Semi-related life hack: as gyms are closed and I am a tad too heavy to run (screwed up knees from my youthful pursuits), I have decided to emulate the walk to work. I recently started to rent an external office (they come super cheap right now) and leave my work laptop there. It forces me to walk 2x25 minutes everyday. I need to do something after hours? Well, back to the office it is (although in this case I usually dash there on my supercool kick scooter).
To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
41–50 of 145 posts
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#42You can't outrun a bad diet
You can, but it takes a LOT of work, and you still need to hit macros.
Honestly, high level endurance or strength sports make eating a chore. You simply need a LOT of food with decent macros, and you need to be eating all the time. I was once a fairly competitive 100mpw runner. It's eating before you go to bed, so you can wake up at 5 and eat before going back to bed to wake up at 6 so you can do a long run and eat 150+ calories an hour during that, then immediately hit a protein shake and some rice/pasta after the run, then lunch, so you can be prepped to go out again at like 6pm for an evening shakeout run, then you do dinner, then snack before bed, and repeat. 4k+ calories a day is a grind unless you're hammering a lot of really empty calories.
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#43Resting metabolism constitutes the vast majority of total body metabolism. Exercise is a very difficult way to lose weight without altering your diet.
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#44I lost roughly 30kg since Corona started by changing my lifestyle to Keto and OMAD.
I have been exercising 3 days a week with a PT for 3 years before with no results on the weight (but many other great results like fixing my knee and back problems, getting really strong, etc.)
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#45A half hour a day while improving your diet (Pick one: cut booze, fast until afternoon, cut bread, cut soda) is a lot easier to maintain. I ride an exercise bike for a half hour a day while working from home.
I mean, cut soda, period. The other options you mention have downsides, but there is no downside to cutting soda out of your life. Get rid of that trash. (Coffee-flavored milkshakes, too.)
Oddly enough, an actual coffee flavored milkshake has the same calorie count as those fast food coffee drinks (~400 cals) and if you use light ice cream you can probably get it quite a few calories less...
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#46This pandemic I've been eating at most twice a day (light breakfast, skip lunch, then dinner). Sometimes I eat only once a day (dinner). I was surprised how quickly my body adjust and I don't feel as hungry anymore. I don't think humans need to eat three times a day.
I also only gain weight for 1kg after all these 8 months lockdown/not allowed to open (pre lock down I did karate about 3 times a week).
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#47A half hour a day while improving your diet (Pick one: cut booze, fast until afternoon, cut bread, cut soda) is a lot easier to maintain. I ride an exercise bike for a half hour a day while working from home.
I mean, cut soda, period. The other options you mention have downsides, but there is no downside to cutting soda out of your life. Get rid of that trash. (Coffee-flavored milkshakes, too.)
Hint water and La Croix made quitting soda easier.
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#48The majority of weight is lost through respiration, that's the C in CO2. Exercise is great for health, and does help weight loss. But diet is the only thing that is going to resolve this. You consume far more calories in a regular sized Milkyway then you're going to burn exercising in 50 minutes that's for sure. Here's a chart of just those tiny "fun sized" Halloween candies. https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/What-Tak…
Completely orthogonal to TFA, but OK.
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#49The majority of weight is lost through respiration, that's the C in CO2. Exercise is great for health, and does help weight loss. But diet is the only thing that is going to resolve this. You consume far more calories in a regular sized Milkyway then you're going to burn exercising in 50 minutes that's for sure. Here's a chart of just those tiny "fun sized" Halloween candies. https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/What-Tak…
The problem with this is that the lizard brain takes over.
Brain says eat your are staving to death, eat it'll make you happy, eat... or else.
You can't control urges to eat, you can only do your best to resist them.
However, exercise, is always under your control, so it is a great tool. Exercise also has all sorts of non weight loss health benefits that aren't tangential but complementary to weight loss, including staving off weight-loss induced muscle loss. Without a doubt, you can't lose weight without getting a grip on diet, but I don't think a diet only approach is a good one.
I had problems keeping a healthy weight in my past and the method that worked best for me was to target a diet a bit below my metabolic rate, one that would have me losing weight at a slow but steady clip (and would also start to trigger the lizard brain to eat eat eat), then add moderate exercise to the equation.
Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week
#50That's 50 minutes per day with a day off per week. Two pomodoros. E.g. cardio in the morning and resistance in the afternoon. That sounds like a lot to fit into a busy life, but a low price if it's all it takes to emulate the health of the hunter gatherers we evolved from.
Do a long run/ride on the weekend. There's no rule that says one's workout sessions have to all be the same duration.