Do 30 day fitness challenges aid in beginner weightloss?

forgettingourforgiveness

Hello community! My name's Nikki and I'm just recently making the decision to start getting back into my weight loss attempt. I'm the type of person who has no problem getting started, but gets impatient or bored and stops trying for a while. But I see these 30 day fitness challenges on Facebook where you start off doing exercises that focus on one part of the body such as abs there are plank challenges or sit up or push up challenges and for legs you have squats and what not. My question is, has anyone used these methods as a use of weight loss? And would you recommend it?

If not, could someone share their experience of what it was like to start off morbidly obese and then what method you used for weight loss?

Anything helps!

usmcmp

Welcome! Weight loss is going to come mostly from your food intake, so the first suggestion I have is to invest some money into a food scale (digital ones are relatively inexpensive) and to learn to log accurately even if it means you are over your calories sometimes.

As for fitness, if those 30 day challenges are something you can stick to it's a good starting point for getting active. The best fitness program is something you enjoy and will stick to. That could be hiking, walking, dancing, swimming, lifting weights, or short challenges. As you become more active you can consider adding other exercises that are goal specific, but in the beginning pick something you enjoy because you are more likely to stick to your plan.

Good luck!

lorrpb

30 day fork put down challenge

lemurcat12

I don't like those FB fitness challenges (planks per day, squats per day), as I don't think they are a sensible approach to strength training and they don't do anything to lose weight. If you are doing it with others and find it fun and motivating, though, it might be worth adding.

I started when extremely overweight (about 220 at 5'3) and very out of shape, and what helped me was not being too hard on myself/burning out but getting active in the ways I could. I walked absolutely everywhere I could, which for me was a lot, and started slowly with the gym (it was Jan '14, which was a really cold month here) by just deciding I'd go 3x/week for 30 minutes. I found a strength training program that looked fun to me (I think I started with New Rules of Lifting for Women, but there are lots). A little stationary biking or swimming or other cardio, whatever you like (YouTube videos have lots of options) -- just getting active and doing it regularly helps.

Main thing, of course, was cutting back on calories, but for me focusing on fitness and adding in exercise and watching myself get more fit was extremely helpful in getting excited about everything I was doing.