Trying to lose weight and putting it in numbers is demoralizing. I’ve started riding a stationary bike for 5 miles and then doing minor weight lifting after and I maaaaybe lose 200 or so calories. Is that not a good exercise? I’ve been doing this almost everyday starting 2 weeks ago. But it’s starting to feel useless if it’s such a minor amount of calories burnt. Is this a good trend to continue? What am I missing?
Edit: everyone here has been incredibly helpful, and surprisingly consistent with one another. I feel much more confident about what I’m doing and what I need to do. Seriously, thank you all.
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Healthy weight loss has a mantra: slow and steady wins the race.
70% of weight loss has nothing to do with exercise and *everything* to do with what you stick in your mouth (no giggity). Exercise helps, but nowhere near as much as watching your food intake. And it isn’t just calories, either, but what those calories consist of.
You’ve heard it a million times: stay away from processed and refines sugars, including (especially, rather) high-fructose corn syrup. Fruit is fine, depending on the fruit and how much of it you eat and the time of day that you eat it (pro tip: stick to fruit in the mornings for best restults). Protein is key, because your body actually expends more calories processing protein than fat or carbohydrates; the higher your protein intake, the more your furnace will burn on its own (just don’t go into ketosis; your kidneys will thank you if you don’t).
You don’t even really need to track your calorie intake. Cut out the refined sugars (no sodas, no fruit juice, use an artificial sweetner in your coffee, and for the love of all that is holy stay the *hell* away from energy drinks) and you’ll be amazed at the results after a few months, even if you *don’t* exercise.
Fun fact for you: soda has zero nutritional value, but thanks to the sugar it is high calorie. If you drink, say, as a single 12oz can of Coca-Cola a day at 127 calories, every day, that’s an extra 889 calories a week that you took in that did *nothing* for you other than add to your waistline. That’s 3,556 calories a month, just shy of the amount of calories it takes to burn a pound of fat. That’s 46,355 calories per year, or 12.87 *pounds* of fat. That’s a bowling ball’s worth of weight you’re no longer carrying around if you cut out just a single can of soda per day for a year, *without* increasing your exercise or making any other change to your diet.
But that’s the kicker: it takes a *year* to see those kind of results, and that’s what demoralizes people the most when it comes to weight loss. Slow and steady wins the race.
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