I'm having problems motivating myself to workout

raycnyit

Hi, I'm having problems motivating myself to go to the gym and workout ever since i stopped paying for an expensive gym membership that included a coach.

Now i'm wondering if you guys have any tips to motivate yourself to get 3 hours exercise everyday? Cause when i was exercising 3 hours everyday, i was definitely losing weight, and fat, but i was spending so little time on rest and i got injured.

MargaretYakoda

3 hours exercise every day is really not necessary.

Weight loss depends more on calorie deficit.
Exercise helps with muscle tone and general health. But you can lose weight without any exercise at all.

What are your stats? That will help folks here fine tune their advice for you.

AnnPT77

For myself, I'm a believer in finding fun exercise, then doing an amount of it that fits into my life while allowing for good overall life balance. "Good overall life balance" means enough time and energy for job, home life, non-exercise social connections and hobbies, and anything else important to an individual. YMMV, but there's no way I could spend 3 hours daily exercising - especially exercise I didn't inherently love and find motivating in itself - forever, and still have a well-balanced and overall happy life. Since I want to be at a healthy weight long term, ideally forever, the "3 hours of exercise daily" approach wouldn't work for me. (Some people say staying at a healthy weight is harder than getting there in the first place.)

Are you sure it will work for you long term? It sounds like maybe it isn't working ideally now?

I adjusted my eating to fit my balanced life, including sticking with a sensibly moderate calorie deficit on the eating side until I got to goal weight. Now I'm maintaining (year 8 in fact), doing that same amount of quite enjoyable exercise, which is half an hour to an hour or so most days, occasionally a couple of hours or more.

I'm not really great at motivation (or willpower, or discipline), so for me it was key to find new, relatively enjoyable (at least tolerable and practical) habits that I could continue long term almost on autopilot, on both the activity side, and the eating side. I don't know about you, but I could eat in way less than half an hour all the calories that I'd burn in 3 hours of exercise. For me, that makes managing the eating side of the equation really essential.

I hope you can find an approach that works for you: These things are really individual. Best wishes!

ninerbuff

I don't even exercise close to that. My weight lifting workouts are like 45 min max (except legs where I'll take 2 hours because I'm off that day and take my time) and maybe 30 minutes of cardio.

NEVER try to do a 180. Just do a little bit more at a time. It may be just 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes, etc.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 40 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

springlering62

raycnyit wrote: »

Hi, I'm having problems motivating myself to go to the gym and workout ever since i stopped paying for an expensive gym membership that included a coach.

Now i'm wondering if you guys have any tips to motivate yourself to get 3 hours exercise everyday? Cause when i was exercising 3 hours everyday, i was definitely losing weight, and fat, but i was spending so little time on rest and i got injured.

OK, I’ll bite. I do workout several hours a day, but I do it because I’ve “graduated” from being on my bottom and stuffing my face all day to craving movement.

I only do things I enjoy and look forward to, though. Otherwise, what’s the point?

I mix it up every day. Today has been gym, cardio class, walks, swimming laps and aquafit with my sweetie. He splashes and clowns at me, so aquafit is our quality time together. Walks are typically with my idiot, uncontrollable rescue dog- also quality time. I talk, he listens.

Many trips to the gym are an opportunity to give the dog a ride. He adores rides. Any ride is an event. I’m happy, he’s happy, win/win. I get dropped off in a great mood, lavishing him with pet-pets before they drive off. I go in chill and laughing.

Tomorrow is dog walks and rides, my trainer, some laps, and aquafit. Fun stuff!

Saturday is more walks, and a pair of hot power yoga classes. I find them utterly engrossing and they go by super fast.

Do you see a trend here? Enjoyment and lots of time, which, sadly, few people have in spades like us. We have the utter luxury of retirement. No way we could do all this stuff otherwise.

If you are lucky enough to be able to create the three hours a day, fill them with things you enjoy doing and people/critters you enjoy being with.

It’s like the old saying,”if you love what you do, work will never be work.” Or something like that.

“Motivation” is BS. If it’s fun and interesting, you’ll do it. If it’s work and a chore, motivation fades pretty darn quick.

BTW, 62, and have lost a buttload of weight here via MFP. It all becomes so much easier and more pleasant the more you lose. Its just getting the “what shall I do” ball rolling that’s the hard part.

raycnyit

Lots of interesting comments.

Well here's my stats, sorry for taking so long to get back to you guys.

I'm about 5 feet 10 inches tall and i'm a male that is obese and weighs 234.5 lbs- 236 lbs. and i'm 42 years old and i'm about to become 43 soon.

Currently at this particular moment, i'm probably 238 lbs after eating.

I've tried intermittent fasting to metabolize all the food I eat and If I don't exercise. I typically wake up after 12 hours nearly metabolizing and peeing out all the weight i gained from food except for 1 pound.
So I go out for a walk on an empty stomach to my doctor's office and i come back and i'm lighter.

For example, i woke up at 236 lbs today since i didn't do any exercise the day before.

And then I walked to the doctor's office for my checkup on my tennis elbow problem.
and i came back home after the doctor's visit, and I was 234.5 lbs.

And then i started to eat around 12 pm - 1pm pretty much.

Same routine everyday almost. I eat like 2 boca burgers on pepperridge farms butter bread with chinese hot mustard and lettuce tomato onion. and then have like a butter bread with white cheddar melted on it(4-5 slices). and then i have a butter bread with plant butter. I'll have lactaid ice cream on a ice cream cone and i'll have a 100+ calorie snack called a peanut cake. I also had a vegetable bun(it's a bread filled with bok choy vegetables and mushrooms)- 140 calories.

and then my second meal probably will be something like a 1/4 cup jasmine rice cooked with multiple different vegetables in chicken broth with some beyond steak added. and i have some strawberries and blueberries and a banana and some unsweet soymilk in a bowl. and maybe another lactaid ice cream cone to finish my day. But I generally have to exercise about 2 or 3 times (1 hour sessions each) in order to see results.

Lately i've only done cardio like treadmill and stairmaster sessions that burn 800 calories over an hour plus time period.

i tried some intense body weight exercises that included lunges and floor exercises today based on youtube instruction. But I'm not sure what else i could do to bring the calories down and expedite my
weight loss. I did this today, since i normally don't do this and usually just go run on a treadmill or do stairmaster everyday for like an 1 hour plus. But since i was noticing my stomach doesn't seem to be getting smaller, i decided to do some exercises that concentrate on the ab area.

I would say i eat about 2000 calories a day or maybe closer to 3000 probably. it really depends. i don't really calorie count anymore. it's more about getting enough vegetables, fiber, and fruit and protein so that i don't get constipated.

I also only get 4 hours of sleep daily since i have sleep apnea and i use the cpap machine.

What suggestions do you have based on the information i provided?

Today i've already logged 7275 steps and burned 1042 calories.

Should i continue exercising today or should i give it a rest and go to bed?

springlering62

Sorry. I gave myself a “board vacation” out of sheer frustration. Thanks for responding and I hope you see this.

Man oh man, so many things to say.

First of all, bread is not a demon, but you do need to control it. I see bread bread buns bar cookies and more bread.

You’re guessing you eat between 2 and 3,000 calories a day. Sweetie, that’s…..erm…..quite a range.

I’m not trying to poke fun at you. You sound very much like me when I first started. I had zero idea of what I was eating.

Log what you eat in a typical day. I guarantee you you will be shocked. I was eating 10-12,000 calories in a normal day. It was nothing to me to knock down a couple family sized bags of candy and a whole package or two of Little Debbie’s or Oreos. Not to mention fast food lunches and sooo much more.

I was exercising as well. Walking several times a week with the Neighbor-in-Law, yoga three days a week. I couldn’t understand why I was so heavy. I was exercising, right? Waaaah! It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t til I sat down and calculated those calories that I realized exactly how much I was eating.

Getting a fitness tracker was my lightbulb moment. That three mile walk in the evening? It barely burned off a serving of Oreos, not the entire family pack u was going to devour when I got back.

There’s a saying around here : Weight loss is made in the kitchen

No amount of exercise is going to burn off that many extra calories.

Now you’ve got an idea of what you’re eating. Flip it on its head.

Can you substitute Lewis Bread (70 cal /2 slices) for a butter bun?

Maybe use margarine in lieu of butter- and use less of it. There’s an “I Can’t Beleive It’s Not Butter” light spread that’s only 35 calories a tablespoon. That’s even half of the lowest cal margarine and gives the same mouthfeel of butter. What about a lower cal mayo? Some are quite good. Ditto sugar free or syrup free ketchups. Why not use a low cal
Ranch salad dressing as a sandwich spread?

Have you checked the calorie count on the lactaid ice cream? Just because something is lacking or better in one department, doesn’t mean it’s healthier in another.

Intermittent fasting doesn’t create weight loss. Is still a matter of calories in versus calories out. Some people do find that one large meal helps them. Not me. I have to have a slow IV trickle of food every couple hours or I lose my mind.

Sometimes if I’m super peckish I’ll have a tea, a low cal chai, or a diet soda. In fact, for many of us, our body interprets dehydration as hunger and throws up hunger cues. Try drinking a glass of water and waiting ten minutes to see if the “hunger” goes away.

You cannot out-exercise a bad diet. Again, I’m not criticizing you. You were me for 30 years. I started this at 56, lost 97, and have regained 17- but it’s all muscle. Muscle is denser and thus heavier than fat. Some of what you may have gained is muscle, but don’t fool yourself. It’s taken me years to gain this muscle. I’m saying this not to brag, but to point out if an obese retired and (honestly) lazy sedentary old woman with a world class sugar habit can do this, anyone can do this. With application and determination. But it’s not gonna happen overnight.

Also learn habits and plan to keep them once you reach your goal. There’s so many threads, including one I just read, where people lose quickly and then think they’re “done” and go right back to old habits.

News flash!!!! Old habits are what got us there in the first place.

Much success to you and hoping you’re still around and hanging in!

springlering62

And PS if you don’t have an Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin or other tracker, invest in one. It’s an investment in YOU and your health. Mine has literally saved my life.

800 for an hour on the treadmill. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. I started out just a few pounds less than you and never got burns like that.

I’m typing this as I ride my recumbent stationary bike. Check this out:
Bike says;



Apple Watch says:



That’s almost half what the bike is stating. There’s a disconnect between gym equipment and actual numbers. I trust my watch because it’s been very very accurate- almost to the digit with what MFP says I should be doing for maintenance or loss. If I relied on what equipment says, I’d still be gaining.

KareninCanada

Just a couple of thoughts.

Just the idea of 3 hrs of working out every day would demotivate me. Maybe you could settle at something more sustainable, then act based on commitment to a previously-made decision rather than looking for motivation each day.

Also, as said above, do things you enjoy.

Logging your food and counting calories really does matter. It's easy to consume well over 3000 calories without even thinking about it. Don't be obsessive, but log with 100% accuracy for a week or so and see what's going on.