Body exercises for the obese?

[dawn16]

Just found out I'm right on the edge of obese, but I think I look slightly chubby at most. I can also bang out sets of 15-20 pushups, run a mile and a half relatively easily, and have no problem doing physical work like moving furniture. Having muscle mass ans some cardio does a lot for how you look.

Started a cut last week though lol

 

[ashleighzedicy]

@helencostello91 Can you expand on "it's not important to lose weight"? Do you mean for an obese person or just in general? If the former, what is more important for an obese person than losing weight? Not doubting you, just curious.

 

[helencostello91]

@ashleighzedicy Excerice is not important to lose weight, only diet...

 

[ashleighzedicy]

@helencostello91 Ah, I got you. Yeah, I totally agree. Diet is way more important for losing weight. Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.

 

[nickale]

@helencostello91 Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately it’s been hard to find a change in diet that helps. My weight gain is caused by a hormone problem and even though I’m eating at a calorie deficit (I’ve never eaten very much tbh. Sometimes I’m jealous that people my size can scarf down entire pizzas by themselves and I can’t lol) I don’t lose weight. Exercising though has changed that immensely.

 

[helencostello91]

@nickale Sorry to burst your bubble, but as a doctor I can assure you that there are no conditions, hormonal or not, that causes anyone to not lose weight if they eat at a calorie deficit. I know it's a common saying, I know its a lot of shitty magazines that writes it, but it is plain wrong. If you have a untreated condition like low thyroid levels you might require only 2000 calories a day rather than 2500 calories a day, and that can obviously impact your weight. However as long as you eat less than 2000 calories a day - which then is your calorie need - you will lose weight.

Calculating calories can be hard though, and many people do it wrong. Most common mistakes are:

1: Forgetting calories in drinks

2: Looking at calories in portion size rather than by grams. A 100 gram chocolate bars has about 550 kcal. That means 550 kcal each 100 gram. The chocolate producer however does not want you to know how fat you get by eating 100 grams, so he writes on the front 137 kcal each portion. The thing is, the assholes has defined 1 portion as 1/4th of the 100 gram chocolate bar. And nobody buys 100 grams of chocolate and eats 1/4th. A ton of products do this. So look at kcal for each 100 gram, and calculate.

If you can not be bothered with calories or calculations, for the next 2 weeks eat exactly the same as before, no changes - but cut every portion size in 2. Breakfast usually 4 pieces of bread with nutella? Well now its 2 pieces etc. Do this and you will lose weight quickly.

 

[nickale]

@helencostello91 Interesting. I haven’t done any of my own research because I don’t trust magazines or mommy blogs or all the ads on Instagram and Facebook. I’ve only spoken with my doctors and nutritionists about how much and what I eat and other than my PCOS they can’t explain why I’m the size I am. Maybe the problem is I need a doctor with more concern and time for me as a patient since I only go to the school offices that rush you in and out because they have so many patients to take care of. Thanks for the advice anyway.

 

[ayeesha]

@nickale Heyyyy I have that too!!! PCOS makes it harder to lose weight because your TDEE is lower than someone without PCOS. It fucking sucks. Annddd even without PCOS, comparing someone who is, say, 150lb with a history of 200lb vs someone who's always been around 150lb, the one who used to be 200 will have lower TDEE too.

I can't remember the research, but off the top of my head, I wanna say it's on average a few 100 cal lower than you'd expect.

I only skimmed through some of the comments here so sorry if I'm repeating something but-- a lot of people with PCOS have luck with keto, or semi-keto, or dialing back starchy carbs. Do you have a sense of your current typical macronutrient distribution?

PCOS also overlaps with chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation usually means high cortisol, which also means a lot of the weight accumulates around the midsection (one of the features that matches type 2 diabetes). Are you on any medication? Some people have had luck with metformin, an insulin sensitizer. Inositol is an OTC supplement that also works as an insulin sensitizer. But please please please do your own research on this stuff first, and keep asking questions!

Getting a better handle on any stress in your life-- not just physical/exercise stress, but emotional/mental too-- will help your system overall.

To answer your original question-- (and since gyms are closed everywhere) check out the routines in the sidebar here, and modify as needed. Strength training is awesome! It gets you more long-term value than steady-state cardio. The work involving hanging, like active hang, scapular pull-up, pull-up, etc may take a little longer to progress but that's ok! You could also use this time to lay out your movement efficiency and technique-- focus on form & mobility. It will take you so much farther in the long run!

Good luck!!

 

[marcrene01]

@nickale I think there are also a lot of very sneaky ways where it's possible to have a lot of calories in a meal that doesn't fill one up.

The sneakiest are drinks. Starbucks & Co, and soft drinks. While I can't compare my situation with yours, I immediately started losing weight as soon as I dropped the soft-drinks (Or just went for the Zero version, but that stuff can also make one hungry). It's incredible how easy it is to underestimate that part. The non-sugar things taste weird at first (say coffee / tea), but after like 1-2 weeks you notice how the non-sugar version is superior I can't drink coffee with sugar anymore, tastes weird to me and I've heard similar experience from others.

I think I saw a post once about a girl having a Donut and some fancy starbucks coffee as a breakfast and thinking that's not a lot. The discussion in the thread was mainly about how that would indeed make no one feel like having a huge breakfast, but still account for like half of the daily recommended calories.

And a general note to exercise (and maybe diet): Slow and steady changes always beat immediate big changes. If you can't maintain that 'perfect' diet or 'perfect' training plan, then it won't help. That's also where most people fail at working out. They think of some fancy workout that requires a lot of time, but after 2 months they break and just do nothing again. Habits build with small changes.

And else: Have fun on your journey. The best part is when you notice making progress, which is incredibly addicting.

 

[timothy59]

@nickale A simply $10 food scale from Walmart or amazon makes a world of difference.

 

[thomassen7]

@nickale Try tracking your calories with any of the myriad of programs out there. And be honest with it - cheating on it will only cheat yourself. You will be surprised by where calories are hidden. Also I recommend taking sugar out of your diet.

As for simple bodyweight exercises, maybe something simple like push-pull-squat-hinge.
Push: wall push ups
Pull: tie one end of two bedsheet into a knot, put it on top of the door, then close the door on it so the sheet is between the door and the frame. The knot will keep the bed sheet from sliding through. It is also important to make sure the knot is on the correct side of the door. The knot should be on the side of the door that swings away from you. Grabbing one sheet in each hand, lean back and pull yourself toward the door. For the push up and lateral pull, the more vertical you are the easier then exercise. The more horizontal, the harder it will be.
Squats: if you can’t do air squats, use the bed sheets so your arms can help. Get to the point of doing unassisted air squats.
Hinge: lie on your back and lift your legs into the air. If that’s too hard then try to raid your knees with legs bent.

Try working on 10 repetitions 3 times, or also known as 3 sets x 10 reps. As you lose weight and get stronger, you can search the web for more comprehensive body workout plans. But this should be a good starting point.

 

[dawn16]

@nickale Did you actually count calories or just try to estimate how much you eat? You don't need a doctor to lose weight. It's a tough thing to do but it is possible. Go to a calorie calculator to see how much you should eat per day and then get a scale for your food and cook your food (or buy food where you can see the calories, but cooking food is probably the best thing you can do to eat healthy).

I lost 45kilo in 8 months just from counting calories and no excercise except for some walks (rarely).

/r/loseit is a great resource for this. https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/index#wiki_diet

 

[dawn16]

@nickale It can be hard to develop a baseline understanding of nutrition, especially if you're trying to do your own research online. Let me explain a bit of background about why Calories In, Calories Out is true.

You probably studied the first law of thermodynamics in school. That's the "matter/energy cannot be created nor destroyed" rule. It makes intuitive sense. Any matter or energy has to come from somewhere. Your body works the same way. Calories are a measurement of energy that you can take from the food you eat. Your body converts calories into glucose and ultimately into ATP so that all of your individual cells can do their work. If you eat as many calories as you burn, then everything works just fine.

So what happens if you eat too many calories? Your body chooses to store those calories in the form of fat cells. Fat cells are high in calories, and it's literally stored energy. When you eat fewer calories than you are burning, your body starts breaking down these fat cells into glucose, which is what losing fat is

If you are burning more calories than you're eating, the energy has to come from somewhere! The way that your body is able to keep functioning is by pulling calories from lipid cells in your body, which means that fat goes away. Again, it's impossible to not lose weight if you have a negative calorie balance due to the laws of physics. It would be like a ball rolling itself up a hill - just cannot happen on a fundamental level.

I hope I explained this well. CICO is one of the absolute fundamental concepts in nutrition, and it's an utter failure of our school systems that so many people do not understand it.

 

[nbffan]

@nickale See a dietician. Doctors don't have a lot of education in nutrition. It comes down to calories in calories out and anyone that says anything different is lying

 

[lucia91]

@nickale My wife has PCOS and has been told she's at higher risk of diabetes type 2. So she's been cutting out as much sugar and carbs as she can. She's noticed dropping about 10 lbs since starting her new keto like diet.

I'd also like to reiterate the importance of cardio training. It's the best way to burn fat and modify metabolism.

 

[collegeds]

@nickale Stress can impact how well your body deals with hormones, increasing cortisol it stress hormone can mess with the hormones your body uses to store and break down energy.

You could theoretically be eating the same diet as an identical copy of yourself and if the other one is not stressed they would lose weight.

In terms of bodyweight exercises do what you can. There is an element if trying it out to see what happens so keep it simple.

Squat, hinge, push, pull are the fundamental movements but If you dont have equipment either modify or leave it now until you get equipment or get stronger.

I would probably start with squat, pushup and plank. 3 sets of 5 repetitions to find your base. Rest a minute or 2 between sets.

You might be able to do more, might be less but you want to find your starting place so for the first week understand where your limits are, so that you know what you need to do to get stronger.

3 sets of 5 squats might be easy, might be hard. Do it and see, next time change it or keep it the same if it was just out of reach.

Pushups, wall, counter, stair or on floor but on you knees, again see what you can manage. Aim for 3x5 on the counter but can only do 2? Go back to wall pushups, might need to increase to 5 sets of 10 then go back to counter?

Plank, start with 3x5 seconds. Again Could be knee plank or just press up position. Add 5 seconds next time so its 3 sets of 10 until you csnt do it. That's your starting place.

Good luck!

 

[boatengfrances]

@nickale Have you tracked your food religiously?

 

[jmw7]

@nickale Something very helpful for calorie counting is the app MyFitnessPal. You can scan barcodes and it will find the calorie calculations and you just need to add the amount you ate, makes it very easy to calculate and track your consumption weekly and set goals. Also cut out soft drinks completely and cut down on juice, make water your new go to drink it goes a long way

 

[misfit76]

@nickale No, actually all your doctors and nutritionists are wrong, randomredditor12 knows the answer despite knowing nothing about you.

 

[jcd1284]

@helencostello91 Or insisting that you have "Dense Bones"

No Dr. Karen (PhD Pending), I'm fat. I may not look it, but I'm fat. My Bones are not made of obsidian.