Life The Getting in Shape Thread

[Roflkopt3r]

Yakult (cultured milk) and yogurt really help in weight management and overall internal health since it keeps your digestive system in optimum performing capacity.

For me more than anything else it helped to have a very solid daily routine and to get up very early. Also, to follow the saw not to eat late in the evening/not much in the evening in general.

 

[Jorge D. Dragon]

I'd really say that count calories and drop the ammounts of food drastically won't get a person somewhere unless the person is a beast. To manage one's weight and get in shape people should eat practically the same at the begining, maybe a bit less (depends on the person), but the person should clearly increase their training more and more. Loosing weight and gaining muscles is a challenge in some way.
About dropping weight for about 20-30 kilos in 6 months... that's possible, though it would be a bit of a shock to the body. If the person has actual time to run I'd say it will help, especially if the person can manage mycrazy program of running from 4 up to 10 kilometers a day + wallking from home to university (or work) and back. With just this I managed to drop about 6 kilos in 2 weeks even without managing my normal food income.

 

[Zeltrax]

So basically, I should work on my stamina and lose weight, then try to gain muscles or something similar to that..?
Anyway, walking back from my school to my house is a good idea that I've thought of, I'll try when school doesn't realizes late.
I don't drink, but I do drink quite a lot of sugar drinks.
To put it short, I'm an overweight person with a lot of unhealthiness in me and I have to start to change to become a healthier person.
So is it recommended to run or is it better to do those exercises, or both..(whew..that'll be exhausting for me)?

 

[blai]

Start by walking a lot, then switch to running shorter distances, then longer, and then add additional exercises I'd say.

Don't drink any sugar drink at all. Switch to herbal tea, water, fruit juice (sugarless).

And have patience.

 

[Jorge D. Dragon]

Yes, it's the best. It isn't nesesary to push yourself too hard, but anyway you should progress even for a little every day, every week and you'll surely see progress in a month or two.
Of course it would be better to quit soft drinks and food with many calories, but the thing is you don't need to quit it in a moment. First you should reduce for some degree, than more and then quit completely. The drinks can be quited in one go, but instant quiting other food will make a shock for your body, so it should be slower, but actually making healthier food list. Though I'd say not the food itself is important, but it's ammount.

If there is a posibility to swim you can try it. This summer I was running and walking + swimming every day and even though I was eating in McDonalds every day and eating chips at home I didn't gain any weight.

 

[Roflkopt3r]

So is it recommended to run or is it better to do those exercises, or both..(whew..that'll be exhausting for me)?

Exhausting is good, how else is it supposed to work?
Muscles need an impulse to grow, they have to be challenged to the best amount possible. This is best done with the proper exercises, because they make sure that all the strain works on the muscles. If you don't execute them properly, a lot of the impulse will often go on bones and sinews, which obviously isn't healthy, will hurt and will minimise the training effect.

An example for dumbell training: The dumbell has to be lowered very slowly. That's really working on the muscle. If you drop it quickly instead, that has two negative side effects:
-It won't be a slow, constant strain anymore, but a sudden peak when you catch the weigth again. This goes on links, bones and isn't good for the muscle at all
-Muscles get the most impulse when they're working without a single break and go into the unaerobic area (I'm not certain if I use the right term here, but 100% about the method)

Especially for simple excerises like dumbell counts: Do as many repertitions once you're in the area when you actually think that you can't do a single one anymore. It's a common technique to have somebody slightly assisting your movements, once your muscles can't work anymore, to have the best training effect. But always make sure to do proper movements.
Also, muscles are better in countermotion than in motion. Even if you can't raise a dumbell another time, the muscles will still be able to slower the downwards motion. Let's say you're using a dumbell on one side only and the biceps is totally at it's limit already, you can assist the upwards motion with your other arm, and only let the biceps do the downwards motion.

If you really can't do both at once, then better start with running or biking for stamina, until you got used to that part, before adding muscle exercises.

Let's just say it's good that you've been drinking sugar drinks up until now. Dropping them already lowers the amount of useless calories you're gaining instantly

 

[baboysai]

yeah its good to drop the sugar drinks.

I don't drink soda/cola, I haven't been drinking it for 8 years now. Changing it to Juice (in fast food) turned out to be quite expensive here. And until about two years ago I drank flavored drinks and tea all the time, and still ended up dehydrated (because of my salt intake). The doctor told me pure water and drinks had different hydrating effects so I dropped that too. Besides, there's a lot of sugar in commercial drinks.

The juices that I can drink now are full-strength fresh juices. Also, flavored drinks or really diluted ones are just added sugar with much of the nutrients and antioxidants gone.

 

[thornofcarrion]

My two cents, its also depends upon genetics. When I was younger, I used to have so much cola and sugar drinks. I used to put lumps of butter on the toast...hope you get my point but I never gained a pound. Same happened with my father when he was young. But for last year a two, I have gained weight. Even though I avoid sugar, skip a meal a day, avoid cola drinks, nothing seem to helped. I walked a lot briskly, that didn't help. Perhaps playing different sports all my life required a little more from me. Anyway, my father had the same issues and he gained weight when he reached the same age as I did. I have seen people who when eats, make me think, they must have some metal parts to digest. They literally abuse the word eating >.>, but they don't gain the weight proportional to the butchery they called eating.

I have again started some rope skipping, push-ups, crunches, etc. I will work my way to some weight exercises in couple of days. At the moment, I am just sticking to light-normal workout.

 

[baboysai]

It may be genetic but more a matter of age and metabolism, thorn, in your case.

I mean, we all ate a lot of chocolate and butter and candies and cake when we were kids. Of course as we get older, there will be more restrictions.

 

[thornofcarrion]

It may be genetic but more a matter of age and metabolism, thorn, in your case.

I mean, we all ate a lot of chocolate and butter and candies and cake when we were kids. Of course as we get older, there will be more restrictions.

I am not that old and I am talking about a time frame of one year or so. Off course age matters, but again a person lives next to me who is 60+ and he eats all the time. Yet he is thin and has been like that forever.

 

[Zeltrax]

+ wallking from home to university (or work) and back. With just this I managed to drop about 6 kilos in 2 weeks even without managing my normal food income.

...How long do you take to walk from uni to home? and how many kms are we talking about here..? I've been walking for 3 days now for 1 hour from my school to home but I don't run.. I wonder if it is any use though.

 

[steelwingcrash1]

...How long do you take to walk from uni to home? and how many kms are we talking about here..? I've been walking for 3 days now for 1 hour from my school to home but I don't run.. I wonder if it is any use though.

Walking is the same as running, although the latter burns the calories more. But I am sure that your walking for one hour will definitely get you in shape. However, if you have just been doing that for three days, the effect is still not yet visible. Continue that for several weeks and try to maintain a healthy diet alongside that form of exercise, and most probably, the effects will finally start to reveal themselves.

It would be, of course, better if you can add more forms of exercise to that one. Why not do from your home going to school? You might get sweaty, yes, but it'll do you a whole lot better.

 

[baboysai]

well ideally brisk walking for an hour would be equivalent to jogging for 30 minutes... at least that's what I read.

So I never stopped under an hour when I tried to lose weight the first time. It was the best thing to do since I was new to exercise, I was fat and heavy that time so I couldn't really jog as I had no stamina too.

effects from walking for an hour a day, plus a no-rice, low-starch (no cakes, white breads, etc), low-sugar (no ice cream, no artificial juices, no sodas) diet showed results in two months. then I relaxed a little bit on the diet and increased my exercise to make up for it, since I also built a little stamina and felt lighter to do more things.

 

[blai]

Well, walker or runner, you'll get most benefit if you aim for thirty to sixty minutes a day. It doesn't have to be all at once — three or four fifteen minute blocks through the day is just as good.

There's going to be much less injury associated with a low impact exercise such as walking, and that's why we can advocate walking for
a lot of people, especially if they're overweight or have a cardiovascular condition, they're still going to get a lot of benefits from a brisk walk

The impact of running on your joints can be more than three times your body weight, every step is triple the impact of walking. You have to train your body to get used to the jarring. Ultimately for walking or running — find your level, then build up slowly and the benefits will come, both in weight loss and general health.

And when your body is used to running, after you've slowly increased the strain during your walking/short runs which'll make it easier for you to run for longer distances you will see the real results.

In terms of weight loss, running wins hands down over walking. In general, you have to walk nearly an hour, to get a similar weight-loss benefit to a half hour run. So continue like you do now, and then increase slowly. It's an exponential increase of calories burned and distance/speed you've moved.

 

[steelwingcrash1]

In my home area in Manila, I cannot do walking nor running as my form of exercise because there are lots of trucks and buses in front of our house unless I want to be hit and smashed my brains to molecules. As a substitute for that exercise, I walk up and down our stairs instead. I do it for 30 minutes every day after I get back to work from school.

I recommend doing that exercise because you have no costs at all! Plus, you'll definitely sweat a lot due to the gravity you are opposing in just going up the stairs. I'm planning to adding weights on my going up and down the stairs.

 

[baboysai]

I just can't stand doing that kind of exercise I get bored out of my mind, really. Even treadmills kill me because I can't stand being in one place. >.<

That's why I like walking (in Makati, steel, and UP/Ateneo campuses in the metro) or jogging or swimming- I get to go places and see people and different scenery.

That, or Billy blanks

 

[steelwingcrash1]

I'd kill myself if I start running in our damned street of ours so I guess I have no other choice left than to walk up and down the stairs. But hey, it's still fun! I always listen to music so that I don't become too conscious of the time I'm working.

Music is definitely a very useful aid in exercising. It lets me become unmindful of the time. You wouldn't realize you'd have exercised 30 minutes already.

Tae Bo is one of the best forms of exercises but I'm afraid to try it out because I'm afraid I'll be the first one to quit especially in Tae Bo tours in famous department stores. It'll be embarrassing!

 

[baboysai]

ah but I don't attend a Taebo class. I just do it at home with the videos. It aint too bad, especially because Billy Blanks is a cool guy ^^

My sisters and I all do his workouts on our own since we live separate lives but we do get competitive during homecomings about keeping our figures

 

[Channy]

Ive been biking alot lately im sweating and i can feel the pain the next day in my legs and stomach so i must be doing something right i wanna try and lose 50-60 pounds by the summer

 

[baboysai]

that's a draaaastic weight loss by trying to lose 60 lbs in two months! are you following some "biggest loser" program or something?

My weight loss of 30 lbs happened in two years, gradually. And because of this experience I firmly believe that gradual honest work is the way to go. With gradual loss the skin can recover, at the same time your metabolism adjusts properly so you don't go through withdrawal, or a backlash in weight gain.

I've tried crash dieting of different methods, and I do lose some weight but after a week or so I gain even more than I lost because of the adverse reaction to the sudden weight loss and drastic change in diet.