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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You might want to read up a bit on how a good diet (as in eating well, not necessarily less) and training need to go hand in hand to get in “shape”. I think that’s a bit too broad to answer here, but therein I guess lies your answer. And that includes proteins and vitamins!
In the end, weight loss is all about calorie deficiency. And yes, it can feel a bit frustrating, but fear not – everyone can do it 🙂
You are correct, a small snack will outweigh a single training. But I’d suggest getting a (free) calorie tracker, and track your intake, sports and figure out your base consumption.
That will give you a better idea how much you need to train and if you need to potentially reduce your calorie intake.
How do calories work?
Your “calorie turnover” is the total amount of calories your body will “burn” during a day. It consists of your base turnover – what you need to breath, basic body functions; what is necessary if you lie around and do nothing – plus your activity turnover, like, your daily routine needs, plus additional sports. If your intake is higher than that, you gain weight, if it’s lower, you loose weight.
And there are some dramatic factors for the intake, mostly sugar. Every shit we get for convenience, especially soft drinks, are pact with crazy amount of calories; same goes for sweets, obviously.
It most likely will be necessary to consume those only very considerate.
After some health issues I wanted to reduce by BMI, and decided for a “slow” approach; I wanted it to be long lasting, so a “hard diet” definitely wasn’t the way; I also don’t want to reduce the foods I love dramatically, and suffer.
So, I started riding a stationary bike (actually it’s a real bicycle on a training mount, because I don’t like those fitness things), trying to be in low cardio for as long as it seemed feasible; I started at about 20 minutes, and now could go for hours. It took me about six months to get there, but I am now more “fit” than I ever was.
It just didn’t have any “immediate effect”. I lost about 2kg a month, I think. I mostly kept my regular eating habits, but reduced soft drinks and chocolate. I still eat them, but as said, with much more consideration. I added a lot of fruits into my diet (even while they contain sugar, they are still MUCH better for the body because of all the good shit that’s in there. Also, nuts are great protein deliverer, if you don’t want to substitute).
I have never been into sports, but after those six months, I can ride 100km on my bike without too much hassle.
So, in a nutshell, you are on the right way! Take your time, inform yourself, and carefully push the limit!
To finally circle back to the question, I didn’t really answer that because I don’t think the question is so much about “how do calories work”, but “how can I work with them”, so I deviated a bit 🙂
Weight lifting IS a potential way of loosing calories, but for me, it’s more about endurance sports, like cycling. For me, I can much better check that I’m in a healthy region while exercising, I can shape the exercise so it fits my schedule, and I can very easily adjust the amount of training to my fitness level (including stuff like infections, or stressful work times, that will have an additional toll on my body).
If you train for about an hour at the level of what your current fitness allows – so with more intensity when you get fitter – that should put your calorie delta about 300-400 calories “down”. So, if you beforehand slightly gained weight (say, you ate 200 calories too much), you will likely now loose weight (slooooowly). Keep your intake in check, try to reduce that a little bit – you can possibly get into -600 calories per day compared to your prior delta – or, like, -200 to -300 compared to your daily turnover.
You could also try a harder diet, but it will reduce your fitness level, your joy in fitness, and your chance to gain more fitness. I would not suggest that route, especially if you want to sustain your fitness when you hit your personal “I feel good now”-fitness level.
Last but not least: you see I emphasise fitness, not weight. Muscles are heavier than fat. So don’t focus on how much you weigh, but focus on how good you feel, possibly also how healthy. Because that’s what you likely want to aim for, not just “loose wight”.
Expect more noticeable results after 6-8 weeks 🙂
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