So I have been trying to lose weight for around a year now but nothing seems to work. I am 18, 5'11" and my BMI is 30. I have an extremely slow metabolism that makes it hard to lose weight. I walk to and from high school, and I walk for an hour during lunch while I eat my sandwich. That's 2 hours of walking a day. That still isn't enough though so I have decided to start exercising more.
Anyway, my friend recently loaned me his Insanity workout disc set. I also have a 24 Hour Fitness gym membership. I also have access to running shoes and things like that so I can run in my neighborhood. I was wondering what the best method would be to lose weight. I am being hit pretty hard with homework this semester so I will try and dedicate an hour a day to exercise but that is probably it. My current routine is 3 days at the gym per week. Each day I do 30 minutes of elliptical, 15 minutes of lifting weights, and then 15 minutes of running on a treadmill.
So out of these options which one is the best to do to lose weight? Or should I do a combination of them? Last time I tried Insanity I quit after 3 days because my knees started to hurt pretty badly, to the point where it hurt to walk up and down stairs. I wouldn't mind starting again though.
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02-15-2012, 05:48 PM #1
Insanity vs Gym for losing weight? Overweight 18 year old.
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02-15-2012, 06:04 PM #2
The most important thing is your diet.
Cut the crap(junk food, chips, pastries, processed food, candy, etc.), avoid soda/alcohol and juice. Eat whole food (fish, poultry, meat, eggs, veggies, fruits, potatos, pasta, grain, cheese, milk).
If you dont fix your diet, pretty much all of your effort will be resultless. To loose weight, you have to be in a caloric deficit. Thats mean if you burn 2000 calories during the day, you have to eat less (around 1500 calories). 1 pound of fat = 3500kcal. If you eat 500 kcal less every day, you can easily burn 1 lbs per week.
Read the nutrition stickies, it will be very helpful.
For your work out program, the most important is to enjoy what you do. You need to be daily active to burn more calories. Find an activity you enjoy. If you go to the gym, you should lift weight for 45 minutes and do cardio for 15 minutes. I suggest you to follow Allpro's beginner routine (in the stickies of the work out program section).
You can do anything...if you hide your lack of motivation behind excuses you will get nowhere. Fix your diet first. Eat less, eat more healthy. Eat A LOT of veggies and fruit. Eat fruit as a snack and dessert, eat veggies with your main meal (instead of chips, potatos, pasta). They are very hypocaloric, they are very rich and vitamins and very good for your health. You will get nowhere if you dont change your eating habits and if you dont enjoy your physical activities.☆ ☆ QUEBEC CREW ☆ ☆
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02-15-2012, 06:34 PM #3
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02-15-2012, 06:40 PM #4
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Buddy, you're 18. Try not to be too hard on yourself. I'm sure others are probably hard enough on you...
This is a tough time in your life, so you've really got to try to remain possitive about yourself. I know quite a few people who really blossomed after highschool. So, don't assume that how you look now will be how it'll be forever. A lot of people put on weight after highschool. Some, lose it.
I'd say to go ahead and continue going to your gym 3 days a week. Seems like you like doing so, and it fits your schedule.
In addition to doing so, go ahead and try that Insanity on another 3 days a week. Some extra cardio is never a bad thing.
Make sure to take at least 1 day off a week. Because you're only lifting 3 days a week, some would say that you're actually taking 4 days off a week, since you're not lifting weights. However, it's always a good thing to have a full day off during the week so your body can heal up (be it cardio or weights and cardio).
So try this:
-Weights and cardio 3 x a week
-Insanity 3 x a week
-1 day a week Rest
Give it a try and see how your body is feeling after the first 2 weeks. Report back?★I SUPPORT THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE U.S. MILITARY★
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02-15-2012, 06:57 PM #5
Insanity with out diet and without weightlifting in a year will probably leave you in better shape, but not much thinner.
Insanity plus smart diet (read the nutrition section stickies) and you will work down to skinny-fat over time.
Insanity plus smart diet plus weight lifting and you will look like you wish you looked after a period of time.
Insanity is nothing special, just cardio. Diet is where you will lose the weight, the gym is where you will then build the muscles, so you don't look stupid when you lose the weight.
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02-15-2012, 07:49 PM #6
I think insanity is great in that its structured cardio. It tells you what to do and how long to do it. Great way I think to get started as your will get bored quick running on the treadmill. I also believe its more effective. Put effort into it, eat at a deficit like the others have said and there is no reason why you wont loose weight.
If you lack motivation, do insanity with a friend, thats what I did when I tried asylum. I HATE cardio, but doing it with a friend gave me someone to compete against driving me to work harder.
Just something to think about.
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02-15-2012, 08:01 PM #7
Thanks for the replies! I didn't expect that diet would be a very large factor as well. I don't eat terribly to be honest, but my diet could use some work.
I will try and start Insanity again (although I will probably do it when the parents are out, it makes me feel like an ass doing it in front of them) and report back. Last time I was in a lot of pain, so hopefully I will stick to it if possible.
Is it normal to not be able to follow the instructor 100% during the first few days (or even weeks)? I got so tired even doing the 30 second exercises for 15 seconds, and taking a longer break.
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02-15-2012, 08:16 PM #8No brain, no gain.
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02-15-2012, 08:19 PM #9
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02-15-2012, 08:25 PM #10
Absolutely. Without question, this is normal. I was a soccer player in high school and have lifted consistently since, along with including conditioning/cardio every week, and when I did a couple days of insanity over the summer out of curiosity, it was miserable. Don't expect to be able to do what they do in the video.
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02-15-2012, 08:26 PM #11
Its totally fine! Im pretty skinny as it is and Ive been lifting for a few years so I already have muscle just not alot of endurance. I did insanity with my friend and it kicked my ass. It was humbling. I thought I would do well but it was hard. I sometimes would still be taking a break after one exericise and half way into another because I was totally out of breath.
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02-15-2012, 08:28 PM #12
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02-15-2012, 09:08 PM #13
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02-15-2012, 09:47 PM #14
Takes time but can be done
Hey man 18 as well, one year ago this month I weighed 255 and knew i needed to lose weight. I dropped down to 182 lbs by the end of August. This is how it can be done:
From February-June my diet consisted of eggs, skinless boneless white chicken, and salads for the most part. I was always eating fruit as snacks throughout the day. I was going to the gym for nearly two hours a day I did some lifting but not too much and spending nearly an hour on the treadmill. I would go on and off from a speed of 6.5-7 for around 6 minutes and a walking pace of 4.0 for two minutes on and off. When I first started doing this I started at around a half hour and worked up to an hour.
As for insanity( I recently started and am on my first week now) I highly reccomend doing it. All you need is 45 minutes and some space to do it. This program works me harder then football practice in high school. You clearly won't be able to keep up with Shaun T and the crew but that's alright you just need to work your way up to it. Just keep pushing as you do it never give up entirely on it.
In conclusion, hit the gym when you can and focus primarily on the bike, treadmill, and eliptical to lose weight and try to incorporate lifting to lose and tighten up fat you may have. I highly reccomend doing Insanity I believe it's your best bet.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: DIET! DIET! DIET! Maximum fat/ weight loss won't be achieved unless you diet. Dieting is much more important than working out. Working out is a huge compliment to the diet. Drink a ton of water like 5-10 bottles a day ( that's what I did and currently do) and try to start drinking green tea I recently started due to having heard about its promotion of fat loss.
P.S if you are in high school and worried about homework consuming too much time it really isn't all that bad and college is 10x worse unless you are in all AP courses. Set a goal to lose this weight by college that's kind of what I did just so you won't worry about it when you go to college
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02-15-2012, 10:00 PM #15
As has already been said, the diet is the deciding factor in weight management. You can use weight training, cardio and other things to aid in burning calories, but if won't matter if you don't discipline yourself. Let's say you need 3,000 kcal/day to maintain your weight. You do your activities and burn 1,000 kcal a day off of them. However, then you go and eat 4,000 kcal each day. So now you're back to your 3,000 calorie diet. See?
Also, don't go completely off of the guy who posted right below you. There are a couple things I want to nitpick about what he said. He is correct, but also a little vague. You don't have to eat less FOOD necessarily (as in how many pounds/weight/mass of food you consume), you need to eat less CALORIES. 50 apples and 5 cheeseburgers may equal the same amount of calories, but it certainly isn't the same amount of food.
Last, you shouldn't go off of generalized calorie deficit amounts. Don't just decrease your calorie intake by say 500 calories a day. Use a percentage of your body weight. If one man eats 1,500 kcal a day and you eat 4,000 calories a day, telling both to decrease that intake by 500 calories is not wise. 500 calories is 12.5% of 4,000 calories, while 500 calories is 33% of 1,500 calories. Going off of set amounts is asking for the risk of eating either too many or too few calories.
Instead, use a percentage of your weight. A general guideline is decreasing your calorie intake by 10-20%, however it seems that a lot of people have the most success with slow weight loss programs. It's your choice and maybe you can experiment to find your happy median.
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02-15-2012, 10:17 PM #16
So that makes you what, ~215lbs?
Our bodies can get accustomed to walking pretty easily. What you're doing is great but what's great about walking is it can condition us to attempt more intense activities.
If you can walk for an hour constantly, you can probably do something more intense for shorter periods. Not saying to remove the walking, rather replace some of it with some more intense things. For example instead of 60 minutes of walking, you could do 4 minutes walking 1 minute trotting off and on. This would amount to 12 minutes of trotting and 48 minutes of walking at the end of your hour.
Ideally though, you could do more of the intense stuff at the start of your lunch period. It shouldn't take an entire hour to eat a sandwich so you should be able to put in the sandwich after doing some exercise while you eat. The body will be able to make better use of the sandwich after some exercise too.
If you go running in the neighbourhood, see if there's any softer terrain than concrete. You're not incredibly heavy but impact can suck if joints aren't used to it.
It's hard to imagine you get much done in 15 minutes of weightlifting. Since you already do a lot of walking I'm not sure using the treadmill is that great an investment of resources at the gym. Nor the elliptical, if you enjoy it that's cool but I find it's hard to get intensity on that hing. The elliptical is great when people are doing long-term low intensity stuff for pure calories but not ideal for power or muscle.
Insanity is a neat collection of aerobics exercises, and like P90X they also add in some strength-ish calisthenics and weightlifting I think, so that's neat, but you're blessed to have a gym so take advantage of the numerical feedback you can get from gyms. The numbers on weights (plates, DBs) and machines allow you to keep a notebook of progress and step towards goals. This isn't something that is easy with stuff like walking or exercise vids.
If Insanity moves cause knee pain, they may not be ideal at the moment. Make sure you're not doing an advanced workout, there may be a beginner's version which could be easier on you.
Doing things to strengthen the legs (squats, leg presses, etc) could help bring them to the level where they could handle the ballistic movements that some programs like Insanity involve.
A combination of things could work, but if you have a gym membership, make full use of it while you do. What type of movements are you doing in the gym? What kind of set/rep schemes, weight and all that? That's the stuff the Exercise section population is interested in.
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