The Biggest LOOSER -- running weight loss thread

I look at quarter inches because I'm at the point now where that is the only way to measure progress. I'm down to those last 5-10 pounds.

From busting my ass.

Not from walking to get the newspaper.

 

Come on, Dick, a quarter inch or a pound on the scale is a gas bubble and a handful of blueberries before you hit the men's room with the morning paper.

If you're doing weights on a regular basis, you're going to add inches, and probably some solid muscle weight. The scale is irrelevant if your body is getting where you want it to be.

 

I don't think weights would add inches around your waist, though. That's what I'm talking about.

But you're absolutely right about the minor variations from day to day. I wish I could stop checking so much. I have this irrational fear that if I stay away from the scale for a day, then I'm going to blow up like Violet in Willy Wonka.

I think you and Ragu have decent points about the merits of walking for beginners or the obese.

But I think, at some point, you have to put in the effort if you want more results.

 

Dick, if you recognize the points made about walking, it might be a good idea to show that better than saying crass things like you've lost weight by "busting my ass. Not from walking to get a newspaper."

That's great for you, but not everyone is where you are. There is plenty of context to go around. How long since someone has worked out? How old is the person? How overweight? To demean their efforts because you've now busted your ass to the point where you're fretting over quarter-inches is great for you, but, I would think, goes against the point of this thread.

I know people who would be thrilled just to start walking because, as 21 said, it's a start. (By the way, 21, I agree it's not right to call someone out for being too "skinny" though I have to disagree that it wouldn't happen to folks who are overweight. You'd be amazed at how rude folks can be when you've put on a few pounds.) And for them, simply walking would be putting in an effort. A tremendous effort.

Congrats on your progress, but be careful not to trivialize the effort of other folks just because it may not match up physically with your own.

 

I now regularly ride 60 to 100 kms. Two years ago my fitness commitment was to walk to the streetcar stop instead of taking the bus and transferring. This was a distance of slightly less than 1/2 km and it WAS a commitment for me to do it.

Think of walking as a gateway fitness drug.

 

This is fair.

I guess I just get irritated by people who are only 20-30 pounds overweight, and think they are going to walk their way to fitness.

I think there is a difference between starting out at a level you can handle, and walking because you're afraid to feel a little pain and discomfort.

 

A gateway fitness drug, that's awesome. 8)

 

Fair enough.

 

Methinks you need to not get irritated so easily.

Starting an exercise regimen with walking (or continuing only with walking, for that matter) is about doing whatever you can do, and about whatever is workable and livable for you.

The idea of "taking it easy" on the exercise is more about a long-range viewpoint -- what is an activity, and a level of activity, that you can live with, and that you will do, and continue to do, long-term, and preferably, for the rest of your life.

The concept is not to be taking the easy way out, it is to make a true lifestyle change, a commitment, that you can and will keep.

An exercise regimen like the one on, say, "The Biggest Loser," of which I am a big fan, by the way, is not realistic and will NOT be maintained long-term.

Even a more conservative routine -- probably something like yours -- is unlikely, or at least, a lot less likely, to be maintained once all these numbers, measurements, goals and objectives that you post about have been met.

What happens once you've lost those last five or 10 pounds? What happens once you no longer have quarter-inches to rejoice over?...Because that point WILL come.

Healthy maintenance, not weight loss, is the real litmus test of somebody's commitment, motivation and long-term lifestyle.

 

I'll be fine. Trust me. I'm in it for good. There's always a new goal to go after. It doesn't have to be weight loss.

Personally, I couldn't "maintain" the walking-for-fitness lifestyle. I'd be more apt to drop out of that than I would going hard. Because I'd get bored. It's not challenging enough. I'm not exactly an adrenaline junkie, because I don't sky dive or do anything silly like that, but I am a challenge junkie. And walking just isn't challenge enough for me that I would stick with it.

You raise a good point, though. I probably need to start concentrating on performance as my tangible indicators - things like how fast my miles are or how much I'm lifting or how my nutrition is, rather than body measurements. Because those changes are going to slow to a crawl. In fact, they already have.