Exercise Ambivalence
 

Hi Emily....I am like you in the fact that I cannot change my eating habits for the better to lose weight. I need to exercise and I guess it is a good thing that I like it. Now walking in the woods.....I love to hike. But I guess hiking and walking are two different things. Some hikes I can truly get a extremly good workout but a nature walk is definately more relaxing. So (sigh....) I still must do my cardio and weight training and then later in the day take that walk in the woods....lol. Take Care....I love your posts!!

Even I like these things! But do they burn enough calories to make a dent in accumulated fat? Don't get me wrong, I think there are lots of benefits to exercise; I'm particularly impressed with the way it relieves depression for some people. I also think relationships with kids, dogs and nature are beneficial in and of themselves for many.

I have to disagree with you Diane...any exercise that you do will burn calories. Sure.....some exercises burn many more calories than others....but "dancing with your kids" is more exercise than sitting on the couch!

This has always been so true of me. I've changed my eating habits for various reasons over the years, and unless I also hit the gym, I would not lose one ounce of weight. In fact, when I was younger I didn't have to change my eating habits at all, in order to take off a few pounds. All I needed to do was add about 20 minutes of cardio to my weightlifting program, and voila, the fat dropped right off. But after I was 30, that didn't work anymore. :rolleyes:

Even from the first day on Atkins, I started walking, just to get moving a little bit. I'd become extremely sedentary by then. But as my weight loss progressed---and slowed down--I came to realize that I was going to have to up the cardio by a significant and perhaps not very pleasant amount, or else be a couple of years losing all the weight, if indeed I managed to get all the way down to goal with only mild exercise.

I've been doing this for almost a year already. I know I don't have the patience to be dieting for another year, let alone two more years as it would have taken if I'd settled for the half-pound per month that I'd slowed down to by October.



Sure, they burn calories, and any motion is better than no motion, but it seems to me that you're wondering about the efficiency and the frustration factor for someone who doesn't like exercise. Unfortunately, the dent-making power of, let's say, 30 minutes worth of any exercise is directly proportional to the intensity. That's why it is difficult to force a visible fat burn with walking...unless you're willing to do an hour or more per day at a fairly good clip, or increase the intensity by doing uphill walking on the treadmill.

As for dancing...there is some girl who lost a huge amount of weight playing Dance Dance Revolution in her living room. I'll see if I can dig up the link. ;)

on edit: Here it is.

Emily

Cool link, Emily. I've never heard of Dance Dance revolution before.

You commented above that one reason you upped your cardio was that you felt you couldn't continue a diet for two years or more. To play with semantics, aren't you (and me) going to be on a restricted way of eating (aka diet) for the rest of our lives if we don't plan to regain? That's a thought that actually helps me deal with the slow loss (about 3 lbs a month now), since I will be eating much the same even when I reach goal...or likely eating less, realistically, so what's the rush? (I do understand about wanting the results sooner).

Diane, are you saying that the thought that you will be on a diet forever helps you deal with the slow loss?

I won't be framing my eventual maintenance eating as "being on a diet". Will I call it a restricted way of eating? Or efficient fueling? To eat what the body needs is not restriction; to eat less than the body needs, in order to lose weight, is restriction. To decide what to eat in order to feel fit and healthy and happy is a choice, not a restriction.

This framing/reframing is, I suppose, playing with semantics, but importantly to the advantage of my morale and motivation and my success.

Gez

I first encountered it at a rest stop on the M4 motorway. There was this little kid, maybe 10 years old, dancing her a$$ off in the arcade while her parents watched, amazed. I just had to stand there for a little while and watch too. (I was, of course, way too grown up and self-conscious about my weight to try it myself.)

I think Gez wants one, now, since she's seen that link. However, we would have to buy a PlayStation or an XBox first, plus the pad...and all I would ever do, with a console game in the house, would be to buy and play every game I could get my hands on. Maybe we shouldn't go down that road. :rolleyes:



Let me put it this way...Atkins was easy for me for about 6 months. All I had to do was stay LC and the weight would fall off...very rapidly at first, then a little more slowly. But in August the weight loss slowed to a crawl, and by late September it had stopped completely. At that point I realized that the honeymoon was probably over.

No more general LC, just adding up the carbs and not worrying about calories or exercise. Now it was going to be LC eating plus, probably, the dreaded calorie counting (otherwise known as undereating or starving), and burning the fat off with cardio. LC-maintenance principles, combined with fitness-focused cardio (which I can endure easily) and the weightlifting I love, would keep me from regaining once the weight was off. But to get it off, I realized, was going to require some serious work. It was now going to be--and feel like--a "diet," with the accompanying hunger, frustration and deprivation signals.

(I realize that not everyone has the same experience on LC, but this is how it was for me.)

Thus began my consideration of what I was willing to do, and how long I was willing to do it. I am emphatically not willing to cut calories and be deprived for two years. No way. But I am willing to cut them way down for three months. While I'm doing that, I thought, it's going to be annoying anyway...cutting calories, giving up booze except on the free day, high-intensity cardio workouts...so why not try to maximize the result of all this annoyingness, even if it means busting the cardio work for a while?



The rush, for me, is to get the fat off. I feel that in the combination of LC eating, weightlifting and fitness-focused (as opposed to fat-loss-focused) cardio workouts, I have finally found the key which will allow me to maintain my weight at any level I choose, once the excess fat is gone. I cannot get it gone soon enough, so that I can enjoy my new life IN CONTROL of my body composition instead of at the mercy of creeping weight gain. And that is important enough to me, and exciting enough to me, that I'm willing to do a hell of a lot of extra exercise to get there.

Emily

Emily...You are truly an inspiration!! I am also willing to work my butt off (hopefully literally) to lose weight. I will do cardio everyday and weight training every other day, as long as my body is telling me it is o.k. This morning I surely did not feel like working out....but got on the Elliptical machine for my routine and felt so awesome when I was done.......and had so much more energy. I just love to sweat...and the endorphins always help. I am not planning to "diet" for the rest of my life. But what I plan do to is to think about everything that I put in my mouth before eating it. I was eating so terrible before I started Protein Power. After the weight comes off I will introduce more carbs and calories....in fact, I already have because of my exercise. I am so much more aware of the nutritional contents of foods. I am taking Vitamins and other supplements. I am 34 and can no longer play the game of a teenager or 20 something person. I used to be in great shape and could lose weight very quickly. I was always very active....then the kiddo's came along. I have learned to put myself first for once and take charge of my body.

Basically, yes. We can substitute "controlled eating" for diet, or words to that effect. But I expect to eat the way I'm eating now, for the rest of my life. So there will be no great day when I can eat the things I've removed; instead I've shifted to liking the things that fit into the WOE. But I do understand that for other people, there are other rewards (such as a great body or wearing certain clothes) that they can't bear to wait for indefinitely. And because I read Emily's journal, I know more or less what she is up to, as she has explained a couple of posts above: a period of special intensity now to allow her to reach a maintenance phase within a time frame that feels psychologically right.

Atlee, I agree, exercise can be time consuming. That is the exact reason I joined Curves. Although difficult, I can manage to scoop out a half hour 3xs per week.