The FastDay Forum

Hi Everyone,
I suppose I'm looking for an excuse not to dust off the treadmill!! I can do the diet side of things, no problem, but my downfall has always been the lack of motivation to do extra exercise. I'm fairly active in my normal day to day routine and work etc, but come the evening, I just want to 'couch potato' for Britain in front of the telly! I do try to build in extra little calorie burners throughout the day, you know stand rather than sit, extra effort with housework, walking briskly etc etc, but I find the thought of doing specific exercise, is just a chore and one that I know I won't keep up.
So, can anyone offer me some hope, that the weight will still come off, albeit a bit more slowly?
Many thanks,
Evie

[carorees]

Depends what you call exercise! I do 20 secs x3 of high intensity biking 3 times a week...according to DrM's HIIT protocol as shown in his documentary "the truth about exercise" (link in resources). So that's only 3 mins exercise a week! I've lost plenty as you can see from my profile on the left here.

Hi Caroline,
Yeah I did see the Dr M programme and must admit, at the time I thought it sounded too good to be true, but obviously need to take another look.
You've done brilliantly with your weight loss, so you're a fantastic example of how this whole thing works.
So, do you literally just go 'hell for leather' running, cycling or whatever in 20 second bursts? Do you need to warm up first and do you then go at the normal rate in between the 20 second bursts?
I must see if I can find the programme again and pay more attention this time!
Thanks,
Evie

Caroline, I didn't know you were doing the HIIT protocol as well as 5:2. Maybe that's why you are experiencing more steady weight loss than some others. Knowing my luck, I'd be a 'non-responder' .

Evie - apart from walking to work and back (about 2km each way) 5 days a week I am doing sod all at the moment ie. sitting on me bum at a desk all day and being a couch potato in the evenings. I've lost about 7.5lbs in 9 weeks which is OK as weight loss is generally slow anyway for me even in the past when I was going to the gym about 3x per week. Hope this helps, Julie

Just found the programme: http://vimeo.com/51836895 so I'm watching it again.

My apocryphal tale with a sample of 1 is that I had a lurcher dog and was doing a bread delivery round while maintaining an excessive 16 stone. I hurt my knee and a bit later the dog went so I was down to the occasional amble. My weight stayed the same.

I then set about dieting and lost 3 stone over 6 months, without adding much if any exercise.

Since then I've done a C25K interval running programme and been running 30 mins+ 3 times a week without affecting my weight much.

So I think exercise is the noise and restricting of food is the signal.

I like exercising and do think everyone should do as much as they can, especially out in the open air.

I just don't see it as a major contribution to weight loss unless you can do a "Biggest Loser" type regime with a few thousand calories a day of exercise.

[carorees]

Hi Caroline,
Yeah I did see the Dr M programme and must admit, at the time I thought it sounded too good to be true, but obviously need to take another look.
You've done brilliantly with your weight loss, so you're a fantastic example of how this whole thing works.
So, do you literally just go 'hell for leather' running, cycling or whatever in 20 second bursts? Do you need to warm up first and do you then go at the normal rate in between the 20 second bursts?
I must see if I can find the programme again and pay more attention this time!
Thanks,
Evie

I didn't start doing it until about 10 weeks after starting 5:2 so it wasn't responsible for the early weight loss but it might be preventing any plateau!

I warm up by cycling gently for 1 min, then 20 secs as fast as I can go...absolutely as if it was a matter of life and death! It is pretty impossible to go flat out for more than 20 secs actually...my OH and DS who are both fit can't go any longer. Then I cycle slowly for about a minute to recover and then repeat twice more followed by a minute or so cool down...I found I felt dizzy if I just stopped and got off the bike! So that takes about 7 mins in all! I have the bike resistance set at about half way through its range...too low and it feels too ready, but any higher means I can't go fast enough.

I saw Dr M say on twitter that you could try stepping on and of the bottom step of your stairs as an alternative to the exercise bike.

I use an app on my Android phone to take care of the timings. It's called workout trainer. I created a workout allowing 25 secs for the fast biking as I reckon it takes me a second to get up to speed and then when the app starts counting down at the end I can't help slowing so I reckon i do 20 of the 25 secs flat out! If you want to use the same app you can use my workout. Here's the link to my workout: http://www.skimble.com/workouts/452300- ... ike-3-x-25

"you can't outrun a bad diet"...

People overestimate how many cals they use exercising and underestimate how many they eat, particularly of when snacking.

I can eat the amount of cals I would use in a big exercise session in less than two minutes.

Edited as it did not make sense without the negative! I read Runners World forum post occasionally, despite not being able to run and often people have taken up running and are wondering why they are putting on weight. It's because they then reward themselves for the effort with food.

Thank you all for your input, really appreciate it.
Izzy, you've made me realise how much we all take for granted. Well done you for coping with the enforced changes and still not losing your sense of humour. Think you must have been peeping in my lounge, my treadmill is actually parked right in front of the telly and still I resist it!
I've just watched the programme again and now I'm doing the 5:2, I've paid more attention to it and it's given me a bit more motivation to get off my backside and do something, so Caroline thanks for the app, I'm going to have a look and see if that will work for me too. Think I'll also try the stair thing, as I don't have a bike and it would be too hard to to do HIT on the treadmill, as I can't run on it.
Caroline, one little question; if I do decide to get an exercise bike, do you find you need someone to hold it, like on the video, as I imagine most of the reasonably priced ones available to the general public, are probably not that heavy but I don't want to be tied to having to have someone else there?
Thanks again all of you.
Evie

[carorees]

Umm, no, that was a different sort of bike I think! I have the ultrafit F bike...one of the cheapest on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultrafit-331100 ... 370&sr=8-1

I have to turn the volume up on my phone quite high though or I can't hear the countdown because of the creaking of the saddle as I go hell for leather! (and the gasping for breath as well of course)

[Moogie]

I'm a deskmonkey and work from home, so do very little exercise. A few times I week I do the 20 minute there-and-back walk to the shops and once in a while if it's too horrible to get out I try to do 20 mins of stepping - but if that's once every few weeks its a lot!

I've lost 38.5lbs since starting this in August, so yes it's totally possible to lose good weight without doing exercise However, I should note that I do intend to get a bit more in shape when I've lost some more weight & summer is here - it's one thing to be slimmer, it's another thing to be toned & fit!

Would agree with BBT053 - I did a half marathon in September and didn't really take much weight off, but in October I hurt my leg and couldn't run but started 5:2, and have lost nearly a stone, despite breaks for Christmas and a holiday.

I'm looking forward to getting running and swimming again without the extra pounds!

[carorees]

No, exercise is no replacement for calorie restricting but it can just nudge things in the right direction!

The benefit of the HIIT protocol was to improve mitochondrial function in your muscles allowing an increase in VO2max but also increasing glucose extraction from blood via GLUT4 and so reducing insulin resistance which is a big factor in obesity and of course development of type 2 diabetes. So although the HIIT does not actually burn off many calories it may impact REE to some extent. There is evidence that in fibromyalgia there is a dysfunction in the mitrochondria and there is also evidence that PhilT found that the REE in FM can be very low. Thus, it is possible that HIIT might increase REE. As I have been diagnosed with FM, I was keen to try to get my mitochondria functioning again. Any other form of exercise is extremely painful as I suffer days of soreness after even fairly mild exercise. This has been the case since I was a child and did a lot of exercise.

In fact any exercise will raise the metabolic rate beyond the time spent exercising so although the calories burnt during exercise might not be enough to compensate for the muffin eaten after the gym, the increase in REE from exercise might be enough to improve weightloss in a calorie-restriction scenario. Indeed, the study recently published by Krista Varady found a significantly greater weightloss in ADF subjects who also exercised than those who did not.

I did work in a shop for a couple of years and was on my feet for 8 hours a day but I didn't notice any weightloss! Mind you they used to serve chip butties in the canteen so that might have been one reason

Hello. I lost 44 lbs on no exercise (between Feb 12 and Jan 13) except for the day to day activities. Sedentary job too. Didn't fast so basic daily calorie restriction (10-15% below TDEE so not particularly very low calorie).

Started 5:2 this year and doing cardio 45 mins 3-4 times a week and have lost a subsequent 11 lbs.

So exercise not essential but now I'm exercising I feel terrific and I can eat more