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I wanted to not have to wonder why my weight was suddenly 30 pounds more than in college, without me remembering how that ever happened. I started exercising w

I wanted to not have to wonder why my weight was suddenly 30 pounds more than in college, without me remembering how that ever happened. I started exercising with some light running, gym use, breaking a little sweat. Didn't do anything, didn't show any noticeable result over like 4 months. Then I hopped on a rowing machine (above preparation probably helped to be ready for it) because I wanted to see something happen. I'm not that special. Do something to your body and it will probably do the same for you as it does for other people, you just have to stick with it. I stopped thinking "eh, it won't do anything for me". I rowed each day before the weights workout, 10 minutes super intense, until I felt like I was gonna puke as I fell off the machine. Heartbeat way elevated, out of breath, blood coursing through body, and soaked. In conjunction with not eating quite as much (that rowing machine does something to your appetite) I dropped I would say 1 pound per week. Doctor asked if anything was wrong the next time I went in for physical and got weighed. Felt great. Exercise is a part of my routine now. I don't eat junk any more. I now say the thing people always say after such things, but you don't internalize or believe it until you try: "I wish I had done it sooner".

p1esk 6y ago
+1 for a rowing machine. I started ~3 weeks ago, at first could barely do 5 minutes. Now I do 20. One thing to keep in mind is the weight might not change much because while fat is going away, muscle mass increases.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  > One thing to keep in mind is that the weight might not change much because while fat is going away, muscle mass increases. This is why, when talking about health and fitness with friends, I always try to deemphasize weight loss. When I decided to finally stop being overweight and inactive (I played rec league soccer, which was miserable because it was my only exercises and I was grossly out of shape) I lost 40 pounds, then I put on 20 as I incorporated more strength (bodyweight) training into my routine. And a couple colleagues who started weightlifting + moderate cardio saw initial losses of maybe 5-10 pounds before their weight became stable, but they were getting in obviously better condition even though they were still above their initial target weights by quite a bit.
gumby 6y ago
BTW your phenomenon of 1 lb/wk is quite sustainable. Trying to lose significantly more than that (more than say 5 lbs/2 kg per month is not only hard to achieve but usually results in vpreverting to the prior weight.

p1esk 6y ago

+1 for a rowing machine. I started ~3 weeks ago, at first could barely do 5 minutes. Now I do 20. One thing to keep in mind is the weight might not change much because while fat is going away, muscle mass increases.

Jtsummers 6y ago
> One thing to keep in mind is that the weight might not change much because while fat is going away, muscle mass increases. This is why, when talking about health and fitness with friends, I always try to deemphasize weight loss. When I decided to finally stop being overweight and inactive (I played rec league soccer, which was miserable because it was my only exercises and I was grossly out of shape) I lost 40 pounds, then I put on 20 as I incorporated more strength (bodyweight) training into my routine. And a couple colleagues who started weightlifting + moderate cardio saw initial losses of maybe 5-10 pounds before their weight became stable, but they were getting in obviously better condition even though they were still above their initial target weights by quite a bit.

gumby 6y ago

BTW your phenomenon of 1 lb/wk is quite sustainable. Trying to lose significantly more than that (more than say 5 lbs/2 kg per month is not only hard to achieve but usually results in vpreverting to the prior weight.