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…)
You gain muscle at the gym.
You lose weight in the kitchen.
But… being active overall does help. Just cycling to places instead of driving can easily add up to 1000+ calories per week. Depending on where you live, it might not even use that much more time. And then there’s the possibility to have active holidays and to walk more. And the great thing is, you can still go to the gym and do sports in addition to all of this.
Actually the more I have read into what is a healthy active routine (more on the athletic side of things, because I have overloading issues) Cycling to work, is like the perfect active rhythm for the body.
Especially when you do it fast (VO2 max).
The body needs time to recover and needs just little stimulus for growth/maintenance (so marathon is not good for your body, it’s just wear and tear), and after ~6-8 hours, needs stimulus for further growth again (so cycling back from work).
I have always wondered why I was comparatively muscular to others (for some part it’s likely genetics), I think it was/is because I cycle like a complete madman to work (well… VO2 max), because I’m an adrenaline junkie.
I just recently discovered that this is actually quite healthy (well not in the casualty sense obviously, but for cardio and general health).
If you’re interested I can recommend this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anB-UMXIDQA
Yep, it’s all cumulative. I think the “weight loss is in the kitchen” advice helps those who don’t understand weight loss is a function of net calories, so start exercising and eat more because they think exercise somehow magically makes weight go away. If only I had a nickel for every time I heard “weight lifting converts fat into muscle” over the years…
My aunt is a great example. She started doing daily walks to lose weight but picked up a “healthy protein smoothie” from a local coffee shop on the way home. She slowly gained weight because they were more like milkshakes and easily had 500+ calories per serving.
I don’t understand the idea of “rewarding” yourself with crappy food after you exercise to burn calories.
I suggest adopting the mantra “food is not reward, food is not entertainment”.
Always a good habit to remove those nice little things from your life. Our lot is to suffer!
I don’t necessarily agree with “food is not a reward, food is not entertainment”. It can be a wonderful and enriching experience to dive into food culture around the world!
Sure, French cuisine is loaded with butter and salt, just make less. Vietnamese cuisine is lean and packed with nutrients. Mexican food can be protein rich and healthy if you take your time to adapt the ingredients to your needs.
Sure, processed sweets and ‘treats’ are almost always awful for you, just don’t deal with them and let actual depth and richness from good quality ingredients guide you!
Never skimp on food, take it in high regard, it’s one of the few things that unites all humans equally :)
Are you one of those “food is medicine” people
Fortunately I have the opposite impulse. I see a fun-size candy bar, get PTSD from my last treadmill session, and recoil from it like a snake.
To me the point of regular exercise, especially cardio, is that if I run every day, my body simply doesn’t want to eat the unhealthy food. I can’t run if I’ve eaten a sleeve of Oreos that day. And afterwards my body craves hearty, healthy meals and vegetables.
On the contrary, when I’m going for a long bike ride, I’m literally drinking syrup for fuel and eating high carb snacks.
The carbs are great sources of energy, but aren’t meant for post workout. Just enough to power through a long, multi-hour cardio session and avoid bonking out.
It’s the reward you get to have while doing the work and a healthy meal with whole foods is what you have afterwards. Good to train yourself that the sweets should never be at the end.
For anyone only doing short exercise sessions, absolutely no reason to carb load or fuel on anything other than water and maybe some electrolytes. Especially if weight loss is the goal. Even then, diet should be priority 1 over exercise. That one Oreo could cost you 30 minutes to burn off.
Walking and moving your legs provides crucial pumping action for your body to avoid fluids pooling in your lower body
Walking provides many, many other health benefits too, it’s super important (assuming the person is otherwise not very active).
What if I like fluids pooling in my lower body… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
That means swelling in your ankles, your groin is the middle not lower.
I think that just means, that you have changed your microbiota to like more healthy stuff (I too just don’t like unhealthy food anymore, but that took years…).
Carbs though are something that you really crave while being active, the muscles want to be fed, whether that happens via Oreos or say more healthy fruits or something like that is a different story.
Yes, it’s WAY easier to avoid eating that 1000kcal burger, than to burn 1000kcal
I don’t get why gym types are only obsessed with weight.
The exercise is not (primarily) for weight loss. It’s so your body doesn’t feel like a useless sack of potatoes the whole day. So you’re not out of breath when picking something up from the ground. The weight loss is unfortunately primarily achieved in the kitchen.
At least, that’s my experience. But maybe if you used to not move at all it makes a big difference. I lost weight when I changed my diet for the better, and I gain weight whenever I slip up significantly. But when I stopped running 15km per week (for health reasons) I didn’t really gain a significant amount, maybe a kg (accounting for noise). I did become a useless sack if potatoes though, so I’m back in the grind.
I think your experience is correct.
Your body keeps a set calorie usage target that it will adjust to. So over long times it will normalise to using a set amount. New exercise will burn extra energy initially, but you then adjust to doing it.
Diet changes have best effect, exercise is needed to stop you losing muscle mass.
“build it at the gym and show it off in the kitchen”
The only way excercise significantly contributes to weight loss is by building more muscle mass, particularly lean muscle, that burns more calories at rest.
Since your resting metabolism is a bit more than half of the calories you burn in a day, making it larger adds a notable chunk to the “Out” side of “calories in < calories out”, in some cases making it so the out side is capable of being larger than the minimum a person needs to eat to be healthy.By happy coincidence, it also makes it easier to excercise, makes you feel better and be healthier, and helps with awkward panting.
People see that and think: wow exercise is pointless, instead of, maybe it’s weird to eat a 1200kcal meal at mcdonalds
Please. You don’t use exercise to lose weight. That’s what bootleg weight loss drugs are for.
Do cocaine
You got it, boss
Yes, please go buy peptides on aliexpress for this
I went with the knock-off tidepods to save a bit. Should be close enough.
What is wrong with good old-fashioned cocaine?
Pervitin® is better for boring housework.
Yes but what would you recommend for fighting cops?
Still Pervitin®. It was good enough for the Blitzkrieg. It will be good enough for the revolution.
I’m skeptical it works for me, but I suppose I’m open to being proven wrong.
No, no, no. Peptides are to
magicallyspeed up healing of random damage in your body by orders of magnitude! They’ll help you add weight, because you’re building muuuuuscle!
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
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 isn’t a surprise, diet makes a massively bigger difference than exercise, but the real goal needs to be sustainability.
That’s a fantastic result, nice job.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Many fruits freeze well. Many don’t too, so look each up before doing it. Eating fruit while it’s frozen is especially nice on a hot day
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Both are important. Building muscle increases your BMR so you expend more calories just existing.
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.
It is somewhat annoying (mainly figuring out serving sizes) but I do it while I’m eating and it makes me eat more slowly. It looks like you can also make your own meals or recipes, which includes all the individual items into one entity to enter in one go. I have to watch my fat intake so I don’t know if keto would be right for me though I do know a few people who swear by it.
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.
Each their own, I wish you great luck in your journey!
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
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.
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 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…
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.
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.
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 players 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!
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.
will concede that the one type of indoor training I could one day get behind would probably be virtual cycling
Apparently they make ones where it integrates with the bike so you get the full resistance of trying to climb the hills then the light resistance of going down while you watch the scenery go by on the screen! I’ve never seen or used one but I heard about it from a colleague who had to troubleshoot the computer in one of those
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.
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
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.
If you’re training for cycling, increased volume of low intensity is rarely counterproductive, unless you’re riding like 20+ weekly hours. Granted, that’s pro level guidance, so who knows for us normies.
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
b-but my time is valuable! I need to rewatch movies I’ve seen a dozen times already and play a dumb merging game on my phone!
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.
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
Are you doing this volume at high intensity, aka Zone 4/5? It’s a quite significant volume to be doing at that level of vigorous intensity.
But there’s for sure individual differences here. High intensity efforts do provoke hunger for me, but the same may not be true for you!
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.
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.
- 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)
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.
It wouldn’t even be offset if you didn’t run
for what it’s worth the running is still very good for you even if you aren’t burning fat with calorie deficits
Until you injure your knee/spine due to the repetitive impact from the steps that is
That is largely their own fault.
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.
As someone else mentioned, humans are hilariously good at cardio. And the more you do it the more efficient you become at it, which means less calories burned.
Then there’s NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) which is unconscious movements you perform during the day. This accounts for a huge number of calories you burn during the day. Both exercise and cutting calories reduce NEAT, especially at you get leaner.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t cut calories or exercise. Reducing caloric intake absolutely works, you just need to be aware that your body will adjust to it, and that you should take breaks from dieting occasionally to bring your daily estimated calorie burn back up. Exercise should be thought of as something that improves health with a side benefit of some caloric burn.
Just my opinion.
Burn by Herman Pontzer is a great book to read to help understand this.
It’s actually infuriating how energy efficient the human body is…in peace time anyways.
The emphasis when I was younger that exercise was needed to lose weight. Now the emphasis is shifting that eating better and lighter does with exercise an aid in he situation.
Exercise is for building and maintaining muscle and cardio health. The only way it helps in losing weight is that muscles are more energy intensive than fat to maintain.
Yes, specifically:
Excess activity from your baseline will cause excess caloric output and can result in weight loss. BUT, human bodies are quite adaptable and what used to be excess activity can easily become your new baseline.
Absolutely, 75-300 minutes of cardio-vascular exercise is good for almost anyone, even if they need to gain weight. The same can be said for hitting every muscle group with resistance training twice a week, to a lesser extent. (Do both if you can, but do the cardio if you can only do one.) EDIT: Neither of these activities has to be done expressly for “exercise” – they are just as good for you when they are part of your work or play or any other purpose.
75-300 minutes of cardio-vascular exercise is good for almost anyone, even if they need to gain weight
I appreciate this distinction! I had so much trouble gaining weight until I got into exercise. Finally broke 130lbs once I was cycling 22 miles 3x a week! Exercise was the missing ingredient to getting my metabolism balanced out
Humans are hilariously efficient at running. Skipping a candy bar is easier than running two miles.
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!
Speak for your fucking self. I run about as well as a 65 year old tractor left out in the sun
Put the candy bar at the end of a track and I’ll run to get the candy.
Part of the trick is finding an exercise that’s actually enjoyable to do so that you don’t care how hard you’re working or how much time has passed. Time is gonna pass extra slow on a treadmill and feel really difficult, if you’re not enjoying it. I find that the bicycle is that sweet spot for me, I do it because it’s fun not because of my health.
I like riding a bmx bike but I’m also pushing 40 so I look like an old crackhead who just stole a kids BMX bike if I do.
Do it, nobody gives a shit more than you do
In my 30s I lived in Seattle and rode bikes everywhere. I was proud on the day I rode a bmx from the stadium up and over to the other side of Capitol Hill where I lived. It’s only a 3 mile (4.8 km) trip but with a 400 ft (121.9 m) change in elevation.
Awesome. If I saw someone 10 years older than me absolutely tearing up a path in the woods, pushing themselves the way I remember biking for fun, I’d be nothing short of inspired.
I bike 50 miles a day (in summer, at least) and I fucking hate getting passed by the guys that look like they’re in their 80s. I just tell myself they’re on an e-bike, which might even be true sometimes.
I signed up for a bike event that really pushed my limits and the youngest person who passed me had to be about 50. Apparently it’s a hobby that’s very popular with middle-aged men and retirees! Granted there’s a reason the MAMIL acronym exists (Middle Aged Man in Lycra)
If it’s something you both enjoy and that is good for your health, you need to double-ignore any “haters”. They aren’t going to live in your head with your future body, so fuck 'em.
Part of the trick is finding an exercise that’s actually enjoyable to do so that you don’t care how hard you’re working or how much time has passed.
So sports?
If sports is that thing for you, yeah. I actually hate most sports.
Part of the trick is finding an exercise that’s actually enjoyable to do so that you don’t care how hard you’re working or how much time has passed.
That’s why I take an edible and then run the treadmill.
Whatever works!
I’ve never found an exercise I enjoy. The closest I got was DDR, but the home pads suck and the arcades cost too much.
I do the treadmill because I can let my mind and hand set the pace. If I’m on a bike, I won’t get my HR into zone 2, because I’m lazy.
Ever try a rowing machine?
I do rows for resistance/strength training, but I don’t think I’ve ever used a rowing machine for cardio.
I have a Concept2 and it’s great. Once you get going it’s almost meditative
Try a workout program based on some of the college rowing programs. I personally love rowing because it is way easier to switch between ‘I’m going to die’ mode and ‘nice, easy rest’ meters. Running and biking just don’t have the fun hand pulling that rowing does.
The program that my crewmates are following is from a guy that does 12+ workouts a week. It’s just insane (and he acknowledges it in his explanation of it: plan, remarks on plan)
You might find the fun in switching between the hard and soft meters, or you might find it’s like the bike and not for you.
I have an exercise bike at home, so I’ve taken to dragging it into the living room and playing video games while I do an hour of zone 2. I end up finishing my hour before I even realize it; plus, trying not to get curbstomped in Elden Ring is incredibly conducive to keeping your heart rate up.
I usually watch recorded episodes of Antiques Roadshow while riding my exercycle. I have no idea why that works but it does.
I wouldn’t mind biking if I didn’t live in a city. Years ago back when I was going to college, I decided to ride my bike the one mile to school and made it about 2 weeks before crashing to avoid being hit by a car.
If I didn’t live in America.
Ftfy.
Also, it isn’t better in an American countryside, unless you like semis blasting past at 55mph giving you zero room while you ride on a nearly non-existent shoulder. I’ve been there. It isn’t fun, though it does get the adrenaline pumping. Also, things are way further apart so it’s a lot more biking to get anywhere. God bless the US of A.
Before someone says “biking is also bad in XYZ location:” Of course there are also other places in the world that don’t have bike infrastructure, but America is kinda the most famous for it, especially considering the country’s wealth.
I definitely agree with you about riding on country roads, but I love in the PNW and was thinking more about being closer to mountain bike trails out in the woods as far away from cars as I can be.
There are also some cities around that have good bike infrastructure where they’re at least common enough in the city that people watch out for them or even better there are dedicated bike paths up on the curb so you’re not just separated from traffic by a white strip of paint on the ground.
I’ve gotta say, biking in NW Louisiana / E Texas was fucking fantastic. I could do 60 mile rides on country roads and not see a human being the entire time. And there were only a couple of months every year where the heat would kill you.
Ahh, yeah, logging roads and the likes, suuuper rural stuff. And yeah, I live in Spokane, and the bike infrastructure is fragmented, but not as bad as you’d think.
The problem with logging roads is the logging trucks.
Source: I live on a logging road that I thought would be a lot more quiet. How many damn tress are up that there hill?
Same same same. Once I fell in love with cycling it just became something I do. It’s only exercise incidentally. Not like I’m super fit or anything but I am healthy and I have a hobby I enjoy that is also good for me.
If you haven’t found something like this for you, there isn’t anything wrong with you, you just haven’t found it yet.
I love biking, but the ride to work kinda sucks. Either I have to turn the 2 mile ride into 8 miles to avoid cars, or I have to ride in a narrow bike lane on the side of a 4 lane road. I do dream of better infrastructure.
What has been working awesome is riding the tandem to our weekly trivia watering hole, it’s almost entirely through suburbs and on Spokane’s incredible Centennial trail. I also don’t mind if we don’t take the most efficient route, as it’s all for leisure. Of course I’m probably still at a net gain on calories haha, it’s a 4 mile round trip, fairly level, and that just ain’t enough to cover two beers and a burger.
Won’t lie that 8 mile detour sounds like a rather nice option. You’d be surprised how quick you can get used to that kind of distance.
That’s a good point. It’s definitely hard to get motivated to spend 45 minutes cycling to work in the morning when I could just hop in the car and be there in under 10. If there were some magical way to drive to work and cycle home, I’d do that in a heartbeat. I’m always in more of a cycling mood in the afternoon, once I’m more awake.
I was going to suggest putting a bike rack on the car but I forgot a key detail there…
Then I’d have to put a car rack on the bike for the ride home :p
