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floyde

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 7, 2005
808
1
Monterrey, México
I want to lose some weight and I've been trying to reduce my calorie consumption n' junk, but I've yet to do something in the calorie burning department. I'm taking yoga classes 2 times a week, but I guess that I'm still way behind in physical activity :eek:. Are there any exercises that can help me burn calories? Push-ups, and that sort of thing? Maybe I should get a treadmill? I don't usually have time to go out running so I really want something that I can do at home. Thanks
 
Simplest way is to figure out how much your intake is compared how much your body burns (tons of websites about how to figure out your daily calorie burn). That will should be your starting point to how to address this.

Junk food and portions are the biggest enemy, just find your favorite restaurant and check on their nutrition info. If that doesn't motivate you to eat less of it, nothing will.

As for exercises, starts easy. I do a combination of cardio and weigh lifting, but there is not harm in just nice long walks to start with. Just get moving!
 
There are tons of DVDs out there that offer massive cardio workouts. Many tailored to suit various levels of fitness and ability. That is probably the least expensive way of working out as you can now rent these DVDs online at netflix and Blockbuster.com.

Your next idea would be to go to a sporting goods store and get some sort of fitness ball and rent or buy a video to help you learn various ways of working out.

These are things that will prevent you from having to leave the house, if that is your goal. You can buy a treadmil or some other expensive item but if you don't have the space for it I don't recommend doing that. It'll eventually just become a catch-all. If you search online for items to buy make sure you do your research as some of the items for sale claim to work and do not. Others claim to work but they break easily. And worst of all some claim to work but they're actually quite harmful.

You can burn calories at home cleaning as well. Not many, but you can.
 
Exercise bikes are quite good- particularly ones that tell you how many calories you burn per session, how far you've 'cycled' etc. They can give your legs a pretty good workout in a short period of time.

...and you can still watch TV with them :)
 
Resistance training is always good, cause the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism. I agree with jessica. about the DVDs, both for cardio and weight training. I can recommend some good ones if you are interested. Just let me know. Do you go to a gym or do you want to work out at home? If so, you'll def need some weights.
 
I really like it... It actually makes me think more during the day about what I eat. Also I did like a half hour of the fun activities and was extremely sore the days afterward.

I give it an A+
 
running first thing in the morning is the best thing, even if its only like 20 minutes. the workout burns 40% more fat if you run first thing before eating anything, then wait about an hour to eat breakfast.

just a suggestion i know you have to do something indoors, but i figured 20 minutes isnt too much.
 
I'll suggest pushups and cruches. They are easy and don't require much space. Plus the equipment cost is pretty low.

I don't know your size or physical condition, but easy pyramids, increasing ever few weeks may be ideal. After taking a few years off, I started at 10/20/30/20/10. Just make sure that you finish each set and rest in between. If you "can't do anymore" do sissy pushups. The important thing is to finish.

Oh, and don't forget to stretch!
 
Moving larger muscle groups is the key to burning calories. So legs are better than arms, and the body core is best of all. Pushups are okay, but situps are better. Also things like squats, jumping jacks, etc.
 
I'm no expert in the ways of exercise itself, but I've definitely been in your position, and the two pieces of advice I would offer are:

1) Don't get any piece of big, hideous home cardio gear, especially a treadmill. If you don't have time to go out and run, you won't have time for a treadmill once the novelty wears off, and it's a big godawful eyesore you'll come to loathe having in your house.

2) Do not exercise to lose weight. Exercise to keep your body fit and to do things you enjoy, which will indirectly contribute to weight loss, but if you start counting calories burned you will become almost immediately discouraged at how much effort it takes to burn 100 calories versus how relatively little satisfaction you get out of consuming 100 calories. It is much, much easier to manage weight from the input end, particularly if you're starting out relatively sedentary.
 
Ok, so we've got a Wii, DVD's, sexcercise (which would be my favorite if I could do it frequently enough), squats, treadmills = bad idea, all good suggestions :). What about time though? How much should I spend on physical activities? How often on a week?
 
at least 30 min a day and 3 days a week minimum

Thats a good amount of time for a beginner. Don't forget, though, little things add up.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Walk instead of drive or take the bus for little trips.

Do some sit-ups and/or push-ups during commercials!

Buy yourself a little dumbbell, whatever weight you feel is appropriate, and do some lifts with it while your watching tv or whatever.
 
Thats a good amount of time for a beginner. Don't forget, though, little things add up.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Walk instead of drive or take the bus for little trips.

Do some sit-ups and/or push-ups during commercials!

Buy yourself a little dumbbell, whatever weight you feel is appropriate, and do some lifts with it while your watching tv or whatever.

I never said that the exercise need to be vigorous regiments. 30 min a day could be as simple as going for a walk in the morning. to live a healthy life an easy simple step is to just move for 30 min a day and 3 times a week and then increase workout from there
 
I'm partial to a good rowing machine for cardio. A no-impact, full body workout. Most are compact enough to hide when not in use.
 
Fixed....

One word of caution regarding sexercise... if she's able to concentrate well enough to keep count, then the two of you are not doing it right. :)

Seriously I think most of the suggestions are good (well, the Wii Fit, get it if you want to, for fun, but honestly there are far more efficient / less expensive ways of getting your exercise on).

Sustainability is the key. If you're going to spend money, spend it on things that will encourage you to be consistent and exercise several days a week, every week. You don't even need to spend money for that -- get friends or loved ones to hold you accountable, make a chart to publicly check off each day, etc.

One that I'll add... Get a pedometer. This isn't indoors, obviously, but it will allow you to track how many steps you take per day. A Nikeplus kit is great, but a pedometer is more than fine and costs only a few dollars. The point of having one is that, once you know you walk, say, 2500 steps / day, by doing several little things like the ones mentioned above -- taking the stairs, parking in the back of the lot, walking around the block, etc, you can easily add 15-20% additional walking per day -- you could be at say 3000 steps/day instead and it will burn some extra calories and have a mild aerobic fitness benefit with little effort, and it will be sustainable.

As you walk more, too, you can use interval training to get yourself able to run short distances, if you can't run now -- e.g. walk 1-2 miles with some 50m runs interspersed in it. This is great cardiovascular training and also provides you a metabolic boost.

I think the suggestion to keep it simple is great. It's way to easy to invest heavily in gear that will end up in your closet, and fail in a year's time to have improved your fitness. Concentrate instead on anything that makes you exercise more often and will keep you going rather than getting burnt out.
 
I never said that the exercise need to be vigorous regiments. 30 min a day could be as simple as going for a walk in the morning. to live a healthy life an easy simple step is to just move for 30 min a day and 3 times a week and then increase workout from there

Sorry, I wasn't disagreeing with you. I simply meant in addition to the 30 minutes of exercise 3 time a week, to not miss simple opportunities to supplement that. Sorry for the confusion.
 
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