Weight loss

Sandeeng84

I need to lose 50-55 lbs. What are some good exercises for that?

AnnPT77

I think this is the point where someone (usually other than me) says "fork put-downs and table push-aways", realistically.

Weight loss - fat loss specifically - is about burning more calories than we eat. In theory, that can be accomplished either by eating fewer calories, or burning more (via exercise or daily life activity), or a combination. In practice, it takes me a half hour-ish at least to burn 250 or so calories on a rowing machine (and I'm not a terrible rower, after almost 20 years of it), but eating a Snickers bar that's about the same calories takes around 5 minutes, tops.

Now, that's clearly an absurd comparison, but I think you see my point. Exercise is good for a person, but it's hard to do enough exercise to lose much weight, without at least managing the eating side of the equation. Exercise is more about health, maybe shaping the body (the latter a slooooow process), functioning better in daily life.

I lost 50+ pounds back in 2015-16, stayed at a healthy weight since. This is not true for everyone, but for me, it was *entirely* about managing my calorie intake (i.e., eating more intelligently), and doing that was much easier than I'd ever anticipated. YMMV, because we're all different in our methods.

sijomial

The good exercises are the ones that progress you towards your personal health, fitness and strength goals.

While exercise is a great thing to do for life and for while dieting it's not going to be the driving force behind losing 50lbs - that comes from eating a bit less.

If you really want to exercise away 50 to 55lbs here's a suggestion:

Set your food intake calorie allowance to maintain weight.
Buy a bike.
Cycle at an average of around 100w for an hour a day.
Every ten hours of cycling you will burn the calories roughly equivalent to a pound of fat.
Repeat for 500 to 550 days.

penguinmama87

I'm a little bit surprised that Ann didn't plug her own thread here, but it has some good advice: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss

When I started losing weight more intentionally, I did definitely focus on nutrition the most, but I worked on increasing my everyday physical activity before I started a formal exercise routine. Finding ways to move around more, walking, etc. can do quite a lot in terms of calorie burn, if you don't currently move much at all. And it means you get to eat more while still losing weight.