Topic: Gettin' In Shape! (Read 19182 times)

MadMAxJr · « **Reply #40 on:** February 02, 2010, 12:07:52 PM »

Treadmills are about twice what I was looking to spend. Maybe I'll just look into a gym membership.

Influenza Enema · « **Reply #41 on:** February 18, 2010, 02:23:12 PM »

. . . Run outside? Admittedly, I have no idea where you live and if that place is conducive to being outside for any amount of time.

Also: Parkour. I've never done it, but it looks tremendously fun.

Mothra · « **Reply #42 on:** February 18, 2010, 02:44:18 PM »

Threadmills are better at burning fat than bikes, but good lord does running suck. I've been on it pretty regularly since the beginning of 2009 and it really doesn't get any less strenuous.

If you get into it, running outside is harder but more exciting. It's kind of like an adventure, and it feels good to leave your house and just run in a direction for a while. It's the kind of thing I've started sort of looking forward to, which never happened with the indoor gym.

That said, since winter set in and I graduated from the school my gym was at, I've done shit-all but some intermittent lifting since Magfest. I'd say go with the bike, you're more likely to stick with it, plus you can read/watch TV while you're on the thing. If winter down there is anything like it is up here, the cold's gonna kill your motivation to stick to a routine. Indoors might be a good bet right about now.

Quote from: Influenza Enema on February 18, 2010, 02:23:12 PM

Also: Parkour. I've never done it, but it looks tremendously fun.

Parkour rules but it will get you killed. Some of the dumbest kids I know really tried to give that a go and I have no idea how they are not stone dead after some of the spectacular fuckups they've had. These are people who have been making one continuous mistake since high school

François · « **Reply #43 on:** February 18, 2010, 03:20:40 PM »

I found that running is great if you used to be fat but have already lost much of your extra pounds, because chances are your legs are the most muscular part of your body and they don't have to cart around so much lard anymore. I lost a lot of weight while retaining the muscle mass in my lower body and sometimes I feel like a frikkin' gazelle. The hard part is getting your heart and lungs to catch up, but you're gonna have to work on that no matter what.

Brentai · « **Reply #44 on:** February 18, 2010, 10:44:06 PM »

Going to summarize/add to my rant on the porn board:

* If you feel fat, chances are you're not really that fat, you're just too weak to carry around your own weight. Gaining enough strength to move will affect you more than burning a superfluous addition to your natural mass.
* One's numerical weight has almost no bearing on their overall physique or self-image. Weight is a terrible indicator of just about everything and it is primarily used by lazy doctors in lieu of taking a BFP measurement.
* Running and cycling are the fastest ways to lose weight but do almost nothing in terms of overall body strength (you do get faster though, obviously).
* Swimming is the super-cise. It's aerobic AND strength, provides natural resistance, works the entire body at once when done properly, and is not fucking boring. You just need to find a place to do it where people won't fuck with you too much.
* Don't diet unless you really need to, for God's sakes.

TA · « **Reply #45 on:** February 18, 2010, 11:07:48 PM »

Quote from: Brentai on February 18, 2010, 10:44:06 PM

* Swimming is the super-cise. It's aerobic AND strength, provides natural resistance, works the entire body at once when done properly, and is not fucking boring. You just need to find a place to do it where people won't fuck with you too much.

Detonator · « **Reply #46 on:** February 18, 2010, 11:16:27 PM »

Quote from: Brentai on February 18, 2010, 10:44:06 PM

* Don't diet unless you really need to, for God's sakes.

I know I've said this before, but I still claim that you should never "diet", as in you should never change your diet temporarily. Every change you make should be viewed as a permanent change in your dietary habits. Never starve yourself to lose weight.

Seconding what Brent said about strength training and weight. As a plus, adding muscle increases your metabolism (muscle requires more calories to sustain than fat), so you burn fat quicker and can eat more without adding fat.

I think I'll add a poll, for science.

Detonator · « **Reply #47 on:** February 18, 2010, 11:24:14 PM »

Poll added (for science)

Kazz · « **Reply #48 on:** February 18, 2010, 11:40:15 PM »

Wii Fit Plus has this game where you are in a bubble and have to float on the river.

Brentai · « **Reply #49 on:** February 19, 2010, 12:30:55 AM »

It's in the original too.

It is the single most likely activity to make you fall off the damned thing.

Classic · « **Reply #50 on:** February 19, 2010, 07:55:26 AM »

I'm now at a little shorter than 5'9" and 200+lbs. I gots jelly rolls.

I've been meaning to post pictures of my flab and log my exercise regimen. In part to keep me on track and have a log of my progress to look back on, but mostly to whip the four or five (or all) of you who hate that I make this into a blog into an amazing frenzy.

I'd make a blog dedicated to it, but without someone making constant commentary I'm pretty sure it'd die before it was really born.

Mongrel · « **Reply #51 on:** February 19, 2010, 08:05:05 AM »

I hate working at places where wearing a suit is a must, since it directly impacts my health (can't bike to work).

I need to move closer to work so I can walk to work at least... of course that would double my rent. GAH.

Classic · « **Reply #52 on:** February 19, 2010, 08:59:11 AM »

You could just go to work in sweats and change in a locker room of some kind.

Mongrel · « **Reply #53 on:** February 19, 2010, 09:21:45 AM »

There isn't one here, just the bathroom. At any rate it just becomes very, very tiresome to drag your suit back and forth. I mean I'm pretty far down the slope as far as OMG RETARDED CYCLISTS go (or I was anyway... now I'm fat and lazy), but I'm not some militant nutbag. After a while the whole thing just becomes so much hassle you can't stand it.

At any rate, I live too far away from my current workplace to bicycle commute there anyway.

Brentai · « **Reply #54 on:** February 21, 2010, 11:45:44 AM »

The subject of Parkour reminded me:

Martial Arts. Do them. There's basically nobody in the world I would not suggest this to, except I guess extreme anemics or people in convalescence. Or pussies I guess.

Doing martial arts automatically gives you the following:
* Membership to a regular workout class.
* Many, many, many people willing to act as your personal trainer.
* A practical use for all this body training.
* A permanent level of raised self-confidence based on the knowledge that you will never be completely defenseless.
* Actual, regular, tangible rewards for self improvement ("I earned a new belt" is a much more solid statement than "I lost x pounds.")
* A room full of people with a very vested interest in making sure you don't seriously injure yourself, and know exactly what to do if it should happen.

In the interest of fairness, the cons are:
* It's pretty damned expensive, especially once you start having to buy equipment, and double-especially if your instructor becomes interested in having you participate in tournaments.
* It requires a certain level of dedication, although this is a pro too. Guaranteed you will have more than enough encouragement in this regard.
* And of course the obvious: People are going to hit you a lot. There is a very real risk of injury. I'll note that I made it to black belt (in Tae Kwon Do) without ever being seriously hurt, but you have to accept that you're going to experience a lot of fucking pain and a large part of your training is just learning how to *shades* deal with it. Honestly, though, although it's immensely uncomfortable at times you're actually probably safer doing this than free-weights or whatever. A lot of martial arts training is just about how to go about doing it without hurting yourself or anyone else, as opposed to going to the gym and doing something wrong and whoops I tore something, uhhh can someone take me to a hospital?
* And the last thing, and this is key: You have to have some idea who is and isn't a good instructor (or more likely group of instructors). If you fuck up and go with someone who doesn't actually know what he or she is doing, you're pretty much going to negate all those benefits I listed and screw yourself up big time. Most dojos (I hate that word but okay) let you take a trial class or even a trial week - DO THIS before you even think about signing up. Don't just watch, actually participate and see if it's something you'll actually be able to stand doing.
* One more minor consideration: These schools come and go all the time, and it SUCKS when they close on you. Make sure the one you join has been around a while and is likely to stay around for a while.

Honestly in my case it's just the time and money considerations that are keeping me out at the moment. If you're actually serious about going beyond just "Oh I gotta lose this little bit of weight" though, that is the direction I would say you should go in. Unless you just can't stand the idea of having a foot driven through your face, you weenie.

yeoz · « **Reply #55 on:** March 03, 2010, 08:50:22 PM »

fructose is a lie
^-- I watched this entire hour-and-a-half-long youtube video today, which is a taped lecture from a UCSF professor, which seems to claim that fructose is the problem behind obesity in America. It turns out that "low-fat" diets are still high-fat, since fats in foods have been mostly supplanted by sugars like HFCS, and, since a good deal of fructose gets converted into fat, SUDDENTLY obesity epidemic. (And sucrose is also problematic, to a slightly lesser extent, since sucrose breaks down into fructose.)

I had basically given up soda and other sweetened soft drinks last year when I decided I needed to lose weight, and I did lose a good deal of weight (went from 350+ to to ~300), but, have since plateaued and have been slowly creeping back up in weight. After watching this video, I think I'm going to give up fructose/sucrose (edit: i mean processed/refined sugars like HFCS) entirely now (and possibly miminize all other sugar intake) from here on, and see where that gets me.

I suppose that's good bye to ice cream forever. *sheds single tear* :'( Good luck me!

edit: and if anyone cares, i'm just going to attribute my previous weight loss to the hacker's diet

Kayma · « **Reply #56 on:** March 03, 2010, 09:14:14 PM »

Ah, I've been looking for this thread.

Any of you blokes have plantar fasciitis? 'Cause I sure fucking do.

Well, not the classical kind; mostly, people hurt their plantar fascia (the ligment on the inner, underside of your foot that goes from the heel to the ball) where it meets the heel. Lucky for me, mine hurts where it meets the ball of the foot. And boy does it hurt.

The good doctor instructed me to buy better shoes and do stretches, but it's only getting worse. I don't exactly do that much, but I was really hoping to try to pick up a martial art again. Sucks to that until I can stand on my left foot again.

Mongrel · « **Reply #57 on:** March 03, 2010, 09:38:24 PM »

Huh, I'm pretty sure my roommate's been on the Hacker's Diet for years.

He looks like a heroin addict. In fact it's so bad that when he went to visit his dad in hospital (who was being treated for prostate cancer), other cancer patients expressed their surprise that he had managed to keep his hair in spite of the chemotherapy he was clearly undergoing.

Brentai · « **Reply #58 on:** March 03, 2010, 11:54:49 PM »

Quote from: yeoz on March 03, 2010, 08:50:22 PM

It turns out that "low-fat" diets are still high-fat, since fats in foods have been mostly supplanted by sugars like HFCS, and, since a good deal of fructose gets converted into fat, SUDDENTLY obesity epidemic. (And sucrose is also problematic, to a slightly lesser extent, since sucrose breaks down into fructose.)

Trying to cut down on a specific caloric substance (fat/sugar/carbs/protein) almost never works partially because of the exact sort of lame substitution you describe, and partially due to a general misunderstanding of how weight works in this country. I don't generally recommend focusing on weight loss anyway but if you have to do it, the only number that matters, ever, is calories. Cutting out one source of calories does logically lead to a loss in total cals but if you end up balancing it out with something else (which most people end up doing if they're not conscious of it) you've accomplished jack shit except ruining your digestive system.

But yeah, low-fat/low-carb foods in general are a sham. Go compare labels on a typical brand's 2% vs whole milk some time. It's disgusting.

And Kayma uhhhhh

Mongrel · « **Reply #59 on:** March 04, 2010, 04:22:18 AM »

I wanted to mention the single greatest weight loss ally a nerd with ADHD tendencies can have: distraction.

For a long long time I focused on gaming or artistic projects one at a time. Recently (past year or so), I've finally started to embrace my scattergun approach by simply having loads of projects on the go at any one time.

What the hell does that have to do with weight loss? Well, it means that not only am I oddly more productive in spite of trying to do way more with less focus, it also means that I'm less bored all the time and that as a result I don't snack half so much as I used to.

Find things that focus your interest to a strong enough degree that you forget about eating (except for regular meals).

Now if I could just cut pop out of my diet

News:

Poll

How fat are you, fatty?

Author Topic: Gettin' In Shape! (Read 19182 times)