Please advise me on reducing my overweight, I am quite depressed and lost

Question

I am quite depressed with my overweight and lost confidence in myself. At times I feel I want to die. Can't wear what I like and wish to.

Please help me with my weight loss journey that I have started by walking daily for 2–3 kms. I am at 82 kgs with the height of 5.6, age 30 years, single lady, never married. I want to be at 69–70kgs for my height.

Lifestyle: very hectic with workload from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Also, I am bit confused as to which one is more effective, workouts at gym (treadmill, elliptical...) or running outside in open grounds. I haven't started running yet, though.

Do also help me with the exercises that I can bank on to reduce weight more effectively.

I sincerely request people to provide their valuable advice for achieving a good healthy body.

Answer 1

I am in the same situation. I have put up almost 30kgs. But there is nothing to be disheartened, I feel.

From last few months, I am on right exercise track and I am sharing with you, what helped me change that.

• Understand where you are. Do some math about your weight and set goals. Determining a target for weight loss And most importantly forget those goals. yes, I mean it !

• Create a schedule. Stick to it. This is really more important than having goals. Yes, this is going to help you in long run.

• Change your identity ( here there is a book ( free ) which talks about transforming habits by james clear http://jamesclear.com/ ). this will help you understand yourself and what needs to be changed.

• Loosing weight is slow process. the first thing is, starting to feel healthy and positive. As you follow your "schedule" things will start changing.

• Celebrate the small wins !! Use tools - like apps, pedometer etc to measure your wins. Think in terms of "percentages" instead of win or loss. Its good to say, "I am able to follow my schedule 40% of times a week and need improve" than" "I failed to follow my schedule".

• About kind of exercises - I do those which I enjoy the most and are easy to start with - walking, jogging, running. The only thing I would say, for initial few months volume of the exercise is important than type. What I mean is , e.g. walking - I make sure I walk "more" miles than what i used to last week. http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburnedwalking.htm

  • Enjoy the journey! You have to befriend your body and it always support you !!!

HTH

Answer 2

It's very possible for you to drop the ~12 kg's that you need to in order to reach your ideal weight. However, fat loss is best and most effectively accomplished when an increase in exercise is combined with a decrease in calories. While you exercise once or maybe twice a day, you will be eating more often, so it's important to be conscious of what you are eating. Since there isn't any info about what you eat, I'll leave the diet part alone for now, and address your other questions.

The exercise and calorie burn you get from running outside is the same as running inside the gym on a treadmill. However, because most cardio machines keep track of calories burned, it could make the case that it would be a more efficient way of losing the amount of calories you need to in order to reach your goal weight. So unless you have a way of counting calories burned while out on a run, the gym machines would make it easier to know when you've reached a goal amount of total calories burned for that session. Not sure how many calories is enough to lose for one session? Lets go over an example to give you an idea of what you do could do to try and accomplish your weight loss goal.

There are around 7,500 calories in one kilogram, and to get to your goal weight you want to lose 12 kilograms. If through exercise and diet, you can eliminate 200 - 500 calories a day, it will take in between 1 - 1.5 months to burn 2 kilograms. If you can maintain that calorie burn for 6 - 9 months, you will reach your goal in under a year which is awesome!

As for exercises to help you lose weight, the exercises that work the most body parts will burn the most calories. If you have access to a gym, lifting weights would certainly aid helping you lose weight, but if your not into weights, there are lots of body weight exercises you can do to keep yourself in shape and looking good. Examples include: mountain climbers, push ups, burpees, planks, lunges, leg raises, and tons more you can check out here:

http://greatist.com/fitness/50-bodyweight-exercises-you-can-do-anywhere

While you exercise, you want to keep your heart rate elevated to maximize calorie burn, so aim for at least 15 repetitions each time you complete an exercise. To take it to another level, create whats called a giant set, and complete several exercises back to back to back. Walking is a good way to lose fat, but its not a very intense exercise, so the calorie loss won't be as big, as when you are completing other, more exhausting exercises.

Fat loss can be a very rewarding goal to fulfill, and you'll get as much out of it, as you put into it. However, it's not exactly an easy goal to fulfill, so if it takes a while before you find a routine that works for you and your hectic life, don't stress, just know that with hard work and dedication, you can look anyway you want to look.

Answer 3

I can only report my personal experience, and I have never felt that I had a 'weight problem' although reducing my body fat percentage in order to look leaner would always be welcome.

You asked:

Also, Iam bit confused as in which one is more effective, the workouts at gym (treadmill,elliptical...) or the running outside in open grounds.Though, I haven't started running yet.

I have found that the reported pace on a treadmill for the level of effort I put in is greater than that I'd find outside (this seems to contradict Anabolic Animal's answer, which I don't really understand). There are some advantages to treadmills:

• You're protected from the weather, mud, dogs, cars, uneven ground, leering teenagers and other unpleasant hazards you might find outdoors
• You get a precise and immediate read-out of your performance (at least from the high-tech commercial gym machines I've used)
• You can tailor the pace and incline you run at precisely, or use a program that will give you a variety. Personally I find that steep inclines make you feel it in the ankles; which is a good enough reason to use them for training purposes. I've never used decline on a treadmill, but I expect some people do, to simulate conditions that will be found outside
• You can watch TV while you run, if the machine has one. Many I've seen do.

Conversely, there are some differences to outdoor running which I see as disadvantages:

• Outdoors you have ventilation and air movement which help keep you cool and evaporate sweat. Being sweaty is uncomfortable and even with air conditioning in a gym, I find the still air makes me overheat
• Running on a real surface feels different to a treadmill because ALL of your forward motion requires pushing off against the ground. A treadmill belt moves by itself, so the technique of running on one is somewhat different and to me feels like it takes less effort. A slightly uneven surface makes most of the muscles used in running work harder, particularly the ankles. Strong ankle muscles make sprains less likely.
• It costs nothing. Using a treadmill in a gym usually requires that you pay to be a member.

Starting running is hard work, especially if you're unfit to start with. Many people starting out can't sustain a running pace for more than a few minutes without a break. This is normal and if you feel like this, an interval approach (such as repetition of 1 minute running, one minute walking) can help. In my experience and that of others I know of, you will improve rapidly if you train regularly (at least twice a week).

I have very little knowledge specifically of weight loss, but Eric Gunnerson's point seems quite valid: expending enough calories to lose weight with plain cardio is quite difficult for a beginner because the level of effort and the amount of time required feels like hard work. I have personally found that doing a little work with weights every day has made me permanently hungry - which I take to mean that I'm in calorie deficit, and I have lost weight (only a little) even while my diet has worsened. The distinction is that resistance exercises (like weightlifting) continue to consume extra energy even when you are at rest, in order to repair and strengthen the muscles used. It also doesn't tend to require that 'breathlessness' feeling that cardio tends to, and you're allowed to (and should) rest between exercises.

Answer 4

Here are some personal experience tips that will help you in your journey:

• I can stay motivated 2-3 times more outside than on a treadmill. In other words, a 2 mile outdoor run sounds more "doable" than a 1 mile treadmill run.
• Running on trails or paths with other runners passing by motivates 1.5 - 2 times more than roads with no other foot traffic.
• Running with a group or a friend offers the best outcomes.
• Train for a big race with lots of people. In a big race, there are always tons of people faster and slower than you no matter how fast or slow you are.