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Five hours a week is way more than most people who work and have a family can do. Even if you find the time, you might be quite tired and that also eats into yo

Five hours a week is way more than most people who work and have a family can do. Even if you find the time, you might be quite tired and that also eats into your time budget. Also, you might spend maybe 200cal lightly cycling during a zoom call. You will get that back in a few seconds of eating, if you choose something heavy like a chocolate bar. Your best bet then is to just control the incoming calories, because even an all-out workout of an hour will do you maybe 800cal if you're a bit bigger and stronger than me, and even if you did that you'd feel super tired for a long time after and maybe even decide to eat up that amount again. In my case, it was all about calories. I've done this, and a friend did this as well: get one of those electronic scales that's got a couple of decimals on it, eg says 92.15kg. Then you can get used to understanding how much weight you lose while sleeping, how much you are carrying as pee and poo, and how much a meal tends to weigh. This will tell you how much you actually weigh, because you can take out the noise. Have a look at an online calculator that tells you how much you should be eating for a given target. Find out the calories in everything you eat, and eat that budget. I did this, and amazingly, the weight loss was just as expected. Thermodynamics seems to work.

skrtskrt 6y ago
Dedicating 5 hours a week to keeping your body healthy and functioning seems pretty bare minimum expectation. Otherwise your lifestyle is just fully sedentary and you should expect the corresponding health outcomes. Exercise isn't just about the calorie differential, it improves heart function, posture, flexibility, bone mass, mood, etc.
- lordnacho 6y ago
  Yeah I didn't mean to say exercise isn't important, it is. Just that it simply isn't in most people's time budget.
seanicus 6y ago
I'm right there with ya. Kiddo is very young and I can't justify shelling out even 3 extra nanny hours per week for fitness. I try to incorporate/papoose him for as much as I can but there's a lot of stuff I can't do with him attached. Couple that with winters increasing level of difficulty in getting walks in (still trying to figure out how long he can be exposed to the elements before it qualifies as child abuse). I don't have any advice here; just commiserating. Keep on trucking.
ogre_codes 6y ago
> Five hours a week is way more than most people who work and have a family can do. This is why you have to be smart about how you do it. Ride your bike to work or run/ hike/ play with your kids. There are a million ways to double up and get fit while doing something else. How much time do you spend playing video games or watching TV? That is time you can convert into being fit. Dying of heart failure at 50 clears up all those "Not enough time" issues. > Even if you find the time, you might be quite tired and that also eats into your time budget. Exercising when you are not fit wipes you out. Regularly exercising gives you more energy in the long run as normal activities become easier and less stressful.

skrtskrt 6y ago

Dedicating 5 hours a week to keeping your body healthy and functioning seems pretty bare minimum expectation. Otherwise your lifestyle is just fully sedentary and you should expect the corresponding health outcomes. Exercise isn't just about the calorie differential, it improves heart function, posture, flexibility, bone mass, mood, etc.

lordnacho 6y ago
Yeah I didn't mean to say exercise isn't important, it is. Just that it simply isn't in most people's time budget.

seanicus 6y ago

I'm right there with ya. Kiddo is very young and I can't justify shelling out even 3 extra nanny hours per week for fitness. I try to incorporate/papoose him for as much as I can but there's a lot of stuff I can't do with him attached. Couple that with winters increasing level of difficulty in getting walks in (still trying to figure out how long he can be exposed to the elements before it qualifies as child abuse). I don't have any advice here; just commiserating. Keep on trucking.

ogre_codes 6y ago

> Five hours a week is way more than most people who work and have a family can do. This is why you have to be smart about how you do it. Ride your bike to work or run/ hike/ play with your kids. There are a million ways to double up and get fit while doing something else. How much time do you spend playing video games or watching TV? That is time you can convert into being fit. Dying of heart failure at 50 clears up all those "Not enough time" issues. > Even if you find the time, you might be quite tired and that also eats into your time budget. Exercising when you are not fit wipes you out. Regularly exercising gives you more energy in the long run as normal activities become easier and less stressful.