JohnH":1fmft4bi said:
Neil":1fmft4bi said:
There's some guides and / or websites that give approximations for various forms of exercise. Clearly they are very much approximations, but give you a trend on the demands of various kinds of exercise.
Cheers Neil, that's really all I wanted when I started the thread.
I joined a gym last year, but left after a few months -- it really wasn't my cup of tea. I'm much happier when I'm out on the bike or even just going for an hour's walk, but it would be nice to know how effective those activities are when trying to lose some weight.
Well there's two significant things, there:-
1. You've found out what sort of exercise you enjoy and can sustain - that's not an insignificant thing, because being healthy and fit is ideally a lifestyle thing, as opposed to a temporary target - so take a big positive from that.
2. As to how effective, well I'd say that mountain biking can be pretty strenous, and even if a walking for an hour isn't, particularly, if it's something you'll maintain, then it's not that important if a half hour in a spinning class would burn more calories, or not - because if it's something that's torture (even as fitness improves) you'll be unlikely to keep it up. I guess what I'm getting to, is that it doesn't really matter if there's more productive exercise from a calorie burn perspective. You're doing some exercise, so deficit won't purely be from calorie reduction alone (and studies show that calorie reduction
alone, tends not to be as successful in the long run.
Ultimately, where weight loss is concerned, I'd say to be more concerned with long-term sustainability than short-term highs. So if you're making the progress you want with the scales, then something is going right - especially if you feel it's something you can sustain. If progress isn't as good, then make baby steps in either small reductions in calories, or small increases in activity.
If body recomposition is more a goal than purely weight loss as a statistic, then consider the comments I made previously about best approaches to retaining LBM / muscle when losing weight.