A treadmill beats training outside for a marathon in -15c weather. But I don’t really understand the attraction of using one for walking when it’s nice outside.
Ok I got a question, can you diet and exercise at the same time? I feel like it’s quite normal among those that want to lose weight to do both at the same time. But if your body has been used to the years of certain foods, will the dieted food not be enough to fuel you for exercise?
I ask because I have a friend who wants to diet first, then when they hit their target weight, they want to start exercising. However, they’ve hit a wall and can’t get that extra few kgs. So, I suggested exercise. However, they state they do not have the energy due to low calorie count to do any kind of intense exercise.
Is it more of a discipline thing or does everyone’s body react differently to high intensity work out + low calorie meal?
The problem is the word diet. And a trainer and coach. I’m super weary of when someone, especially women say the word diet. It most likely mean some huge calorie restrictions, lack of any fuel and nutrients for your body to function. Or worse, they do some crazy pumpkin soup only thing. And a sure sign if someone’s not getting enough calories and carbs is low energy, which most of the time they turn to caffeine to make up.
Unless you’re a professional athlete or model. You can easily eat pretty normally and slowly cut things out more and more that’s not healthy and eat better. I like the keep it simple diet. Don’t starve yourself. Eat healthy foods, usually home cooked. Even “unhealthy” food that’s home cooked is often better than eating out. Honestly if a person is eating 2500 calories a day. He can cut to 2200-2300 and add more exercise. That’s already between 1400-2100 less calories a week not even including exercise.
The problem with diets is it shames you into thinking day by day or meal by meal. You should think about weekly changes to your diet. Because one bad day isn’t going to add weight and one day of starving isn’t going to make up for the bad day. I have zero shame in pigging out here and there because I know my overall diet is good. And one large super unhealthy meal or some treats isn’t going to undue it.
And never do cheat days. It just makes you feel guilty like you did something bad. Unless you want zero fun in life. Feel ok to eat something you enjoy without thinking about it. It’s more about self control of not overdoing it.
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As far as I know, a 7-11 cup of black coffee is what they turn to.
What if they were eating say, 1500-1800 calories and 100% home cooked. None of that one bowl of a soup a day crap. They’re getting their nutrients, but just not losing the weight.
My concern is, if for example, they go out at night to exercise after a day of consuming 1800 calories (still home cooked) and burn…say 800 calories. They come back late and don’t want to refill the 800 because it’s late and only eat 400, will a routine like this deplete their energy?
All in all, sorry if all this doesn’t make sense and if you’ve already answered my question, I never really had to calorie count or diet, but I just want to see if increase in exercise will help them lose that extra kg or they’re just giving me excuses on not wanting to exercise because of some whack ass myth.
I have experimented with the idea of cutting calories during intense cycling weeks and it normally doesn’t work out well for me. After hard rides of burning up to (estimated) 1800-2000 calories, I would get my protein and carbs on, but I wouldn’t go crazy and never stuffed my face to the point of food coma. It later came back to bite me because the heat and having long work days really drained me and despite eating what I thought was necessary, I don’t think I was getting enough nutrients. What’s weird is during all of this, my weight is only +/- 1.5kg.
And they bring their metabolism to a complete stop, meaning they will gain weight by even a normal meal…that will be harder and harder to lose.
That’s the thing, I always thought they were part of your complete diet, but an excess amount of them is never good.
Nonetheless, I have friends going on no carb diets and losing good amount of weight.
a cup or 2 a day is ok. Caffeine can be beneficial to losing weight, but too much and theres a problem and usually a symptom of lack of fuel. And can result in messing with your adrenal and thyroid functions which are both bad for weight loss or gain over time.
I don’t count calories either, and I find that people who do often can become obsessive and unhealthy about it,
I would say this, your body use of energy doesn’t end in 24hr periods. So meaning it’s not like if you eat 1600 calories from 12am to next 12am, it’s not like bam, you cut and finished -400 or whatever number and that turns into a weight loss. So don’t think about it that way. For me, after a hard workout, I always try to feed my body nutrients, not much carbs, high protein. I even do pre and intra workout “meals” like a snack or protein shake to function and fuel my body when it’s craving it.
So just feed your body and give it fuel to function for the day instead of trying to say oh, I already reached my cal limit, cant eat but I need to get this workout in struggling. Give your body what it needs to do it.
Again, it is not just calories, but overall nutrients. You eat to live and be heathly. For that, you need balance.
If he or she is hitting a wall in weight loss, then I think your advice is exactly on point. But why high intensity? Why not just some kind of exercise? Even some sauna sweating might be good (20 minutes in 70 degree dry sauna, cold pool 5 minutes, repeat).
I’ve mentioned it before in this thread, but my wife is doing well with a low carb diet plus exercise. It’s very slow weight loss for her (but that’s probably because she’s not 100% strict about avoiding carbs), but it’s happening. She just swims once per week and does the sauna about once very two weeks. So nothing intense here as far as exercise is concerned. It’s working.
Thanks for the advice guys.
I think I can come to a conclusion that it’s just excuses and being lazy. My friend doesn’t love exercising, but I think if I can somewhat prove that exercising a bit can help with getting over that wall, it could support my suggestion.
Now the issue is finding time. Friend works 9-6 (luckily no over time), goes home, cooks dinner, quick TV episode to rest the mind/body, then cooking breakfast and lunch for the next day, this weekly schedule doesn’t leave too much room for exercise. Only window I see is prepping the week’s meal on Sunday so you don’t have to cook every evening.
It takes about 66 days for something to become a habit. Honestly you can do a lot in 30-45min if you get it done and actually probably better the. 1-1.5 hour workouts if you can push yourself. There is always time and 3 times a week is enough for a normal person who just wants to be healthy imo.
This makes my 3-5 hour cycling outings sound like an epic waste of time.
I always hate dieting with my husband. He loses twice as much and cheats. Ok, so I’m jealous. I’ve started eating more for health. Today’s menu was
- overnight oats with coconut milk and cinnamon,
- green juice (kale, pineapple, celery, cucumber) green juices,
- roasted cauliflower and broccoli, with green salad.
- Another green juice
- Maybe some green beans and mushrooms waiting for me to cook. A sweet potato might be nice.
It is a pain to cook everything yourself for one person, so I find myself cooking two meals and eating one later.
It is also expensive to eat so many good vegetables.
You guys are motivating me to go for a long walk tonight after work. That seems to make the difference. Everyone seems to hit plateaus too. I don’t think everyone loses weight the same way and that certain foods cause inflammation for many of us.
And add a bit more protein. All veggies is not filling enough and yes, may lack nutrients.
Good veggies may be expensive -I use organic- but remember rice is only a filler. No real nutrition there. Same with white bread. Whole wheat -the real thing- with seeds and some nice fruit stuff is OK. I bet even a garden rice is better.
In my case, no green juices, because they equal extra gas = hospital visit. Inflammation with nowhere to go = kaput
Everybody is different I guess. The green juices don’t bother me at all. I have more energy and my skin looks good. I think sugar, spicy food, alcohol cause inflammation for me.
Sugar definetively. Fake sugar AKA artificial sweeteners even worse.
Alcohol is sugar so inflammation too.
Spicy food…depends. Mmm, nice kimchi.
No no no, you’re an endurance athlete training for it. My advice is for the general person who is just doing basic workouts to be healthy.
I know I know…I forgot to add the emoticon and/or “hahaha” after my comment.
Despite the ridonculous rides I go on, still can’t shave off this little belly I have. I lose about max 2kg after a very high intensity ride of 3-4 hrs, but no change. I suspect it’s my love for sweets, beer and unwillingness to to do core exercise that causes it.
Try adding resistance training once a week. I think it would help. I know you don’t want to add much muscle as a rider. But simple things with bands and plyometric stuff like jumping squats can be done in 30min or less.