There is a difference between being thin and being in shape.
If you want to get thin, do like some women, smoke a pack a day.
When I was overweight, I could run flat-out for pretty much as long as I wanted, above the recommended heart rate. Never lost weight doing it. Running is way overrated.
Both help. Exercise and diet together are my secrets to having a youthful, lithe, strong body in my mind forties. One without the other has never brought long term results as much as the combination. This article is really lacking a full spectrum picture. I love how you mention ALL the exercise you did and then said it was the food. It is about calories in and calories out. They work together. Your comment is a good example.
Here it is:
Diet and exercise go hand in hand. Trying to lose weight on just one or the other usually gets minimal results.
What is this wonderful piece of equipment you ask? I shall tell you.
The Couch Machine!
Its like Bowflex, but better!
I notice the meat of the article goes counter to the headline. Most of their exercisers eat, and eat junk, after the exercise. Yes diet is an important part of the equation, but exercise CAN help you drop weight as long as you don’t take the diet soda drinker approach (”I exercise/ drink diet soda so now I can eat that extra BigMac and apple pie”). It’s got to be part of a whole body whole mind whole life change.
Weight loss is best achieved by restricting calories, plain and simple. For ALOT of people, this alone would go far in making them healthier, simply because so many people are obese.
Exercise is great, however, in that it adds its own benefits, and if you REALLY want to change your shape, you need to do some kind of resistance exercise to shape, tone, and grow the muscles.
It doesn’t matter what I eat or don’t eat. If I don’t exercise, I blow up like a balloon, not a look that I like. When I broke my foot last year I gained 15 pounds and I had to up the exercise to get rid of it as soon as it healed. It’s like brushing your teeth, you just have to do it.
It must be different for different people. Years ago, I taught aerobic dance 5 days a week. I ate whatever I wanted, and I kept my weight at 117 with 17% body fat. Literally, I ate ANYTHING in ANY amount. My diet was terrible. I quit teaching aerobics and stopped exercising. My weight ballooned. I have lost weight in years since then dieting, but it’s difficult to keep off.
I think it’s likely a combination, and calories do matter, however metabolisms are so different that some people CAN eat more calories than others and not gain the same amount of weight.
Light exercise probably doesn’t help much, for most people (altho it certainly doesn’t hurt).
Fat doesn’t start to burn off fat until you have been working hard for about 3 hours. That is when your sugar reserves are gone. Watch “The Biggest Loser” on TV and you will see them working their butts off (literally) as they burn 6000-7000 Calories a day but take in only 1500.
I combine exercise with eating and drinking. Lifting the donuts to my mouth and chewing is a lot of work. Also, always keep your beer glass full so that you lift more on each swig.
Working out won’t make you thin. But it will add to muscle mass and that eats more calories than fatty tissue. Between working out and eating less you will lose weight and feel better, too.
But ultimately it comes down to burning more calories that you consume.
In February 2005, my doctor diagnosed type 2 diabetes, based on an elevated A1C level and nerve damage (neuropathy) in my feet and legs. He handed me a few copied sheets of a “diabetic” diet and a prescription for a glucose meter. I was 60, weighed 245 pounds, and was taking 3 BP drugs, Lasix, and gabapentin for the damaged nerves.
The meter showed me that in addition to desserts and anything containing sugar or HFCS, rice and potatoes were my worst enemies, with bread and pasta not far behind. Based on that knowledge, I decided that the diabetic diet was NOT appropriate - I could do better on a low-carb/low glycemic diet instead. Over the next six months I lost about 10 pounds, and reduced my A1C back just within normal range.
But the neuropathy remained, and even worsened over the next 3 1/2 years, and my weight remained at about 235. My neuropathy made running - or even vigorous walking - impossible, because I could not keep my balance. And I began to have arthritic pains in my hips and legs that were bad enough that I started taking Celebrex, to be able to walk up stairs. The Dr. told me that my hips were OK, but my lower spine was in bad shape for my age. He prescribed physical therapy to try to lessen the pain.
The therapist gave me some mobility exercises, and also put me on a recumbent stationary bike and a treadmill for a few minutes each. That was where I discovered that I could use a treadmill without fear of falling, which was a constant fear walking in my neighborhood.
My wife and I joined the Jewish Community Center (at the “senior couple” bargain rate) on August 1, 2008. I weighed 235, and I could walk 3 mph for 20 minutes with the treadmill level, but I had to sit and rest afterward for 10-15 minutes to recover - NOT a problem any more.
Yesterday - and every day but Saturday and the Jewish holidays - I “walked” 1.77 miles in 35 minutes on an elliptical machine (504 calories) and I walked 2.81 miles on a treadmill in 35 more minutes, at 13% elevation (617 calories.)
I weigh 170 (down 65 pounds,) and plan to take off another 10 pounds. My feet are still numb, but but the neuropathy in my legs seem to have improved somewhat. My glucose readings average under 100, morning and night, but if I cheat on my diet it can jump 40 points - like last week, when I had three servings of (breaded) fried catfish.
I have discarded my support hose, beta blocker, and lasix, and reduced dosage of the alpha blocker, because my BP was dropping too low with the increased exercise and lost weight. The lowest was 74/42, but since adjustments it stays above 85/48, which does not bother me at all.
Other than the low-glycemic constraints, I do NOT diet, in the sense of counting calories or planning meals. I am VERY hungry after workouts, but an apple and lots of water fixes that.
I will be 70 in about 6 weeks, and feeling pretty good about it.
Does anyone know the formula for toning up, rather than bulking up? Reps, length of time?