Some things I’ve learned throughout the years that may be useful to some people:
if your aim is to use a lot of energy, dialing down the intensity significantly and working for a longer time is the way to go
basically all cardio machines at the gym are going to be boring as all hell, going outside and doing activities is a lot more fun
baking in activity into your day-to-day routines is very helpful. Transporting yourself by biking, walking, taking transit, a mix of all of the above makes a large difference
cardio as a means of losing weight has a downside in that vigorous exercise provokes a lot of hunger. make sure to combine with small sustainable changes in diet for best results
Exercise isn’t a great way to lose weight at all. The best way to lose weight is changing how much you consume. That being said, exercise and movement are very important for being healthy in general.
Yup, as a Fat Person™ I couldn’t get into an exercise regiment and keep with it because it’s very difficult to do much with a lot of weight. Then a doctor told me “Exercise is good, but you lose weight first in the kitchen.” Eat out less, eat more vegetables and fruits, less carbs, fat doesn’t make you fatter calories do, if the food is fat free that means it has more calories as they put a crap ton of sugar in it.
I’ve learned that cardio can work, but there’s also a lot of truth to that “you can’t outrun a bad diet” saying. Like you said, your body can subtly undermine your work by making you more hungry, and it can also cause you to be less active in between exercise without realizing it.
This is because people diet wrong. You can absolutely gorge yourself on vegetables and still easily run a calorie deficit. People instead try to just eat tiny amounts of calorie dense foods, and that’s what fails, because it leaves you hungry and tired.
Also, taking massive doses of iron supplements (or dark greens) helps a lot.
Last year I cut out 95% of all junk food and snacking, started eating more lean protein (like chicken), and made sure to cut out ultra processed foods where I could (i.e. home-cooked meals vs frozen dinners), and without increasing exercise I lost 20 lbs in 2 months. Sometimes it really is the diet that holds you back.
Yeah, most of the people I’ve spoken with about their weight issues have terrible portion control. Like they’ll just sit and eat an entire bag of chips while they watch TV for an hour. It’s crazy to me. My parents just got put on a diet to try to get their weight under control because they’re both pre-diabetic and the next day my mom went out to costco and loaded up on fruit for them to snack on instead of chips. Which I guess is better, but an entire shelf in their giant 2 door refrigerator is full of tubs of berries and shit, if they’re planning to eat proper portions of those as snacks half that shit will rot before they get through it. Maybe my mom just has brain rot from all the fad diets she’s been exposed to over the years but I don’t think the idea of just not eating snacks or counting calories even went through their heads.
It’s crazy to me how people can not eat a whole bag of chips. Like I am supposed to put half of the bag back into the cupboard? If I open a bar of chocolate, I eat the whole thing, every time. And a lot of people I know are similar. This is the reason why I never but this stuff, as the best defense tactic is to have nothing in the house.
I am overall a healthy person and do a lot of exercising by the way, but I can’t control myself with chips. And I think that is not unnatural, as this stuff is made exactly the way that it makes you addicted af. Of course I feel like shit after I ate the whole bag, but I don’t know how to control myself.
Like I am supposed to put half of the bag back into the cupboard?
Yeah. Even better, don’t take the bag of chips out for the snack, only take out a bowl or so of them and don’t just keep refilling the bowl, that’s the hard part. Not having your snack bag readily available means you have to expend effort to go get more, and that’s generally when I lean into my lazy habits. Because I have to go all the way downstairs and across the house to get more.
Like I am supposed to put half of the bag back into the cupboard?
Yes? A serving of 15-20 chips is usually like 150 calories some are way worse than that. Dump a handful in a bowl and put the bag up. If you take the bag with you of course you’re going to mindlessly plow through it. How many times does someone need to do that before they think “wow, that’s not good for me, maybe I should consider a different tactic to consuming these things?”, that’s the crazy part to me that they don’t do anything to change their habits. You’re right though that just not buying it is the best option if that’s a problem for you as they are designed to be addictive.
Seriously, don’t eat snacks out of the package they come in. Put a small portion in a bowl or on a plate and put the main container up. It gets easier with practice.
baking in activity into your day-to-day routines is very helpful. Transporting yourself by biking, walking, taking transit, a mix of all of the above makes a large difference
basically all cardio machines at the gym are going to be boring as all hell, going outside and doing activities is a lot more fun
I have health issues so I can no longer go biking outdoors, but I use the app KinoMap (like Peloton but without brand lock-in) to view POV video of bike trips and the app adjusts resistance over BT according to the road topology.
I pick out a map/video and internet radio or a playlist from the country it is recorded. It makes exercise much easier and more fun for me and is way more engaging than staring at numbers on a display.
They also have videos for running trails and rowing and additional social media stuff that I am not interested in.
That sounds like the most fun you can get with an indoor bike, and I’m happy you’re able to do It despite the health issues.
I will concede that the one type of indoor training I could one day get behind would probably be virtual cycling. Maybe one winter when I decide that running in the dark and wet isn’t actually fun. Time will tell.
Personally Ive never been able to lose weight except by eating less. Lost 8 pounds backpacking in 5 days once though, was probably atleast a 2k calorie deficit per day.
Personally Ive never been able to lose weight except by eating less.
That’s absolutely the best way to lose weight.
People shouldn’t exercise to lose weight, they should exercise because it’s good for your general physical, mental and emotional health. To lose weight, you eat less.
The other thing is that by not eating, your stomach will shrink. Pretty fast too, within a week of eating less your stomach will become smaller and it will become easier to feel full.
I find physical activity suppresses my appetite, so I tend to lose weight when outdoors just from not thinking about eating as often and not eating as much when I do because I feel full with less.
The boring as hell part can be managed with a smartphone and some movies.
Of course depending on the specific machine. Some are better for it than others.
I prefer elliptical machine as it spreads the load out all across the body and it’s the easiest to manage the load with it to aim for some specific heart rate zones.
At the same time i have almost 2(1+1) undistributed hours to watch whatever movie or TV show i want. More peaceful than watching those at home.
Yeah I used throw on a podcast or whatever type of music I need to get into the zone when I had an excercise bike until it developed some kind of software problem I can’t figure out how to fix. Now I’m back to doing HIIT while I fold laundry.
Distraction devices tend to be less effective on indoor machines for me personally. I do listen to a bunch of podcasts for outdoor runs/bike rides though, and find them to be an essential part of the process
There’s little to no evidence that cardio excerse leads to weight loss. Groups who restrict calorie intake alway out perform the exercise group in weight loss studies and there’s never any significant difference between 2 groups who both restrict calories but one exercises and the other does not.
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how we use glycogen for moving around and fat as an emergency reserve. If we remember that we evolved as persistence hunters, it starts to make more sense. I.E. what’s the point in putting on a layer of fat for a winter reserve, if you could accidentally run it off chasing down a meal? Those that could run it off chasing down a meal didn’t survive the hard winters and those that didn’t lived.
The whole idea that you could do cardio to lose weight was invented by food producers to make people think they could treat their diet like a credit card and payback overspending with exercise. That way, we would eat more and they would make more money. It’s also the reason it’s called cardiovascular exercise and not weight-loss excersise.
if your aim is to use a lot of energy, dialing down the intensity significantly and working for a longer time is the way to go
basically all cardio machines at the gym are going to be boring as all hell, going outside and doing activities is a lot more fun
If you are having enough fun, even high-intensity can be maintained far longer than you’d think possible when doing something that’s engaging. Still, spending 1 hour in zone 4-5 is probably gonna burn less calories than a 1.5 hour workout centered on zone 3.
cardio as a means of losing weight has a downside in that vigorous exercise provokes a lot of hunger. make sure to combine with small sustainable changes in diet for best results
But what if you just work out so intensely, that you’re too tired to eat? Its funny to me that the body can have like a 4K calorie deficit for the day and still just be like “No food. That’s a problem for tomorrow. Sleep now.” Probably a case where ignoring your body is a good idea.
Spending an hour in zone 5 is not exactly what I would call a realistic endeavor, given that zone 5 explicitly is above LT2. Lower zone 4, sure, but you’re looking at a race effort at that point
I meant a mixture of 4/5 (like HIIT-style, I guess?) and part of the point was agreement that if you strictly care about calories burned, dialing down the intensity is increasing the time is far better if you aren’t limited primarily by time. Still can be fun trying to chase the 1000 calories/hour burn rate even if its not effective.
This is true and perhaps it would be nice if the running machine would say, “you’ve burned through 73,000 calories!” But then the Doritos bag would have to say 375,000 calories (75 g, 2 ⅝ ounces, about 30 chips) (edit: Nacho Cheese specifically)
Some things I’ve learned throughout the years that may be useful to some people:
Exercise isn’t a great way to lose weight at all. The best way to lose weight is changing how much you consume. That being said, exercise and movement are very important for being healthy in general.
source: https://youtu.be/vSSkDos2hzo
Yup, as a Fat Person™ I couldn’t get into an exercise regiment and keep with it because it’s very difficult to do much with a lot of weight. Then a doctor told me “Exercise is good, but you lose weight first in the kitchen.” Eat out less, eat more vegetables and fruits, less carbs, fat doesn’t make you fatter calories do, if the food is fat free that means it has more calories as they put a crap ton of sugar in it.
I’ve learned that cardio can work, but there’s also a lot of truth to that “you can’t outrun a bad diet” saying. Like you said, your body can subtly undermine your work by making you more hungry, and it can also cause you to be less active in between exercise without realizing it.
This is because people diet wrong. You can absolutely gorge yourself on vegetables and still easily run a calorie deficit. People instead try to just eat tiny amounts of calorie dense foods, and that’s what fails, because it leaves you hungry and tired.
Also, taking massive doses of iron supplements (or dark greens) helps a lot.
Last year I cut out 95% of all junk food and snacking, started eating more lean protein (like chicken), and made sure to cut out ultra processed foods where I could (i.e. home-cooked meals vs frozen dinners), and without increasing exercise I lost 20 lbs in 2 months. Sometimes it really is the diet that holds you back.
It’s always the diet. Even someone who burns an extra 4000 calories a day can eat themselves into obesity.
That doesn’t mean someone has to starve to lose weight, just watch what they eat, like you did.
Yeah, most of the people I’ve spoken with about their weight issues have terrible portion control. Like they’ll just sit and eat an entire bag of chips while they watch TV for an hour. It’s crazy to me. My parents just got put on a diet to try to get their weight under control because they’re both pre-diabetic and the next day my mom went out to costco and loaded up on fruit for them to snack on instead of chips. Which I guess is better, but an entire shelf in their giant 2 door refrigerator is full of tubs of berries and shit, if they’re planning to eat proper portions of those as snacks half that shit will rot before they get through it. Maybe my mom just has brain rot from all the fad diets she’s been exposed to over the years but I don’t think the idea of just not eating snacks or counting calories even went through their heads.
It’s crazy to me how people can not eat a whole bag of chips. Like I am supposed to put half of the bag back into the cupboard? If I open a bar of chocolate, I eat the whole thing, every time. And a lot of people I know are similar. This is the reason why I never but this stuff, as the best defense tactic is to have nothing in the house.
I am overall a healthy person and do a lot of exercising by the way, but I can’t control myself with chips. And I think that is not unnatural, as this stuff is made exactly the way that it makes you addicted af. Of course I feel like shit after I ate the whole bag, but I don’t know how to control myself.
Yeah. Even better, don’t take the bag of chips out for the snack, only take out a bowl or so of them and don’t just keep refilling the bowl, that’s the hard part. Not having your snack bag readily available means you have to expend effort to go get more, and that’s generally when I lean into my lazy habits. Because I have to go all the way downstairs and across the house to get more.
I feel like snacking in the USA has been made out to be something you do to pass the time or fill up. Instead of enjoying something delightful.
Yes? A serving of 15-20 chips is usually like 150 calories some are way worse than that. Dump a handful in a bowl and put the bag up. If you take the bag with you of course you’re going to mindlessly plow through it. How many times does someone need to do that before they think “wow, that’s not good for me, maybe I should consider a different tactic to consuming these things?”, that’s the crazy part to me that they don’t do anything to change their habits. You’re right though that just not buying it is the best option if that’s a problem for you as they are designed to be addictive.
Seriously, don’t eat snacks out of the package they come in. Put a small portion in a bowl or on a plate and put the main container up. It gets easier with practice.
That’s a fantastic result, nice job.
That isn’t a surprise, diet makes a massively bigger difference than exercise, but the real goal needs to be sustainability.
My body isn’t subtle in the slightest.
Any amount of work?
We’re starving, we’re starving! Says my body, like the cats who have a still almost full bowl of food.
Stupid meat husk.
Right? (I know it’s not the same) but come on look at all of this fat you can burn! You’re not hungry, you’re lazy, you know, like I want to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0
I have health issues so I can no longer go biking outdoors, but I use the app KinoMap (like Peloton but without brand lock-in) to view POV video of bike trips and the app adjusts resistance over BT according to the road topology.
I pick out a map/video and internet radio or a playlist from the country it is recorded. It makes exercise much easier and more fun for me and is way more engaging than staring at numbers on a display.
They also have videos for running trails and rowing and additional social media stuff that I am not interested in.
That sounds like the most fun you can get with an indoor bike, and I’m happy you’re able to do It despite the health issues.
I will concede that the one type of indoor training I could one day get behind would probably be virtual cycling. Maybe one winter when I decide that running in the dark and wet isn’t actually fun. Time will tell.
There are other apps that are more oriented towards racing if that’s your thing and you can get a BT connected trainer for your roadbike.
For me an upright exercise bike is great now and I enjoy doing little mini excursions around the world when I can not travel any more.
Personally Ive never been able to lose weight except by eating less. Lost 8 pounds backpacking in 5 days once though, was probably atleast a 2k calorie deficit per day.
That’s absolutely the best way to lose weight.
People shouldn’t exercise to lose weight, they should exercise because it’s good for your general physical, mental and emotional health. To lose weight, you eat less.
More than half the reason I ever get any exercise at all is in service of my mental health.
CI, CO
I can leverage my superpower of laziness and simply not eat all day, a couple of times a week, and lose 30 lbs. It’s way easier þan exercising.
The other thing is that by not eating, your stomach will shrink. Pretty fast too, within a week of eating less your stomach will become smaller and it will become easier to feel full.
I find physical activity suppresses my appetite, so I tend to lose weight when outdoors just from not thinking about eating as often and not eating as much when I do because I feel full with less.
What is this “going outside” you are talking about? Sounds very interesting
It’s a free open world thing with really good graphics - but it’s multiplayer only, and PVP can’t be switched off.
Men, been there, you’re not missing out.
The outside experience is extremely location dependant.
my house would be outside experience if I didn’t live inside it. It’s all a matter of perspective
The daystar!
The boring as hell part can be managed with a smartphone and some movies.
Of course depending on the specific machine. Some are better for it than others.
I prefer elliptical machine as it spreads the load out all across the body and it’s the easiest to manage the load with it to aim for some specific heart rate zones. At the same time i have almost 2(1+1) undistributed hours to watch whatever movie or TV show i want. More peaceful than watching those at home.
Yeah I used throw on a podcast or whatever type of music I need to get into the zone when I had an excercise bike until it developed some kind of software problem I can’t figure out how to fix. Now I’m back to doing HIIT while I fold laundry.
Distraction devices tend to be less effective on indoor machines for me personally. I do listen to a bunch of podcasts for outdoor runs/bike rides though, and find them to be an essential part of the process
There’s little to no evidence that cardio excerse leads to weight loss. Groups who restrict calorie intake alway out perform the exercise group in weight loss studies and there’s never any significant difference between 2 groups who both restrict calories but one exercises and the other does not.
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how we use glycogen for moving around and fat as an emergency reserve. If we remember that we evolved as persistence hunters, it starts to make more sense. I.E. what’s the point in putting on a layer of fat for a winter reserve, if you could accidentally run it off chasing down a meal? Those that could run it off chasing down a meal didn’t survive the hard winters and those that didn’t lived.
The whole idea that you could do cardio to lose weight was invented by food producers to make people think they could treat their diet like a credit card and payback overspending with exercise. That way, we would eat more and they would make more money. It’s also the reason it’s called cardiovascular exercise and not weight-loss excersise.
even going for a walk is probably as effective
I tried to up the effectiveness of my walks with a weighted vest, but my god do those things make you look like a douchebag.
Plus I’m a white guy with transition lenses who doesn’t like getting a sunburn on my neck, and appreciate the utility of cargo shorts.
So I’m a white guy, in sunglasses, a backwards hat, and cargo short; that, to me, just screams ICE agent, which I do not want to be associated with.
I need to zhuzh up my wardrobe with bright colors or something.
If you are having enough fun, even high-intensity can be maintained far longer than you’d think possible when doing something that’s engaging. Still, spending 1 hour in zone 4-5 is probably gonna burn less calories than a 1.5 hour workout centered on zone 3.
But what if you just work out so intensely, that you’re too tired to eat? Its funny to me that the body can have like a 4K calorie deficit for the day and still just be like “No food. That’s a problem for tomorrow. Sleep now.” Probably a case where ignoring your body is a good idea.
Spending an hour in zone 5 is not exactly what I would call a realistic endeavor, given that zone 5 explicitly is above LT2. Lower zone 4, sure, but you’re looking at a race effort at that point
I meant a mixture of 4/5 (like HIIT-style, I guess?) and part of the point was agreement that if you strictly care about calories burned, dialing down the intensity is increasing the time is far better if you aren’t limited primarily by time. Still can be fun trying to chase the 1000 calories/hour burn rate even if its not effective.
This is true and perhaps it would be nice if the running machine would say, “you’ve burned through 73,000 calories!” But then the Doritos bag would have to say 375,000 calories (75 g, 2 ⅝ ounces, about 30 chips) (edit: Nacho Cheese specifically)