me_irl

Yup, that's the problem. If you run 5 miles you burn about 500 calories. Hardly enough to make up for even the fries in the meal. A lot of people overestimate calories burnt and underestimate calories consumed.

A bit of exercise every day is good for your heart, lungs, circulatory system etc. but it won't make up to overcome an otherwise sedentary lifestyle if you don't change your diet.

Nah the key is to get rid of insanely calorie dense ultra processed garbage that digests in minutes and makes you feel like shit. Roast chicken breast with tons of herbs and it's delicious - you can quite literally eat as much of that as you can physically handle and you wont gain weight. Plenty of ways to cook veggies that make them delicious. Fruits arent that many cals and fill you up. Unsweetened yogurt is the same cals per protein as protein powder. Dont eat cereal or half the packaged garbage in the grocery store. Just eat real food and it's a million times easier to lose weight.

Kilos in the kitchen,

Grams in the gym.

People should stop seeing food intake as transactional (ie, I'm doing extra cardio so I can eat a muffin later) and just focus on maintaining a calorie deficit.

Ah, good. Yes. I haven't been completely ignoring my weight loss goals and just managing to not get any fatter over the last several months.. I've been using SCIENCE. BITCHES. 😤🧪✨

No shit. That's not some great revelation and I'm kinda tired of seeing it posted as if it is.

You don't burn a great deal more calories exercising than you do just sitting on the couch. Your body is very good at conserving energy. Not to say exercise isn't beneficial, it is, it's just not a great weight loss tool. Not at last as good as common wisdom might suggest.

The caveman in your skull is also very persuasive, and wants you to eat far more than you need, because it thinks you might not be able to find food again for a while. The caveman really likes carbs, and foods high in sugar and fat, and will ask for more the second you have any.

Ignoring the caveman is hard, harder for some than others. It's also taxing and after a while the caveman will wear you down.

Effective weight loss isn't just about putting less food on your plate. Fucking anybody can do that and it's exceedingly obvious to those trying that that's what they need to do.

Losing weight is about beating back the caveman in your skull, convincing him that he's had enough, and feeding him in a way that also nourishes the body you both live in.

There's a reason most people fail, and fail repeatedly to lose weight. It's as simple as eating less but it turns out, eating less for people who eat a lot isn't actually that simple. There are psychological and physiological drivers causing them to keep going back for more, to lie to themselves about how they're doing, and to ignore the obvious cues that something isn't working.

Except that the human body is way more complicated than that. Whenever you try to increase calories out by exercise, your body just finds somewhere else it can economize, because it wants to operate on a fixed budget. This can include pulling calories from your immune system, or making you subconsciously move less throughout the day, or even sleep more. You can only overcome this for a limited time. Kurzgesagt has a good video on this phenomenon. What you actually want to do is reduce calorie intake.

Exercise is good for lots of reasons, but it isn't a good way of losing weight long term.

... Do you want to be slapped with a belt? We can certainly accommodate that request

When I get out of shape it takes a good 2-4 weeks of consistent exercise for things to transition from feeling like premature death to actually feeling good. If you’ve never made it to the feeling good part, I would imagine it’s rather challenging to motivate yourself through the “feels like premature death” phase.

Muscle soreness mostly goes away after a while when doing strength exercise. I kind of miss it, to be honest - it's a clear signal that you've accomplished something.

As for running, it is indeed quite hard on everything. I generally prefer biking, which I find a lot more fun and less straining on the body.

Ever tried cycling? It's relatively easy on the knees and you can vary intensity and duration to your liking.

Yeah I hate almost any and all forms of exercise. I picked up running back in March because people say exercise improves your mental health.

No it fucking doesn't. I'm still doing it every few days and it does not at all improve my mental health. Also running fucking sucks. People who enjoy it are psychopaths.

Figured I'd keep at it for now though. I don't run super far or fast. I run a bit over 3 miles every few days. It still sucks every time.

Simple, because you never do it. All forms of cardio are unpleasant when you are completely out of shape. It gets better rather quickly if you keep at it and once you have some endurance it is actually fun.