[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Super thread, very useful.
I am overweight myself. Not much, but still slightly more than the required. I am 5' 11" and weigh in at 87kgs. I want to reduce it to 75kgs in the next 6 months.

My suggestions:
1. Avoid rice at dinner
2. Avoid sweets. Have a fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth
3. Avoid oily snacks in the evening. Have a fruit or a healthy snack bar.
4. Don't jog daily. If you do the same exercice daily, your body gets used to it and stops responding after a while. Alternate between brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, skipping etc.
5. Do some weight training along with the cardio

Rohan

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

3. Avoid oily snacks in the evening. Have a fruit or a healthy snack bar.

Will the snack bar have more sugar? or do they put in the artificial sweeteners?

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

4. Don't jog daily. If you do the same exercice daily, your body gets used to it and stops responding after a while.

Thanks, I didn't know this point. But if I increase the speed/distance periodically, will that help? Presently I can try brisk walking at the most. No cycling because I sold off my bicycle recently and no swimming because if I go swimming, I get an earache and a middle ear infection when the water enters the ear. Else I would have loved swimming.

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Will the snack bar have more sugar? or do they put in the artificial sweeteners?

Thanks, I didn't know this point. But if I increase the speed/distance periodically, will that help? Presently I can try brisk walking at the most.

I'm not very sure about the contents of these snack bars. Check the contents mentioned on the packing.

The problem with doing the same exercise on a daily basis is that your body gets conditioned to it and stops responding after a while.

So if you are jogging on a daily basis, you will get weight loss/fat reduction benefit for a few weeks or months. But once your body settles into this exercise routine, it will stop burning fat not matter how much you jog. Increasing the distance or intensity will also not help much.

A better approach is to select at least two types of cardio exercises and do them on alternate days.

Another reason for not jogging everyday is that jogging is a high impact exercise. If you are doing high impact exercises on a daily basis, it puts a lot of stress on the knees and other joints. You may not notice it initially, but complications may happen in the long run.

For you, I would suggest jogging on alternate days and brisk walking on the other days. Also do some weight training to increase the muscle mass. Increasing the muscle mass helps to increase your metabolic rate, which helps in faster buring of fat from the body.

Rohan

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

So if you are jogging on a daily basis, you will get weight loss/fat reduction benefit for a few weeks or months. But once your body settles into this exercise routine, it will stop burning fat not matter how much you jog. Increasing the distance or intensity will also not help much.

Can you explain this a bit more.

Why will the body stop burning fat.

As far as I know the body never stops burning fat.

I am cycling for the last 4 weeks now. And I have lost 6 kgs. And still losing some more.

I am going to plateau out soon but then I am also playing a bit of football with the neighborhood kids. And walking about 5 kms a day too.

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Can you explain this a bit more.

Why will the body stop burning fat.

As far as I know the body never stops burning fat.

I am cycling for the last 4 weeks now. And I have lost 6 kgs. And still losing some more.

I am going to plateau out soon but then I am also playing a bit of football with the neighborhood kids. And walking about 5 kms a day too.

Our body is very intelligent. If we do the same exercise (lets say jogging) on a daily basis, our body gets conditioned for doing the exercise and becomes very efficient at doing it. This is known as aerobic adaptation. Aerobic adaptation is where your body adapts to a particular cardio routine, and it can cause fat loss to come to a stop. (Okay fat loss may not stop completely, but after a while you would stop noticing any further improvements)

We don't want our body to be efficient. For burning fat, we want our body to be less efficient, meaning burning more calories for performing a particular exercise.

The trick to weight loss is to keep the body confused by varying the workouts, their intensity and interval.

It is good that you are loosing weight by cycling. But you are not doing one exercise alone, walking and playing football are also a part of your cardio routine. 3 types of cardio workouts should be sufficient to keep your body confused and prevent it from developing immunity from a particular workout.

Rohan

Disclaimer: I'm not a qualified professional in this field. I just try to help others with whatever knowledge I have gained by self learning.

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

Why avoid dal? Its high in protein and comparatively low carb, which helps in weight loss and muscle gain.

Oh yes, I was going to ask this question, but later I thought he meant "tadka" - dal, with the "tadka". I guess plain dal is much more healthier.

In our office cafeteria, there is an item named "Tadka-Maggi". It is nothing but Masala Maggi, with generous amount of oily tadka and dried red chillies !

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

This is known as aerobic adaptation. Aerobic adaptation is where your body adapts to a particular cardio routine, and it can cause fat loss to come to a stop. (Okay fat loss may not stop completely, but after a while you would stop noticing any further improvements)

Interesting.

Wasn't aware of the Aerobics Adaption part. I know weight loss plateau's out after a particular threshold but it being linked to a routine is new.

The weight loss funneling down was known, but I was thinking that was due to the fact that the body loses the excess fluids first and the fat burning and building muscles starts. Need to relearn.

It is good that you are loosing weight by cycling. But you are not doing one exercise alone, walking and playing football are also a part of your cardio routine. 3 types of cardio workouts should be sufficient to keep your body confused and prevent it from developing immunity from a particular workout.

Let me do only cycling for a week and check the rate of decrease/increase. Football might be stopped soon, the rains have flooded our ground and the locals dont really like us shouting expletives while playing

Disclaimer

: I'm not a qualified professional in this field. I just try to help others with whatever knowledge I have gained by self learning.

Oh good. I was expecting a bill

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

Aerobic adaptation

So I went out to find out more.

The person whom I send the below query is a nutritionist by profession and has about a decade worth of experience. Also runs a couple of successful Gyms. Below is the question and reply. Hope it helps the others.

My Question:

Need expert opinion. I have been cycling for 3-4 weeks now and have lost about 6 kgs. Then someone told me about Aerobic adaptation. How true is it? I believe the body always burn fats anyways.

Reply:

Cool! 6 kg in a month is awesome! But yes....the body kind of gets used to a particular pattern of exercise after a period of time; that's why it's always advisable to vary your routine - for example, instead of simple walking, brisk walking interspersed with jogging and slow walking to "cheat" your body into forcing it to burn more calories. In your case, you can continue cycling upto a point you feel you aren't really losing the desired weight, and then follow the same principle of "interval cycling" - fast-slow-very fast-slow-fast.....to bring in some variation into your routine. But also remember that it may be easier to lose the initially few kilos since activity has suddenly been introduced into your relatively laid-back lifestyle - so the first few kilos will drop relatively faster than the next few kilos! So, don't get disheartened....just keep to the biking!! It's an excellent cardiovascular workout, and good for the legs!!

Oh yeah! Forgot to mention....you need to be exercising for a continuous period of at least 20 minutes for your body to actually begin burning fat. The initial 15-20 minutes of exercise utilizes glucose, and after that is when the fat-burn begins!!

So yes what you say is indeed true. Time to cheat the body. Thanks.

[W.A.G.7]

I will try out the GM weight loss diet plan next week starting from Sunday. Let's see how that goes...

Has anyone successfully completed 1 week and noticed any weight loss?

[carboy]

Anyone knows if "Exercise Balls" are available in Bombay? Where can I buy one & how much does it cost?

Note, this is what I am looking for - Exercise ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not looking for a medicine ball - Medicine ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[WindRide]

Is banana a good fruit to have to satisfy the 4.00 pm hunger pangs?
I have heard people say banana, though nutitious, makes you bulge in stomach area.
Is this true?

[vkochar]

I am 5'11'' and weigh 109 ks - the maximum I have ever weighed !! Athough I have stayed this way for the last 1 year. More than fat I look well built with of course a belly which I hide because I wear my Jeans low and also wear a size large shirts / tshirts BUT off late I have started feeling unhealthy.

My lifestyle was as bad as it gets - I work on laptop most day, drive to work where I have no physical activity come home watch TV and in the evening thanks to a huge social circle we end up in the club or restaurant having all sorts of snacks and drinks.

I quit smoking about a year back and only have the very occassional puff when drinking so appetite went up.

About 2 weeks back I started checking out all the gyms in town and ended up signing up for 1 near my house ( 1 km away ) and joined.

The first week was tough, second week was easy and now 3rd week started today.

Here is what I do - I have a card made by the trainer and this is what he gives me -

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - Cardio - 15 minutes each of Cross trainer, treadmill and cycling along with lower upper situps, a few weights.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday - No Cardio - only floor -situps etc and heavy weight training concentrating on bigger muscles - thighs, calfs, chest, biceps etc.

Squats shoulder weights etc. I do not know technical names of all the exercises.

Here is my diet chart that I have prepared myself with inputs from various mags, sites etc -

Breakfast - Egg Whites / Brown Bread, Cold Coffee, Muesli with Apple - Varies a bit. Sometimes I have a omelette without the yellow. Paneer sandwich with onions in brown bread.

Lunch - 2 rotis, vegetable, dal / curry, little rice.

Dinner - more or less same as Lunch BUT may include Biryani ( plain and not oily and chicken ), tandoori chicken.

STRICT NO NO - burger, pizza, colas.

Weaknesses - Biryani, Butter Chicken, Rice and Cold Coffee - I need these and cannot really do without this. I have cut down the number of times I have these BUT I do need rice and a glass of cold coffee everyday without fail

I have lost 3 kg's so far

I want to come back to 90kg's in about 5 - 6 months. That means losing about 17 - 18 kgs

After that I will concentrate on toning my body and will give more time to weights. I need to lose the flab around my belly for now.

I'd love to hear inputs / advises from you fellow mates. I will keep contributing my ups / downs I will face in the next 6 months.

Thanks !

[rki2007]

I seriously feel very bad about me and have started to hate myself. I have always made a plan for the healthy weight loss. But that goes on for a week max and later come back to the state of laziness and stop doing any exercise.

In the recent , a couple of years where my lifestyle is always on a chair in front of a table working continuously without any break.

I understand this is very unhealthy. Some how will organize things and get those physical workouts regular.

[WindRide]

Iam 5'9" and weigh 79 kgs. I feel iam overweight by 4 to 5 kgs. I have recently started brisk-walking, slow-jogging (alternatively) every day for an hour (except sunday), and continue that with Suryanamaskara and Pranayama and meditation on returning home. I prefer to stay away from gym/health clubs.

Since iam in IT, meaning a desk-bound sedentary lifestyle, these are some small steps i have started on recently:
1. Have stopped using car/bike to office. Now i walk to the bus stop ( distance of 1.5 kms from home) and catch bus. It helps that my employer reimburses part of the monthly bus pass for AC Volvo. Even if they stop this policy, i will continue to take bus since its healthier on body and mind - stay out of dust and avoid road rage.
2. I do not take the lift to my 5th floor office. Always take stairs. Earlier used to go out of breath, now finding it easier.
3. In my Outlook calendar, have kept a recurring reminder every-hour to stop work and go for a little stroll around.
4. I do not store drinking water in bottle from the dispenser. Instead i walk up to it every hour for a drink during the stroll. I drink water every hour without fail.
5. I do not take the nearest rest room. Always walk up to the farthest one. My office occupies only one floor of the building. If there were multiple floors, i would have taken stairs to the rest room on next floor - depending on urgency ofcourse
6. I never eat lunch outside. Dear wifey packs me a lunch from home. On occassions when she is unable to, i have veg meals outside - with more chappatis and less rice. Never ever non-veg.
7. I carry a banana in my bag for the 4 to 4.30 pm hunger pangs. I never have biscuits/snacks from cafeteria. I had asked here earlier if banana is a wise choice, since i heard it gives you a paunch. Pls clarify if you know. Also which are other healthy snacks to carry?
8. Iam a mallu, which means lots of fish - but more curry and very less fry. I find it difficult to stay away from mathi and netholi fry though - my favourite fishes. Used to have lots of rice earlier - kerala matta variety. Cutting down on it now.
9. I ABSOLUTELY hate junk food (pizza/burgers/etc). Have gone hungry when colleagues used to order pizzas for team lunch. Don't like sweets either.But love potato chips and anything that has potatoes in them. Trying to stay away from these.

Pls clarify on the banana and healthy snacks to carry to office.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by WindRide

8. Iam a mallu, which means lots of fish - but more curry and very less fry. I find it difficult to stay away from mathi and netholi fry though - my favourity fishes.

Do not eat fish outside, they deep fry instead of pan fry - stay away from them