[Opinion] How much weight do you need to lose, or are you relatively fit?

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

I have weighed in at highest 230.4, and my ideal weight is 170 (size 36 waist). At 5'7", that's a fairly healthy weight for me.
My routine these days is Alexander Technique, and Pilates on the radar. I eat fairly healthy (Stouffers bowlfuls, Lean Cuisine, homemade casseroles and veggies).
My problems are a bad back, leg and hand tremors, so some anaerobic and cardio are currently out of the question.
But, most AT exercises are doable, crunches and situps are possible.
Motivation and laziness are my bane. How do you hold yourself accountable? Positive/negative reinforcement? Flogging? Eating only stale bread and water?

 

[stratamaster78]

My weight is okay but it's also not really good weight.

I weigh about 135-140 at 5'9.5" but probably a good 15-20 lb's is excess fat.

I use to weigh the same but at like 7% BF ratio because I did P90X everyday for 5 years but then I injured my back and I had to give up weight lifting because everytime I try to rehab I get reinjured.

So anyway now I can only do light yoga poses and stretches.

I really need to do something aerobic but I have bad knees too and can't run or ride a bike so I don't really know what to do about it.

My diet is shite. I'm kind of going through a tough stretch right now and have to eat really cheap.... like college dorm cheap on Ramen/Cup'o Noodles and cereal. I also try to eat nuts and dried fruits and I at least take a good multivitamin daily.

I'm doing better than doing nothing but yeah I still need to do better...lol

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

I feel you, if it wasnt for the place to stay with family and EBT food stamps, dont know if I would be practicing at all.
The cost of living isnt cheap. You might check out this page and see if it can help:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Lemongrass00]

I have weighed in at highest 230.4, and my ideal weight is 170 (size 36 waist). At 5'7", that's a fairly healthy weight for me.
My routine these days is Alexander Technique, and Pilates on the radar. I eat fairly healthy (Stouffers bowlfuls, Lean Cuisine, homemade casseroles and veggies).
My problems are a bad back, leg and hand tremors, so some anaerobic and cardio are currently out of the question.
But, most AT exercises are doable, crunches and situps are possible.
Motivation and laziness are my bane. How do you hold yourself accountable? Positive/negative reinforcement? Flogging? Eating only stale bread and water?

I think it’s completely on the individual and a better metric is functionality. I am 6’0 and 185 pounds, and my BMI (trash metric) would place me as overweight, even though I strength train and run regularly.

I have not heard of the Alexander technique, but in your case I would work on mobility and maybe some light strength training. I am a big fan of bands and weighted stretches to really keep you functional.

Also in my opinion diet is a more important factor than exercise, with instead of trying to count calories focus on generally eating more foods that gives your body what it needs, like prioritizing complete protein sources or foods with a high bioavailability of micronutrients.

 

[theil]

I have weighed in at highest 230.4, and my ideal weight is 170 (size 36 waist). At 5'7", that's a fairly healthy weight for me.
My routine these days is Alexander Technique, and Pilates on the radar. I eat fairly healthy (Stouffers bowlfuls, Lean Cuisine, homemade casseroles and veggies).
My problems are a bad back, leg and hand tremors, so some anaerobic and cardio are currently out of the question.
But, most AT exercises are doable, crunches and situps are possible.
Motivation and laziness are my bane. How do you hold yourself accountable? Positive/negative reinforcement? Flogging? Eating only stale bread and water?

5'11" (180.33 cm) at around 190 lbs. (86.2 kg). This is my winter weight. I'll probably drop 10 points as the weather improves. I'd lose more if I gave up sweets. At 54 years old, I care little about my appearance. It's all about comfort and fitting in clothes. My go-to food is junk food.

 

[Xenophon]

After a spate of heart trouble early this year, I dropped about 13 kilos. Was back under my high-school weight of 165 lbs. I gained back about 9 pounds lately despite walking 8 miles a day. Chinese New Year is almost upon us, so food is harder to avoid. This topic was timely---time to bite the bullet, not the bully-beef.

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

It's cool. I know a lot of magick books call for exercise, and some orders actually have PE requirements.
However, I know Ramen soup and mac n cheese was a regular diet of mine for years, my BF percentage is fairly high.
Moreover, I was more interested in what motivates us wizards to be fit.

 

[Yazata]

Weight is good (60 kilo at 170 cm) just need to tone up. Again..

And what motivates me to stay fit: self esteem.

 

[Tiana Silvermoon]

Motivation and laziness are my bane. How do you hold yourself accountable?

It's a harder question than it seems. I think I can divide the answer in two:

1. Speaking of physical activity, only thing that works for me is fun. I can't just do exercise for the sake of exercise, it's boooring. So I'll drop it sooner than later. But if it's dancing or ice skating, for example, it's fun and it doesn't need an effort of will! Also exercising for those things so I can do them better feels more purposeful and therefore I'm less likely to skip them.
So my advice is to try different things and find something that you actually like doing.

2. Motivation for losing weight itself is a complicated subject, and beside the obvious question "why I want to lose weight" you need to ask yourself two more: "why I DON'T want to lose weight" and "why did I gain weight in the first place".
First question, while reflected upon and answered sincerely, might bring you to understand what profits you see in being as is. It can be anything from just honestly being comfortable despite what anyone says or getting some kind of protection by it, like an armor. Could be something else.
Second question is also more complicated than "well, I like junk food". Why do you like it? Why do you eat too much? Are you trying to get easy pleasure and/or silence your stress? There are quite a lot eating disorders and not all of them are as obvious and severe as anorexia or bulimia, and you need to get to the root of it, because if you're overweight and it's not caused by some illness - you have a disorder.
Without these understandings you'll abandon your exercise and diet eventually and most likely will gain more than you've lost.

 

[pixel_fortune]

Weight (or rather fat) has almost nothing to do with physical exercise. It's 99% diet.

The exception to this is that if you have successfully dieted to a lower weight, exercise (even just walking) makes it easier to maintain your lower weight.

(FYI I'm not talking out of my arse, this based on listening to the entire back catalogue of Stronger By Science, and reading papers and stuff, I just can't be bothered tracking down citations for you).

In general people (esp nerds and women) massively undervalue strength training and overvalue cardio. If you are trying to lose weight *fat) it is absolutely crucial that you do some form of strength training, or you are very very likely to put the weight back on.

When you lose weight (eat in a calorie deficit) without doing any strength training, you lose muscle as well as fat. (Strength training preserves your muscle, so you only lose fat, and if you're new to strength training you'll probably gain muscle as well).

The current theory is that when you stop dieting, your body desperately tries to regain the muscle tissue it lost. Since you're not strength training, to regain that muscle, you have to do it via eating, but you will put on even more fat than you lost as your body tries to get back to your original muscle set point. (If you strength train now, even if you didn't while dieting, you can put on muscle without gaining much fat.)

It's at the point now where I'm disgusted by the fact that doctors recommend dieting without combining it with strength training - it's shitty and unethical and they're setting their patients up for failure, as well as muscle wastage which will render them more feeble in old age.

If you don't currently do any, then you're lucky: you won't have to go lift heavy weights (although imo it's more fun) you can just do bodyweight stuff. Your body's not used to it, so anything will make a difference.

Post automatically merged: Feb 9, 2024

(The answer to what motivates me to keep up strength training is PARTLY the awareness that it is key to maintaining independence in old age - both in terms of frailty and also because it has a big impact on not getting Alzheimers - but I would say MAINLY my answer is "Sarah Connor in Terminator 2")

 

[Tiana Silvermoon]

Weight (or rather fat) has almost nothing to do with physical exercise. It's 99% diet.

The exception to this is that if you have successfully dieted to a lower weight, exercise (even just walking) makes it easier to maintain your lower weight.

Yes and no. Exercising also burns calories which allows you to eat healthy while still maintaining your daily calories income-outcome balance. If you need about 1200-1500kcal a day to lose weight, it's a very scanty diet with a high risk of overeating just because you're too hungry all the time. Diet itself has a huge impact of course, but I highly disagree that it's 99% of losing weight.

My big problem with losing weight was lack of exercise, because I either didn't like anything or couldn't do it because of my health. When I found something that I both can and like to do, the process finally moved off from dead center.

 

[Blackrose00]

I'm around 180, I weigh 60 kilos, this situation is very bad, after I quit sports I got sick and lost 10 kilos.
80 looks good.

 

[Lemongrass00]

Moreover, I was more interested in what motivates us wizards to be fit.

It’s a positive emotional outlet, and it’s fun to challenge yourself.

Yes and no. Exercising also burns calories which allows you to eat healthy while still maintaining your daily calories income-outcome balance. If you need about 1200-1500kcal a day to lose weight, it's a very scanty diet with a high risk of overeating just because you're too hungry all the time. Diet itself has a huge impact of course, but I highly disagree that it's 99% of losing weight.

My big problem with losing weight was lack of exercise, because I either didn't like anything or couldn't do it because of my health. When I found something that I both can and like to do, the process finally moved off from dead center.

its not 99% but I think that was an obvious hyperbole. Its more like 80-20, and its much easier to not eat a 1500 calorie cheeseburger for a day than spending 2 hours on the stair master to burn it off, it’s definitely majority diet

 

[pixel_fortune]

It's more than that - your body tends to naturally compensate for exercise.

A decent percentage of your calories are burned in NEAT "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" - that is ordinary movement throughout the day, including unconscious fidgeting.

A person who's spent two hours on the Stairmaster will a) feel hungrier and probably eat more because of that (esp if they're not trying to diet and are eating intuitively)

They will also do way less NEAT, both consciously ("I already did a heap of exercise today, I'm gonna catch a cab instead of walking") and unconsciously - fidgeting less, and more likely to group "reasons to get up" together (like if you're thirsty, instead of immediately getting up to get a glass of water, you might wait until you also need to get up for some other reason, halving your activity level)

If someone is completely sedentary, this has less of an effect - they're already expending very little in NEAT so there's nowhere to build in compensation. They'll still feel hungrier though

Basically (based on multiple meta-analyses, not just my opinion or anecdata)

• Exercise + diet = optimal way to lose fat
• Diet alone = good way to lose fat
• Exercise alone = you will probably not lose fat

I don't want to demonise exercise alone - it's incredibly good for you! You'll honestly probably be much healthier if you exercise and don't lose any fat than if you diet without exercise.

It's just that the "do cardio to lose weight" idea is such a universally accepted myth that tonnes of people feel really bad and like they're failing when they start an exercise program and don't lose weight. People feel like failures when something that was never gonna happen doesn't happen, when they should feel great about themselves for beginning an exercise program

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

I'm trying to use Yoga and Alexander Technique for my weight loss and a few anaerobic exercises. I can't do walking, running or other cardio at this time. So it's light exercise and attempts to diet.

A great point was made on why we eat what we eat, why we eat when we eat, etc. That is a great journal topic in itself.


My motivation is to not get short of breath during a middle pillar or other rituals.

 

[theil]

My motivation is to not get short of breath during a middle pillar or other rituals.

Diluculo, could you consecrate a chair to only be used during rituals? Of course, keep up with efforts to improve general functionality.

There's also a thing called a lung spirometer breathing exerciser. Several years ago I was in ICU off and on for breathing issues. That device the breathing tech guy would torture me with it but I think it's one of the things that helped my breathing improve after my lungs got so weak. It's about $15 USD at Walmart.

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

I think the chair is doable. I was being slightly humorous.
Actually my plan is to do a daily walk around the house, including stair stepping forward and backward and continuation of the walk.
My problem are leg tremors and living on a mountain. With a fear of heights.
What I can do is consecrate a chair. What I can do are daily yoga poses and certain Alexander Technique exercises.
Jazzercise and a full routine are likely undoable.

 

[Tiana Silvermoon]

Basically (based on multiple meta-analyses, not just my opinion or anecdata)

• Exercise + diet = optimal way to lose fat
• Diet alone = good way to lose fat
• Exercise alone = you will probably not lose fat

That I can agree with (: