of my giant butt on my tiny bike seat is something no one needs to be exposed to. Plus balance is way off if you never excercise.
If you're just starting you don't want to buy special clothes, shoes, and equipment, or have to go to the gym. Yoga with Adrienne until your balance is good, your joints are strong, and you feel like taking it outside.
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Totally disagree with biking and swimming for overweight people who don't excericse. I'm overweight and do not want to change in a locker room, and squeeze into a swim suit and the sight of my giant butt on my tiny bike seat is something no one needs to be exposed to. Plus balance is way off if you never excercise.
If you're just starting you don't want to buy special clothes, shoes, and equipment, or have to go to the gym. Yoga with Adrienne until your balance is good, your joints are strong, and you feel like taking it outside.
All this fancy stuff - Don't forget the value of long walks. Good for muscles, thought and digestion. Plus you sleep better. Walks are good enough for many of us to have our endorphins stirred up too.
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On strength training: does anyone have suggestions for how to motivate or incorporate strength training into daily life? I've never been able to stick to a fitness routine, or any sort of "exercise" for its own sake; I need some other motivation.
This will be different for everyone. You're kinda responsible for your own motivation and need to find something that is exciting to you. I like riding my bike . . . going on long bike rides is an extension of that. I liked competing in martial arts tournaments . . . so martial arts were a way to do that. Getting stronger is really exciting, so lifting weights regularly and seeing my strength improve over time was fun.
It's best to dedicate a chunk of time to working on stuff directly, but there's always a way you can get some amount of strength training while doing other stuff. Carry your backpack with you everywhere you walk and put a 25 lb plate in it, or a bag of rice or something. Bike to the grocery store and haul things back on your bike rather than drive. Put a chin-up bar on the bathroom door frame and make yourself do 10 pull-ups each time you use the washroom. Every commercial break that comes up as you're watching TV do 20 burpees. Hell, even just changing your tires from winter to summer/summer to winter can involve a lot of lifting and pushing.
The key is developing it into a habit so that it feels weird to not being working out every day. Another key is to record what you're doing so that you can see the improvement you're making over time.
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Totally disagree with biking and swimming for overweight people who don't excericse. I'm overweight and do not want to change in a locker room, and squeeze into a swim suit and the sight of my giant butt on my tiny bike seat is something no one needs to be exposed to. Plus balance is way off if you never excercise.
If you're just starting you don't want to buy special clothes, shoes, and equipment, or have to go to the gym. Yoga with Adrienne until your balance is good, your joints are strong, and you feel like taking it outside.
Thing is, swimming is just, for me, relaxing and great on the joints. I swam all through my second pregnancy, dealing with the jokes about overflowing the pool (the pool was filled to the top already). Water exercise in general is good on the joints.
There's nothing special equipment about a swim suit. I swim early mornings at the Y, with a bunch of old farts (really, at 48 I'm the youngest, most are in their 70s and 80s). Half of them are overweight too, and nobody cares. Because I go first thing, I actually put my suit on at home. Then shower and change in the locker room after. There are rooms for that if you like, at my Y.
Also I'm mostly a fan of recumbent bikes. Less balance required.
Mostly off topic, for spring break this year we spent two days at Great Wolf Lodge, which is a giant indoor water park. It was fabulous. There were ALL ages and ALL types of bodies there, in their suits, going down the slides. It was refreshing, because in the media you only see perfect bodies. Here, you saw everything - and the best part was, if you wanted to have fun - you had to get over yourself. Yup, I have big thighs and cellulite. Nobody cares. There were only a handful of people in full coverups.
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On strength training: does anyone have suggestions for how to motivate or incorporate strength training into daily life? I've never been able to stick to a fitness routine, or any sort of "exercise" for its own sake; I need some other motivation.
MMM helped me with getting moving, with all the arguments for walking, biking etc. for practical Mustachian reasons. I walk to lunch, dance to music, jog up stairs since it's faster than the elevator, etc. But aside from maybe carrying groceries occasionally, I've struggled to come up with similar rationales for strength exercises. Ideas?
I struggle with this too. The only thing that has worked for me is a plan of some sort.
Currently: I belong to a gym and take weight training classes.
In the past: I've done "challenges" (pushups/ squats/ crunches) for a month - a certain # each day.
Also: on-line workouts. I'm a fan of beachbody, but there are plenty of free ones. But for me, just having access isn't enough. I literally HAVE to write out a schedule of what I'm going to do each day. (Which is why BB works for me - I pick a program, write out the calendar and follow it). Oh, it's Thursday, LEG DAY.
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On strength training: does anyone have suggestions for how to motivate or incorporate strength training into daily life? I've never been able to stick to a fitness routine, or any sort of "exercise" for its own sake; I need some other motivation.
MMM helped me with getting moving, with all the arguments for walking, biking etc. for practical Mustachian reasons. I walk to lunch, dance to music, jog up stairs since it's faster than the elevator, etc. But aside from maybe carrying groceries occasionally, I've struggled to come up with similar rationales for strength exercises. Ideas?
I struggle with this too. The only thing that has worked for me is a plan of some sort.
Currently: I belong to a gym and take weight training classes.
In the past: I've done "challenges" (pushups/ squats/ crunches) for a month - a certain # each day.
Also: on-line workouts. I'm a fan of beachbody, but there are plenty of free ones. But for me, just having access isn't enough. I literally HAVE to write out a schedule of what I'm going to do each day. (Which is why BB works for me - I pick a program, write out the calendar and follow it). Oh, it's Thursday, LEG DAY.
On strength training: does anyone have suggestions for how to motivate or incorporate strength training into daily life? I've never been able to stick to a fitness routine, or any sort of "exercise" for its own sake; I need some other motivation.
This will be different for everyone. You're kinda responsible for your own motivation and need to find something that is exciting to you. I like riding my bike . . . going on long bike rides is an extension of that. I liked competing in martial arts tournaments . . . so martial arts were a way to do that. Getting stronger is really exciting, so lifting weights regularly and seeing my strength improve over time was fun.
It's best to dedicate a chunk of time to working on stuff directly, but there's always a way you can get some amount of strength training while doing other stuff. Carry your backpack with you everywhere you walk and put a 25 lb plate in it, or a bag of rice or something. Bike to the grocery store and haul things back on your bike rather than drive. Put a chin-up bar on the bathroom door frame and make yourself do 10 pull-ups each time you use the washroom. Every commercial break that comes up as you're watching TV do 20 burpees. Hell, even just changing your tires from winter to summer/summer to winter can involve a lot of lifting and pushing.
The key is developing it into a habit so that it feels weird to not being working out every day. Another key is to record what you're doing so that you can see the improvement you're making over time.
Thanks, all!
I suppose I was hoping for some perfectly seamless solution, as I tend to adhere poorly to arbitrary-seeming additions to my routine (through a weird combination of laziness and over-optimization impulses).
But maybe when I move in a few months, I'll have a window to create new routines which will stick. That's kind of how the walking and stairs thing happened a few years ago, and I think it makes it easier to establish new norms, since I'm not just changing one thing out of the blue. Guess I need to think about what specific habits I want to incorporate when the time comes.
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I got a pool floatation belt and did my first pool workout today. Wow! Definitely a great workout, and I felt it was a good mix of cardio and resistance. I also liked that I could adjust the resistance quite easily. Bend the legs a little, turn the hands from flat to sideways, etc. And I overheat quite easily (and always have, even when I was in prime condition) so the pool clearly helps with that aspect of things.
I'm feeling super worn out, in a great way, this evening.
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I haven't read through all the posts here so I apologize if this is a repeat, but I highly recommend Fitness Blender. Their videos are free, you can do everything at home with little to no equipment, or you can improvise things like water bottles for weights. Look for Low Impact Cardio or Total Body Toning which both help you burn a lot of calories and work up a decent sweat without any jumping or bouncing. Good luck and keep at it.
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If you are too self-conscious for a gym because you think everyone will be great looking, I agree that you might want to look at your local Y, because they get a huge range of people - fat, skinny, old, young, gym rats, people just starting.
Strength training - I find that carrying the 40# bag of kitty litter downstairs and the basket of wet laundry upstairs is pretty good exercise, but I also have a couple of kettle balls sitting in the kitchen and I do some lifts with those every day, several times/day.
And you can buy a pretty nice exercise bike for $200 (less on Craigs list, I'm sure) and plunk it right in front of the tv. I really love mine.
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This last year I've had to seek out exercise for "really unfit people" that wouldn't make my injured parts worse, or my non-injured parts bad by overcompensating for my injury.
One thing I've found that really helps how I physically feel is doing joint exercises called CARs, for Controlled Articular Rotations. Basically you move each joint through its range of motion, slowly and with a little bit of tension in the muscles. I was very surprised the first time I did it that I was sweating - it makes you really use your muscles in a focused way, with similar concentration to what you'd need for lifting a weight, and moving slow enough to know when you've reached the limit. I'm not great yet at doing them daily (more like once or twice a week), but I definitely enjoy the results.
I am someone who needs visual direction to know I'm doing things right, so here's the first YouTube result that looks like what I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbkDfRoAuwc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbkDfRoAuwc)
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I am someone who needs visual direction to know I'm doing things right, so here's the first YouTube result that looks like what I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbkDfRoAuwc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbkDfRoAuwc)
Wow, thanks for that. I've bookmarked it and I'm gonna start doing it.
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I've been keeping up with the pool workouts and really enjoy them. Not much additional movement on the scale, but a noticeable difference in my body and the fit of my clothes. However, I am starving, and exhausted. I'm working out for about 40 minutes at a fairly high intensity (out of breath, can speak but not carry on a conversation), with short breaks or intermittent easier exercises, so I don't think I'm over doing it. Every night, I am absolutely dragging. My legs feel tired, but pleasantly so. My overall body (or mind?) feels super exhausted and sleepy. And I am ravenous nearly all the time. I'm trying to resist the urge to eat more, but... soooo hungry!
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If you've added in 40 minutes of high intensity exercise every day for the last five days... yeah, of course you're sleepy and ravenous! That's a really big change in the amount you're moving your body around.
Since you have an athletic background, it probably doesn't feel like you're exercising very much -- but it also sounds like this is a big change from what your exercise regimen has been lately. Going at a lower intensity or going less frequently will likely help a lot with the sleepiness/hunger.
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For me (another fat guy working to be a not-so fat guy), I find when I get really hungry, I'll drink a glass of water instead of reaching for food. Most times it does the trick ... for times it doesn't I grab a handful of grapes from the fridge.
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I've been keeping up with the pool workouts and really enjoy them. Not much additional movement on the scale, but a noticeable difference in my body and the fit of my clothes. However, I am starving, and exhausted. I'm working out for about 40 minutes at a fairly high intensity (out of breath, can speak but not carry on a conversation), with short breaks or intermittent easier exercises, so I don't think I'm over doing it. Every night, I am absolutely dragging. My legs feel tired, but pleasantly so. My overall body (or mind?) feels super exhausted and sleepy. And I am ravenous nearly all the time. I'm trying to resist the urge to eat more, but... soooo hungry!
Have you tried drinking a glass of fat free chocolate milk after your workout? A cup is only 140 calories and it makes an almost perfect recovery drink with protien, carbs, and electrolytes. I've found it really helps.
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I had plenty of muscle memory for swimming when I took it up again, but I had no actual fitness. The first couple of weeks, 20 minutes of low intensity swimming (which felt ok while I was doing it) would nevertheless leave me shaking so much I couldn't boost myself out of the pool at the end...had to use the ladder...I couldn't believe it! And I slept like the dead, too.
Now, after a couple years, I can swim at medium to high intensity for 45-60 minutes, pop out of the pool like a cork, and feel MORE energetic than when I went in. But I do get a bit hungrier for dinner swimming this way (which is fine b/c normally my appetite is very poor).
Give it time. You'll pick up conditioning quickly at the rate you are going.
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I found another video that I had stashed which is great for this thread. It’s only 5 minutes long and is definitely worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTiiz99p9o (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTiiz99p9o)
PURPOSE:
METHODS:
RESULTS:
Sadly I couldn't find any details on exactly what aerobics or strength training programs these people undertook. I would love to see the results of the study if it were conducted again with the addition of a 4th group who did only diet and strength training, but no aerobics. Chances are they would come out on top as they would obtain all the benefits of diet and strength training, but wouldn't have aerobics needlessly eating into their ability to recover from the strength training sessions, meaning they would gain more muscle and strength and possibly lose even more fat.
Hey @Spud, I wanted to recognize the effort that went into writing this post. I really appreciate when folks find external data. In addition to that, not only did you concisely summarize it for us but you also discussed the merits and flaws of the research.
+1 for effort
+1k for critical thinking
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Hey @Spud, I wanted to recognize the effort that went into writing this post. I really appreciate when folks find external data. In addition to that, not only did you concisely summarize it for us but you also discussed the merits and flaws of the research.
+1 for effort
+1k for critical thinking
Hey @GreenToTheCore
Thanks for the props. I’m glad someone appreciates it. I love this stuff. The only thing stopping me working as a trainer or coach in this field is the low pay and lack of job security. I’ve spent more than a decade doing informal study because I find it so interesting.
----
On another note, people often mention the benefits of “cardio” or “aerobics” when it comes to the health of their heart.
My personal theory is that too much emphasis is placed on our hearts and “exercising” them. This probably sounds like madness when you consider that the CDC data shows that Heart disease is the leading cause of death with 647,457 people dying from it in 2017.
Number of deaths for leading causes of death:
• Heart disease: 647,457
• Cancer: 599,108
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
• Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
• Diabetes: 83,564
• Influenza and pneumonia: 55,672
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,633
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173
What I’d like to do is look at those 647,457 cases of heart disease related deaths. I’d like to remove all of those cases with a family history of heart disease (genetics). I’d like to remove smokers. Finally, I’d like to remove any of the cases that were classified as being either overweight or obese.
When I say overweight or obese I’m talking about removing anyone with a BMI of 25 or more based on the scale below.
BMI of Adults Ages 20 and Older
• 18.5 to 24.9 - Normal weight
• 25 to 29.9 - Overweight
• 30 or higher - Obesity
• 40 or higher - Extreme obesity
Once you’d removed everyone who fell into one or more of those categories I don’t think you’d be left with very many cases at all.
Note, I haven’t said I’d like to remove all the cases where the people didn’t do cardio for a minimum of 30 minutes, 3 times a week for the last 40 years of their life. Why not? Firstly, it would be almost impossible to calculate, but also, I genuinely don’t think that aerobic exercise is not as important a factor compared with the 3 categories that I’d remove from the CDC data.
My hierarchy of importance would be something like
• Family History of heart disease
• Smoking
• Bodyweight/Fat (How many calories you consume)
• Alcohol consumption
• Stress levels - (Work stress, family/relationship stress, money worries, anything causing stress).
• Sleep quality/quantity (very closely linked with the previous point on stress)
• Content of your diet (not how many calories you consume, but WHAT you actually eat)
• Strength training
• Aerobics
The truth is there is probably a bunch of other stuff that should go between Strength training and aerobics.
That's right folks, I’m making the very bold statement that if:
• You're lucky enough to NOT be genetically predisposed to have heart problems
• You're fairly lean
• You don’t smoke
Then you're probably not going to be killed by heart disease or lung disease regardless of "cardio" or "aerobics".
Strength training on the other hand addresses a myriad of physical problems that you WILL face as you age that cardio doesn't.
Your musculoskeletal system will deteriorate as you age. Most people on the planet blindly accept this as just being part of normal aging and there is nothing that can be done. You lose muscle (sarcopenia). Your posture changes, you lose the ability to coordinate and balance, everything that you do in your daily life becomes more of an effort because as well as losing muscle mass, the muscles that you're left with can't produce as much force (strength) as they did decades earlier, and heavy shopping bags, grandchildren, the vacuum cleaner, the lawnmower, the neighbour's dog, a pot of stew from the oven, anything that you push, pull, lift or carry becomes harder. Eventually you become so weak that you can't live independently and you either have to have other people routinely come into your home to look after you and do embarrassingly basic stuff, or you have to move into a care home full time, at great cost to you and your family. At the tail end of life, people become so weak and frail that they can't even stand up on their own, let alone walk, get dressed or carry the lightest of objects. The look like emaciated. Quite simply, what good is an amazing heart if you can’t get out of your chair?
Strength training, even once a week for 20 minutes, if done consistently, starting now, at the age of 70 or younger (the younger the better) will mean that when you do get old, whilst you won't look like a bodybuilder, or an athlete, or a swimwear model, you'll be the one that is still chasing after your grandchildren and living an active independent life. It works like compound interest. The earlier you start and the more consistent you are, the more muscle/strength and physical freedom you’ll have when you retire.
Your muscles and the physical strength they give you (which I guarantee you currently take for granted because you probably don’t think of yourself as STRONG) are the difference between health vitality, freedom, and, well, the opposite.
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I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore.
I didn't understand fat people. Now that I am one of them, I realize that exercise as an in-shape person is an entirely different thing. I've always hated running, but if I felt compelled to do so, I could put on some headphones and pound the pavement pretty much indefinitely. Now, I don't have the stamina for that, of course, and also, it hurts, and not in a good way. I'm not morbidly obese or anything, but the increased weight on the older joints mean many activities hurt, and in ways that don't feel good or healthy. So coming up with things that will push me enough to make progress, but not injure me or hurt me so much that I will not continue them is a real challenge.
Walking doesn't seem like quite enough. I don't get winded, or barely so. Running--nope. Any recommendations for a healthy way to start cardio for a fattie? (I'll also do some strength training, likely just body weight stuff for now -- lord knows I have enough of that so I can put it to good use!-- and have that mostly covered, although even that is more challenging than it should be because after a couple dozen lunges, for example, my legs are wobbly enough to make me concerned they might not hold me up.
Seriously, as a slim person, I never understood how hard it was to start working out when you are fat!
I'm late to this, but first thing I want to say is: in every gym I have been a member of, fat/obese/overweight people are not shamed. We welcome you, because #1 it takes guts to walk into a gym. You're better than those who make excuses "I'll start tomorrow".
I've been 140 lbs soaking wet, I've been 185. I'm now stable in the 160-165 lbs range. I don't run much, I'm over 40. Instead I prefer using the elliptical machine, seated bike or a spin bike or the stair climber. Do that for 20-30 mins everyday, then also lift some weights for 30-45 mins.
You will notice that you'll burn fat and gain muscle tone. It is important to build muscle, don't focus on losing weight only. Those wobbly legs will go away. Also work on core exercises.
Do an hour everyday, you may think you're not doing much, but actually you're doing the equivalent of dollar cost averaging. Some days will be worse, others better, but in the long run it'll be better for your health like putting your money in VTSAX.
If you're in the gym, you're liable to do something, anything. That will make you better. Worst case, you'll go home and sleep better. The trick is to get out of the house, out of your comfort zone, away from distractions.
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I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore........................I have not always been fat.
Walking doesn't seem like quite enough.
Seriously, as a slim person, I never understood how hard it was to start working out when you are fat!
From 26-29 I put on 35 pounds. I joined a gym and it was okay. Then I got a personal trainer and trained for a boxing match. Boxing was my life, and I would be in the gym 1-3 hours a day, 4-5 times a week. I also read boxing biographies, watched hours of fights, etc.
Boxing is cardio, so you don't have to run, but I sometimes did, as much as 15 miles some days, but usually more like 3.
6 months later I weighed in at 172 (down from 203), and came in a very decisive second place in my fight.
A month later I was actually down to 160 based more on momentum, I think, than anything else, and was able to sustain a trim, attractive weight for 2 years with little exercise while working at a desk all day. I'd have fought again, but really just ran out of time with new work opportunities and 4 kids at home.
I walk a good deal now, but it's not cutting it. My legs look good, but I have a belly sticking out and pathetic looking pecs that are losing to gravity.
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Here's an interesting hour long presentation by a guy who trains people for a living and practices what he preaches.
It's about all the benefits of strength training that you can't see with the naked eye, and basically contains all the reasons you should be lifting weights/strength training.
Strength Training & The Biomarkers of Aging | Skyler Tanner (https://youtu.be/NFswpRSXxjA?t=155)
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What about basic fitness, to ward off heart attacks triggered by unusual physical demands (running to catch a bus, shoveling snow, etc.)? Can purely strength training get you that, or would you still need at least little bit of aerobic activity as well?
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Here's an interesting hour long presentation by a guy who trains people for a living and practices what he preaches.
It's about all the benefits of strength training that you can't see with the naked eye, and basically contains all the reasons you should be lifting weights/strength training.
Strength Training & The Biomarkers of Aging | Skyler Tanner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFswpRSXxjA)
Thanks for linking that vid. Watched it a while back. Still relevant.
I see a lot of older folks in my Y, we all push each other and encourage. Yesterday I was working out for a bit with a 70 yo eye doc who's also a family friend. The best part is when the younger guys tell the older guys "great job, wanna look fit like you when old".
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What about basic fitness, to ward off heart attacks triggered by unusual physical demands (running to catch a bus, shoveling snow, etc.)? Can purely strength training get you that, or would you still need at least little bit of aerobic activity as well?
Weight training still works your heart, gets the blood pumping, and can even be a form of cardio.
Ever flip a tire? You'll be breathing real heavy in no time with those squat/lifts.
I also find that my heart rate stays up when I hit 8-10 machines in just 15 minutes, often scooting around people who look at their phone between sets.
Leaving the gym I feel I've been there too short a time, but 'm shaking a bit and catching my breath.
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Didn't read the thread, but I really like Mark Lauren. He's got some good bodyweight exercises. The best exercises are the ones you actually do, so if you don't need equipment or a gym, you might find it more accessible. And they are adaptable for people that identify as large.
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In case anyone is interested, I'm slightly less fat. lol I'm down about 10 pounds. (Some of that is surely diet changes, however.) Still a ways to go, but progress. I'm enjoying the workouts, but still exhausted after each one. (Perhaps not as ravenous though, but that's subjective and I can't say for sure.) I'm not really doing a set workout. I just push myself and ramp things up or down based on my breathing or how my body feels. Some days it's more intervals and others I attempt to maintain a moderate pace for a bit longer. It's not like running where you can check your pace/distance. So I suspect that means as I get slightly more fit, I'm working harder/more. In light of that, I suppose it makes sense that I'm just as exhausted, but I'm hesitant to intentionally ease off, as that seems silly.
In addition to the weight loss, I'm definitely seeing differences in my level of fitness. I can run up and down the stairs a few times and no longer feel winded, which is nice. I'm perhaps a bit less achy after a long day on my feet as well.
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That’s great news! 10 pounds is awesome.
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I was always in shape and from 40-50 I put on 60lbs and just couldnt get it off. I fire'd and the first thing I did was say to myself no need to rush but start now. I got up every morning around 4am and went for a 2 hour walk and made sure my lunch was a healthy one as I knew with kids etc.. that was the one meal I could make sure was loaded with veggies etc.. I lost the 60lbs in 3 months. Going on 5 years I have put on about 10 of that lbs but everyone said I was too skinny and my doctor even said the ten lbs was better.
As far as overweight people at the gym as I go to the Y now and do alot of the elliptical and spin classes and some lifting , I give them credit if there working out for sure. Now overweight or thin there are way to many people that go to the gym and just stand around. Get in , work hard , get out and clean up one part of your diet at a time and no one thats worth there weight in salt will judge you imo. If they do f**k em! Good luck to ya
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Another update:
Down a couple more pounds. Still fairly slow progress on that front. But my clothes are fitting differently. A couple of pairs of shorts are now too large to wear. (Well, I can wear them but they sit ridiculously low on my hips and look awful.) Many other things are fitting better. Have gotten a couple of comments from people (who don't know I'm doing anything different or trying to make changes), so I feel quite confident stuff is happening, even is scale progress is slower than an elderly snail.
Most of this is no doubt due to the continuing pool workouts. Still doing a lot of the deep water stuff with the flotation belt, and I've also started swimming laps in pool. I'm a fairly terrible swimmer, and that gross ineffeciency of movement really helps it be a good workout. lol Most workouts are 45 minutes+ now (originally they were 25-35). And I'm far less exhausted afterward, which is nice as it means I can continue to function, and I don't have to make sure I've accomplished most of the things I need to do before I get in the pool. My body feels tired, but I'm not exhausted.
I'm also eating somewhat better, but since that wasn't the point of the thread, I'll leave it at that.
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
What's the opposite of Zen? Whatever it is, I think that's a much better description of what I achieve. I've actually found that leaving on the floatation belt allows me to concentrate more on my form. I generally do a set (of my non-Olympic sized pool, down and back), then a set with just arms, then just legs, then both again. I'm trying to get comfortable with timing the breathing with putting my face in and out of the water. Sometimes, I'll stand in the shallower area and do arms just to drive the rhythm of the breathing into my muscles.
It is REALLY making me want a set of waterproof headphones. I'm sure they exist, but the only ones I found on a quick search were really spendy. Music would make things so much better!
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
What's the opposite of Zen? Whatever it is, I think that's a much better description of what I achieve. I've actually found that leaving on the floatation belt allows me to concentrate more on my form. I generally do a set (of my non-Olympic sized pool, down and back), then a set with just arms, then just legs, then both again. I'm trying to get comfortable with timing the breathing with putting my face in and out of the water. Sometimes, I'll stand in the shallower area and do arms just to drive the rhythm of the breathing into my muscles.
It is REALLY making me want a set of waterproof headphones. I'm sure they exist, but the only ones I found on a quick search were really spendy. Music would make things so much better!
It's great to hear about your progress!
I might have mentioned up thread, but when I took up regular lap swimming after almost 20 years away, I had to actually relearn proper stroke technique b/c the way I was taught as a young competitive swimmer is now considered inefficient and also damaging to the shoulder joints. And a weird side effect of having to concentrate so hard on my form, swim after swim for about 6 months, was that I had accidentally stumbled on a form of meditation without realizing that was what I was doing: Intense focus on a simple element of movement + breathing, for long minutes at a time. And I got INCREDIBLE additional mental benefit from that. It took me more than a year to realize the reason. Unfortunately, now my stroke technique is really good and automatic, and I no longer automatically 'meditate' while swimming, so I have to actively try to meditate instead of letting my mind wander all over, which is harder. I have occasionally considered getting headphones as well, but if I do, maybe I'll listen to mediation tapes while I swim!
If I didn't give these stroke tips for freestyle up-thread:
Pretend your body is being pulled through the water on a spit that emerges in the middle of your forehead (to keep your body straight, and horizontal in the water (you don't want your head too high, nor your hips and legs to drop too much). Concentrate on rolling your torso quite a bit back and forth with each stroke, so that you can naturally and comfortably breath directly to the side without raising your chin; and reach each arm straight forward from your shoulder to enter the water with your palm down, rather than reaching toward the 'midline' with your thumb down. Pull straight down your side with a slightly bent elbow and keeping your palm facing the wall of the pool behind you.
I had to really concentrate to break my old technique, especially to keep a strong rotation (I was taught to keep my torso flatter in the water) but the new way really is much easier, more efficient, and doesn't cause shoulder pain...hallelujah!
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Thank you! Many of those tips are new, and next time I get in the pool, I'll see where I'm at WRT to them!
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
What's the opposite of Zen? Whatever it is, I think that's a much better description of what I achieve. I've actually found that leaving on the floatation belt allows me to concentrate more on my form. I generally do a set (of my non-Olympic sized pool, down and back), then a set with just arms, then just legs, then both again. I'm trying to get comfortable with timing the breathing with putting my face in and out of the water. Sometimes, I'll stand in the shallower area and do arms just to drive the rhythm of the breathing into my muscles.
It is REALLY making me want a set of waterproof headphones. I'm sure they exist, but the only ones I found on a quick search were really spendy. Music would make things so much better!
Hahaha
“The opposite of zen” is how I feel when I try to do real swimming, i.e. the crawl stroke or whatever they call it. It feels like I am barely controlling my panic because I am on the cusp of drowning.
So I do every other stroke but: back strokes, side stroke, breast stroke. I need to breathe and the traditional swimming stroke doesn’t support that for me. But I nice side stroke where I don’t have to fear for breathe or a back stroke when the pool is indoors is really lovely.
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I want to thank Spud for his informative post, it really condenses a lot of important information.
I've never had a weight problem per se, but realize from reading these posts I have been doing a lot of the things people should do. Up until 3 years ago, walking was my main form of transportation. I'd walk to and from work (between 1- 1.5 miles). I also like just putting music on and dancing to it solo or with kid. So what I want to say even though everyone says diet is more important, being physically active for me is even more important. It is good for me to maintain muscle, areobic capacity and most importantly makes me feel more in touch with my body. I didn't say this but someone else said I treat my body like an expensive sports car.
Food. I've never been on a diet per se I hate the word "diet" (sounds like deprivation) but one thing that was important to me most of my life, was preparing my own food. Mostly because a) I'm cheap and b) I have a sugar addiction so if I make my own baked goods I can control (reduce) how much sugar is in them.
For the first time in my life I actually have to start watching what I eat because I now drive at least half the days (drive kids to school and so drive as well) and my diet has gotten worse from lack of time I have been buying more preprepared foods. Again if you make your own food you know what you are eating. It is important! Prepared and fast foods have so much fat, flavoring, salt you might need a re-set. I don't have the habit of going to fast food places, and now both my kids a) don't like soda they would rather drink water and b) don't like fast food like mcDonalds or Burger king because it tastes weird to them.
Just like people can have bad habits, it's all about other habits. The things that work for me: have physical activity be a part of your daily life, either walking walking dog, swim days, etc. Have in your house simple to make food that is easy to eat (things I like are: canned lentil soup, canned beans, sardines, fresh veg that can be steamed). Restrict the amount of snacky stuff in the house that might be eaten instead of real food. Since I love snackng I've been eating things like sorbet or sunflower seeds, and also a bit of dark chocolate with nuts or peanut m and ms.
Also in general I don't in general "drink" my calories. If I have coffee I have it with 1% milk or almond milk and either no sugar or a little agave syrup. Same with teas. Don't have soda in the house. I used to have wine 5 days a week but now enjoying it more like 2, 3 days a week, and so only buy wine every other week. Consider restricting alcoholic bevs if that is a problem.
And I agree to some extent, that the number of pounds should not be only the benchmark. I worked on a study and there were some big people. There were also a couple people that while not small I did not think they would qualify for the study (had to have a certain bmi) but I was shocked when they would get on the scale and I saw their number. And in the study they were the ones that continued and improved on exercising daily including weight bearing exercises, even if they didn't feel like it, and were watching what they were eating. Maybe they were never going to be stick thin but they looked good and were healthy, probably healthier than I am.
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
What's the opposite of Zen? Whatever it is, I think that's a much better description of what I achieve. I've actually found that leaving on the floatation belt allows me to concentrate more on my form. I generally do a set (of my non-Olympic sized pool, down and back), then a set with just arms, then just legs, then both again. I'm trying to get comfortable with timing the breathing with putting my face in and out of the water. Sometimes, I'll stand in the shallower area and do arms just to drive the rhythm of the breathing into my muscles.
It is REALLY making me want a set of waterproof headphones. I'm sure they exist, but the only ones I found on a quick search were really spendy. Music would make things so much better!
Hahaha
“The opposite of zen” is how I feel when I try to do real swimming, i.e. the crawl stroke or whatever they call it. It feels like I am barely controlling my panic because I am on the cusp of drowning.
So I do every other stroke but: back strokes, side stroke, breast stroke. I need to breathe and the traditional swimming stroke doesn’t support that for me. But I nice side stroke where I don’t have to fear for breathe or a back stroke when the pool is indoors is really lovely.
There are a couple of things that could be causing the breathing problem if you are doing crawl/freestyle. One of them (body density that makes you sink) isn't easily manageable. My husband has this problem...he literally can't float b/c his body is too dense, so has to expend extra energy keeping himself on the surface when he swims. His technique is decent, and he breathes correctly to the side, but he simply runs out of air quickly b/c of the extra effort of keeping himself high enough in the water to breathe. Fins help him, but fins are also an extra leg workout that might or might not be welcome. Very light float belts can sometimes help also. At any rate, you should be able to tell whether this is your problem by whether your natural float point on your back keeps your face above the surface without moving your limbs. My husband sinks about 4-5 inches below surface before he 'floats' (or as he calls it, 'drowns').
If that isn't it, and you don't have actual breathing problems related to heath conditions, then it's probably just a matter of fixing your stroke technique.
The big problem I see all the time in freestyle is people lift their chin or keep their heads fixed & tipped back/looking forward toward the end of the pool while keeping their torso flat-ish. You shouldn't be looking toward the end of the pool when you swim; it throws the stroke totally off and makes everything, esp. breathing, a lot more difficult. (It's also one of the reasons that butterfly is so taxing...that stroke requires you to lift your chin and breath to the front, which makes sufficient oxygenation for that strenuous stroke even tougher). That type of problem is usually pretty fixable with a little practice.
The other thing to remember is you should be fully exhaling while your face is under, to clear room for the inhale when your face is briefly above water.
Let me re-emphasize: good torso rotation makes everything 1000% easier. Once you have the torso rotation down, then you just have to slow your stroke rate if you need more time to get a good lungful of air.
Incidentally, rotation is also really helpful to do a good, efficient backstroke, though I confess I find it less automatic with that stroke. And I constantly see people doing backstroke with no rotation at all, so that problem is rampant.
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
What's the opposite of Zen? Whatever it is, I think that's a much better description of what I achieve. I've actually found that leaving on the floatation belt allows me to concentrate more on my form. I generally do a set (of my non-Olympic sized pool, down and back), then a set with just arms, then just legs, then both again. I'm trying to get comfortable with timing the breathing with putting my face in and out of the water. Sometimes, I'll stand in the shallower area and do arms just to drive the rhythm of the breathing into my muscles.
It is REALLY making me want a set of waterproof headphones. I'm sure they exist, but the only ones I found on a quick search were really spendy. Music would make things so much better!
Hahaha
“The opposite of zen” is how I feel when I try to do real swimming, i.e. the crawl stroke or whatever they call it. It feels like I am barely controlling my panic because I am on the cusp of drowning.
So I do every other stroke but: back strokes, side stroke, breast stroke. I need to breathe and the traditional swimming stroke doesn’t support that for me. But I nice side stroke where I don’t have to fear for breathe or a back stroke when the pool is indoors is really lovely.
There are a couple of things that could be causing the breathing problem if you are doing crawl/freestyle. One of them (body density that makes you sink) isn't easily manageable. My husband has this problem...he literally can't float b/c his body is too dense, so has to expend extra energy keeping himself on the surface when he swims. His technique is decent, and he breathes correctly to the side, but he simply runs out of air quickly b/c of the extra effort of keeping himself high enough in the water to breathe. Fins help him, but fins are also an extra leg workout that might or might not be welcome. Very light float belts can sometimes help also. At any rate, you should be able to tell whether this is your problem by whether your natural float point on your back keeps your face above the surface without moving your limbs. My husband sinks about 4-5 inches below surface before he 'floats' (or as he calls it, 'drowns').
If that isn't it, and you don't have actual breathing problems related to heath conditions, then it's probably just a matter of fixing your stroke technique.
The big problem I see all the time in freestyle is people lift their chin or keep their heads fixed & tipped back/looking forward toward the end of the pool while keeping their torso flat-ish. You shouldn't be looking toward the end of the pool when you swim; it throws the stroke totally off and makes everything, esp. breathing, a lot more difficult. (It's also one of the reasons that butterfly is so taxing...that stroke requires you to lift your chin and breath to the front, which makes sufficient oxygenation for that strenuous stroke even tougher). That type of problem is usually pretty fixable with a little practice.
The other thing to remember is you should be fully exhaling while your face is under, to clear room for the inhale when your face is briefly above water.
Let me re-emphasize: good torso rotation makes everything 1000% easier. Once you have the torso rotation down, then you just have to slow your stroke rate if you need more time to get a good lungful of air.
Incidentally, rotation is also really helpful to do a good, efficient backstroke, though I confess I find it less automatic with that stroke. And I constantly see people doing backstroke with no rotation at all, so that problem is rampant.
I definitely have enough fat to keep me floating, and I've been wearing the floatation belt besides. I think some of it may be that I'm just that my cardio fitness is still not great. The first length of the pool is easier than the last, for sure. It also seems like if I breathe every left side, it's too fast, but if I breathe every third stroke, it's not quite fast enough. I'm trying to get myself to speed up my arm movement so that every third stroke comes a bit faster. I don't know that this is the right approach, but it feels like what would work, since naturally, I seem to want to breath every 2/5 strokes. (I'd guessing my arm movements are slower than average.)
I'll pay attention to where I'm looking next time I'm in the pool. I *think* I'm looking at the pool floor when my face is in the water, but that may just be when I start out.
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It's funny you mention the non-floaters. DH couldn't float even though he put on 50 lbs over 30 years -- still no floating. My oldest son also cannot float, but both his siblings can. He swam competitively from age 10-18, though. He said he just had to keep moving fast enough to stay on top of the water. If he slowed down, he'd start sinking.
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Awesome progress. Good for you.
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer also but enjoy doing it while pregnant for various reasons. If I can ignore the part where I mostly suck and stick with strokes that don’t make me feel like I am on the verge of drowning then I can get into this nice zen mental state. Do you achieve anything like that?
What's the opposite of Zen? Whatever it is, I think that's a much better description of what I achieve. I've actually found that leaving on the floatation belt allows me to concentrate more on my form. I generally do a set (of my non-Olympic sized pool, down and back), then a set with just arms, then just legs, then both again. I'm trying to get comfortable with timing the breathing with putting my face in and out of the water. Sometimes, I'll stand in the shallower area and do arms just to drive the rhythm of the breathing into my muscles.
It is REALLY making me want a set of waterproof headphones. I'm sure they exist, but the only ones I found on a quick search were really spendy. Music would make things so much better!
Hahaha
“The opposite of zen” is how I feel when I try to do real swimming, i.e. the crawl stroke or whatever they call it. It feels like I am barely controlling my panic because I am on the cusp of drowning.
So I do every other stroke but: back strokes, side stroke, breast stroke. I need to breathe and the traditional swimming stroke doesn’t support that for me. But I nice side stroke where I don’t have to fear for breathe or a back stroke when the pool is indoors is really lovely.
There are a couple of things that could be causing the breathing problem if you are doing crawl/freestyle. One of them (body density that makes you sink) isn't easily manageable. My husband has this problem...he literally can't float b/c his body is too dense, so has to expend extra energy keeping himself on the surface when he swims. His technique is decent, and he breathes correctly to the side, but he simply runs out of air quickly b/c of the extra effort of keeping himself high enough in the water to breathe. Fins help him, but fins are also an extra leg workout that might or might not be welcome. Very light float belts can sometimes help also. At any rate, you should be able to tell whether this is your problem by whether your natural float point on your back keeps your face above the surface without moving your limbs. My husband sinks about 4-5 inches below surface before he 'floats' (or as he calls it, 'drowns').
If that isn't it, and you don't have actual breathing problems related to heath conditions, then it's probably just a matter of fixing your stroke technique.
The big problem I see all the time in freestyle is people lift their chin or keep their heads fixed & tipped back/looking forward toward the end of the pool while keeping their torso flat-ish. You shouldn't be looking toward the end of the pool when you swim; it throws the stroke totally off and makes everything, esp. breathing, a lot more difficult. (It's also one of the reasons that butterfly is so taxing...that stroke requires you to lift your chin and breath to the front, which makes sufficient oxygenation for that strenuous stroke even tougher). That type of problem is usually pretty fixable with a little practice.
The other thing to remember is you should be fully exhaling while your face is under, to clear room for the inhale when your face is briefly above water.
Let me re-emphasize: good torso rotation makes everything 1000% easier. Once you have the torso rotation down, then you just have to slow your stroke rate if you need more time to get a good lungful of air.
Incidentally, rotation is also really helpful to do a good, efficient backstroke, though I confess I find it less automatic with that stroke. And I constantly see people doing backstroke with no rotation at all, so that problem is rampant.
I definitely have enough fat to keep me floating, and I've been wearing the floatation belt besides. I think some of it may be that I'm just that my cardio fitness is still not great. The first length of the pool is easier than the last, for sure. It also seems like if I breathe every left side, it's too fast, but if I breathe every third stroke, it's not quite fast enough. I'm trying to get myself to speed up my arm movement so that every third stroke comes a bit faster. I don't know that this is the right approach, but it feels like what would work, since naturally, I seem to want to breath every 2/5 strokes. (I'd guessing my arm movements are slower than average.)
I'll pay attention to where I'm looking next time I'm in the pool. I *think* I'm looking at the pool floor when my face is in the water, but that may just be when I start out.
Ok, if you're already breathing to the side and you float fine, but you feel things are 'too fast' when you breathe every stroke, you might be lacking extension and glide. Breathing every stroke is very common, and I certainly do it as I get more fatigued during the course of a swim. You might naturally be trying to do a slightly different freestyle technique called 'shoulder driven,' which involves faster stroke turnover and slightly less extension of the arms. Naturally shoulder-driven swimmers tend to 'chop' their arm entry (i.e., they will plunge their hand in closer to their head and immediately begin their pull). This has the effect of increasing your stroke rate; it is considered a style suitable for sprinting but not very conducive to swimming laps unless you are already very fit. It also tends to be more oxygen-intensive.
Most people who swim for general conditioning do 'hip-driven' freestyle for laps, which involves a lot of extension, slower stroke rate, and a beat or two of 'glide' when your hand enters the water. As each hand enters, imagine you are reaching out with the tips of your fingers and just 'glide on your side' for a second (I sometimes imagine I'm in a flying Superman position w/one hand leading the way, and count a slow "one-one thousand") before you begin to pull. If you are correctly rotating/rocking your torso back and forth at approximately 45 degree angles as you swim, then you can also try to slow down your 'rocking' speed, which should have the same effect. Remember your kick will slow down as well.
This should have the effect of giving you more time to breathe in.
Here's a link demonstrating the rotation I'm talking about, though these swimmers are swimming with fairly fast stroke rate. I'll try to find another link demonstrating the extension. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eDQ6QlVFEw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eDQ6QlVFEw)
ETA: Got one. This shows both how the roll/rotation should work, how it looks at a slower stroke rate, and how it can help increase extension and glide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2NQhZsQMHo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2NQhZsQMHo)
ETA: Another one showing common mistakes. You can see the extension and glide in this one really well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEGotawjueU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEGotawjueU)
Final edit LOL: The last video shows, as the very last of its mistakes, what might be happening to you. You should have your arm fully extended while you breath, or you will have trouble keeping your face comfortably out of the water to the side, will sink, and will be forced to start your next stroke too soon.
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Wow. Super helpful. Thank you!
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I want to thank Spud for his informative post, it really condenses a lot of important information.
I've never had a weight problem per se, but realize from reading these posts I have been doing a lot of the things people should do. Up until 3 years ago, walking was my main form of transportation. I'd walk to and from work (between 1- 1.5 miles). I also like just putting music on and dancing to it solo or with kid. So what I want to say even though everyone says diet is more important, being physically active for me is even more important. It is good for me to maintain muscle, areobic capacity and most importantly makes me feel more in touch with my body.
No problem. Diet is the most important thing for fat loss. There are 3500 calories in a pound of body fat. Walking burns approximately 100 calories per mile. Running might bump that to 150 calories per mile. Even if running raised it to 200 calories burned per mile, are going to run 17 or 18 miles a week to maybe lose a pound?
I hope you can see that it's far less time consuming to put less gas in the gas tank in the first place, than it is to fill the gas tank to the brim and then attempt to burn off all the gas by speeding up and down the highway all day, every day. You simply don't have time for that consistently in the long run, even if you fool yourself into thinking that you do have time in the short term.
Same goes for dancing, swimming, rowing, stair climbing, boxing, martial arts, cycling, basketball, tennis, aerobics etc. They all empty the gas tank very, very slowly compared with how quickly you can fill it up again.
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I want to thank Spud for his informative post, it really condenses a lot of important information.
I've never had a weight problem per se, but realize from reading these posts I have been doing a lot of the things people should do. Up until 3 years ago, walking was my main form of transportation. I'd walk to and from work (between 1- 1.5 miles). I also like just putting music on and dancing to it solo or with kid. So what I want to say even though everyone says diet is more important, being physically active for me is even more important. It is good for me to maintain muscle, areobic capacity and most importantly makes me feel more in touch with my body.
No problem. Diet is the most important thing for fat loss. There are 3500 calories in a pound of body fat. Walking burns approximately 100 calories per mile. Running might bump that to 150 calories per mile. Even if running raised it to 200 calories burned per mile, are going to run 17 or 18 miles a week to maybe lose a pound?
I hope you can see that it's far less time consuming to put less gas in the gas tank in the first place, than it is to fill the gas tank to the brim and then attempt to burn off all the gas by speeding up and down the highway all day, every day. You simply don't have time for that consistently in the long run, even if you fool yourself into thinking that you do have time in the short term.
Same goes for dancing, swimming, rowing, stair climbing, boxing, martial arts, cycling, basketball, tennis, aerobics etc. They all empty the gas tank very, very slowly compared with how quickly you can fill it up again.
Sure, but I'll once again point out that weight loss is not the only measure of fitness, or the only goal. I'm not one of those "fat is healthy" people and I don't think that's a healthy message, but "getting healthier" is not at all synonymous with "losing weight", even if there's a lot of overlap on that venn diagram.
Also, your example fails to take into account BMR. I suppose that would be akin to decreasing (in a good way) that vehicles MPG. Exercise, especially the right kinds, can increase the amount of gas one is bringing even when not running or doing other intentionally gas-bringing activities. It's not going to have pounds falling off on a weekly basis, but over time, it has an effect.
I think I'm healthier now, down less than 15 pounds and still overweight, than I'd be if I'd spent the last few months counting calories and dropping 20 pounds, without increasing the amount of movement, and intensity of that movement.
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Sure, but I'll once again point out that weight loss is not the only measure of fitness, or the only goal. I'm not one of those "fat is healthy" people and I don't think that's a healthy message, but "getting healthier" is not at all synonymous with "losing weight", even if there's a lot of overlap on that venn diagram.
That depends on how much weight you have to lose. If you have 20+ pounds to lose, then it is very much going to help your health. If you have 50+ pounds to lose then, erm, I think you get where I'm going. Obesity is linked with MANY of the leading killers (heart disease, cancer, stroke etc). the further away you get from obesity i.e. the leaner you get, the better.
Also, your example fails to take into account BMR. I suppose that would be akin to decreasing (in a good way) that vehicles MPG. Exercise, especially the right kinds, can increase the amount of gas one is bringing even when not running or doing other intentionally gas-bringing activities. It's not going to have pounds falling off on a weekly basis, but over time, it has an effect.
I'm assuming BMR stands for Basal metabolic rate - which wasn't relevant. Your basal metabolic rate is working for you when you sit and watch TV.
I was simply trying to illustrate the fact that physical activity of any kind burns far fewer calories per unit of time spent performing said activity than most people have been led to believe.
Claims of burning 500+ calories in one workout session are, for the most part, utter bullsht. I was also attempting to show that one can eat a large number of calories in almost no time at all. The calories that you casually consume in a few minutes would take an hour or numerous hours to burn off.
When treadmills and other "cardio" machines at the gym (or at home) ask you for your age, height, weight and gender, that's you plugging variables into an overly basic and very limited one-size fits-all formula that is used to calculate your BMR. If you do 20 minutes of cardio, the first thing the machine does is calculate how many calories you would have burned in that time had you been standing still doing nothing but breathing. Then it adds to that what it estimates you actually burned through moving your body. Whilst the BMR part of the calculation isn't the majority of what the machine tells you that you burned, but it could be as much as 25-30% of that number, and that number, is, sadly, an overestimate.
To use your analogy, if I understand it correctly, the best "gas bringing" activity I know of is weight training/strength training.
A study conducted by Tufts University in which senior men and women took part in a twelve-week basic strength-training program resulted in the subjects gaining an average of three pounds of lean muscle weight and reducing their bodyfat weight by an average of four pounds. As a consequence, the resting metabolic rate of the subjects increased by 7 percent, on average, which was
the equivalent of an additional 108 calories burned per day, or an extra 756 calories per week. This study indicated that the body burns at least 35 calories a day for every pound of lean muscle weight gained. This new tissue will burn more calories even while the subject is at rest. By contrast requires only 2 calories per day to sustain a pound of your bodyfat.
But here's the thing that people didn't realise for a while. Each additional pound of muscle doesn't burn 35 calories per day. It only burns about 5 calories per day. What's burning all the other calories? All the existing muscle mass that the men and women already had attached to their skeletons before the program started. It was lying dormant, doing nothing. By using it intensely during the strength training program, the effectively "revved it up" so that it was burning more calories in post workout recovery, than it would be had it not been "used", "trained" or "stressed" in that way. The mistake was attributing the entire increase in BMR to only the few pounds of muscle that had been gained through training, not to the entirety of the person's existing muscle mass that was already there. Either way, weight training uses more muscle, through a more complete range of motion, with greater resistance placed upon it, than any other activity. Therefore this "afterburn" effect as some people call it, is greater than when one simply walks or jogs etc, also, because the resistance is greater, it build more strength and more bone density which are the problems that come for everybody as they age and become more inactive.
I think I'm healthier now, down less than 15 pounds and still overweight, than I'd be if I'd spent the last few months counting calories and dropping 20 pounds, without increasing the amount of movement, and intensity of that movement.
This last bit I will leave alone. I'll agree to disagree.
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I'm assuming BMR stands for Basal metabolic rate - which wasn't relevant. Your basal metabolic rate is working for you when you sit and watch TV.
Your base metabolic rate is relevant because it's variable. Increasing the muscle mass you carry on your frame will increase your base metabolic rate. So yes, BMR is working while you're just sitting there . . . but the guy who regularly lifts weights and has a lot of muscle mass will burn more calories just by sitting there than the guy who doesn't. Since BMR is always burning, changing it can be very beneficial if your goal is weight loss and keeping that weight loss off as it allows someone to eat more, and feel more full without gaining additional weight.
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A lot of the people who have posted here like to exercise. Good for you.
I've met a lot of people who just aren't interested in even walking. So, what's left?
It's pretty well established that diets just don't work.
I've come across something, actually someone, recently. I used to work with this guy a couple of years ago. He was miserable. He was trying diets and exercise and nothing worked. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and there was this gleam in his eye. His step had more bounce and he was smiling. Of course, I asked him how he had been. "Great!," he exclaimed.
The conversation continued with me querying him on the solution to his success. It was simple. Fasting was his solution. It's like the old Nancy Reagan solution to drugs. Just Say No. Just Don't Eat. It was Wednesday when I talked to him. He hadn't eaten since Saturday.
To me this goes against the established dogma of my upbringing. Don't skip meals. Breakfast is the most important part of the day. Remember the food pyramid to assure a balanced diet. His talk was heresy.
Then I started to read and still am. I saw the following or similar wording. Fat is stored energy. The body makes fat when you eat too much. The fat will be used "later" when you have no immediate source of energy. It went on to say that if you are always eating, that "later" never comes. This kind of struck me as common sense. Yet, nobody had ever told me in quite this way.
When you don't eat, the body eventually does the ketogenesis thing. It burns the stored energy. It has to. However, it can take 15+ hours for this to occur. Once you get past a certain point, the energy that the body uses to digest food is there for you to use. Some of the stuff I've read, sounds pretty good.
So I tried it for over a day. Not bad. I'm not the kind that has to eat every few hours. I have no difficulty fasting most days. I guess my metabolism is slow. I've fallen off the wagon recently, but to get back on, I just stop eating. Most days I don't even want a breakfast and if I keep myself busy lunchtime is gone. One good meal a day looks to be the solution.
I also exercise, but I'm going to give a version of the fasting thing a go. What do you guys think? Am I on to something? Is it just too simple?
Before you tell me it won't work read the following:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days (https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days)
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Did someone already say Zumba, or Zumba Gold? If you like music and dancing, check it out. Also, WERQ and/or POUND. Just go AT YOUR OWN PACE.
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I also exercise, but I'm going to give a version of the fasting thing a go. What do you guys think? Am I on to something? Is it just too simple?
I've been fasting once a week for 36 to 48 hours. Been doing it for over a year and it's working for me. I kept a fairly detailed log of my progress for a year.
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I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore. (Please spare me the lectures on how fat is okay, or that it's a mean term to use, or any of that. I'm well aware my worth as a human person isn't based on my BMI, and I don't use the term "fat" pejoratively, even though that's how it is usually interpreted. It's a simple, true statement. I am overweight, which means I have too much fat on my body, ergo, I am fat.) I'm working on sorting out some diet stuff, but I need the exercise component as well, and I'd like the benefits of exercise beyond weight loss, so diet alone won't work for those anyway.
I have not always been fat. I spent many years being quite lean and fairly muscular. I wouldn't say I was naturally that way, but nor did I ever "workout". I was very active, including for a while spending 30+ hours a week in dance class, practice, performance, etc. It just so happened that the things I chose to do with my life kept me very slim and healthy.
I didn't understand fat people. Now that I am one of them, I realize that exercise as an in-shape person is an entirely different thing. I've always hated running, but if I felt compelled to do so, I could put on some headphones and pound the pavement pretty much indefinitely. Now, I don't have the stamina for that, of course, and also, it hurts, and not in a good way. I'm not morbidly obese or anything, but the increased weight on the older joints mean many activities hurt, and in ways that don't feel good or healthy. So coming up with things that will push me enough to make progress, but not injure me or hurt me so much that I will not continue them is a real challenge.
Walking doesn't seem like quite enough. I don't get winded, or barely so. Running--nope. Any recommendations for a healthy way to start cardio for a fattie? (I'll also do some strength training, likely just body weight stuff for now -- lord knows I have enough of that so I can put it to good use!-- and have that mostly covered, although even that is more challenging than it should be because after a couple dozen lunges, for example, my legs are wobbly enough to make me concerned they might not hold me up.
Seriously, as a slim person, I never understood how hard it was to start working out when you are fat!
Without a doubt, the Slow Carb Diet is the fastest way to drop some pounds in a healthy way. Bing it
That and do some regular exercise to get your heart rate up. Anything is better than nothing so do something you think you will actually stick with otherwise you’ll quit from being too sore or too much pain
Feel free to PM me and I’d be happy to share more suggestions
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A lot of the people who have posted here like to exercise. Good for you.
I've met a lot of people who just aren't interested in even walking. So, what's left?
It's pretty well established that diets just don't work.
I've come across something, actually someone, recently. I used to work with this guy a couple of years ago. He was miserable. He was trying diets and exercise and nothing worked. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and there was this gleam in his eye. His step had more bounce and he was smiling. Of course, I asked him how he had been. "Great!," he exclaimed.
The conversation continued with me querying him on the solution to his success. It was simple. Fasting was his solution. It's like the old Nancy Reagan solution to drugs. Just Say No. Just Don't Eat. It was Wednesday when I talked to him. He hadn't eaten since Saturday.
To me this goes against the established dogma of my upbringing. Don't skip meals. Breakfast is the most important part of the day. Remember the food pyramid to assure a balanced diet. His talk was heresy.
Then I started to read and still am. I saw the following or similar wording. Fat is stored energy. The body makes fat when you eat too much. The fat will be used "later" when you have no immediate source of energy. It went on to say that if you are always eating, that "later" never comes. This kind of struck me as common sense. Yet, nobody had ever told me in quite this way.
When you don't eat, the body eventually does the ketogenesis thing. It burns the stored energy. It has to. However, it can take 15+ hours for this to occur. Once you get past a certain point, the energy that the body uses to digest food is there for you to use. Some of the stuff I've read, sounds pretty good.
So I tried it for over a day. Not bad. I'm not the kind that has to eat every few hours. I have no difficulty fasting most days. I guess my metabolism is slow. I've fallen off the wagon recently, but to get back on, I just stop eating. Most days I don't even want a breakfast and if I keep myself busy lunchtime is gone. One good meal a day looks to be the solution.
I also exercise, but I'm going to give a version of the fasting thing a go. What do you guys think? Am I on to something? Is it just too simple?
Before you tell me it won't work read the following:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days (https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days)
Starving for extended periods doesn't work for me, but apparently does for others. That said, it's weird that you start off by saying that it's well established that diets don't work and then recommend a diet that (so far for you) works.
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A lot of the people who have posted here like to exercise. Good for you.
I've met a lot of people who just aren't interested in even walking. So, what's left?
It's pretty well established that diets just don't work.
I've come across something, actually someone, recently. I used to work with this guy a couple of years ago. He was miserable. He was trying diets and exercise and nothing worked. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and there was this gleam in his eye. His step had more bounce and he was smiling. Of course, I asked him how he had been. "Great!," he exclaimed.
The conversation continued with me querying him on the solution to his success. It was simple. Fasting was his solution. It's like the old Nancy Reagan solution to drugs. Just Say No. Just Don't Eat. It was Wednesday when I talked to him. He hadn't eaten since Saturday.
To me this goes against the established dogma of my upbringing. Don't skip meals. Breakfast is the most important part of the day. Remember the food pyramid to assure a balanced diet. His talk was heresy.
Then I started to read and still am. I saw the following or similar wording. Fat is stored energy. The body makes fat when you eat too much. The fat will be used "later" when you have no immediate source of energy. It went on to say that if you are always eating, that "later" never comes. This kind of struck me as common sense. Yet, nobody had ever told me in quite this way.
When you don't eat, the body eventually does the ketogenesis thing. It burns the stored energy. It has to. However, it can take 15+ hours for this to occur. Once you get past a certain point, the energy that the body uses to digest food is there for you to use. Some of the stuff I've read, sounds pretty good.
So I tried it for over a day. Not bad. I'm not the kind that has to eat every few hours. I have no difficulty fasting most days. I guess my metabolism is slow. I've fallen off the wagon recently, but to get back on, I just stop eating. Most days I don't even want a breakfast and if I keep myself busy lunchtime is gone. One good meal a day looks to be the solution.
I also exercise, but I'm going to give a version of the fasting thing a go. What do you guys think? Am I on to something? Is it just too simple?
Before you tell me it won't work read the following:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days (https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days)
I'm really not sure what you are asking...
Will fasting "work"? It depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
Does fasting replace a healthy diet and exercise? Of course not, you will be malnourished eventually, and then die.
Are periods of fasting bad for you? Depends on your body, some people get extremely light headed and aren't safe to drive if they fast.
There's a ton of great, scientific literature out there. Read up on it and give it a try if it's something you think will work for you.
That said, if you are trying it for weight loss, it absolutely, 100% IS a diet. It's no simpler than any other diet, it's a way to modulate calorie intake. Ketosis isn't magic.
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Most diets that focus solely on calorie-restriction are not sustainable. That is because, on such diets, most people generally will feel crummy and will be very hungry as their blood sugar levels swing up and down. Instead, a diet that restricts carbohydrates (such as a LCHF, Paleo, or Keto diet), will minimize the impact of blood sugar and insulin swings. There will be less overall hunger pangs. As soon as your body is adapted to burning fat (instead of running on carbohydrates), weight loss is nearly effortless. You just don't feel hungry very much.
(I'm not a doctor. But a family member of mine lost 100 pounds and reversed T2-diabetes on such a diet. And has successfully kept the weight off for several years while remaining on a low carb diet. I have also lost 30 pounds, effortlessly, and have maintained my ideal weight now for years. I eat whenever I am hungry, until I feel full. Now I naturally maintain a proper weight. I am careful to avoid carbs/sugars/starches/grains. Other than that, I eat whatever, and however much I want.)
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Most diets that focus solely on calorie-restriction are not sustainable. That is because, on such diets, most people generally will feel crummy and will be very hungry as their blood sugar levels swing up and down.
Most people fail on calorie restrictive diets because they reduce their calories too drastically to re equilibrate comfortably. Most diet apps won't even let people set the targets to less than a 500 calorie deficit per day.
I lost over 70lbs by cutting only 100-300 calories per day, which is barely even noticeable. The weight dropped off like clockwork and stayed off.
Diets work if they are sustainable. My approach was to eat a diet that would sustain a thin person. My diet hasn't changed in years, I just eventually stopped losing because I was thin and the diet sustained that.
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I don't have a weight problem, but I did undergo surgery on my back years ago that makes lifting heavy objects and straining that part of my body a no-go. Also, bad knees run in the family and I can already hear mine cracking when I stand.
Stand up paddle boarding. Works the core. Works the arms. Works the legs. Eases the mind.
Walking. Hiking too.
Yoga. Gives you better flexibility and balance for the SUP.
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- SNIP -
Starving for extended periods doesn't work for me, but apparently does for others. That said, it's weird that you start off by saying that it's well established that diets don't work and then recommend a diet that (so far for you) works.
I guess you could call it a diet. I look at it a little different. Some diets have you weigh your food. Some diets have you eat one thing and not the other. These are all more stuff to keep track of. There are big rule books describing some of them. I have begun thinking of it as the anti-diet. You are rejecting all the diets. You are just not eating. You just don't bother with food entirely. No snacks, don't worry about carbohydrates, sugar, protein, etc. You just reject the entirety of it and eat well maybe once a day. If you can do it, skip the day. It just seems simpler. No rules.
When you do eat, even raw broccoli will taste like Ambrosia. Just fill up on easily digested fruits and veggies and reset the clock.
Of course I'm a hypocrite having fallen off the wagon during this Labor Day break, but I can pick it up again.
I think like a lot of things everybody has a different metabolism. I know some people get very hungry after just a few hours without food. These same people have no fat on them. I think it depends on your ancestry. Mine may have been the kind to kill a mastodon once a month. Big meal of mastodon once a month and forage for nuts, seeds and berries until the next one is killed. Just think some people get diabetes. Some do not. Our metabolisms are different.
And,.....as long as one is not eating, you might as well exercise. The metabolism will get kicked up and more fat will be burned by the liver.
We've been taught a lot of BS about food. Who helped the US government develop the food pyramid? The food industry.
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I like intermittent “fasting”. I eat within an 8 hr period. Usually 10-6. So basically late breakfast, early dinner. At first I felt so incredibly hungry at around 8 (I wake up around 5am), but one day, about a week into it, my hunger didn’t kick in anymore until around 9, and I would just sit with that feeling of hunger for an hour, (and would have an odd burst of energy during), until I prepared breakfast which was like the most delicious thing ever. Then I’d eat every 2-3 hours (could fit 3-4 meals in), until the end of 8 hours.
I don’t worry about what I eat, I only pay attention to portion size. It is so much easier for me to adjust portion than it is to adjust diet. Plus I get to eat tasty, full fat, salty, carby things, and still be within reasonable daily limits. With each meal I try to do “fillers” of fruit and/or veggies. I drink tea and water, when not eating.
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spend a couple hundred bucks on a cheap squat rack, used weights and a bench. Proceed to lift, rinse, repeat.....Gainz
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What pencunia is describing above is simply called One Meal A Day. It is abbreviated with the acronym OMAD. There is a subreddit on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/)
It nothing more than a type of fasting.
Other types of fasting?
The 16/8 method. This was popularised by Martin Berkan from Leangains. You fast for 16 hours out of every 24 hours and eat for 8 hours out of every 24 hours. Example, you wake up at 08:00. Don't eat anything until 12:00. Then you're allowed to eat any time between 12:00 and 20:00. Then from 20:00 until 12:00 the next day, you don't eat anything. The trick - you're asleep for most of those 16 fasting hours fasting hours. Provided you're not a late night binge eater, this basically amounts to "Don't eat breakfast, just wait until lunch." and you're good to go. I've read of people doing this but changing the length of the fasting period and eating window so that instead of 16/8 it's actually 19/5 or 20/4. It doesn't matter. I doubt your body can tell the difference between 16/8 and 20/4. Taken a little further, OMAD is simply 23.5/0.5. That's it. Nothing fancy.
Eat-Stop-Eat: The book by Brad Pilon which can basically be summarised as don't eat anything for 24 hours, once or twice a week. You'd stop eating at 19:00 on Friday and wouldn't eat again until 19:00 on Saturday. You might do the same thing again by not eating anything from 18:00 on Tuesday until 18:00 on Wednesday.
The 5:2 diet: With this method you consume only 500-600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days. The thing you have to watch out for is that "eat normally" could mean anywhere from 1800 calories per day to 5000 calories per day depending on how obese you are. I also think that 500-600 calories is so low it's pointless. You might as well just adopted one of the approaches outlined above, either doing a proper 24 hour fast like Eat-Stop-Eat, or just do OMAD.
Understand that none of these approaches are magical. People will rave about insulin and ketogenesis, but it's all nonsense. The reason OMAD works, when it works, is that if you are a hugely obese person eating 5000 calories per day, the idea is that by eating only One Meal A Day, it's highly unlikely that you will consume many calories. You actually end up eating only 1800 calories per day because you only have one meal in which to eat everything for that day. With such a massive reduction in the time in which you're allowed to eat, you, guess what, end up eating less!
However, when OMAD doesn't work, it's because the One Meal ends up being something like a large stuffed crust from Dominos with a side order of wings and potato wedges, along with 2 pints of "full fat" Coca-Cola and a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's to finish.
What I'm saying is, any fasting approach works, as long as it reduces your calories to a level that is below what you're body needs to sustain its current weight. This is known as a caloric deficit or a hypocaloric diet. This is how ANY diet works. Anyone who says otherwise is basically a con artist or one of their disciples.
All fad diets are nothing but caloric restriction (thus caloric deficit) in disguise. The reason fad diets don't work in the long term is that they are not sustainable. Long term sustainability of a diet is mostly a psychological matter, not a physiological matter.
My personal approach to remaining lean is this:
1. Eat 3 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
2. Be very aware of portion size during these meals.
3. "Fast" between these meals by eating nothing.
Some people could apply my 3 step process and lose 200 pounds and keep it off for life. Other people could apply it and not lose anything.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNxHAqHJpx/ (https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNxHAqHJpx/)
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What pencunia is describing above is simply called One Meal A Day. It is abbreviated with the acronym OMAD. There is a subreddit on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/)
It nothing more than a type of fasting.
- SNIP -
However, when OMAD doesn't work, it's because the One Meal ends up being something like a large stuffed crust from Dominos with a side order of wings and potato wedges, along with 2 pints of "full fat" Coca-Cola and a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's to finish.
What I'm saying is, any fasting approach works, as long as it reduces your calories to a level that is below what you're body needs to sustain its current weight. This is known as a caloric deficit or a hypocaloric diet. This is how ANY diet works. Anyone who says otherwise is basically a con artist or one of their disciples.
All fad diets are nothing but caloric restriction (thus caloric deficit) in disguise. The reason fad diets don't work in the long term is that they are not sustainable. Long term sustainability of a diet is mostly a psychological matter, not a physiological matter.
My personal approach to remaining lean is this:
1. Eat 3 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
2. Be very aware of portion size during these meals.
3. "Fast" between these meals by eating nothing.
Some people could apply my 3 step process and lose 200 pounds and keep it off for life. Other people could apply it and not lose anything.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNxHAqHJpx/ (https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNxHAqHJpx/)
"Some people could apply my 3 step process and lose 200 pounds and keep it off for life. Other people could apply it and not lose anything."
RIGHT! My brother went to school and had a dorm mate. Both he and his dorm mate ate at the cafeteria and had roughly the same activities. My brother gained weight. The other guy lost weight. We are all different. People who have been thin for their entire lives cannot grasp this simple piece of information.
I like the fact that you gave so many variations. It makes it less rigid than so many of these diets out there. I'm thinking that the not eating thing gives the body a break too. It gives it time to clean the crap out of your system, but I have no documented basis for this.
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I like the fact that you gave so many variations. It makes it less rigid than so many of these diets out there. I'm thinking that the not eating thing gives the body a break too. It gives it time to clean the crap out of your system, but I have no documented basis for this.
Diets are only complicated and rigid because in order to monetize them, they have to have something that makes them seem different, unique, and complicated so that people who have a hard time moderating their calories will hope that this particular form of dietary contortion will somehow magically solve their eating problem.
It's very hard to make money off of common sense.
Dieting only seems complicated if you are seeking diet advice from the diet industry, which, like the fitness industry is designed to sell hope and not reality or results.
If someone seeks their diet information from a less commercial avenue, then it always boils down to the very same advice over and over and over again: that a calorie deficit is required to lose weight, and that the most successful diet is a permanent lifestyle change.
Diets don't fail, people fail to sustain diets.
It's all really quite simple if you reverse engineer the problem. It takes a certain person's body a certain amount of nutrients and calories to sustain a healthy weight and a given amount of activity.
It's really no more complicated than that. If they increase the intake without increasing the output, they will gain. If they decrease the intake, they will either lose or decrease the output, or both.
The complicated question is actually psychological and has nothing to do with nutrition or even hunger. The complicated part is managing the psychological drives to eat in a way that differs from that which would sustain a healthy equilibrium.
This is really well exemplified by people on certain meds, like Pregabalin, which is known to cause major weight gain. Now, it's impossible for a drug to cause weight gain directly, it can only either modulate calories in or calories out, and Pregabalin does both. It certainly makes people drowsier and less active, so there's that, but that's a small factor. Where it really packs a punch is that it can very easily trigger obsessive food cravings that can last days or until they're fed.
People who have maintained healthy weights for years can gain 60lbs as a result of these persistent and bothersome cravings. It's really quite something.
So why is this important?
Because the reason for failure to lose is typically the exact same reason for the excess weight in the first place.
It tells us that people fail to lose and sustain weight loss with most diets because of a series of psychological patterns related to food that they cannot resolve through blunt will power and/or restriction.
Now that said, some diets do "hack" a person's psychological food triggers, and for some, fasting is exactly the hack they need to bypass their triggers, for others it's the worst move possible and triggers a bulimia-style gorging response.
See, it's not that fasting is less complicated or fundamentally easier to follow, it's that it is just another strategy for modulating behavioural patterns, which is what most diets are designed to do.
That said, ketosis is well established to modulate actual hunger, which can be helpful to some people. Although it's also pretty well established that most people's excessive eating behaviour has fuck all to do with actual hunger. No one is actually hungry for dessert, and certainly not hungry for a second helping of it. That's pure psychology at play and no reduction of hunger is going to help against an established dopamine pathway that says "mom's keylime pie = a sense of home and safety".
This why I've always said that the best diet is a good therapist.
As for giving the system a break?
Well, no, the system doesn't need a break and a break can actually be incredibly dangerous to someone who has had a lifetime of poor eating habits. Gallbladders can be extremely bitchy little organs sometimes.
Unless you are talking about clearing out literal crap, in which case, yes, fasting will empty your colon of fecal matter.
That said, there is excellent, quality research suggesting some benefits to fasting whose mechanisms are still poorly understood, so I'm not about to say that the body doesn't also benefit, but it's not without its risks.
Overall, do what works for you specifically. Try to know yourself, try to understand why you eat the way that you do and if you don't want to be eating that way, what are the behavioural patterns and triggers that are making you behave in ways that you don't want to.
Above all though, pick a strategy that you can see yourself maintaining forever. If IF is something you can see yourself doing long-term, then go for it. If it's something you see yourself doing "just until the weight is gone", then be extremely careful, because the failure of most diets isn't in the loss, it's in the regain.
If you haven't resolved the psychological patterns that lead to the eating behaviours that caused the excess weight in the first place, then you are practically guaranteed to end up back where you started, because they'll sit there quietly in your brain waiting.
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What pencunia is describing above is simply called One Meal A Day. It is abbreviated with the acronym OMAD. There is a subreddit on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/)
It nothing more than a type of fasting.
- SNIP -
However, when OMAD doesn't work, it's because the One Meal ends up being something like a large stuffed crust from Dominos with a side order of wings and potato wedges, along with 2 pints of "full fat" Coca-Cola and a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's to finish.
What I'm saying is, any fasting approach works, as long as it reduces your calories to a level that is below what you're body needs to sustain its current weight. This is known as a caloric deficit or a hypocaloric diet. This is how ANY diet works. Anyone who says otherwise is basically a con artist or one of their disciples.
All fad diets are nothing but caloric restriction (thus caloric deficit) in disguise. The reason fad diets don't work in the long term is that they are not sustainable. Long term sustainability of a diet is mostly a psychological matter, not a physiological matter.
My personal approach to remaining lean is this:
1. Eat 3 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
2. Be very aware of portion size during these meals.
3. "Fast" between these meals by eating nothing.
Some people could apply my 3 step process and lose 200 pounds and keep it off for life. Other people could apply it and not lose anything.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNxHAqHJpx/ (https://www.instagram.com/p/BrNxHAqHJpx/)
"Some people could apply my 3 step process and lose 200 pounds and keep it off for life. Other people could apply it and not lose anything."
RIGHT! My brother went to school and had a dorm mate. Both he and his dorm mate ate at the cafeteria and had roughly the same activities. My brother gained weight. The other guy lost weight. We are all different. People who have been thin for their entire lives cannot grasp this simple piece of information.
I like the fact that you gave so many variations. It makes it less rigid than so many of these diets out there. I'm thinking that the not eating thing gives the body a break too. It gives it time to clean the crap out of your system, but I have no documented basis for this.
“It gives it time to clean the crap out of your system”
I knew this guy who said he doesn’t eat the next day until he “clears out” the previous days meal. Since he brought it up I asked what if he can’t go to the bathroom and he is hungry. He said he drinks a lot of water when he wakes up and that makes him go every time, everyday. So there is probably there, regarding starting with a “fresh system” each day.
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
Well, the entire thread starts with "
Exercise for fat people?
« on: November 05, 2018, 02:17:15 AM »
Quote
I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore." So it's inevitable that diet become at least part of the conversation.
Then the convo turned to some really useful swimming advice, and then someone popped in and profered fasting as an alternative to exercise, which couldn't help but trigger at least a detour back into diet land for a bit.
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
Well, the entire thread starts with "
Exercise for fat people?
« on: November 05, 2018, 02:17:15 AM »
Quote
I'm fat. I'd rather not be fat anymore." So it's inevitable that diet become at least part of the conversation.
Then the convo turned to some really useful swimming advice, and then someone popped in and profered fasting as an alternative to exercise, which couldn't help but trigger at least a detour back into diet land for a bit.
It starts with "exercise [key word] for fat people", and I post that clearly talks about types of movement and fat-specific challenges, and which only mentioned "diet" as a side comment which implied that the diet stuff was a separate conversation and concern.
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- SNIP -
Then the convo turned to some really useful swimming advice, and then someone popped in and profered fasting as an alternative to exercise, which couldn't help but trigger at least a detour back into diet land for a bit.
Diet and exercise go hand in hand. Maintaining a good muscle mass gives you a greater fat burnup. It takes energy to maintain muscle. More muscle means more calorie burnup. Never let yourself be interpreted by an ugly black skinny cat.
The following article explains why it is not always as simple as counting calories.
https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-your-body-fights-weight-loss (https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-your-body-fights-weight-loss)
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- SNIP -
Then the convo turned to some really useful swimming advice, and then someone popped in and profered fasting as an alternative to exercise, which couldn't help but trigger at least a detour back into diet land for a bit.
Diet and exercise go hand in hand. Maintaining a good muscle mass gives you a greater fat burnup. It takes energy to maintain muscle. More muscle means more calorie burnup. Never let yourself be interpreted by an ugly black skinny cat.
The following article explains why it is not always as simple as counting calories.
https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-your-body-fights-weight-loss (https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-your-body-fights-weight-loss)
Diet and exercise absolutely go hand in hand, I would never say otherwise or that it's only calorie counting. The calories out part of creating a deficit is critical and all sorts of things modulate it for sure.
@Villanelle, sorry to contribute to the derail. It was clear that that wasn't the request of the thread, but I got caught up in replying to the fasting content.
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- SNIP -
Then the convo turned to some really useful swimming advice, and then someone popped in and profered fasting as an alternative to exercise, which couldn't help but trigger at least a detour back into diet land for a bit.
Diet and exercise go hand in hand. Maintaining a good muscle mass gives you a greater fat burnup. It takes energy to maintain muscle. More muscle means more calorie burnup. Never let yourself be interpreted by an ugly black skinny cat.
The following article explains why it is not always as simple as counting calories.
https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-your-body-fights-weight-loss (https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-your-body-fights-weight-loss)
Diet and exercise absolutely go hand in hand, I would never say otherwise or that it's only calorie counting. The calories out part of creating a deficit is critical and all sorts of things modulate it for sure.
@Villanelle, sorry to contribute to the derail. It was clear that that wasn't the request of the thread, but I got caught up in replying to the fasting content.
No worries! It's fine. And it may very well be helpful for someone looking for the entire package. It's just tough because it kind of goes back to the reason I started this thread. Everyone talks about diet, and the part about getting an overweight person to move in a safe, healthy, fairly comfortable (or not painful), non-damaging way is kind of neglected. Diet tips are definitely helpful though for someone looking to lose weight, so it's not a bad derail.
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I think that as soon as you use the word "fat" people are going to talk about diet. The "fat" isn't really relevant to the exercise part, because you can be fat and do pretty much any exercise.
If the question is "How do I start exercising more when I'm really out of shape?" that is going to get more exercise related answers than if the question starts out with "And I'm tired of being fat..."
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+1 for diet control. Especially if you start exercising and lose a few pounds your body will start craving for food to regain the lost weight. So unless you control your food, you'll probably end up fatter from your exercise.
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I run a fair bit and I frequently see people with quite a few extra pounds out trying to get rid of 'em by running. While I of course applaud the efforts they make the speed at which they move is so slow that they should really rather be walking at a brisk pace. It's pretty much the same amount of excercise, it's much easier to sustain for prolonged time and above all it comes with a significantly lower risk of injuries. Basically anything that is gentle on the bones and muscles is a fine place to start. It might be cycling, walking, swimming or cross-country skiing (which is great as the entire body is used, but it obv cannot be done everywhere or year-round) or somehting else. Running is very efficient, but it's not gentle on the body.
Also some strength training is important. It uses a lot of energy when rebuilding muscles afterwards, it sharpens up the body and anyone who has reached about middle life need to do it just to preserve muscular mass as it slowly decays otherwise. I'm generally a fan of using body weight as it requires no equipment so it's free, it can be done everywhere and at any time and it also comes with a very low risk of injury. Barbells etc are great devices, but not entirely necessary. You find stupid fit people who are likely never to have lifted weights their entire life - like rock/sports climbers and gymnasts for example.
It also has to be fun. And if schedule is busy, not take too much time. I get pretty much all my endurance training from the commute to and from work so I get between 1-2h every day depending on what I do while actual time used is probably less than half as public transport would take 30 mins each way door to door. For the mustachian take on it I even get to use the hot water at work for the morning shower. it comes with a siginificant cash-flow effect as my expenses are 1-2 pairs of running shoes / year on average + a new set of tires for the bike every now and then. I don't need a gym membership (I do pay for sports climbing, however), don't have a monthly pass on the public transport system and gets to enjoy time in the outdoors every single day. If the weather is shit there is also a some badassity in there for good measure.
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It also has to be fun.
This is very, very, very underrated. Exercise fails for a lot of people because it's something they're forcing themselves to do 'to lose weight'. That makes every session a Sisyphean task. Find something that's fun to do, and you'll find that you're excited to do it and push yourself harder, farther, faster because it's fun. The weight loss happens as a side effect.
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It starts with "exercise [key word] for fat people", and I post that clearly talks about types of movement and fat-specific challenges, and which only mentioned "diet" as a side comment which implied that the diet stuff was a separate conversation and concern.
This thread is no different from someone who is earning minimum wage starting a thread called Expense Reduction for Minimum Wage Earners where they agonize over reducing their expenses down to the same level as Jacob from "Early Retirement Extreme" in an effort to clear mountains of debt and reach FI. At some point plenty of well meaning Mustachians are going to come along and post on that thread about how it might be an idea for the minimum wage earner to also think about what they can do to earn more money.
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A lot of the people who have posted here like to exercise. Good for you.
I've met a lot of people who just aren't interested in even walking. So, what's left?
It's pretty well established that diets just don't work.
I've come across something, actually someone, recently. I used to work with this guy a couple of years ago. He was miserable. He was trying diets and exercise and nothing worked. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and there was this gleam in his eye. His step had more bounce and he was smiling. Of course, I asked him how he had been. "Great!," he exclaimed.
The conversation continued with me querying him on the solution to his success. It was simple. Fasting was his solution. It's like the old Nancy Reagan solution to drugs. Just Say No. Just Don't Eat. It was Wednesday when I talked to him. He hadn't eaten since Saturday.
To me this goes against the established dogma of my upbringing. Don't skip meals. Breakfast is the most important part of the day. Remember the food pyramid to assure a balanced diet. His talk was heresy.
Then I started to read and still am. I saw the following or similar wording. Fat is stored energy. The body makes fat when you eat too much. The fat will be used "later" when you have no immediate source of energy. It went on to say that if you are always eating, that "later" never comes. This kind of struck me as common sense. Yet, nobody had ever told me in quite this way.
When you don't eat, the body eventually does the ketogenesis thing. It burns the stored energy. It has to. However, it can take 15+ hours for this to occur. Once you get past a certain point, the energy that the body uses to digest food is there for you to use. Some of the stuff I've read, sounds pretty good.
So I tried it for over a day. Not bad. I'm not the kind that has to eat every few hours. I have no difficulty fasting most days. I guess my metabolism is slow. I've fallen off the wagon recently, but to get back on, I just stop eating. Most days I don't even want a breakfast and if I keep myself busy lunchtime is gone. One good meal a day looks to be the solution.
I also exercise, but I'm going to give a version of the fasting thing a go. What do you guys think? Am I on to something? Is it just too simple?
Before you tell me it won't work read the following:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days (https://www.sciencealert.com/the-true-story-of-a-man-who-survived-without-any-food-for-382-days)
Like others, I'm not exactly sure where you are going.
For one thing - uh, I'd say DIET is what works for weight control and exercise is good for you.
What to do with people who don't like exercise, even walking?
Well, I dunno. I do a lot of things that I don't like, because they are good for me - and that started in childhood. You know, my parents made me do chores and clean my room. As a parent, I teach my kids about exercise, healthy eating, doing their homework, getting off the damn video games.
I go to work, though I might not like it. I exercise, eat healthfully, drink water - because it's good for you.
Like others have already mentioned, I cannot fast. It does not work for my body. Eating a varied, healthy diet is what works for me.
Nobody says you have to LIKE exercise. It's just something you should DO because it's good for your body.
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I think that as soon as you use the word "fat" people are going to talk about diet. The "fat" isn't really relevant to the exercise part, because you can be fat and do pretty much any exercise.
If the question is "How do I start exercising more when I'm really out of shape?" that is going to get more exercise related answers than if the question starts out with "And I'm tired of being fat..."
I disagree. I think the "fat" is part of the problem. Sure, so is "out of shape" (which I assume means stamina/cardio). But fat is hard on joints. The reason I can't run is at least as much the fat (as in "heavy") as it is "out of shape". Skinny people can be out of shape (again, assuming we are using those terms in the same way) but they can get out and run until they can't run anymore and then walk until they sufficiently catch their breath, then run again. Even if that's 30 seconds of running followed by two minutes of recovery at first, it's a way to get started. Fact--heavy--means that runny is really hard on joints, in my case joints that are already not fabulous due to the years of dancing. That same 30/120 run/walk wouldn't work for me for very long. Likely not long enough to make much cardio progress.
And that's kind of the point. I mentioned that people who haven't been fat (myself included) generally don't understand that the exercise prescription isn't one-size fits all (ha!). I don't know if you've ever been significantly overweight. (say, more than maybe 45 pounds) It's *NOT* just a case of cardio fitness and needing to work up gradually, like everyone else. GO dun with a backpack with 50 or 75 pounds of weight. Take as many recovery break (walking) as you need. You are going to hurt--and not just in the good, sore way--the next day, and over time, you are likely to damage your body.
So no, it's not the same as any sized out-of-shape person's needs.
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Nobody says you have to LIKE exercise. It's just something you should DO because it's good for your body.
If people don't like it, they should look at it like brushing their teeth.
What are the consequences of not brushing you teeth for the next 20-50 years? Disease, infection, decay, pain, loss of function.
Better keep brushing then!
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And that's kind of the point. I mentioned that people who haven't been fat (myself included) generally don't understand that the exercise prescription isn't one-size fits all (ha!). I don't know if you've ever been significantly overweight. (say, more than maybe 45 pounds) It's *NOT* just a case of cardio fitness and needing to work up gradually, like everyone else. GO dun with a backpack with 50 or 75 pounds of weight. Take as many recovery break (walking) as you need. You are going to hurt--and not just in the good, sore way--the next day, and over time, you are likely to damage your body.
So no, it's not the same as any sized out-of-shape person's needs.
Hence my suggestion to just walk. Even slowly, but for some distance. And frequently. Maybe a little uphill. It's a very basic movement everyone knows how to do and it's gentle on the body. Other alternatives would be biking or even a stationary bike in a gym or at home.
As you point out - cardio isn't the main problem. That will have to wait until later. And regardless, cardio improvement is a function of how hard your heart has to work relative to its base state. If a lot overweight just walking a bit fast uphill should be enough to get the heart working. Its all relative to its current state. An unfit person doesn't need to run fast to improve it, a fit person does.
You have one thing going for you: You have been normal weight and you have been fit as an adult. That's a much better starting point than folks who have been neither.
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I think that as soon as you use the word "fat" people are going to talk about diet. The "fat" isn't really relevant to the exercise part, because you can be fat and do pretty much any exercise.
If the question is "How do I start exercising more when I'm really out of shape?" that is going to get more exercise related answers than if the question starts out with "And I'm tired of being fat..."
I disagree. I think the "fat" is part of the problem. Sure, so is "out of shape" (which I assume means stamina/cardio). But fat is hard on joints. The reason I can't run is at least as much the fat (as in "heavy") as it is "out of shape". Skinny people can be out of shape (again, assuming we are using those terms in the same way) but they can get out and run until they can't run anymore and then walk until they sufficiently catch their breath, then run again. Even if that's 30 seconds of running followed by two minutes of recovery at first, it's a way to get started. Fact--heavy--means that runny is really hard on joints, in my case joints that are already not fabulous due to the years of dancing. That same 30/120 run/walk wouldn't work for me for very long. Likely not long enough to make much cardio progress.
And that's kind of the point. I mentioned that people who haven't been fat (myself included) generally don't understand that the exercise prescription isn't one-size fits all (ha!). I don't know if you've ever been significantly overweight. (say, more than maybe 45 pounds) It's *NOT* just a case of cardio fitness and needing to work up gradually, like everyone else. GO dun with a backpack with 50 or 75 pounds of weight. Take as many recovery break (walking) as you need. You are going to hurt--and not just in the good, sore way--the next day, and over time, you are likely to damage your body.
So no, it's not the same as any sized out-of-shape person's needs. It starts with "exercise [key word] for fat people", and I post that clearly talks about types of movement and fat-specific challenges, and which only mentioned "diet" as a side comment which implied that the diet stuff was a separate conversation and concern.
This thread is no different from someone who is earning minimum wage starting a thread called Expense Reduction for Minimum Wage Earners where they agonize over reducing their expenses down to the same level as Jacob from "Early Retirement Extreme" in an effort to clear mountains of debt and reach FI. At some point plenty of well meaning Mustachians are going to come along and post on that thread about how it might be an idea for the minimum wage earner to also think about what they can do to earn more money.
False. This isn't "I'm not willing to look at X, even though X will be the most impactful for my goal." And frankly, it's a borderline offensive comparison. As is the comparison to teeth brushing. I've bought a new figurative toothbrush and changed my brushing habits, but I'm looking for recommendations on figurative mouthwash, and I get people telling me that no matter how much it sucks, I need to suck it up and brush 3x a day, every day. As I said in the OP, and will say again. I've looked at the diet part, separate from this thread. I've cut cards (though I'm not in or aiming for full ketosis), and especially processed sugars. Somewhat recently, I have myself a hard 8pm eating deadline, and i usually fast until noon (weekdays). (I'm still in the period where I wait and see if fasting is effective for me, as it's not something I've tried before.) I could list the other things, but I won't, because that's not the point. Your comparison suggests I don't want to look at one part of the equation, even though it's the most important part. That's absolutely incorrect, but it's what people love to assume about anyone overweight.
I was looking for help on the OTHER part of the equation. So to use your analogy, it's someone saying, "I'm working on finding a job that pays more, but I'd like help with expenses." And then 90% of the responses being "you need to earn more money". "You have to be willing to do a different job, even if you don't enjoy it." Well-meaning? Perhaps, but not useful, and borderline offensive in that is makes incorrect assumptions (which were at least cursorily addressed in the OP).
So, once again for the people in the back---*I am and will continue to address the diet piece of this. As a person who was formerly in very prime physical shape, I know how that works, what works best for me, and what I need to do. I know what is healthy and effective. And I know it needs to be done in order to lose weight. I'm not lazy. I'm not disinterested in exercise because it isn't fun or because it's overly challenging or because I don't like sore muscles or because sitting on my sofa is more pleasant for me. Now that that's hopefully clear, I would like to exercise. But I am heavy, and the forms of exercise that are generally obvious (and readily available and free or cheap) are not good for a heavy person (or at least for this particular fat person, and many others). My joints can't handle even moderate-impact activities at this point, which is very limiting. Walking isn't hard enough (no hills around me) and running is very painful for my knee.*
Is that more clear?
THIS is exactly why I didn't like that the thread was verring into diet talk. The initial posts were well-intended and likely helpful to others, even if not myself. But I knew it was only a matter of time until it devolved into "fat people can work out like anyone else" (generally FALSE) and implications of stubbornness and refusal to see the obvious.
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I'm thankful to the people who addressed the actual question and suggested swimming and deep water exercise.
After a weight plateau, I'm down another pound. (I try not to weight myself very often as I find it discouraging.) And the differences I see in my physical form are great but more importantly, when I think about my first pool work out, compared to now, it's awesome. My fitness level is improving dramatically, which was what I was looking to address with this thread.
The weight loss is happening, slowly. That's great too, of course. But mostly, I'm happy to be moving my body in a meaningful, purposeful, and yet not damaging way, and to be seeing changes in my ability to do that.
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I think that as soon as you use the word "fat" people are going to talk about diet. The "fat" isn't really relevant to the exercise part, because you can be fat and do pretty much any exercise.
If the question is "How do I start exercising more when I'm really out of shape?" that is going to get more exercise related answers than if the question starts out with "And I'm tired of being fat..."
I disagree. I think the "fat" is part of the problem. Sure, so is "out of shape" (which I assume means stamina/cardio). But fat is hard on joints. The reason I can't run is at least as much the fat (as in "heavy") as it is "out of shape". Skinny people can be out of shape (again, assuming we are using those terms in the same way) but they can get out and run until they can't run anymore and then walk until they sufficiently catch their breath, then run again. Even if that's 30 seconds of running followed by two minutes of recovery at first, it's a way to get started. Fact--heavy--means that runny is really hard on joints, in my case joints that are already not fabulous due to the years of dancing. That same 30/120 run/walk wouldn't work for me for very long. Likely not long enough to make much cardio progress.
And that's kind of the point. I mentioned that people who haven't been fat (myself included) generally don't understand that the exercise prescription isn't one-size fits all (ha!). I don't know if you've ever been significantly overweight. (say, more than maybe 45 pounds) It's *NOT* just a case of cardio fitness and needing to work up gradually, like everyone else. GO dun with a backpack with 50 or 75 pounds of weight. Take as many recovery break (walking) as you need. You are going to hurt--and not just in the good, sore way--the next day, and over time, you are likely to damage your body.
So no, it's not the same as any sized out-of-shape person's needs.
Well said.
I exercised at my heaviest and it was definitely very difficult, so I pretty much stopped. I then started exercising again once I was healthy weight and it was a lot easier, despite being just as out of shape.
Just walking was hard carrying the equivalent of a 10 year old child.
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I'm thankful to the people who addressed the actual question and suggested swimming and deep water exercise.
After a weight plateau, I'm down another pound. (I try not to weight myself very often as I find it discouraging.) And the differences I see in my physical form are great but more importantly, when I think about my first pool work out, compared to now, it's awesome. My fitness level is improving dramatically, which was what I was looking to address with this thread.
The weight loss is happening, slowly. That's great too, of course. But mostly, I'm happy to be moving my body in a meaningful, purposeful, and yet not damaging way, and to be seeing changes in my ability to do that.
Re:swimming
Have you ever tried swimming with a snorkel??
I just got one about a month ago and I find it soooo much easier to maintain proper form and breathe calmly during my laps.
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
Well, if anyone has experience with asking a pretty specific question on this forum only to have a completely different issue repeatedly addressed, it's me.
So, I'll do my best to speak to the topic you asked to discuss: exercise.
I don't need to lose weight, but I do need to increase my muscle mass. What complicates things is that I had a hip replacement in 2017, and I'm not entirely pain free from that. My physical abilities are vastly improved since my replacement, but I've come to accept that my hip joint may never feel the way it once did.
I am absolutely not a fan of gyms, and in order to walk very far, I'd need to get in my car and drive to a trail/walking path, which doesn't appeal to me at all. So I decided to sign up for a learn to row program. It starts this weekend, and I'm nervous as heck. I have very little confidence in my ability to balance well in the boat let alone my strength to row it. I'm hoping the master rowers are an understanding bunch! My reasons for attempting this are that I like a challenge, and my oldest daughter loved the youth rowing session this summer, so I also think it would be a great commonality for us (if I can cut it).
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I'm thankful to the people who addressed the actual question and suggested swimming and deep water exercise.
After a weight plateau, I'm down another pound. (I try not to weight myself very often as I find it discouraging.) And the differences I see in my physical form are great but more importantly, when I think about my first pool work out, compared to now, it's awesome. My fitness level is improving dramatically, which was what I was looking to address with this thread.
The weight loss is happening, slowly. That's great too, of course. But mostly, I'm happy to be moving my body in a meaningful, purposeful, and yet not damaging way, and to be seeing changes in my ability to do that.
I just got one about a month ago and I find it soooo much easier to maintain proper form and breathe calmly during my laps.
Huh. Interesting suggestion! I haven't, other than when actually snorkeling, but I own one, and this is worth a try, given that the breathing is the part I still struggle with. Thanks!
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Huh. Interesting suggestion! I haven't, other than when actually snorkeling, but I own one, and this is worth a try, given that the breathing is the part I still struggle with. Thanks!
A swimming snorkel is different from a snorkeling snorkel.
I have this Michael Phelps one
http://www.michaelphelps.com/uk/equipment/focus/item/8-focus
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Huh. Interesting suggestion! I haven't, other than when actually snorkeling, but I own one, and this is worth a try, given that the breathing is the part I still struggle with. Thanks!
A swimming snorkel is different from a snorkeling snorkel.
I have this Michael Phelps one
http://www.michaelphelps.com/uk/equipment/focus/item/8-focus
:smacks self in forehead:
Great suggestion! In fact, I'm thinking my non-floating husband might be able to join me for laps more often, if he uses this!
Btw, I've started working on my butterfly again after about a year of not bothering. Keep in mind I'm in good general swimming shape b/c I do freestyle, breast, and backstroke during regular swimming workouts. And just throwing ONE 25 yard lap of butterfly in per session has me really feeling sore the next day. It's astonishing how each particular variation, even in the same general type of exercise, makes you feel very out of shape again.
Also, I just thought of another type of exercise that might be good for overweight or pain-impaired people...paddleboarding. I realize that paddleboards are expensive, but the exercise itself is fun, and incredibly good at working all the tiny muscles needed for balance that you never use in ordinary life. You can start out sitting, and work up to standing. If I ever live somewhere that paddleboarding is feasible, I'm totally doing it (with the goal of eventually being able do some basic yoga poses on the paddleboard like some obnoxious Instagrammer).
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I think that as soon as you use the word "fat" people are going to talk about diet. The "fat" isn't really relevant to the exercise part, because you can be fat and do pretty much any exercise.
If the question is "How do I start exercising more when I'm really out of shape?" that is going to get more exercise related answers than if the question starts out with "And I'm tired of being fat..."
I disagree. I think the "fat" is part of the problem. Sure, so is "out of shape" (which I assume means stamina/cardio). But fat is hard on joints. The reason I can't run is at least as much the fat (as in "heavy") as it is "out of shape". Skinny people can be out of shape (again, assuming we are using those terms in the same way) but they can get out and run until they can't run anymore and then walk until they sufficiently catch their breath, then run again. Even if that's 30 seconds of running followed by two minutes of recovery at first, it's a way to get started. Fact--heavy--means that runny is really hard on joints, in my case joints that are already not fabulous due to the years of dancing. That same 30/120 run/walk wouldn't work for me for very long. Likely not long enough to make much cardio progress.
And that's kind of the point. I mentioned that people who haven't been fat (myself included) generally don't understand that the exercise prescription isn't one-size fits all (ha!). I don't know if you've ever been significantly overweight. (say, more than maybe 45 pounds) It's *NOT* just a case of cardio fitness and needing to work up gradually, like everyone else. GO dun with a backpack with 50 or 75 pounds of weight. Take as many recovery break (walking) as you need. You are going to hurt--and not just in the good, sore way--the next day, and over time, you are likely to damage your body.
So no, it's not the same as any sized out-of-shape person's needs.
Excellent points. I remember hating to go hiking when I moved here. My husband had all these new grad student friends. We went hiking! It was so.fucking.hard.
And I exercised! I went to the gym, I did elliptical, I walked ... a lot (trained for almost a year for the 3-day, 60 mile breast cancer walk - wore through 5 pairs of shoes). I lifted weights. I didn't know how to swim at that time. I rode a bicycle. Shit just HURT.
So...then I join Weight Watchers and lose almost 60 lbs (17 years ago now). Go hiking. Holy shit! It's amazing how much easier it was to do a 5 mile hike at 125-130 lbs compared to over 180 lbs. No wonder I hated it.
Since then I've gained and lost 35-50 lbs a couple of times (babies), and I can FEEL it. EVERYTHING is harder at 182 lbs, or 168 lbs, compared to 130. Even now I'm around 140 lbs, and those 10 lbs make a total difference in my running, now that I run.
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Diet matters more than exercise. I lost a heap of weight by cutting down on carbs and sugars. I lost none when I returned to my old diet and took up cycling. (I didn't return to my old weight though).
Start a food log. And be honest about it. Create own meal planner (https://onplanners.com/template/colorful-weekly-meal-planner-grocery-list) or use apps that make it super easy to add foods. And then don't just look at calories, but look at the grams a day of the 3 macronutrients you eat (protein, carbs, fat). On my old horrible diet, I could easily hit 400g of carbs a day. Now I keep it at under 100g.
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I just want to pop in and say that what makes exercise difficult, is being out of shape for the requirements of that exercise. Fat people who do strength training to make running easier and less painful, will have an easier and less painful experience. I have been all sorts of sizes, and one of strongest times also happened to be one of my heaviest/bigger times. But I could exercise harder and faster than when I was thin and never worked out.
Fat people can be better athletes than skinny people. Yeah more weight could be an issue depending on factors such as how much extra fat someone carries, and what their fitness/strength level is. But how do you explain people who are heavy due to muscle (muscle is denser than fat), being successful athletes? For god sakes, there are fitness competitions centered around running around lugging heavy things, and people add weights to their body while running. So it is not as simple as fat=heavy=can’t do things skinnies can.
If you want to run but it hurts, take the word “fat” out of the equation, and simply study/practice strength training exercises for joggers. Exercises that strengthen the feet, ankles, knees back and legs. Anyone who wakes up one day and decides that are just going to start vertically pounding their body one leg at a time, into a hard surface, might be in for a painful surprise if they have not attempted to fortify the muscles, that support the joints getting jolted; learning technique can’t hurt either.
That is more effective IMO, than avoiding certain exercises bc you are fat, or waiting until you are skinny to certain exercises.
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Diet matters more than exercise.
Not picking on you, but just highlighting a comment that often seems to pop up in these conversations.
If your goal is simply to lose weight, diet is more important than exercise. When you starve yourself, your weight will reduce.
If the goal is to lose weight in a healthy way though, exercise is equally important. If you diet without getting exercise, you will lose muscle from your frame very quickly. This helps your weight go down! It's also very bad for weight maintenance long term . . . because when you lose skeletal muscle you also reduce your base metabolic rate . . . which means that you will more easily gain weight in the future. It also makes you physically weaker and more frail. When you become physically weaker you will have a harder time lifting and moving heavy stuff around, but you'll also find it significantly harder to do any kind of cardiovascular activity.
Conversely, if you add a mix of strength and aerobic training to your regular routine along with less significant calorie reductions you will gain strength, increase aerobic capacity, increase your skeletal musculature (or at least not lose as much as you would simply by dieting), and reduce the fat you're carrying around. Your weight probably won't go as low as it would with pure dieting but you will be significantly healthier. Your body will look better when you're naked. You will reduce the size of your waist, and lose the jiggly fat from all over your frame. Because you're carrying more muscle, you'll be able to eat more food without gaining weight because your BMR is increased.
TLDR - If you want to end up a light weakling with a bad heart who gets winded climbing a flight of stairs and easily gains weight from eating food . . . then yes, diet matters more than exercise. If you want to be healthy, you need to focus on exercise along with your diet . . . and absolute weight numbers shouldn't matter anywhere near as much as things like waist measurement and physical performance scores.
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Just wanted to throw in a couple nuggets of info for anyone that comes along later. For the big folks out there - bicycling is a great option. Heck, even ebiking gets a person moving and because you are not struggling every ride, its fun and perhaps more personally sustainable. Ebikes may not be important in flat places but around here with all the steep hills it is the difference between riding the bike and walking the bike everywhere.
What I've found though is being a Clydesdale sized guy is the back wheel takes a beating. Spokes stretch and loosen, wheels go out of true. A bicycle with a motor exacerbates this b/c depending on how much power is being added to the bicycle, the back wheel is coping with alot of forces. A hub motor might be better because they come with larger gauge spokes and the spokes are shorter. For a mid-drive bike which uses an ordinary rear wheel and the bike's gears, the wheel can suffer.
My strategy is to have two rear wheels. When the wheel on the bike needs service (truing or spoke replacement) just swap wheels. Have a second wheel with tire and tube ready so the bike is only out of service for 10-20 minutes. Then at your convenience drop off the knackered wheel at the LBS and let them do their magic on it. Or - like I've done - learn to replace spokes and true the wheel yourself. The tools required are modest and affordable. I can PM suggestions. YouTube has some great tutorials for DIY wheel maintenance.
Ultimately the Clydesdale biker's solution may be a custom wheel from a wheel specialist. I was quoted $450 one such wheel guaranteed to put up with my weight. Its much like a rear wheel for a tandem bike but built around a regular bike hub. The pricetag may lead me to learn to build that wheel for myself. I've built (rebuilt from scratch) one wheel and it was intimidating but a slow methodical approach along with several reference pictures from a phone camera can make it a doable task for the first timer.
Thank you to the group about this topic. I had high hopes of making my needle move this summer but my to-do has been too full (for my comfort) to dedicate myself to developing an elaborate exercise routine. However the food intake modifications can happen at any time and should. I'm looking at the apps Noom, All Recipies (Dinner Spinner(, Budget Bytes, and MyFitness Pal.
Also looking at some of the bicycling and hiking apps to discover where people around my town like to exercise. I'll settle on a couple of the tools soon enough. Fortunately cool weather is around the corner and so I'll be more active outside. The hot humid summers here guarantee I don't do much active during the heat of the day.
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I just want to pop in and say that what makes exercise difficult, is being out of shape for the requirements of that exercise. Fat people who do strength training to make running easier and less painful, will have an easier and less painful experience. I have been all sorts of sizes, and one of strongest times also happened to be one of my heaviest/bigger times. But I could exercise harder and faster than when I was thin and never worked out.
Fat people can be better athletes than skinny people. Yeah more weight could be an issue depending on factors such as how much extra fat someone carries, and what their fitness/strength level is. But how do you explain people who are heavy due to muscle (muscle is denser than fat), being successful athletes? For god sakes, there are fitness competitions centered around running around lugging heavy things, and people add weights to their body while running. So it is not as simple as fat=heavy=can’t do things skinnies can.
If you want to run but it hurts, take the word “fat” out of the equation, and simply study/practice strength training exercises for joggers. Exercises that strengthen the feet, ankles, knees back and legs. Anyone who wakes up one day and decides that are just going to start vertically pounding their body one leg at a time, into a hard surface, might be in for a painful surprise if they have not attempted to fortify the muscles, that support the joints getting jolted; learning technique can’t hurt either.
That is more effective IMO, than avoiding certain exercises bc you are fat, or waiting until you are skinny to certain exercises.
Come on man.
I did all that. It doesn't matter as much as you think it does. Sure, it matters.
But running at 180+ lbs (for a 5'2" female) is NOTHING like running at 130 lbs. Those extra 50 lbs are putting a metric ton of pressure and weight on your joints. Can't escape it.
Edit: I can do math, I swear
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I think that as soon as you use the word "fat" people are going to talk about diet. The "fat" isn't really relevant to the exercise part, because you can be fat and do pretty much any exercise.
If the question is "How do I start exercising more when I'm really out of shape?" that is going to get more exercise related answers than if the question starts out with "And I'm tired of being fat..."
I disagree. I think the "fat" is part of the problem. Sure, so is "out of shape" (which I assume means stamina/cardio). But fat is hard on joints. The reason I can't run is at least as much the fat (as in "heavy") as it is "out of shape". Skinny people can be out of shape (again, assuming we are using those terms in the same way) but they can get out and run until they can't run anymore and then walk until they sufficiently catch their breath, then run again. Even if that's 30 seconds of running followed by two minutes of recovery at first, it's a way to get started. Fact--heavy--means that runny is really hard on joints, in my case joints that are already not fabulous due to the years of dancing. That same 30/120 run/walk wouldn't work for me for very long. Likely not long enough to make much cardio progress.
And that's kind of the point. I mentioned that people who haven't been fat (myself included) generally don't understand that the exercise prescription isn't one-size fits all (ha!). I don't know if you've ever been significantly overweight. (say, more than maybe 45 pounds) It's *NOT* just a case of cardio fitness and needing to work up gradually, like everyone else. GO dun with a backpack with 50 or 75 pounds of weight. Take as many recovery break (walking) as you need. You are going to hurt--and not just in the good, sore way--the next day, and over time, you are likely to damage your body.
So no, it's not the same as any sized out-of-shape person's needs.
I kinda disagree! Because I actually see fat people running on the trail in the park all the time. I don't run because I actually DO have major knee issues, plus I don't like running anyway, so I pick exercises that don't cause me pain - but that's true whether you are fat or not. (I also don't enjoy swimming enough for it to be any really exercise.) The exercise issue is exactly the same whether you are fat or not - what do you like, what will you keep doing.
But exercise won't make you thin, and it's not clear whether you just want to get more exercise and feel better, or whether you want to lose weight. My dh could definitely stand to lose 40 lbs, but that's not why he walks a gazzilion steps every week now, but he certainly does feel better because of the walking.
I go to a variety of exercise classes, and there are plenty of fat people in all of them.
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Swimming and water exercise are excellent. I would think yoga/Pilates would be good too, though not particularly cardio focused.
I’m expecting our second and will say that walking is a great workout- mostly because it involves pushing our first. Throwing 35 pounds in a stroller and pushing it up even a slight incline is a killer arm/cardio combo!
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
In terms of exercise the "forkputdown" is the best exercise for fat people.
Seriously.
Other than that every "diet" is always about tricking people into eating less calories overall, keto,paleo,fasting, low carb,yadayadayada. If people tracked the ir caloric intake on any of these diets they would see that it is just a way to trick themselves into eating less.
Other than that ANY movement is exercise when you are hauling around extra weight(fat). Move. People like to make it complicated , it's not. Any movement that you will gladly do at least 6 days a week is exercise when fat.
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@Villanelle back to swimming talk, I used to do a lot of laps and my natural breath pace was 4 strokes (so every 2nd RH). When I changed over to breathing on alternate sides, I initially tried every 3rd stroke but because it was slightly faster than my natural pace, my body took it as a sign that I should be worried. Swimming became hard, my muscles were tense, it felt like I stopped being able to float. So I switched to every 5th stroke and it had the opposite response- my body calmed down and chilled, it was initially harder on the breathing but suddenly every stroke was more effective because there was no tension. So you could try playing with breathing frequency? Also! if you twist your torso with the stroke, when you turn your head for the breath, it's almost like a wee air pocket is created reducing the amount you need to twist to breath. It feels great when you get it right!
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
In terms of exercise the "forkputdown" is the best exercise for fat people.
Seriously.
Other than that every "diet" is always about tricking people into eating less calories overall, keto,paleo,fasting, low carb,yadayadayada. If people tracked the ir caloric intake on any of these diets they would see that it is just a way to trick themselves into eating less.
Other than that ANY movement is exercise when you are hauling around extra weight(fat). Move. People like to make it complicated , it's not. Any movement that you will gladly do at least 6 days a week is exercise when fat.
No.
Putting the fork down is not exercise. It isn't. It may lead to weight loss, but that is not the same as exercise.
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I am agog that people keep coming and giving diet advice in a thread where OP asked explicitly for exercise advice (because she was already managing her diet), and then again asked explicitly for exercise advice only, and yet we still have diet advice coming in.
It's really not that hard to stay on topic, y'all. And with a topic as utterly borked as food/diet is in Western society, if OP asks you to please not touch it, just don't touch it.
This is just about common politeness. If you want a thread about diets, go start one (or interact on the billion other threads about diets on this forum! there's plenty). This one is about exercise options for a group of people for whom certain common types of exercise are physically much more difficult. Please stick to that.
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I'm fascinated that a thread specifically about exercise quite predictably turns into a thread about diet, as though they are synonymous. They are not. They have different purposes.
One asks about exercise and is almost immediately told how to eat.
In terms of exercise the "forkputdown" is the best exercise for fat people.
Seriously.
Other than that every "diet" is always about tricking people into eating less calories overall, keto,paleo,fasting, low carb,yadayadayada. If people tracked the ir caloric intake on any of these diets they would see that it is just a way to trick themselves into eating less.
Other than that ANY movement is exercise when you are hauling around extra weight(fat). Move. People like to make it complicated , it's not. Any movement that you will gladly do at least 6 days a week is exercise when fat.
No
ex·er·cise
/ˈeksərˌsīz/
noun
1.
activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness.
"exercise improves your heart and lung power"
synonyms: physical activity, movement, exertion, effort, work;
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I am agog that people keep coming and giving diet advice in a thread where OP asked explicitly for exercise advice (because she was already managing her diet), and then again asked explicitly for exercise advice only, and yet we still have diet advice coming in.
It's really not that hard to stay on topic, y'all. And with a topic as utterly borked as food/diet is in Western society, if OP asks you to please not touch it, just don't touch it.
This is just about common politeness. If you want a thread about diets, go start one (or interact on the billion other threads about diets on this forum! there's plenty). This one is about exercise options for a group of people for whom certain common types of exercise are physically much more difficult. Please stick to that.
All of this.
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I am agog that people keep coming and giving diet advice in a thread where OP asked explicitly for exercise advice (because she was already managing her diet), and then again asked explicitly for exercise advice only, and yet we still have diet advice coming in.
It's really not that hard to stay on topic, y'all. And with a topic as utterly borked as food/diet is in Western society, if OP asks you to please not touch it, just don't touch it.
This is just about common politeness. If you want a thread about diets, go start one (or interact on the billion other threads about diets on this forum! there's plenty). This one is about exercise options for a group of people for whom certain common types of exercise are physically much more difficult. Please stick to that.
But she indicated that one of her main goals is weight loss. For that exercise and diet is the way to go. Exercise will not help much as your appetite increases as you exercise more. She also wants the other benefits of exercise, but doesn't specify any particular goal, so I assume it's overall stamina increase. Walking might not seem like enough, but actually an energetic walk is the best exercise exactly because of that. It doesn't feel too hard so you can keep it up for an hour or so every day. With your excess weight you'll do enough weight training when walking. Be mindful that once you start losing weight this type of exercise will become lighter, so you would need to start either carrying weights, or adding other routines.
Do keep a journal of what you lost, You can carry the equivalent weight around on your walks to remind you and motivate you.
I know the feeling of wanting to be all athletic in sports gear hitting the gym or the road, but with that high intensity training you'll tire out in minutes and will get very little improvements. I would just focus on losing weight until your BMI is no longer in the overweight zone. Then you can change it up all you want.
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I am agog that people keep coming and giving diet advice in a thread where OP asked explicitly for exercise advice (because she was already managing her diet), and then again asked explicitly for exercise advice only, and yet we still have diet advice coming in.
It's really not that hard to stay on topic, y'all. And with a topic as utterly borked as food/diet is in Western society, if OP asks you to please not touch it, just don't touch it.
This is just about common politeness. If you want a thread about diets, go start one (or interact on the billion other threads about diets on this forum! there's plenty). This one is about exercise options for a group of people for whom certain common types of exercise are physically much more difficult. Please stick to that.
But she indicated that one of her main goals is weight loss. For that exercise and diet is the way to go. Exercise will not help much as your appetite increases as you exercise more. She also wants the other benefits of exercise, but doesn't specify any particular goal, so I assume it's overall stamina increase. Walking might not seem like enough, but actually an energetic walk is the best exercise exactly because of that. It doesn't feel too hard so you can keep it up for an hour or so every day. With your excess weight you'll do enough weight training when walking. Be mindful that once you start losing weight this type of exercise will become lighter, so you would need to start either carrying weights, or adding other routines.
Do keep a journal of what you lost, You can carry the equivalent weight around on your walks to remind you and motivate you.
I know the feeling of wanting to be all athletic in sports gear hitting the gym or the road, but with that high intensity training you'll tire out in minutes and will get very little improvements. I would just focus on losing weight until your BMI is no longer in the overweight zone. Then you can change it up all you want.
When I was a size 12, doing 15-27 miles day hikes, BMI charts considered me obese. And no I was not an athletic god with huge muscle mass. I was/am curvy (African woman butt, hips, thighs and boobs), with a healthy waist circumference and stellar metabolic panel. At a BMI considered “overweight” I am a size 10, within 10 pounds of my high school weight, and look average build, athletic-curvy, and wear medium sizes. BMI is terrible enough to use as a measurement, but I would NEVER use it to determine my fitness level or goals.
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When I was a size 12, doing 15-27 miles day hikes, BMI charts considered me obese. And no I was not an athletic god with huge muscle mass. I was/am curvy (African woman butt, hips, thighs and boobs), with a healthy waist circumference and stellar metabolic panel. At a BMI considered “overweight” I am a size 10, within 10 pounds of my high school weight, and look average build, athletic-curvy, and wear medium sizes. BMI is terrible enough to use as a measurement, but I would NEVER use it to determine my fitness level or goals.
Good for you. BMI is not perfect, especially if you're short or tall. You can do all sorts of things like body fat percentage and waist size measurements, but the simplicity of just having a target weight for weight loss for me out weighs the lack of accuracy. There is quite a large range of healthy weight, so for most it will be good.
Also for health (and looks) it is quite good that your weight is not your belly, but for stressing joints during exercise it really doesn't matter.
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I disagree that exercise does not promote weight loss. Most studies show that diet alone is not effective long term. Almost every successful weight loss program pairs diet with exercise. If u don't include exercise your metabolism slows and tries to hold onto those calories making weight loss harder and harder. It is all about including physical activity as a regular part of the day. No one is saying if she exercises she doesn't have to pay attention to what she is putting into her body so please stop arguing that. To say physical activity and other lifestyle changes are not important is plain wrong.
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When I was a size 12, doing 15-27 miles day hikes, BMI charts considered me obese. And no I was not an athletic god with huge muscle mass. I was/am curvy (African woman butt, hips, thighs and boobs), with a healthy waist circumference and stellar metabolic panel. At a BMI considered “overweight” I am a size 10, within 10 pounds of my high school weight, and look average build, athletic-curvy, and wear medium sizes. BMI is terrible enough to use as a measurement, but I would NEVER use it to determine my fitness level or goals.
Good for you. BMI is not perfect, especially if you're short or tall. You can do all sorts of things like body fat percentage and waist size measurements, but the simplicity of just having a target weight for weight loss for me out weighs the lack of accuracy. There is quite a large range of healthy weight, so for most it will be good.
Also for health (and looks) it is quite good that your weight is not your belly, but for stressing joints during exercise it really doesn't matter.
I disagree that the concept of weight is a hinderence on joints. Fitness is a more determining factor. What if that weight comes from muscle that supports the joints and skeletal system? If you are doing the correct conditioning training for the excersies you want to succeed in, you are less likely to injure yourself than someone half your weight who hasn’t conditioned. Concrete buildings weigh more than treehouses, but guess which one I’m hunkering down in, in a storm.
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When I was a size 12, doing 15-27 miles day hikes, BMI charts considered me obese. And no I was not an athletic god with huge muscle mass. I was/am curvy (African woman butt, hips, thighs and boobs), with a healthy waist circumference and stellar metabolic panel. At a BMI considered “overweight” I am a size 10, within 10 pounds of my high school weight, and look average build, athletic-curvy, and wear medium sizes. BMI is terrible enough to use as a measurement, but I would NEVER use it to determine my fitness level or goals.
Good for you. BMI is not perfect, especially if you're short or tall. You can do all sorts of things like body fat percentage and waist size measurements, but the simplicity of just having a target weight for weight loss for me out weighs the lack of accuracy. There is quite a large range of healthy weight, so for most it will be good.
Also for health (and looks) it is quite good that your weight is not your belly, but for stressing joints during exercise it really doesn't matter.
I'm not particularly tall at 6' . . . and when I was competitively wrestling (also in the best shape of my life) I weighed 220 lbs. At the time I was ripped, and my body fat was sitting around 10%. According to BMI I was well into overweight (in fact borderline obese). BMI is a poor measurement of health.
Having a target weight for weight loss is an even worse way to measure health though. It's very easy to be a low weight with a bad heart and being incredibly weak. A much better (and easier) way to measure health is via athletic performance. Can you run a 5 minute mile? Can you squat your body weight? Can you comfortably ride your bike for 100 km? These types of things are much better measurements of health than lbs on a scale.
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BMI is not perfect
It's more abused. It's a figure which is meaningful when comparing say populations or track populations over time, but on an individual level, it doesn't say a lot for obvious reasons.
The easy-to-measure figure which correlates well with a long bucket list of health problems is waist width (or so they say at least).
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It's okay to be a large person if your physical state allows you to be at your best. Skinny people can be in bad physical shape too if their bodies don't perform as well as they could perform. The key is to find the body shape in which you perform your best. Sometimes, only you know whether you are at your best or not. Do you get tired easily, or can you walk up several flights of stairs, that sort of things. Not everyone has to be thin. Linebackers and sumo wrestlers look like big fat guys, but they run faster and probably have less body fat than skinny people.
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It depends on your goal for nutrition and exercise. Do you want to eat better and work out more and what is the extent of each?
If your goal is only to loose weight then calorie cutting and diet will get you there but you will most likely be hungry.
Finding time and motivation to work out is the worst but if you want to tone and be able to eat more than the bare minimum this is the best option. There are a lot of free programs that use body weight movements you can do at home. Sure fit people have an easier time working out sometimes but there is always a starting point. I am in better shape now kind of chubby then when I was super thin.
I have a regular gym memberships and do High intensity short work outs that hurt like heck but with only working out a couple times a week a total necessity. (side note my diet needs SOOO MUCH WORK)
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+1 for diet control. Especially if you start exercising and lose a few pounds your body will start craving for food to regain the lost weight. So unless you control your food, you'll probably end up fatter from your exercise.
Unfortunately our brains are wired to have those cravings regardless of whether or not you exercise. When we lose weight the brain thinks there is a famine and will kick in the cravings to rebuild a fat storage for the next famine. This is why it's so hard for most people to keep weight off, you're literally battling against hundreds of thousands of years of hard wired genetics.
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+1 for diet control. Especially if you start exercising and lose a few pounds your body will start craving for food to regain the lost weight. So unless you control your food, you'll probably end up fatter from your exercise.
Unfortunately our brains are wired to have those cravings regardless of whether or not you exercise. When we lose weight the brain thinks there is a famine and will kick in the cravings to rebuild a fat storage for the next famine. This is why it's so hard for most people to keep weight off, you're literally battling against hundreds of thousands of years of hard wired genetics.
And, this wasn't true for me. When I was exercising hard, my craving for sweets and also alcohol went away, and I favored eating more protein. I didn't eat more but my diet was skewed to be better than my usual carb heavy diet.
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And, this wasn't true for me. When I was exercising hard, my craving for sweets and also alcohol went away, and I favored eating more protein. I didn't eat more but my diet was skewed to be better than my usual carb heavy diet.
It's more of a long term phenomenon. It's the primary reason most people gain all the weight back eventually. Some are able to keep the weight off for a few years but eventually the genetics come calling. Takes incredible discipline to battle our hard wiring.
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Oh great. Food discipline I don't have. Well, I got better with money. Maybe I can get better with food.
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Oh great. Food discipline I don't have. Well, I got better with money. Maybe I can get better with food.
I have ZERO food discipline at home. If it's in the house it's fair game. But I'm fine at the supermarket..... so I just don't buy it. Things I can't have in the house: nuts, crackers, chips, fancy cheeses, cake, cookies, icecream, chocolate, grapes or cherries ..... etc. If you find you're not disciplined at the supermarket either, maybe you could try shopping online?
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As mentioned many times here, diet is key. My SO was pointing out today how we haven't purchased anything processed in the year that we've been living together. Everything we buy either came from a plant or is a plant (doing good for our bodies and the environment). We've both maintained a slim yet toned physique even though we eat enormous portions of food.
And ONLY drink water (and lots of it)!
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Ok this is going to sound crazy but: urban rebounding. It’s a mini trampoline. Zero impact but can be very intense workout. Stimulates the lymphatic system. You can buy one online and then do YouTube videos. I also have a Tracy Anderson and another rebounding DVD.
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Oh great. Food discipline I don't have. Well, I got better with money. Maybe I can get better with food.
I've always found it frustrating because I've always been good with deferring spending and shitty at deferring eating bad food.
I feel like it should be similar brain circuitry, but me ability to restrain myself in these two areas is very different.
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Oh great. Food discipline I don't have. Well, I got better with money. Maybe I can get better with food.
I have ZERO food discipline at home. If it's in the house it's fair game. But I'm fine at the supermarket..... so I just don't buy it. Things I can't have in the house: nuts, crackers, chips, fancy cheeses, cake, cookies, icecream, chocolate, grapes or cherries ..... etc. If you find you're not disciplined at the supermarket either, maybe you could try shopping online?
I'm pretty good at the supermarket. If I buy snacks I buy something small. When its gone its gone and I don't get more for a week or more. But yeah, if its in the house... I'm with you there.
Yep, good with money, lousy with food impulse control.
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Oh great. Food discipline I don't have. Well, I got better with money. Maybe I can get better with food.
I have ZERO food discipline at home. If it's in the house it's fair game. But I'm fine at the supermarket..... so I just don't buy it. Things I can't have in the house: nuts, crackers, chips, fancy cheeses, cake, cookies, icecream, chocolate, grapes or cherries ..... etc. If you find you're not disciplined at the supermarket either, maybe you could try shopping online?
I'm pretty good at the supermarket. If I buy snacks I buy something small. When its gone its gone and I don't get more for a week or more. But yeah, if its in the house... I'm with you there.
Yep, good with money, lousy with food impulse control.
Well, neither of us are on heroin, I feel safe to assume, so....... we still win! :)
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Ok this is going to sound crazy but: urban rebounding. It’s a mini trampoline. Zero impact but can be very intense workout. Stimulates the lymphatic system. You can buy one online and then do YouTube videos. I also have a Tracy Anderson and another rebounding DVD.
I'm no doctor, but "stimulates the lymphatic system"? That sounds like made-up marketing talk, workout benefits notwithstanding.
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Oh great. Food discipline I don't have. Well, I got better with money. Maybe I can get better with food.
I have ZERO food discipline at home. If it's in the house it's fair game. But I'm fine at the supermarket..... so I just don't buy it. Things I can't have in the house: nuts, crackers, chips, fancy cheeses, cake, cookies, icecream, chocolate, grapes or cherries ..... etc. If you find you're not disciplined at the supermarket either, maybe you could try shopping online?
I'm pretty good at the supermarket. If I buy snacks I buy something small. When its gone its gone and I don't get more for a week or more. But yeah, if its in the house... I'm with you there.
Yep, good with money, lousy with food impulse control.
Well, neither of us are on heroin, I feel safe to assume, so....... we still win! :)
No. I restrict my mind-altering experiences to an occasional stout beer. One is usually enough. The Aldi beer choices are good enough for me.
The problem is with the dang ice cream and cookies. ;)
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Ok this is going to sound crazy but: urban rebounding. It’s a mini trampoline. Zero impact but can be very intense workout. Stimulates the lymphatic system. You can buy one online and then do YouTube videos. I also have a Tracy Anderson and another rebounding DVD.
I'm no doctor, but "stimulates the lymphatic system"? That sounds like made-up marketing talk, workout benefits notwithstanding.
It’s not totally made up as weirdly NASA did a study in 1980 on the benefits of rebounding so companies like to refer to that study. Of course it just one study. I can’t find the full study but the Wikipedia page gives an overview. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_exercise
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Ok this is going to sound crazy but: urban rebounding. It’s a mini trampoline. Zero impact but can be very intense workout. Stimulates the lymphatic system. You can buy one online and then do YouTube videos. I also have a Tracy Anderson and another rebounding DVD.
I'm no doctor, but "stimulates the lymphatic system"? That sounds like made-up marketing talk, workout benefits notwithstanding.
It’s not totally made up as weirdly NASA did a study in 1980 on the benefits of rebounding so companies like to refer to that study. Of course it just one study. I can’t find the full study but the Wikipedia page gives an overview. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_exercise
Language is a funny thing. I can stimulate your lymphatic, pulmonary and cardiovascular system by punching you in the gut. You wouldn't get a lot of benefit from it.
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Ok this is going to sound crazy but: urban rebounding. It’s a mini trampoline. Zero impact but can be very intense workout. Stimulates the lymphatic system. You can buy one online and then do YouTube videos. I also have a Tracy Anderson and another rebounding DVD.
I'm no doctor, but "stimulates the lymphatic system"? That sounds like made-up marketing talk, workout benefits notwithstanding.
It’s not totally made up as weirdly NASA did a study in 1980 on the benefits of rebounding so companies like to refer to that study. Of course it just one study. I can’t find the full study but the Wikipedia page gives an overview. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_exercise
Language is a funny thing. I can stimulate your lymphatic, pulmonary and cardiovascular system by punching you in the gut. You wouldn't get a lot of benefit from it.
Ha fair point! I am no shill for rebounding and I’m sure a lot of the claims are overblown but I do think it’s a very good exercise especially for people who need something gentle.
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Ok this is going to sound crazy but: urban rebounding. It’s a mini trampoline. Zero impact but can be very intense workout. Stimulates the lymphatic system. You can buy one online and then do YouTube videos. I also have a Tracy Anderson and another rebounding DVD.
I'm no doctor, but "stimulates the lymphatic system"? That sounds like made-up marketing talk, workout benefits notwithstanding.
It’s not totally made up as weirdly NASA did a study in 1980 on the benefits of rebounding so companies like to refer to that study. Of course it just one study. I can’t find the full study but the Wikipedia page gives an overview. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_exercise
Language is a funny thing. I can stimulate your lymphatic, pulmonary and cardiovascular system by punching you in the gut. You wouldn't get a lot of benefit from it.
Indeed. I reckon it'd stimulate the neurological, digestive, and endocrine systems as well! And then the person you punched would stimulate you right back, haha.
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I'm thankful to the people who addressed the actual question and suggested swimming and deep water exercise.
After a weight plateau, I'm down another pound. (I try not to weight myself very often as I find it discouraging.) And the differences I see in my physical form are great but more importantly, when I think about my first pool work out, compared to now, it's awesome. My fitness level is improving dramatically, which was what I was looking to address with this thread.
The weight loss is happening, slowly. That's great too, of course. But mostly, I'm happy to be moving my body in a meaningful, purposeful, and yet not damaging way, and to be seeing changes in my ability to do that.
If you want more data than just weight, you could try measuring inches. That probably does a better job of measuring body composition than weight and doesn't require high costs like a DEXA scan or something.
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I'm a huge fan of the free exercises on Darebee.com. They have all levels, and it's free!
(I do tend to donate to them a few times per year because they are awesome).
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Exercising is very easy and does not require any equipment, paid-for or free programs to follow or be in line with whatever is en vogue currently. For staying reasonably healthy it probably matters very little to nothing at all as long as one does something that activates the heart and the largest muscle groups.
The hard part is starting to do something that qualifies as exercise if one hasn't done so in a very long time or never at all. And then sustaining it for long enough util it becomes a habit or preferably downright enjoyable, like one of the best times of the day and something you work hard to get done, not make up an excuse for not doing.
On a grand scale a fair amount of the market for shit you can buy is stuff so you ideally don't have to move your body at all, and if that is not possible as little as required while some piece of equipment takes care of the heavy lifting. Exercise for the masses is a rather new invention as it is quite recent that it actually became somewhat of a necessity. Not that long ago it was just called "life" which in itself provided sufficient of moving yourself or stuff around using your own fine body to perform the tasks life consisted of. The gym was invented to keep roman soldiers - literarly - ft for fight between wars. The majority of the population never needed one, nor should they now.
It doesn't have to be max time-efficient or as easy to do as possible. All that is required, as per general health advice around the world, is that you conduct moderate activity for a total of ~150 minutes each week or 70 minutes of somewhat higher intensity. Anything beyond that has limited long-term health benefits, but you will of course get more fit if you more/harder and it will be required to meet a specific goal like running x miles in under y minutes or doing more than x pounds in squats or whatever. This tiny amount of time, which averages out to slightly over 20 minutes per day, is and should be possible to squeeze into any life, no matter how busy someone pretends to be.
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I'm a huge fan of the free exercises on Darebee.com. They have all levels, and it's free!
(I do tend to donate to them a few times per year because they are awesome).
Holy smokes am I excited about this website! This goes right up there with Runbet and my trusty depilator as life-changing advice from MMM! Thank you!
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Been a couple of months since I last made an entry herein. All I was doing was walking 4 miles a day and restricting my food to one meal a day. Hey! I fit into a pair of pants that were too tight last year. I used to be a walker who was passed by everyone. Odd thing is that I now pass people when walking. I wish I could keep it up,......but:
I have a new assignment and find myself staying in another place another town where it is difficult to walk. You guys know what I mean, places with roads that do not have shoulders or sidewalks. In addition, the days are getting darker. I leave in the dark and return in the dark. Too much of the United States encourages you to be fat because you have to drive to even relatively close locations. Is it another unpublished conspiracy? Seems to me that they ought to encourage walking and not driving.
I may have found my "ace in the hole," literally. They have an old treadmill in the basement where they keep the smoking residents. With headphones giving me books on tape and classic rock' n' roll, there may yet be exercise for this fat person.