Low Carb - High Fat diet

[MyUserName]

Do the exercise and replace the can of coke with some juice or ice tea would be even easier.

But much less effective. Why fight to get rid of pointless calories in the baguette, cheese, bacon and crisps?

Surely it would be better to replace the junk food with good food and not have all the empty calories to get rid of in the first place?

[Mich the Tester]

But much less effective. Why fight to get rid of pointless calories in the baguette, cheese, bacon and crisps?

Surely it would be better to replace the junk food with good food and not have all the empty calories to get rid of in the first place?

Of course it would, but it ain't what people do.

[MyUserName]

Of course it would, but it ain't what people do.

True but my point was that if they did it would have more of weight loss effect than still stuffing their face with empty crud and starting to do some exercise.

[d000hg]

Actually I think the easiest way is probably to stop worrying about what you eat and exercise more. But that seems to be too difficult for some.

To keep a stable weight you're right, I think. But to lose weight, certainly at any decent rate, you'd need to be doing a hell of a lot of exercise, like 2 hours plus every single day... a calorie deficit of 1000 calories a day might lose you 2lb a week and if we assume that you're fat because you have a calorie surplus to begin with, you need to be doing 1000 calories of exercise a day. I currently aim for an hour on the exercise bike every day at a moderate level and that only gets me 500.

[hyperD]

I cycled 30 miles every day to the clientco and back burning around 1500 cals a day, lost two stone and was as fit as I ever have been. I ate pretty much what I wanted, had a resting heart rate of 48 bps and never had a cold or felt tired.

Since stopping that within a few months I've gained a stone and feel like sh it. And I've only to look at a beer and I gain a pound. Also I noticed I snack more which I never did during the last few years.

The cycling did me wonders - fit, great sense of balance (I can karate kick GF#1's cats with ease), provided great relief and strength to my bad back etc

The problem is, I won't go back to that state by simply cycling at the weekend. It was the 150+ miles a week (excluding weekends and evenings) that did it.

I'm all depressed now. Wish it was summer.

[MyUserName]

I cycled 30 miles every day to the clientco and back burning around 1500 cals a day, lost two stone and was as fit as I ever have been. I ate pretty much what I wanted, had a resting heart rate of 48 bps and never had a cold or felt tired.

Since stopping that within a few months I've gained a stone and feel like sh it. And I've only to look at a beer and I gain a pound. Also I noticed I snack more which I never did during the last few years.

The cycling did me wonders - fit, great sense of balance (I can karate kick GF#1's cats with ease), provided great relief and strength to my bad back etc

The problem is, I won't go back to that state by simply cycling at the weekend. It was the 150+ miles a week (excluding weekends and evenings) that did it.

I'm all depressed now. Wish it was summer.

Try kicking bigger cats?

[Mich the Tester]

To keep a stable weight you're right, I think. But to lose weight, certainly at any decent rate, you'd need to be doing a hell of a lot of exercise, like 2 hours plus every single day... a calorie deficit of 1000 calories a day might lose you 2lb a week and if we assume that you're fat because you have a calorie surplus to begin with, you need to be doing 1000 calories of exercise a day. I currently aim for an hour on the exercise bike every day at a moderate level and that only gets me 500.

You need to mix up harder and easier sessions. Look up tabata intervals and do those a couple of times a week alonside more moderate sessions. The latest ideas are about 'polarised training' where you mix up training easy and long with bloody hard and short, and do very little moderate, and I'm experimenting a bit with that at the moment, preparing for bike races in spring. The idea is you burn more calories during recovery but also don't need the moderate training as the hard stuff improves VO2 max and the easy stuff improves endurance.

First of all I know my lactate boundary (that's the point at which your blood pH drops quicker than you can replenish the oxygen, long thought to be due to lactic acid build up, but actually due to hydrogen ions in the blood, but measuring blood lactate is a nearly perfect indicator of the same. It's worth finding out what yours is. Mine's about 172/173. There are tests for this available on good indoor bikes or bike trainers. Test it and find out. Basically I do four kinds of training in a fairly similar pattern to what I did as a rugby player, but obviously with different exercises and less of a speed and power emphasis.

Personally I recognise four levels of exertion in my exercise plan, the heart rates will depend on your age, lactate boundary and general level of fitness.

a. Easy; HR below 135, able to have a decent chat with the person next to me while riding. Aiming to burn off some food, support recovery (encourage glycogen storage) and help myself sleep well. About 2 hours or more if the time´s available.
b. Moderate; HR below 160, able to have a chat with breaths in between sentences. Training aerobic endurance and capacity.
c. Hard; HR up to 175, no talking, working hard here, training VO2 max and lactate boundary. About 45 minutes to one hour. Buring probably 1200 or more calories per hour but burning a lot in recovery.
d. Killer; HR up to maximum, out of breath, legs hurting, nausea, dizzy, possibly vomitting, lying on the ground feeling like death for a couple of minutes afterward. Training VO2 max, acid tolerance, anaerobic endurance and the mind over matter thingy. No idea how much this burns and incapable of caring after a session like this.

My general pattern is this;
Each week, 2 * a, 1 *b, 2*c, 5 sessions total, and every three weeks replace 1 c session with 1 d. If I have a couple of weeks holiday, I do a few extra d's plus some extra a's and no b or c, aiming to get a quick boost.
This is all unnecessary for people who just want to stay fit; it's for people who are competitive in their sport and know their bodies can handle having this tulip thrown at them. If you do 2*a and 1*b per week and replace 1 b with 1 c every two to three weeks will make you pretty damned fit.

[Dallas]

I do 2 hours plus a day

its just the 5 meals and constant hunger that kills it

I know a girl, spent a year in preparation for Ironman, and she qualified and went semi-pro and won stuff - she is pretty miserable though.

[Mich the Tester]

I do 2 hours plus a day

its just the 5 meals and constant hunger that kills it

I know a girl, spent a year in preparation for Ironman, and she qualified and went semi-pro and won stuff - she is pretty miserable though.

That's perhaps what's needed for triathlon which is pretty extreme endurance stuff. I'm training for races that last 1 to 1.5 hours.

[MyUserName]

I train for half an hour before I get the kids up for school. Conditioning is done via high intensity intervals. Max Strength and endurance are done too.
I train in my lunchbreak, just skill training - practicing shots and combinations etc.
I train with group on Thursday evenings and on some Sundays afternoons.
I might do the park run with my son on Saturday if I am feeling lively.

Recently at training I was wearing a couple of stone of armour and fought someone 10 years younger and 5 stone lighter than me who was unarmoured until he was too tired to fight anymore. I then fought 2 other unarmoured people in a row until they were too tired to fight anymore before I needed to take my first break.

Through the working day I have nothing but a graze box (and water and coffee). At home my wife home cooks our dinner and I might have a snack afterwards. On weekends I eat what I want.