Exercise

[VFE]

Hi folks,

Need to lose a coupla stone before my class one renewal so have started a diet and exercise regime to assist in this goal. I have a few questions that I would like to get answers to which I am sure someone around here can oblige with:

1 What is the best time of day to exercise? (please don't say mornings!)

2 What is the minimum required daily amount of calories for a 25 year old male?

3 Is eating celery, tomatoes and cucumber at 2200hrs before bed when my tummy starts rumbling bad for me and how many calories are in say, a stick of celery, a tomato and a few slices of cucumber? Silly question I know but I really would like to know...

4 Is 20 mins of exercise a day enough? I jog for 10 mins, do 50 sit-ups, lift dumbells and do these funny scissor leg lifts lying on my side that I saw Mr.Motivator do on TV once. :hmm:

5 Just how bad is drinking 10 pints of lager on a Friday night when you're trying to lose weight? ;)

Thanks for your time,

VFE.

[wobblyprop]

I've been told that there is no such thing as an ideal time of day for it.

Not sure there is a minimum amount. But the recommended daily is 2500

Celery has negative calories, as it takes more energy to eat than it provides

[Northern Highflyer]

I heard that exercising in the morning can be bad for you, can't remember why.

There are guidelines on calorie intake but everyone burns them at different rates. The basic rule is to take in less than you actually burn. I don't count the calories, just try to eat sensibly and have a balanced diet although I don't always succeed.

The latest fad is the Atkins diet where you cut out all forms of carbohydrate. If this is too hard for you to do then cutting back on carbs should help (pasta, bread, rice) to lose weight.

Exercise is only useful if it increases the heart rate so 20 minutes leisurely exercise won't have as much benefit as 20 minutes hard exercise, although it is better than none.

I train 3 times a week for about 1.5 hours a time. Others do 30 minutes a day, every day. Of all the exercises you do, only the 10 minute run will have any great effect on burning calories as it is aerobic. The key is to do it regularly and increase the times as you go along, the more you do the more you burn off.

Don't expect miracles overnight but stick at it and you will achieve your goal.

As for the lager, it works for me. :ok:

[gingernut]

VFE,

1)I'm not sure if there is any evidence that exercising at different times of the day makes any difference to weight loss.

2)Ideal calories ? depends who you ask ! Also depends on what you are doing. (You don't see many fat road diggers).

3)Celery, tomatoes, cucumber sounds good. Exercise caution eating these late at night, the stomach can be a bit reluctant to empty these foods sometimes, causing acid indigestion and heartburn. (Cucumber/tomatoes are particually known for this).
Try not to eat within 4 hrs of bed time, and chew your food well, let your teeth do the work. Try combatting hunger pangs with a glass of water. Its not as much fun as a chicken chow mein, but you will soon get used to it.

4) Ideal exercise regime ? Again depends on who you ask. Its like trying to land a cessna - everyone has got there own opinion ?
MOst of all, its got too be enjoyable, 20 mins of something that makes you short of breath, 3 times a week, is a good start, particually if you are noit used to exercising. Northern highflyer hits the nail on the head- its got to be aerobic (ie it makes you pant) for it to work. If you are so breathless, that you can't talk, then you are probably doing too much.

5) !

Good luck

[VFE]

Thanks for the advice guys and gals..... feel free to keep it coming.

Cheers,

VFE. :ok:

[AerBabe]

You know how I hate to contradict people... but actually, I think morning is the best time to exercise, and early evening. Basically, when your metabolism is slow you need to give it a kick start. For the same reason you should always have breakfast!

As for what exercise to do, well just put on some Jimmy Smith and strutt your stuff. Just don't let the neighbours see.

Good luck. And remember "You're not fat, you're cuddly". ;)

[VFE]

Actually I have been strutting my stuff to the Stranglers (early stuff..... Live XCert, etc) but may try out some Jimmy tomorrow.

And trust you to suggest the pissing mornings for exercise!! I don't doooo mornings! ;)

VFE. :cool:

[Pilot Pete]

Or better still, see if you can get one of those Kylie 'Hot Pants Workout' videos......does wonders for me, haven't lost any weight yet......perhaps it's the bottle of lager that accompanies me on the sofa?:p

But seriously, I used to be a PTI and for someone who has not exercised regularly the best advice is to take it easy to start with. There is nothing worse than going out and doing 'what you used to be able to do' 10 years ago, achieving it with a bright red face and then spending the next few days hobbling around in lactic acid! The hardest bit is getting through the first month or so of regular exercise, after that the body and mind somehow seem to become a little more accepting and eventually (!!) it becomes good fun and even adictive in some cases.

The comments about aerobic exercise are indeed correct. If you have ever been to a gym you will have seen one of those charts on the wall that shows 'ideal heart rates' for age/ sex etc. They show a maximum heart rate and various 'training zones' depending on what you are trying to achieve. Something like 60-70% of your maximum heart rate is in the very good fat burning area. I would advise building up to that slowly, keeping 'comfortable' for a month or so before you push yourself a little harder.

Variety is also good. We tend to do what we 'like' doing and eventually this can become boring and your body gets so used to it that some of the benefit is lost. So try mixing it up. Jog, swim, cycle, hill walk (one of the best ways to lose weight - spend a day out in the hills with a map and compass and put some weight on your back) as it is constant exercise for half a dozen hours with your heart rate up somewhere like 50% of your max. Vary your running - don't just jog the same route every time. Perhaps jog into the local park and do bench dips on the park bench, step ups on the same bench, get onto the football field and sprint from one touchline to the other (across the pitch to start with!) and then turn round and walk back to recover and then go again. Believe it or not that's called Fartlek training! You can do something similar between lamp-posts etc.

Anyhow, hope that gives you some ideas, remember to warm up and down before and after exercise (that's a whole subject in itself!) and DON'T DO LOADS OF STRETCHING BEFORE YOU HAVE WARMED UP! That's how you pull muscles! Think of the warm-up as getting from sedentary to blood pumping round the body full of oxygen so you are ready to exercise. (gentle jogging, stepping etc etc with increasing intensity over about 10 mins)

Have fun.

PP

[VFE]

Thanks for that Pilot Pete,

I seem to recall Fartlek training at school! Hopefully when I get some more free time I will be able to hit the swimming pool again. I used to do 90 lengths a day at my local pool at one time believe it or not and the benefits were enourmous as I recall.

At the moment I am content to use the treadmill we've got in the spare bedroom but in all honesty it's getting a little boring. Even blasting the Stranglers out to make it more interesting is only causing the neighbours to get annoyed about the noise as I have to have the tape player at number 11 to hear it over the treadmill!

Anyway, I have noted the advice about taking it easy to start with and will hopefully keep this exercise kick going and build up to bigger and better things!

Cheers for all your help,

VFE.

[Pilot Pete]

I get plenty of junk emails claiming that I can build 'bigger and better things', if you like I could forward them to you!!!;)

PP

[VFE]

Would love to say there's no need but..... :(

Regardless, I have not got the money for augmentation at this stage but cheers for the thought. ;)

VFE.

[aztruck]

1 pound of fat is roughly 3500 calories. Depressing thought. basic metabolic rate around 1500 for a guy(again this varies but stay with me). Add in a session at the gym(4 mile run/a few weights) and you add 5-600 calories.
Cycle to the gym and back, take the stairs not the lift, walk to the tube/train and leave the car, and you're up to 2500 a day.
Leave a deficit of 500 calories a day and you will lose a pound a week- maybe more as your body builds muscle which will increase your metabolic rate.
You might be able to crash diet a few pounds by starvation but your body will have its revenge by slowing down your basic metabolic rate(it very sensibly assumes famine and therefore stores everything as fat....) resulting in you putting weight back on as soon as you even look at a slice of bread.
Take it slow and steady and the weight will stay off and you will stay healthy with plenty of energy.

[Earthmover]

I would highly recommend cycling. I do a daily circuit of the local country lanes with fairly hilly sections of about 7 miles - takes about 40-45 minutes. The great thing about the bike is the lack of impact stress (and the downhill sections!) Having been recently very unwell, I have needed to lose weight, so in just over 2 months with a combination of exercise and diet I have lost 7kgs. This I find unbelievable, since I have been trying to lose weight for years - but illness and a loss of one's medical tends to be a hell of a motivator!

Good luck - I am living (thank God!) proof that it can be done.

[VFE]

Thanks for the calorie info there Aztruck. Must confess to the crash course route for weight loss these past coupla days but your post explained (first time I have heard it explained anywhere actually!) why it's bad to do that so it's the steady mode from now on. I always thought the advice against crash dieting was just soft, namby pamby idealism running amock so it's good to hear the actual reason behind not doing it.

Used to cycle regularly too Earthmover but again, I somehow got out of that habbit too. What the hell happens to most blokes between the ages of 20 and 25???? I don't know many guys my age who exercise and eat/drink sensibly!

Defining moment in this decision to lose the flab was reading Rick Wakemans autobiography. He had a heart attack at age 25. Granted, he had a booze problem at the time but even so..... time to shape up me thinks! ;)

VFE.

[Earthmover]

Well VFE, I was the same at 20-25 because I thought I was both immortal and invincible! Now, at over twice the age, I know different - having just experienced Rick Wakeman's problem. It wakes you up a bit.

The important thing about exercise is that you don't have to burn yourself out and fall over backwards, purple-faced. You can get a heart-rate monitor (about£50) discover your own beneficial heart rate range for exercise (preferably from a professional, but the monitor instruction leaflet will probably give you an idea) and work in that range. Mine is 86-123 and I generally hit about 105 - without collapsing afterwards.

Everyone is different of course, but a good guide is speech - if you can talk easily while exercising then you are probably not working hard enough. If you can't speak at all then you are doing more than you need. If you can talk, but have to pause a bit between breaths to speak, then you've got it about right.

I have been a bit of a couch potato in the past and absolutely loathed exercise, but now, to my amused surprise, I actually enjoy it!