Going to the Gym - Page 9

I agree. I still wonder how did people play baskball in those days?

So even though I'm a certified personal trainer, I signed up to get my butt kicked by a pro. We've met twice a week for two weeks now and already I feel more energetic and healthy. My problem is I know what to do, I just don't do it. My old routine was to do 30 minutes of cardio and then some basic weight training. My trainer won't let me do any exercises I'm comfortable with and pushes me past my limit in terms of weight and number of reps. And because I'm competitive by nature, I thrive because I want to prove that I can do it. It's a shame that I cannot motivate myself, but at least I recognize my weaknesses and am trying to rectify them.

Now that I'm actually thinking about my exercise routine, my eating habits have followed. Unfortunately, I have no ability to curb my drinking. My trainer tried to assess how much I drank each week and I basically had to say ALOT. At least three times a week, with multiple drinks each day. He tried to get me to cut back to two drinks a week and I said I couldn't do it. But at least when I'm out with friends now, I hear him in my ear telling me to cut back and in time I think I'll scale back abit. But dammit, alcohol tastes so good when it touches the lips!!!

As of last week, my starting weight was 123 (which is topping the heavy side for me) and my BMI was 24%. I want to drop maybe 5 pounds, but my real goal is to get my BMI down to around 20%. As muscle weighs more than fat, I don't think I'll lose all that much weight even if I work out multiple times a week. I've paid for 16 1-hour sessions. I'll update my stats as I go along.

I hate to trot out an old joke but if you say "Like a Kennedy", you know that's not good.

My trainer asked me what I drank last weekend. Just on Friday I had four gin and tonics and 6 shots of Jameson. He didn't even bother asking about Saturday and Sunday after that.

What is the minimum amount of exercise that someone 6'2 over 300 pounds can do a day inorder to get a benefit? Is 30 minutes a day on a exercise bike enough?

Well, it's a start at any rate. Anything's better than nothing, but most physical changes are going to be diet-related. Can you post up an example of an average day of eating?

*faints*

I get royally fucked up on two vodka presses. Holy shit.

You can't have cheese on a burger and now this? Jesus man. And I thought Ceej was a pansy.

Rourkefan:

If you are more mathematically inclined like me, the goal to weight loss is burning more calories than you consume. 3500 calories = 1 lb. You want to lose 1 lb a week, you'll need to lose 500 calories per day. I tell my clients to split the difference. Each day, exercise to burn off 250 calories and reduce your caloric intake by 250. FYI - a can of soda is roughly 250 calories right there.

An average person should consume about 500 calories per meal, plus another 200-300 calories from snacks, soda, desserts, etc. Daily caloric intake really depends on sex, height, and how active you are, so these are very broad guidelines. For some people, their daily calorica intake could be 2500 and still be healthy for them. Given that, the average person actually consumes upwards of 1000 calories per meal, especially at dinner. Here's a Calorie calculator if you want to figure out how much you should be consuming.*

Starting off small is fine. If you go from zero activity to 30 minutes of cardio, you're burning calories and thats a plus. If you cut all your portion sizes in half, you are consuming less calories and that's a plus. The key for most beginners is to not overeat because you think you are burning more calories than you really are.

*Edit: According to this site, this is what I need to consume to lose weight! 1300 calories a day is hard, under 1000 is impossible. Luckily I'm not going for any extreme dieting.

Maintenance: 1623 Calories/day
Fat Loss: 1299 Calories/day
Extreme Fat Loss: 984 Calories/day

Like I said. I drink. Like alot.

I don't have a booze tolerance. And shockingly despite my comments about booze, I don't drink very much. The largest number of beers I had was six in Sydney. Nearly walked into a full length mirror with that one.

You're just a cheap date, Ed.

Fuckin A', my friend.

My weekly schedule:

Wednesday: Play volleyball. Go to bar afterward because my friend has a babysitter that night.

Thursday: Play softball. Go out to pub afterwards and drink pitchers of beer and eat chicken wings.

Friday/Saturday: Socialize with friends, usually at a local bar where one of our friends bartends. This means free drinks. It also means when I want to leave, he'll just put another drink in front of me knowing I will never turn away free alcohol. The night generally starts at 9 or 10 p.m. and I'll close the bar at 4 a.m.

Sunday: Go play some active sport in Prospect Park with friends. Have a few drinks at the end of the day.

Pretty much all of my socializing involves alcohol. You see my delemma in trying to cut it out of my life. I'll have no friends. Or rather, I'll be the sober person in a group of completely shitfaced friends. Ever try to talk to a drunk person when you're sober? Not fun.

No ma'am it is not. No fun at all.

Here's the key to dieting: EAT SLOWLY. Chew each bite for 20 seconds and let your stomach get full on LESS FOOD. We typically eat until we're full, and it takes time for your stomach to tell your brain that it's full. If you eat slowly, you'll find that you'll be able to eat smaller portions of food and be satisfied.

My teenage years concur.

Let's put the shoe on the other foot: ever try talking to a sober person when you're wasted? That's not fun either. They're all like, 'Hey man! You have a problem! We should get you out of here.' or 'You don't want to make out with that chick with one leg over there. Remember Paul McCartney?' Seriously, my sober friends are a bunch of buzzkills.

"Alcohol is not a drug; it's a delicious liquid that makes you exciting and courageous!" - Stephen Colbert

What's the truth behind calorie counters? I've been tearing up the bike at the gym, and the counter says I do about 200-250 calories in 30 minutes. I felt that was pretty damn low judging on my heart exploding out of my chest and the small river developing down my back, so I checked some counters online. The low counters I found said that at the speed I go (typically 15mph) I should be doing 500 calories in 30 minutes, while the high counters say I could be burning as much as 700 calories. None of these are taking into account the resistance level I set on the bike either, but I'm not too worried about that. It's frustrating when those machines give you such a ridiculously low number compared to every calculator I've found online.

None of them are going to be correct. Half the time, the lower estimates are closer to the truth. Sure, it's frustrating, but it also shows just how much people overestimate the calorie-burning capability of some exercises while underestimating the importance of diet when trying to lose weight.

If it makes you feel any better, following exercise you will enjoy a period of increased calorie burning.

I had a great moment last weekend - I went for a 20+ mile bike ride with my buddy who races in tris and cat-5; on the way back, I was pushing it up a short incline and he was drafting me....or ATTEMPTING to, as I found out when he rode up to me on the flat and said "don't take this the wrong way but I thought I was going to be hurting YOU."

Full disclosure is that my legs were WAY fresher on that day than his but it's always nice to have a stronger rider give you a tip o'the cap.

I reject your reality and insert my own!

I'm really mostly aggravated by it, because I have been trying to track my caloric deficit as accurately as possible, but at this point I've decided to that's a futile task.

Anyone have solid advice when it come to weighing one's self? I've heard that you should only do it once a week or so and always at the same time of day. Any truth to that?

Yeah. When I weigh myself, I do it in the morning before I eat anything and after I poop. Otherwise, it can fluctuate depending on what you've eaten, any possible water weight, etc.

Makes sense. I thought my scale was haunted when I (stupidly) weighed myself one evening after doing so in the morning, and I was a solid 3 lbs. heavier.

For anyone interested in strength training, try out Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program. I don't normally drink the Kool-Aid when it comes to these things, but I picked it up after several glowing recommendations from other people, and my numbers on all the big lifts have been blowing up hard.

It's an incredibly straightforward program based around lifting heavy, heavier, and heaviest for the core barbell lifts (squat, bench, deadlift, military press) and doing accessory work alongside the main lifts to make up for volume, with a deload week every 4th (or 5th, depending on how many days you plan to lift) week to keep from burning out.

Mind, it's not for those folks who have to have something new every two-three months - it's meant to be a long-term program and can definitely be milked for years if you set everything up right to cater to your needs, which will definitely change as your strength levels go up.

On my first cycle of the program (4/9 was the exact date) I squatted 275lb. 8 times at a bodyweight of around 280 lb. I just started my fifth cycle of the program and squatted 280lb. for 16 reps today, and that's at a current bodyweight of 257, so the results definitely speak for themselves - not only have my strength levels skyrocketed but my coefficient has increased due to having dropped that extra fat.

I'm probably going to stick with this program through the end of the year, and maybe even beyond that. It's great stuff, and his e-book will only set you back a whopping $20.

What would you recommend as the most efficient exercises? Those that burn the most calories? I heard slow, but long going swimming should be really good. Any truth to that?

So here's a question: About a month ago I developed a nasty case of Tendinitis. I'm finishing my Phys Therapy in a week and right now I can walk maybe 30 minutes, use a stationary bike for maybe 10 minutes (pushing it on speed and resistance) and...that's about it.

How do I work back up to what I was doing (3-4 hour hikes on weekends, 1 hour on the treadmill 3 times per week) without blowing out my Achilles Tendon?

Pabst. Blue. Ribbon.

Chris, re: swimming: That is true, but more for swimming being really, really low-impact cardio that can be done a lot longer than most runs and such. I'm a big proponent of mixing it up...everything works, nothing works forever. It also depends on your specific goals.

Overall, I like lifting because there's a bigger post-exercise energy expenditure (if you lift heavy or vigorously...break a sweat doing it), and that along with the fat-burning benefits of various forms of cardio (steady-state, interval, plyometrics) and eating a clean diet at a caloric deficit is the best formula for weight loss or metabolic conditioning, depending on how you put it together.

Personal favorites: jumping rope, rowing on the Compact2, hill sprints/treadmill hill sprints, complexes like this, this, and exercises performed using the Tabata protocol.

I know the T-Muscle links are meatheaded, but ignore the blatant product whoring and there's some solid advice in there.

Cylon: Just work your way up from there, either increase distance or time. Don't go too hard. Mostly just stick to what your doctor recommends and then work your way back into things.

You have to swim hard to burn calories on par with other intense exercise. Its very low impact and you can choose a stroke appropriate for any physical limitations (e.g. bad shoulder). As a triathlete I can tell you that swimming you have to push yourself to burn a lot of calories. It is a "whole body" exercise but you'll burn more calories faster if you do jump rope or something (especially if you include the time it takes to shower in and out of the pool).

Been thinking about this for a while--would any Chewers be interested in forming a group on DailyBurn (formerly Gyminee) to track their weight loss/exercise goals/etc.? I enjoy it when I use it, but I feel I would be a lot more motivated if people I know outside of the DailyBurn site itself were part of the group.

I'll join. I've been back at the gym for about 3 months now. Clothes are looser, and I'm up to actually jogging/running on the treadmill for 20 minutes straight (during a 30-40 minute timespan), and I'm lifting much heavier weights than when I started. However, my weight hasn't really changed. I started at like 201, and I'm still about 200 lbs. I know the weight is relative, but I was hoping I'd have lost at least 5 lbs. by now, especially since I've made a concerted effort to work out at least 3 days a week.

Enter Jake screaming "HARDER! HAAAARDER!"

But good work on the trimming down. I was running like a madman this spring but promptly fell off after an extended (nonserious) illness. Hoping if other Chewers join up, I'll have someone to hold myself accountable to.

I might give it a go - I keep a training/food log online, but if it's not too much of a pain in the ass to crosspost I'll start putting stuff up.

If your work capacity is increasing, you're doing well. That being said, how's your diet? Can you post up an average day of eats?

I can't speak to crossposting capability, but the interface itself is so easy, it makes you feel guilty for not keeping up with it. Really nice progress charts for the Excel-impaired too.

If you can, get a body fat monitor (often incorporated into a scale). Healthy is better cardiovascular fitness and a better percentage body fat, regardless of your weight. If your weight isn't getting better fast but your body fat percentage is dropping, that helps.

Also, get a food scale and measuring cups. Many people think they are counting their calories until they realize their idea of a serving size is 2 or 3 times larger than the food package's idea of a serving size.

I'm on there now. Martianman68 is my screen name.

And I'm sure it's my food intake. I do really well for 3-4 days, and then I let myself go on the weekends. I have relatively good breakfasts and lunches, but then after a long day, it's hard not to go a bit crazy at dinner, especially if we go out.

I joined. We'll see if it helps me actually be better about eating right and exercising, seeing as I have had no discipline for about 9 months now.

Count me in, bendrix. I'll sign up for it after work today.

Joined as JamesMay81. Hopefully this will be the little bit of extra motivation to keep me on track.

Excellent! Either post your screen name in the forum or add me as a Motivator (friend) on the site so I can invite you all to the group. My handle's bendrix.

It's good to treat yourself once a week. Though don't go overboard the whole weekend.

I've gone back to measuring portions again, I realized I've been eating too much lately.

Do you do all that protein drink shit? I attempted that when I was consistently working out about 3 years ago, and I just couldn't do it. I think if I substituted some meals/snacks (I try to do the 5-6 smaller meals a day thing) in favor of protein drinks, I might lose some more weight. It just makes me gassy as hell (sorry for the TMI).

I try to get as much protein as I can through direct food sources, but I supp with shakes here and there when necessary. It might also be your brand - have you tried switching it up at all?

If you have a Trader Joe's anywhere near you, their whey protein powders or fantastic. No gas at all.

I avoid any soy protein drinks like the plague for the very reason you stated, martianman.

RE: Soy and soy protein - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/res...-patients.html