Is there no hope for "Cardio Hater"?

Options
2»

Replies

  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Options
    prisky780 wrote: »
    I'm speechless seeing so many replies in such a short time. I really want to thank all of you. I guess it's the food I need to watch. I don't think I'm eating enough. So conserving more food than I need is not my problem. Half the time I'm starving because I'm running around at work or stuck at meeting where I can't even snack.

    I have 2 meals a day, lunch and dinner. I try to eat one of those yogurt with low calories as a snack and that's pretty much my breakfast and snack before lunch. I really don't know how much food I can take out of my diet.

    Also, I hate fruits because they are sweet. I'm more into really spicy food or sour or anything savory. If I were to make a meal plan what would you recommend?

    You should really log your food to see how many calories you're eating. Right now, you're just guessing.

    If you were undereating, you would still be losing weight, definitely not gaining.
  • Muddy_Yogi
    Muddy_Yogi Posts: 1,459 Member
    Options
    prisky780 wrote: »
    I'm speechless seeing so many replies in such a short time. I really want to thank all of you. I guess it's the food I need to watch. I don't think I'm eating enough. So conserving more food than I need is not my problem. Half the time I'm starving because I'm running around at work or stuck at meeting where I can't even snack.

    I have 2 meals a day, lunch and dinner. I try to eat one of those yogurt with low calories as a snack and that's pretty much my breakfast and snack before lunch. I really don't know how much food I can take out of my diet.

    Also, I hate fruits because they are sweet. I'm more into really spicy food or sour or anything savory. If I were to make a meal plan what would you recommend?

    No.

    Go buy a food scale. You are not eating too little, if you were eating too little you would be losing weight. Calorie deficit = lose weight. Log your food accurately. Don't guess. Figure out your TDEE and eat below that by about 20%. Calculate your BMR and make sure you do not eat below that. BMR is what your body needs to function. If you really want this, you will research these things and be honest with yourself.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
    Options
    The first thing is to start logging, honestly. If you don't know how many calories are in what you're currently eating, how can you know where to reduce?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
    Options
    Losing fat has zilch to do with whether or not you do cardio. Cardiovascular work is good for the heart and cardiovascular system...weight training is good for your muscles and muscular skeletal structure.

    Eating an appropriate amount of food as per your desired weight control goals and as per your stats and activity is what is going to determine if you achieve said goals...not the exercise you're doing.
  • prisky780
    prisky780 Posts: 30 Member
    Options
    Quick question to everyone how do you count calories for homemade food? I would be still guessing when I use the Myfitnesspal calorie count.

    As I said, most of my food is homemade. I'm Indian so we use a lot of spices in our food even if it's just a simple vegetable fry. specially when I drink coffee. I can find the calorie count for a cup of coffee. However, the size of cup varies. How do you know which size to count as? ( I drink a lot of coffee due do my work but not necessarily finish the entire cup of coffee so that's even more confusing)

    This is why I don't calorie count. I end up guessing anyway. How do you do it?
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Options
    This thread at the top of this forum will explain it: community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101. For meals, there's a recipe builder to use. Click on the link to the old one on the right (as the new builder is extremely faulty), add in your ingredients, set the number of servings, and add it to your diary.
  • kyta32
    kyta32 Posts: 670 Member
    Options
    Good work with the weight training. This is something that will really help you get to the shape you want to be. Logging all your food will really help you get an idea of how much you can eat and still lose weight. Writing down everything will double the effect of everything else you do for weight loss. Even if you don't keep it up past a few months, what you learn while food journaling will make the weight loss journey easier.

    There are online calculators that can help you to figure out the old Weight Watchers points system for free. It is overly simplistic, but you only need to count up to 30, not 1200, to follow it. If you mostly eat the same things, you can enter your meals into a spreadsheet and copy and paste most of your intake from one day to the other. Using MFP will give you better feedback on things like mineral intake and macros.

    That being said, the three times I've lost weight in my life without tracking my food were when I was jogging or doing Karate three times a week. Both of these burn 1000 calories/hour at my current weight, which increases my total daily energy expenditure per day by 1/2. But even when I'm doing cardio, tracking my food intake doubles the amount of weight loss.

    Cardio is easiest if you find something you enjoy. You can create a playlist of dance music on youtube and rock out in your living room. Joining a club or taking a class will help you start out safely, as well as giving you social support and accountability. Or you can look up drills in your area of interest online, and create a home training program for yourself.

    Always warm up and cool down. Try not to go full out when you do cardio. You will want to go for at least 10 minutes, so think about going at 70% effort, not 100%. You should be able to talk, but not sing. You can figure out your target heart rate for fat burning from online resources. Make sure you are going above 60% of your maximum heart rate.

    If you want to jog or run, try a walk to run program. If the couch to 5k program is too intense for you, start out with fewer intervals (i.e. 6 min walk to 1 min jog 3x 1st week sessions, 6 min walk to 2 min jog 3x 2nd week sessions) and longer walk portions. I found intervals make jogging more interesting and less painful. Be patient with yourself and take your time to achieve your goals safely.

    While exercising will give your energy expenditure a boost, your body will adapt within a few months, and your results will slow down unless you get a handle on your calories in/out. I hope you find a way to manage journaling your food intake. Good luck :D
  • bmele0
    bmele0 Posts: 282 Member
    Options
    Use MFP Recipe creator to make your own recipes, weigh all the foods in your recipe and portion it out in a way that makes the most sense. That will be more accurate than choosing random homemade dishes on MFP.

    People log coffee, but I tend not to, but I DO log the milk/almond milk/ or cream that I put in it. But I also leave 100+ calories on my diary just in case.

    Use MFP to count your calories for you, especially if you eat many of the same foods, it will keep all of that pretty handy to re-add on a daily basis. Add the app to your phone. The more you log, the easier it will get everyday. It takes me less than a couple min to log all my food in for the day. You can also take the time to pre-log to help you keep on track for the next day.
  • gailowens75
    gailowens75 Posts: 5 Member
    Options
    I lost 129lb. Last week I just qualified as a Fitness professional. Diet and exercise is something that is personal for everyone. First of all, are you male or female? What is your body type, i.e are you naturall thin etc. I am naturally quite heavy- so I'm not going to be thin.
    - My advice start to make small changes.
    - Drink 2 litres (roughly 3 1/2 pints) a day.
    - Find an exercise you do enjoy. Although research does suggest resistance training is the best
    - Calories are not calories, what I mean is a calorie deficit, is good but isn't the whole picture!
  • Jessalynn54
    Jessalynn54 Posts: 44 Member
    edited November 2014
    Options
    On the disliking cardio deal maybe try jump rope. Just 2 minutes (I started w 1 minute and worked my way up) kicks my tush and gets me warmed up before I grab some weights. That's the only cardio I don't mind, I try to get through it without messing up. Try to be positive, stress can be a doosy also.
  • marinabreeze
    marinabreeze Posts: 141 Member
    Options
    If you don't know what you are eating, how do you know that you aren't eating enough? It could be that you're eating things that don't make you feel full, but are still high in calories. You really need to track and weigh/measure your food to really know what you're taking in. Remember that weight wars are won and lost in the kitchen, not the gym.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    edited November 2014
    Options
    prisky780 wrote: »
    So, I started going to gym 3 days a week. It's been 3-4 months now. I don't go on to cardio machine. I have a trainer who works me out with weight.

    Question is am I never going to lose any body fat if I don't do cardio? What are my other option? I tried the calorie counting and I gave up half way. I eat mostly homemade good. red meats and vegetables. I don't eat processed food. I don't go out and buy lunch. I bring food from home.

    I don't know how much more I can cut down on bad food? Yet my increased about 2 inches around my waist in that 3-4 months.

    I'm so frustrated, it almost makes me want to give up and become fat and loathe myself for rest of my life.

    Please help! What is the easiest workouts I can try? I knew I had to start somewhere so I joined the gym but seems to worthless now.
    I lose so much faster with exercise. The more I do, the more I lose. People around here like to say that exercise doesn't help you lose weight, but they're full of it. It totally does. You don't have to do it! You can lose by just eating less, but you'll lose a lot more if you do some cardio, too.

    What's the easiest? Walking. Really, the easiest thing is the thing you enjoy, because if you like it, it's seems less like work. Walking is pretty damn easy, though. Swimming is fantastic! It burns more calories than anything and you don't feel hot and sweaty! It's also very easy on the joints and the only exercise I know of where being fat doesn't hold you back.

    You don't have to weigh and measure every bite of food if it's more obsessive than you feel like being, lol. But you have to take in fewer calories. A really good way to do that is to eat healthy food. Healthy food is pretty low-cal. Most people who eat only healthy food have trouble getting enough calories into their body because they're so stuffed. True dat! So swap that red meat out for lean, white meat. Make half of everything you eat a fruit or a veggie. Drink water. Eat fiber (keeps you full and keeps you regular!) Eat whole grain breads and pastas instead of white. http://www.fitness.gov/eat-healthy/how-to-eat-healthy/

    If you go to the gym, just do whatever you feel like doing. Lift some weights, ride the bike, whatever. Try to have fun with it. Try everything! You never know what you're going to like!

    You do have to put forth some effort to lose. You can't keep eating whatever you want and not exercise and expect to lose weight, lol. You will keep getting bigger that way, not smaller. You're going to have to do some work!

    I don't know if you really want to go through the work of losing. It kind of doesn't sound like it. But it isn't that damn hard once you develop the new habits. Eat right and exercise! You've heard it before. Now just do it. If you want.

    Good luck. :)
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    Options
    I'm not a fan of cardio. I lost most of my weight without doing one bit of cardio except walking the dogs occasionally. Now I do some--about 10 minutes on the elliptical before my workout and 10 minutes after (sometimes I skip the 10 minutes after).

    I lost all of my weight by eating at a caloric deficit and didn't even start working out until most of the weight was gone. Then I started weight lifting. I lost about seven more pounds over the course of a year from weight lifting and eating at a deficit.

    So no, you don't have to do cardio but it does help. Just eat at a deficit and LOG YOUR CALORIES like everyone else has said.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    Options
    Kalikel wrote: »
    prisky780 wrote: »
    So, I started going to gym 3 days a week. It's been 3-4 months now. I don't go on to cardio machine. I have a trainer who works me out with weight.

    Question is am I never going to lose any body fat if I don't do cardio? What are my other option? I tried the calorie counting and I gave up half way. I eat mostly homemade good. red meats and vegetables. I don't eat processed food. I don't go out and buy lunch. I bring food from home.

    I don't know how much more I can cut down on bad food? Yet my increased about 2 inches around my waist in that 3-4 months.

    I'm so frustrated, it almost makes me want to give up and become fat and loathe myself for rest of my life.

    Please help! What is the easiest workouts I can try? I knew I had to start somewhere so I joined the gym but seems to worthless now.
    I lose so much faster with exercise. The more I do, the more I lose. People around here like to say that exercise doesn't help you lose weight, but they're full of it. It totally does. You don't have to do it! You can lose by just eating less, but you'll lose a lot more if you do some cardio, too.

    What's the easiest? Walking. Really, the easiest thing is the thing you enjoy, because if you like it, it's seems less like work. Walking is pretty damn easy, though. Swimming is fantastic! It burns more calories than anything and you don't feel hot and sweaty! It's also very easy on the joints and the only exercise I know of where being fat doesn't hold you back.

    You don't have to weigh and measure every bite of food if it's more obsessive than you feel like being, lol. But you have to take in fewer calories. A really good way to do that is to eat healthy food. Healthy food is pretty low-cal. Most people who eat only healthy food have trouble getting enough calories into their body because they're so stuffed. True dat! So swap that red meat out for lean, white meat. Make half of everything you eat a fruit or a veggie. Drink water. Eat fiber (keeps you full and keeps you regular!) Eat whole grain breads and pastas instead of white. http://www.fitness.gov/eat-healthy/how-to-eat-healthy/

    If you go to the gym, just do whatever you feel like doing.

    You do have to put forth some effort to lose. You can't keep eating whatever you want and not exercise and expect to lose weight, lol. You will keep getting bigger that way, not smaller. You're going to have to do some work!

    I don't know if you really want to go through the work of losing. It kind of doesn't sound like it. But it isn't that damn hard nice you develop the new habits. Eat right and exercise! You've heard it before. Now just do it. If you want.

    Good luck. :)

    Didn't we go over your misunderstanding of this when discussing how maintenance calories move dependent upon your activity level?
  • prisky780
    prisky780 Posts: 30 Member
    Options
    All of you thank you very much. I almost didn't go to gym for a month because I didn't think it was helping in any way. On top, I ate all I can consume because I was too depressed. As you can predict, I gained even more. What's worst is gaining body fat %. I think I care less about the weight but the body fat %. That is what matters the most.

    Long story short, I started logging in everything I eat. ( I know it's a bad time to start) but hey gotta start somewhere. I started going to gym. Same routine, 3 times a week weight lifting. Now I'm confused on how much my calorie deficit should be.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    Delete. Necro'ed.