Healthy Weight Loss Tips

AnnPT77

BigCris__ wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

BigCris__ wrote: »

Hello! I’m a 23 year old 6’0 male and at my heaviest when I first started working out again was 356 lbs about 2 and a half weeks ago and I’m currently down to 340. I know while working out and looking to lose weight and body fat is to be in a calorie deficit. I’ve heard from around my weight and height I should be consuming 2000-2500 calories but I’ve been eating 800-1400 calories and burning about 700-1000 calories in a work out. I only do HIIT exercises so I focus on intense short workouts from 45 minutes to an hour and I know they’re best for losing weight and body fat. Just curious if there’s any tips that can help me out more. I eat a lot more clean as well like chicken and potatoes usually 4-8 oz of chicken and 1 full potato. Sometimes a ham sandwich with some veggie straws, salads, ground turkey and rice, that kind of vibe. I use to not care what I eat but I really want to lose weight so I’m more aware of what I eat and watch my macros. Would love any tips that can help me on this journey, thank you!

Others have given you excellent advice to get more calories so that you don't tank your health.

I'm going to comment on the exercise, but I'm torn about which direction to go.

Probably most important: If you're relatively new to regular exercise, start moderately and build gradually. You don't mention how often you're exercising, but I'm guessing from context that it might be daily, or nearly. Even if you've been moderately active previously, daily HIIT is NOT best for losing weight and body fat, no matter what nonsense in the blogosphere may claim.

Highly intense exercise is more fatiguing. Over-exercise can bleed calorie burn out of daily life activity (via fatigue, doing less - maybe in subtle ways - and resting more). Also, the exercises usually described as HIIT these days, often fast-paced exercise with weights, bodyweight, or similar equipment . . . they have higher injury risk. Injury can sink an entire exercise program until healing can happen.

What's best for weight loss is a sustainable, manageable challenge to current fitness level. If a person hasn't worked out much previously, I'd recommend they start with some moderate thing, even walking, striving for a pace that's just a bit of a challenge for the time they have to devote to it. The sweet spot, IMO, is maybe just a few minutes of a "whew" feeling right after the exercise, then feeling energized - not exhausted - for the rest of the day.

If new to the exercise, I'd go with every other day (or less) for the first week or two, and see how that settles in to the body. The exercise isn't where the magic happens, isn't the part where our bodies rebuild better. That happens in the recovery time between exercise sessions. Recovery is very important. This applies to our hearts, as well as our other muscles.

As a person gets fitter, the starting exercise load will get easier. That's when to increase pace, duration, intensity or type of exercise to keep that manageable challenge always in the picture.

The challenge is what triggers fitness improvement. The "manageable" part allows for an energetic daily life routine, solid recovery to rebuild the body better, reduced risk of injury, and probably more enjoyment of exercise as well. (There are research studies suggesting that test groups assigned intense exercise don't continue as well as those assigned a more moderate routine.)

It is good to include some strength exercise while losing weight, but I'd recommend a slower-paced traditional routine rather than high rep, fast-paced work. That can be weight lifting, bodyweight exercises, or really anything that challenges current muscular strength. Although it burns fewer calories than cardio, strength training helps us preserve as much muscle as possible alongside losing fat.

Did you know that obese people usually have more muscle mass than similar always-slim people who have the same exercise history? It comes from moving our larger mass through daily life. Muscle is slow to build, and building it takes a lot of work as well as time. Strength training during loss helps preserve what we already have.

A pound of muscle burns very slightly more calories at rest than a pound of fat, which results in "higher metabolism". That effect is small, just a few calories a day. But people with relatively more muscle are likely to find it easier and more fun to move in daily life, so are simply likely to move more. That more-frequent movement can burn meaningful numbers of calories daily. (Example: I used to budget trips up and down stairs in my house when I was obese, staging items at the top/bottom to carry on infrequent trips. Now it seems like I scamper up/down stairs many times a day without a thought.)

We don't need to start strength training and cardio all at once. It's total exercise load that IMO is best increased gradually. A person could start with a bit of each, or start with one type and add the other later. What matters is total load being appropriate for current fitness level. The goal is to establish a productive, enjoyable routine that we want to keep doing long term. (Any exercise we do is 100% more beneficial than some theoretically better punitively intense thing that we eventually procrastinate or skip with the slightest excuse.)

Back at HIIT specifically: Elite cardiovascular (CV) sport athletes don't do all high-intensity work every single day in every workout, and they have the best fitness and health advice money can buy. Yes, the daily work they do would be intense for me, but in terms of their personal capability, CV elites do a large volume of moderate intensity work (their "main meal" in exercise terms) and add a small amount of high-intensity work a couple of times a week (like a "side dish"). Why would us regular duffers do otherwise?

Starting out, it's a good idea to keep CV exercise moderate for the first few weeks, to build a base of endurance. Higher intensity exercise can be added later on that foundation, in smaller doses. That's a normal way to look at training plans.

This last I feel like I have to say, and it may seem critical but I think it's more of a blessing in context: There are physiological limits on true high intensity exercise, at any fitness level. If a person can do something for an hour, it isn't truly high intensity. That's OK: Like I said, doing all high intensity work isn't ideal for fitness OR weight loss. The fast-paced nature of most modern activities called "HIIT" is still an injury and fatigue risk, too.

Since you (quite legitimately) asked Riverside the follow up on "how would she know", I'll answer that straight off. The point isn't to be braggy, it's to offer bona fides for the advice, which you can evaluate as you will.

I was a late-bloomer athlete who started being routinely active after cancer treatment. I was obese (and stayed obese for a dozen years while training hard and even competing, BTW). Along the way, I got coaching certifications from the official body for my short-endurance CV sport, to the highest level I could without being a professional coach. I've personally used training plans developed by a high-level coach (Division I NCAA) for people like me, and have seen the similar plans used with that coach's collegiate athletes. I've known multiple elite (national team, Olympic) athletes in my sport, and been coached by those folks.

I won't pretend to detailed knowledge about strength training; I just know basics. I know more about cardiovascular fitness development. Personally, I'm not competing anymore (probably), but I'm still athletically active, still working with good coaches when I can, and (for reasons on the eating side of things, not exercise), I haven't been overweight (let alone obese) since around late 2015.

Best wishes!

Yes, I do workout everyday only doing HIIT exercises from 45-65 minutes. To go off of your point on how HIIT exercises every day aren’t the best that is news to me and I have noticed myself trying to rest more.

If not HIIT exercises every day are there any other type of workouts you may suggest good for losing weight and fat that I can look into more?

On the cardio side of things, any activity you enjoy that raises your heart rate a bit is great. It can be walking, swimming, biking, cardio machines, canoeing/kayaking/rowing, active VR or video games, playing frisbee, skating, any of dozens of kinds of dancing, YouTube cardio videos (lots of types), martial arts, . . . you name it.

I'm a big fan of finding things that are fun, and what's fun is individual. If fun is out of reach, tolerable and practical is the fallback. The golden prize here is good overall life balance, a happy life, IMO. Personally, I mostly row (boats) and bike. I do both of those at a mix of intensities. But those specific activities wouldn't suit everyone.

Any added activity burns extra calories, and burning more calories lets us eat more (getting better nutrition!) while losing at the same sensible rate. Some people do use exercise to create a calorie deficit, but I'm not personally a fan of that thought process: I was training hard 6 days most weeks for a dozen years, while staying overweight/obese. Getting eating (in calorie terms) where I needed to be was what triggered weight loss. It typically takes me, at my size, over an hour to burn 500 calories. I can eat 500 calories in 5 minutes without even blinking.

Strictly speaking, exercise is optional for weight loss. But it's great for health, fitness, and the joy of movement, so I'd encourage everyone to do some.

For strength exercise, there's some of that "find the fun" aspect, too. The most effective ways to keep and even increase muscle will be well-designed progressive strength training programs.

There's a thread here about strength training programs other MFP-ers have found beneficial:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Despite the title, it does include programs a person can do at home with minimal equipment, not just programs that require access to a well-stocked weight room.

I don’t really use weights in my HIIT workouts only in 2 or my exercises out of the 8 that I do in 1 workout consist of me using 10 pound weights.

After working out everyday I can say after I feel energized rather than more tired to do anything the rest of the day so I guess that good from going off of your point there lol.

I have to say, I'm a little confused here: Earlier in this post, you said "I have noticed myself trying to rest more", but here you say "I feel energized rather than more tired". The key thing is to avoid over-exercise for current fitness level.

I agree that recovery is important so I will implement taking Sundays off for my workouts.

I do 2 strength type of exercises in my workout bc as you said I know it is important to incorporate it somehow. Good point on how athletes don’t do those high intensity workouts everyday. Good way of putting it with the main meal and side dish 😂.

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been working out I can say they’ve been somewhat moderate and definitely built my endurance up.

I did ask riverside how she would know politely because she did say to ask her and I thought I could learn from it, and that I did! Everyone has been giving such great advice and I thank each and every one of you guys.

Once again, thank you for your response and I will do my best moving forward and congratulations to you on being healthier after your cancer treatment and getting to a point where you’re healthy and can even compete it seems like! Hats off to you!

I'm cheering for you to succeed: You're clearly committed, and thinking hard about what will be best for you. That's great! I'm wishing you success, and would bet you'll achieve it, with your positive attitude and actions.