Having fat just around your belly is not just an ascetic concern. It’s associated with much higher death risks. Carrying extra fat anywhere has health risks, but the belly fat has extra risks:
Most of us will gain weight as we age due to slowing metabolisms and more sedentary lifestyles. If you don’t actively take steps to address it, expect to gain at least about 1-2 pounds a year. Food is the biggest culprit. Eat less and eat healthier options. The typical American diet is very low on nutrients and high on calories, so if you just eat less, you’ll be getting even fewer nutrients. Swapping in more things like vegetables is necessary.
Like others have said, exercise isn’t the magic bullet for weight loss. It can help, but the benefit can be minimal compared to what you eat. But it can help to maintain your weight and also with psychological changes to encourage a healthier lifestyle. And regardless of any weight benefits, exercise has a host of other critical benefits as well. If you aren’t exercising regularly, expect to have more mobility issues, metabolic issues, stress issues, sleep issues, etc. as you get older. If you only exercise when you need to lose weight, you’re missing out on many of its life-extending and life-improving benefits.
My workouts are almost exactly how you describe. My 20-minute regimen is either HIIT running or weighted calisthenics (200 reps each of 3 exercises in a circuit). Great for fitness, but pretty much negligible as far as helping with weight loss - I doubt I burn more than a couple hundred calories, despite the work being grueling. It probably helps my metabolism a little at my age (54 next month) but if I were trying to cut weight again, I’d cut calorie intake down to 1500/day like last time, rather than keep eating the same amount and try to burn an extra 500 calories a day or something.
The only strategy I think is worse is the old saw about adding muscle so that your body burns more calories even at rest. Adding 10 lbs of muscle would take weeks and your body wouldn’t create enough calorie deficit to offset a can of soda.
I think exercise is a keystone habit, meaning if you do it a lot of other things tend to fall into place naturally. If you exercise you are more likely to eat properly, etc because it puts you in that frame of mind. I also have seen studies that indicate HIIT is way more effective than long periods of cardio for losing weight. People should not neglect exercise if they are trying to lose weight, because it does seem to help… they just have to understand it isn’t going to be doing the majority of the heavy lifting (heh.) No amount of exercise can compensate for overeating.
I’m at the point where exercise is a habit now. I go four times a week to the gym for at least an hour each time, and I am healthier and fitter now nearing 50 than I was nearing 30.
Calories can come in some very sneaky ways. I know one woman who couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t losing weight on her new diet, and then she discovered that her morning latte contained 400 calories! :eek: She assumed it was low-cal because it was made with skim milk. She changed her morning coffee habits, and did start losing weight.
I am friends with a woman at work who has gained a lot of weight over the past couple of years. And it’s not because she’s a lazy slob since she walks a lot. We actually walk home from work almost every day. She probably gets in 5 miles every day.
She swears she doesn’t know what’s behind it. I suspect it’s probably her morning Starbucks habit, although I don’t know what she normally gets. But I don’t know how to diplomatically bring it up without making her feel bad.
Whenever she complains about her weight, I reflexively tell her she’s not fat because that seems like the “proper” thing to say. I guess I could just say nothing and wait for the moment to pass, but that’s awkward. Anyone have any ideas?
Suggest she uses one of those online food logs and documents everything. Bring it up by saying you read something that companies are secretly adding more sugar and fat to their foods to make people crave them more, and that’s why many people are gaining mysterious weight. The food logs have the calorie breakdowns for many products and restaurant items, so it’s easy get a good idea of how many calories are being consumed during the day.
I never felt comfortable in a bikini, even when I was a child. I’m not a gym kind of person, either. I like to take walks around my neighborhood, and have also climbed the stairs at my apartment even though I’m on the first floor when I go somewhere, or am waiting for my laundry load to finish. I need to do those things more often.
I don’t have the discipline for either of those so I took a part-time job at Amazon. I get a 3-5 hour workout five days a week and at the end of it I get a check. Not a bad deal all in all. I am still fat but I’m down 80+ pounds from when I started 2&1/2 years ago.
If I eat any less I wil starve. I average about three meals every two days, and small portions. Though admittedly they’re rarely healthy, they also aren’t too unhealthy, they’re middle range I’d say. Also I regularly walk as my form of mild exercise. I rarely get sick, and my Doctor’s visits for actual health reasons are at around once every three years. In the grand scheme of things I could do better, but I think I’m doing okay. It’s just genetics, modern diets, and ageing.
Inspired by this thread I spent yesterday Not Eating Junk.
I usually snack a lot, on candy and Baked Goods… I still snacked, but it was bananas, mango, and for lunch: carrots dipped in Trader Joe’s Mixed Nut Butter (peanut butter’s cooler friend).
I even stayed out of the local bar at NBA finals time, knowing I’d be drinking beer and eating fries there.
I’m hankerin’ for a bigass Cowboy Cookie, but I’m proud of myself!
Update: I can’t tell if I’ve lost any weight. However, I definitely won’t today, because I had a massive chocolate craving episode, and bought a 12-ounce bag of peanut M&Ms. I’d eat the whole thing, but I know it would make me sick if I did, so I ate until I was somewhat satisfied and kept the rest for later.
Keep it up, you might be able to hang on by inertia until it becomes habit.
A couple of months ago I had some alarming health concerns that made me consider trying some drastic changes in my daily routine.
First thing to go was junk food. I had been eating 2-3 meals of junk every day for the past year or two–a typical day would be Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, a gyro from the Greek place for lunch, and a burger or sub for dinner.
I immediately cut the daily junk food, and made a decision that I would eat one junk food meal per week and one DD breakfast per week. It seems that that weekly junk food meal keeps me sane enough to eat proper food the rest of the time.
My wife has been very good at preparing lunch and dinner for me, and I cook my own breakfast every morning.
It can be done, even by a junk food junkie like me.
So give it a try–perhaps set a goal for how many “junk free” days per week you want to do, and see if it works out.
A combination of the two is much more conducive for weight loss than dieting alone. And it’s not because of the calorie expenditure, typical exercise burns minimal calories. It’s the synergistic effect of the two. You feel motivated to keep improving and the physical exercise itself, due to the psychological boost it provides, helps you continue to make good choices with your diet. IME/O.
So don’t feel too bad. At least you still fit into clothes at department stores.