Starting a jogging program

[Ando85]

I am about 6 feet tall 235 pounds male. I am way out of shape and would like to change that and lose weight in the process. I also have mild asthma. I know a lot about proper nutrition and simply need to put it into action.

My main problem is lack of exercise. I figure I should start some kind of jogging program. A few times lately I have jogged and pushed myself to the limits. I'd have very unpleasant wheezing attacks afterward. Should I start off with less intense? How should I jog to see improvement but not have horrible wheezing attacks?

 

[Zeppp]

Its not just down to cardio and nutrition, although that's a good start.

Don't push yourself to the limits early on in your planned transformation, you will begin to hate exercise and be less enthusiastic about working out. It's what most people do when they decided to try to loose weight and get fit, they set themselves unrealistic targets and end up quitting. So just a bit of light jogging and walking for now. Also at your weight, its not really good for your joints to be going all out just yet.

Something you may not have considered are weights. Don't worry you wont bulk up, you won't be lifting that much and to that intensity to do that for now.

Now, since weight lifting increase your muscle mass, your body needs more energy to sustain these larger muscles, which means your metabolic rate is increased significantly. The result of this is your body burns way more calories than it is now, whilst your just playing a computer game or sat on your arse watching top gear.

Pick up some dumbells, you can get 20kg cast iron ones for £30 delivered online (I won't go posting links though as I'm new here). Thats all you need for weight training.

I also use a website that has all kinds of work outs and nutrition advice, but does not try to sell you stuff. However, since I'm new here I am hesitant to post links and incur the wrath of the moderators, so just pm me if you want the address.

Good luck with your transformation.

 

[Lilani]

I am about 6 feet tall 235 pounds male. I am way out of shape and would like to change that and lose weight in the process. I also have mild asthma. I know a lot about proper nutrition and simply need to put it into action.

My main problem is lack of exercise. I figure I should start some kind of jogging program. A few times lately I have jogged and pushed myself to the limits. I'd have very unpleasant wheezing attacks afterward. Should I start off with less intense? How should I jog to see improvement but not have horrible wheezing attacks?

I am a female, 5'5" and 200 pounds, and I recently began a jogging regiment as well. Here is how I started and what I do now.

I do my jogging in a local park, which has a looped sidewalk that is .6 miles long. That is my first piece of advice: have some way of knowing how far you are jogging. This way you can have a way to measure your progress and figure out your pace. At first when I started jogging, I would just jog for however long I could, walk for a while, then jog again. I didn't really pay attention to how far I was jogging each time, and nor did I have a steady climb of difficulty (such as starting out with longer jogging runs and working into shorter ones, or vice versa). It was just random. But it didn't really work, because I really had no way of gauging my endurance. The only thing I kept constant was making sure I made it through four laps (2.4 miles).

So after a few weeks, I made things more regular. I chose landmarks along the track (trees, benches and whatnot) and made sure I jogged only those. Then when I became more comfortable with what I was doing, I'd choose the next landmark up. That is my second piece of advice: jog in a place where there are plenty of landmarks to break things up. Those help set up the smaller goals that will keep you going. I also tried to save the final lap for more of a cooldown--those are always very important, and it's a thing to look forward to when things get miserable (which, trust me, they will). During this time, I would choose a landmark and tell myself I would stop there, but if I got there and felt I could go further I would. Keep your goals reasonable, because that makes it all the more satisfying when you suddenly find you can do a lot more than you thought.

And when I was confident enough, I started a session and pushed myself to get through a whole lap without stopping. When I completed the lap I walked for a little bit, and then pushed myself to finish that lap without stopping. Now I always start my jogs with 2 laps straight (1.2 miles), take a little walking break, then jog at least half of the remaining two laps. But slowly I'm stretching the 1.2 miles, going a little further each time according to how comfortable I feel.

So, based on my experience anyway, I recommend figuring out what you can do and slowly pushing yourself further and further. You'll have to go beyond what you think you can and should do to get there, but the results are satisfying. I haven't hit that point where I find jogging to be "fun" yet, though. My brother (who runs marathons) tells me it's fun, but I guess I have yet to feel that "runner's high" they always talk about.

Oh, and a couple more tips: Be sure to keep water with you, don't run too many consecutive days in a row, and be absolutely sure you stretch after you run. Stretching is very important. It's good for your muscles and tendons as they grow, and flexibility has many long-term benefits. Flexibility will be extremely important when you get older, and you'll handle injuries such as breaks, sprains, and torn ligaments better. It may even help you avoid such injuries.

Happy running~ Hope it stops sucking for you soon

 

[Matt_LRR]

Male, 5'9", Starting weight: 218. currently: 195lbs. Goal weight ~165-170.

Have lost 23lbs since May.

Here's what I've been doing:

Food:

I went into this knowing that I LOVE food - and that if I cut out everything I enjoy, I'd never stick to it.

So, here's what I do: I have something frequently, every couple hours, and in small servings - just try to keep the caloric intake steady, small servings of food s obviously better than caloric beverages, but as long as what your drinking has nutritional value (milk, juice, whatever) the calories aren't hollow.

Iced coffee with nonfat milk in the morning, sweetened just enough that it's not bitter.

Scone around 11am.

small garden salad for lunch. no dressing. A tablespoon of shredded cheese for flavour.

some sort of midafternoon thing - in my case, this usually also takes the form of an iced coffee with milk.

Dinner: whatever I want, with one caveat - eat until I'm not hungry anymore - NOT until I'm full.

I supplement this with 1-2L of water a day.

On the weekends I let myself eat whatever (given that I'm not in a position to maintain my workday routine) - but I maintain the "eat til you're not hungy" mantra. Just eating LESS goes a long way towards cutting calorie intake. additionally, I've also cut out most sweets and desserts, except for the very occasional treat.

Exercise

I ride my bike to work every day.

I also joined a running club out of a local running store. (The Running Room, for me, but most specialty running stores have drop-in run clubs and clinics).

I joined along with a fiend who signed up for the half-marathon training clinic, and I acgreed to run the Victoria half-Marathon with her in october. This gave me the motivation to get out running regularly. Guilt is a powerful motivator, so having a running buddy to keep you consistent, and to hold you to your commitment can be a really big help. We only run together once a week, but I know that if I don't get out at least two or three times a week on top of that, I won't be able to keep up on our sunday runs.

As it stands right now, I'm biking regularly, I'm averaging 40+ kms a week running. bear in mind also, that as far as exercise is concerned, you'll derive more benefit from duration than intensity. You're better off to run for two hours at 60% effort than for one hour at 100%.

Gague your ability, set yourself a goal (is there a 5k or 8k fun run coming up in your area? train for that!). Find yourself a friend to keep you on track. Go long and comfortable, and have fun. If you hate every minute of it, you won't succeed.

Also: DON'T weigh yourself often. certainly not more often than once every couple of weeks. your weight will vary by a piound or so from day to day, and seeing yourself get heavier can be a real buzz-kill. however, weight loss between weeks is real weight loss, and as long as you're burning more calories than you're consuming, that number will tick down. Weigh yourself only from time to time, to ensure that you're always seeing progress.

-m

 

[Matt_LRR]

Also: DON'T weigh yourself often. certainly not more often than once every couple of weeks. your weight will vary by a piound or so from day to day, and seeing yourself get heavier can be a real buzz-kill. however, weight loss between weeks is real weight loss, and as long as you're burning more calories than you're consuming, that number will tick down. Weigh yourself only from time to time, to ensure that you're always seeing progress.

-m

I disagree, I weigh myself every day and record the results. It lets me see which foods/meals have the greatest impact on my weight and it is nice to see my weight steadily falling over the days.

whatever works, I guess, as long as you're aware that your weight is variable from day to day and it's only the larger trend that really counts. a 1lb difference from yesterday to today is as much attributable to retained water or dehydration as any "real" weight loss.

Given that at a healthy rate of weight loss you shouldn't really be dropping more than 2 or so pounds a week, and given that the margin of error on any given weigh in is about a pound (+/-) then weighing in once a week is probably a more reliable representation of your actual weight loss than any day-to-day change in your weight, up or down.

-m

 

[Gaiseric]

I started a jogging program not too long ago and have tried two methods and managed some success with both. There will be some ups and downs so don't be upset if you don't do well.

The first one was running 1 minute then walking 1(I started doing this with 2 miles). When you are comfortable with that bump it to 2 min for every 1 walking then 3, 4, 5... until you aren't walking at all. This worked, but I think I got to the point that I started counting on the small breaks so I ended up running a different way.

The second way I've been doing it is to run 1 mile nonstop until you feel comfortable enough to add distant. Right now I'm doing 2.5 to 3 miles(depending on how I feel).

Regardless of what you do I would suggest that you use a mp3/iPod, find a good pace, push yourself(but not too hard), make sure to give yourself a rest day, see your doctor first to make sure you are good to start, running buddy if at possible(makes things much easier), stay positive(it helps trust me), running shoes, drink more water than usual a few hours before you go out, and stretch before and after each run.

Good luck chief

edit: I'm 6'4" and about 245ish pounds. I started at 310 and got down to my current weight using an exercise bike, walks, weights, and portion control. I started running cause I'm going to join the military and the exercise bike wasn't helping anymore.