<p>Hey everyone...have been just looking at this forum off an on for the past couple of years. Everyone seems to give great advice, so I thought I'd pose my question/problem.</p>
<p>I just got back from school a couple of weeks ago and realized that I'd gained 25 pounds since I left for college. I guess I noticed that I was getting a little chubby during the school year, but my clothes still fit for the most part (thanks to my love of shopping), so I wasn't too concerned. Also, I didn't weight myself once during the past school year, not even during winter break. I have never been very active since the only sport I played in high school was golf, but my weight was always under control. I have a feeling I may need to start working out, haha.</p>
<p>Anyone else with a similar experience? Any tips on how to lost the weight and make sure it doesn't happen again the next couple of years?</p>
<p>If you’re not very active then you don’t want to go straight into hard-core workouts, but over the next few weeks try to hit the gym a few times a week and do mostly cardio. Start off doing 15-20 minutes on the bike, elliptical, jogging/running (NOT walking), or swimming and maybe some light lifting. The eventual goal should be 20-30 minutes (or more) of cardio 3-4 (or more) times a week, with 1-3 lifting sessions. If you don’t have much experience lifting you may want to meet a few times with a personal trainer.
Also, make sure you’re not overeating and are eating healthy foods.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that some of the weight gain could potentially be explained by you growing naturally. You could have also been underweight before. Regardless, though, you definitely want to start getting in shape.</p>
<p>I’ve lost 40 pounds over the year (194 to 154, on a 6’2 frame) even though I gorge myself at dining halls with 5 plates per meal and everything. It’s really easy to lose weight with a little determination. I swim once or twice a week (plan to go more to start building muscle mass). Basically aim for that endorphin high, and work at 65-80% of your max heart rate at sustained intervals of ten minutes or more. If you do it correctly, the endorphins will eliminate 50-75% of the pain of exercise while you’re exercising, while later on the muscle soreness will come on during the recovery phase — but then you have every excuse to be easy on yourself! </p>
<p>The rowing machine is very good at getting you into this. There is a relatively easy (yet productive) workout that makes you go through the “most bang for your pain”… :40 sec at 2:20/500m, with :20 sec rest, repeat 10-15 times, then slowly increase your pace over the weeks until you hit 1:50/500m. (1:30/500m is a good racing speed.) </p>
<p>I also always at least semi-jog everywhere. I am never content with an idle walk to dining, etc. because it always feels like I am wasting time. So I always run (at around 60% max heart rate) and stop when I start sweating. In fact if it weren’t for that pesky sweat, I’d be running around more often.</p>
<p>Also aim for variety when you eat. Don’t be tempted by convenience eating (at shopping centres or otherwise). I think the secret really is not so much how much you eat as how balanced your diet is. I always get small portions of everything and mix and match my food. A little exercise on the weights go a long way. Also, if you cook for yourself rather than eating out or eating dining hall food, and shop for groceries on foot, etc. you can see some real change to your weight patterns.</p>
<p>Oh great swimming is also the key. I usually try for intervals of 400m, starting out with warmups of 50m, 100m, 200m first. The first 100m always suck, but if you concentrate on good stroke execution and follow-through, bubbles, breathing, posture, streamline etc. you can take your mind off the pain. </p>
<p>Don’t take a break! Go on! There is always an initial time lag between your heart speeding up and your oxygen supply in your cells, so basically after a few minutes at full pace in an intensive workout, you find it gets easier. Don’t lose that heart rate! Complete those turns [don’t slack], consciously maintain your pace and stroke and suddenly you find the inevitable endorphin high is comparable to an orgasm. (A 30-minute orgasm, depending how long you swim.) </p>
<p>My favourite is wave-style breaststroke – it’s a bit easier than butterfly, you can control your pace better than other strokes, while you’re working your abs and hips in addition to your thighs, calves and chest/arms – basically a full body workout. You can eliminate belly fat really quickly, because you’re basically combining dolphin kick form with whip kick form. If you do the pull correctly (pull forwards as hard as you can! don’t do that lame-ass wide-arc thing some people do – that almost does nothing, if you know your physics and component-cancellation) you also find it does wonders for your arms.</p>
<p>Combine with some weights (both aerobic and strength) and you get magic. The other secret really is to use the leg press effectively – it’s been scientifically proven that strong leg work + arm work does more for arms than just concentrating arm work alone. Remember your legs have quite powerful muscles (they support your whole weight after all) so you can usually pull some heavy stuff with it (200-400 pounds even for non-serious athletes). Strong work here will release the largest quantities of (natural) anabolic steroids (and other biochemical signallers) into the bloodstream, which naturally will circulate and promote fitness in all parts of your body.</p>
<p>That’s really all there is to it. You don’t really need to aim for Olympic performance or whatever, just a bit of science~~.</p>
<p>I gained about 15 pounds freshman year, and then I lost 40 pounds sophomore year. Cancel your meal plan and forget about working out. That’ll do the trick for the most part. And plus, do LOTS of walking. I find it more effective than running because I don’t lose my will to live after 10 minutes of walking vs. 10 minutes of running. Seriously, forget the ridiculous calorie-counting, max heart rate blablabla. Eat healthy foods (try this-ban precooked, pre-processed, ready to eat foods from your house for a week and cook everything from fresh), and yes, moderate junk food consumption is perfectly acceptable. And walk a lot (if possible, throw away the car keys for a week and see how that works out).</p>
<p>I went from 245 to now ~195 over 8 months. If a lazyass like me can do it, so can you. Lots of walking plus living with no car and cooking your own food should do the trick. You never realize how much you eat until you grocery-shop for yourself.</p>
<p>The trick really is getting past those first ten minutes. You need to persevere until the endorphins kick in!!</p>
<p>Here’s one strategy I use sometimes:
I run <em>hard</em> for about 5-7 minutes.
I stop and start walking, rest for about 30-50 seconds.</p>
<p>Then, after some time limit (those 30-50 seconds) you set for yourself, START running again (tell yourself to go! if you have to) and KEEP on running. When it gets hard again, you find it was less hard than before (yay for increased heart rate response!), such that you can go at a sustained, high-intensity pace. Controlled, forceful breathing then facilitates everything else. </p>
<p>My theory is that resting after a brief bout of hard exercise returns oxygen concentrations in the bloodstream and in the muscles to optimal, while heart rate is still elevated. And because your heart rate doesn’t slow down immediately, when you take off soon enough before it slows down, the increased initial heart rates maintain standing oxygen concentrations at higher levels than before, even though you’re running at the same pace (or even harder). The result is more efficiency, less lactic acid buildup and less pain.</p>
<p>Sure. But my totally laid back, workout-free model worked for me so I’ll go with that. Now I can do about an hour+ of sustained walking at a fairly rapid pace and never break a sweat. Oh, all the advantages of going to school in New York City… :)</p>
<p>ahh New York it’s a proven fact that people who live in cities are thinner. It’s great for me because I don’t work out so I’ll be walking whether I like it or not.</p>
<p>I maintained my weight, despite growing a few inches. I actually was around -12 pounds at Spring Break, but the last 2 weeks of school did not treat me well.</p>
<p>Absolutely. If you can walk for an hour or run for 15 minutes, you’ll have similar results as far as burning calories. The problem is obviously the walking will take that much longer.</p>
<p>OP, I’ve put on about 30 since my senior year of high school (2 years). I’ve started this week working out again. The hardest part is getting started. You have to make time to work out and you have to make yourself do it. You can’t skip especially in the first few weeks.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. Swimming seems to be a good solution! I’m going to give it a try by doing some laps a couple times a week. I know everyone means well by all the really complicated exercise plans, but I think I am going to start with a more simple plan. Also I know I should cut some calories…I have definitely been pigging out since I got home.</p>
<p>Referring to hebrewhammer’s comment, I definitely was not underweight before. Rather I was a little above the middle of the healthy range for my weight. What strikes me as odd is that the weight gain is not really obvious.</p>
<p>Referring to CCC08’s comment, I guess I don’t really know the distinction. What is the distinction?</p>
<p>You can lose weight without dropping a single pound of bodyfat. Manipulating electrolytes(salt) can lower your bodyweight, but this is just water. Similarly, cutting your carbohydrates to near zero decreases weight in a significant way initially, but again this is just water and muscle glycogen. </p>
<p>Your diet and exercise choices also dictate how much fat and muscle you may lose. If you starve yourself and do lots of cardio, your body will cling onto its fat stores and burn primarily muscle. Your body has no incentive to hold onto the muscle it has. Weight training provides this incentive and increased protein intake ensures that more muscle is spared.</p>
<p>I see…what is it more beneficial to lose? Considering I don’t exactly have a ton of muscle and definitely fat. I am not looking to be ripped or anything, just want to lose some weight.</p>
<p>Today I did laps in an olympic size pool which was fun. Any other ideas on low impact exercises that can be done outdoors? Don’t really feel like being in a gym during the summer, haha!</p>
<p>Obviously, getting lean as opposed to skinny is a good goal from an aesthetic and health perspective. This means you want to lose body fat, and minimize muscle loss. Even skinny people can have unhealthy amounts of fat on them.</p>
<p>This is usually due to unhealthy lifestyle choices. Even if a person never reaches a caloric surplus needed to add weight, if they don’t exercise or eat well, their body composition and health are likely to suffer.</p>
<p>I definitely will need to find a way to work weight lifting into my workouts since that seems to be the way to become lean. </p>
<p>Anyways, I was wondering whether any other girls have had the same problem as I did…I’ve been seeing a lot of responses from whom I am guessing are guys.</p>
(A 30-minute orgasm, depending how long you swim.) </p>