Jog vs. Cycling vs. something else for Obese man wanting to lose fat
qkrzazzang
Posts: 67 Member
I'm 21, 222lb, 5'8. I know it's horrible.. I've been working out on the treadmill for 2 weeks now, but I don't think I'm very progressive with it. Out of 30 minutes, I do 15 minutes brisk walk (3.8mph), 15 minutes light jog (4.5mph), and 5 minutes cooldown (down 0.5mph every minute). I've been trying to push my limits, but as a terribly obese man, it's way too hard to lengthen my jogging endurace.. Not to mention that my legs become quite soar even though I've been doing this for 2 weeks. So I've looked into alternatives and found out about cycling and etc. But I'm worried about calorie loss disadvantage as I've heard that cycling burns much less calories if considering of same intensity and time with the treadmill (not sure if this is even true, but for now, this is what I just heard). Is this true? And what would you recommend?
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I think it's less about the individual calorie burns and more about what your personal goals are and (most important) what you personally enjoy doing. You want an activity that you enjoy so you can stick with it. It may be challenging at first, but I've found multiple forms of exercise that I really enjoy, that I never imagined myself doing!
I hate running, plus, it sets off my asthma every single time so it's not something I do. However, I love hiking, cycling, kickboxing and HIIT (the short bursts don't set off my asthma, which is surprising!)
Don't be afraid to try new things! And remember that no matter what you do exercise wise, as far as weight loss goes, tracking what you eat first is vital. Good luck.0 -
First of all, two weeks is way to soon to start getting bummed out. It takes time. I'm 5'6" and I started out at 228. I'm down to 201 now and still going. I ride my bike, almost daily. I limit my week night workouts to an hour of riding now, longer rides on the weekends. My first ride was 3.4 miles and took me 18 minutes, and I felt like I was going to die. Yesterday I rode 40 miles, and it took me 3 hours. You just have to take your time, be patient, and keep at it. Ride, ride, ride. I'm a lot older than you, but my knees couldn't take running anymore, that is why I took up cycling, after doing nothing for a long time. I usually set some type of a goal for each ride. Start with something small, like 15 or 20 minutes. Then when that gets easier go to 25, keep adding additional time as you get better. Didn't care how fast I rode or how far, just ride till you hit your goal for that day. Also, I use an app on my IPhone called Map My Ride (free), it will keep track of your time and distance, and a whole lot more, but you don't need to worry about that now. Look on Craig's List for a used bike in your area. Or go to a big box store like Target and buy a new bike there. Do a little research online about the different types and styles of bikes available, and buy the type that you think fits you best. And if you really get into riding and like it, look for a local bike shop. Watch your calorie intake, and don't eat back the calories that you burn up riding. Get a bike, ride and enjoy. Good luck.0
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My short story: 5' 7.5", 53, male, 255 pounds (basically 105 over 'ideal') last September. I couldn't run even 1km without stopping frequently last September.
Today I'm 78 pounds lighter and ran 21.1km (half marathon distance) in without a single pause in well under 2 hours running my slower training pace (it wasn't a race). If you'd told me last September I'd be running 250 - 320km a month a year later, I might not have believed it.
As others have said, two weeks isn't enough time to judge success. You'll get the biggest bang for your investment in time and effort by working this issue from both angles - fitness, and adopting a healthy eating plan with a reasonable daily deficit. If you do both you'll be at or near your goal this time next year if not sooner.
Don't worry about your pace or stopping. Neither is important at this stage of your training. What is important is building a base of running volume, building it up slowly and steadily, and avoiding injury. Don't do what many newbies do and push yourself to run too fast too soon. Even seasoned pros do most of their training (80%) at a much slower pace than their max or race pace. When starting out 100% of your runs should be slow and if what you can manage today is walk-run-walk, or run-walk-run, that's GREAT! Stick with it and soon you'll progress faster than you can possibly believe right now.
Mike
Vancouver BC0 -
To lose weight, you need to eat less. You will not lose weight by exercising alone, unless you plan to exercise for hours. Changing your lifestyle to more active in general will help, and it will also help with your health.
So, focus on diet changes for weight loss, and focus on gradually becoming more active. You will not run a 5k in a few weeks, slow down, forget maximising calorie burns, and focus on getting in shape.
What can you do as you are now, and what do you like doing? If it is walking, then walk. When you become good at walking, as in, you can go for a half an hour walk and feel fine, no pains, no exhaustion, then you can either increase the speed, or the length of the walk, or add small and slow jogging intervals (like 1 min slow jog for 3-4 minutes walking) and gradually work your way up to jogging.
Or if you like cycling, then do this. Or swim. Or try a sport. Or whatever else will have you moving, and you can commit to. Set a pace that does not feel exhausting, rest when you need it, and set small goals.0 -
Only a Dr should recommend those pills. And even then only after doing a lot of tests. They can cause some very serious side effects and can also only be used in 4 week bursts.ScottDowell wrote: »Jog, Cycling, working out on treadmill all are effective and will help you in losing weight.
Have controlled diet and keep exercising, you will get the success soon.
I will also recommend Regenon pills along with the workout routines works great for me, you will find online.
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qkrzazzang wrote: »But I'm worried about calorie loss disadvantage as I've heard that cycling burns much less calories if considering of same intensity and time with the treadmill (not sure if this is even true, but for now, this is what I just heard). Is this true? And what would you recommend?
No it's not true.
Find an exercise you enjoy or mix them up for variety and different benefits from different types of exercise.0 -
Birning calories with cardio depends much more on the individual rather than which piece of equipment you use. Calorie burns are mostly due to intensity, duration and how much you weigh. You should focus on your food consumption first. If you remain consistent and keep pishing yourself a little bit then your endurance will improve over time you simply have to be patient. If you get bored then spread your time over different machines, run outside, take up a sport go swimming etc. Be patient your fitness will come.0
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qkrzazzang wrote: »I'm 21, 222lb, 5'8. I know it's horrible..
I meant to add - you are 21. You've got your entire life ahead of you. Seize the moment now and your future (and not that far into the future) will thank you over and over again. You don't have an insurmountable challenge facing you, just a challenge, and thankfully you are doing something about it now not many pounds more later.
You can do this. Really!
PS: Don't worry about whether running or cycling or some other form of exercise "burns more calories". You are exercising for fitness. Exercising for fitness can help many people because it helps cement a new lifestyle in place - a sustainable lifestyle. Exercise is good for your body, for your cardiovascular health, for your joints and musculature, for your brain.
Loose weight by managing your intake. Get fit through exercise.
With that in mind, pick your exercise based on what you like the most! I like to run, so I do. I don't like running on treadmills or using an elliptical or being stuck inside, so I don't do those things. Pick what you like and get going, don't micro-analyse calorie burn and other such factors because in the grand scheme of things those things do not matter.0 -
in my experience diet is way, way more important than exercise. Let's say you burnt 250 calories jogging for 15 to 20 minutes, that's less than a sandwich or candy bars worth of calories.0
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vadimknobel wrote: »in my experience diet is way, way more important than exercise. Let's say you burnt 250 calories jogging for 15 to 20 minutes, that's less than a sandwich or candy bars worth of calories.
Whilst its true food consumption is where it should start, those 250 calories can come in mighty handy in helping you maintain a deficit or giving you a little extra to eat that turns a diet from hardgoing to manageable.
Exercise (cardio and resistance) also give complimentary benefits to weight loss.0 -
You will never outrun the fork! 80-90 percent of fat loss is diet. Focus on that. All that cortisol raising cardio is just making things worse.0
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vadimknobel wrote: »in my experience diet is way, way more important than exercise. Let's say you burnt 250 calories jogging for 15 to 20 minutes, that's less than a sandwich or candy bars worth of calories.
I would make the observation that psychologically, when I was losing weight, I found it easier to maintain a deficit having trained. Whilst my net intake was the same, running off 300-500 calories gave me enough to have a more satisfying meal than just eating 300-500 fewer calories in the day.
It made things easier to cope with.0 -
Experiment and do what works for you. I like getting outside for exercise and enjoy my bike. And though I'm no hard core rider, if I push a bit I can burn 1000 calories an hour or slightly more. That means I can eat back some or most of that with my regular food intake and still drop some pounds. And for me, exercising in combination with watching what I eat works better.
With any exercise, endurance takes some time. Keep doing it, and it keeps getting easier. Keep in mind that fast walking can burn more calories than running (for all but true speed demons at least). Lower impact + increased calorie burn. I prefer my bike and the elliptical machine to reduce impact since I have to watch my back issues, but find what keeps you motivated.0 -
ScottDowell wrote: »Jog, Cycling, working out on treadmill all are effective and will help you in losing weight.
Have controlled diet and keep exercising, you will get the success soon.
I will also recommend Regenon pills along with the workout routines works great for me, you will find online.
Thankfully, this drug is not approved by the FDA and so can't be sold in the U.S. In Canada and U.K. its a controlled substance. Its a stimulant drug, similar to amphetamines, and I'm having a real hard time with the fact that some stranger on the internet just told you to go out and get some for weight loss when you've just started a new healthy routine.
However, it sounds to me like what you are doing for exercise is just fine to start out. You don't even have to run, you could just walk. I know you want to push yourself but running is very hard on the knees if you are very heavy. On the one hand you have young knees, but on the other hand it would be no shame if you worked up to running by walking for a few months. So do whatever feels best at this point - literally, do whatever makes you feel good. The best exercise is the one that you stick with.
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sheermomentum wrote: »The best exercise is the one that you stick with.
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You will never outrun the fork! 80-90 percent of fat loss is diet. Focus on that. All that cortisol raising cardio is just making things worse.
This isnt actually correct. Weight loss is 100% deficit amd how that is made up depends on the combination of how much you eat and how much you burn.
Think youll also find that exercise is a great stress reliever and can lower cortisol levels overall.0 -
robertw486 wrote: »Experiment and do what works for you. I like getting outside for exercise and enjoy my bike. And though I'm no hard core rider, if I push a bit I can burn 1000 calories an hour or slightly more. That means I can eat back some or most of that with my regular food intake and still drop some pounds. And for me, exercising in combination with watching what I eat works better.
With any exercise, endurance takes some time. Keep doing it, and it keeps getting easier. Keep in mind that fast walking can burn more calories than running (for all but true speed demons at least). Lower impact + increased calorie burn. I prefer my bike and the elliptical machine to reduce impact since I have to watch my back issues, but find what keeps you motivated.
While true, you're not going to be burning calories faster walking than running unless you're walking faster than many people slow run.
That isn't what you should focus on, though. Forget the calorie burn comparisons and pick something you like, something you can do without feeling like you're about to die (unless that motivates you). Any exercise now gets you in better shape and eventually feeling better.0 -
If you want to continue running, I suggest you check out the Couch to 5K running program. It's structured to slowly build endurance. Note that it involves only 3 workouts per week; as a beginning runner, you need rest days to allow your body to adapt to the new stresses you're putting on it. Jack Daniels (the running coach, not the distillery!) points out that rest and recovery are an important part of athletic training. Running every day is a recipe for an overuse injury. One study showed that the second-best predictor for whether a runner would get an injury was the number of days in a row that he or she has run without taking a break. The best predictor was whether he or she had a previous running injury. The lesson: take rest days, and try to avoid getting injured!
Also, as a beginning runner, you should run slowly enough that you can talk in complete sentences. Even experienced runners do a lot of their running at a conversational pace. If you're out of breath, slow down. As they say, it's a marathon, not a sprint!
Cycling, walking, and stationary rowing are just a few things you could also do, and they are low-impact activities, so you could do them on days you're not running. Swimming with a stroke like the crawl is also good.
The most important thing is to find an activity, or activities, that you enjoy. I walked a lot in college, but I was overweight and couldn't run a block without getting winded. I got into shape starting with swimming and stationary cycling, then switching to running.
And as others have pointed out, don't rely on exercise to lose weight. In 2012, I bicycled nearly 2000 miles, and I gained 10 pounds. In 2013, I lost 45, not because I bicycled more, but because I counted calories and kept a consistent deficit. Burning about 500 calories a day (on average) in exercise helped me maintain my deficit without getting too "hangry," but it wouldn't have been enough had I not weighed and measured my food to ensure I wasn't eating to compensate for the exercise.
Good luck! You're young, and you have time to figure this out.0 -
@qkrzazzang This may or may not be true for you but many of us get fat in the first place by leading sedentary lives while eating too much for that level of activity. Beyond the caloric imbalance, living a sedentary life simply isn't healthy for anyone - fat or thin - so use exercise to change that dimension of your health.
If you do fall into this scenario, like I did for 12 years, you'll probably find that exercise helps you in multiple dimensions not least of which is supporting your efforts psychologically through an improved sense of self and well being.
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I expect to see progress after six weeks. The first couple weeks of running I experienced soreness in my hips and shins. Some of the pain was because of too long of a stride. The rest was because I was using my muscles differently. The hip pain and soleus pain subsided after conditioning.
Try quicker shorter strides. To help prevent shin splints try working your gastrocnemius with heel-to-toe walks and heel-raises.
Also don't neglect core work. That's your foundation.
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There's a pretty good body of evidence that says that excess cortisol from chronic stress can affect weight. BUT, cortisol is a normal and useful hormone that everybody has in their body. Exercise does promote the production of cortisol, but at these levels the cortisol stimulates your metabolism a bit. Unless you're exercising obsessively enough to induce a state of chronic stress, its a good thing, not a bad thing.0 -
Thanks for great replies! I guess the patience is the key, as it always has been
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It's actually easier to do harder intensity on the bike and it not feel like it, because it has no impact, and therefore burn more calories while it feels like breathing and HR are the same.
And outdoor riding, and Spin classes done correctly, actually mimic interval training which allows an even faster change in the body.
You can also do it longer for that reason of perception, and come back and do it tomorrow too usually (after rear gets used to it anyway).
So if that helps you burn more daily, so that when you eat less than that you'll adhere to the diet plan - go for it.
But - I'd get walking/jogging in just for bone density reasons.
But as long as you think of the exercise purely as a calorie burner for weight loss - most start making bad decisions about it and don't get full benefit from it.
Exercise for heart health and body transformation.
Diet for weight loss.0 -
robertw486 wrote: »Keep in mind that fast walking can burn more calories than running (for all but true speed demons at least). Lower impact + increased calorie burn. I prefer my bike and the elliptical machine to reduce impact since I have to watch my back issues, but find what keeps you motivated.
Eh, more calories in what way? Looking at what could be done in a whole week in total with unlimited time available?
I might see that in the fact you could walk longer, and day after day, and make up the difference of running shorter and perhaps not daily.
But otherwise, per min or per mile - not so much according to research.
http://www.exrx.net/Aerobic/WalkCalExp.html
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Cyclist here...I initially lost 40lbs to my goal weight just cycling. (Then a bad thyroid hit me like a sledgehammer & my weight shot up.) So I opened up a can of whoopazz and am back down to within 8lbs of goal. All while cycling.
Go get a bike that you like that fits you and ride like the wind.0 -
Most of you are folks I've never chatted with, but to the guy who started this thread! Good on you mate for starting and whatever you do, don't give up! Do what works for you. Cycling is my exercise of choice followed by swimmmng for a reason that you can probably very well understand. The stress on your knees and back can be something partticular if you try running or jogging when you are obese. I for whatever the reason stopped checking in but for over a year I didn't gain over 25 lbs that I lost through late 2012 and early 2013.
One other reason cycle or ride my bike on a fluid resistance trainer, is because it is less stress on my knees and cycling is using one of the biggest muscle groups which lends its self to burning high number of calories.
I attribute part of this to the fact that I had become more awre of portion size, caloric and nutritive values of the food I was eating. On September 1, 2015 I decided to refocusing and trying to stay disciplined.
I was about your age when a year of bad habits had taken me from 188 lbs pretty close to my ideal weight, had taken me up to a slovenly 236 lbs. Though I hit my all time low three years ago when my weight had climbed to about 306 lbs. Now I'm sitting at about 277lbs. My goal now is to loose 2.2 lbs a week.
Never, give up, especially if you are still 21 years of age.0 -
sheermomentum wrote: »
There's a pretty good body of evidence that says that excess cortisol from chronic stress can affect weight. BUT, cortisol is a normal and useful hormone that everybody has in their body. Exercise does promote the production of cortisol, but at these levels the cortisol stimulates your metabolism a bit. Unless you're exercising obsessively enough to induce a state of chronic stress, its a good thing, not a bad thing.
Agreed, but what you describe is a different context than the overweight person who is just embarking on a fitness program. In this case our OP has a long way to go before anything he undertakes remotely looks like chronic over-training and he may never get to that point in his entire life.
The comment I responded to in essence insinuated that any cardio no matter how little or benign was somehow a bad thing because it would induce the production of a necessary metabolic hormone and to that the only answer can be: "absolute nonsense".The stress on your knees and back can be something partticular if you try running or jogging when you are obese.
Everyone's experience is different. Studies show that vigorous exercise (like running) does not necessarily degrade joints in older people and in fact can preserve and build joint health.
The OP is 21, 5' 8", and isn't morbidly obese. Provided his joints are in good shape (at his age, probably yes) and he scales into exercise with appropriate stretching and cross training, he could look forward to a lifetime of running without issues.
I used to be a distance runner and then got fat over 12 years or so. I restarted running at 53 exactly one year ago today and then was out only 2 or 3 times a week. Today I generally run 5 or 6 times a week and have had zero knee issues or other health issues due to running and I'll run ~2,500 km this year. In fact my long term issues with lower back pain completely *disappear* if I am running regularly and stretching, along with the other exercise I do.
Stress on joints from running can be real but is more often due to improper form than the act itself.
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Exercise actually helps you cope with cortisol. Stress can arise from other sources. If cortisol was such a serious problem then why arent all athletes fat? Are they just champion calorie counters?0
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qkrzazzang wrote: »I'm 21, 222lb, 5'8. I know it's horrible.
Could be worse. I started at about 5'3, 220!I've been working out on the treadmill for 2 weeks now, but I don't think I'm very progressive with it. Out of 30 minutes, I do 15 minutes brisk walk (3.8mph), 15 minutes light jog (4.5mph), and 5 minutes cooldown (down 0.5mph every minute). I've been trying to push my limits, but as a terribly obese man, it's way too hard to lengthen my jogging endurace.
I found it really hard to get better at running on the treadmill even though I started in Jan 2014, which was horrible weather here. I was shocked when I finally was able to go outside and ran 3 miles no problem. But I had previously been a runner. Point here is that you might want to try going outside -- for lots of people that's easier -- but beyond that a program like C25K that's structured might benefit you.
I highly recommend maybe alternating cycling and running, as that allows you to do more without risk of injury and increases the likelihood you will fall in love with something. You do have to cycle longer to burn the same calories, but it's easier to do and at first you won't be as likely to be sore after.
Early on I'd try lots of things to see what you like and then I'd pursue the ones you enjoy. (I bike and run, among other things, since I love both.)0
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