Joining a gym to lose weight?

[postiewhite]

Ive been with the RM for a couple of years and I cant seem to lose a lot of weigh despite walking x amount of miles a day. My friend said the ONLY way to lose weight is to eat less which in theory is correct but im so damned bloody starving after a 4hr walk I was wondering if an hour or two at the gym would help in addition to what I walk on a morning. Does anyone else do the gym after work? I spoke to a gym instructor last year that told me because my body was used to walking everyday I wont lose weight and that the gym was the way to go. In all fairness not all posties are slim.
Thoughts?

[arnold cheshire]

Get a exercise bike

[franco1]

Ask your GP for a thyroid blood test.
I used to walk all day but never lost weight, then after thyroid was found to be underactive and started medication i lost weight.
Best to get it checked as it can easily be overlooked and not noticed, can be very dangerous if not treated as can lead to high cholestorol - mine was sky high!!

[dtyssmshdchrb]

Yes, it is true that your body becomes more efficient at a certain exercise the more you do it. My heart rate barely goes beyond my resting rate when I'm pacing about walking 5-6 hours every day so it's not like I'm burning hundreds of calories more than I would be just sitting on my arse at home. Eating a biscuit or two in a day would negate any extra calories burned from being a postie. I'd say about 50-60% of my office of about 90 are overweight.

It simply is just a case of burning more calories than you consume, so keeping track of that, at least initially, is the way to go. Using an app on your phone like My Fitness Pal is something I'd recommend as you'll get a pretty clear indication of exactly how much you're consuming. People generally consume way more than is necessary and more than they'd estimate that they currently do. However, don't listen to the app when you put in 4 hours walking as exercise and it tells you you've burned an extra 1000 calories or something... that'll be nonsense. You need a heart rate monitor to get a more accurate indication of this and it'll be nowhere near that. HRMs aren't expensive.

Now, if you don't want to drastically alter your diet to cut calories then more intense exercise is the way to go. Yep, if you go to the gym and just lift weights and build muscle then you'll afford yourself more calories to consume but you won't necessarily lose weight, you'll maybe just look a bit more trim and toned. High intensity aerobic exercise will elevate your heart rate, burn more calories and increase your metabolism in the long run. Cycling is my recommendation - road cycling or spin classes burn the most calories in the least amount of time in my experience. There's plenty of other aerobic exercises to choose from though, going for a jog is the simplest and cheapest!

Lastly, it goes without saying that making sensible, long term food choices is the best and most effective way to being healthy and lean permanently, whilst not cutting back your calories or starving yourself. A whole foods, plant based diet rich in fruit and veggies is low in fat, high in carbs and chock full of all the vitamins and nutrients which promote a healthy body in every way possible. I can't recommend that enough

[motherhubbard]

but im so damned bloody starving after a 4hr walk

You might feel starving because you are dehydrated.
Your age, your hormones and their effect on your metabolism will affect your ability to lose weight.

A gentle jog won't be much different to doing a walk. Hill running will.
You need to substantially increase your heart rate and the adrenalin will kickstart your metabolism.

[Creditshampoo]

Eat 5 times a day, smaller meals instead of 3 large meals.
Eat these 4 hours apart, this keeps your body in fat burning mode as it's constantly getting energy.
Lean meats like chicken and beef, healthy carbs like rice and quinoa, greens, total 0%, eggs etc and healthy fats.

Eat like this with no junk for 2 weeks and your results will be your needed motivation.

[meercat]

Great advice so far. I'd add that you should be aware there are TWO main sources of fuel for your body which you use at the same time - fat and sugar. (Protein is another but not crucial here).

You burn both fat and sugar when you exercise. But you can only hold enough sugar in your body for around 1-2 hr of intense exercise. After that you will feel ready to keel over unless you eat.
But crucially you only feel general fatigue during exercise when you run low on blood sugar. You have weeks worth of fat supplies, it's sugar that is in short supply.

What that means is if you keep drinking sugary squash/drinks instead of food you can keep exercising and feel full of energy without eating ANY fat at all. In that situation you are burning through body fat (and squash) at a high rate of knots. So if you swap out squash or sugary drinks/honey for whatever you eat during your round you will drop weight quickly. Also if you cycle/run/gym/swim only on sugar for energy you will also shed pounds quickly.

Delivery work is low intensity endurance so as dtyss said above you should do moderate to high intensity workouts of 40mins+ per day to build your all-round fitness. Your metabolism will improve in days rather than weeks and if you only have sugary drinks (it will feel tough for a few days) your body will quickly learn to more effectively metabolise body fat giving you greater endurance. As another bonus in a week or two you will no longer be starving after your delivery because more of your energy expenditure will have come from fat not just blood sugar and you won't feel a deep fatigue.

btw Always eat a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner as skipping these won't help you lose weight but will put you into starvation mode where you burn less energy through the day. Also after your workouts resupply your blood sugar and have a small snack, if you starve yourself after a workout you will end up burning muscle instead of body fat.

Keep us updated on your weight. What are you today if I may be so bold?

[Nondescript]

Come in early, skip your break and run round your walk, the weight will fly off in no time!

[postiewhite]

I weigh 15 stone as it stands so Im looking at 1.5stones to lose. Im 6ft 2 and my bmi is over 27. Ive just had 10 days off so im back to work tomorrow (monday) and i'll start the gym in the afternoon. Im gonna also look at my diet because when I finish work I feel the need to eat sugary foods to keep my energy up,not loads but maybe a chocolate bar or two. I have been under the impression that I can allow myself more calories because I burn a few calories on a morning but its not the case. Im going to really work hard at it, eat more fruit,drink 2-3ltrs of water a day and trial a month at the gym. I have a friend for motivation who is going to weigh me on a weekly basis and if I don't lose any weight or put weight on I have to pay her £10.
I will keep you updated. Thanks a lot for the advice.

[alliasjay]

20-40 mins cardio 3-5 times per week @ 80% of your Maximum heart rate (MHR).
Less that 20 mins and more than 40 doesn't really make much difference the sweet spot is in between. You want to eventually aim for 5 times per week but even 3 a week will make a difference.
After a couple of weeks you will start to notice a difference. Although most changes start within so don't expect to lose shed loads. You will start losing weight at a healthy rate which should be around 1-2 lbs per week.

Your body is designed to adapt and designed to get lazy too so you need to keep changing it up a bit. Depending on how fast your body will adapt you would be better off implementing other techniques into your cardio work outs... say after 3 weeks you could start fartlekk training, which is adding burst intervals. For example running at 80% MHR or one minute then for 20 seconds giving it 100% then back to running at 80% MHR for another minute, rinse and repeat. adding in some bits and bobs like that. You just need to focus on getting your body into using the aerobic energy system which basically fuels the bodys using oxygen and fat stores.

20-40 mins @ 80% MHR. All ya need man, granted helps with watching what kind of sugary fatty foods your eating, but if your going to go to the gym and not workout right then it won't make much difference. People may say you need to run on a treadmill for 3 hours a day n what not but no need. Yes your body will burn more fat but nowhere near as efficiently as just going to 40 mins.

Include a 10 minute warm up if you want the session to last longer. I would advise a warm up anyway with anything your doing. 5 minutes on say a cross trainer (which warms up the whole body nicely as your using most of your major muscles) gently warming up to around 50% MHR. no need to go mental. Then do a few dynamic stretches, meaning stretches where you move and not just stand still or your heart rate will drop and its more beneficial to keep your heart rate up a bit. So like do some leg swings, front back side to side 8-10 reps each on each stretch you do. walking lunges are a good one just make sure when you step forward lets say on your right leg, make sure your right knee doesn't go past your right foot. Can cause damage to your knees.

but yeah after a few minutes stretching and readying up crack on with whatever cardio equipment you enjoy using whether that be treadmill, rower, cross trainer or spinning bike. If your serious about losing weight then I would also invest in a heart rate monitor. Chest strapped version. That will tell you your heart rate more accurately than the machines monitors...plus it's not really safe say sprinting on a treadmill while trying to check your heart rate holding on for dear life.

so yeah. Just a few bits of info for ya, nothing too in depth. Hopefully will make a difference. Give us a shout if you need anymore on this front.

[rambo1]

Yes, it is true that your body becomes more efficient at a certain exercise the more you do it. My heart rate barely goes beyond my resting rate when I'm pacing about walking 5-6 hours every day so it's not like I'm burning hundreds of calories more than I would be just sitting on my arse at home. Eating a biscuit or two in a day would negate any extra calories burned from being a postie. I'd say about 50-60% of my office of about 90 are overweight.

It simply is just a case of burning more calories than you consume, so keeping track of that, at least initially, is the way to go. Using an app on your phone like My Fitness Pal is something I'd recommend as you'll get a pretty clear indication of exactly how much you're consuming. People generally consume way more than is necessary and more than they'd estimate that they currently do. However, don't listen to the app when you put in 4 hours walking as exercise and it tells you you've burned an extra 1000 calories or something... that'll be nonsense. You need a heart rate monitor to get a more accurate indication of this and it'll be nowhere near that. HRMs aren't expensive.

Now, if you don't want to drastically alter your diet to cut calories then more intense exercise is the way to go. Yep, if you go to the gym and just lift weights and build muscle then you'll afford yourself more calories to consume but you won't necessarily lose weight, you'll maybe just look a bit more trim and toned. High intensity aerobic exercise will elevate your heart rate, burn more calories and increase your metabolism in the long run. Cycling is my recommendation - road cycling or spin classes burn the most calories in the least amount of time in my experience. There's plenty of other aerobic exercises to choose from though, going for a jog is the simplest and cheapest!

Lastly, it goes without saying that making sensible, long term food choices is the best and most effective way to being healthy and lean permanently, whilst not cutting back your calories or starving yourself. A whole foods, plant based diet rich in fruit and veggies is low in fat, high in carbs and chock full of all the vitamins and nutrients which promote a healthy body in every way possible. I can't recommend that enough

Good advice however I would add that starving yourself isn't the way to lose weight (fat). Start the day with a healthy breakfast and take packup to work, something like tuna pasta salad or tuna sandwich. Eat something every hr or so, little and often. If you are starving aftet work you're likely to go home and eat rubbish. Dont forget to drink plenty of water to. People make the mistake of going on a diet instead of changing their diet. Gl with your health drive. Cardiovascular work will make you healthier internally too as well as externally.

[kingeric]

Gym wise work high intensity stuff like circuit training classes. On some days do this on other days lift weights, slowly build up to lift heavy weights. Exercises like dead lift, squat, turkish gets ups are all you really need to do. They work all your major muscle groups. This will build muscle without making you huge, but crucially more muscle burns more calories. Just doing cardiovascular is not really much on its own.

Food wise, keep it simple. If it grows or eats something that grows then eat it. If it's made in a factory or processed in some way then try and avoid it.

Don't get too caught up with calories etc. If you stick to those rules you will lose weight. Our bodies have had years of practice of burning off these healthy calories. As humans we're not used to burning off these 'new' factory made foods so go back to what our ancestors used to do.
It genuinely works.

[Dorset Plodder]

Lots of good advice and good luck with your weight lose

Obviously a few keen Gym Addicts on the site and I admire your motivation, however I personally don't have the energy to put in another 40mins worth of exercise in the evening I've had enough thanks!

[DB1100]

No amount of exercise will compensate for a bad diet,low carb,high protein is a really good way,but not all carbs are equal,oat's are your friend,oatmeal,oatbran and plain old porridge oats,white rice ,pasta,white bread and all other processed carbs are to be avoided,I personally wouldn't touch anything that say's low fat on it,fruit in moderation is ok,but vegetables are far better,what I do is make a big stew in a slow cooker on a Saturday divide it into 6 or 7 portions and freeze it,I would have 1.5 kilo's of turkey leg meat (more iron) or beef,about a pound or so off broccoli,2 or 3 carrots,a good size helping of pea's,a tin of kidney beans,a tin of butterbeans,a good few mushrooms and loads of onions,leave cooking overnight on medium and divide up on Sunday morning,lovely grub and I manage to make the gym 5 or 6 times a week,you could always try paleo a few of my mate's have had good results using it,good luck and don't get discouraged.

[datasaint]

Eat slower releasing foods that give you sustained energy, complex carbohydrates/protein. Steer clear of high sugary snacks, as these cause a spike and subsequent drop in blood sugar which makes you feel hungry again.