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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In regards to the weight loss part of the question: Exercising to burn calories is an outdated idea that was mostly manufactured to sell calisthenics video programs (Tae Bo, P90X, Richard Simmons, etc) and home gym equipment like treadmills, spin bikes, ellipticals… It’s not actually an effective weight loss strategy for most people. Calories are much easier to avoid than to burn. Jog for an hour a day or just drink water instead of juice? Exercise should be done to gain strength and resilience, gain mobility, improve cardiovascular health, brain health, and all the other general health stuff and for enjoyment. Exercise in terms of resistance training can be useful for keeping weight off in the long term because the more muscle you have the more calories you burn just by existing. When cardio is useful for weight loss is for people who are already relatively lean and fit, who already have their nutrition and caloric intake figured out reasonably well, and are just trying to drop a couple body fat % for like a competition or photo shoot or vacation. That’s when 150 calories burned 4 or 5 times a week can be useful. Otherwise you’re right, it’s not worth it and doesn’t really make sense (but there are other great reasons to do cardio!).
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