This one hits close to home. I was in great shape the first half-plus of my life. Played sports, swam competitively, did the Marine thing. Always had a reason to want to not be out of shape, mainly so doing things didn’t suck.
Lost reason. Packed some pounds on, maybe 20 or so.
Finally decided about a year and a half ago to start running again, and so now I run like 35-40 miles a week, and every run I see the calories. Run for 45 minutes, burn like 650 calories. Costco has these cookies that I have to avoid seeing, and each cookie is 200 calories, and I can easily eat three, four, five at a clip, with a nice tall glass of milk. And so I’ll run for 90 minutes, and literally offset the benefit entirely in 10 minutes watching Netflix before bed.
It’s not fair. But it is what it is. And so my reason to run is chocolate chip cookies.
for what it’s worth the running is still very good for you even if you aren’t burning fat with calorie deficits
Oh no, for sure. Dropped back to “not overweight,” which is good enough. Feel good. And to assuage the concerns of others, modern running shoes are crazy good, it almost feels like cheating, how soft they are.
Until you injure your knee/spine due to the repetitive impact from the steps that is
That is largely their own fault.
It wouldn’t even be offset if you didn’t run
It is easier to limit excess calories than to burn them with exercise, for sure.
But I do the recommended 30 minutes of “moderate exercise” and I see 200 calories, so it is maybe not entirely as dismal as this?
I’m 265 lbs. and if the treadmill takes that into account I see about 400 calories down 30 minutes into my 5k.
BUT, the saying I’ve heard is “you can’t outrun your fork” and it seems to be true. (For example, I quite enjoy eating 2000 calories at a buffet in 30 minutes… if I’m going to get back down to a reasonable weight, I have to DON’T DO THAT.)
It is actually harder this time, because before the rapist-in-chief got re-elected, I was down to 220 and could finish a 5k in <28 minutes.
It’s a struggle like most of life… cardio and weights and all that can keep you fit, but to actually lose weight it’s all in the kitchen. The saying is “abs are made in the kitchen not the gym” cause your body is a machine for gaining weight not losing it. Biologically, if you’re gaining weight your body is fucking winning.
building muscle through resistance training is the best way to get your body to burn more calories. cardio is exercise for heart and lungs
This is what I’ve read, the calories-over-time that muscle burns “for free” outweighs any weight loss you can get from exercise. Cardio is more for escaping melee combat
I had no special goal for exercise other than to reduce “all cause mortality” and my internet research steered me toward 30 minutes of moderate cardio. But I have also heard that strength/cardio are interrelated.
i said cardio is exercise for heart and lungs- speaking less broadly, the better shape your heart and lungs are in, the better you can be at resistance training; you’ll have more stamina and faster recovery, and things in general will be easier to do (walking, stairs, keeping up with children). resistance training makes the rest of your body stronger, so that things in general get easier, like lifting things etc. you can get away with only doing cardio or only doing resistance but best to do a bit of both, i think. but you should also train a bit for flexibility.
you can run/row/elliptical yourself skinny (not without eating healthy) but you cant run yourself jacked, you need to build muscle. unless you’re a sprinter, i guess
Exercise is good for mental health
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
- everyone says calories when they mean kilocalories
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)
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
Or, alternatively, use the stationary nature of indoor machines to make it less boring. I typically read. Or maybe watch a show or movie.
Outside is great too of course, but bad weather can be hard to overcome depending on where you live.
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.
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.
vigorous exercise provokes a lot of hunger
I’ve always found the opposite to be true but YMMV. My periods of weight gain have always resulted from eating out of boredom; the cycling I do (25 to 50 miles per day) improves my mental state and I don’t feel the same urge to constantly snack.
cycling…25 to 50 miles per day
Dude that’s 2-4 hours a day! I’m jealous of how much time you have that you can spend cycling! I have to do my rides after the kids go to bed so that limits me to about 2 hours before it gets too dark in the summer to safely keep going on the rural trails
I’m a school bus driver! It’s a great gig because on school days I have plenty of time for a 25 mile ride between my morning and afternoon runs, and on weekends and in the summer I have enough time for a 50 every morning.
Maybe you could tow your kids in one of those deathtraps some people use? I dunno, kids always look so fucking miserable in those things.
Omg chicken lady! I didn’t read your username! Im still keeping school bus driving in mind as a backup career based on one of your earlier comments about it!
Maybe you could tow your kids in one of those deathtraps some people use?
I actually do do that! The kids love riding in the trailer but they’re rapidly outgrowing it, plus I live somewhere super hilly and that much rolling resistance and added weight is really hard to get more than a couple of miles with, except my kids are too small for most kid bikes and I can’t seem to get them to build any confidence once I do have them on bikes that they fit. They’re a really tough combination of sizes, ages, confidence and motor control levels that just makes biking shockingly hard for them right now
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
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
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 we remember that we evolved as persistence hunters
Some fun facts: Grover Krantz – the guy who first posited the “running man” theory – was better-known as a staunch believer in the existence of Bigfoot. Also, his skeleton and the skeleton of his favorite dog are on display at the Smithsonian for some reason.
Personally, I can’t believe anybody could possibly believe in Bigfoot. It’s obviously just a Yeti in a gorilla suit.
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.
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
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.
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.
Increasing weight is actually not very effective at burning more calories, you’d be better off just adding like 10 minutes of time
Additionally:
- if you’re severely overweight, some cardio routines can be a serious health risk. If you’re way too heavy, your joints won’t be able to sustain long walks or jogging
- slow and steady wins the race. Don’t expect yourself to lose all the excess weight in a matter of months. That’s almost impossibly difficult and even if successful likely no healthy. Instead develop healthy habits and let the results come in naturally over time
Thing to try: Get a bike trainer, subscribe to Zwift, and play a game an hour or so a day.
It could happen one day! I’m already getting more than sufficient training, and adding 1 hour of training a day on top of my current volume would be actively counterproductive.
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.
If you’re someone like me who has never really paid attention to what you’re eating so long as you aren’t rapidly packing on weight, I recently downloaded an app called Cronometer after being told by my doctor that my blood pressure and cholesterol are too high and to lose weight.
I’ve been tracking everything I eat and have managed to keep myself between 1000 and 1500 calories a day along with monitoring my fat, carbs, sodium, and protein intake. It has been insanely eye opening to see and feel the difference after cutting out the daily burgers, pizza, and fried foods and its only been like a week and a half. Seeing the numbers in the app makes it almost like a game to see how little fat and calories I can eat each meal/day and shocking to see what is contained with a typical meal that I used to eat (easily 2-3 days worth of fat and calories compared to what I’m eating now in just one meal).
In any case, if you want to eat better, try finding something that let’s you tally up what you’re eating. From there it’s as simple as finding better alternatives (like a low fat dressing instead of regular dressing, or chicken/fish instead of beef/pork) or replacing just one meal a day with something healthier.
I love the apps but, man, they just took too much time for me to enter everything into one, especially with any home cooked meals where you have to enter all the ingredients. If it were automatic, I’d love it. I guess that’s why they’re trying to make those stupid AI pins and glasses do it, even though it’s way too complex a problem for them.
I’ve just settled for removing junk from the house and it’s worked OK, plus I can still eat “normally” when at a party or something.
I used Cronometer for awhile, but it was too much to enter everything every day. I switched to a really simple keto diet and I’ve lost 45 lbs so far this year.
I had issues with the apps when I tried them a long time ago. Like I’d make a stir fry of chicken with veggies but there’s nothing on the app comparable so I had to guess on the nutrition.
For me, it’s better if i just keep healthier snacks on hand, fruit and snackable veggies. As well try to have one vegetable with lunch and dinner.
Ive been having to guess on some things with home cooked meals since I’m not using a kitchen scale but I’ve been able to just google “100g of salmon” or guesstimate by cups or tablespoons and think its close enough. I try to err on the side of inputting higher than I think just so that I’m not having more fat or sodium than I should.
This is a big lifestyle change for me so having all this data is really helpful.
Both are important. Building muscle increases your BMR so you expend more calories just existing.
What is this “going outside” you are talking about? Sounds very interesting
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
It’s a free open world thing with really good graphics - but it’s multiplayer only, and PVP can’t be switched off.
The good news is very few people engage in PvP so lots of players go to the outside region regularly without ever encountering a PKer
This is true (and worth noting that respawning is turned off btw!) - but there’s quite a few other multiplayer issues.
For example, there’s loads of issues with older players hogging all the resources and not giving new players much of a chance to get started.
The daystar!
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.
More than half the reason I ever get any exercise at all is in service of my mental health.
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.
Losing 8 pounds in 5 days would require a daily deficit of 5,600 calories, so if you ate nothing you would still need to burn 3,600 calories to hit that, and if you’re hiking with a moderate load at a relaxed pace you’d be burning around 500-600 calories and hour, so would need to be hiking for like 7 hours a day AND not eating anything to lose that much weight in that much time…
Yeah that checks out. I looked up that 3500 calorie number after I said that and realised I had underestimated. But hiking 10-15 miles in appalachia with a thirty pound pack on a 1500 calorie diet (yeah I just brought nuts and a freeze dried meal for each day) would actually be closer to a 4k calorie deficit a day. It might have been less than 8 pounds too, depending on conditions when I weighed before and after. Your body weight can change a few pounds in a day just based on how much you’ve consumed and haven’t ejected yet.
Yes, sure, but don’t forget all the fun wiggly numbers that go into things like this. Was it actually 8 pounds, or 7.5? Was he flush with water when he weighed beforehand and dehydrated afterwards? Who knows.
Don’t underestimate the scale-moving power of a good dump, either.
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.
So true. It’s weird to see portion sizes I dish up for myself shrink so distinctly and quickly.
I can’t maintain þrough the holiday, þough, so I tend to lose weight around Feb-Apr and keep it off until Nov. It’s not healþy, but 🤷
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.
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.
Soft drinks are the real killer. I have a relative who lost about 50lbs just by quiting soda
I stopped soda years ago, but have recently taken up sparking water. I probably should stop that too since apparently it can negatively impact your tooth enamel.
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.
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.
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.
My kids used to laugh at me for eating one half of the twix & putting it away for another day, and an emergency chocolate bar at work will last me weeks. It’s not willpower - if I had to TRY not to eat it all, I wouldn’t buy it either.
I think about this when people say those GLP drugs are cheating, that people should just use willpower, I think all they are doing is giving people the same experience many of us have naturally - I love food but not overeating, that doesn’t feel good at all, and enjoy moving my body, I like dancing and exercise.
“Food is not reward, food is not entertainment” became my mantra.
It’s macadamia nuts for me. If I have a 3 lb. bag of macadamia nuts, I’m eating a 3 lb. bag of macadamia nuts. Fortunately, they’re expensive, so I just don’t get them anymore. It’s much easier to not buy them, than to not eat them.
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.
How many times does someone need to do that before they think "wow, that’s not good for me
You sound pretty arrogant, just saying. It is clear food is made by the industry in such a way that is is hard for people to control themselves. Not everybody is as strong as you seem to be, but that is no reason to be mean to these people. Chips is a very unnatural highly processed food item and one cannot expect that the body naturally knows how to deal with it.
It’s arrogant to expect people to have a small amount of self awareness? I acknowledged that it’s difficult but there are numerous ways to address this issue.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s extremely valuable to get “used to” first-world hunger in modern times.
I used to be the same way. Though after about the first 18 months of “diet and exercise” (self-defined and imposed to a healthy level), I basically stopped caring if I was “hungry”.
First-world hunger is akin to a baby crying because their stomach happened to growl. If you’re ACTUALLY hungry, you feel insanely drained and even crappy food is magnificent.
If you even feel a preference about what to eat, you’re not actually hungry! (is the easiest way to exemplify it)
On top of that, it’s wonderful to train your stomach to be able to go, “oh wait, I’m just empty. I know how to be empty. This is fine.”.
To put it succinctly: The urge to eat is totally different when you genuinely need the nutrition. After you’re used to it, fast food and other high-energy but low nutrition meals are … shockingly unfulfilling.
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.
Also, taking massive doses of iron supplements (or dark greens) helps a lot.
Because of the constipation?
Had a short walk to the store and back. About 130 cal burned. Then I drink a big glass of milk. 300 cal.
Awesome
In case anyone needs to hear this, you do not need to be exercising away every calorie you eat. A ton of energy gets burned just keeping your body alive. Just keeping your body temperature in the right range accounts for around half of it on its own.
Humans are hilariously efficient at running. Skipping a candy bar is easier than running two miles.
Speak for your fucking self. I run about as well as a 65 year old tractor left out in the sun
The line I like is “you can’t outrun your fork.” Weight loss is 99% about the kitchen, bodybuilding is probably about 75% the kitchen.
And also “six packs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.” Everyone’s got abs, you just can’t always see em!
There’s some post-exercise calorie burn (measurable as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) beyond just what the machine says. Some people have found much better effects from repeated shorter bursts of intense cardio (aka HIIT).
Still, personally, I get the best results from doing both slower steady cardio for long periods of time (more absolute calories) and occasional faster speed work (probably more post-exercise calories and more adaptation in my cardiovascular system and bones/muscles/tendons to get better at exercising next time).
And once you get better at exercise, it becomes possible to really burn calories enough to where you have a better calorie budget for eating more delicious food.
It’s crazy how much work it is to maintain a mid physique. I gym/cardio 6 days a week and am training for a marathon and will still put on weight if I don’t track what I eat.
Since you mentioned you track what you eat, this might be a good place for me to add my contribution.
I struggled with my weight my whole life and I started tracking what I eat, focused mainly on limiting my calories. It was still a struggle, but it definitely helped.
Then I discovered my body overproduces cholesterol and I had to change my diet, which was relatively easy since I was already tracking. I feel like I was given the key to weight loss with this one change: keep your saturated fat below 13g per day.
It’s not as easy as it sounds, you’re stuck basically eliminating certain foods altogether (I’m looking at you, beef) and you need to do a good deal of meal plan and prep (which is good for you anyway) - but holy shit. I eat constantly and I can’t keep weight on.
The only way I can gain is by stopping exercise altogether (I do one hour 3 days a week) and really loading up on carbs (bread/pasta).
How are you all tracking what you eat? I’ve had some success with doing that before, but I did it with menu management that I can’t pull off easily now. Still, I feel like just knowing where I’m at each day would be helpful for me.
I use a calorie counter app. Cronometer is the one I use right now, but its pretty annoying without an adblock. For that i use AdGuard. I even gave them money after I found out they were a buy-it-once instead of a subscription model. AdGuard, that is, not cronometer.
Macrofactor is the gold standard, but requires a subscription. Calorometer is a decent alternative, but still locks some features behind a subscription and is a bit messy.
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Yeah, long brisque walks and other low impact exercise helps your body’s internal systems in ways that are more beneficial than just weight regulation. I started walking a couple miles every other day a month ago and despite not losing any significant weight yet I just sleep better, my digestive track is working better, and I just feel better overall.
Missed it due to weather the last few days and I clearly need to get out for a walk this evening.
Note: I feel miserable while I am doing the exercise, the good feeling is the rest of the day.
I notice a huge improvement in just about everything when I’m going on walks frequently. I’m sure the exercise and vitamin D is most of it, but it’s also sort of meditative and good for clearing your head.
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Or don’t cancel out your workout immediately?
Hams:
“73!”The important stuff is not the energy expended during training, it is the increased BASELINE energy expenditure your body has when training on the regular. Muscle mass uses energy, even during periods of low activity.
You burn 73 calories by running less than 10 minutes.
A 30 minute jog burns over 300.
Do that twice a week and it amounts to a body weight difference of 90 lbs. (300000 calories) over 10 years with the same diet.
A healthy weight isn’t something you achieve quickly and then you’re done and can go back to your old “normal”.The human body is kinda magical. If you live an active life, take the stairs, exercise, commute by bicycle, and walk a lot, it’ll change to become better at being active over time.
If you sit on your ass all day and eat a lot, it’ll optimize itself for sitting on its ass and eating a lot.
So your body does its best to adjust to what you want to do.(Of course there are medical exceptions where that doesn’t work right, too. And the prevailing culture and car-centric infrastructure in the US doesn’t make it exactly easy to be active in your daily life.)
Well put.
The caloric calculation is only based on the effort at time of exercise, you continue to burn afterwards for several hours as muscles recover and heal -all that takes energy, and energy only comes from burning.
Yeah and don’t forget that the newly built muscle needs more energy as well just to maintain.
I have to eat painfully much… (I’m quite active, and even when not I eat a looot more than others…)
The resting metabolism of muscle tissue isn’t that high. It’s mostly overstated when it comes to actual passive calorie burn.
But that isn’t to say that having significant muscle doesn’t have a measurable/significant effect on calorie expenditure. If you’re building muscle by going to the gym, each trip back to the gym will involve more weight and therefore more calories due to the exercise itself. So packing on muscle makes each trip to the gym more productive in terms of calories burned.
Around 15 kCal/kg daily, maybe not very high indeed, but it’s significant, say I have 10-15kg more muscles than the average untrained person, that would be 150-225 more calories at rest, also you’re not always resting as you say already, the number will likely be higher, when considering daily activities, also since there’s more strength, it’s likely that the muscles are more used when doing sports (faster running/cycling, more weights, etc.), which is also relevant.
(For my case, I have a very inefficient metabolism likely (rather results in heat than fat-increase), I eat a lot even when I’m not trained, but right now, as I’m a little bit more packed I eat absurd amounts of food (due to a lot of drumming mostly btw. wouldn’t have thought it results in that much extra muscle/calories-burning))
Burn by Herman Pontzer is a great book to read to help understand this.
People must be made so different. Exercise is the main factor in my size & weight. Like, even getting a job where I have to go up the stairs makes a difference.
And remember that there are so many benefits to exercise, beyond body shape. Cardio is so good for your heart and helps ease anxiety, lifting is so good for your bones, yoga helps keep you resilient & mobile so you don’t break when you fall down, and helps with balance.
All of them help offset all the sitting most of us have to do at work.
I’m grateful that my work involves running around with children, lifting them up, spinning them, etc. I get a bit of cardio and strength training while making money.
Except today. It was hot as balls and the air conditioner wasn’t fully working. I produced enough sweat sitting still to put a gym bro to shame. At one point a kid was spinning around on a spinner toy and I sat next to her just so I could feel the breeze it made, like a little fan.
Yeah but how many jobs are available as a professional child abductor? This doesn’t seem feasible for most people.
