Best Gym for Fat People?

[Scarlet O'Shea]

Originally Posted by Captain Kremmen

My understanding is that losing weight is 80% diet, and 20% exercise.

It's far easier to consume less calories than it is to burn them through exercise. For example, a can of coke is 140 calories, but an online calculator I just looked at says that at my weight & running pace I'd consume 470 calories doing a 5k run. So if I had a can of coke with lunch every day, I'd have to do two 5k runs a week to balance it out.

Not that I'm trying to discourage you from going to the gym. Getting strong is awesome and feels great. A runner's high feels great, and is totally safe and legal.

The best book I've read on losing weight is called: Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes. Hint, it's because we consume far too much carbs.

It's also my understanding that no one system can be applied to everyone. Yes diet is a big part, but for my metabolism, if I'm not playing sports, working out, etc, it's difficult for me to even maintain on a normal diet.

Honestly, no way in hell I could cut out carbs completely. I'd rather go sweat for a couple hours than be miserable for the rest of the day. But I agree, we do consume entirely too many processed carbohydrates.



Thank you all for the tips and advice, I think I was able to extract some useful bits from the multitude of information.

[Captain Kremmen]

Originally Posted by SpeedRacerXXX

Burning calories is but one advantage of exercise. It increases your metabolism so you burn more calories even when not exercising. You increase muscle mass. You reduce fat. You lower your resting heart rate. I could go on and on. Losing weight by itself does nothing for muscle tone, which is what really makes somewhat look fantastic.

If you want a recommendation for a personal trainer at Anderson Arbor, I would say Jamie, She really puts the client first and set up specific programs for each person.

Everything you say is true sir, I agree.

- It is a good idea to get a few sessions with a personal trainer so you aren't doing anything dangerous in the gym. An appointment with a personal trainer is also useful as something to force you to actually get to the gym.

- It feels good to be strong, and it feels good to have gone to the gym. Working out is good for your health, and will lead to a longer and higher quality life.

But I think that my point about diet being the easiest place to make improvements is still valid.

I know that the reliability of exercise/calorie/fitness calculators that you find on the Internet is suspect, but I just did a quick calculation, and for my age/height/weight/etc, the following three things would have the same calorie benefit...

- Eliminating 1 can of coke per day that I used to drink.
- Running 5k twice a week.
- Increasing my base metabolism rate by adding 15lbs of muscle.

Adding 15lbs of muscle is an AWESOME thing to do, I highly recommend it. In fact I recommend doing all three items on my list. But of the three items, I think that eliminating the soft drinks is by far the easiest thing to do.

Finally, I used to think that weight control was just a simple matter of calories in minus calories out, and fat people just needed to eat less and exercise more. But after reading the "Why We Get Fat" book my opinion changed. Now I believe that the body has a kind of "thermostat" to control your fat accumulation, and you can fight that "thermostat" temporarily by starving yourself, but to control your weight in the long term you need to figure out how to adjust the "thermostat" to where you want it to be. And that is done primarily by what you eat, not how much of it you eat.

[FoulRon]

Just an FYI:
LA Fitness is in the final stages of converting the old Lack's Furniture location on Anderson, just east of Burnet. I'm sure membership deals will be forthcoming.
Of course, you have to avoid going across the street to Shipley's after your workout.

[30seconds]

I just like to eat clen and tren hard.

[cinnamonshark]

EA Sports active for the Wii.