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The best way to lose weight?

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Reply 20
Original post by Rascacielos
No, it's not an April Fool's Joke. For a start, it's not April Fool's Day where I am anymore!

I was alluding to the idea of weight loss being '80% diet and 20% exercise'. I'm not saying that exercise doesn't burn calories or even that it doesn't burn quite a few, but unless you have a lot of time/stamina on your hands, you're not going to lose a lot of weight just by going to the gym regularly, if you have a crap diet and change nothing.

Exercise is very important in many respects, but diet is key.


Lies.
Original post by Muckoz
Lies.


I agree, exercise is KEY in loosing weight, just read my previous post, I didn't change my diet when I started running, my diet has always been good, I just didn't move before... One some of my runs I burn well over 1000 calories, so even if I ate my normal gdas worth of calories I would be at a 1000 calorie deficiet, now how is diet more effective than that?

A good diet is needed, but even with a good diet, you won't loose much without exercise.


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Original post by Muckoz
Lies.


Not lies at all. It's a well-known principle.

The average person who wants to lose weight is most likely overweight because they eat the wrong stuff. Cutting down by just 500 calories every day is going to take off around a pound every week. To burn that amount of calories solely through exercise, you'd have to run for 6 hours at a decent pace - that's of course assuming the average person can run for that long, even over the course of a week.

I think it's pretty obvious that for the average person wanting to lose weight, it's much more suitable to choose the first option of cutting back on calories as their primary way of losing weight. Exercise is an important aide, but I firmly believe it's not the key ingredient.

Original post by progmaticOx

A good diet is needed, but even with a good diet, you won't loose much without exercise.


Half of the slim people you see have probably never exercised in their life. I'm not saying that's a healthy way to live at all... but it's usually due to them eating very little. Hence, lower calorie intake.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 23
Rascacielos is right. My dad is a scientist and we talk about this a lot. It's diet that really counts.

I know that I've lost the weight I've lost mainly through diet but I adjust my calories using an online counter to factor in the exercise that I currently do - a military fitness class 3 x a week and some running. I put my calories up, upped my protein intake, only eat fresh food now and the weight is dropping off at a rate of about 1lb a week. I actually plateaued for 4 months before I started dropping the weight again.

It works differently for each individual in terms of getting over a plateau but changing it up helps. I changed what type of food I ate as well as eating fewer calories. I never eat my exercise calories back because even though the exercise hurts, I don't believe that it burns more than 200 or 300 calories max.
(edited 10 years ago)
Well I guess it's different from person to person, all the skinny people I know eat bucket loads of ****, but never put on a gram, gifted metabolisms. Me on the other hand, I look at food and put on weight, I eat much less than my friends and I've always eaten healthily, i've never been allowed to eat choclately, sugary or fatty foods, as such we've never had them in the house, I only drink water and green tea, none of our food is frozen or are ready meals, they are home cooked with fresh ingredients every day. And yet I was still over weight, I put this down to the fact that I didn't move, and sure enough when I ran my weight dropped rapidly. I didn't do a thing to my diet.


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Original post by Rascacielos


The average person who wants to lose weight is most likely overweight because they eat the wrong stuff. Cutting down by just 500 calories every day is going to take off around a pound every week. To burn that amount of calories solely through exercise, you'd have to run for 6 hours at a decent pace - that's of course assuming the average person can run for that long, even over the course of a week.

.



I've never heard so much bull**** in my life! Seriously you have absolutely no idea what you are talking so please do not comment. 6 hours to burn 500 calories :facepalm: The ignorance coming from your post is astounding!
Original post by Lucia.
Rascacielos is right. My dad is a scientist and we talk about this a lot. It's diet that really counts.

I know that I've lost the weight I've lost mainly through diet but I adjust my calories using an online counter to factor in the exercise that I currently do - a military fitness class 3 x a week and some running. I put my calories up, upped my protein intake, only eat fresh food now and the weight is dropping off at a rate of about 1lb a week. I actually plateaued for 4 months before I started dropping the weight again.

It works differently for each individual in terms of getting over a plateau but changing it up helps. I changed what type of food I ate as well as eating fewer calories. I never eat my exercise calories back because even though the exercise hurts, I don't believe that it burns more than 200 or 300 calories max.



Your dads a "scientist" of what exactly?

You don't believe exercise burns more than 300 calories? Running alone for one hour can burn anywhere between 600 to 1000 calories depending on how much effort you put into it.
Original post by progmaticOx
I put this down to the fact that I didn't move, and sure enough when I ran my weight dropped rapidly. I didn't do a thing to my diet.


THIS

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Reply 28
yep a load of crap in my opinion
i am a road cyclist and i drop 7 pounds a week if i limit to 1500 kcal a day not a lot of effort have to eat a lot of food to avoid this when at a base weight ( 8st 10lbs 5'7") i lost 3 stone like this

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Reply 29
Original post by Knalchemist
...


It is all completely simple. Just eat a balanced diet and consistently eat the amount that lets you lose about 1lb a week.

To do this, you just need to monitor your portions and weigh yourself every so often and make sure that you are losing weight at about that rate or adjust otherwise.

There is absolutely no reason to complicate it any further than that. Seriously, it isn't worth it.

In terms of food: 99% of foods are healthy. The important thing is getting a balanced diet covering all of the food groups in appropriate proportions and for weightloss, making sure that you keep the overall amount of food slightly low (but not too low - the difference between a weightloss diet and a normal diet is only a couple of mars bars a day in terms of energy).

In terms of exercise: just do what you enjoy, do as much as you can whilst enjoying it and don't be overzealous.

Weightloss is a long slow process. You should expect it to take 6 months to a year to lose all the weight you want.

The only real secrets are consistency and doing it in a way where you rarely think about it. That is, make your eating a routine. If you mostly eat meals rather than snack, you get into the habit of knowing what the right portion size is to have. Do this 90% of the time and it is all you need. Of course, sometimes you will go out and overindulge or snack etc. but as long as you minimise it, it is fine.

In terms of exercise, really just becoming more generally active is a good start. Try and find things that you enjoy doing because at the end of the day, real results come from doing them consistently for a long period of time.

To be fair, I have mostly said the same as the post quoted below but the reason is that it is one of the only ones worth listening to.

Original post by Rascacielos
In reality, weight loss is about your diet. Exercise helps, of course, but it doesn't burn that many calories.

With regards to meals, it really is just a case of eating healthily and not depriving yourself of anything in particular. At the end of the day, your body needs fat, carbs, protein, fibre etc. There's no point trying to cut one of those key things out on some sort of 'fad' diet, but you do have to find a balance. Pasta/rice to take to work is fine, as long as you don't have it for every meal (because pasta/rice/bread are carb-heavy).

It's practically impossible to give you a list of healthy things in one short post on TSR: firstly, because there are so many healthy things and secondly because it's difficult to define. Like I said, you shouldn't deprive yourself of things you enjoy - just eat it in moderation. So if you decide one day you fancy chocolate or wine, have it, but stop when you don't want any more, rather than just eating/drinking because it's there to consume.

In general, you want to eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat, wholegrains, less sugar/salt, don't go overboard on the dairy (but still have it, because it's important for your health and also tasty!) and drink lots of water. I'm sure you know basically what's healthy for your and what isn't: it's really a case of eating in moderation (i.e. eat when you're hungry and stop when you're fill) and, in the same vein, stop letting food control you. You don't have to finish your plate and food isn't going to make you feel better when you're sad/stressed/angry/etc.

About 1800 calories sounds like a sensible goal if you want to lose around 1 pound per week (that's without exercise). Don't go drastically low because it will only backfire. Also, don't stress about your exact calorie intake: be aware of what you're eating but realise that one bad day isn't going to add an inch to your waistline. Really, the best way to lose weight and keep it off is not to "diet" as such but to adopt an entirely different lifestyle. Learn to enjoy every mouthful of food you eat, rather than just shovelling it down without thinking, indulge when you really want to (which you will probably find isn't as often as you currently do) and if you have a bad day, don't give up. We're only human - it's not a sin to enjoy yourself!

As for exercise, do exercise. It's healthy, fun and energising. But don't expect it to make a massive different to your weight loss. Do, however, use it to gain confidence, feel great and eventually to gain muscle ('tone up'). If the gym is your thing, then 3 or so hours a week is enough for you to start seeing a difference in your fitness and strength. But don't feel compelled to go to the gym just because it's seen as the "only" way of exercising. Find something you love - it will feel less like a chore and you're more likely to keep it up.

Good luck :smile:
Reply 30
Original post by Foghorn Leghorn
You don't believe exercise burns more than 300 calories? Running alone for one hour can burn anywhere between 600 to 1000 calories depending on how much effort you put into it.


Well it doesn't burn a lot of calories for me, unless my HRM is off. I don't eat too much back because I don't want to overestimate how much I burn, and the machines in the gym aren't always accurate. The exercise class I do is circuit training, and as far as I'm aware, that doesn't burn much.
Original post by Lucia.
Well it doesn't burn a lot of calories for me, unless my HRM is off. I don't eat too much back because I don't want to overestimate how much I burn, and the machines in the gym aren't always accurate. The exercise class I do is circuit training, and as far as I'm aware, that doesn't burn much.


How do you even know how much you burn, have you ever calculated it whilst exercising?
Reply 32
Original post by Foghorn Leghorn
How do you even know how much you burn, have you ever calculated it whilst exercising?


Well I have at the gym but I don't always trust the readings on the treadmill since it keeps saying I'm burning calories if I stop running. And I track some on myfitnesspal but I don't think it measures calorie burn for certain activities very accurately.
Reply 33
the least painful change in your lifestyle is to drink only water. there are zero Calories in water. try it for a month without changing anything else and you will lose weight.
Reply 34
Eat less, move more.
Original post by Lucia.
Well I have at the gym but I don't always trust the readings on the treadmill since it keeps saying I'm burning calories if I stop running. And I track some on myfitnesspal but I don't think it measures calorie burn for certain activities very accurately.


Well as for treadmills it will depend on the treadmill you are using, were you calculating it with height, weight, age and heart rate? But the good ones apparently have and accuracy of within +/- 5% to 10%. However most are based on the calorie expenditure formula, so it would only account for the average person. If you are extremely over weight i.e. fat it wont be accurate, similaraly if you are extremely muscular. But for most if it says you burned 400 calories, then most likely you burned around 400 calories.
Remember a lot of calories burnt from exercising are from an "afterburn" effect, where your body is repairing itsself, especially with high intensity cardio and weight lifting. You don't get this from eating.


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Original post by Knalchemist
I've stopped drinking soda drinks, the only one I drink is Diet Coke on occasions, I mostly drink juice (pure orange / cranberry juice). I don't drink alcohol very often, usually every other month I'll have 1 or 2 drinks and that is it.


Well, having pure orange juice instead of Diet Coke is worse. Diet Soda has next to nothing in terms of calories.
Original post by feghdan
what do you mean ?
I have been in fitness industry for 5 years now , I know what I'm talking about . all the advice I said were legit and proved .


No, the stuff about cutting out carbs is crap.
calorie intake< calories burned

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