The Fitness Thread

[DoomRulz]

Sabby, ask and ye shall receive! So let's continue our previous discussion

Find a reason to be consistent. What type of body do you want? What type of lifestyle do you want to lead?

Believe me, I know what I need to do, and I'm trying. I'm channeling my self loathing to stick to the Optifast (and yes, I'm doing the proper transitional stages, like your supposed to). I just need to drop weight, nothing specific or advanced right now.

I just thought the conversation could benefit from the perspective of someone who generally knows what they need to do and struggle to do it, as that seems to be the typical kind of story when it comes to weight loss.

We should probably start a fitness thread to continue this.

Education helps quite a bit as well. Education in this case means just enlightening yourself as to why eating properly and exercising is a good idea. Well, I should clarify. Everyone knows it's a good idea but in terms of specifics: what does eating white pasta vs. brown pasta do to your body, why you should do more cardio than weights (depending on your body type), etc...

I'm not familiar with Optifast, but I assume it's an exercise regime. P90X, GSP's RushFit, and the others work I'm sure, but they're like a gym membership. They will only work if you use them consistently.

[AliceApocalypse]

For those interested in the the low carb dieting, this article has some great basics on how Ketosis works in the body:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180858.php

I've done the low carb diet and it works real fast without the sweat, but to keep it up can be dangerous to your health.

Ketones consist of acetone, acetoacetate or beta-hydroxybutyrate. Very high ketone levels can be toxic, making the blood more acid, and may damage such organs as the kidneys and liver.

[KirklandSignature]

Good thread.



Got a question. I've been doing cardio 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes for a little over a month now. When I first started I weighted in at 93kg and I'm now down to 91kg. After this weigh in. I've noticed I'm not gaining weight nor losing weight. Do I need to start dieting in order to lose weight or can I just continue eating shitty food but increase my workout amount? I really hate dieting, I can't for the life of me get excited over eating a cold dry salad or cold grilled chicken 6 times a day every day.

[Sabby]

For those interested in the the low carb dieting, this article has some great basics on how Ketosis works in the body:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180858.php

I've done the low carb diet and it works real fast without the sweat, but to keep it up can be dangerous to your health.

Ketones consist of acetone, acetoacetate or beta-hydroxybutyrate. Very high ketone levels can be toxic, making the blood more acid, and may damage such organs as the kidneys and liver.

Yeah, you can't keep going, and you can't just stop either. There are transitional stages that are supposed to ease you into a more healthy eating pattern.

[Kimarhi]

Good thread.



Got a question. I've been doing cardio 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes for a little over a month now. When I first started I weighted in at 93kg and I'm now down to 91kg. After this weigh in. I've noticed I'm not gaining weight nor losing weight. Do I need to start dieting in order to lose weight or can I just continue eating shitty food but increase my workout amount? I really hate dieting, I can't for the life of me get excited over eating a cold dry salad or cold grilled chicken 6 times a day every day.

Vary your workout.  In all likelihood you've plateaued and are merely sustaining your body with your current workload.  What is your cardio routine?

Also you'll be surprised at how much you'll lose lifting as your body eats its fat stores to turn them into muscles. 

[SiL]

Do I need to start dieting in order to lose weight or can I just continue eating shitty food but increase my workout amount? I really hate dieting, I can't for the life of me get excited over eating a cold dry salad or cold grilled chicken 6 times a day every day.

You'll always keep hitting roadblocks if you only ever eat shitty food.

Eating healthily doesn't mean cold dry salads and cold grilled chicken. Tasty food can actually be, y'know, warm.

[KirklandSignature]

Good thread.



Got a question. I've been doing cardio 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes for a little over a month now. When I first started I weighted in at 93kg and I'm now down to 91kg. After this weigh in. I've noticed I'm not gaining weight nor losing weight. Do I need to start dieting in order to lose weight or can I just continue eating shitty food but increase my workout amount? I really hate dieting, I can't for the life of me get excited over eating a cold dry salad or cold grilled chicken 6 times a day every day.

Vary your workout.  In all likelihood you've plateaued and are merely sustaining your body with your current workload.  What is your cardio routine?

Also you'll be surprised at how much you'll lose lifting as your body eats its fat stores to turn them into muscles.

I exclusively use the elliptical machine for at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week. I'll throw in a 45 minute session to mix things up or if I skip a day, I go for an hour. I use the "rolling hills" mode.

1.80 meter height at 91kg. My goal is to get down to 68kg but that's a pipe dream for now. I'd love to have a Johnny Weir body type...absolutely minimal body fat LOL.

[Kimarhi]

You'll maintain your weight but you need to do some different exercises to shock your body.

I have three cardio days a week, I have a slow long distance day where I run at a slower pace from 5-7 miles (depending on how up I'm feeling), and interval day where I'll do what the Army calls 60/120s (sprint for 60 seconds full out walk/jog for 2 minutes) for about two miles worth and then I'll have a day where I do a timed two mile run and then maybe a mile and a half run at a slower pace afterwards.

Throwing in cycling and ellipticals or picking a big hill to run up and down to replace your same old workout will be good ways to mix the routine up.  Sometimes I think its less your physical ability and how up you are to work out.  When the mind is not motivated the body won't be. 

60/120s are the best way I've ever found to make yourself faster. 

Of course varying can be just about anything.  You could stay on the elliptical and simply work out longer with a slightly different resistance and probably see improvement. 

I just get bored working out on the hamster wheels with cardio, I'd rather actually move around, it is less boring to me.

[Xeno Killer 2179]

I've been trying to lose weight since last November. I started around 205, but now I've been stuck in the mid 180's for about 5 weeks. I'm 6 feet tall, so I'm wondering if I should actually lose more weight or just try to convert fat to muscle at this point.

All I've done so far is eaten less and have alternated between 3-6 miles walks, and using my elliptical on highest incline and resistance for about half a mile.

It seems like everyone that has single digit body fat almost exclusively lift weights. I just want to see my abs at least once in this life   

____________

I'm also going to have a sleep study done, as I have absolutely abysmal cardiovascular performance, showing very little improvement over time. Although I've never been obese, and I'm no longer above 25bmi, sleep apnea is rampant in my family and I've awoken gasping for air many times in a semi conscious haze.

I cannot even fathom how it's possible to run a mile. I'm not even sure I can manage a quarter mile simply jogging. It took me 17 minutes to "run"  a mile in 7th grade, which averaged out to a walking pace. I just hope I don't have permanent damage from oxygen deprivation if it turns out I really do have sleep apnea

[Kimarhi]

I'm 6'2" and one hundred eighty is not a bad weight for that height.

If you weight train your body will eat fat to build muscle.  So if all your doing is cardio you might look into doing even just a light weight routine.  Buy a powerblock or one of those other knock off multi pound adjustable weights (they are cheaper in the long run than buying individual dumbbells) and a bench and you can pretty much take care of chest, biceps/triceps, shoulders, and legs. 

Not saying you'll get huge, but it'll help you with toning up.

Also I find it helps to document yourself with pictures or something.  When you see yourself everyday it looks like you don't improve.  However if you take yourself a photo every week and look back on week 9 to what you looked like on week 1, it can help to keep your motivation up.

[Topazora]

This is a really good thread to have   There's quite a lot of us that are having trouble losing weight.

Here are some websites that are really helpful when it comes to the diet.
My Fitness Pal this is the one I use
My Calorie Counter
Calorie Count
IIFYM

[DoomRulz]

Good thread.



Got a question. I've been doing cardio 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes for a little over a month now. When I first started I weighted in at 93kg and I'm now down to 91kg. After this weigh in. I've noticed I'm not gaining weight nor losing weight. Do I need to start dieting in order to lose weight or can I just continue eating shitty food but increase my workout amount? I really hate dieting, I can't for the life of me get excited over eating a cold dry salad or cold grilled chicken 6 times a day every day.

There's smart dieting and bad dieting. Bad dieting is cutting certain types of nutrients (carbs, fats, etc...) out of your diet entirely vs. smart dieting which is simply watching portion size and making better choices in terms of where you get your nutrients from (e.g. good carbs vs. bad carbs). Also, it depends on what your goals are, as well as your body type.

[Kimarhi]

____________
I'm also going to have a sleep study done, as I have absolutely abysmal cardiovascular performance, showing very little improvement over time. Although I've never been obese, and I'm no longer above 25bmi, sleep apnea is rampant in my family and I've awoken gasping for air many times in a semi conscious haze.

I cannot even fathom how it's possible to run a mile. I'm not even sure I can manage a quarter mile simply jogging. It took me 17 minutes to "run"  a mile in 7th grade, which averaged out to a walking pace. I just hope I don't have permanent damage from oxygen deprivation if it turns out I really do have sleep apnea

We had a guy in AIT that if you looked at him you'd think he should be one of the fittest guys in our platoon.  But the guy could not do situps.  He had a six pack but every time we had a PT test he'd always fail by being one or two short of the minimum.  It drove our AIT sergeants crazy because they didn't want to have to recycle a soldier who was failing his pt test by two situps even though he had a six pack.

Finally they took him to the tmc to see if he had some underlying condition and found a blockage in one of his legs that wasn't sending him enough blood (through some crazy medical mumbo jumbo way that I don't quite understand) and he'd start getting lightheaded when he laid on his back.  It was near the end of the cycle and they performed surgery on him and after a little bit of coming back and reconditioning his body he blew the situps out of the water. 

Sometimes there are underlying medical conditions that cause problems.

With cardio though if your trying to improve it is VERY difficult to do so.  Before I left for basic I was running two miles in 9 minutes.  As somebody that had never run two miles before leaving I thought this was pretty impressive.  I very quickly went from two miles in 18 minutes to two miles in about 16:55, but this was failing in the Army.  So for ten weeks I ran my ass off with big scary Drill Sergeants shouting in my ear to run faster and finally on the very last pt test I got my run to 15:03 (which is not very good but passing) and passed basic.

So in ten weeks of doing some sort of PT every day I only dropped the total time off my run by three minutes.

It would take another year and a half for me to crack into the 13 minute mark and even get close to maxing out.  My fastest two mile time ever was 13:18.  My fastest on a graded PT test was 13:30.  Its brutal to try to improve cardio.  If your doing it right you ought to feel out of breath when you stop and about ready to puke.  I think most people stop themselves too early because trying to improve your aerobic fitness is a miserable feeling.

Its definitely my weakness.  We two guys in my BCT company that could run their two miles in eleven minutes.  Always envious of those f**kers.

[Xeno Killer 2179]

Hmm, that's good to know. I feel extremely light headed just by sitting or squatting and then standing up. My left calf muscle and ankle burn like motherf**kers and go numb while out on walks, but my right calf feels completely fine. I get a pinching pain around my left carotid artery sometimes when my blood pressure and pusle rise from exercise, too. In middle school, I'd feel like passing out or puking just from basic cardio tests and I wasn't even overweight then. I was usually with the lazy kids that didn't care about getting a high score, but I was legitimately on the verge of blacking out very quickly.

I'm already prone to hernias. I wonder if I have some other congenital defect. My heart was structurally normal under a 3d ultrasound and ekg shows that it beats correctly. I wonder if I have a narrowing in an artery somewhere.

[Kimarhi]

One of the simplest things you can do if you get lightheaded or have your vision blacking out when you stand up is to drink water.  No bullshit.

Not a bottle or some shit, drink water like you've never drank it before then try to do the same exercises, if there is improvement then you have been chronically dehydrated.  If there is no improvement, well that was one thing you could cross off your list.

Again I don't know how it works but dehydration can effect you in so many negative ways its crazy.  The "head rush" with feeling dizzy and eyes blacking out is a common symptom of being dehydrated.  And if you actually live in a first world country there is a good chance you are dehydrated because there are so many substitutes for water that aren't really substitutes for water.

Also being superhydrated will help you run.  We used to drink so much water before run days we'd finish our 5-7 miles and then run into the AIT schoolhouse to take massive leaks.  Keep you from cramping up.  Also if your back hurts when you run strengthen your core with some ab exercises.