Originally Posted by
MRT2
To the highlighted section, I would say agree, agree somewhat, and agree.
I do think it is possible to find a way to exercise 30 to 45 minutes a day, even if you have to break it into 15 minute chunks. And if you do that consistently, it will pay off in fitness over time.
While cycling can and should be a part of it, my experience is, unless you make commuting by bike, part of your day, my experience is, even a quick ride is usually at least an hour time commitment when you factor in changing to bike clothes, checking/airing up the tires, filling water bottles, putting the bike away, and showering and changing back into my regular work clothes.
That's a fair point. There's a short 9-mile route I'll do in about 35 minutes or so, but if I count the time to don my cycling garb, actually get the bike ready, start it, etc. it's more like 45-50 minutes. Still, compared with not doing anything at all, that's a huge boost to one's body.
So while I feel virtuous burning off 1,100 calories, I ate back most of those calories and more during and after the ride. So maybe to lose weight, what i needed to do was to change what I eat, and not compensate for my ride by eating more. The way I lost 61 lbs was to change my diet over time, to the point that it was more a habit than a diet. I am not so arrogant to say I have the problem beat, but I am on my way to my eating habits becoming a lifestyle.
I haven't got the problem beat either, my brother. 11 years ago I was 380 lbs, and got down to around 245 or so at my lowest, but spent most of the last 10 years porpoising up and down in around the 265-290 lb range. Part of it was massive life disruptions, like two year-long military deployments, part of it was months-long schools away from home, etc. that threw me out of my routines, and then it took me months to reestablish those routines upon my return. Part of it was just taking my eye off the ball and falling into a lifestyle that made gaining weight inevitable, such as staying up way too late playing games or working on hobby projects, so I wasn't getting enough sleep. The not getting enough sleep thing is a huge killer, because it not only puts one's body into a stressed state and all the hormonal states that implies, but also makes it far easier to eat badly. For almost all of the past 10 years I was either gaining weight slowly (or quickly at times), or losing it rapidly as I realized I was losing it and exerted firm control and made losing weight my project again. It's been both a blessing and a curse that I have to account for my weight/body composition to the Army every six months. Mostly it's a blessing, though, because without the incentive of not wanting to get kicked out for being too fat I'd probably have gained back a lot of the weight I lost 11 years ago.
I came back last year from a deployment at my lowest weight in 10 years. I relaxed, kind of fell off the wagon for a few months, and put on some weight. I took that seriously around November, accelerated my efforts through December and then went full-on hard core mode through all of January and February, and took it back off, so now I'm back to the lowest weight I've been in the last ten years. I've decided this is the year I break through again and lose as much of the remaining feasible weight I think is doable. I'm low 250s right now, and my goal is 230. I'll then get the surgery to remove the excess baggy skin I still have left over from when I weighed 380 lbs, and be somewhere in the 220s. That's the weight range I was at in my young 20s when I got married, and is about as low as I think I could feasibly go without contracting some combination of cancer and AIDS. I'm 6'2" and in the 220s I looked perfectly fine. It's my frame and the way it's built. My brother is within 1/4" or so of the same height as me and he's built way differently. He's like 10 or 15 lbs lighter than me right now but looks like he's 40 lbs heavier.
Right now I'm working on how to back off somewhat from the hard core mode I was in during January and February, where I averaged around 4 lbs/ week, and go down to more like 1.5-2 lbs/week. I'm tweaking how many calories I eat per day slightly upward, and the time I'm spending exercising somewhat downward. Dropping from 4 lbs/week loss to 2 lbs/week loss means shifting my calorie balance upwards by around 1000 calories/day. I just have to keep my eye on the ball and make the changes to my daily routines with control and purpose. What I'm hoping to accomplish this year is to achieve a healthy taper as I get closer to my target weight, then by the time I achieve that goal have already established a lifestyle and habits that result in just plateauing at that target weight, so by the time I get there I'm not having to really change anything. That healthy taper is what has eluded me these last ten years, and I'm determined that this is the year.