2 part question about lazy fitness regimes

Ok, at the moment I'm slightly (quite a bit) overweight at 172lbs, 5'7". I'm an illustrator so I live quite a sedentary lifestyle and at the moment I've zero money to spend on gym membership (not that I'd go...)
This morning I took a vagary, put on my sports bra (that I've worn a total of 2 times...) went outside and did 100 jumping jacks. I had to stop a few times but it felt good.
If I did 100 jumping jacks every morning and paid better attention to my diet would I lose much weight? or should I incorporate anything else into the mix?

A friend gave me their old set of dumbbells which I'm inclined to use every now and again. I like them. What's the best way to use them to tone arms and everywhere generally? My arms and my gut are the places I'm most concerned about.

Dtp1979

Jasper Helpless Schoolroom wrote: »

Ok, at the moment I'm slightly (quite a bit) overweight at 172lbs, 5'7". I'm an illustrator so I live quite a sedentary lifestyle and at the moment I've zero money to spend on gym membership (not that I'd go...)
This morning I took a vagary, put on my sports bra (that I've worn a total of 2 times...) went outside and did 100 jumping jacks. I had to stop a few times but it felt good.
If I did 100 jumping jacks every morning and paid better attention to my diet would I lose much weight? or should I incorporate anything else into the mix?

A friend gave me their old set of dumbbells which I'm inclined to use every now and again. I like them. What's the best way to use them to tone arms and everywhere generally? My arms and my gut are the places I'm most concerned about.

It's generally 70% diet ( as in eat healthy ) 30% excersise
There's loads of tutorials for beginners online that cost nothing.
Ease yourself into it. Going 200% full steam from scratch will only lead to injury.
Work your way up to drinking 3 litres of water a day. Plus there's loads of free advice on here and in the nutrition forum.
Lastly, best of luck

Cuddlesworth

Jasper Helpless Schoolroom wrote: »

What's the best way to use them to tone arms and everywhere generally? My arms and my gut are the places I'm most concerned about.

The above post is good advise. Just to be clear on this, you don't lose fat in areas by working out those areas. Eg; sit ups don't remove stomach fat and dumb-bell curls don't drop fat off the arms. Weight loss is across the body. General rule of thumb is, where the fat first started is the last place it will come off. Weights and resistance exercises are still really good for you though.

Cuddlesworth

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

The above post is good advise. Just to be clear on this, you don't lose fat in areas by working out those areas. Eg; sit ups don't remove stomach fat and dumb-bell curls don't drop fat off the arms. Weight loss is across the body. General rule of thumb is, where the fat first started is the last place it will come off. Weights and resistance exercises are still really good for you though.

Damn. I was really hoping all those weights were toning my arms... I guess I have to really work on my diet.

Dtp1979

Jasper Helpless Schoolroom wrote: »

Damn. I was really hoping all those weights were toning my arms... I guess I have to really work on my diet.

They will tone your arms. Once the fat is gone your arms will have definition to them. But lifting weights won't burn the fat from that area

Zillah

Jasper Helpless Schoolroom wrote: »

Damn. I was really hoping all those weights were toning my arms... I guess I have to really work on my diet.

Exercise builds muscle. You can't see the muscle behind the fat though. Dietary changes will lead you to being a healthy weight, and exercise will make you look strong and toned once you do lose the weight. Obviously exercise helps to lose weight by burning calories but you'd be shocked (horrified) at how few calories exercise actually burns. There's a saying: you can't outrun a bad diet.

Dtp1979

Zillah wrote: »

Exercise builds muscle. You can't see the muscle behind the fat though. Dietary changes will lead you to being a healthy weight, and exercise will make you look strong and toned once you do lose the weight. Obviously exercise helps to lose weight by burning calories but you'd be shocked (horrified) at how few calories exercise actually burns. There's a saying: you can't outrun a bad diet.

You can, but once you turn 30 it catches up with you

oakshade

Completely agree with DTP above, you can’t out train your fork – it’s all about diet. You don’t need a load of fancy equipment to get fit – there are loads of body weight exercises you can do (check out YouTube) as long as you have the willpower to keep going 3-4 times a week. Jumping jacks are great, try burpees (again on YouTube), they are evil but a great workout none the less.

As regards diet, you will find loads of information on here also. Personally I know when I go “low carb” / paleo, I can lose the weight. You will also find a lot of debate on here about the merits or lack of merits of this method. It’s about what works for you.

Best of luck with it....

Zillah

Dtp1979 wrote: »

You can, but once you turn 30 it catches up with you

The saying is true for the vast majority of people. They think they can eat 1000 calorie dinners and 500 calories of snacks, go for a half-hearted run (which probably burns 250 calories if they're lucky) to balance it out. Unless you are extremely fit you are not going to be able to burn even 1000 extra calories in a day through exercise, and if you're that fit you don't need this sort of advice.

I know your comment was tongue in cheek but I really think turning 30 is an excuse for most people. I'm 31 soon and I've never been in better shape. You settle into an office job, you stop worrying so much about your appearance/attractiveness, you get bored in the evening and eat more food, so you start getting fat. People blame their body aging but I really think it's more the psychology of getting a little older.

desertcircus

You can out-train a bad diet, but a couple of caveats have to be borne in mind:

1. It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to lose weight, it can be done with a terrible diet (although see the following caveat), but if you're trying to compete at the pointy end of a sport, then you end up having to tailor your diet to suit it.
2. It requires a huge amount of work. I don't do strength training so can't advise on that, but one M&S baked cookie (my particular weakness) takes me over three kilometres of running to burn off. Given that I'm 90+kg in weight, I burn a good deal more calories while running, so there are plenty of people who'd need to run a full 5k race to work off that single cookie. The worse the diet, the more work needed to counteract it - the difference between a thin-crust and a deep-dish pizza for dinner could be a 10k run for some people.

Deer

If you search Tabata on YouTube, there is one there from bootycamp tv which lasts 20 minutes. Tabata style means you do exercise 20 seconds then rest for ten and after eight sets you get a break for 1 minute. I was an utter lazy cow when I started with that last August. I then moved onto another one which incorporated weights. It was very achievable.

I have now gotten into exercise in a big way. If you told me that last summer I would have laughed.

I also cleaned up my diet. Nothing fancy, just cut added sugars and processed food. No starvation diets or paleo or keto. I have lost 3 stone and my arms are starting to get shapely. And I am getting abs which is a proud achievement for me after 4 babies and a lot of pies and crisps.

So go for it :-)

power pants

Why 3 litres of water?

Alf Veedersane

power pants wrote: »

Why 3 litres of water?

Because 3 is the magic number.

power pants

That was going to be my next question tbf