Which of these is stopping my weight loss?

[otolith]

fatman2 said:

In truth I don't know how many calories exercise burns but for me I don't associate exercise with any calorie deficit. As soon as you do this (and just enjoy exercise as a lifestyle choice) the sooner you will look towards sustainable nutrition as the true means to fat loss.

Oh how I look forward to those hours sweating like a pig on the elliptical trainer or swimming endless lengths of the pool

Ain't going to happen, it's always going to be an unpleasant necessity.

You can get reasonable estimates of calorie utilisation in exercise, though - and they very quickly illuminate why it's easier to not eat 1000 cals than to burn them off.

[goldblum]

Fatman2 said:

If you think about it logically 800cals represents about a third of your entire daily calorie requirement that you need to stay alive. This is what we're associating with just 2 hours of low level physical labour (relative to running about for two hours for instance).

I think it is insane to suggest that only 2 hours can deplete our daily energy stores by a third. It just is not feasible as people in Africa would be dying off at the rate of knotts just walking 2 hours to collect enough water for the day.

I'm 85 kilos and 6'.I was VO2 MAX tested at MMU,Crewe campus, as part of my current degree course.At an intensity of 60-85% HRmax,or 45/55-90% of maximum oxygen uptake reserve

(VO2R) or HRmax reserve (HRR).I ran for 20 minutes.It was calculated that if I ran for an hour my calorie expenditure would be 760 calories.At that HR I would

probably cover 11 km,or 6.6 miles.I normally run a bit (not much though!) quicker,and would accept a 10k time of 46 minutes.

An average walk burns about half the calories of a slow run,but a fast walk/slow run are comparable in calorie expenditure.

[RemainAllHoof]

otolith said:

Oh how I look forward to those hours sweating like a pig on the elliptical trainer or swimming endless lengths of the pool

Ain't going to happen, it's always going to be an unpleasant necessity.

You say that but once you get into a routine of, say, Mondays weights, Tuesdays cardio, Thursdays football with the lads etc then you actually look forward to it.

[goldblum]

RemainAllHoof said:

otolith said:

Oh how I look forward to those hours sweating like a pig on the elliptical trainer or swimming endless lengths of the pool

Ain't going to happen, it's always going to be an unpleasant necessity.

You say that but once you get into a routine of, say, Mondays weights, Tuesdays cardio, Thursdays football with the lads etc then you actually look forward to it.

True.Try and train with a partner or in a group.Motivation levels have been found to be directly proportionate/in correlation with the number of scantily clad

women in the class.I hear Zumba is very popular...

[Changedmyname]

Fried slice.

[uk_vette]

Hi Fatman2,

Thats a great read in the link you posted.
Not feeling deflated at all, but I can clearly see I am never in a month of Sundays going to burn 800 cal for the morning and evening run/walk bit of exercise that I do.
As a revision to the 800, it may be 150 cal.
Any way.
The read through the link you posted and it was very good, and I am certainly giving a lot more thought to the calories that go down my neck now, than I have ever done before.

Todays progress shows I lost 3,2kg in 13 days (7 lbs)



Thank you to each and every one, and I sincerely mean that.

vette

Edited by uk_vette on Sunday 13th November 13:18

[goldblum]

You'll burn about 300 calories if you walk for an hour,all things being equal.Add speed or hills and your calorie usage rises of course.

Walking is absolutely fine and the process you are following of introducing jogging is the right thing to do.

[RemainAllHoof]

goldblum said:

True.Try and train with a partner or in a group.Motivation levels have been found to be directly proportionate/in correlation with the number of scantily clad

women in the class.I hear Zumba is very popular...

I watched a BodyCombat class last year. I had to leave after a few minutes as it was just a breast-bounce fest with 30 young women jumping back and forth, sports bras barely doing their job. I decided that I would look like a right pervert if I stayed any longer.

[otolith]

RemainAllHoof said:

You say that but once you get into a routine of, say, Mondays weights, Tuesdays cardio, Thursdays football with the lads etc then you actually look forward to it.

Motivation is purely health related, I don't enjoy sport and never have done. I have about a million things I'd rather spend that time doing if it were not a necessity. Great if you do have something you enjoy, I'm sure.

[lemonslap]

RemainAllHoof said:

I watched a BodyCombat class last year. I had to leave after a few minutes as it was just a breast-bounce fest with 30 young women jumping back and forth, sports bras barely doing their job. I decided that I would look like a right pervert if I stayed any longer.

Same, I tried it with the other half then left after 2 mins and headed straight to a punch bag to "man up".

[Fatman2]

otolith said:

fatman2 said:

In truth I don't know how many calories exercise burns but for me I don't associate exercise with any calorie deficit. As soon as you do this (and just enjoy exercise as a lifestyle choice) the sooner you will look towards sustainable nutrition as the true means to fat loss.

Oh how I look forward to those hours sweating like a pig on the elliptical trainer or swimming endless lengths of the pool

Ain't going to happen, it's always going to be an unpleasant necessity.

You can get reasonable estimates of calorie utilisation in exercise, though - and they very quickly illuminate why it's easier to not eat 1000 cals than to burn them off.

LOL ok, point taken

I guess not all of us enjoy exercise but I genuinely do like pumping weights at the gym and other stuff like kickboxing, footie, cycling etc. I'm just a sad b'stard tho

You're right though. You can get estimates of calorie burn but I try to just forget about it and not let it be the sole focus of the activity. However I can fully understand why it is for some, if you don't enjoy the exercise for instance.

I have to say though, I wasn't always as sad as this and really hated exercise once. I think it's just finding the thing that flicks that switch and it was 5-a-side footie that did it for me. Once I got into that all the other things followed. I wouldn't say I was a gym freak now but I certainly get twitchy if I haven't done anything for a week.

[Fatman2]

uk_vette said:

Hi Fatman2,

Thats a great read in the link you posted.
Not feeling deflated at all, but I can clearly see I am never in a month of Sundays going to burn 800 cal for the morning and evening run/walk bit of exercise that I do.
As a revision to the 800, it may be 150 cal.
Any way.
The read through the link you posted and it was very good, and I am certainly giving a lot more thought to the calories that go down my neck now, than I have ever done before.

Todays progress shows I lost 3,2kg in 13 days (7 lbs)

Thank you to each and every one, and I sincerely mean that.

vette

Edited by uk_vette on Sunday 13th November 13:18

Hi Vette

I'm glad you enjoyed the link. It's one of the most interesting articles I've read in a long time and completely made me re-evaluate my opinions of fat etc.

Don't get me wrong, exercise obviously burns the cals (and probably more than 150) but I see it as the icing on the cake once you've got the nutrition buttoned down. I'm glad you're thinking more about it as I feel it is fundamental to everything and will ensure that the weight you lose is really sustainable.

With regard to your plan I think you're making great progress and still heading in the right direction so just keep it up. It certainly doesn't look like you're stalling but from experience with my wife, have known for her to plateau sligthtly on occasion. I think this is natural though as you head toward the final stages of your goals and the returns become increasingly harder to achieve. The way you're going though, you should spot any plateau's pretty quickly so will be able to re-evaluate your plan/goals.

Anyway best of luck

[RemainAllHoof]

otolith said:

Motivation is purely health related, I don't enjoy sport and never have done. I have about a million things I'd rather spend that time doing if it were not a necessity. Great if you do have something you enjoy, I'm sure.

Ok, if you look at sport as a game... like chess or monopoly but you're one of the pieces, does that help? What kind of physical activities do you enjoy?

[RemainAllHoof]

lemonslap said:

Same, I tried it with the other half then left after 2 mins and headed straight to a punch bag to "man up".

BodyCombat certainly isn't manly no matter how much they try to make it so in the promo videos on YouTube.

[otolith]

RemainAllHoof said:

Ok, if you look at sport as a game... like chess or monopoly but you're one of the pieces, does that help? What kind of physical activities do you enjoy?

Walking, but it's simply not intensive enough to be any use in the time I have available. Cycling is tolerable. My wife likes swimming, so I do a lot of that with her, but to be honest it bores me witless - nothing a nice reef to snorkel over wouldn't fix, but they're thin on the ground in Wiltshire. The most tolerable thing is to just get on the elliptical trainer in the spare bedroom and use a radio or tv programme to take my mind off it until its done.

[RemainAllHoof]

otolith said:

Walking, but it's simply not intensive enough to be any use in the time I have available. Cycling is tolerable. My wife likes swimming, so I do a lot of that with her, but to be honest it bores me witless - nothing a nice reef to snorkel over wouldn't fix, but they're thin on the ground in Wiltshire. The most tolerable thing is to just get on the elliptical trainer in the spare bedroom and use a radio or tv programme to take my mind off it until its done.

TBH stuff like running, swimming and cycling bore me, too (agree with the reef thing but floating about glubbing "Oooh, look!" isn't really going to burn the calories; "but when you run, you can see nice sights!" "I will bloody drive there and stop to look if I want to see nice sights!"). I ended up buying a recumbent exercise cycle and just pedalling away while reading a book or magazine (as I enjoy reading/accumulating knowledge). Used to do about 100 miles a week without thinking about it. Sure, it is apparently more effective if you focus on the exercise but, frankly, if I have to focus on the exercise I will do much less of it so it will won't be effective at all. The only sports I do are martial arts (if that is a sport; I just like to learn how to hurt people - knowledge accumulation) and climbing (ok, it is a sport but I do it for the mental challenge as it's about solving a problem to get to the top more than just muscular power; because I enjoy the challenge of puzzle solving, I can end up doing it for hours, far beyond what my body is capable of doing).

My advice, therefore, is to treat yourself to a load of DVDs and a decent DVD system in your spare bedroom or buy a load of audio books and train away.

Edited by RemainAllHoof on Sunday 13th November 23:44

[uk_vette]

Hello otolith, and all the others,

otolith said:

RemainAllHoof said:

Ok, if you look at sport as a game... like chess or monopoly but you're one of the pieces, does that help? What kind of physical activities do you enjoy?

Walking, but it's simply not intensive enough to be any use in the time I have available. Cycling is tolerable. My wife likes swimming, so I do a lot of that with her, but to be honest it bores me witless - nothing a nice reef to snorkel over wouldn't fix, but they're thin on the ground in Wiltshire. The most tolerable thing is to just get on the elliptical trainer in the spare bedroom and use a radio or tv programme to take my mind off it until its done.

.
Hi otolith,

I started out with 3 brisk walking laps of the gardens, at about 1000 meters a lap.
After 3 laps, I was ready for home, I was done.
Then one day, I forgot how many laps I had done, I couldn't remember if I had done 2, or 3, or what so I did an extra 1 just because,,,,,,
Then the next day, I said to her indoors, I need a way to remember how many laps I have done.
She suggested, on the way to the gardens, that I should pick 4 small green leaves, of a nearby bush, like privet leaves, and just put them in my pocket.
On every completion of a lap, take out a leaf, and throw it away,,,
So, now 4 brisk walking laps became very easy.
My next increase, was to pick a start point, on the lap, and run as far as I could, then continue walking briskly.
Remember to throw away a leaf after each lap.
Then next lap around, start running at the same point as previous lap, then run again, but this time, try run further than the point that I had to give up running on the last lap.
Remember to throw away a leaf after that lap.
Then again on the 3rd lap, try run even further.
The 4th lap, has me a total mess, and some times I can't even manage a run, so I just do the brisk walk thing.

It's working for me, I guess in the 4 laps around the gardens, I probably run a total of 1 lap.


Here is the gardens in Weifang.
http://image.baidu.com/i?ct=201326592&cl=2&amp...

vette

[otolith]

I used to do a lot more walking when I lived in the Lake District - a couple of the mandatory peaks but a lot more low level stuff - Grizedale, etc. There are some nice walks round here, but nothing that takes more than an hour or so to go all the way round, and nothing really challenging in terms of terrain. I tend to spend as much time foraging for mushrooms as actually walking.

When we've had the time to walk, we've tended to go out on the mountain bikes instead - it's easy enough to do 20 miles in an afternoon, with a mixture of road and cross country, which burns a decent number of calories (and I suspect that the GPS based app I use to track that assumes road bike on tarmac and underestimates). We could walk the same route, but a fair chunk of it would be slogging along the road, which isn't much fun.

Even so, the calories/hour for cycling isn't all that impressive, not that much more than walking briskly. When I go out with my wife, we usually do a reasonably interesting route at about 10-12mph. When I do it on my own, I tend to do laps of the village because it's a 2 mile loop with a 40 metre change in altitude and the climb is fairly good exercise Doing that for 40 mins burns about 360 calories, according to my app. Thing is, 40 mins on the elliptical trainer burns more like 600.

[RemainAllHoof]

otolith said:

I used to do a lot more walking when I lived in the Lake District - a couple of the mandatory peaks but a lot more low level stuff - Grizedale, etc. There are some nice walks round here, but nothing that takes more than an hour or so to go all the way round, and nothing really challenging in terms of terrain. I tend to spend as much time foraging for mushrooms as actually walking.

When we've had the time to walk, we've tended to go out on the mountain bikes instead - it's easy enough to do 20 miles in an afternoon, with a mixture of road and cross country, which burns a decent number of calories (and I suspect that the GPS based app I use to track that assumes road bike on tarmac and underestimates). We could walk the same route, but a fair chunk of it would be slogging along the road, which isn't much fun.

Even so, the calories/hour for cycling isn't all that impressive, not that much more than walking briskly. When I go out with my wife, we usually do a reasonably interesting route at about 10-12mph. When I do it on my own, I tend to do laps of the village because it's a 2 mile loop with a 40 metre change in altitude and the climb is fairly good exercise Doing that for 40 mins burns about 360 calories, according to my app. Thing is, 40 mins on the elliptical trainer burns more like 600.

The issue then is whether doing 40 mins on the trainer flies by quicker than however many minutes spent walking/foraging. I would do whatever is more fun as there's a motivation, even if it's less efficient, then perhaps do 10 minutes on the trainer. In my case, I'd rather do 5 hours of climbing than 30 minutes of keep fit.

[otolith]

It's really a matter of what I can fit in on my lunch break (I work from home) - if I've got an hour to fit in some exercise and a shower, I burn more calories on the trainer than digging out the bike or going for a walk. It's a very useful instrument of torture bit of kit for people who don't have a lot of free time.