Cardio...

skwinty

Hi guys,

i am looking for some advice.

I am 82kg and looking to lose 10+kg within the next couple of months. At the moment, my exercise consists of cycling to work 3-4 times a week (50-60km in total) and starting the couch to 5k this week also.

My diet is OK, giving up chocolate is the hardest. I eat 1500-1700 cal per day and drink lots of water.

My main area that i'd like to lose the most from is my stomach, should i include some stomach exercises a few times a week to tone it up, or is it too early?

Any advice appreciated

Alf Veedersane

skwinty wrote: »

Hi guys,

i am looking for some advice.

I am 82kg and looking to lose 10+kg within the next couple of months. At the moment, my exercise consists of cycling to work 3-4 times a week (50-60km in total) and starting the couch to 5k this week also.

My diet is OK, giving up chocolate is the hardest. I eat 1500-1700 cal per day and drink lots of water.

My main area that i'd like to lose the most from is my stomach, should i include some stomach exercises a few times a week to tone it up, or is it too early?

Any advice appreciated

You can't do exercises for a specific area of your body. Dropping overall body fat is the only way you can tackle it and if you're exercising ad you are and you're accurate with your food then you should see things go the direction you want

JJayoo

60km of cycling a week on 1500-1700 calories seems pretty rough

colossus-x

Imagine a fast forward video of yourself putting on weight. Now play the video in reverse. That's how the fat will leave your body. There is no other way to do it. Also if you do stomach exercise then that is NOT CARDIO exercise. That is muscle building exercise for your abdominal muscles and doing that exercise burns off only a tiny tiny amount of calories, so few it won't have an effect on your body fat. So point is you have to do CARDIO to burn off calories.


On of the biggest mistakes a beginner makes is to overestimate how much calories they are burning off and underestimate the amount of calories they are eating and I suspect you are doing both here.

Unless your are puffing and panting heavily and very sweaty after your bicycle rides ( as you'd get from a speedy run for example ) then you are not burning off much calories. It is very easy to grossly overestimate how much calories burnt during cycling especially !!! I cycle loads all the time( mostly in a casual fashion ) and I know from experience I don't burn much fat from it ( I'm on a weight-loss plan myself ). I do intensive runs in the gym and that's what burns the calories.


Finally for now, to loose 10kgs in 2 months is a very optimistic challenge you've set yourself. Another beginner issue is expecting things to happen way way to quickly. It's not impossible but to do it you would have to do intensive cardio 5 to 6 days per week minimum and have a very very strict healthy diet to achieve that goal !

Blacktie.

colossus-x wrote: »

So point is you have to do CARDIO to burn off calories.

This is incorrect and bad information. You don't have to do cardio to burn off calories. Diet will determine when you burn it off. And a weightlifting program paired with a good diet would be very beneficial. Cardio has its place too but it's not the only way.

On of the biggest mistakes a beginner makes is to overestimate how much calories they are burning off and underestimate the amount of calories they are eating and I suspect you are doing both here.

This is true and it does seem that way if you're cycling that much and taking in that little calories. You really do have to weight everything you eat for the first few weeks t get a accurate count of your intake.

Unless your are puffing and panting heavily and very sweaty after your bicycle rides ( as you'd get from a speedy run for example ) then you are not burning off much calories. It is very easy to grossly overestimate how much calories burnt during cycling especially !!! I cycle loads all the time( mostly in a casual fashion ) and I know from experience I don't burn much fat from it ( I'm on a weight-loss plan myself ). I do intensive runs in the gym and that's what burns the calories.

Food intake defines when you burn excess fat. Diet will trump exercise when looking to lose weight though exercise should be a big component of the plan as it makes it easier to maintain and is great for your health.

Finally for now, to loose 10kgs in 2 months is a very optimistic challenge you've set yourself. Another beginner issue is expecting things to happen way way to quickly. It's not impossible but to do it you would have to do intensive cardio 5 to 6 days per week minimum and have a very very strict healthy diet to achieve that goal !

Unfortunatley the huge expectations some people have can make them lose motivation when they don't achieve them. I blame the celebrity crap you see in magazines!

colossus-x

Blacktie. wrote: »

This is incorrect and bad information. You don't have to do cardio to burn off calories. Diet will determine when you burn it off. And a weightlifting program paired with a good diet would be very beneficial. Cardio has its place too but it's not the only way.

You took me so completely out of context here that you actually even went to the trouble of extracting one sentence out of the paragraph you've quoted me in. I was addressing the question of doing stomach exercises with a view to loosing body fat ( as the OP mentioned ). My response was well if you insist on doing something physical then do cardio not abdominal exercises which i'm sure you'll agree is completely correct advice. I'm satisfied that it's clear that that's what I meant and you should acknowledge that so as not to confuse the OP ! Of course diet trumps exercise for fat loss.

I would disagree with you on your weightlifting point to the OP. The guy wants to loose a huge amount of weight in 2 months. My advice is no weightlifting at all and only cardio. That way he can keep his calories intake to a minimum. I'll say doing weightlifting would be beneficial to him in the long run of course ( in case I'm taken out of context again ).

By the way if it's of any value to the OP my advice comes from personal experience. I have lost 15kgs plus after a lot of trial and error ( and study ) after being very unhealthy for years. I never though I would see my own abs . I certainly didn't do it in 2 months though that's for sure ! I know how confusing all this stuff can seems when you start out which is why I like to contribute to some of these fitness questions as I think advice from personal experience is nothing better.

Alf Veedersane

colossus-x wrote: »

I would disagree with you on your weightlifting point to the OP. The guy wants to loose a huge amount of weight in 2 months. My advice is no weightlifting at all and only cardio. That way he can keep his calories intake to a minimum.

So are you saying you can keep calories to a minimum and do loads of cardio but you can't do the same with weight training if you want to lose weight?

'Cause that's just incorrect.

Mellor

colossus-x wrote: »

I would disagree with you on your weightlifting point to the OP. The guy wants to loose a huge amount of weight in 2 months. My advice is no weightlifting at all and only cardio. That way he can keep his calories intake to a minimum. I'll say doing weightlifting would be beneficial to him in the long run of course ( in case I'm taken out of context again ).

You were the first (and only person) to give a 2 months time frame. I dont believe the OP meant a strict 2 months when he said a couple.
Your advice to only do cardio isn't great imo. Weights would be of benefit straight away, not only long term. The only part I agree with would be calorie control.
(I think I kept everything in context there)

Blacktie.

colossus-x wrote: »

You took me so completely out of context here that you actually even went to the trouble of extracting one sentence out of the paragraph you've quoted me in.

Cheers for explaining what I did there. Would have lost me otherwise :rolleyes:

I was addressing the question of doing stomach exercises with a view to loosing body fat ( as the OP mentioned ). My response was well if you insist on doing something physical then do cardio not abdominal exercises which i'm sure you'll agree is completely correct advice. I'm satisfied that it's clear that that's what I meant and you should acknowledge that so as not to confuse the OP ! Of course diet trumps exercise for fat loss.

Yeah a devoted stomach exercise would be useless but your way of putting it reads as if you're disregarding all weighlifting in favour of cardio for weight loss.

I would disagree with you on your weightlifting point to the OP. The guy wants to loose a huge amount of weight in 2 months. My advice is no weightlifting at all and only cardio. That way he can keep his calories intake to a minimum. I'll say doing weightlifting would be beneficial to him in the long run of course ( in case I'm taken out of context again ).

As Alf said above why can you do cardio with minimal calorie intake but not weightlifting?

By the way if it's of any value to the OP my advice comes from personal experience. I have lost 15kgs plus after a lot of trial and error ( and study ) after being very unhealthy for years. I never though I would see my own abs . I certainly didn't do it in 2 months though that's for sure ! I know how confusing all this stuff can seems when you start out which is why I like to contribute to some of these fitness questions as I think advice from personal experience is nothing better.

Fair play must have been tough. There is a lot of conflicting information out there and it takes time to filter out what's useful and what's not. That's why discussion boards like this are good. Can teach you to filter the good from the bad over time.

colossus-x

Mellor wrote: »

You were the first (and only person) to give a 2 months time frame.

So you suggest I specified 2 months , and "only person" to suggest it for that matter lol. An extract from the OP: ...

skwinty wrote: »

Hi guys,
I am 82kg and looking to lose 10+kg within the next couple of months.

Emphasis on the 'within' part there Mellor, and then...

Mellor wrote: »

I dont believe the OP meant a strict 2 months when he said a couple.

Oh so it wasn't me after all. I'm really glad we've settled that one because I wouldn't anyone to think I would just advise a relative beginner to loose that much weight in such a tight timeframe for no reason whatsoever lol

oh and ...

Mellor wrote: »

(I think I kept everything in context there)

..but look you see there is just no merit at all in getting the context right if the content is just mouthy gibberish.

But OP of course if you want to indulge in some bodybuilding do by all means. The buff dudes here at boards with their vast wealth of utterly superior and unquestionable knowledge will be more than happy to teach you all you need to know about insulin spikes, protein synthesis etc etc and you be looking just like this in no time at all ....

Mellor

colossus-x wrote: »

So you suggest I specified 2 months , and "only person" to suggest it for that matter lol. An extract from the OP: ...

The OP never said 2 months. They said the "next couple if months".

Oh so it wasn't me after all. I'm really glad we've settled that one because I wouldn't anyone to think I would just advise a relative beginner to loose that much weight in such a tight timeframe for no reason whatsoever lol

Where did I say you advised to go for that timeframe? You clearly advise against it. You just jumped to the conclusion (which could be right or wrong) that the OP meant 2 months.

..but look you see there is just no merit at all in getting the context right if the content is just mouthy gibberish.

But OP of course if you want to indulge in some bodybuilding do by all means. The buff dudes here at boards with their vast wealth of utterly superior and unquestionable knowledge will be more than happy to teach you all you need to know about insulin spikes, protein synthesis etc etc and you be looking just like this in no time at all .... ]

You attitude is pretty terrible tbh. Just because a few people think your advice is flawed, instead of actually discussing any of the points raised, you go off on a childish rant spouting nonsense. Zero benefit to the OP.

Blacktie.

colossus-x wrote: »

So you suggest I specified 2 months , and "only person" to suggest it for that matter lol. An extract from the OP: ...



Emphasis on the 'within' part there Mellor, and then...



Oh so it wasn't me after all. I'm really glad we've settled that one because I wouldn't anyone to think I would just advise a relative beginner to loose that much weight in such a tight timeframe for no reason whatsoever lol

oh and ...



..but look you see there is just no merit at all in getting the context right if the content is just mouthy gibberish.

But OP of course if you want to indulge in some bodybuilding do by all means. The buff dudes here at boards with their vast wealth of utterly superior and unquestionable knowledge will be more than happy to teach you all you need to know about insulin spikes, protein synthesis etc etc and you be looking just like this in no time at all ....

Trollololol.

Bit angry today?

generic2012

colossus-x wrote: »

So you suggest I specified 2 months , and "only person" to suggest it for that matter lol. An extract from the OP: ...



Emphasis on the 'within' part there Mellor, and then...



Oh so it wasn't me after all. I'm really glad we've settled that one because I wouldn't anyone to think I would just advise a relative beginner to loose that much weight in such a tight timeframe for no reason whatsoever lol

oh and ...



..but look you see there is just no merit at all in getting the context right if the content is just mouthy gibberish.

But OP of course if you want to indulge in some bodybuilding do by all means. The buff dudes here at boards with their vast wealth of utterly superior and unquestionable knowledge will be more than happy to teach you all you need to know about insulin spikes, protein synthesis etc etc and you be looking just like this in no time at all ....

And I thought I was a dick....