I'm rethinking joining a gym...

[renuck]

A few months ago I gained about 15lbs out of nowhere and almost overnight and of course it all went to my gut. I was motivated to start working out and thought about getting back on my bike but the time required just isn't possible. I haven't been on my bike in a couple years now but I'm (was) used to doing 60-80km, sometimes 100km. At an average of ~30km/h (yeah I'm not that fast) that's a lot of time. I started looking into joining a gym and pushing some weight and I did a lot of research on what gym to join, admittedly a good part of that was just procrastination because I wouldn't know what the hell I was doing when I got in there.

In the interim I downloaded an app for abdominal exercises, both to try to lose belly fat and I have bad posture and muscle issues in my back so I figure core strengthening would be perfect. I like the format because its do so many of this, and so many of that, and no equipment required. I've only been into it about a month so there isn't much in the way of results yet but so far I can really feel a difference. No six-pack abs as I haven't lost the weight I gained but some weight has come off and my posture is starting to improve. I've also recently started incorporating a chest workout, I'm pretty sure the app is from the same people. Unfortunately workout #1 on beginner level includes over 90 push-ups in various styles, and no way in hell I can do that yet but I'm working my way up to getting started hahaha.

So that's my history. I feel like I'm getting what I want or will get what I want out of doing these workouts. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing and if it's truely is a viable option vs. joining a gym. Did it work for you? FWIW I'm not looking to add any bulk, just lose some fat and hopefully tone up. I'd love to hear some opinions!

 

[james t kirk]

Eliminate sugar from your diet.

No sugar, no soda pop, no chocolate milk, no juice, no beer, no wine, no booze, no cakes, no ice cream, no cookies (ok, I crack once in while there), no dessert at restaurants.

Nothing to drink but water.

Try to eat healthier for the most part, but not fanatical - still love my sushi and Thai food and pasta (though try to eat less pasta.)

My pants have gone from a 38 waist to a 34.

 

[yyztohkg]

Yup, low carb it. or fast. or both.

 

[Smallcock]

Eliminate sugar from your diet.

No sugar, no soda pop, no chocolate milk, no juice, no beer, no wine, no booze, no cakes, no ice cream, no cookies (ok, I crack once in while there), no dessert at restaurants.

Nothing to drink but water.

Exactly. Literally substitute artificial sweets with fruits. Bananas, watermelon, pears, pineapple.

If you must eat greasy food, cut down on the quantity.

It'll take several months, but you'll see a huge difference.

 

[renuck]

My diet is actually not that bad (without getting fanatical about it). Not that I'm trying to eat super healthy, I just really hate processed food so it kinda works out that way. I eat little to no sugar, maybe 6 cans of pop a year and one of those fancy chocolate bars lasts me months. I'm not a dessert person - that's just space that could have been used for steak LOL. I don't eat pasta except maybe a few times a year when I get a craving or it's what's being served. When I get take out it's usually something like salmon and quinoa, or some kind of meat and rice, and salad bowls. I do drink beer but I'm a quality over quantity person there. I usually do drink quite a bit of water too.

Anyway, I was more wondering about the home workout thing vs. a gym. Anyone have any encouraging results?

 

[essguy_]

You need to be realistic - so if you go the gym route, consider a longer trial membership (eg: 3 months). The problem with short trials (eg: the ten day) is that everybody who joins a gym goes a lot at first before it tapers off to a natural frequency.

My personal background is I skied competitively until University then coached and that included formal training/testing throughout the year so was in the gym a lot. Had several knee-ops, so I do not ever run to train. Turned to cycling as my main thing when I stopped racing. When I was 20 years younger, belonged to the old Fitness Institute in TD center, so could walk over from work in 5-10 minutes without going outside. As I got older, started just doing stuff to stay in shape vs going to gym (biking, golf (walk and carry), etc). If the gym isn’t close, I won’t go. Period. That’s me.

The one big advantage of a gym is the resistance training equipment. You could get free weights for home but some exercises using gym equipment are hard to duplicate. But it’s of no use unless you get out and go. Now that I am older, I try to be disciplined, but the reality is, I would still just rather bike or do something than go to the gym. So dropped all my memberships. If I really bulk out - may join just for winter.

Btw - a 30 km/hr Average over a long ride is NOT slow for a recreational cyclist - in fact that is pretty damn good even for a younger cyclist (we are talking average, correct?). So if you can get back to that range of cardio/leg strength you are not in as bad shape as you think.

 

[Jasmine Raine]

You are going to hate me but axe the beer.

Even for a month to drop the weight you want. Then you start up again but continue your exercise to keep it down.

You are not giving the weight back to me. I mean how do you think I dropped mine??? I snuck it to you in bed when you weren't look!!! Mwahahahhahahahaha

 

[Mr Deeds]

You are going to hate me but axe the beer.

Even for a month to drop the weight you want. Then you start up again but continue your exercise to keep it down.

You are not giving the weight back to me. I mean how do you think I dropped mine??? I snuck it to you in bed when you weren't look!!! Mwahahahhahahahaha

o
Jess is right booze is full of carbs if I stop drinking for a month I loose 10lbs.

 

[SexyFriendsTO]

A few months ago I gained about 15lbs out of nowhere and almost overnight and of course it all went to my gut. I was motivated to start working out and thought about getting back on my bike but the time required just isn't possible. I haven't been on my bike in a couple years now but I'm (was) used to doing 60-80km, sometimes 100km. At an average of ~30km/h (yeah I'm not that fast) that's a lot of time. I started looking into joining a gym and pushing some weight and I did a lot of research on what gym to join, admittedly a good part of that was just procrastination because I wouldn't know what the hell I was doing when I got in there.

In the interim I downloaded an app for abdominal exercises, both to try to lose belly fat and I have bad posture and muscle issues in my back so I figure core strengthening would be perfect. I like the format because its do so many of this, and so many of that, and no equipment required. I've only been into it about a month so there isn't much in the way of results yet but so far I can really feel a difference. No six-pack abs as I haven't lost the weight I gained but some weight has come off and my posture is starting to improve. I've also recently started incorporating a chest workout, I'm pretty sure the app is from the same people. Unfortunately workout #1 on beginner level includes over 90 push-ups in various styles, and no way in hell I can do that yet but I'm working my way up to getting started hahaha.

So that's my history. I feel like I'm getting what I want or will get what I want out of doing these workouts. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing and if it's truely is a viable option vs. joining a gym. Did it work for you? FWIW I'm not looking to add any bulk, just lose some fat and hopefully tone up. I'd love to hear some opinions!

You should go back to riding a bike. Bikes are awesome. Averaging 30 km/h is actually good. I am assuming you are not riding a top of the line carbon road bike with carbon wheels and ect. I average around 28 most of the time but I only do gravel grinding and dont enjoy riding tarmac. When I ride rough gravel forest mountain roads in Quebec with 15-20km climbs I average around 22 in hour so averaging 30 on Tarmac on a road bike is pretty good. You should try mountain biking also.Keep on riding!

 

[Frankfooter]

My diet is actually not that bad (without getting fanatical about it). Not that I'm trying to eat super healthy, I just really hate processed food so it kinda works out that way. I eat little to no sugar, maybe 6 cans of pop a year and one of those fancy chocolate bars lasts me months. I'm not a dessert person - that's just space that could have been used for steak LOL. I don't eat pasta except maybe a few times a year when I get a craving or it's what's being served. When I get take out it's usually something like salmon and quinoa, or some kind of meat and rice, and salad bowls. I do drink beer but I'm a quality over quantity person there. I usually do drink quite a bit of water too.

Anyway, I was more wondering about the home workout thing vs. a gym. Anyone have any encouraging results?

Its very hard to lose weight through exercise, only 30% of your body's calorie burning is related to exercise, the other 70% for general body functions. And when you do burn off calories by exercise your body slows down your metabolism afterwards to make up for it.

Lose weight through diet, keto works great.

 

[spraggamuffin]

The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn.

 

[richaceg]

Agree with the low carb low sugar...I was tight at 34" waist line and was able to fit 31" waist in a span of 6 months after the low carb and water only. That 2 slice of honey & oats dempster whole grain lunch helped a lot too...until 5 birthdays later where I pigged out in most of them. Filipino parties are no joke when it comes to food. Now I'm in 33" waist line. will be back in that low carb water only diet but it will be a challenge this winter...

 

[Zaibetter]

Eliminate sugar from your diet.

No sugar, no soda pop, no chocolate milk, no juice, no beer, no wine, no booze, no cakes, no ice cream, no cookies (ok, I crack once in while there), no dessert at restaurants.

Nothing to drink but water.

Try to eat healthier for the most part, but not fanatical - still love my sushi and Thai food and pasta (though try to eat less pasta.)

My pants have gone from a 38 waist to a 34.

How about Pizza ? :yell:

 

[Caspertheghost]

Swimming and rowing. Alternate days with one day off. No impact on knees or feet. Make sure you learn proper rowing form or else you will do back damage.

 

[babyfinsta]

Eliminate sugar from your diet.

No sugar, no soda pop, no chocolate milk, no juice, no beer, no wine, no booze, no cakes, no ice cream, no cookies (ok, I crack once in while there), no dessert at restaurants.

Nothing to drink but water.

Try to eat healthier for the most part, but not fanatical - still love my sushi and Thai food and pasta (though try to eat less pasta.)

My pants have gone from a 38 waist to a 34.

+1. I dropped almost 20 lbs in 1 month by cutting added sugar out of my diet. It was more for health reasons but the weight loss was the added bonus. Problem is now I have trouble trying to gain some of it back. Guess those empty calories really used to add up. Still eat a lot of rice though so I havent gone totally low carb. Just shows you how much the sugar really contributed to it. Used to drink 3-4 cans of coke a day plus 3-4 glasses of orange juice which is just as bad....
I have started to allow myself a sugary treat once every two weeks now but I don't really crave it as much to be honest.

 

[yomero5]

No bread, potatoes, pasta or fruit. Try the Ketogenic diet.

 

[Mable]

I have hired many professional trainers during the course of my lifetime, both in Canada and the United States .(At one point, I was very much into the Iron Man triathelons.) I can provide you with a little of their intelligence and knowledge. There are MANY ways to workout, each one as good as the other, depending on one's goal. One must clearly define the goal desired, as if one works-out the "wrong way" one could really be wasting one's time. As they use to tell me, if the main goal is to get rid of body fat, the primary method is CARDIO, CARDIO, CARDIO, with the proviso that it must be the right kind of cardio. For example, if you "spin" the wrong way, you may actually gain fat, not lose it. (Are you trying to lose subcutaneous, omental or intramuscular fat, for example?) The type of calorie eaten is not necessarily the same type of calorie burned, as the biochemistry of catabolism is different depending on how you work-out, and your base "fitness level." You need to research this if you are serious and you want to maximize your efficiency. If you are serious, get a complete breakdown of Vo2 min, and max., as well as a blood chemistry analysis done before you start, and understand what is happening and why you are doing whatever it is you are doing. There is a lot of mythology out there; do yourself a favor and disabuse yourself of it. And, do not ever forget that you can never out work a bad diet.

 

[Frankfooter]

I have hired many professional trainers during the course of my lifetime, both in Canada and the United States .(At one point, I was very much into the Iron Man triathelons.) I can provide you with a little of their intelligence and knowledge. There are MANY ways to workout, each one as good as the other, depending on one's goal. One must clearly define the goal desired, as if one works-out the "wrong way" one could really be wasting one's time. As they use to tell me, if the main goal is to get rid of body fat, the primary method is CARDIO, CARDIO, CARDIO, with the proviso that it must be the right kind of cardio. For example, if you "spin" the wrong way, you may actually gain fat, not lose it. (Are you trying to lose subcutaneous, omental or intramuscular fat, for example?) The type of calorie eaten is not necessarily the same type of calorie burned, as the biochemistry of catabolism is different depending on how you work-out, and your base "fitness level." You need to research this if you are serious and you want to maximize your efficiency. If you are serious, get a complete breakdown of Vo2 min, and max., as well as a blood chemistry analysis done before you start, and understand what is happening and why you are doing whatever it is you are doing. There is a lot of mythology out there; do yourself a favor and disabuse yourself of it. And, do not ever forget that you can never out work a bad diet.

This is worth the read:
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11518804/weight-loss-exercise-myth-burn-calories

 

[frankcastle]

I would suggest looking at gyms or community centers that offer fitness classes. I say this because you mentioned that if you went to a gym you wouldn't know what to do.

Make sure the gym is easy to get to otherwise you won't go.

If they have a trial period give it go.

So far I lost only 5 or 6 pounds in half a year but I went down almost 2 pant waist sizes (36 to 32). Point I'm making is that I always focused on the scale and my weight but now I feel there are other metrics because you could be gaining muscle while losing fat which may not show as a dramatic weight loss.

Cut out desserts and sweet drinks. And I don't drink alcohol. If you don't want to go crazy with a new diet finding things to cut out is a decent start. Sub out fries for salad. Don't order gravy. Go easy on condiments with sugar like ketchup.


If you don't mind tweaking your diet more than just cutting things out or simple substitutions look at more protein and healthy fats and less carbs. Look for foods that make you feel full for longer.


In total I am only working out about 2 to 4 hours a week. But I hit that drenched in sweat glowing with a runner's high feeling which I am becoming addicted to.

I personally like boxing and jui jitsu classes. Getting fit and learning a skill.

But if the weight gain was fast and dramatic as the OP pointed out it might also be worth going to the doctor.

 

[Jasmine Raine]

You know, I could always change our sessions to include a gym work out. I have some good equipment I don't use in the basement.

We can make it like BDSM style. A little whipping here, some spanking there. You know to keep up the high pace and stuff.

LMAO.

Ya Ya - I know. You want a different kind of work out. ��