Losing Weight

A snowHead

Hi Snowheads. A few of you have met me but most have not, i am quite a large chap to say the least and i want to get fit for the upcoming ski season. I have bought an exercise bike and rowing machine, which is a start, but does anyone have any training regimes/plans for me to stick to??? I want lo lose weight in general, build up my muscle slightly and be fitter as a whole. When i get slightly fitter i will start running, but i doubt i could run 1 mile right now due to my weigh/fitness levels. I aim to lose 4 stone before the end of the year, is this possible or am i overdoing it? Any help would be appreciated as i have never trained or really kept fit since i was 17!!! Thanks. Very Happy

A snowHead

Hi Rick, 4 stone is possible in 6 months, you need to watch the calories and try to keep under 2000 per day for starters, beyond that I found a 1 hour walk every day, rain or shine did wonders for my fitness and weight loss, I kg a week is easily possible to start off with possibly 2 so if you manage that you would be on track for a 4 stone loss by the new year, rowing seems to help upper body strength and is a better workout than an exercise bike in my experience, but the exercise bike will help with stamina.

If it were me (and I have to say I really need some inspiration again) I'd suggest a 1 hour walk every day and 5 or 10 mins mins of rowing and see how that works for you, if you find the weight coming off well swap out the walk for a 1 hour exercise bike alternate days, if not add 30 mins of bike to the walk, after a while you will be able to do more rowing

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

a goal of burning 300 exercise calories per day, is a good start for losing weight

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Rather than doing loads of steady state cardio try to work very hard for shorter periods of time, google HIITS. Try sprinting as fast as you can on the bike for 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds, do this for 5 minutes and you will be knackered and it is supposed to have the same fitness benefits as a much longer workout at a lower intensity. Your body adapts quickly so change what you do every month. Body weight exercises like squats, push ups, lunges etc are good as well, do them in front of a mirror to start with to make sure your form is good, there's loads of fitness websites online, look around and find one you like to get some different exercises to do.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

My missus started the slimmingworld diet or whatever it's called, she has lost 9 pounds so far and I've lost over a stone "Shhh! don't tell her!" wink

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Ricklovesthepowder, I think if you exercise at least 3 times per week to start with, working up to 5 times a week the pounds will fly off, provided you watch what you eat (and drink), but take care not to reduce your calorie intake too low or else your body thinks you are fasting and therefore you won't get long lasting results. A very wise man at the gym told me that if you reduce your calories down by even just a quarter of what you should have (according to your BMR) then that is enough for your body to wonder if it's coming into hard times so upto a quarter is just enough to make a difference and lose the weight instead of it hanging on to it's fat stores. Whether that is all 100% scientifically true or not, I don't know but it worked for me. I lost about 30 lbs once just from reducing my calorie intake by just 250-300 calories per day and exercising regularly.

It does depend on how much you weigh to start with though, as I think the more you weigh, the more weight you lose to start with as it's all proportionate.

I'm no expert, but just saying what worked for me (I didn't need to lose 4 stone, just a couple of stone) but I'd say take a look online at what your daily calorie intake for your weight should be working on a sedentary lifestyle for example, then you can see how many calories you need to eat to keep you alive plus a bit more, that should give you a sensible starting point, and then keep a food diary so you can see what you are eating and drinking. Lots of people start exercising and complain they don't lose any weight and that's because they still eat far too much (or not enough!).

Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, fish, chicken etc and drinking lots of water assists with weight loss.

I've never gone for these Weight Watchers things or any of that but any 'diet' works on the principle of loads of fruit and veg and low fat meat and fish, basically.

For best results they say to lose 0.5lb to 1lb a week (so that the skin goes back into place more easily etc) again I'd agree with that because that worked well for me. It's stayed off too, if you lose it all too quickly then it can go back on (so they say). I haven't done the maths but that might take you over your 6 month plan, but even so, you should feel a lot better even if the whole 4 stone isn't off by then.

Exercise wise, like lynseyf said, interval training or variants of interval training is good stuff. Basically you want to be exercising to a point where you are sweating a lot but not killing yourself.

On that note, if you've not exercised or trained in years then perhaps you ought to have a check up first, have your BP checked etc if you've not had that done recently.
There are quite a few exercise/losing weight threads on here so if you do a search you will probably pick up some tips.

The rower and the cross trainer you've got are good for all round exercise.

Hope that's helpful, as I said, I can only tell you what worked for me which got long term results.

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Cheers for the help and info guys, going to start properly on monday. Is a punch bag a good idea also?

After all it is free

Ricklovesthepowder, its not straightforward to comment because you didnt mention your age, we dont know your medical history etc etc and these are significant factors in advising you of the type and intensity of exercise you should undertake. You mention you are large and have not really kept fit since the age of 17, you doubt you could run a mile.
A few seemingly harsh questions. What brought on the decision to change things? Why now? What makes you think you can do this now?
Good luck to you but you may need help to achieve what you want. If you are so overweight and unfit what about asking your GP for help. There are services you can be referred to that will do a essential health checks and then advise and mentor you through your change in lifestyle. By all means pm me if you want more info.

Basic rules; 1, consume less - expend more energy 2, regular aerobic exercise to increase general fitness 3, do activity that minimises injury ie partial weight bearing -cycle/swim/row
Smile

Pm sent, thanks sunnbuel,

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Ricklovesthepowder, quite right about it being potentially dangerous to suddenly start exercising after a long period of inactivity, that's what I was getting at when I suggested a check up (with your GP) first. It all depends on lots of things really.

Good luck with it anyway!

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Ricklovesthepowder, I'd recommend joining something like weightwatchers, partly because they make it dead easy to work out what you can/can't eat but more so that you have a support network for when times get tough and you feel like quitting.

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Eat less, avoid fatty foods, 30 mins of cv per day.

You know it makes sense.

Ricklovesthepowder, I'd avoid the punch bag at least for the time being.

Unless you plan to get a new sport of contact skiing/boarding going ? Shocked

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Ricklovesthepowder, stop spending all day on your back bottom!!!!!

I assume you are still a driving instuctor, not being rude just for the sake of you being a shitty fan. Shock

A snowHead

Get some competition. Ideally some competition on an equal footing and similar start point. I found Nike+ worked short term for me, allowing me to compete online with mates across the country, but ultimately the way to make it happen is to set a realistic goal in the future - for me this was a 10K run about 6 months ahead of the start date. There were about 10 of us entering, and we had almost all aimed for around 60-70 minutes. Pretty much everyone achieved it, and we were able to compare times.

Since then I have sat on my backside for quite some time and gained weight again.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Start taking ecstasy/magic mushrooms, go to all the summer raves, drink water and dance like a loon all weekend. Job Done.

(Also, probably, Job Gone. But hey, you'll be thin and fit.)

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

cut your carbs! esp sugary over processed stuff and remember that full fat soft drinks have masses of sugar in them

there are some who would say that eating fatty meat (to the exclusion of pretty much everything else) is actually the best way to lose weight

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There are 27 more weeks until the end of the year and you want to lose 56lbs. That is in excess of the 2lbs per week usually recommended and 2lbs a week is difficult enough. In the first 2-3 weeks of a diet/exercise regime the weight comes off at a higher rate but it's not sustainable.

Because I don't know anything about you here are some numbers based on a hypothetical male aged 45, 5' 10" tall and wanting to reduce a BMI of 32 (16stone) to a BMI of 24 (12stone). To maintain the upper weight a sedentary male would need to consume 2450 calories of which 2000 is used just on staying alive. His calorie intake should be at least 1500 calories a day and I think he should cut himself some slack and set 1750 as a more realistic target. That gives a shortfall of 700 calories per day. If 1 hour of exercise (walking?) a day is added then that shortfall is increased by 300 to 1000 calories a day (enough for a 2lb weight loss per week).

So if you are that hypothetical male then you can lose 2lbs a week once you have attained a reasonable fitness level. The exercise duration/intensity will then have to be increased to compensate for the weight loss that has already occurred.

I don't think an exercise bike or rowing machine is a 'start'. (To me they would just be boring toys that would gather dust!) I think it would be much better to set an interim target of say 2 stone loss and increased fitness for the start of this ski season. You could then aim to maintain that weight and fitness through the ski season and then do the rest next year.

So yes, I think you are probably overdoing it. I don't have any training/exercise 'regimes' to recommend. I did lose 2 stone in 6 months but I was doing 2.5 hours and more of exercise a day and just reducing size of meals and avoiding 'empty' calories. (That doesn't of course include 85% chocolate!) But you have to work out what works for you.

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You need to understand that losing weight and getting fit is a serious goal and it will be hard work. You need to be realistic about what you want to achieve. YOU will not go from average bloke to Adonis in a few weeks....

Set yourself an achievable goal for the short term eg a fun run in two months time or something similar. The sense of achievement that you will get when you complete something like this will spur you on for the rest of your course of exercise and healthy eating.

Try to exercise with someone of the same ability. Even if the weather is foul you won't want to let your training partner down when you are supposed to be out running/cycling.

Don't just watch the scales to see if you are losing weight...I found that the most practical way to see my weight loss was to feel my jeans becoming loose around the waist. Don't forget that by doing exercise you will put on muscle mass...even when cycling or rowing. Your weight may therefore not go down or may even rise for the first few weeks.

Clear out the fridge and cupboards of unhealthy, processed foods. I find that if I am home I'll raid the cupboards for some biscuits so to prevent this from happening I got rid of them and don't buy them (online shopping is great for this as you don't walk past the damn things!) Our fridge is now full of chopped up veg (carrots, cucumber, celery) and fruit to snack on instead. Also drink lots of water as this dampens your appetite as your stomach will signal your brain that it is feeling fuller.

The main thing that I found helped me to be healthier was to take a packed lunch to work. I can control what goes in and don't therefore pop out to the shops to buy a sandwich, choccy bar and fizzy drink. Carbonated drinks are packed with sugar in the form of fructose which is really, really bad for weight gain. Also I make sure that I have no change or notes in my wallet. This stops me going to the shops as I find that I have to think more about raiding the joint account to fulfill my choccy desire...

Weight lifting is a great way of losing weight (obviously I mean light weights!) and getting stronger. Get a Swiss ball and some dumbells. There are loads of exercises that you can do which exercise the muscles that you are targetting (eg biceps) and your core muscles as well as you need to maintain balance whilst sitting on the ball. Plus you can do weight training on the days in between aerobic training. If you want to get a punch bag then go for it...at the very least you will be raising your heart rate and getting some fustration out.

Good luck with your plans...stick to it and you'll feel fitter and healthier even with a small drop in your weight. Keep us updated with how you are doing too.

After all it is free

It is certainly possible as I have lost 30kg in less than a year. What I would advise regarding running, is that although it is a very cheap form of exercise (new trainers can be expensive if you do a lot of running) and is really good for your fitness, it is not so good for joints and bones longer term (with regard to your creeping osteoperosis problem). In moderation it is fine, but while you are overweight it would be best to stick to aerobic exercises like running on a cross trainer or other cardiovascular exercise like swimming which puts less strain on the joints. You want to save your joints for skiing.

If you have a version of Excel which allows Visual basic macros to run (i.e. not the freeware imitation Excel or some of the home office versions which do not have full visual basic), then I can send you a spreadsheet (version 8 ) which might help. (I have been using it since 2006 and modifying it to maintain weight successfully at below BMI of 25 and to measure what vitamins and minerals are contained in my diet as well as calorie counting, fat, caffeine, sugars, protein, carbohydrate, alcohol analysis)

You will need an email address which can accept at least 1MB of file attachments. I suppose I could post it on Snowmediazone.com and allow downloads, but I am not sure if such files can be uploaded there (at the moment).

I would say that I was losing weight while consuming 3000 calories a day on average in some weeks. I did not take my own advice on jogging, nor did I replace my trainers regularly and with very expensive pairs. What an average male does is largely irrelevant to people who are not average.

rolling eyes

I need to lose some weight. I've blamed my recent lardiness on that time in a middle aged woman's life, but in actual fact it's probably simply because I eat too much. Exercise makes no difference to me, I don't have time to do the sort of level of exercise that would be needed. The only way I've ever been able to lose weight in the past is by eating significantly less or by being ill. The former is far more preferable of course.

Good luck!

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I have found somewhere to upload it so you can download a copy of the file
snowfood.xls

The instructions for use are on the Parameter page. It is still work in progress, so there are some bugs possible as I am the only person who has used it. I have tried to put some error routines in it to catch any obvious likely errors, but to err is human!

The cost of food is of course only relevant if you shop in the same places as me. Also there are some arbitrarily large numbers entered for entries where the food cost has not been entered.

If you want to enter a new line of food, you will need to collect all the data which you are interested in. Some of it has been added in retrospectively, like Omega 3 and Omega 6 and is not yet complete. Cholesterol is not complete either. In fact you can be pretty sure that the data is not 100% complete, and you should check the numbers yourself (I often find I need to update the data to correct errors)

To get started you need to enter your personal details in the green cells on the parameters page. Then enter your weight on the First day page. (DAY 1) The graphs will start filling in once you have entered some food on day 1.

To enter a food entry, you have to select a cell which is green and in either breakfast, lunch, main meal, or snack section. Then press Ctrl and d. You will then be asked to select a food input from a list, for which you can do a search. You can also manually enter the data (for example if you eat a ready meal you can just input it from the back of the packet)

If you need a new line (because you have filled in all the breakfast green lines for example), just type Alt and select the menu items Insert : Row. Do this between two green lines or select the last green line (i.e. one above and one below: or else the new line will not be coloured green and this is important to the macros)

This is not really for computer illiterate people. You have to be fairly savvy with Excel, at least familiar with how to use it!

Good luck!

ps. I own the copyright. The Excel package was purchased by me in 1996/1997 as part of a bundled package with a large computer re-saler. I still have the original Excel disc and code so there should be no claims for copyright infringement there. I have copied some data which I found on the internet. I make no claims regarding its accuracy either in the accredited data, or in my translation in inputting of the data (I make mistakes too)! I do not intend selling this, and I am not trying to give you something to hook you which I will subsequently charge for updates. If I update it, it will be for free because I am still using it. If I do not, tough! Excel files themselves do not generally contain viruses, but macros can contain viruses. I can confirm that there are no malicious viruses written in the code by myself. My computer does not contain any known viruses, although I once caught the JS Exception virus which was fairly benign and was eliminated (I hope). You are repsonsible for virus testing the spreadsheet (it is at your own risk).

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Ricklovesthepowder, so have you started yet? Hows it going?

I had a 6-month goal last December to lose 20KGs having crept up to 110 (am 47, 180cms, heavy build). Managed to lose 14kgs in fairly short order through regular gym (5 dpw) and better diet. The last 6kgs proving bloody hard.....probably due to the booze rolling eyes

Good luck with it - well worth doing. Although that last bit is proving harder than I thought, I do feel quite significantly better.

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I've just lost about 4kg over the past month or so by following WeightWatchers diet thingy, swimming 4km a week, cycling a bit and doing a frankly rather terrifying via ferrata last Tuesday. It's really not that difficult. (Apart from the via ferrata bit.)

You know it makes sense.

Lizzard, I'm so much more active when I'm in France, as a little thing like work tends to get in the way here.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hells Bells, swimming during lunchbreak - 1km takes about half an hour.

A snowHead

Lizzard,it's too far to the local pool to do it at lunchtime.

A snowHead

Hells Bells, I'd suggest buying a bike, but I've seen the prices of the things. Laughing

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Hells Bells, exactly the same problem here, after a 10-12 hour day of work, 6 days a week, I'm fit for nowt. Sundays are the only day I can do anything vaguely exercise-ish, but I generally spend them out on my motorbike. Very Happy

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Lizzard, already have one, and I really have no excuse for not using it, apart from too far to cycle to work............

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Chasseur, im being more careful with what i eat and also doing 15 mins on the exercise bike, then 5 mins rowing, 15 bike then 5 mins rowning again, and another 15 on the bike to finish off. The bike is fine but the rowing machine is nackering.

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Ricklovesthepowder, worth getting someone experienced to take a look at your rowing technique if you haven't already. it can put a lot of stress on your back if you aren't doing it right

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Ricklovesthepowder,

Getting fit is very much dependent on your frame of mind and your comitment. 1g of fat = 9 calories. Work out how many calories you burn per hour http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm. then do the maths and you will see it takes a lot of time and effort to drop many pounds.

Many people pay lip service to fitness "I need to lose weight but haven't got the time, it was rainning, it's my glands, my family are all overweight etc". They eat salads in public but stuff their face in private. Some put more effort into finding excuses than the into exercising. Some see losing weight as being fit but being slimmer doesn't mean you are fit (e.g. Amy Winehouse). Some see getting fit / slim as being achieved with short term fixes (starvation diets etc). If you are seriously overweight but want to get fit and lose the pounds permantly but in a healthy way then you need to permanently change your way of life. More exercise, less calories in(small calorie deficit http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/caloriedeficit.html) and better quality food / nutrients. Try to find an exercise you like doing. Set yourself targets, monitor calories in and calories burned, reward yourself when you exercise (e.g. only watch TV while you sit on the exercise bike, allow yourself something special to eat once you have achieved a goal). It's a long hard slog but at the end of it you will feel better and that makes your day easier especially if you work long hours.

PS Someone mentioned interval training - to avoid injury be sure to warm up with light exercise before hand and streching helps too.

After all it is free

Ricklovesthepowder, can you get a heart rate monitor? I was shocked how easy it was to pedal away on the bike and hardly get the heart rate increased at all. If the bike has programs, try adding a hill climb or something similiar to get the heart rate up.

For me I like goals, so even if you are knackered one day you have a target, ie on the rower I'd suggest seeing how far you go in 5mins, then set that as a target, and see how quick you can do it. ie let's say you row 1000m in 5mins. Next time set the rower to 1000m distance and see if you can do it in under 5 mins, repeat until you are doing it in, say, 4mins 45 secs. Then re-set, ie row for 5mins, you may now do 1100m, so use that as the starting distance next time and try and get the time down under 5 mins for 1100m, then just keep chipping away.

Hells Bells, if work is too far, how about driving half way, then cycle the rest, you'll probably find you can build up to cycling from home over time...

kitenski, not really possible, as work provide me with the vehicle. And it's 18 miles away.

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Hells Bells,
Cycling does wonders for a woman's figure, the best rear I've ever seen belonged to a female cyclist. Toofy Grin

Cycling to work can be a problem especially if they don't have showers etc. A foldup bike might be a good investment (they even do electric folding bikes now http://www.foldingcyclist.com/ ), leave the car at work then ride home slowly one day and use a combination of public transport and the bike the following day. Spinning classes might be a good way to build up fitness beforehand. A fellow female workmate rides 12.5 miles each way on the bike to work and back. Although it takes longer on the bike it can be more time efficient than driving to work and then driving to the fitness centre to exercise for an hour or so. I often do a 30 mile round trip to visit a friend in the evening instead of using the car.

Help!!

Losing Weight

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