Musings on exercise.

O

ocd

New member
I am somewhat new to this forum but have been lurking and posting here some over the past little while.

So I've been on a nine and a half month journey of weight loss. When I set out my goal was 180 pounds. Some magical number I created in my imagination of what someone 6 foot 1 and a half should be to be based on other people I knew, BMI, those sorts of things. As of March 15th I met that goal, for a total of 160 pounds lost from 340 down to 180. In this process I discovered this was just a first step to a much longer process reshaping my body into what I want it to be.

I had been keeping a pretty intense calorie deficit and cardio routine particularly in the later months of my progress, to the point of diminished performance starting to set in. Not being able to keep the pace I was used to, and through a combination of that and a bad new pair of ill fitting runners that left my feet beat up and one of my toe nails completely detached with a blister underneath it, with last but not least the onset of another chest cold thrown on top, I reluctantly decided to take the advice one of the forum members here gave me.

I decided to take the first extended break from hard cardio I have had in 9 1/2 months and recover a bit. This experience has been interesting for me in that it's illuminating how an exercise routine shapes your life. I thought to myself okay, I am going to take two weeks and rest like it was suggested, eat maintenance to slightly lower than maintenance calories, and just relax.

Now I am on my third day without putting in time running, and I am already pretty much stir crazy, overloaded with more energy than I know what to do with, and talking myself in and out of less and less time till I restart my routine and push for another 20 pounds of loss.

It just kind of strikes me so funny and I felt like I wanted to share that in some way. The way it changes your state of mind and the things you learn along the way about accomplishment. That it really is that simple to get anything you want out of life, you just have to go and get whatever you want.

Anyway, as I sit here bored senseless by all my old hobbies that led me to a life of being overweight, I just felt like posting that thought.
 
Hey OCD,

Really nice progress. You must be happy about that. If not, I think it is time that you congratulate yourself for a well-done job. I can tell you are stressed. I think that taking time off is a great idea. I used to wonder whether I was addicted to fitness at many points in my life. I used to work out 5 days a work solid and then on the weekends, I sort of got "edgy."

From what you are saying about your body (toes, etc), you have been running pretty "hot." I think it is time to take a break. You may be surprised to discover that it may be your calorie deficit that caused the greatest weight loss. The running program is very intoxicating and is a sort of a "fix."

There is nothing wrong with the old hobbies. They are not what made you fat to begin with. Don't be afraid of them. They are part of you too.

Hang in there
 
I didn't mean to come across as inherently negative, I may have, as I tend to be a little bit of a clinical and dispassionate speaker, and typist as it were.

I am definitely happy with my progress thus far, if a little guilty of not enjoying it as much as I could be out of the never ending ambition for more progress. That in itself is the surprising part to me, as being lazy and complacent was what led me to stay overweight for so long.

What I wanted to get across was how much an exercise routine did for me mentally aside from what it did physically to change my life. I find it changes your whole outlook on life and makes you look at things as attainable where you may have convinced yourself they were out of reach in the past. It's been a wonderful year for me in learning that most things that are out of reach are only that way because of us believing they are.

I suppose I wanted to share that out of the wish that others could find the same thing for themselves in it. Or perhaps just see if others relate and already have.
 
Interestingly, one of the things that seems to be coming out of studies is that exercise itself has little impact on overall weight loss except that it helps keep people on track with their diet. I.e. if you work out regularly, the physical weight may not be greatly affected but your mental ability to stay on track is improved.

Mind and body - all entangled ;)
 
Hey Jeanette,

I would like to see references or links to any reports that you have come across that show "that exercise itself has little impact on overall weight loss except that it helps keep people on track with their diet."

This is so contrary to what I used to believe but now find to be so intuitive.
 
In regards to exercise having little impact on weight loss, perhaps in situations where you are talking about very little exercise, such as say walking once or twice a week.

I have to doubt however that if you are putting in 6 days a week of hard exercise that it has no effect.

I mean common logic proves that it does. You take an Olympian like Michael Phelps and his diet, he eats more than I did in a day when I was overweight and look at him. Granted he is putting in so much effort that it dwarfs that, but still the concept is the same.
 
I'll go looking for some of the studies and I'd also like to point out that I'm not speaking in absolutes. However, in general, people aren't Olympic athletes so their methods of weight loss or maintenance aren't likely to be that useful to 'normal' people ;)

I'm not a study magnet and tend to collect data from sites of people who do read all the studies like Lyle McDonald and Alan Aragon so I'll put an additional disclaimer that I am funneling to you information I have gathered from sources I trust and not directly from reading medical journals.

Also, I don't want to suggest that there's something negative about exercising or that it's somehow pointless - I go to the gym 2-3 times a week (I'm a wimp compared to OCD! :D) and find there are many health benefits to exercise - it's just not a big factor in my weight. Then again when you think about it - which is easier, burning off 500 calories in a gym, or eating an extra 500 calories of cheap Easter candy like the Reeses Peanut Bugger eggs which are so nummily delicious...

Realistically you can contribute to your caloric deficit by exercising - but if you don't keep your diet in line you probably have to be working out like an Olympic athlete.

Here's the one that made the news about exercise not making you thin - although the biggest article about it made it sound like exercise is worthless.



Here's a random one I found:



This one is interesting, although it was a combination of diet & exercise, however it seems to be saying that the intensity of the exercise really didn't seem to matter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top