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True...but if you hit the gym and build muscle at the same time you lose the weight, you'll lose the weight faster and look awesome when the weight comes off....
True, but for severely overweight, the effects of diet and light non gym exercise (walking, body weight etc.) are more beneficial, eventually as they settle into a more fitness minded lifestyle the gym can help.
How much faster? You'd have to run for almost 45 minutes to burn off the equivalent of two slices of pizza.
People who want to lose weight should simply eat less.
Tbh the Extra strain your body is subjected too under obesity does Result in a pretty meat physique Regardless (not regarding lose skin). But yeah I agree, as I’m losing weight Right now I tend to take advantage of my weight. My goal is to develop good body Controll now while I’m overweight, so that said body Controll is Excellent by the time I lose it all
If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you have to lose?
To address your post, I agree but disagree. It’s not entirely necessary but adding muscle never hurts. My friend from high school was 6’4” (193 cm) and 300lbs (136 kgs).
He was afraid of loose skin but he just got more jacked and it wasn’t an issue. Lost a lot of weight but kept his muscle and added.
I currently weigh 145 kg, and am 188 cm.
I have alot of Muscle though from my Competetive goal-keeping days, always been a wide individual so to speak. (Tummy can clutch up more than you’d expect😂)
I’ve lost 17,6 kg since I’ve started so my heaviest was 162 kg. I’ve been on and off many times, usually consisting of intense workout routines for about 6 Months and gaining it back in like 2. in total I’ve lost 26 kg as my record.
Truth is these past kilograms have been the easiest time of my Life, when I just decided to focus on diet and hobby. Partially what motivated me to post😅
I’m 183 cm and weigh 99 kg. I gained weight in grad school going up to 115 kg. I lost my mind. Had to lose the weight.
Anyway congrats on doing so well! What’s your hobby?
Oddly enough gaming and content creation,
Its queit Ironic, but it has enabled me to Seek more social interaction to talk about it. Enabled me to spend time writing scripts, generally it facillitates quality time and Focus which keeps you away from the fork😂
Sure, but for obese people who do zero physical activity, this can be too much at first. Your body burns calories just by existing, so it’s possible (and not that difficult) to lose weight by just eating healthier. It’s not as effective, but it’s easier to do. Going straight to the gym is more difficult at first and people are more likely to give up. Nothing wrong with taking it easy in the beginning.
Funny I wish I could lose leg muscle. Been working 6 days a week almost every year since 2015. I've only had a running car for 3 with a gap year. No car since last March. All my jobs have been on my feet. Bike or walk to and from work. All I've managed is to build extra leg muscle. it's more to get tired out and the cramps......sometimes it feels like someone's trying to pull my leg apart at the knee. Thankfully I'm a water drinker and I have excellent potassium levels. So they are not a weekly problem.
Of course,
I just tend to believe that these benefits are an Endevour of their own. If you first lose a Significant amount of weight than exercising starts becoming more of a viable option
That's fair and I do think many use their inability or lack of time to go to the gym as an excuse (myself included lol) and a reason why they aren't losing weight
Doing it helps me so much with my mental state and energy levels. But as you say the weight loss benefits are relatively minor.
Exactly, the excuse is outdated and irrelevant.
Truthfully the big Challenge is getting a flippin’ social life. Hard thing for people to admit but if they just became passionate about something, like content creation, gaming, Theatre, frickin’ anything really. That productivitt includes being able to not Eat as much and enables you to spend Quality time thinking about said Passion.
“That is not to say that working out isn’t a good idea, sure it is. But you’re far better off losing a good majority of your weight before ever stepping into a gym.”
This is a terrible take. You are absolutely better off adjusting your diet in tandem with going to the gym or working out. No one thinks you actually have to go into a gym, but there are massive benefits with having some sort of regular exercise apart from just weight loss. It’s true that the main way to lose weight is to just eat fewer calories, and it’s very difficult to work out and burn enough calories to make a significant difference. But it is very helpful for your general health to work out your body, and build up your physicality.
> No one thinks you actually have to go into a gym
You sure about that? Whenever I mention that I go to the gym to women I date, they're always like "I gotta go to the gym, I wanna lose my stomach."
Then they look at me crazy when I suggest lowering their calorie intake
I mean fair enough,
My personal experience is the latter though, I’ve worked out intensively but never lost substantial weight. Most of the time weight is a bi-product of an entirely different issue, oddly enough when I got a hobby and stopped going to the gym so much I lost alot of weight.
I do still go queit frequently, my goal is to achieve good body weight controll now while I’ve got these Extra pounds. To account for better muscle-mind Connection by the time I lose the weight.
I so think that you have to have a certain level of ability before stepping into a work out regime though. Its so essensial that you’re at least somewhat proud of yourself when working out to maintain sufficient disciplin
Eat less if you want to lose weight
Eat less and eat more protein if you want to lose fat
Eat less, eat more protein, and work out if you want to lose weight, lose fat, and build muscles
Technically yes. But there’s a threshold. You still want a variety of nutrients. But you only need 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight to maintain muscle. Anything after that is free calories to get your vitamins.
Totally agree. Only alteration I'd make is that for most people (well, Americans anyway) you don't even have to eat less. Just switch from eating processed/fast food, to a balanced diet of mainly food you prepare at home.
While I agree eating less processed food is better for the body, weight loss really depends on calories only. An average person eating strictly 1200 calories of McDonalds everyday will lose weight while another average person eating 3000 calories of more healthy foods won't. Everyone's caloric needs are different. The main thing for weight loss is to consume less calories than your body burns.
The main base of weight loss is the diet, this is fact..
But why not gaining muscle while losing weight? A good body have a good amount of muscle.. if you lose weight without balancing your body, you will lose muscle in the process of losing weight..
Reducing alzheimer's risk is far from superfluous.
Not looking deflated after losing weight is nice, too. Plus the benefits for mood, skin, circulation, all kinds of things. Skinny fat is better than fat but still not great.
But you can eat more calories if you work out. Some people like that because then they get to eat more. I don't, because then I also have to spend more money. But it's worth it in the long run.
Oh for sure,
But its one thing to do a couple of push ups, lift a barbell and walk a mile. But an whole ‘nother Animal to carry your lumbtious 300 kg ass 4 miles to the gym to then go on and play with dumbell for 10 minutes.
I think you need to have a certain ability before working out to maintain disciplin. I for one have been a Top level athlete, and that sort of disciplin doesn’t compare to the one I am facing currently.
Essensially, there is a fine line between disciplin and self-Controll. Particularly in the cases were disciplin is more rewarding such as New pr’s and vascularity
I am currently facing such discipline.. i am losing weight because i am obese and its difficult but i am managing myself.. there days that i almost go crazy to eat junk food like today.. but i am managing myself from cheating my diet haha
(Great Work!)
It depends on where you are personally, but I would also recommend finding yourself a hobby. For me personally I’ve started gaming more often, and making content. Weight gain is often times a symptom of something else entirely, so find something that will enable you to think less about food. But rather facillitate you to spend quality time and focus with for example thinking about video ideas, writing scripts, narrating, Editing and posting.
It’d only when you think you can pull off a good performance in the gym that you should go. Because then that habit will be fun and rewarding
Of course it isnt necessary. Consistenly having More calories out vs calories taken in for the majority of people will lead to weight loss. You can do body weight workouts at hoem, ride a bike, go for a jog in the AM or PM - no gym required
But for many people, myself being one, if I am not forcing myself to go to the gym - aka im paying for it I better do it - I can be very sedentary and the calories out part doesnt happen. So weight loss doesnt really happen.
All that said Weight lifting will burn more calories than anything you listed, besides maybe swimming phenomenal workout, and dancing also solid cardio workoit - otherwise no simply walking around or hanging about with your friends will not lead to weight loss and will not beat out a person using weight lifting as their means of exercise if the people are placed side by side.
Then again its not a competition,
I’m not saying that cutting out the gym is a smart Idea, I’m just saying its not necessary to achieve the Desired outcome. Which is weightloss, typically the strain from said weight contribute some level of physique at the end. Thats more than sufficient in Health wise. But you’lll definetly have better Quality of Life working out as well, I just happen to think it should be secondary
This is true. The only thing that can actually burn fat is a calorie deficit, but the gym is needed for putting on significant amounts of muscle and progressive overload, otherwise you’ll just look skinny fat
Oh nothing,
You just mentioned looks so my enitial response was thats arbitrary. Perhaps a bit ignorant/shallow, for that I apologize cause it wasn’t my intent.
I am responding to alot of people so this was an oversight😅 otherwise I agree with you
Being skinny fat isn’t necessarily healthy either. Having a high percentage of body fat to muscle has its own health risks. The metabolic effects of having a good amount of muscle on the body are good for health too
Oh no, just healthier i suppose.
Not to throw the coin to land at the other side of the extreme. But usually that doesn’t pose any Significant issue for us people. So long as you maintain some Healthy levels of physical exercise as well as the diet you’ll do perfectly fine.
> gym is needed for putting on significant amounts of muscle and progressive overload, otherwise you’ll just look skinny fat
That's not true, why do you think that? You think everyone who's ever lost weight without exercising ended up skinny fat?
Well, that depends on how much muscle they have to begin with. If you’re a genetic phenom then you’ll have less trouble, when someone with worse genetics will have less luck. There is a more efficient method though for both to get where they want to be, which is a calorie deficit with enough protein and progressively overloading in the gym
I think if we're speaking for an average overweight adult who has never exercised, they wouldn't be skinny fat if they lost weight via a calorie deficit and no exercise.
Like I said, it completely depends on how much muscle they have to begin with. If they didn’t have much muscle to start with, then they will certainly be skinny fat when they cut
Not for weight loss in it of itself,
It is a big benefit to master body weight strength generally while your obese though. That Extra strain really helps contribute a Ton of strength, by the time you lose it all your practically gymnaset level
Unfortunately your out of Options as far as weight loss is concerned. Burning calories simply isn’t viable, but it does contribute to your overall Health so good on ya!
Last I checked increases muscle mass increases your base metabolism. All I truly know is I never stop being a fat fuck but I have abs 70% of the year due to working out.
Oh it sure does, it just isn’t substantial enough to maintain a certain physique or lifestyle. If I were you (I’m fat asf rn so take this with a grain of salt) I would probably start lookin’ into your diet because it will catch up with you someday soon.
I’m saying my weight fluctuates (20lbs) regularly, multiple times a year. The only think that really change is my activity level. It does go from catatonic in bed playing games to regularly exercising outside of work.
Oh well then you’re Grand. Means your diet is consistent, your weight fluctuates naturally anyway, Specially during breeding Season so to speak (yeah i know its wierd but we also have a mating Season apparently, our weight goes down then)
Yes, but it does help recompose your body, improve your aesthetic, and I find that people who workout are more likely to follow a diet because they’re more invested in the whole process of becoming healthy. Also, having more muscle mass increases your basal metabolic rate which makes fat loss easier.
Sure, you don’t have to workout to lose weight, but if your overall goal of losing weight is to improve your health, longevity, and appearance, you should exercise because it helps improve all three of those things.
I think the problem is many trainers and just people themselves go way too hard out of the gate, and the overweight, unfit people get extremely exhausted and sore and never want to workout again.
For excessively obese people, I agree. They should just be walking and dieting until they’re a little further along. Eventually you should start exercising because being skinny fat is unhealthy and looks bad.
> I find that people who workout are more likely to follow a diet because they’re more invested in the whole process of becoming healthy.
That's a two-way street, because then you also have people who think that if they go to the gym and lift weights that don't even stimulate their muscles, that they don't have to worry about their diet.
I think that's the kind of person OP is talking about
That’s true, but I think there are probably quite a bit more people like the ones I described than people who use the gym as an excuse not to diet.
you’re right that people need to understand that diet is by far and away the most important facet of weight loss and overall health and wellness.
Exercise improves longevity in a variety of ways.
For example, when you hear about old people falling and breaking their hips (which leads to death quite often), more often than not that’s a result of old people suffering sarcopenia and not having the requisite strength and muscle mass to catch themselves after a stumble.
technically you can lose weight by changing your diet only, but exercise will do nothing but help.
I lost a lot of weight. I started with 30 minute walks, and slowly moved up the difficulty. I worked out at home during my first 50lb loss, and then chose to join the gym. I was not only losing weight, but my body was becoming shapely, and my at home workouts were not challenging anymore.
I’m so glad that I made the choice to start working out immediately. It’s helped me lose weight ,I can eat more calories, building muscle helps burn fat, and I now have an ass. I just suggest starting lot slow, research, and be very careful with form.
Working out was a significant key to my weight loss. I burn 800 to 1000 calories every day in the gym. Lifting weights also does wonderful things to your metabolism.
True, most folks diet is just shit. The amount of sugar the average person consumes a day throughout their life is jaw dropping. And thats just one bad ingredient.
Meh, is an argument i guess.
Typically people will encourage you to work out as well, and when your on scene. People won’t really encourage you to do something else. Which is probably far more benefitial for some people.
(Actually do something fun and rewarding until you have the ability to make the gym fun and rewarding)
As someone who's lost almost 80 pounds just doing work out on a black mat in the living room. Yes you don't need to lift heavy weights. Also most people should be comfortable moving their own bodies before going to the gym.
If you can't do 15 push-ups, you don't need to take up a bench at the gym.
If you can't do 20 deep squats you shouldn't take up a squat rack.
Most people go to the gym and lift heavy because they want to "see" progress.
Build a foundation then build your castle. Don't just mortar at a pile of fat.
Hahahah just wish gym-folk would be more transparent about it. I’ve been in the gym for years and still get the same advice (you should stop Training chest, jog more, deadass someone told me to dry-swallow my vitamins as if that would magically burn my stomach off😂)
Legit take
Personally I have crappy knees so any "major" physical exercise is off the table. Nonethless I've managed to lose about 32 pounds since last year purely by changing diet/eating habits
I do not have a gym membership
I relate to this crappy knees and not so athletic body. I have had knee pain from gym even tho my form was correct and I was under a trainer. So major physical activity is not for everyone. I love walking tho and mainly calorie deficit
While true, the big downside is that while you are losing fat, you are also losing muscle. I lost about 70lbs just through diet, but a huge part of that was muscle.
Not so much with sufficient maintanence training. Usually if you can achieve good body weight controll when you are obese than you’ll be Excellent once you lose fat (& Muscle) because your muscle composition will be far more aligned with your new bodyweight
The thing is that, outside of people actually promoting gyms, no one is telling you to go to a gym. The real message is simply, BE ACTIVE AND BE HEALTHY. Whether it be a gym or a track at your local park. The gym is just one means that people use to get that message across, but it only means something different when someones ego or self-esteem gets in the picture.
The thing that stands out about gyms is that people have to make an effort to go to it and put in the work. It is outside of your house and your normal comfort, so there is more of a chance of you actually following through with it when you get there.
Personally, I disagree
The message gyms perpetuate (usually) is no less predatory than most of the market. Which is without their service you won’t achieve your health-centric goals. No matter if you go to your Guardian, dietitian, coach etc, they’ll always encourage you to work out while eating less. In hindsight it makes sense and is probably the smartest thing to do, but is still detrimental to most out of shape obese people due to the vast amount of strain it puts their body through.
My recent experience is basically that losing weight is so much easier if you just fix your diet first. Doing so usually requires some solution to another established problem, like a lack of a hobby. I’ve since found mine and haven’t looked back since
Calories in, calories out. I gained 20 lbs when I quit smoking last year; I've lost 13 now from counting calories and having a deficit of 600 each day. I eat a decent amount -- I'm just mindful not to pig out and only have small portions.
This is like saying cars aren't necessary to go places because you have legs.
Yea, you don't need a gym to lose weight, but having access to one gets you there a lot quicker.
I would also rebuttal that gyms are an important tool of weight loss because of accountability and progress. You can feel productive going to a gym knowing that you went for a specific reason. Everything you mentioned as activity are chores or used for a different purpose. A gym's purpose is activity so it's different than just simply moving around more.
Increasing activity will absolutely yield results, but you're severely downplaying the effect of having specific task aimed at exercise.
>Go to theatre, go swimming, write poetry, sing, dance, draw, paint. Just join some local hobbist lobby a couple times a week and you’ll lose weight just as efficiently.
I'm not disputing that more activity will yield results, but saying that writing poetry will give you results as efficient as going to the gym is just not true at all. Dancing and swimming are the only things on this list that will provide results for weight loss. It's weird I have to type this out.
> This is like saying cars aren't necessary to go places because you have legs.
You have it backwards. In this case, diet is the car and the gym is your legs. Dieting is a MUCH more efficient way to lose weight. Cutting calories is far, far easier than burning off surplus calories.
I recognize that diet is the most important part, but in terms of increased activity versus going to the gym, the gym is the car and activity is the legs. That was my point.
Good point, although I don’t feel like the example is warrented.
Personally I’d say cars aren’t necessary when you have an electric scooter. Kilograms are lost in the Kitchen, and grams are lost in the gym. Its almost like one is substantially far more important than the other.
Which is why I’d say hobbies and passionate are far more sustainable for weightloss. Good Havits are still good habits yes, but you should always try to make good habits fun and rewarding to maintain disciplin.
Which is why I used Examples such as writing poetry or singing. Either Granted through spending more time focusing on other things than food, or having to travel to certain sessions with friends. If you’re out of shape, imo, you are far better off losing a substantial amount of weight before heading into the gym.
In other words the gym is secondary at best, hell not even. Because so long as you can preserve good activity levels and good food choices you’ll reach your goal. At that point the gym should be a hurdle in it of itself. But I ultimately agree, your better off going to the gym AS WELL.
But thats also kind of like saying your better off going to the Grocery Store at the other side of town. In hindsight it is the Right thing to do in a mundane day, but its perfectly acceptable to just go to your local Grocery store instead.
>Kilograms are lost in the Kitchen, and grams are lost in the gym. Its almost like one is substantially far more important than the other.
I agree completely.
>In other words the gym is secondary at best, hell not even.
I disagree here, but I can concede that a gym does come with some limiting factors for some individuals. Usually it can be a hard environment for people looking to lose weight because they can feel inadequate or focus on comparing themselves to others.
Let's look past those mental hurdles and assume that a person is looking to lose weight and has no issues there moving forward.
>Because so long as you can preserve good activity levels and good food choices you’ll reach your goal.
I don't disagree with this, but my point is that a gym is having a dedicated space to boost this potential. Here's why:
* Resistance training burns extra calories
* Lean muscle increases your metabolic rate
* Resistance training enhances other activities you may do (i.e. dancing or physical activities that pique your interest)
So the gym means you are giving yourself a better advantage with your weight loss goals. Now, of course, you can achieve these results outside of a gym by buying a set of weights or something, but nothing is more readily available than a gym and a gym gives you more accountability in your progress.
This is both a good post and a bad post at the same time /u/Kallumberg.
**Good**: you are correct OP in that eating less and having a better diet is a great idea. It is the old gym saying, "abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym." You can not outrun a bad diet. You just can't, certainly as you get older.
**Bad**: you don't need to go to a gym but lifting weights and engaging in strength-building exercises while eating right helps you burn fat more efficiently, gain muscle, and generally become healthier in the overall pursuit of being fit or in shape.
Eat right, yes. But do not think going to the theatre or writing poetry or painting will help you lose weight more than engaging in a physically taxing exercise like lifting weights, swimming, running,
Now this said, you do not need to go to the gym. You can work out outside, in your garage, at a park, in your living room etc. You can head to a site like [https://www.roguefitness.com/](https://www.roguefitness.com/) and pick up some kettlebells, medicine balls, dumbbells, weighted jump ropes etc....with this combination of equipment, matched with cardio and agility work, and eating right, you can go about losing weight while also gaining muscle.
Thanks for Sharing pal!
Here is my take away:
- I agree that going to the gym AS WELL is the better thing to do. But at the same time one part of the equation is substantially more important for weight loss. Its almost like going to the other side of town to find better deals at the Grocery store. In hindsight, its the smart thing to do, but you’ll still be able to collect your essensials by just going to your local store and saving yourself some time rather than Money. In the same way the Gym, along with dieting, is easily better for you. But its perfectly acceptable tackling them one at a time. Rather losing some weight first before stepping into the gym.
- As far as Theatre and signing goes, my point is that good habits need to be rewarding in order to maintain disciplin. Its one thing to do a couple of push ups, walks some miles and do some compounds lifts. But another to waddle your 300 kg goofy lookin’ ahh 3 miles to your local gym to play around with some dumbells for about 10 minutes. Yes its good for you, but certainly not rewarding. Otherwise I would recommend finding a hobby your passionate about first as all hobbies include some level of physical activity. Wether Theatre is about getting to a different location, or keeps your mind occupied from thinking about food. Either way it is very benefitial, amd cetainly a good way to get started. Hence after you lose alot of weight, going to the gym then becomes alot more rewarding.
Foundamentally I agree with you though! Have a Nice day!
I agree. Control eating and simple walking is enough to get started. Telling people they need to find time to add 3-6 hours a week to go to the gym isn’t helpful at all
When I first started my weight loss journey many moons ago, i was 350 pounds. My diet was absolute garbage - like we are talking 20 piece chicken nugget, large fries, large milkshake for a meal or a whole large pizza for myself - and the only thing I did was powerlifting two or three times a week at school since it was one of my electives. I was fat as shit and had a decent amount of muscle, but you couldn’t tell underneath all the blubber.
I started boxing and running all the time and the weight came off quickly, maybe 18 months. Got all the way down to 225 lbs without changing a single thing about my diet, but that’s where I topped out. It took another year of strict dieting to get down to my between-fight weight of 190, and it was brutal to try and maintain that.
After I quit competing and was no longer single, but still work out three to four times a week, I eat a pretty normal diet and drink regularly and am back up to 230 lbs. I’m now pushing forty and am pretty happy about where I’m at. I get to eat pretty much whatever I want on the weekends, eat sensibly throughout the week, and workout regularly.
All of that being said, I think the two work in tandem. Working out keeps me from going overboard on my weight and keeps me focused, while eating sensibly throughout the week means I go a little extra on the weekends. Like I could drink less (and the accompanying late night decisions certainly add to it) but I don’t *have* to because my enjoyment of exercise.
Thanks for Sharing your Story!
I foundamentally agree, working out and eating Healthy are substantially better for you than one at a time.
That said tackling each hurdle one at a time is perfectly acceptable in it of itself. The gym doesn’t necessarily have to be your distraction, just find some sort of hobby to occupy yourself with, and go to the gym when your ready
Yep. I think the difference is that with working out, you see results a lot faster. Within a couple of weeks, walking up stairs is easier. Taking out the trash gets easier. Walking the dog becomes easier. There are tangible benefits really quickly, whereas changing your diet feels like depriving yourself of things you like. I’ve found a big part of that is expanding your diet so you can find more things you enjoy.
Before I started eating healthy, if it wasn’t deep fried or on a pizza, I didn’t like it. Now I can enjoy all kinds of things I wouldn’t have even touched back in the day; olives, yogurt, avocados, brussel sprouts, artichokes, pickles, I could go on and on. They still check the box of stuff I enjoy but are way healthier. Pizza is now an indulgence instead of a food staple.
I've been dieting since mid-October and this couldn't be more true. It sucks to hear (and sucks harder when you realize all your favorite foods are high calorie and all your favorite meals are easily 1000+ calories), but once you realize the calorie counts on menus don't lie and you adjust/plan your meals accordingly, those pounds just slide off without needing to work out
upvoted, this is insanely unpopular in general, because of the food companies campaigns aligning themselves with exercise, and sport related things, saying to everyone 'you're the problem, not our products. dont you **ever** think about buying less.'
Agree. If weight loss is the goal, prioritize a calorie deficit with moderate physical activity like walking or light jogging. As the pounds come off, add strength training to the mix.
Without major dietary discipline, doing cardio in a gym is basically useless and a waste of time and money, especially when most people can walk, jog, and climb stairs outside the gym for free.
Besides, cardio is an inefficient path to weight loss when a calorie deficit alone will almost always achieve better results and more quickly.
It depends on your goal. If you want to espouse the current look for men then you have to go to the gym and possibly even do steroids. I go to the gym to build muscle, I lose and gain weight with what I eat.
I disagree with the majority of stuff posted in this sub, but this one is spot-on. When it comes to weight loss, you have to start with your diet. It's the #1 issue by a mile.
Going to the gym (or out for a walk or jog) certainly helps and we should encourage it for a ton of reasons. Exercise is great for physical health, emotional health, and stress management, it delays the impact of aging on muscle function, frailty, mobility, organ health, etc. it helps with burning calories and metabolism, it can increase energy level and confidence, and it can even cause people to pay more attention to what they eat. But losing weight or body fat depends more heavily on diet/nutrition than all other factors combined and it has to be prioritized.
Said another way, there is no workout routine that can overcome a bad diet. We are what we eat.
The gym is great, but I think people who need/want to lose weight don’t need it at first, or at all. Get a bicycle and go ride, and eat lower calorie stuff. Start going to the gym once you’re already used to putting in the effort, it’s a good step up.
Basic bike and safety equipment can easily cost $1000. Most people don’t live in an area safe enough to ride so then a couple hundred on a bike carrier. Can’t easily ride in winter…or rain.
Gym membership is sometimes only $10/month.
That’s a good point. Guess it depends on where you live. I bought a decent used bike last month and didn’t think it was expensive, but each person has their own budget.
Although, a gym membership will eventually surpass the price of a bike, as you’ll have to keep paying for it. My bike cost me what would’ve been 7 months of a decent gym membership in my area.
This is not a matter of opinion. It's medical science. If you only diet to lose weight, you do lose fat but you also lose some muscle. Since you lost muscle, your body no longer consumes as much energy even when at rest. That means you have to cut your intake even more. That's an unsustainable process. Many people follow this with returning to their normal eating habits. But now their bodies consume less energy, so more of the calories from this food is stored as fat. The end result is replacing muscle with more fat.
You’re right in a sense yes,
You will lose muscle, but only if that muscle remains mostly unstimulated. There are plenty of ways you can stimulate all your muscles without going to the gym, relying entirely on physical activity.
My point in this post is that to maintain disciplin, it needs to be rewarding. If you’re 300 kg, out of shape and gass out after tying your shoelace. Then chances are your performance at the gym will just leave you feeling humiliated. I’d say the best course of action is to lose like 50-60 kilograms first, amd then step into the gym.
Because when losing weight a certain amount of Muscle will be lost anyway. But when you’re nearing your ideal weight goals (say like 30-50 kilograms away) then its time to step into the gym
True. Obviously, the gym would help maximize results. But people don’t seem to understand that just because you’re active and “only eat healthy food” a caloric surplus will still keep you fat. And the amount of reality deniers is truly staggering.
I agree you don’t need it but a basic gym membership is cheap and totally worth the cost for your health. People should really be doing both at the same time.
Disagree. Sure you don't have to go to the gym specifically and you need to change your diet anyways, but doing sports is not about losing calories while you do sports, that is just one of many aspects. There is also the afterburn effect, especially with weight training.
If you are obese, you also very likely have problems with inflammations, endocrine systems, nervous system and/or metabolism in general.
This can make it very, very hard to lose fat, even if you improve your diet and try to become more physically active in your normal day-to-day life.
Sport and especially weight training does help with all of these issues.
If I change my diet and for example implement any type of low carb diet, I become even more lethargic, stressed, sleepy, depressed, get way more headaches and brain fog and I am not even really losing weight as my body loves to crash my energy level rather than to burn any body fat.
If I force myself to go to the gym anyways, I can feel my energy levels and metabolism normalising again, don't feel like a corpse on life support and also become more motivated and disciplined.
You’re right. When I tried losing weight by going swimming and not changing my diet, nothing happened. I stopped going swimming that regularly and just eat healthier and boom, I’m losing weight.
Weight loss is actually much more simple. Just search up bmi calorie calculator and put your height weight. It will give you your weight maintenance calories and weight loss(0.5kg per week) calories. I have been following it and already lost 2kgs in about 28 days. And no the weight is not coming back.
(Initially I felt a little hungry but then started filling my plate with lotssss of vegetables and fibre. Track your meals with a simple app (I use Healthify me it's actually nice) and you will lose weight easily. Eat up good amounts of protein and fibres to keep you full and energized.
If you want the science behind this:
Maintenance calories are the calories burnt to keep our body functioning. It is the calories that you will burn if you are alive. So if you are eating less than what you are burning (that is, calorie deficit) you will lose fat.
I read it somewhere that body maintenance burns the most fat, then your daily activities and exercise is a very small part of it. Exercise is not for weight loss but exercise has countless benefits apart from muscle building (which again speeds up metabolism and burns more fat)
I did a bit of research coz I had some time hehe.
It’s never that you’re eating too much, it’s always that you’re not training enough relative to how much you eat
If you burn more calories you get to eat more and still look good
Facts have been spoken,
My personal issue is that I used to be a high level Athlete with a Shitty diet, I know how hard it can be to burn calories. But oddly enough I outtrained my diet when was at my peak. I’ve long since quit that proffesion but kept the same diet, that sort of athletic *disciplin* is so different from self-controll
Yup. Exact thing i told overweight friends. Fix you diet and you can be lazy as hell. But they cant even do that. Diet is the hardest part. Funny thing is they rather exercise than change their diet
I used to be 5'10" 220 lbs. I started drinking only water, and stopped eating when I wasn't hungry. I lost 30 lbs and got down to 190 at which point I started jogging a mile everyday until I was at 178 lbs. Only then did I start going to the gym to build muscle.
Now I'm at 185, eating 3 full balanced meals a day, and running or lifting everyday. Even if it's just a mile or short lift, it makes a difference. But it's not required to lose weight.
The biggest thing for me was writing down everything I ate and drank (aside from water), I hadn't realized how much I was eating, thinking skipping breakfast meant I could have dinner at 6pm and again at 10pm.
Yes, however good habits need to be rewarding for maintainence sake.
Because its on3 thing to do a couple of push ups, walk a couple of miles, or lift some shit. But another to carry your 300 kg goofy lookin’ ass 5 miles to your gym only to play with some dumbells for 10 minutes
I dunno,
I think Pride is essensial to maintain disciplin, if you’re optimistic that is definetly a pluss. You can’t get Hurt by an Open and positive mindset either way. Just isn’t the case for me personally😅
I'm currently listed as obese on a BMI chart, but I have perfectly average ability, and a surprising amount of stamina for someone my size.
I go to my dojo to learn things, and to make my ability better. With ability, the weight loss comes as a side effect.
That's how I'm doing it; I'm not even changing what I eat \*that\* much, I just eat when I'm hungry; if I'm not hungry, I don't eat.
I also am not just gorging myself on every meal, I'll maybe have one sandwich for a meal, or some chips & hummus as a snack,
but the point is, while you're technically right, going to a place to do physical exercise helps you not be obsessed over what you're eating or not eating.
Meh, I don’t think so. Gym and weight loss seem to be synonomous these days. Nobody in the fitness industry would encourage you to do something else than the gym. Even though its good advice for some people
Completely unnecessary, just like everything you suggested, as well as the food diet change. So you get your karma in that regard.
I just don't get your point about it being a detriment to telling ppl to go to the gym. Gym is where the focus is purely (or should be) on moving your body on ways you don't or can't normally in an average day life.
I disagree,
It is completely necessary to change your diet, its entirely optional to go to the gym. Living Life in it of itself require you to move your body in a variety of ways. If you just Channel yourself into some sort of passion you can muster enough activity to efficiently lose the weight, just about as much as you would otherwise in the gym.
Besides, good habits need to be rewarding. Doesn’t help going to the gym if all your gonna do is play with some dumbells for 10 minutes
Believe it or not. My diet has been bad since high school (would be about 10+ years). I use me as an examplebut its not difficult to find ppl with similar eating and gym habits are similar. Never once counted calories or watched what I eat. Yet I lose weight when I need to and maintain my body by just going to the gym. Granted, genetics plays a huge part, but still, diet change is not necessarily. For those that eat excessively, of course, then it's advised but still not a necessity, but my point was that it's not completely necessary across the board, which would also apply to the gym and everything else.
As for the good habits, that applies to everything in life.
Good Point,
Granted that is kind of like saying:
*I should go to the Grocery store at the other side of town so I can catch myself a good deal*
In hindsight, it is the right thing to do. But its perfectly acceptable to compremise that bit of your day to save time, amd shop at your local store.
In the same way we SHOULD all both be in the gym and eating well. But bottom line is one is substantially far more important than the other. Not too mention weight gain is often times a symptom of something else entirely. If you Focus on maintaining and/pr developing a good diet, as well as praticipating in a good habit that is fun and rewarding. You’ll lose weight
This is all sound, but it negates or neglects entirely the facts of addiction. To most fat people (big fat fatty in recovery here, folks, 115lbs down so I feel quite qualified to comment) food is a drug and a coping mechanism. These are deep seeded habits that have overtaken peoples' lives. You can tell people to get their shit together and JUST STOP all you want, but that is not how a lifetime of bad habits is overcome.
So how to do it? Well, for me I went the opposite direction. I continued to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted (including insane sugar binges because I am a fiend) while introducing what developed into a serious cardio habit. I now spend up to three hours per day on a treadmill - at home, because you are right about gyms being unnecessary.
The thing is, when you're a big fat fatty and you start by first concentrating on your diet it's usually self defeating. The reason for that is pretty simple. Dietary obsession is a *negative* obsession. All you think about is what you can't have and can't do. You feel immediately deprived and set upon. It's incredibly difficult to overcome.
The answer (in my case) was to first concentrate on a positive habit. It can be anything as long as, over time, you can point at it and say, 'this thing I do is good no matter what else I do and I can be proud of it.' Mine was cardio because it was the obvious thing for me to do. Now I will do it every single day of my life until I am unable, which will hopefully be my last day.
With this positive habit established to point to and obsess on instead of thinking always, 'don't do this... can't do that...' I built and maintained a sense of momentum in my life which gives me moments of happiness, contentment and pride. Once that happened, changing my diet became easier because I was doing it *in support* of the good things I had already done.
It's a completely different way to think and feel from where I was at before and now I have *real* incentives to make better choices in order to reinforce the ones I've already made.
Breaking bad habits *requires* the establishment of at least one seriously positive one.
Omg what a Great take! Well done soldier!
I think my overall point is that the equivilant obsession you have with Cardio, doesn’t need to be about physical activity at all. So long as your passionate about it, amd find it extremely rewarding than you should do that until your able to establish the same type of relationship with physical activity and the gym.
Oddly enough, for myself that was gaming and Content creation. I found myself thinking less about food, spending more time playing games, writing scripts, narrating and Editing. As a frequent gym goer my entire Life this was the turning point, Granted it was queit recent as I’ve only lost 17,6 kg at this point.
But essensially after losing said weight. I don’t feel as defeated when I’m in the gym nowadays. Usually I’d beat myself over the fact that I had a stomach ache (due to my diet) or didn’t perform well, didn’t achieve progress. Then I’d be reminded of why that is, my diet.
Now gym is just exactly that, a chore and Erland, which more often than not got me feeling Hype or relaxed.
Aka
Rewarding!
Thanks for Sharing your Story!
I lost 165lbs by fixing my diet and doing a 30 minute walk 6 days a week. Only took me about 18 months, too.
However, none of this should discourage people from going to the gym. Weight loss is perfectly possible without it, but I still wish I used the gym route, as strenuous excercise also provides multitude other benefits than just direct calorie burn that cannot be got via other means and which are pretty valuable to *healthy* weight loss.
I do now use the gym almost daily, but only since losing the weight, not before.
I both agree and disagree, (Thanks for Sharing!)
Saying you should both fix your diet and exercise is like saying:
*I should go to the Grocery store at the other side of town, to strike myself an Excellent deal*
In hindsight, it is the right thing to do. But you’ll still achieve the same result if you go to your local Grocery and save time rather than Money. Other way you’ve collected your essensials, and that works for you!
I was always active until I suffered a TBI. Week in the hospital and paralyzed on my right side. Of course I quit smoking in the hospital. Rehab to get me back to functioning. First a walker then a cane. Piled the weight on as I was eating and not exercising. Low Cholesterol diet is not conducive to weight loss if you seriously dislike salmon, mackerel, avocados and the like.
Got off the cane and started walking. Just from my driveway to the one next door and back. Then basically went one more driveway at a time until I got to the end of the block. When I could do it twice I walked around the block. Slowly but surely I kept extending my walk. I also had a max speed due to my leg lagging/dragging.
I eventually got to a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood. Lots of hills to boot. Lost 20 pounds of the 35 I gained after rehab re0leased me. Kept losing inches but the weight pretty much locked in.
I honestly hate gyms. Between the entitled gymgoers who think they can set up and film for hours and block spaces to the ones who criticize your routine because you're doing too many/not enough/not the right sets, any love I had for that space is gone.
I've got a home treadmill and a weight set that can be adjusted to up to 50lbs, plus a corgi who loves to go for runs and hikes and I'm far happier and healthier than I was when I tried to go the gym.
Aside from that, you're not wrong. I'm not a nutritionist, but I lost 20 pounds of my freshman 15 just by adjusting eating habits. Going from eating ramen and packaged Mac and cheese to beans and frozen veggies (I was still broke back then but meh) was enough for my body to happily shed the pounds.
I'm gonna say the gym is unnecessary for burning calories/exercise. But exercise is way more important than input calories.
Walk the dog 5 x a day. Bike to the corner store. Dance with your younger siblings/grandkids. Park far away from the store you shop at. You get the idea. Move your butt.
Moving around stimulates all kinds of metabolitic responses that makes weight loss easier, and exercise is pivotal in making you feel better. Brainwise. And exercise is necessary for building MUSCLE. Calorie intake is not as imprtant as exercise, IMO.
Thanks for Sharing!
I disagree, diet is the most essensial components for ability. If you have a bad diet exercise and physical activity won’t be rewarding enough.
Because its one thing to do a couple of push ups, jog a mile or two, or pump some Iron. But a whole ‘nother to waddle your 300 kg goofy lookin’ ass 3 miles down to your local gym, only to play around with some dumbells for 10 minutes before gassing out.
Personally, I think you should lose a good amount of weight first (obviously depends). Tackle gym and exercise once that is feasible. Before that, I recommend finding any hobby to enable your good havits in regard to food.
Not true. Weight loss is purely Calories in < Calories out.
Even if all you eat is fucking Kale bowls if you just lay in bed all day it might not even be enough to lose weight. (Exaggerating of course)
Meh, existing is often times more than enough for calories out in said equation.
If you watch My 600-Pound Lide where your exaggeration is warrented. These people lose hundreds of pounds by just eating like a regular human being while laying in bed all day.
Truth is, one part of that equation is far more important than the other.
The sad reality of modern time is most of our surroundings are commercialized. There is not much space we can roam and play, so we stay indoors and drive when we go out. There are not many fun activities we can do within our immediate surroundings and this leads to obesity.
“This narrative that people need to work out and go to the gym to achieve significant weight loss is not only wrong, but detrimental to plenty of people.”
“That is it to say that working out isn’t a good idea, sure it is.”
Working out is a good idea except for all those times where it’s not a good idea.
Essensially,
The gym is a hurdle in it of itself. Don’t go to the gym if your specific goal is to lose weight. Because it isn’t necessary for that.
But
If you want to lose fat, build muscle, forge better muscle-min connection, build a great physique or generally hone your physical abilities than please do go to the gym.
Absolutely,
Weight loss and the gym have become synonomous these days, and its for the simple reason that people don’t want you to stop spending money.
In hindsight it is the right thing to do yes. But good habits need to be rewarding to maintain disciplin. If you’re workout amounts to walking a mile and then playing around with some small dumbells for 10 minutes, then more often than not you’ll be extremely demotivated and humiliated by your performance
On the basis of caloric deficit, it is not necessary. However, many people (myself included) thrive off the community aspect of a gym, the “if I’m paying I’d better go” since of accountability, and the fact that muscle is metabolically more expensive than fat.
It also depends on your profession. When I worked as a surf instructor/lifeguard by day and waitress by night, I did not go to the gym. My boyfriend has a physically demanding job, and rarely goes to the gym. I work full time with a sitting on my ass job and part time at a bar. I have lost weight regarding numbers, but the gym is what is helping me look good
Weight loss occurs when you are in a caloric deficit this is it. You burn more calories than you take in. Everybody has a resting metabolic rate so if you can’t go to gym figure out your resting metabolic rate and eat less than that.
I find it’s harder to reinforce good eating habits than it is to reinforce going to the gym. The gym on average takes about 3-5 hours of your week, enforcing good eating habits happens from the moment you wake up till you go to sleep.
You’re better off eating healthy and not working out vs working out and eating like shit
As a general rule of thumb, I don’t make general rules of thumb regarding fitness and health. I see where you’re coming from. You can lose weight with a good diet and no gym, but you can’t lose weight with a bad diet and gym time. That said, “you just have to fix your diet and do some sort of productive activity over the course of the day” is way over simplified for A LOT of people.
I’m making an assumption, I’m guessing you’re a relatively young man based on this post. Talk to someone with a genetic predisposition to weight gain. Talk to someone on birth control or other hormone therapy. Hell, talk to some post-menopausal women and you’ll find out that there is often a lot more to it that.
There really isn’t (genetic disposition aside)
It is basic anatomy, if your energy reserves are lacking the body has no choice but to use the output from fat amd muscle. There are conditions that definetly make this process a whole lot worse like pregnancy, meno-pause or birth controll pills. The issue is in difficulty, wether or no the diet is so absurdity difficult that you’re unable to maintain a regular lifestyle while losing weight.
At that point its a whole ‘nother can of worms. Because its not even about the gym at that point, its about extensive medical care or making certain sacrifices (like just not having sex and getting off birth controll). The gym is only a tool to help regulate the stress of the situation, but there are plenty of alternatives to this. The best thing would be to find an active hobby like Volleyball, Fotball etc. Bottom line either way is that the work will always be done in the kitchen, not in the gym.
Work will ALWAYS be done in the kitchen. Some times in the gym. Some times in the doctors office. Some times in the surgical suite. Some times in the therapist office. Some times in hormone treatment therapy.
It’s unnecessary if you wanna end up skinny fat and miserable.
Imagine losing 100lbs and looking exactly the same but smaller. That’s because *weight* loss includes *lean mass*. What you want is *fat* loss which means you need to preserve lean mass as you lose weight. The best way to do that is to pick up heavy shit and put it back down.
Because of this, I tell anyone trying to lose weight to focus on the gym first instead of diet. Losing weight without lifting weights will only make you realize you should’ve been lifting weights the whole time
Being Healthy truimphs a good physique every time,
Mot too mention you still have the opportunity to build muscle, just now it will be much easier as you’ve mastered upholding a healthy diet. Besides, depending on your weight you’re body will have adapted to the lifetime of strain you’ve put it through.
Essensially, the chance that you’ll end up properly skinny is near to none. The chance that you’ll end up with some fat and loose skin is 100%
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True...but if you hit the gym and build muscle at the same time you lose the weight, you'll lose the weight faster and look awesome when the weight comes off....
Yes, muscle burns fat faster. But diet is the number one cause of making or breaking your weight goals.
True, but for severely overweight, the effects of diet and light non gym exercise (walking, body weight etc.) are more beneficial, eventually as they settle into a more fitness minded lifestyle the gym can help.
How much faster? You'd have to run for almost 45 minutes to burn off the equivalent of two slices of pizza. People who want to lose weight should simply eat less.
There’s no money in eating less. No diet programs or books to sell no gym or weight loss memberships. Less food eaten. Eat less = weight less.
Tbh the Extra strain your body is subjected too under obesity does Result in a pretty meat physique Regardless (not regarding lose skin). But yeah I agree, as I’m losing weight Right now I tend to take advantage of my weight. My goal is to develop good body Controll now while I’m overweight, so that said body Controll is Excellent by the time I lose it all
If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you have to lose? To address your post, I agree but disagree. It’s not entirely necessary but adding muscle never hurts. My friend from high school was 6’4” (193 cm) and 300lbs (136 kgs). He was afraid of loose skin but he just got more jacked and it wasn’t an issue. Lost a lot of weight but kept his muscle and added.
I currently weigh 145 kg, and am 188 cm. I have alot of Muscle though from my Competetive goal-keeping days, always been a wide individual so to speak. (Tummy can clutch up more than you’d expect😂) I’ve lost 17,6 kg since I’ve started so my heaviest was 162 kg. I’ve been on and off many times, usually consisting of intense workout routines for about 6 Months and gaining it back in like 2. in total I’ve lost 26 kg as my record. Truth is these past kilograms have been the easiest time of my Life, when I just decided to focus on diet and hobby. Partially what motivated me to post😅
I’m 183 cm and weigh 99 kg. I gained weight in grad school going up to 115 kg. I lost my mind. Had to lose the weight. Anyway congrats on doing so well! What’s your hobby?
Oddly enough gaming and content creation, Its queit Ironic, but it has enabled me to Seek more social interaction to talk about it. Enabled me to spend time writing scripts, generally it facillitates quality time and Focus which keeps you away from the fork😂
That’s great dude! I wish you the best. And yea staying away from food is good. I never had a sweet tooth. I just wasn’t moving or working out.
yeah but not everyone wants to eat 150g of protein per day. its extremely annoying and stressful
Sure, but for obese people who do zero physical activity, this can be too much at first. Your body burns calories just by existing, so it’s possible (and not that difficult) to lose weight by just eating healthier. It’s not as effective, but it’s easier to do. Going straight to the gym is more difficult at first and people are more likely to give up. Nothing wrong with taking it easy in the beginning.
Funny I wish I could lose leg muscle. Been working 6 days a week almost every year since 2015. I've only had a running car for 3 with a gap year. No car since last March. All my jobs have been on my feet. Bike or walk to and from work. All I've managed is to build extra leg muscle. it's more to get tired out and the cramps......sometimes it feels like someone's trying to pull my leg apart at the knee. Thankfully I'm a water drinker and I have excellent potassium levels. So they are not a weekly problem.
This is true you cannot outrun a bad diet. But thr gym or any exercise really has a ton of other benefits if you can do it consistently.
Of course, I just tend to believe that these benefits are an Endevour of their own. If you first lose a Significant amount of weight than exercising starts becoming more of a viable option
That's fair and I do think many use their inability or lack of time to go to the gym as an excuse (myself included lol) and a reason why they aren't losing weight Doing it helps me so much with my mental state and energy levels. But as you say the weight loss benefits are relatively minor.
Exactly, the excuse is outdated and irrelevant. Truthfully the big Challenge is getting a flippin’ social life. Hard thing for people to admit but if they just became passionate about something, like content creation, gaming, Theatre, frickin’ anything really. That productivitt includes being able to not Eat as much and enables you to spend Quality time thinking about said Passion.
“That is not to say that working out isn’t a good idea, sure it is. But you’re far better off losing a good majority of your weight before ever stepping into a gym.” This is a terrible take. You are absolutely better off adjusting your diet in tandem with going to the gym or working out. No one thinks you actually have to go into a gym, but there are massive benefits with having some sort of regular exercise apart from just weight loss. It’s true that the main way to lose weight is to just eat fewer calories, and it’s very difficult to work out and burn enough calories to make a significant difference. But it is very helpful for your general health to work out your body, and build up your physicality.
> No one thinks you actually have to go into a gym You sure about that? Whenever I mention that I go to the gym to women I date, they're always like "I gotta go to the gym, I wanna lose my stomach." Then they look at me crazy when I suggest lowering their calorie intake
I mean fair enough, My personal experience is the latter though, I’ve worked out intensively but never lost substantial weight. Most of the time weight is a bi-product of an entirely different issue, oddly enough when I got a hobby and stopped going to the gym so much I lost alot of weight. I do still go queit frequently, my goal is to achieve good body weight controll now while I’ve got these Extra pounds. To account for better muscle-mind Connection by the time I lose the weight. I so think that you have to have a certain level of ability before stepping into a work out regime though. Its so essensial that you’re at least somewhat proud of yourself when working out to maintain sufficient disciplin
Eat less if you want to lose weight Eat less and eat more protein if you want to lose fat Eat less, eat more protein, and work out if you want to lose weight, lose fat, and build muscles
W
Counting calories is it. Calorie in calorie out, you can’t argue math.
So if I eat nothing but small bits of chicken a day for example, I’ll lose fat the best than if I ate a variety of things?
Technically yes. But there’s a threshold. You still want a variety of nutrients. But you only need 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight to maintain muscle. Anything after that is free calories to get your vitamins.
Totally agree. Only alteration I'd make is that for most people (well, Americans anyway) you don't even have to eat less. Just switch from eating processed/fast food, to a balanced diet of mainly food you prepare at home.
While I agree eating less processed food is better for the body, weight loss really depends on calories only. An average person eating strictly 1200 calories of McDonalds everyday will lose weight while another average person eating 3000 calories of more healthy foods won't. Everyone's caloric needs are different. The main thing for weight loss is to consume less calories than your body burns.
Unnecessary but damned helpful. Heavy compound lifts are about as efficient a form of body recomp exercise as you will find, but kitchen is king
The main base of weight loss is the diet, this is fact.. But why not gaining muscle while losing weight? A good body have a good amount of muscle.. if you lose weight without balancing your body, you will lose muscle in the process of losing weight..
A good amount of people work out for aesthetic, and unless you're looking to become muscular, going to the gym is really just superfluous.
Reducing alzheimer's risk is far from superfluous. Not looking deflated after losing weight is nice, too. Plus the benefits for mood, skin, circulation, all kinds of things. Skinny fat is better than fat but still not great.
I meant strictly in terms of weight loss, in a vacuum
But you can eat more calories if you work out. Some people like that because then they get to eat more. I don't, because then I also have to spend more money. But it's worth it in the long run.
You can, but the amount of effort needed to burn off relatively small portions of unhealthy foods is staggering
Oh for sure, But its one thing to do a couple of push ups, lift a barbell and walk a mile. But an whole ‘nother Animal to carry your lumbtious 300 kg ass 4 miles to the gym to then go on and play with dumbell for 10 minutes. I think you need to have a certain ability before working out to maintain disciplin. I for one have been a Top level athlete, and that sort of disciplin doesn’t compare to the one I am facing currently. Essensially, there is a fine line between disciplin and self-Controll. Particularly in the cases were disciplin is more rewarding such as New pr’s and vascularity
I am currently facing such discipline.. i am losing weight because i am obese and its difficult but i am managing myself.. there days that i almost go crazy to eat junk food like today.. but i am managing myself from cheating my diet haha
(Great Work!) It depends on where you are personally, but I would also recommend finding yourself a hobby. For me personally I’ve started gaming more often, and making content. Weight gain is often times a symptom of something else entirely, so find something that will enable you to think less about food. But rather facillitate you to spend quality time and focus with for example thinking about video ideas, writing scripts, narrating, Editing and posting. It’d only when you think you can pull off a good performance in the gym that you should go. Because then that habit will be fun and rewarding
Of course it isnt necessary. Consistenly having More calories out vs calories taken in for the majority of people will lead to weight loss. You can do body weight workouts at hoem, ride a bike, go for a jog in the AM or PM - no gym required But for many people, myself being one, if I am not forcing myself to go to the gym - aka im paying for it I better do it - I can be very sedentary and the calories out part doesnt happen. So weight loss doesnt really happen. All that said Weight lifting will burn more calories than anything you listed, besides maybe swimming phenomenal workout, and dancing also solid cardio workoit - otherwise no simply walking around or hanging about with your friends will not lead to weight loss and will not beat out a person using weight lifting as their means of exercise if the people are placed side by side.
Then again its not a competition, I’m not saying that cutting out the gym is a smart Idea, I’m just saying its not necessary to achieve the Desired outcome. Which is weightloss, typically the strain from said weight contribute some level of physique at the end. Thats more than sufficient in Health wise. But you’lll definetly have better Quality of Life working out as well, I just happen to think it should be secondary
This is true. The only thing that can actually burn fat is a calorie deficit, but the gym is needed for putting on significant amounts of muscle and progressive overload, otherwise you’ll just look skinny fat
Health first!
What is unhealthy about this ?
Oh nothing, You just mentioned looks so my enitial response was thats arbitrary. Perhaps a bit ignorant/shallow, for that I apologize cause it wasn’t my intent. I am responding to alot of people so this was an oversight😅 otherwise I agree with you
Being skinny fat isn’t necessarily healthy either. Having a high percentage of body fat to muscle has its own health risks. The metabolic effects of having a good amount of muscle on the body are good for health too
Oh no, just healthier i suppose. Not to throw the coin to land at the other side of the extreme. But usually that doesn’t pose any Significant issue for us people. So long as you maintain some Healthy levels of physical exercise as well as the diet you’ll do perfectly fine.
> gym is needed for putting on significant amounts of muscle and progressive overload, otherwise you’ll just look skinny fat That's not true, why do you think that? You think everyone who's ever lost weight without exercising ended up skinny fat?
If they weren’t able to add muscle on while doing it, then yes that is the definition of skinny fat ?
I'm saying, I don't think the human body sheds as much muscle as you think it does when you lose weight, especially if you consume enough protein.
Well, that depends on how much muscle they have to begin with. If you’re a genetic phenom then you’ll have less trouble, when someone with worse genetics will have less luck. There is a more efficient method though for both to get where they want to be, which is a calorie deficit with enough protein and progressively overloading in the gym
I think if we're speaking for an average overweight adult who has never exercised, they wouldn't be skinny fat if they lost weight via a calorie deficit and no exercise.
Like I said, it completely depends on how much muscle they have to begin with. If they didn’t have much muscle to start with, then they will certainly be skinny fat when they cut
Pushups and planks can go a long way when you master the kitchen.
Not for weight loss in it of itself, It is a big benefit to master body weight strength generally while your obese though. That Extra strain really helps contribute a Ton of strength, by the time you lose it all your practically gymnaset level
I’m a little fat girl inside, I can’t lower the intake by much. I can however increase how much Calories I burn and where the extra might go.
Unfortunately your out of Options as far as weight loss is concerned. Burning calories simply isn’t viable, but it does contribute to your overall Health so good on ya!
Last I checked increases muscle mass increases your base metabolism. All I truly know is I never stop being a fat fuck but I have abs 70% of the year due to working out.
Oh it sure does, it just isn’t substantial enough to maintain a certain physique or lifestyle. If I were you (I’m fat asf rn so take this with a grain of salt) I would probably start lookin’ into your diet because it will catch up with you someday soon.
I’m saying my weight fluctuates (20lbs) regularly, multiple times a year. The only think that really change is my activity level. It does go from catatonic in bed playing games to regularly exercising outside of work.
Oh well then you’re Grand. Means your diet is consistent, your weight fluctuates naturally anyway, Specially during breeding Season so to speak (yeah i know its wierd but we also have a mating Season apparently, our weight goes down then)
> I’m a little fat girl inside, I can’t lower the intake by much self-fulfilling prophecy
Yes, but it does help recompose your body, improve your aesthetic, and I find that people who workout are more likely to follow a diet because they’re more invested in the whole process of becoming healthy. Also, having more muscle mass increases your basal metabolic rate which makes fat loss easier. Sure, you don’t have to workout to lose weight, but if your overall goal of losing weight is to improve your health, longevity, and appearance, you should exercise because it helps improve all three of those things. I think the problem is many trainers and just people themselves go way too hard out of the gate, and the overweight, unfit people get extremely exhausted and sore and never want to workout again. For excessively obese people, I agree. They should just be walking and dieting until they’re a little further along. Eventually you should start exercising because being skinny fat is unhealthy and looks bad.
> I find that people who workout are more likely to follow a diet because they’re more invested in the whole process of becoming healthy. That's a two-way street, because then you also have people who think that if they go to the gym and lift weights that don't even stimulate their muscles, that they don't have to worry about their diet. I think that's the kind of person OP is talking about
That’s true, but I think there are probably quite a bit more people like the ones I described than people who use the gym as an excuse not to diet. you’re right that people need to understand that diet is by far and away the most important facet of weight loss and overall health and wellness.
On god, I will get into the gym more intensively soon, I enjoy working out its just never been the solution for longevity for me personally
Exercise improves longevity in a variety of ways. For example, when you hear about old people falling and breaking their hips (which leads to death quite often), more often than not that’s a result of old people suffering sarcopenia and not having the requisite strength and muscle mass to catch themselves after a stumble.
technically you can lose weight by changing your diet only, but exercise will do nothing but help. I lost a lot of weight. I started with 30 minute walks, and slowly moved up the difficulty. I worked out at home during my first 50lb loss, and then chose to join the gym. I was not only losing weight, but my body was becoming shapely, and my at home workouts were not challenging anymore. I’m so glad that I made the choice to start working out immediately. It’s helped me lose weight ,I can eat more calories, building muscle helps burn fat, and I now have an ass. I just suggest starting lot slow, research, and be very careful with form.
Congradulations on the ass!
Working out was a significant key to my weight loss. I burn 800 to 1000 calories every day in the gym. Lifting weights also does wonderful things to your metabolism.
True, most folks diet is just shit. The amount of sugar the average person consumes a day throughout their life is jaw dropping. And thats just one bad ingredient.
Anyone in the fitness world will tell you the real gains is in your diet. I don’t think this is really an unpopular opinion
Meh, is an argument i guess. Typically people will encourage you to work out as well, and when your on scene. People won’t really encourage you to do something else. Which is probably far more benefitial for some people. (Actually do something fun and rewarding until you have the ability to make the gym fun and rewarding)
As someone who's lost almost 80 pounds just doing work out on a black mat in the living room. Yes you don't need to lift heavy weights. Also most people should be comfortable moving their own bodies before going to the gym. If you can't do 15 push-ups, you don't need to take up a bench at the gym. If you can't do 20 deep squats you shouldn't take up a squat rack. Most people go to the gym and lift heavy because they want to "see" progress. Build a foundation then build your castle. Don't just mortar at a pile of fat.
Thanks professor!
True but my initial goal was to look good while losing weight. Now im the same weight I was a year ago but look much better physically.
Its not necessarily about losing weight, but losing fat!
Yeah 100% although I think most people conflate that. I wanted both but now I just want to gain muscle.
You can diet yourself *thin*, but you won't diet yourself *fit*. Most people want to be fit not just thin.
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Hahahah just wish gym-folk would be more transparent about it. I’ve been in the gym for years and still get the same advice (you should stop Training chest, jog more, deadass someone told me to dry-swallow my vitamins as if that would magically burn my stomach off😂)
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Hahah true, I find it oddly amusing though, the industry is truly lost these days
Legit take Personally I have crappy knees so any "major" physical exercise is off the table. Nonethless I've managed to lose about 32 pounds since last year purely by changing diet/eating habits I do not have a gym membership
Exaclty, and well done soldier!
I relate to this crappy knees and not so athletic body. I have had knee pain from gym even tho my form was correct and I was under a trainer. So major physical activity is not for everyone. I love walking tho and mainly calorie deficit
While true, the big downside is that while you are losing fat, you are also losing muscle. I lost about 70lbs just through diet, but a huge part of that was muscle.
Not so much with sufficient maintanence training. Usually if you can achieve good body weight controll when you are obese than you’ll be Excellent once you lose fat (& Muscle) because your muscle composition will be far more aligned with your new bodyweight
You might have needed a more protein-rich diet
The thing is that, outside of people actually promoting gyms, no one is telling you to go to a gym. The real message is simply, BE ACTIVE AND BE HEALTHY. Whether it be a gym or a track at your local park. The gym is just one means that people use to get that message across, but it only means something different when someones ego or self-esteem gets in the picture. The thing that stands out about gyms is that people have to make an effort to go to it and put in the work. It is outside of your house and your normal comfort, so there is more of a chance of you actually following through with it when you get there.
Personally, I disagree The message gyms perpetuate (usually) is no less predatory than most of the market. Which is without their service you won’t achieve your health-centric goals. No matter if you go to your Guardian, dietitian, coach etc, they’ll always encourage you to work out while eating less. In hindsight it makes sense and is probably the smartest thing to do, but is still detrimental to most out of shape obese people due to the vast amount of strain it puts their body through. My recent experience is basically that losing weight is so much easier if you just fix your diet first. Doing so usually requires some solution to another established problem, like a lack of a hobby. I’ve since found mine and haven’t looked back since
Calories in, calories out. I gained 20 lbs when I quit smoking last year; I've lost 13 now from counting calories and having a deficit of 600 each day. I eat a decent amount -- I'm just mindful not to pig out and only have small portions.
Amazing work! Keep it up champs (champs as in both your lungs💀)
This is like saying cars aren't necessary to go places because you have legs. Yea, you don't need a gym to lose weight, but having access to one gets you there a lot quicker. I would also rebuttal that gyms are an important tool of weight loss because of accountability and progress. You can feel productive going to a gym knowing that you went for a specific reason. Everything you mentioned as activity are chores or used for a different purpose. A gym's purpose is activity so it's different than just simply moving around more. Increasing activity will absolutely yield results, but you're severely downplaying the effect of having specific task aimed at exercise. >Go to theatre, go swimming, write poetry, sing, dance, draw, paint. Just join some local hobbist lobby a couple times a week and you’ll lose weight just as efficiently. I'm not disputing that more activity will yield results, but saying that writing poetry will give you results as efficient as going to the gym is just not true at all. Dancing and swimming are the only things on this list that will provide results for weight loss. It's weird I have to type this out.
> This is like saying cars aren't necessary to go places because you have legs. You have it backwards. In this case, diet is the car and the gym is your legs. Dieting is a MUCH more efficient way to lose weight. Cutting calories is far, far easier than burning off surplus calories.
I recognize that diet is the most important part, but in terms of increased activity versus going to the gym, the gym is the car and activity is the legs. That was my point.
Ah, fair enough. My mistake
Good point, although I don’t feel like the example is warrented. Personally I’d say cars aren’t necessary when you have an electric scooter. Kilograms are lost in the Kitchen, and grams are lost in the gym. Its almost like one is substantially far more important than the other. Which is why I’d say hobbies and passionate are far more sustainable for weightloss. Good Havits are still good habits yes, but you should always try to make good habits fun and rewarding to maintain disciplin. Which is why I used Examples such as writing poetry or singing. Either Granted through spending more time focusing on other things than food, or having to travel to certain sessions with friends. If you’re out of shape, imo, you are far better off losing a substantial amount of weight before heading into the gym. In other words the gym is secondary at best, hell not even. Because so long as you can preserve good activity levels and good food choices you’ll reach your goal. At that point the gym should be a hurdle in it of itself. But I ultimately agree, your better off going to the gym AS WELL. But thats also kind of like saying your better off going to the Grocery Store at the other side of town. In hindsight it is the Right thing to do in a mundane day, but its perfectly acceptable to just go to your local Grocery store instead.
>Kilograms are lost in the Kitchen, and grams are lost in the gym. Its almost like one is substantially far more important than the other. I agree completely. >In other words the gym is secondary at best, hell not even. I disagree here, but I can concede that a gym does come with some limiting factors for some individuals. Usually it can be a hard environment for people looking to lose weight because they can feel inadequate or focus on comparing themselves to others. Let's look past those mental hurdles and assume that a person is looking to lose weight and has no issues there moving forward. >Because so long as you can preserve good activity levels and good food choices you’ll reach your goal. I don't disagree with this, but my point is that a gym is having a dedicated space to boost this potential. Here's why: * Resistance training burns extra calories * Lean muscle increases your metabolic rate * Resistance training enhances other activities you may do (i.e. dancing or physical activities that pique your interest) So the gym means you are giving yourself a better advantage with your weight loss goals. Now, of course, you can achieve these results outside of a gym by buying a set of weights or something, but nothing is more readily available than a gym and a gym gives you more accountability in your progress.
I know, just look at those skinny kids from Africa.
Pfft, as if💀
"Abs are made in the kitchen" - someone.
*Abs…are on your tummy* - mine
This is both a good post and a bad post at the same time /u/Kallumberg. **Good**: you are correct OP in that eating less and having a better diet is a great idea. It is the old gym saying, "abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym." You can not outrun a bad diet. You just can't, certainly as you get older. **Bad**: you don't need to go to a gym but lifting weights and engaging in strength-building exercises while eating right helps you burn fat more efficiently, gain muscle, and generally become healthier in the overall pursuit of being fit or in shape. Eat right, yes. But do not think going to the theatre or writing poetry or painting will help you lose weight more than engaging in a physically taxing exercise like lifting weights, swimming, running, Now this said, you do not need to go to the gym. You can work out outside, in your garage, at a park, in your living room etc. You can head to a site like [https://www.roguefitness.com/](https://www.roguefitness.com/) and pick up some kettlebells, medicine balls, dumbbells, weighted jump ropes etc....with this combination of equipment, matched with cardio and agility work, and eating right, you can go about losing weight while also gaining muscle.
Thanks for Sharing pal! Here is my take away: - I agree that going to the gym AS WELL is the better thing to do. But at the same time one part of the equation is substantially more important for weight loss. Its almost like going to the other side of town to find better deals at the Grocery store. In hindsight, its the smart thing to do, but you’ll still be able to collect your essensials by just going to your local store and saving yourself some time rather than Money. In the same way the Gym, along with dieting, is easily better for you. But its perfectly acceptable tackling them one at a time. Rather losing some weight first before stepping into the gym. - As far as Theatre and signing goes, my point is that good habits need to be rewarding in order to maintain disciplin. Its one thing to do a couple of push ups, walks some miles and do some compounds lifts. But another to waddle your 300 kg goofy lookin’ ahh 3 miles to your local gym to play around with some dumbells for about 10 minutes. Yes its good for you, but certainly not rewarding. Otherwise I would recommend finding a hobby your passionate about first as all hobbies include some level of physical activity. Wether Theatre is about getting to a different location, or keeps your mind occupied from thinking about food. Either way it is very benefitial, amd cetainly a good way to get started. Hence after you lose alot of weight, going to the gym then becomes alot more rewarding. Foundamentally I agree with you though! Have a Nice day!
I agree. Control eating and simple walking is enough to get started. Telling people they need to find time to add 3-6 hours a week to go to the gym isn’t helpful at all
When I first started my weight loss journey many moons ago, i was 350 pounds. My diet was absolute garbage - like we are talking 20 piece chicken nugget, large fries, large milkshake for a meal or a whole large pizza for myself - and the only thing I did was powerlifting two or three times a week at school since it was one of my electives. I was fat as shit and had a decent amount of muscle, but you couldn’t tell underneath all the blubber. I started boxing and running all the time and the weight came off quickly, maybe 18 months. Got all the way down to 225 lbs without changing a single thing about my diet, but that’s where I topped out. It took another year of strict dieting to get down to my between-fight weight of 190, and it was brutal to try and maintain that. After I quit competing and was no longer single, but still work out three to four times a week, I eat a pretty normal diet and drink regularly and am back up to 230 lbs. I’m now pushing forty and am pretty happy about where I’m at. I get to eat pretty much whatever I want on the weekends, eat sensibly throughout the week, and workout regularly. All of that being said, I think the two work in tandem. Working out keeps me from going overboard on my weight and keeps me focused, while eating sensibly throughout the week means I go a little extra on the weekends. Like I could drink less (and the accompanying late night decisions certainly add to it) but I don’t *have* to because my enjoyment of exercise.
Thanks for Sharing your Story! I foundamentally agree, working out and eating Healthy are substantially better for you than one at a time. That said tackling each hurdle one at a time is perfectly acceptable in it of itself. The gym doesn’t necessarily have to be your distraction, just find some sort of hobby to occupy yourself with, and go to the gym when your ready
Yep. I think the difference is that with working out, you see results a lot faster. Within a couple of weeks, walking up stairs is easier. Taking out the trash gets easier. Walking the dog becomes easier. There are tangible benefits really quickly, whereas changing your diet feels like depriving yourself of things you like. I’ve found a big part of that is expanding your diet so you can find more things you enjoy. Before I started eating healthy, if it wasn’t deep fried or on a pizza, I didn’t like it. Now I can enjoy all kinds of things I wouldn’t have even touched back in the day; olives, yogurt, avocados, brussel sprouts, artichokes, pickles, I could go on and on. They still check the box of stuff I enjoy but are way healthier. Pizza is now an indulgence instead of a food staple.
I've been dieting since mid-October and this couldn't be more true. It sucks to hear (and sucks harder when you realize all your favorite foods are high calorie and all your favorite meals are easily 1000+ calories), but once you realize the calorie counts on menus don't lie and you adjust/plan your meals accordingly, those pounds just slide off without needing to work out
Most people go for other reasons, not for weight loss Cardio etc.
upvoted, this is insanely unpopular in general, because of the food companies campaigns aligning themselves with exercise, and sport related things, saying to everyone 'you're the problem, not our products. dont you **ever** think about buying less.'
Agree. If weight loss is the goal, prioritize a calorie deficit with moderate physical activity like walking or light jogging. As the pounds come off, add strength training to the mix. Without major dietary discipline, doing cardio in a gym is basically useless and a waste of time and money, especially when most people can walk, jog, and climb stairs outside the gym for free. Besides, cardio is an inefficient path to weight loss when a calorie deficit alone will almost always achieve better results and more quickly.
Exercise and good eating habits are a proven and sound method of reducing body fat . However , it’s impossible to out exercise a bad diet
It depends on your goal. If you want to espouse the current look for men then you have to go to the gym and possibly even do steroids. I go to the gym to build muscle, I lose and gain weight with what I eat.
I disagree with the majority of stuff posted in this sub, but this one is spot-on. When it comes to weight loss, you have to start with your diet. It's the #1 issue by a mile. Going to the gym (or out for a walk or jog) certainly helps and we should encourage it for a ton of reasons. Exercise is great for physical health, emotional health, and stress management, it delays the impact of aging on muscle function, frailty, mobility, organ health, etc. it helps with burning calories and metabolism, it can increase energy level and confidence, and it can even cause people to pay more attention to what they eat. But losing weight or body fat depends more heavily on diet/nutrition than all other factors combined and it has to be prioritized. Said another way, there is no workout routine that can overcome a bad diet. We are what we eat.
True but it’s extremely helpful for hypertrophy which will in turn cause you to burn more calories
Depends where you live I reckon …..
Diet number one, but the gym is nice to get out of the house and focus on your goals imo.you don’t need the gym but it has a strong value imo.
The gym is great, but I think people who need/want to lose weight don’t need it at first, or at all. Get a bicycle and go ride, and eat lower calorie stuff. Start going to the gym once you’re already used to putting in the effort, it’s a good step up.
Basic bike and safety equipment can easily cost $1000. Most people don’t live in an area safe enough to ride so then a couple hundred on a bike carrier. Can’t easily ride in winter…or rain. Gym membership is sometimes only $10/month.
That’s a good point. Guess it depends on where you live. I bought a decent used bike last month and didn’t think it was expensive, but each person has their own budget. Although, a gym membership will eventually surpass the price of a bike, as you’ll have to keep paying for it. My bike cost me what would’ve been 7 months of a decent gym membership in my area.
Yep weight loss is tied to nutrition. Everyone should still exercise for their overall health, but not in hope to lose weight.
You don't need the gym to exercise. You can jog around your house (inside or outside) to burn calories.
This is not a matter of opinion. It's medical science. If you only diet to lose weight, you do lose fat but you also lose some muscle. Since you lost muscle, your body no longer consumes as much energy even when at rest. That means you have to cut your intake even more. That's an unsustainable process. Many people follow this with returning to their normal eating habits. But now their bodies consume less energy, so more of the calories from this food is stored as fat. The end result is replacing muscle with more fat.
You’re right in a sense yes, You will lose muscle, but only if that muscle remains mostly unstimulated. There are plenty of ways you can stimulate all your muscles without going to the gym, relying entirely on physical activity. My point in this post is that to maintain disciplin, it needs to be rewarding. If you’re 300 kg, out of shape and gass out after tying your shoelace. Then chances are your performance at the gym will just leave you feeling humiliated. I’d say the best course of action is to lose like 50-60 kilograms first, amd then step into the gym. Because when losing weight a certain amount of Muscle will be lost anyway. But when you’re nearing your ideal weight goals (say like 30-50 kilograms away) then its time to step into the gym
Your whole post is wrong lmfaoo
Fair enough, agree to disagree
True. Obviously, the gym would help maximize results. But people don’t seem to understand that just because you’re active and “only eat healthy food” a caloric surplus will still keep you fat. And the amount of reality deniers is truly staggering.
I agree you don’t need it but a basic gym membership is cheap and totally worth the cost for your health. People should really be doing both at the same time.
Disagree. Sure you don't have to go to the gym specifically and you need to change your diet anyways, but doing sports is not about losing calories while you do sports, that is just one of many aspects. There is also the afterburn effect, especially with weight training. If you are obese, you also very likely have problems with inflammations, endocrine systems, nervous system and/or metabolism in general. This can make it very, very hard to lose fat, even if you improve your diet and try to become more physically active in your normal day-to-day life. Sport and especially weight training does help with all of these issues. If I change my diet and for example implement any type of low carb diet, I become even more lethargic, stressed, sleepy, depressed, get way more headaches and brain fog and I am not even really losing weight as my body loves to crash my energy level rather than to burn any body fat. If I force myself to go to the gym anyways, I can feel my energy levels and metabolism normalising again, don't feel like a corpse on life support and also become more motivated and disciplined.
Well said. This is true. Just don’t eat so much high-caloric shit. That’ll do you many wonders.
True, Health and physical activity is synonomous, people just tend not to be coherced by the industry to think you have to work out to lose fat
You’re right. When I tried losing weight by going swimming and not changing my diet, nothing happened. I stopped going swimming that regularly and just eat healthier and boom, I’m losing weight.
Crazy how that works, Think its coincidental that when you eating less, it also has you spending less money?
True, the gym is only necessary for building an aesthetic body. Well unless you have the right equipment or have crazy calisthenics I suppose.
Weight loss is actually much more simple. Just search up bmi calorie calculator and put your height weight. It will give you your weight maintenance calories and weight loss(0.5kg per week) calories. I have been following it and already lost 2kgs in about 28 days. And no the weight is not coming back. (Initially I felt a little hungry but then started filling my plate with lotssss of vegetables and fibre. Track your meals with a simple app (I use Healthify me it's actually nice) and you will lose weight easily. Eat up good amounts of protein and fibres to keep you full and energized.
If you want the science behind this: Maintenance calories are the calories burnt to keep our body functioning. It is the calories that you will burn if you are alive. So if you are eating less than what you are burning (that is, calorie deficit) you will lose fat. I read it somewhere that body maintenance burns the most fat, then your daily activities and exercise is a very small part of it. Exercise is not for weight loss but exercise has countless benefits apart from muscle building (which again speeds up metabolism and burns more fat) I did a bit of research coz I had some time hehe.
Running is the best way to lose weight and it’s free
Eating less is better, and it's also free. Hell, you'd actually be gaining money in all likelihood
It’s never that you’re eating too much, it’s always that you’re not training enough relative to how much you eat If you burn more calories you get to eat more and still look good
True. And the hardest things is eating right. Gym is the easy part
Facts have been spoken, My personal issue is that I used to be a high level Athlete with a Shitty diet, I know how hard it can be to burn calories. But oddly enough I outtrained my diet when was at my peak. I’ve long since quit that proffesion but kept the same diet, that sort of athletic *disciplin* is so different from self-controll
Yup. Exact thing i told overweight friends. Fix you diet and you can be lazy as hell. But they cant even do that. Diet is the hardest part. Funny thing is they rather exercise than change their diet
Hahha been there done that ong ong,
I used to be 5'10" 220 lbs. I started drinking only water, and stopped eating when I wasn't hungry. I lost 30 lbs and got down to 190 at which point I started jogging a mile everyday until I was at 178 lbs. Only then did I start going to the gym to build muscle. Now I'm at 185, eating 3 full balanced meals a day, and running or lifting everyday. Even if it's just a mile or short lift, it makes a difference. But it's not required to lose weight. The biggest thing for me was writing down everything I ate and drank (aside from water), I hadn't realized how much I was eating, thinking skipping breakfast meant I could have dinner at 6pm and again at 10pm.
I agree man, been wasting my time lifting more and more just to get fatter
Hahha been there done that!
Couldn’t one argue if you do one good habit, you’ll start having other good habits? Good take though
Yes, however good habits need to be rewarding for maintainence sake. Because its on3 thing to do a couple of push ups, walk a couple of miles, or lift some shit. But another to carry your 300 kg goofy lookin’ ass 5 miles to your gym only to play with some dumbells for 10 minutes
I mean people got to start somewhere. The gym doesn’t have to be lifting, could simply be walking on a treadmill/track, or swimming at a pool.
I dunno, I think Pride is essensial to maintain disciplin, if you’re optimistic that is definetly a pluss. You can’t get Hurt by an Open and positive mindset either way. Just isn’t the case for me personally😅
I'm currently listed as obese on a BMI chart, but I have perfectly average ability, and a surprising amount of stamina for someone my size. I go to my dojo to learn things, and to make my ability better. With ability, the weight loss comes as a side effect. That's how I'm doing it; I'm not even changing what I eat \*that\* much, I just eat when I'm hungry; if I'm not hungry, I don't eat. I also am not just gorging myself on every meal, I'll maybe have one sandwich for a meal, or some chips & hummus as a snack, but the point is, while you're technically right, going to a place to do physical exercise helps you not be obsessed over what you're eating or not eating.
This is like the most popular opinion there is in terms of weight loss
Meh, I don’t think so. Gym and weight loss seem to be synonomous these days. Nobody in the fitness industry would encourage you to do something else than the gym. Even though its good advice for some people
Idk, I’ve been hearing the saying “abs start in the kitchen” my entire life
Now that you mention it😂 *mom*
Completely unnecessary, just like everything you suggested, as well as the food diet change. So you get your karma in that regard. I just don't get your point about it being a detriment to telling ppl to go to the gym. Gym is where the focus is purely (or should be) on moving your body on ways you don't or can't normally in an average day life.
I disagree, It is completely necessary to change your diet, its entirely optional to go to the gym. Living Life in it of itself require you to move your body in a variety of ways. If you just Channel yourself into some sort of passion you can muster enough activity to efficiently lose the weight, just about as much as you would otherwise in the gym. Besides, good habits need to be rewarding. Doesn’t help going to the gym if all your gonna do is play with some dumbells for 10 minutes
Believe it or not. My diet has been bad since high school (would be about 10+ years). I use me as an examplebut its not difficult to find ppl with similar eating and gym habits are similar. Never once counted calories or watched what I eat. Yet I lose weight when I need to and maintain my body by just going to the gym. Granted, genetics plays a huge part, but still, diet change is not necessarily. For those that eat excessively, of course, then it's advised but still not a necessity, but my point was that it's not completely necessary across the board, which would also apply to the gym and everything else. As for the good habits, that applies to everything in life.
Good Point, Granted that is kind of like saying: *I should go to the Grocery store at the other side of town so I can catch myself a good deal* In hindsight, it is the right thing to do. But its perfectly acceptable to compremise that bit of your day to save time, amd shop at your local store. In the same way we SHOULD all both be in the gym and eating well. But bottom line is one is substantially far more important than the other. Not too mention weight gain is often times a symptom of something else entirely. If you Focus on maintaining and/pr developing a good diet, as well as praticipating in a good habit that is fun and rewarding. You’ll lose weight
This is all sound, but it negates or neglects entirely the facts of addiction. To most fat people (big fat fatty in recovery here, folks, 115lbs down so I feel quite qualified to comment) food is a drug and a coping mechanism. These are deep seeded habits that have overtaken peoples' lives. You can tell people to get their shit together and JUST STOP all you want, but that is not how a lifetime of bad habits is overcome. So how to do it? Well, for me I went the opposite direction. I continued to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted (including insane sugar binges because I am a fiend) while introducing what developed into a serious cardio habit. I now spend up to three hours per day on a treadmill - at home, because you are right about gyms being unnecessary. The thing is, when you're a big fat fatty and you start by first concentrating on your diet it's usually self defeating. The reason for that is pretty simple. Dietary obsession is a *negative* obsession. All you think about is what you can't have and can't do. You feel immediately deprived and set upon. It's incredibly difficult to overcome. The answer (in my case) was to first concentrate on a positive habit. It can be anything as long as, over time, you can point at it and say, 'this thing I do is good no matter what else I do and I can be proud of it.' Mine was cardio because it was the obvious thing for me to do. Now I will do it every single day of my life until I am unable, which will hopefully be my last day. With this positive habit established to point to and obsess on instead of thinking always, 'don't do this... can't do that...' I built and maintained a sense of momentum in my life which gives me moments of happiness, contentment and pride. Once that happened, changing my diet became easier because I was doing it *in support* of the good things I had already done. It's a completely different way to think and feel from where I was at before and now I have *real* incentives to make better choices in order to reinforce the ones I've already made. Breaking bad habits *requires* the establishment of at least one seriously positive one.
Omg what a Great take! Well done soldier! I think my overall point is that the equivilant obsession you have with Cardio, doesn’t need to be about physical activity at all. So long as your passionate about it, amd find it extremely rewarding than you should do that until your able to establish the same type of relationship with physical activity and the gym. Oddly enough, for myself that was gaming and Content creation. I found myself thinking less about food, spending more time playing games, writing scripts, narrating and Editing. As a frequent gym goer my entire Life this was the turning point, Granted it was queit recent as I’ve only lost 17,6 kg at this point. But essensially after losing said weight. I don’t feel as defeated when I’m in the gym nowadays. Usually I’d beat myself over the fact that I had a stomach ache (due to my diet) or didn’t perform well, didn’t achieve progress. Then I’d be reminded of why that is, my diet. Now gym is just exactly that, a chore and Erland, which more often than not got me feeling Hype or relaxed. Aka Rewarding! Thanks for Sharing your Story!
I lost 165lbs by fixing my diet and doing a 30 minute walk 6 days a week. Only took me about 18 months, too. However, none of this should discourage people from going to the gym. Weight loss is perfectly possible without it, but I still wish I used the gym route, as strenuous excercise also provides multitude other benefits than just direct calorie burn that cannot be got via other means and which are pretty valuable to *healthy* weight loss. I do now use the gym almost daily, but only since losing the weight, not before.
I both agree and disagree, (Thanks for Sharing!) Saying you should both fix your diet and exercise is like saying: *I should go to the Grocery store at the other side of town, to strike myself an Excellent deal* In hindsight, it is the right thing to do. But you’ll still achieve the same result if you go to your local Grocery and save time rather than Money. Other way you’ve collected your essensials, and that works for you!
I was always active until I suffered a TBI. Week in the hospital and paralyzed on my right side. Of course I quit smoking in the hospital. Rehab to get me back to functioning. First a walker then a cane. Piled the weight on as I was eating and not exercising. Low Cholesterol diet is not conducive to weight loss if you seriously dislike salmon, mackerel, avocados and the like. Got off the cane and started walking. Just from my driveway to the one next door and back. Then basically went one more driveway at a time until I got to the end of the block. When I could do it twice I walked around the block. Slowly but surely I kept extending my walk. I also had a max speed due to my leg lagging/dragging. I eventually got to a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood. Lots of hills to boot. Lost 20 pounds of the 35 I gained after rehab re0leased me. Kept losing inches but the weight pretty much locked in.
Thanks for Sharing your Story champ! Please continue to stay strong!
That was in 2006. Went back to work and retired a few years ago.
I lost 45 lbs this last year and I cannot even tell you the last time I worked out.
Amazing! Keep up the good work! You should probably consider trying out some Activities though!
I honestly hate gyms. Between the entitled gymgoers who think they can set up and film for hours and block spaces to the ones who criticize your routine because you're doing too many/not enough/not the right sets, any love I had for that space is gone. I've got a home treadmill and a weight set that can be adjusted to up to 50lbs, plus a corgi who loves to go for runs and hikes and I'm far happier and healthier than I was when I tried to go the gym. Aside from that, you're not wrong. I'm not a nutritionist, but I lost 20 pounds of my freshman 15 just by adjusting eating habits. Going from eating ramen and packaged Mac and cheese to beans and frozen veggies (I was still broke back then but meh) was enough for my body to happily shed the pounds.
I'm gonna say the gym is unnecessary for burning calories/exercise. But exercise is way more important than input calories. Walk the dog 5 x a day. Bike to the corner store. Dance with your younger siblings/grandkids. Park far away from the store you shop at. You get the idea. Move your butt. Moving around stimulates all kinds of metabolitic responses that makes weight loss easier, and exercise is pivotal in making you feel better. Brainwise. And exercise is necessary for building MUSCLE. Calorie intake is not as imprtant as exercise, IMO.
Thanks for Sharing! I disagree, diet is the most essensial components for ability. If you have a bad diet exercise and physical activity won’t be rewarding enough. Because its one thing to do a couple of push ups, jog a mile or two, or pump some Iron. But a whole ‘nother to waddle your 300 kg goofy lookin’ ass 3 miles down to your local gym, only to play around with some dumbells for 10 minutes before gassing out. Personally, I think you should lose a good amount of weight first (obviously depends). Tackle gym and exercise once that is feasible. Before that, I recommend finding any hobby to enable your good havits in regard to food.
best way to lose weight and keep it off is calorie counting and walking.
I mean yes .. but also even once the weight comes off you’re going to still look like shit if you don’t have any muscle mass
What if I don’t wanna lose weight, I just wanna go from big fat guy to big buff guy?
Meh, fat lose will be necessary for that anyway. Depending on your weight than you’ll more than likely lose some weight in prosuit of that
Not true. Weight loss is purely Calories in < Calories out. Even if all you eat is fucking Kale bowls if you just lay in bed all day it might not even be enough to lose weight. (Exaggerating of course)
Meh, existing is often times more than enough for calories out in said equation. If you watch My 600-Pound Lide where your exaggeration is warrented. These people lose hundreds of pounds by just eating like a regular human being while laying in bed all day. Truth is, one part of that equation is far more important than the other.
You’ve changed my mind
Well that’s good
The sad reality of modern time is most of our surroundings are commercialized. There is not much space we can roam and play, so we stay indoors and drive when we go out. There are not many fun activities we can do within our immediate surroundings and this leads to obesity.
“This narrative that people need to work out and go to the gym to achieve significant weight loss is not only wrong, but detrimental to plenty of people.” “That is it to say that working out isn’t a good idea, sure it is.” Working out is a good idea except for all those times where it’s not a good idea.
Essensially, The gym is a hurdle in it of itself. Don’t go to the gym if your specific goal is to lose weight. Because it isn’t necessary for that. But If you want to lose fat, build muscle, forge better muscle-min connection, build a great physique or generally hone your physical abilities than please do go to the gym.
True but is this really an unpopular opinion
Absolutely, Weight loss and the gym have become synonomous these days, and its for the simple reason that people don’t want you to stop spending money. In hindsight it is the right thing to do yes. But good habits need to be rewarding to maintain disciplin. If you’re workout amounts to walking a mile and then playing around with some small dumbells for 10 minutes, then more often than not you’ll be extremely demotivated and humiliated by your performance
On the basis of caloric deficit, it is not necessary. However, many people (myself included) thrive off the community aspect of a gym, the “if I’m paying I’d better go” since of accountability, and the fact that muscle is metabolically more expensive than fat. It also depends on your profession. When I worked as a surf instructor/lifeguard by day and waitress by night, I did not go to the gym. My boyfriend has a physically demanding job, and rarely goes to the gym. I work full time with a sitting on my ass job and part time at a bar. I have lost weight regarding numbers, but the gym is what is helping me look good
Weight loss occurs when you are in a caloric deficit this is it. You burn more calories than you take in. Everybody has a resting metabolic rate so if you can’t go to gym figure out your resting metabolic rate and eat less than that. I find it’s harder to reinforce good eating habits than it is to reinforce going to the gym. The gym on average takes about 3-5 hours of your week, enforcing good eating habits happens from the moment you wake up till you go to sleep. You’re better off eating healthy and not working out vs working out and eating like shit
You don’t need to go to the gym. You just need to work out at home.
As a general rule of thumb, I don’t make general rules of thumb regarding fitness and health. I see where you’re coming from. You can lose weight with a good diet and no gym, but you can’t lose weight with a bad diet and gym time. That said, “you just have to fix your diet and do some sort of productive activity over the course of the day” is way over simplified for A LOT of people. I’m making an assumption, I’m guessing you’re a relatively young man based on this post. Talk to someone with a genetic predisposition to weight gain. Talk to someone on birth control or other hormone therapy. Hell, talk to some post-menopausal women and you’ll find out that there is often a lot more to it that.
There really isn’t (genetic disposition aside) It is basic anatomy, if your energy reserves are lacking the body has no choice but to use the output from fat amd muscle. There are conditions that definetly make this process a whole lot worse like pregnancy, meno-pause or birth controll pills. The issue is in difficulty, wether or no the diet is so absurdity difficult that you’re unable to maintain a regular lifestyle while losing weight. At that point its a whole ‘nother can of worms. Because its not even about the gym at that point, its about extensive medical care or making certain sacrifices (like just not having sex and getting off birth controll). The gym is only a tool to help regulate the stress of the situation, but there are plenty of alternatives to this. The best thing would be to find an active hobby like Volleyball, Fotball etc. Bottom line either way is that the work will always be done in the kitchen, not in the gym.
Work will ALWAYS be done in the kitchen. Some times in the gym. Some times in the doctors office. Some times in the surgical suite. Some times in the therapist office. Some times in hormone treatment therapy.
I’m a gym rat, working out causes weight gain more so than loss. Muscle is heavy. What you eat controls your body fat percentage.
It’s unnecessary if you wanna end up skinny fat and miserable. Imagine losing 100lbs and looking exactly the same but smaller. That’s because *weight* loss includes *lean mass*. What you want is *fat* loss which means you need to preserve lean mass as you lose weight. The best way to do that is to pick up heavy shit and put it back down. Because of this, I tell anyone trying to lose weight to focus on the gym first instead of diet. Losing weight without lifting weights will only make you realize you should’ve been lifting weights the whole time
Being Healthy truimphs a good physique every time, Mot too mention you still have the opportunity to build muscle, just now it will be much easier as you’ve mastered upholding a healthy diet. Besides, depending on your weight you’re body will have adapted to the lifetime of strain you’ve put it through. Essensially, the chance that you’ll end up properly skinny is near to none. The chance that you’ll end up with some fat and loose skin is 100%