Me new! Am I doing it right?

S

SoWhyMe

New member
Hi, I am new to these forums so hello all! I need some help.

I have started new exercise around 1st December last year, and started off slowly doing 40 mins cardio. I am now doing 65mins on X-Trainer and 40mins on Bike, and sometimes add 20mins Rower. I do this in the evening after work on empty stomach. I do it straight through with no stopping. I manage to do 6 days a week, and I rest the other day, so it is 6 days on 1 day off, 6 days on, 1 day off, etc. I seem to be able to do this, but it is really hard work. I can keep at this level however.

I try and limit my calories per day to no more than 1500kcals, and I spend 500 of those for my breakfast, 500 for lunch and then 200-300 2 hours after my exercise in the evening.

I am losing weight, but very slowly. Considering I am doing SOOO much exercise, I thought I would be losing more than 1lb a week. I weight 235lb, 5'11", 30 years old, and am not that unfit (I think!!).

Can someone suggest where I am failing? .. maybe when my fitness level gets higher, I can do more intense exercise. I already go flat out with heart rate at minimum of 180bpm, so not sure what else I can do :-(
 
you only need to get your heart rate up for 20 minutes a day (usually 30 minutes on an exercise bike will do it). That's it. DOn't do more than you have to. Best if you do it before your first meal.

Otherwise - check your calories closely. You may be taking in more than you think.
 
2 hours of flat-out exercise with no food in your system for the last 5-6 hours does not sound like a particularly wise plan to me.

I second the suggestion that you might be undercounting calories. With your stats and that exercise level, you've got at least 3,000 calories at maintenance, and maybe as much as 3,500. So a 3-4 pound per week deficit. With 6-7 weeks of that, I'd expect at least a 15-pound loss.
 
And seriously man, look into the "target heart-rate" thing. If you can pull it off in the morning, you'll see incredible results. You DONT have to over-exercise. Maintaining your target heart-rate for 20 minutes will be a BREEZE for you since you're used to so much. You'll think you're doing too little.

I hate to see people kill themselves and get burned out when you really only have to do 30 minutes on a bike.
 
Phew.. that's a relief.

Hi, thanks for your posts. It does make sense what you say. I thought I may have been doing a bit too much.

I will try and do half of my exercise in the morning, maybe I will increase the intensity but reduce the duration to move in line of what you recommend, and do the same in the evening.

I think there may be some stealth calories that I am not counting in my coffees I have throughout the day, and where I am sitting at a desk, it just sits in my belly doing nothing! I think I will switch to drinking water throughout the day, and maybe have just one black coffee in the morning to perk me up before the exercise! :willy_nilly:

It does seem like a shame not to make the most out of the time I get to exercise, as I do manage to do the cardio with relative ease. I think it is because I am very strong headed, so I ignore the BUURRN!

I am against fad diets, so I don't want to go down this route. I will also write down EVERYTHING I eat from now on!
 
Also, I think the reason I can do so long is because I watch roughly 5 episodes of the Simpsons every time I go to the gym. I started at series 1 and now am at series 17! What am I going to do when I run out of Simpsons! Aaaah!
 
At frist glance of your stats it looks like you are eating too little.

Your metabloism will be crawling along as your body is in starvation mode.

I you don't want to increase calories, at least spread your food out in to more meals.
 
yah your doing your dieting part 100% wrong...

3 meals a day for 500 calories each is bad, if you want to break it down to 1500 calories a day your going to want to eat 5 meals per day of 300 calories... I would honestly eat a little more than that At your age height and weight I would be roughly under 2k calories per day within 5 meals.

I would also suggest drinking 1-1.5 galons of water also...
 
I just got home from the gym tonight, and my intention was to do less exercise today. I done more :-( ... I get past the burn and then I can just go on and on. I won't say how much I did, but it was much more than I normally do. It was because I had a burger from McDonalds, so I decided to punish myself and done 600cals more exercise than normal!! :reddevil:

Was it the wrong thing to do?

I am a little confused now, because everyone's advice is really helpful. I am not sure whether I should eat less and exercise less, or exercise the same and eat more, or carry on as I am doing. :ack2: :chillpill:

I think my body will eventually realise that I am not going to give in this time, and my metabolism will speed up. This is where I think it makes sense that I should make sure I eat the correct amount of cals considering the exercise I am doing. I just never feel hungry when I come home from the gym, and after my breakfast, I don't really feel that hungry throughout the day. I need to ask my vet to make sure I am not a polar bear that is supposed to be in hibernation at the moment!! .. because their metabolism falls asleep for 6 months too!

:confused:

I do appreciate everyone's comments!!
 
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Wow.

Well, I can tell you my experience over the past few days. I was eating about 1900 calories a day, working out by walking in the mornings (burning about 350 calories), and drinking a gallon of water. I calculated my BMR, and it told me I was burning about 3300 calories a day (I'm "lucky" that I naturally burn a lot as an obese male).. Anyway, I lost about 8 pounds in 5 days.

So I figured great, let's up the ante. I ate about 1600 cals a day, kept water the same, and did hardcore elliptical and swimming workouts, burning around 600 - 700 calories. Like you, I felt like I had infinite energy, which felt great. When I stepped on the scale: I gained a pound. That pound hung around for three days of working out like this.

I went back to about 1900 calories, and walked only 400 calories, and the pound came right off.

Weight loss happens when you're not looking. You have to literally trick your body into thinking you have more than enough food, and that you're not really working too hard, so it doesn't go into "neanderthal" mode and hoard calories while working really hard, as mentioned above.

That's me anyway...
 
I've also found you will only lose weight if you love yourself. You never need to be "punished" for a relapse. Just call it a relapse, meditate on the billions of dollars of advertising hypnosis that got you to eat at McHeart Disease, and drink some water. Swear under your breath. Call someone and complain about the hypocrisy of our culture. But don't beat yourself up...

If you really want some motivation to avoid McHeart Disease and Diabetes King, watch Fast Food Nation. Netflix or blockbuster should have it. Gritty stuff, finding out what's in the meat...
 
I think you are right. I should ease up a little. I am sure the exercise can't be doing me any harm, though, right?

Five years ago, I was very, very, fit. Then I broke my back when my car fell off the jack when I was underneath it repairing the exhaust.
:svengo:

Five years later, I have lost some of my fitness and gained 70lbs!
:banghead:

I always assumed that the body must be getting it's energy from somewhere whilst exercising, so the more I exercise, the more fat I burn. Now I know different.

I suppose the good news is that I am gaining my fitness, not putting on any more weight (in fact, losing it very, very slowly), and eating relatively healthy (apart from the McIncident).

What benefit does drinking so much water give to the body? I always make sure I am not too dehydrated... but I will start to drink lots more water.
:drool5:

I suppose if I mutiply (52 weeks x 1lb weight loss) = lots of lbs. So I should just be patient. Also, if it comes off slow like this, maybe it won't catch up and jump on me as quickly as before?? .. I reckon this is the problem most people have really. Psychologically expecting weight to fall off when doing something so drastic. But again, the saying, "do everything in moderation", rules the conversation once again!!
 
I've found that the body only has four 'metabolic' moods: horny, hungry, sleepy, and I don't wanna die (panic).

When you work out too hard, your body goes into the "we're being chased/we are chasing" phase, where survival is on the line. I *believe* that at this instance, you are riding on adrenaline and slef-synthesized opioids, and the extra energy you are getting is from glycogen, derived by breaking down musculature. Who needs muscle tissue? If we live/get steak out of this, we can rebuild muscle later, says your body.

Fat loss, metabolically, is different. It's a calorie deficit, to be sure, but it's got to be calm... relaxed.... do not crave adventure and excitement.

Water? WATER? Several reasons to drink ENOUGH (not "so much", as you say)

If you're obsessive/compulsive about calories, drinking cool water will burn calories to heat it up so you can use it. I think you can squeeze 50 - 150 calories a day out of this little trick. Aside from that, if you are losing weight, you need to flush the metabolic waste of the converted fat out of your system. What's the point of vacuuming if the bag is full?

Finally, water is essential for your life's metabolic processes. Not Coffee, vodka, Mr. Pib, or Gatorade. WATER. Breakfast of champions.

Imagine a field on a hill clogged with horse shit. That's your colon. You want to rinse off the field. First, do you use pepsi? No, you use water. Second, do you want the garden hose, or the fire hose? The fire hose please... Drinking enough water is THE basic way to detox the body. My personal weight loss adventure began with water consumption...

Drink half your body weight in ounces. If you're 200 lbs, that's *almost* a whole gallon.
 
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