TonyAndonuts Wrote:So I read that it takes a 3700 calorie loss to lose one pound and I should aim for two pounds a week. I have to either burn off 3700 calories through exercise or eat 3700 calories less than I burn in a week. Well, I checked some of the food and drinks I consume regularly and most said that a serving would equal about 150-250 something, and I usually just eat whenever I feel hungry. So I'd say I consume about 1500 something calories a day. So I figured once I do my workouts, I'll burn it all off. Well, I was on the treadmill switching back and forth from walking to sprinting for about 40 minutes and I read that I should aim for about an hour of exercise 3 days a week (the other 20 minutes I lift weights. Not very heavy ones though). But, in 40 minutes I only burned 250 calories. If that's all I burn in 40 minutes and they want me to do that 3 days a week (so about 750 calories burned a week), but I consume more than quadruple that amount in just a day, then how in the holy mother of hell am I supposed to lose two pounds a week? Am I getting false information? Am I doing the math wrong? Maybe I'm supposed to just starve myself everyday in order to make progress....but even if I did the treadmill every single day, that's still only about 1750 a week. Am I not trying hard enough? I'm confused and kind of feel like the answer is really simple too. So I also feel a little stupid... :/ Plus in a heavy workout, the first thing you lose is water... However, if you increase muscle mass, muscle burns calories just to thrive so it's better than fatty tissue for burning calories. That's metabolism.
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pellaz Wrote:your assuming failure, you do have control what you shove into your face? I'm not assuming failure. There are ways for weight loss or weight control that are more effective and long-lasting than others. You read about it year in year out, so rather than assume failure, I'd prefer to warn against unreasonable goals, which are practically doomed to fail. That's why we call them 'unreasonable'.
My original comment followed the advice to try and keep the weight loss feasible and long-lasting. You do have some control (to some extent, at least) over what you put in your mouth and stomach but if it were that easy, we'd all be slender and fit. The fact is we aren't, because it's a very complex issue, notwithstanding the fact that everyone's body ( and brain) reacts differently. Sometimes what you put into your body is conditioned by your family and work environment, and also your purchasing power.
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Calorie counting isn't hard, and it isn't the complete picture either, however it is how I run my weightloss.
This is how I do it, and I've found it the easiest way. Make sure you have a digital set of scales or a very accurate one though, and time.
Step 1. Make sure you weigh yourself scientifically. Over 3 days, measuring your weight at the same time, during the same scenario. If you just ate breakfast, or you drank a lot of water of course your weight is going to be different. Same as if you weigh yourself after lots of exercise you will weigh less from water loss.
Next, use an internet calculator to estimate your daily caloric needs. Cut this by 200 calories per day and test for 3 weeks. Noting your weight each day and charting it out.
If your weight is not dropping and you are eating *HEALTHY* foods in that caloric range, then adjust, and drop further, as the calculations aren't perfect. rinse and repeat until you have that sustainable slow weight loss going.
And just remember that a diet isn't for weight loss, a diet is what you eat! so make a lifestyle change in what you eat as well.
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additionally.
Exercise is great, especially high intensity weights (especially big muscle groups like legs) and cardio are fantastic. However keep in mind that the majority of your calorie burning per day is just from your body maintaining itself.
I try to aim to do 2 circuits a week (random stuff, like 200 clubs - 200 of each exercise from bodyweight squats, pushups, tricep dips, leg raises etc) and treadmill (less impact on my knees - around 10 miles per week)
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Personally, I've found calories to be more of a gain in the gut rather than a pain in the butt  :biggrin:
Just saying....
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I don't know if someone said this already but you also burn calories just walking, sitting and different things you do throughout your daily life. you also have to combine exercise with diet or eating less calories
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1. your ass didn't gt fat over night. Thus its irrational to expect your ass to get thin rapidly either.
2. Joining a gym is a lot more work then you really need to go through. Go, take a walk around the block, park away from the store and office doors and walk those extra spaces, take the stairs over the lift - go walk the dog in the park, its the little stuff that you can incorporate in your daily routine that burns more calories than joining a gym.
3. Calories are not a pain, they are mandatory for survival. There are millions of people who die each year due to a lack of calories. Starvation is a killer.
4. Instead of seeking to reduce calories by forbiding yourself food, try reducing calories by eating low calories foods.
A cup of Broccoli has 50 calories - a cup of Big Mack has 600 calories - both take up the same volume in your gut and you can push away from the table feeling full - and you body assumes it is well fed - but you are actually eating less.
5. "So I'd say I consume about 1500 something calories a day." You would be amazed at how many calories you really are eating Most fat people firmly beleive that they are not eating 'that much' until they keep a detailed log and discover that yep, sure enough they are eating nearly twice the calories they think they are eating.
Thus if you are not keeping accurate, detailed score here, chances are you are eating up to 3000 calories per day.
And you most likely are if you are eating meat, fast food, box meals and stuff like that. Fat is pretty heavy on the calories. 100-120 calories per tablespoon. Remember broccoli a cup with 50 calories - which fills you more a cup of broccoli or a tablespoon of lard?
Lastly. A quick and simple way to reduce your caloric intake is to cover 2/3-3/4 of your plate with fruit and veg, and have the remainder divided between meat, dairy and carbs (rice, pasta, bread). I assure you if you eat that much veg you will be full and but ingesting a lot less calories.
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Bowyn Aerrow Wrote:1. your ass didn't gt fat over night. Thus its irrational to expect your ass to get thin rapidly either.
2. Joining a gym is a lot more work then you really need to go through. Go, take a walk around the block, park away from the store and office doors and walk those extra spaces, take the stairs over the lift - go walk the dog in the park, its the little stuff that you can incorporate in your daily routine that burns more calories than joining a gym.
3. Calories are not a pain, they are mandatory for survival. There are millions of people who die each year due to a lack of calories. Starvation is a killer.
4. Instead of seeking to reduce calories by forbiding yourself food, try reducing calories by eating low calories foods.
A cup of Broccoli has 50 calories - a cup of Big Mack has 600 calories - both take up the same volume in your gut and you can push away from the table feeling full - and you body assumes it is well fed - but you are actually eating less.
5. "So I'd say I consume about 1500 something calories a day." You would be amazed at how many calories you really are eating Most fat people firmly beleive that they are not eating 'that much' until they keep a detailed log and discover that yep, sure enough they are eating nearly twice the calories they think they are eating.
Thus if you are not keeping accurate, detailed score here, chances are you are eating up to 3000 calories per day.
And you most likely are if you are eating meat, fast food, box meals and stuff like that. Fat is pretty heavy on the calories. 100-120 calories per tablespoon. Remember broccoli a cup with 50 calories - which fills you more a cup of broccoli or a tablespoon of lard?
Lastly. A quick and simple way to reduce your caloric intake is to cover 2/3-3/4 of your plate with fruit and veg, and have the remainder divided between meat, dairy and carbs (rice, pasta, bread). I assure you if you eat that much veg you will be full and but ingesting a lot less calories.
This is all true.
Especially in regards to higher fat and sugar foods. They are very unpredictable in how much energy they are actually putting into your body.
Last night I made a vegetarian lasagne, with LOTS of mushrooms, tomatoes, red onion and plenty of herbs etc. Only a little bit of cheese and a big serving of that was a lot of veggies, and a lot lower in calories than you would expect since it fills you up pretty quick.
had a small side salad of raw green beans, thin shavings of raw zucchini and green/red peppers (just basic lemon juice and black pepper dressing).
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Okay so this thread is kind of old, but I don't want anyone to make any horrible mistakes so here goes:
A few years back I was pretty fat and decided to lose weight. In a few months I went from 91kg to 67kg by doing insane amounts of cardio and eating way too little; I didn't starv myself but lived on perhaps 1300-1500 calories per day which combined with intense training is way too low. I reached my goal of 67 kg but I learned the hard way that when you lose weight too fast your body starts burning fat AND muscles whereas the goal should be to maintain as much muscle as possible. In other words I had severely abused my body; my weight was very low compared to the average for people of my height and yet I still had stomach fat left because I'd been losing too much muscle. My only choice was to simply gain some weight and then start all over again, this time doing it CORRECTLY. I now weigh 69 kg which is 2 kilos more than I used to, yet I have minimal body fat and just look way better than I did previously at 67 kilos. My advice for proper weightloss:
1. Calculate how many calories you burn per day in idle mode. You can find calculators for this online by googling.
2. Determine how many calories you want to lose per day. Most athletes agree that 500 calories per day or less is the best amount if you want to maintain your muscles and burn only fat. You should DEFINITELY not have a "the more the better" mindset. As previously mentioned, I was losing 1500-2000 calories per day and the result was awful.
3. Combine cardio and weight-lifting but don't do both during one day.
4. Give yourself time to rest, preferrably around 2 days a week.
5. Make sure to eat healthily and pay special attention to protein. I think, as a rule, you should aim to consume your weight x 2 in protein. For example, if your weight is 80 kg, try to consume 160g of protein daily. You can buy protein supplements to use after working out if you have a hard time matching the aforementioned number in your meals.
6. Count calories. I know counting calories is boring as fuck but a lot of people (including myself a few years ago) have severely mistaken estimates of how many calories a certain brand of food contains. You don't have to do this with extreme attention to detail, but you should at least have an idea of how many calories you consume per day.
7. Keep track of your progress by using scales, taking "before" and "after" pictures etc. You'll need this to stay motivated.
In other words, say for example that you've calculated that you burn 2000 calories per day in idle mode. If you burn 300 calories per day through exercise you land on a total of 2300 calories per day, in which case you can eat around 1800 and still lose 500 per day. If you burn 500 calories through exercise you land on a total of 2500 and can eat 2000 per day and still lose 500 per day. If you keep this up you'll lose approximately 1 lbs every week, which is a reasonable pace for weight loss. Those magazine headlines you see proclaiming that you can lose 20 lbs in 3 weeks are extremely unrealistic.
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^^^ I can't find the site I used to calculate my caloric burn - but it went beyond exercise programs and allowed one to use real things like how much time you spend trimming hedges with a arm powered shears, how much time you spend digging holes and weeding.
I learned through that that I burn roughly 3000-3500 calories a day. Little stuff appears to burn a lot of calories...
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Calories are a pain in the ass
