The FastDay Forum

Hi All,

If I am correct in thinking, the diet if followed correctly can give a weight loss of just under 1 1/2lbs a week (for a man). Is this based on someone being inactive and just dieting or are assumptions being made that they will be active to some degree?

I am currently hitting the gym twice a day, once before work and again after and have now swapped some of the weights sessions for cardio to try and increase the amount of calories I burn.

I am hoping this may accelerate the weight loss to some degree but unsure what I could reasonably expect. Would 3lb a week be overly optimistic? I do have it to lose!

[carorees]

Hi Johnny

Sadly, exercise doesn't help with weight loss all that much. Sure it does a bit, but the research shows that it is the diet component that results in weight loss. I wouldn't rely on exercise to boost your speed of loss. This is because our sneaky bodies make efforts to reduce how much energy we use during the rest of the day after we have had a work out at the gym. So people who work out tend to have less "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" (NEAT) which is a fancy term for the amount of moving around we do that isn't formal exercise.

The average weight loss for all men using our progress tracker (so that includes both the sedentary and the gym bunnies) is 0.48kg per week or a little over 1lb. However, over the first 4 weeks the average loss is considerably higher at around 0.8kg/week. Why not have a play with the forum stats in the progress tracker: tracker.php?p=stats where you can filter the forum wide results by gender, age, time on diet etc.
Or if you would like to model your own weightloss according to your calorie intake and activity, try the prediction tool: resources-links-f3/estimate-your-weight-loss-t8543.html

Lastly, here are some good threads on why exercise is not the answer for weight loss (although it is very good for health):
topic6543.html
topic7846.html
topic8120.html

Don't rush. It's a process, not a race, particularly when it comes to body compositiion.

Do you have rest days? Gym twice a day is up in elite athlete territory...

Hate to break this to you but I do weights and met cons, still a lb a week and now that I do more, less and lately nothing at all, still changing shape tho for the better.

Muscle gain balances weight loss. Good news for you is that once you have more muscle, you burn more calories. Oh and you'll be healthier for it, so long as you don't burn out.

Thanks for the replies! Most depressing but at least I guess I can go back to doing more weights as I actually enjoy that more than the cardio sessions.

0.8kg a week for a month sounds ok though!!

[carieoates]

Don't forget Johnny that exercise makes your body look great re toning, and in my case makes me a happy, happy little bunny indeed.
Join our fitbit group. See my signature for details.

And if you're a big lad, losing fat fast will leave you baggy. I'm happy at my 12 stone for now as my skin is catching up ever more slowly and baggy is worse than fat. Once it's better, I'll lose a bit more.

I'm getting a super shape from the weights. Have a look at Crossfit if you really want a blast...

Hi @Johnny6162 And Welcome
Blimey you sound in a hurry and keen on the gym all good though, but there's no hurry no race no prizes no crap and no Diet!!! No just a totally new way of life and to be perfectly truthful no better, just give yourself a month or so and alongside all your fitness regimes you will see results and the should be amazing results different to any other just you wait and see. Best of luck and enjoy

I would look at exercise as a health promotion and a toning tool, more than a weight loss tool. You can actually gain weight from exercising as sore muscles surround themselves with fluid to help with the healing. Plus muscle, though smaller in size weighs more. You should exercise though for the health benefits. I've dropped my BP from 120/90 to 110/70 and am hoping it will go even lower as more weight comes off. Plus its helping to pull in the saggy bits.

I too am in a hurry to lose weight, for surgery and consider the fact that I am still doing this form of weight loss 11 months down the line to be its major selling point. All the other diets I have done I quit after 3 months as they just aren't sustainable and the feelings of guilt when I was 'naughty' made my life miserable.

Just stick with it, use the exercise for enjoyment and health and watch the pounds disappear, slowly but steadily.

Just for the record, I'm 6'1" (nearly) and currently 16 stone 1 lb as of this morning. I was 16 stone 8lbs on Monday morning after a heavy weekend but would have said I was about 16 stone 4lbs before I indulged.

I have been 18 stone 12lbs back in 2008 and I did get to 15 stone 10lbs last year.

No idea what my "not looking fat" weight now would be as I weighed 14 stone in 2001 and didnt look fat and I have put on some muscle down the gym since then, along with the fat!

I'm aiming to be under 15 stone 10 lbs before Feb 13th for Venice, then to hit 15 stone 7lbs and finally to see a 14 rather than a 15 at the beginning. Anything else is a bonus!

Just remember that muscle weighs so your weight may go up or stabilise after a few trips to the gym. Thats why the BMI measurement is not as conclusive as you may think.

Personally, I recommend yoga for getting a great shape without bulking...but then I'm a Bean so what do I know?!

Bean

Contrary to some of the comments above, I started running last year to aid my weight loss and I found that it really helped speed up the process. I started off doing the Couch to 5K programme so there wasn't a lot of running in the first few weeks but I fell in love with it as a form of exercise and now find I get a bigger high from a good run than a chocolate biscuit! (And I NEVER thought I'd ever think that!!!)

I spent a couple of months "fine-tuning" my food intake in terms of calories AND foodstuffs and ended up doing a mix of 5:2, low carb, low fat and calorie counting from the beginning of July and that's when the weight really started to come off regularly. Once I committed to sticking to it I lost an average of 1.5 to 2lbs per week. You can see my stats in my siggie.

I picked up a hip injury fairly early on so had to stop running for a couple of weeks and although I stuck to the eating plan, I really noticed a slowing of the weight loss. I hit maintenance in October and was able to find the right balance of food intake to keep me stable until the two weeks leading up to Christmas. I decided to try to lose a couple of pounds in advance of the festive season, so that I could relax and enjoy a few treats so I resumed 5:2 and CC but life was so busy that I had to stop running again for a couple of weeks. Even though I was back on my "diet" in terms of eating, I lost hardly any weight - and I really do believe that was because running wasn't in the equation.

I think the only way to know if it will assist you is to try it. Human bodies haven't read the rules books and they don't all necessarily respond the same way.

Twice daily visits to the gym seems an awfully big commitment and you may burn yourself out before you reach your weight goal so don't be too hard on yourself.