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I am 128 Kgs.

I have been escaping most physical problems but recently 2 things caught my attention:

  1. Pain in knees when subjected to prolonged cold weather/sitting in a position for too long. I am scared to death about this.

  2. A lot of my clothes don't fit me. I hate having to kill my dressing sense, just to find a pair of clothes that fit.

Please suggest some exercises that can help me lose weight/fat. I know about cardio and lifting etc. I want to know that I am doing enough to lose weight.

This question may be too generic for you all but I have been listening to a hundred opinions. I have begun doing weights lately, but they don't seem enough to me and cardio is kind of boring, except when it's done for warm up.

Limitations:

I eat out. Don't know how to cook much. I am a vegetarian. I also don't want a keto diet, it drove me crazy and I couldn't concentrate on anything else.

One more thing: I am Indian, so a lot of stuff which I find if blogs isn't available.

Limited money, so can't afford costly programs.

Strengths: Although hard to believe, I have stamina, strength and can work hard. Willing to workout for about 1.5 hrs per day.

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    Don't worry about exercise to lose weight. Just eat less and you will lose weight. Count how many calories you consume and weigh yourself. Use these numbers or some online calculators to work out your TDEE (calories you burn in a day) and then eat (~300) less calories than that.
    – Aequitas
    Apr 25, 2016 at 22:34
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    Exercise is important to your goals, but you can't out exercise over eating. Although your weight is less than in this question there are some good answers with info that you may find helpful: fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/6370/… ( Apr 26, 2016 at 5:56
  • On a side comment, learn how to cook. Not only is it rewarding but cheaper and healthier. Not everyone can cook like a 5* chef, but everyone CAN cook.
    – John
    Apr 26, 2016 at 12:09
  • If you have limited money, stop eating out. Eating vegetarian is good, this will help you lose weight in the long run. Just try to limit caloric intake, and walk in the morning, before your normal day starts, preferably on an empty stomach.
    – MJB
    May 3, 2016 at 12:51

3 Answers 3

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As mentioned in yisrael's answer and Aequitas' comment, you're gonna need to track your calorie intake. Combining a caloric deficit by diet with exercise is going to be a lot easier than just doing one. Without exercise you may find that eating little enough for the deficit can leave you too hungry or make it hard to resist sneaking in some extra food, while exercise alone would require tremendous efforts daily, which you may have the willpower and stamina for, but your body might not agree.

As you said, cardio is boring for you. It sort of depends on the cardio, though. I get bored spending too much time on an exercise bike or elliptical trainer, and jogging is a hassle and hard on my knees. But I like to swim. Excellent cardio.

In your title you ask for interesting exercises. I do have one suggestion you may want to try.

DDR

That's right, a video game. It's called Dance Dance Revolution or DDR for short. The game consist of stepping on arrows in four directions according to instructions on the screen, on the rhythm of music. There's various difficulties, ranging from extremely easy to outrageously hard. Once you get past the absolute beginner stage, which happens quite fast with some practice and tips, the more energetic songs are gonna leave you sweating. It is my favourite form of cardio and I tend to push my heart rate and total calories burned in one session higher than through jogging or even swimming.

Fortunately you don't have to find an arcade where they have a machine. There's dance pads available for home use. A powered USB hub is often recommended because they tend to draw a lot of power. There's flat, sheet-like pads that I don't recommend, pads with foam in them that can be very decent, and more expensive high-end stuff that'll last ages. I've got a bunch of the foam-filled ones that have been on duty for some years and still work fine. I put heavy books around them to keep them from sliding around. For playing on your computer, there's a program called StepMania which is free and open-source, and you can find an almost inexhaustible supply of songs to play around the web.

Why do I like DDR so much as cardio? First of all, it's intense, but not non-stop. You play a song, typically around 2 minutes in length, then take a breather while you select the next one. You can play it right at home, no need to even get out. You're playing a game, so it's entertainment. You get to know new music. You'll want to constantly improve to make it on songs of a higher level.

There's a warnings too. This tends to be high-impact so don't overdo it, it's heavy on the knees and hips. Some of my problems with these are at least in part to being a bit too eager when I just started playing DDR. With a bit of technique in footing you can minimize this, though.

As far as interesting cardio goes, you can't beat this in my opinion, unless you really get into a sport and want to push yourself technically. But actually, that's what DDR does for me.

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    +1 for DDR, my friend lost 3 stone becoming competition-good at that game.
    – John
    Apr 26, 2016 at 7:13
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In order to lose weight you need to be in a caloric deficit; meaning you expend more energy from the combination of your daily activity plus exercise than you eat.

If you are not tracking both your intake and your output, you will have no way of knowing if you are doing 'enough' to lose weight.

There are many calculators online that can assist you with calculating your daily caloric burn, just Google tdee(total daily energy expenditure) calculator.

I don't recommend you attempt to create a caloric deficit through exercise alone, as you will need to do a ton of exercise (which can also have adverse affects on your body) every day.

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I disagree with the Tom Gray's answer. Don't follow the meal plan. Everybody is different, and have different needs. You have to build a meal plan that can help you with your need. This meal plan can be perfect for someone, or (more likely) really inappropriate for someone who have some sportive activity.

Just to add some advice for your problem :

  • Don't starve yourselfs. Eat enough, but good nutriments. If you eat too much or bad aliments, you will take weights. But if you don't eat enough, you will loose some fat only temporally. Once you will eat a little more again, your body will stack more fat, just in case of another starvation. Just by eating proper meal, you can get ride of your problem. Vegetarian or not, you need proteins, so don't forget to add some. (tofu, grains etc...)

  • Be reasonable with your goals. Be motivated like this is a good thing when you want to start something new. But if you want to do 1,5H a day of workout, you can easily loose motivation. It's my case. Every time, I want to do so much. And after 2 weeks, I skipped a day because I don't have motivation this day, said I will do it tomorrow. And 1 month later, I realize I abandoned everything. So, set a reasonable goal, like 30m or 45m, and keep doing it !

If you want some program, you can start to look at Focus T25, P90X3, Insanity or P90X (the BeachBody products). Work for people so far, if this kind of think can interest you.

Good luck !

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  • Its clear Tom Grey is spamming an answer to plug his site. Provided they are eating 3 meals a day and tracking it using a calorie counter their body will not go into starvation response. The recommended workouts clash drastically with your recommendation to "be reasonable" P90X is a big undertaking from anyone.
    – John
    Apr 26, 2016 at 12:07
  • I agree that Insanity can be (really) hard. And some workout can be an hour long, like P90X. But FocusT25 and P90X3 are 30m long, and not so hard, thanks to the alternate move for beginners that is shown. I've tried this 4 programs, and I usually recommend P90X3 and FocusT25 for beginners or non-beginners, depending theirs needs.
    – Guildias
    Apr 26, 2016 at 12:21

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