Working out? (Exercise)

[mbryant]

Tech forum seems like the wrong place to go for exercise advice but I don't use any other forums and I hate signing up for more and more things. 

 

I bought a bike last weekend because I'm 220lbs and I want to get back down to 160 - 170. In the last 5 days I've been trying to limit what I eat and exercise. I've done between 25 - 35 miles since last Saturday only taking yesterday off to recover. Keeping track of "calories burned" is a wash because I go anywhere between 10 - 12 MPH on my bike and sometimes slower than that depending on how tired I am. If I stick to 2000 - 2500 cals a day I should start seeing weight come off at some point right? 

[Andreas Lilja]

Calorie in, calorie out. What's your TDEE?

 

2500 cals a day seems a bit high for someone who wants to shed fat.

[mbryant]

37 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

Calorie in, calorie out. What's your TDEE?

 

2500 cals a day seems a bit high for someone who wants to shed fat.

TDEE??
As for the 2500 thing. That's a high estimate plus my body hasn't really adjusted to exercising (I assume) because even after a 6 mile ride today I ate a quite a bit of food. I think before I decided to get serious about losing weight I must have been taking in between 2500+ a day (based on what I was eating). I've only JUST started all of this. I'm trying to limit red meat and I switched to wheat bread. It's just SO hard to limit my carbs

[aezakmi]

use the bike to go everywhere, if you need to go somewhere close then walk, don't eat junk food or bread with lunch/dinner, avoid sweets

 

I do that not because I want to be in top shape but because transport is expensive, food is expensive and literally being alive is expensive.

[Andreas Lilja]

6 minutes ago, mbryant said:

TDEE??
As for the 2500 thing. That's a high estimate plus my body hasn't really adjusted to exercising (I assume) because even after a 6 mile ride today I ate a quite a bit of food. I think before I decided to get serious about losing weight I must have been taking in between 2500+ a day (based on what I was eating). I've only JUST started all of this. I'm trying to limit red meat and I switched to wheat bread. It's just SO hard to limit my carbs

Total Daily Energy Expenditure, basically what you burn depending on your gender, age, weight, height, and activity level. There are many calculators out there.

 

Yeah I'd closely track the calories you ingest, watch out for the portion sizes. A lot of people undercount.

[TetraSky]

9 minutes ago, mbryant said:

I'm trying to limit red meat and I switched to wheat bread

Why are you limiting your protein intake? Or what, you eating soybeans as a protein replacement? Every beans are FULL of fat too, it's literally a trap for people trying to lose weight

And Wheat Bread isn't really that much better carb wise than white bread. You'll want to limit any sort of bread intake. Especially if you live in the US, your bread is basically cake with the amount of sugar in it.

[mbryant]

2 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Why are you limiting your protein intake? Or what, you eating soybeans as a protein replacement? Every beans are FULL of fat too, it's a literally a trap for people trying to lose weight

And Wheat Bread isn't really that much better carb wise than white bread. You'll want to limit any sort of bread intake. Especially if you live in the US, your bread is basically cake with the amount of sugar in it.

LOL well how unfortunate! In America we don't have a "how to eat healthy" class at least not one taught to EVERYONE. I'm really just taking baby steps ATM. For dinner tomorrow I'm going to have a grilled chicken breast with buffalo sauce or light BBQ sauce with either peas or wild rice. Literally everything I like is carb or grain based thus the switch from white to wheat, I know it's not an insane benefit. Any recipe ideas? I know the internet is a great resource but people forget that without some prior knowledge it's easy to go to the wrong place. 

[mbryant]

7 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

use the bike to go everywhere, if you need to go somewhere close then walk, don't eat junk food or bread with lunch/dinner, avoid sweets

 

I do that not because I want to be in top shape but because transport is expensive, food is expensive and literally being alive is expensive.

I'm not going to cut out junk completely. I will be watching how much I'm eating though. I REALLY crave sweet things after a meal and I don't even (normally) gorge on sweets but for instance if I'm having oreos I'll have like 10 (serving size is 3 I think). I just wanna get myself to 160 and lose the gut I have right now. I know girls like "dad bods" but I don't 

[mbryant]

Also, wanted to say thanks for the responses guys! <3

[TetraSky]

Well, I'm gonna share a site that I was given to me by a friend a few months ago, who also went through this fat loss journey. (But his went from 415lbs to 230lbs, the extra weight at the end is muscle mass in his case)
http://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/

It should help you understand a few things about "dieting" and what you may or may not have misconception on, without sugarcoating anything. (Just the first paragraph should let you figure that one out... It's legit though)

 

 

There's also this one

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/diet/

Which is similar but in a more compact format that lets you chose which section to view right away.

 

 

And no, they are not your typical "dieting" website that basically tells you to eat the garbage they were paid to promote and are overall just bags of lies like how "fat are bad for you" or "carbs will make you fat so eat this shit you've never heard of before" and other bullshit like that.

 

[mbryant]

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

Well, I'm gonna share a site that I was given to me by a friend a few months ago, who also went through this fat loss journey. (But his went from 415lbs to 230lbs, the extra weight at the end is muscle mass in his case)
http://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/

It should help you understand a few things about "dieting" and what you may or may not have misconception on, without sugarcoating anything. (Just the first paragraph should let you figure that one out... It's legit though)

 

 

There's also this one

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/diet/

Which is similar but in a more compact format that lets you chose which section to view right away.

 

 

And no, they are not your typical "dieting" website that basically tells you to eat the garbage they were paid to promote and are overall just bags of lies like how "fat are bad for you" or "carbs will make you fat so eat this shit you've never heard of before" and other bullshit like that.

 

Thank you! Also, congrats to your friend! That's awesome! 

[Guest]

I’m no medical expert but I heard that if you stop eating all together and only drink and take vitamins your body will soon full adjust to using up the fat storage the body has. 

Another weight loss technique is to eat only 2 small meals a day & whenever you feel hungry, just drink water to fill yourself up. 

[Radium_Angel]

22 hours ago, mbryant said:

I should start seeing weight come off at some point right? 

Weight loss is not a one-size-fits-all. If it were, then the bookstores would not have 10 thousand books on it.

There are some universal truths however. Expend more calories than you take in equals weight loss.

 

ANY type of exercise will help. Walking, jogging, running, biking, working out, all help.

It might be slow to come off, but it will come off.

A change in diet will help. It forces the body out of the "rut" its in.

But it has to be a change for the better, cutting out sugars, and minimizing carbs will help, but each bodytype will react differently.

 

Post here you journey and we can cheer you on.

[Guest]

The most successful thing you can do is simply cut carbs, and don't worry about counting calories. When you count calories you get it in your head you have to  be within or your diet is ruined and maybe you will regress. The best way is to cut carbs. No Junk food either, just nice clean food, and you can have as much as you like. 

 

Running is the best exercise you can do to burn fat, and your day to day life will get better from it. A bike is a great idea if you want to see the neighbourhood or go on a few trails - I often find I can only run for about half an hour before I get a bit bored, but I can bike for as long as I want, often burning more, thanks to the wonderful scenery around my place and the nice trails you can find. 

 

Probably the best things to note:

- It is your journey, you need to do it in your own way

- Make lifestyle choices not diets. A diet implies a temporary thing, you want to keep that weight off. Make a good, incremental lifestyle choices that will benefit you for life. 

- Be careful with exercise. Don't go straight into it for long sessions, and don't beat yourself up if you can't do as much as another. 

- Always compare yourself to yourself, there's always someone faster or stronger than you, but if you lose 1kg, then that's great, your now 1kg lighter and you should be proud. 

- It's not an easy route. It's hard to kick junk food habits, but its worth it.