[Littlemisspiglet]

When doing cardio at the gym to lose weight, i only spend about 10 mins on each machine such as treadmill, cross-trainer and bike. Im trying to do this about 3 times a week! But some people i know spend about half an hour on each machine. Am i not doing enough?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[faith93]

any tips on how to do it?
i weigh 10 stone, im about 5ft 5, it needs to be done.
any good suggestions/tips on diet and exercises that have worked for you?

[NewFolder]

According to the info you have provided, your BMI is 22.9, which is normal and healthy, so I'm unsure as to why you need to lose weight.

You can lose a significant amount of weight by eating less calories than your BMR. You can calculate your BMR using this tool: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. If you do exercise as well, you can lose it even quicker.

[xoxAngel_Kxox]

Firstly, see this thread:
Fitness FAQ.

You have a healthy BMI, so certainly don't need to lose much, if any, weight. Losing a stone in three weeks means you'd have to lose four pounds per week, which is too fast. Particularly as you're not overweight to begin with, you'd have to work very hard to lose this amount. A better amount to lose would be 1-2 pounds per week.

Your BMR, which is the number of calories that your body would burn if you lay in bed all day and didn't move, is around 1,500. To lose weight, you need to be burning more calories than you're eating. You can create this deficit either by eating less or exercising more. Because your BMR is relatively low as it is, I would suggest making exercise your focus. Try adding more activity to your daily lifestyle and make healthy choices with your food. You should find that if you DO need to lose any weight, you can do it healthily, slowly, and without having to rely on any fad/crash diets.

If you would like help and support, then you can post in this thread:

Healthy New You: Your Change For Life.

There are lots of people in there who are committed to making healthy changes to their body through sensible changes to their lifestyle which they will be able to continue in the long term. Hopefully you should find somebody with similar stats/goals to you who you could be motivated or helped by.

[ON A GOOD DAY]

(Original post by Classical Liberal)
Do more work.

Post your diet.

Haven't set out a diet like that yet, just eating loads. Will probably have to soon since I'll have to budget for university etc. What do you mean by more work? More weight? Also probably stupid question but how much should I start with when doing deadlifts based on my current lifts for squats and bench??

[Classical Liberal]

(Original post by ON A GOOD DAY)
Haven't set out a diet like that yet, just eating loads.

Eat good food. Complex carbs. High protien. Run a calorie surplus overall.

Will probably have to soon since I'll have to budget for university etc. What do you mean by more work? More weight?

Just do more lifts. Throw in some more than just squats and bench in a sesh.

Also probably stupid question but how much should I start with when doing deadlifts based on my current lifts for squats and bench??

Depends entirely on how strong you are. Just ensure that you use good form and then lift for like 6 reps in a set. Doing like 4 sets. Most important thing is good form, then you can do more intense things later.

[Anonymous]

I am 5"7 and around 10 and a half stone. I have excess fat that I want to get rid of however I already have strong and large thigh and calf muscles. I have strong abdominal muscles however have excess fat on there too. Not so much on the abs but how do I lose fat on my thighs without necessarily gaining muscle? This may be a stupid question I'm not sure ...but do have big legs already due to muscle !

[Portugeezer]

I'm no expert so take this with a pinch of salt, basically it'll be down to reducing your body fat percentage, it'll be down to eating healthy.
if you want help check out scoobysworkshop, he has a ton of free content including workouts, recipes, and just other random health info.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[other one]

(I am female and trying to lose weight.)
I'm first of all trying to ascertain my maintenance kcal but not sure how to go about it. I have meticulously and v precisely recorded kcal intake over the last 6 days, that stops tonight with me eating out.

So net kcal intake (what I ate (9200kcal) - minus exercise (2400kcal)) for 6 days is 6800kcal and the scales indicate that I lost 0.8 kilos, ie 1.8pounds.

I ate 20% of kcal from fat, 20% protein and the rest from carbs(porridge, potatoes and fruit), ie perhaps won't have lost that much water weight?! I also ate enough salt and drank enough.

how much of the weight lost is fat?

[EonBlueApocalypse]

Pretty much impossible for anyone on this forum to give an accurate answer. Especially since it is such a low amount of weight.

[xoxAngel_Kxox]

(Original post by other one)
(I am female and trying to lose weight.)
I'm first of all trying to ascertain my maintenance kcal but not sure how to go about it. I have meticulously and v precisely recorded kcal intake over the last 6 days, that stops tonight with me eating out.

So net kcal intake (what I ate (9200kcal) - minus exercise (2400kcal)) for 6 days is 6800kcal and the scales indicate that I lost 0.8 kilos, ie 1.8pounds.

I ate 20% of kcal from fat, 20% protein and the rest from carbs(porridge, potatoes and fruit), ie perhaps won't have lost that much water weight?! I also ate enough salt and drank enough.

how much of the weight lost is fat?

Hi,

If you look here: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm you will be able to work out your maintenance calories. If you eat lower than this, or do extra exercise, you will be in a calorie deficit and should therefore lose weight.

I recommend MyFitnessPal.com for recording calories and exercise, and setting goals, as it sorts everything out for you and means that you're not having to have your life taken over by working things out.

Nobody will be able to tell you for sure how much fat you're losing, however in the first week or so of weight loss you will probably find that it is largely water weight.

I hope the resources that I've posted are of some help to you, and they should help you to work out how much you should be eating per day. Good luck with your weight loss.

[shorty.loves.angels]

(Original post by other one)
(I am female and trying to lose weight.)
I'm first of all trying to ascertain my maintenance kcal but not sure how to go about it. I have meticulously and v precisely recorded kcal intake over the last 6 days, that stops tonight with me eating out.

So net kcal intake (what I ate (9200kcal) - minus exercise (2400kcal)) for 6 days is 6800kcal and the scales indicate that I lost 0.8 kilos, ie 1.8pounds.

I ate 20% of kcal from fat, 20% protein and the rest from carbs(porridge, potatoes and fruit), ie perhaps won't have lost that much water weight?! I also ate enough salt and drank enough.

how much of the weight lost is fat?

That a pretty high proportion of carbohydrates. Surplus carbs are converted to fat for storage (your body can do nothing else with them) and as you know they can retain a bit of water. Try dropping the proportion of carbs in favour of protein?

[other one]

(Original post by shorty.loves.angels)
That a pretty high proportion of carbohydrates. Surplus carbs are converted to fat for storage (your body can do nothing else with them) and as you know they can retain a bit of water. Try dropping the proportion of carbs in favour of protein?

a calorie is a calorie.
too much protein makes me depressed and makes me more hungry.
there is no real research to support that you need more than 1.5 g of protein per bodyweight in kgs (you probably need less).

[shorty.loves.angels]

(Original post by other one)
a calorie is a calorie.
too much protein makes me depressed and makes me more hungry.
there is no real research to support that you need more than 1.5 g of protein per bodyweight in kgs (you probably need less).

Calories aren't actual things. They're a measure of an amount of energy, and different macronutrients contain different amounts of energy per gram.

Protein can be utilised better by the body, for building and 'mending' tissues. Carbs can only be used for energy. Needs are different foreveryone and this should be taken itnto account but protein is simply more useful and this is why more protein than carbs can be beneficial, especially for less active people

Protein makes you depressed? Oh please.

[aysha.19]

okay i have a question : how does sweating help weight loss?

[Arturo Bandini]

(Original post by aysha.19)
okay i have a question : how does sweating help weight loss?

The water you sweat out holds weight and so you have lost the weight of that water.

It's temporary of course so not very useful for most people in everyday life.

[bluebasetech]

You cannot pick and choose where you loose fat that is the bodies job, as a general rule of thumb most people lost weight last from their thies and lower abs..

You also cannot gain muscle however much you train if you are loosing wait, you need to eat excess calories in order for them to be turned into muscle it does not work both ways, so i suggest loosing weight and then gaining muscle because when you loose weight 1/3 of it is muscle, annoying I know when you spend so much time gaining muscle but that is why you need to be diciplined!

[sconter]

post pics.

[eternaloptimist96]

(Original post by Anonymous)
I am 5"7 and around 10 and a half stone. I have excess fat that I want to get rid of however I already have strong and large thigh and calf muscles. I have strong abdominal muscles however have excess fat on there too. Not so much on the abs but how do I lose fat on my thighs without necessarily gaining muscle? This may be a stupid question I'm not sure ...but do have big legs already due to muscle !

I had a similar problem, i toned up in a couple months down to a joint effort of diet and CARDIO! It's effort but so worth it. Start running, dancing, cycling, swimming ... anything that gets your heart rate up. And when you reach that point when your panting and thinking your hearts going to burst out of your chest, go for another 5 minutes. You have to be uncomfortable to see change! I think someone mentioned it before but muscle burns faster than fat so your strong abs and muscly thighs might come in handy after all If you have a gymn membership (I'd strongly recommend it), hopefully your gymn will have what i call vibration plates ( not entirely sure if thats their real name). Try doing basic toning moves on there, the vibrations will break up the fat and increase your metabolism (which means you'll get muscle faster which burns quicker etc etc). After about 10 minutes of that, hit the treads and get your heart going! you really need to push yourself if you want good results.
Also with your diet, try substituting browns for whites e.g eat brown bread instead of white bread. Dairy can also be quite fattening so try cutting back on that. If you struggle with over eating, try drinking a glass of water before and after all your meals, the first half fills your stomach leaving less room for food and the second helps with the digestion process, reducing the risk of heartburn. I've also heard that grapefruit is really good for weight loss, something about speeding up your metabolism but i've never actually tried it. If you do be sure to let me know if it works!
I'm not pretending to be an expert or anything but i've done a lot of research on this for my own benefit and all the tips i've listed (other than the grapefruit :P ) have worked for me. Goodluck!

[other one]

(Original post by shorty.loves.angels)
Calories aren't actual things. They're a measure of an amount of energy, and different macronutrients contain different amounts of energy per gram.

Protein can be utilised better by the body, for building and 'mending' tissues. Carbs can only be used for energy. Needs are different foreveryone and this should be taken itnto account but protein is simply more useful and this is why more protein than carbs can be beneficial, especially for less active people

Protein makes you depressed? Oh please.

I can only roll my eyes at that. How would you know what makes me depressed and what doesn't?

There is a specific amount of protein required by your body. If you eat less you are in trouble, if you eat more there is no additional benefit I find. Despite scientific evidence suggesting that protein makes you more full, I have various serotonin related issues of 'feeling full but still wanting to eat'. Carbs boost that not feeling hungry anymore. Just because you are lucky enough to be healthy and have no depression related woes you are stupid for suggesting that too much protein in the absence of carbs cannot make you depressed.

http://www.geneva-health.com/sciencehealth/lowcarb.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...epression.html
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet...423-1xg3t.html