What are some simple exercises to help with weight loss?

[kaelphick]

What are some simple exercises to help with weight loss that don't take a lot of time to do? I'm a full time student and work so do not have much free time to go to the gym everyday.

[WendyB]

Its more about what you eat than exercise.

How about Leslie Sansone. Look on Youtube a mile only takes 15 minutes

[Dominique]

I agree with @WendyB that it’s primarily about what (and how much you eat), but walking is a simple, yet efficient way of burning extra calories. Yes, it’s more time-consuming than super-intense workouts, and I understand you’re a busy person, but try to reconsider your priorities and the way you allocate your time: instead of watching TV, you could go out for a walk; instead of reading a paper book, you could listen to the audio version of it (while walking). You’ll have a hard time finding an activity that burns more calories in 15 minutes than in 1 hour of walking.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Push ups.  When sitting at the dinner table thinking about getting seconds, push up.

As a student with no time, you can walk briskly to and from classes.

[RedNinja]

CrossFit and Rowing is a lot of "bang for the buck" if buck = time.

Rowing on a concept2 will give you a full body workout with less injuries than running. Very efficient.

CrossFit is a great way to get community, encouragement, endurance and strength in less time than other fitness programs. Google CrossFit and look at the map. There should be a box somewhere around you.

Good Luck!

[Baltoscott]

Yes, food is more important to weight loss than exercise.  And I exercise a lot.  But if you are gaining or have gained weight, there is something wrong with your diet.  A lot of people make dramatic changes that may work at first, but don't really fit their lifestyles.  Try to find one or two bad habits that you can cut down on to start.  Example, if you find you are eating pizza 2-3 time/week, or sugar sweetened coffee drinks every day, cut the practice in half.  It will make a difference!

That said, it is pretty easy to increase your physical activity if you incorporate it throughout your day.  Bike and walk more to places that you drive or ride to now.  Pushups a few times/day will help your upper body strength, and you can do them anywhere.  You can put in a doorframe pull up bar like this one or this one up in a lot of places.  (If you can't do a single pull up, all is not lost, just put a chair under the door and use it so support some of your weight, or get some pull up assist bands.

And don't write off the gym.  Weight lifting is still probably the best way to increase your metabolism by increasing your lean body mass.  It works because you can gradually increase resistance over time as you build muscle.  And muscle burns more calories throughout the day than fat.  Bigger Leaner Stronger, or Thinner Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews are great guides to getting started.  The books are pretty much the same with the pronouns changed throughout.  I like them because they discuss the role of diet in avoiding muscle loss while you try to lose weight and help you figure out how much and what to eat.  He also puts together a 3X/week routine that only requires about an hour in the gym each time.  That is not a huge time investment for your health.

[tractorlegs]

I agree that walking is a great exercise during weight loss - it was my primary workout when I was on my weight loss program. I almost respectively disagree with @Baltoscott, @WendyB, and @Dominique. Although what (and the amount that) we eat is definitely more important than exercise for weight loss, we shouldn't diminish exercise's importance. If we look at exercise as something that "burns calories" then it's definitely not that important - you have to exercise for an hour to burn off an oreo cookie lol! 

However, regular aerobic exercise (like walking) bring about metabolic changes that make weight loss easier and increase your chances of keeping the weight off once goal weight is met. Specifically, regular aerobic exercise builds your supply of mitochondria in your muscles. Mitochondria converts sugar and fat in the bloodstream into ATP, the fuel that powers muscles. The cool thing is that mitochondria continues converting fat and sugar to ATP even when the body is at rest, which means exercise makes your body burn more calories when you're playing Candy Crush. 

The effects of exercise in creating mitochondria is discussed thoroughly by Covert Bailey in his book (from years ago) "Fit or Fat", a monster bestseller. Additionally, Dr. Len Kravitz at the University of New Mexico has some very interesting studies and articles discussing exercise and its tie to mitochondria and associated weight loss. Here's a link to his UNM website. Dr. Kravitz is not alone; there's a lot of consensus on this in the scientific community.

Again, I definitely agree that diet plays a greater role than exercise in weight loss, however it's easy sometimes to overlook exercise's role. [inserts smiley face]

[Baltoscott]

Good post @tractorlegs.  Other than your statement that we disagree I can't find much to disagree with in what you've said.  I am a big fan of Covert Bailey's books, but even his 'new' fat to fit book is pretty old (but a great read none the less). Is he still around?

[Daves_Not_Here]

Agreeing with all here.  There is another element of exercise that assists with weight loss -- its affect on mood.  School, with its deadlines and rigor, can be stressful.  Students can get into a vicious cycle where stress leads to procrastination, lack of sleep, poor eating, and more stress.  

Stress leads to stress hormones, such as <insert name of stress hormone here>  and <insert name of whatever the hormone is that increases hunger> which increases hunger and leads to overeating and weight gain.

Light cardio exercise, even 20 or 30 minutes, can help break the cycle.  Sometimes, if I have a large pile of crap that I have to do, I'll take a 20 minute walk or ride to think and plan it out.  When I get back, I find my mind is clearer and my attitude towards said pile has improved.

For me, only cardio improves my mood.  Lifting weights at the gym has the opposite affect, probably due to the weight of the weights and the location of the activity being at a gym.

[Baltoscott]

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@Daves_Not_Here wrote:
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Light cardio exercise, even 20 or 30 minutes, can help break the cycle.  Sometimes, if I have a large pile of crap that I have to do, I'll take a 20 minute walk or ride to think and plan it out.  When I get back, I find my mind is clearer and my attitude towards said pile has improved.

For me, only cardio improves my mood.  Lifting weights at the gym has the opposite affect, probably due to the weight of the weights and the location of the activity being at a gym.

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Also mostly agreeing, but I wonder if maybe it is being outside and moving through the world that improves your mood, as opposed to the cardio per se?  One of the big pluses of bike commuting is that it automatically puts exercise into my day without making "exercise" some sort of special event that I have to do.  It also puts me in the neighborhood at a speed that I can appreciate what is around me.

I do some exercise because I think it is important for my physical development (weights 3X/week) and (or social development) water aerobics 1x/week with my wife (so we can to some stuff together), but most of my exercise comes from biking or walking to places I need to go.  No question in my mind that bike commuting is better for my mental health than car commuting.  And since it is built into my day, it doesn't require any special trip to the gym to use their fancy cardio equipment.

[kaelphick]

OP here, I decided to start losing weight at the start of this year, I joined weight watchers and just by changing my diet I lost 17kg, I wasn't doing any exercises at all. 2 months ago I decided to start going to the gym to help lose even more, what I've found is that since starting to exercise I've actually been putting the weight back on even though I haven't changed my eating habits all that much. I'm actually starting to wonder if I'm exercising wrong?

[tractorlegs]

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@Baltoscott wrote:

Good post @tractorlegs.  Other than your statement that we disagree I can't find much to disagree with in what you've said.  I am a big fan of Covert Bailey's books, but even his 'new' fat to fit book is pretty old (but a great read none the less). Is he still around?

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@Baltoscott - Covert Bailey basically has disappeared. He's still alive, but he is nowhere on Social Media, does not do speaking engagements, writes no articles or books, and -- last time I checked -- the Wikipedia article on him (link here) is just a two paragraph stub. For some time, there was no article on him at Wikipedia at all. I still read through Fit or Fat from time to time.

[tractorlegs]

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@kaelphick wrote:

OP here, I decided to start losing weight at the start of this year, I joined weight watchers and just by changing my diet I lost 17kg, I wasn't doing any exercises at all. 2 months ago I decided to start going to the gym to help lose even more, what I've found is that since starting to exercise I've actually been putting the weight back on even though I haven't changed my eating habits all that much. I'm actually starting to wonder if I'm exercising wrong?

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There's some disagreement, but I believe (and my experience is) that when we start exercising, we stall weight loss temporarily because of the increase in muscle mass. So you're still getting thinner and healthier - but your muscles increasing in size will actually add weight. But, again, it's temporary so no worries!

[Dominique]

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@tractorlegs wrote:

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There's some disagreement, but I believe (and my experience is) that when we start exercising, we stall weight loss temporarily because of the increase in muscle mass. So you're still getting thinner and healthier - but your muscles increasing in size will actually add weight. But, again, it's temporary so no worries!

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Sorry if I’m the one raining on the party, but there’s absolutely no way anyone (especially a female) could possibly gain 17 kg of muscle or more in a few months so that this would offset the fat loss. The OP can probably verify this by looking at how her clothes fit.

It has to be diet-related: even if she said her eating habits haven’t changed, she must have started to eat more food that what she expends (despite the added expenditure caused by the exercising). Exercising can make you more hungry, and give you the feeling you are "allowed" to eat more as a reward for exercising. However, whether or not you exercise, the laws of thermodynamics still apply: you must be in a caloric deficit in order to lose weight.

As to whether she’s exercising "wrong": difficult to say without knowing what the exercising is. Any exercise (as long as it’s performed safely) is certainly better than no exercise. There are lots of ways to exercise, each with their own merits and benefits. Like with eating, you should reach a good balance, for instance between cardio and strength training.

[Dominique]

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@kaelphick wrote:

OP here, I decided to start losing weight at the start of this year, I joined weight watchers and just by changing my diet I lost 17kg, I wasn't doing any exercises at all. 2 months ago I decided to start going to the gym to help lose even more, what I've found is that since starting to exercise I've actually been putting the weight back on even though I haven't changed my eating habits all that much. I'm actually starting to wonder if I'm exercising wrong?

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@kaelphick: my understanding is Weight Watchers works with a system of points that causes you to favour food items that provide lower calories / higher volume (= more satiating), rather than calorie-dense foods (= most junk food), resulting in the caloric deficit needed for weight loss. Since it appears this mostly qualititative approach no longer works for you, maybe you should switch to a more quantitative one, namely counting calories, via logging your intake with Fitbit, MyFitnessPal or similar? Even if you only do it for a limited period of time, this can be eye-opening. Too often we think eating well, or "clean" should automatically cause the weight to drop, but we fail to realize how many calories we’re still actually eating.

I hope you don’t see a direct causal link between your exercising and your regaining lost weight. Exercising is definitely good for you (health, fitness, well-being). It can promote weight loss (by burning extra calories and allowing you to eat more food than you otherwise would have to), but only if you make sure you’re in a caloric deficit. Hence my suggestion.

Did you get your Fitbit at the same time you started exercising? If you already had it before, have you noticed changes in your average energy expenditure (total calories burned)? Your Fitbit can be a great tool to provide you with the amount of food you can eat each day for your goal (whether it’s to maintain, lose or gain weight). It may over- or underestimate your expenditure (in most cases, it tends to overestimate), but it should do so in a consistent way, so after a while, you should have a relatively good idea of what your actual expenditure is.