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He ran for 3 months - the end of the first month only running a full mile - and lost 26 lbs by the end of the third month? How? I do like an hour of pretty hard

by johnfn 3y ago

He ran for 3 months - the end of the first month only running a full mile - and lost 26 lbs by the end of the third month? How? I do like an hour of pretty hard cardio every other day and I barely lose any weight at all. I'm not exactly calling BS, since he did say he adjusted his nutrition as well, but 26 is an astounding number. This is a fun story, but I feel that without the actual prompts and responses it feels a bit hollow.

johnz 3y ago
I guess it depends on where you’re starting at and what else you’re doing, like a diet. 26 over three months does sound like a lot but not impossible. Anecdotally, I broke my leg and had surgery in January and gained 20 lbs over 9 weeks of being on crutches. I’ve been slowly getting back to being active and running again. But also have been strict with my diet at the same time. I’m down 7 lbs just this month. I don't see why I won't continue that or make even more progress next month.
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
Just to remind people of the physics! 10 lbs of fat is 36,000 calories. Which is: - 82 miles of swimming - 240 miles of running - 700 to 900 miles of biking 26 lbs obviously being 2.6 times that: 200+ miles swimming, 600 miles of running, 2400 miles of biking. So as you point out, 26 lbs lost isn't going to happen even if he ran that 1 mile every day for 3 months. The ONLY way is substantial caloric deficit through dieting/reduced food intake.
- alvarezbjm-hn 3y ago
  DISCLAIMER: Under no circumstance think about to stopping eating without consulting a nutritionist. There is no medical advice here! Fun fact: If you stop eating completely, your metabolism goes down. Still, with a basal metabolism of 1500 calories (daily) and no food, you would lose 160g of fat (daily). You can add exercise to lose more fat, and keep your muscle. You could also stop eating (only water allowed) for 74 days and lose around 10 pounds (combined fat and muscle) This is the reason diets don't work longterm. It takes great willpower (which the person didn't have much of to begin with) for a really long time (probably for life)
  - whateverman23 3y ago
    Did you mean 74 hours? You can lose 10 pounds in 35 days by just eating at a healthy calorie deficit.
xorvoid 3y ago
This was my first reaction also. I have lost >26 lbs in 3 months. It’s quite doable but you need to be very strict about… your diet. Somebody isn’t telling the entire story.
aaaa123456 3y ago
You cannot outrun your diet. All of the weight loss came from dietary changes. Running as an exercise is really good for you but if you're not an actual athlete only contributes marginally to calories burnt. I burn roughly 2000 calories for doing a 20km run, a bit more than an hour and a half of running, heart rate of 170 to 190bpm. There is 1300 calories in a large big mac meal [1]. Its stupid easy to consume excess calories. For the next day or two after a 20km run I feel so famished that I could eat 6000 to 8000 calories a day after that. [1] https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/foods/f/calories-in-meals-big-mac-meal-large/eSpAK_DnTFOo1x8G2hIm3Q https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/foods/f/calories-in-meals-...
- JimtheCoder 3y ago
  "You cannot outrun your diet." I know some triathletes who would beg to differ. For someone just getting started...I agree.
  - seanthemon 3y ago
    If you're on triathlete level it becomes "you can't outdiet your run"
- heavenlyblue 3y ago
  As a male you would also consume 2000 calories just doing nothing, so that puts you at 4000 calories in that day you would have consumed. So that's not that excessive.
  - aaaa123456 3y ago
    > As a male you would also consume 2000 calories just doing nothing, so that puts you at 4000 calories in that day you would have consumed. So that's not that excessive. Thats my point 4k calories is not much. Its super easy to consume it 4k calories, its a shit load of effort to burn 4k calories. Check out this, eat and burn 10k calories in a day. You can guess which one is harder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZTz9LDFg1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZTz9LDFg1E
jakeduth 3y ago
For me doing the exercise doesn't burn as many calories, but after I run, I want to eat healthier. If I've been sitting around all day, an ice cream cone sounds good. If I was just reminded of how hard it is to burn 100 calories - it's not. So I think there's perhaps a subconscious nuance here.
t-writescode 3y ago
Please get all medical advice from a medical professional. What I've heard is that 2 pounds a week is the "safe recommended limit" for weight loss. 3 months is 12 weeks or 24 pounds, which is about 26. 2 pounds a week works out to, give or take, a 1000 calorie deficit. That's very, very easy to achieve if you're working out regularly. At the height of my exercising period a couple of years ago, I was burning > 3000 calories a day. There were some days I had to actually eat extra just so that I wasn't hilarious under my required calorie amount. On a 3500 calorie day, eating a healthy 2500 calories is proper work.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
Terr_ 3y ago
> He ran for 3 months - the end of the first month only running a full mile - and lost 26 lbs by the end of the third month? How? To recontextualize the math, losing 26 lb of fat in 90 days is about the same as a 1,000 calorie deficit per day. By no means impossible, but certainly an effort, including the dietary aspect of ignoring how your body will want to eat more-than-before to compensate. Anecdotally, I'm currently doing a lesser 400-500 deficit per day (-4lb/month) just through dieting. Not for the first time, I did it for a year a long time ago, then slowly backslid.

by johnfn 3y ago

johnz 3y ago

I guess it depends on where you’re starting at and what else you’re doing, like a diet. 26 over three months does sound like a lot but not impossible. Anecdotally, I broke my leg and had surgery in January and gained 20 lbs over 9 weeks of being on crutches. I’ve been slowly getting back to being active and running again. But also have been strict with my diet at the same time. I’m down 7 lbs just this month. I don't see why I won't continue that or make even more progress next month.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

Just to remind people of the physics! 10 lbs of fat is 36,000 calories. Which is: - 82 miles of swimming - 240 miles of running - 700 to 900 miles of biking 26 lbs obviously being 2.6 times that: 200+ miles swimming, 600 miles of running, 2400 miles of biking. So as you point out, 26 lbs lost isn't going to happen even if he ran that 1 mile every day for 3 months. The ONLY way is substantial caloric deficit through dieting/reduced food intake.

alvarezbjm-hn 3y ago
DISCLAIMER: Under no circumstance think about to stopping eating without consulting a nutritionist. There is no medical advice here! Fun fact: If you stop eating completely, your metabolism goes down. Still, with a basal metabolism of 1500 calories (daily) and no food, you would lose 160g of fat (daily). You can add exercise to lose more fat, and keep your muscle. You could also stop eating (only water allowed) for 74 days and lose around 10 pounds (combined fat and muscle) This is the reason diets don't work longterm. It takes great willpower (which the person didn't have much of to begin with) for a really long time (probably for life)
- whateverman23 3y ago
  Did you mean 74 hours? You can lose 10 pounds in 35 days by just eating at a healthy calorie deficit.

xorvoid 3y ago

This was my first reaction also. I have lost >26 lbs in 3 months. It’s quite doable but you need to be very strict about… your diet. Somebody isn’t telling the entire story.

aaaa123456 3y ago

You cannot outrun your diet. All of the weight loss came from dietary changes. Running as an exercise is really good for you but if you're not an actual athlete only contributes marginally to calories burnt. I burn roughly 2000 calories for doing a 20km run, a bit more than an hour and a half of running, heart rate of 170 to 190bpm. There is 1300 calories in a large big mac meal [1]. Its stupid easy to consume excess calories. For the next day or two after a 20km run I feel so famished that I could eat 6000 to 8000 calories a day after that. [1] https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/foods/f/calories-in-meals-big-mac-meal-large/eSpAK_DnTFOo1x8G2hIm3Q https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/foods/f/calories-in-meals-...

JimtheCoder 3y ago
"You cannot outrun your diet." I know some triathletes who would beg to differ. For someone just getting started...I agree.
- seanthemon 3y ago
  If you're on triathlete level it becomes "you can't outdiet your run"
heavenlyblue 3y ago
As a male you would also consume 2000 calories just doing nothing, so that puts you at 4000 calories in that day you would have consumed. So that's not that excessive.
- aaaa123456 3y ago
  > As a male you would also consume 2000 calories just doing nothing, so that puts you at 4000 calories in that day you would have consumed. So that's not that excessive. Thats my point 4k calories is not much. Its super easy to consume it 4k calories, its a shit load of effort to burn 4k calories. Check out this, eat and burn 10k calories in a day. You can guess which one is harder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZTz9LDFg1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZTz9LDFg1E

jakeduth 3y ago

For me doing the exercise doesn't burn as many calories, but after I run, I want to eat healthier. If I've been sitting around all day, an ice cream cone sounds good. If I was just reminded of how hard it is to burn 100 calories - it's not. So I think there's perhaps a subconscious nuance here.

t-writescode 3y ago

Please get all medical advice from a medical professional. What I've heard is that 2 pounds a week is the "safe recommended limit" for weight loss. 3 months is 12 weeks or 24 pounds, which is about 26. 2 pounds a week works out to, give or take, a 1000 calorie deficit. That's very, very easy to achieve if you're working out regularly. At the height of my exercising period a couple of years ago, I was burning > 3000 calories a day. There were some days I had to actually eat extra just so that I wasn't hilarious under my required calorie amount. On a 3500 calorie day, eating a healthy 2500 calories is proper work.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Terr_ 3y ago

> He ran for 3 months - the end of the first month only running a full mile - and lost 26 lbs by the end of the third month? How? To recontextualize the math, losing 26 lb of fat in 90 days is about the same as a 1,000 calorie deficit per day. By no means impossible, but certainly an effort, including the dietary aspect of ignoring how your body will want to eat more-than-before to compensate. Anecdotally, I'm currently doing a lesser 400-500 deficit per day (-4lb/month) just through dieting. Not for the first time, I did it for a year a long time ago, then slowly backslid.