Exercise doesn’t reduce your fat.

Fascinating. I have definitely noticed that I am hungrier the morning after an evening workout, and therefore tend to eat more. Also that no matter how much bigger my muscles get — which I was told would result in burning more calories — my stomach remains as large as ever.

I wasn’t totally clear on it: Is the conclusion that you simply need to eat less in order to get rid of fat?

Agellius, yes. But the chances that you’re going to be able to permanently lose more than 20-30 pounds are pretty thin.

I don’t mind not being able to lose 20 or 30 pounds since I’d be a scarecrow if I did. I just want to slow down the growth rate of the ol’ gut before it reaches basketball-size proportions like it did in my old man. However if that means a permanent peas-and-carrots diet I’m not sure it’s worth it.

I lost 45 pounds over a period of 4.5 years. It can be done, but you have to make permanent changes to your eating habits (choice of food, amount of food, how often you eat, when you eat, etc), and not a temporary diet.

If you merely “diet”, then what happens is that at the end of your “diet” you go back to your previous eating habits which made you fat in the first place.

If you can find a good eating/exercise balance, then you can slowly “slide” into your desired weight like an asymptotic curve, losing weight a bit more rapidly at first, but then loosing slowly over the main part.

Weight loss is still a mathematical equation comparing calories consumed with calories expended. To lose weight, your daily caloric expenditure must exceed your daily caloric intake (or absorption).

There are many other rules, tricks, and tips*, but that basic “calories in/calories out” is the bottom-line that rules overall.

I’ve seen people lose weight with exercise, but I think the article has a great point that it’s never exercise alone that does it and people are rarely able to stop themselves from eating more after they have exercised. If you really want to lose weight you have to exercise AND eat less. That’s a lot harder than people realize.

The point that is not given much attention in the article is that “weight loss” per se is not really the best goal to have, nor is it most people’s. People want to feel better and look better. Often, that can be acheived through exercise even if they weigh the same or even weigh more. A toned body feels better and looked better than a flabby body, even if it weighs the same or more. Weight, by itself, is not a good measure of whether you are making any progress with your exercise program.

MCQ: good point on fat-vs-muscle (flabby-vs-toned). Toned athletes, especially weightlifters could have a body mass index (BMI) in the Obese or Severely Obese category while still having an ultra-low percentage of body-fat.

According to the BMI scale, weight-lifters are often “obese”, because the Body Mass Index use overall weight, counting muscle mass the same as fat.

But we can all look at our necks, our belt-lines and our thighs and pretty much tell which of us are carrying around too many pounds of fat.

The vast, vast majority of people who are obese, are obese due to fat, and not muscle mass.

And most of us likely know people who claim to be “big boned” who make us think “Yeah, that’s a big stomach bone you have there.”

“Visceral fat”, that which is inside the trunk (not the “booty” type of “trunk”) around the organs, and not on the outside layers, is very unhealthy of iteself, and is generally indicative of other bad conditions in the blood vessels and heart.

“Apple shaped” (upper body fat) as opposed to “pear shaped” (lower body fat) people are at much higher risk of obesity-related illnesses.

Unless you’re a body-builder or muscle-bound athlete, everybody needs to keep their Body Mass Index under 30. That’s the obese point. 35 is severe obesity, and 40 is morbid obesity.

Anything over 25 is “overweight”, but if you’re athletically built at all, you can easily go over 25 and still have a low body-fat percentage, and be fit and healthy.

Here’s a handy BMI calculator:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

The ideal BMI point for any given person is arguable, between say 20 and 30. But it is always less than 30, unless you’re a weight-lifter, or a power athlete.

My weightloss tips:

1. High fiber diet. Lots of low-cal veggies, fresh, frozen or canned. Canned no-salt-added green beans are filling and low calorie. Great with low-salt seasoning, and a dash of olive oil.

2. Lean meat at least twice/day. I eat boneless/skinless chicken breasts ($2/pound when on sale). Usually grilled, stir fried, or ground/browned and made into a stew/paella. I also eat inexpensive 95% lean hamburger that I grind myself from trimmed round steak when its on sale for $2/pound.

I buy 10 to 15 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breast or round stake at a time when it’s on sale, grind it, and freeze it in single serving plastic bags.

3. sugar-free Citrucell (bulk fiber, like Metamucil, but better) as a between meal filler snack, and late night snack. 2 to 3 servings/day.

4. Chromium Picolinate supplement, 200 mcg tablets. 1/2 tablet in the morning, 1/2 at night. This only works if you exercise, but it helps your body metabolize fat. The chromium found in multi-vitamin supplements is chromium chloride, and is not absorbed by the body as well.

5. Five workouts/week of at least 30 minutes aerobic activity in each workout. The 30 minutes doesn’t include stretching, warm-up and cool-down. Follow the rule of 80% of maximum heart rate for aerobic exercise. If you’re out of shape, start at 65% and work up.

Max heart rate = 200 – age.
Aerobic heart rate target = 80% of max.

After a couple years, and when you get in shape, you can work up to 85 to 95% of max rate by the time you finish a workout.

6. Eat sensibly. If you have to eat bad things, like sausage or sugary desserts, eat only tiny portions, just enough to satisfy your pallate. NO BINGE EATING. If you have to stuff yourself and fill your stomach, such as late at night, get that can of no-salt-added green beans (add no-salt seasonsing and a dash of olive oil for taste), or another dose of Citrucell.

Those 1,000 calorie “snack binges” will wipe out a whole day’s worth of “good” eating or 2 day’s worth of exercise.

I sometimes have to resist the urge to play with the blood sugar control. After a long day of Force-choking idiot subordinates, the desire to set it on “Marinate” can be pretty strong.

CrossFit + The Zone. That’s the way to lose weight and be in great shape. At least, for me. I can tell you, after years of eating “low fat” and doing bodybuilding routines+cardio, I lost a little fat and gained a little muscle. But once I found CrossFit and started on the Zone diet, it’s been amazing. (and no, despite what you’ve heard, the Zone is NOT a low-carb diet).

Or, as the CrossFit people put it:

? Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds,
some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep
intake to levels that will support exercise but
not body fat.
? Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.
? Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.
? Regularly learn and play new sports.

Though misunderstood, BIID and/or paraphilia are a quick way to drop some weight.

Losing bits and pieces certainly helped me lose weight. Unless you count the weight of the suit.