Getting rid of the winter jelly belly

[JellyBelly 1]

OK so in winter I always put on some. It's just not the conditions for salad and going out, and the odd bit of skiing doesn't make up for the lack of other exercise and the 'hearty meals' consumed.

 

So, time to get rid of some of the jelly belly.

 

My plan involves my mountain bike. Not many mountains, but lots of bike rides I think.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Yeah I've been out jogging and went to the gym today. I intend on some spring/summer hiking, cycling and any other fun exercise I can slip in

[ippy 66]

I cycle 10km per day, 20km on days when i go to the gym (about 4 times a week). The cycling does NOTHING for me because its not high intensity. If you cruise on a bike it wont do a damned thing for you regarding weight loss. It might make you feel better, (and it lets you take in a bit more of the world), but it really doesnt help much. YOu need to bust your ass a bit. That might mean distance (serious distance) or intensity.

 

You also need to not give yourself excuses and break your habits (ah! im kackered today/its raining/its windy/im hungover/i got up too early, ill make it up tomorrow). And every couple of weeks you need to switch that routine up so your body hasnt figured out how to do it without wasting energy.

 

Honestly, if you reaaalllly truly want to lose weight, go find a gym with aerobic programmes and turn up to them as often as you can. Ive been in gyms for years and im pretty regular, (i dont skip days too often), and i watch people go from overweight to trim purely from their commitment to those classes. They way outperform people cruising on exercise bikes and treadmills. And the people on treadmills look FAR more miserable by the way. Just jump in on a class, make some friends, and youll see things popping back down after a few months. Throw in a diet on top of it, drink A LOT of water instead of snacking (common knowledge is youre actually more likely to be thirsty than hungry when you get those pangs during the day), stick to small portions several times a day rather than three massive meals and calorie for calorie youll lose weight faster because youve pushed your metabolism up to what it maybe was when you were young and could eat anything you liked.

 

And one last thing, as a good friend of mine once told me, a six pack is made in the kitchen. You dont eat right and do millions of crunches, it wont matter for shit since no ones going to see it under your belly

[nagoid 4]

Calories in and out.

 

Riding on a bike won't help.....is nonsense.

[ippy 66]

okay, let me soften it. If you're just cycling about around 15-20kmh your body can do that easy enough. It wont give you the results you think it will. If you want to lose weight youre going to have to ramp it up. Oh, and get a cyclo computer, from my own experience you overestimate how fast youre going on a bike. Its nice to see the actual data. And resources like ridewithgps or mapmyride help you think of some fun plans and far better than just using google.

[nagoid 4]

I lose weight every spring summer simply by doing the 15-20km rides you mention and eating less.

[ippy 66]

good for you!

[JA2340 16]

... and eating less.

The answer right there!

[Alexander L 80]

not if you're drinking more.

[snowdude 44]

Well I have to add my two cents to this!

I can cycle 100k a day on flat ground piece of piss, just cruising and I would not loose hardly a calorie, however if I do just 5-10k around here going up and down steep mountains, which there are an abundance of here in Yamanashi then I will burn a shit load of calories.

It is not how much you do, but rather the intensity that counts and to be regular, plus a good diet and results will soon be achieved.

[nagoid 4]

... and eating less.

The answer right there!

 

I can never understand why people make it more complicated than it is.

 

I eat less, that's less calories. I get on my bike, I burn up more calories. So I lose weight. It's not rocket science.

[NoFakie 45]

I don't know about cycling but running consumes more calories than walking the same distance. You also burn a bit more after during recovery.

[pdoull 2]

I've been led to believe that if you do too much aerobic exercise like a cycle spin class that although

you will get fit /lose weight you also will eat away at the muscle.

I started back at the gym with those spin classes a few years back to get back in condition for surf/snow activities and it worked well.

Now, that I believe I am relatively fit I do more of a weights circuit routine

to gain strength & maintain fitness which I feel is a big key to snow sports especially leg strength.

But as everyone has said a healthy diet with some exercise is the key.

[ProbablyaCrazyPerson 2]

I find the hardest part the eating bit. I just love eating too much. Often the 'wrong' kind of food.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Ricky Inu you are not totally wrong. In terms of calories expended while doing the exercise, aerobic exercise burns most but that burn stops fairly quickly after you stop exercising. An intense weights session will burn less calories during the exercise BUT will continue to burn calories at a higher metabolic rate for hours after the exercise has stopped. It's therefore better to do weight training as a means of losing fat than only aerobic exercise. Continual aerobic exercise, such as jogging, is stressful on the body...so yes u burn calories but you also produce lots of cortisol which can aid fat production and is then counter intuitive. If weight training isn't ur thing, high intensity interval training will be better for you than long continuous exercise. Find a hill and do 50 metre sprints.....3 sets of 4.....this raises ur metabolic rate quicker and longer than continuous aerobic exercise

[pdoull 2]

Yep those 50 m sprints ... 3 sets of 4...with say a 2min rest inbetween would do the job and

probably only take approx 30 mins. Big results for minimal time input and hills are cheaper than gyms.

Fairly simple and effective if adhered to.

[seemore 66]

I ride approx 50mins every other day and it keeps me eating what I want Interval training is the best but if you just cruise and the heart rate doesn't increase then you won't burn that much.

I did 30mins in the skate park this morning that was very sweaty

[sanjo 2]

I am not going to be jogging, that's for sure

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Well, I went out for a humungous Indian slap up meal last night and I probably need a weeks worth of bike rides to get that lot off.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

It was though

[egglesby 1]

In winter I don't feel like eating stuff that slims you down, more like stodgy meals that put the weight on.

At least when warmer weather arrives that is easier.

[grungy-gonads 54]

tanoshii physical activity is good too

 

[TheOrange 0]

In need once again myself.

 

The bike was cleaned yesterday. Time to get out on it.

[Dunga 1]

Again it's intensity that is the most important for weight loss.

 

Here's a study that backs it up.

 

http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/fitness/forget-the-jog-slog-and-fit-in-a-sprint-for-maximum-weight-loss-results-20120628-215a4.html

[NoFakie 45]

Science seems to have a growing but still very imperfect grasp of the human body (and probably everything else) so its interesting to see how established knowledge can swing from one side to the other.

 

I do quite a bit of running uphill, some of it due to living on one, but its one thing to say to people "just do high intensity workouts" and another to actually get them done. The first step out of the door may be hard for distance running, but it's still easier than the "just do three sets of twenty rapid fire hindu squats, 30 second breaks" or whatever comes first in a high intensity workout.