Food/Diet Are fitness wristbands worthwhile? And other weightloss tips

I've got a few (10-15) kg's to shed and have decided I might as well do something about it. I'm not too keen on the whole going to a gym things, If I want to go for a run I'd rather go outside and do it, same with a ride. As for weights, I'd rather use my own mass by doing pull ups/push ups or buy some cheap/second hand weights rather than fork out for a membership.

However, from most of my reading, it all comes down to diet. I've been eating pretty good recently, but am considering seeing a dietician to put me on the right track (unless someone here can point me towards a decent online resource to save me money).

I have, though, been looking at those fitness tracker wristband thingos. Are they worth the money (something I definitely don't have a lot of)? Do they actually help with fitness and other things (I like the idea of the calorie counting and active time notifications)? Or am I better off not being such a gadget junkie and saving my pennies?

Any other tips on helping me get rid of the belly are also very much appreciated (I'm probably in it for the long haul rather than losing weight really fast, although I wouldn't mind it!).

If it helps, Im 22yo, ~175cm tall and last time I weighed myself I was around 85-90kg.

Thanks ya'll in advance!
 

shakes

Likes Dirt
myfitnesspal app on your phone is handy to track what your intake is - not the be all and end all but handy.

Routine and preparation are key.

good luck.
 

dontfeelcold

Likes Dirt
You don't need to buy any equipment to loose weight and get strong. Bodyweight all the way! Weight loss is all about what you eat. Its hard to get fat eating nothing.

If your hungry, eat, if your not hungry, don't eat. Only eat fruit, vege, legumes and some meat.

Get to bed at a reasonable time.

All that should get you shredded in no time. If not, you might have an actual problem, then you should see a (insert your preferred health professional here). I have had life changing success with a naturopath where doctors and specialist told me nothing could be done.
 

Nick_M2r

Likes Dirt
I purchased a FitBit Flex on Friday and have been using it along with the FitBit app, and so far have thought it was worth it.

One thing to note is to not buy it for 100% accuracy, as you can fudge steps by moving your hands fast, and seeing as it lacks a Heart rate monitor, in anything other than running/walking, it will only give you a best guess. Generally though, it gives a pretty good reading of your steps etc. I also have a Polar FT7 Heartrate monitor which i use for cardio workouts such as cycling.

The reason i recommend it, is that it really is motivating to have. Seeing the little lights blink at you with regards to your progress, you get the motivation to walk further/ do more etc to reach your daily goal which you set on the app. Its also great being able to input goals, targets, food calories, water etc into the app so you can get a visual idea of whats going on. The flex also has a sleep function which monitors you while your asleep and tracks how you restless you are and when you in deep sleep etc. When i do exercise that is cardio intensive, like riding, i take the Flex off and put the polar on and then record the results in the Fitbit app which ads towards my daily goal.

In the end, i recommend the fitbit flex in addition to a heart rate watch, as i personally find getting quantifiable results you can see visually (on the app) is far FAR more motivating than going it alone without them
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
A few tips from a man who has been thin most of their life and only the last 2 years had their metabolism crap itself.
- Don't take any tips from the people who have ben fit their whole life, thin their whole life or pretty much anyone that didn't start where you are. My other half is super guilty of having a 8y.o. metabolism and spouting bs to all her friends lol.
- Get a heart rate monitor. Bang for buck these things are awesome for not only losing weight but building aerobic capacity. Use it riding, running whatever. Most of them you can set training zones that will annoying beep if you start slacking off.
- I'm not a fan of apps and the like that you have to keep feeding into - keeping track of calories or whatever. I prefer passive apps like strava that just sit in the background and count you mileage. To me it's better to count the cool stuff you did (ride a bike) than count the stuff you didn't eat. I did however, start using a food counting app (more for nutrient value than calories) called 'spark people'. It was useful for about 2 weeks and then I pretty much knew where to go.
- Food is important. I found the best way to manage food is to have healthy snacks and eat whole and fulfilling meals. I don't touch fruits or salad vegs unless it's before a meal because these things make me stupid hungry (something about the sugar in fruits and water in iceberg lettuce).
- Food cravings. The one solution to this is to always be doing something. It's like those times you are so busy you forget to eat. Not that extreme but I find most of the time I have sugar/fried food cravings when I'm sitting around doing nothing or procrastinating about work. Don't skip main meals.
- Bonking is good. You may hate it but I personally think this is where weight gets shed - not evidence backup whatsoever.
- Mix up the regime. Cycling 500kms a week is good but unfortunately your body gets used to it. I chuck the odd swim or heavy weights session every now and then to confuse it. Pretty much keep options open and never turn down an invite to do something (rock climbing, 100 pushup challenge etc).

Good luck.
 

c3024446

Likes Bikes and Dirt
+1 for My Fitness Pal. Huge database of foods, pretty easy to keep track of what you eat. I think I have stopped underestimating becuase I am getting thinner :cool:

My fitness pal links to strava, pretty handy, but it's a bit buggy. I usually overwrite their calorie estimate to 700Cal/hr for a MTB ride and 600Cal/hr for a roadie.
 

kl3ggy

Likes Dirt
The reason i recommend it, is that it really is motivating to have. Seeing the little lights blink at you with regards to your progress, you get the motivation to walk further/ do more etc to reach your daily goal which you set on the app.
+1. Seeing the band definitely is a motivating factor. I also found myself eating healthier purely because of seeing it on my wrist and remembering my goal of getting healthier.
 

cleeshoy

Eats Squid
Got a mate who around 18 months ago was in the 150kg range. At this point he decided he needed to change his whole lifestyle so sort out a dietitian who helped him with eating the right foods and more importantly the volumes of food. He said t basically came down to input v output. If you eat (input) more then you burn/exercise (output), you'll put on weight and vice versa.
He started running (which he enjoys) and kept track of the calories he consumed (using some food app - my fitness pal I think it was?) and plays badminton a few times a week (I doubt the badminton was a massive factor in him losing weight as he played it before, but he is now much quicker around the court). He is now 78kg and runs a half marathon just about every Saturday.

Men's Health magazine did a story on him this issue (in that "gutless wonder" section). Even now, I struggle to recognise him occasionally because his physical features are so different - but he is definitely proof that weight loss can be achieved through better eating and regular exercise.
 

johnny

I'll tells ya!
Staff member
Energy in - energy out is the foundation. After that you have two more fundamentals:

lean muscle uses more energy - like driving a big V8 up a hill compared to a small 4 cylinder, one requires more energy to run. So build your muscle ability and size up as a platform to build from when you do cardio exercises. This will also assist in protecting against injury as you branch out in to other exercise categories.

Nutrition, it's not just energy in and out. You can cut down from 10 big macs a day to one and you lower your energy input. However you're not going to get the right nutrition you need to achieve goals and retain basic health.

Exercise your whole body - core, upper and legs, follow a reasonable program.

IMO, follow these fundamentals and you cannot fail.
 

Gcjosh

Cannon Fodder
Find a good local personal trainer, spend a few $$ with them for a month or so and they will teach you all you need to know to achieve the goal you want.
A "good" personal trainer is worth there weight in gold.

Loosing weight is basic Maths though, burn more than you consume and you can't help but lose weight.
 

soontir

Likes Dirt
Using a Up 24 with my fitness pal app.
Bought it to see what amount of walking I'm doing and track sleep patterns. Was very supprised about what I'm doing.
So far down about 5 kilos in the last two months.
 

carpetrunner

Likes Dirt
+1 for get a heart rate monitor

4 years ago 92kg was spread evenly over 178cm - I lost 12kg in two bouts of 8 weeks. I now hover around 79/80kg.

The key was competition - 20 of us ran a biggest loser competition at work;
Competitors pledges to lose 5%, if you only lose 4% then you owe the pot $10, 3% is a $20 pot donation... I pocketed $230.
Attitude was a major driver, I still remember one of the girls saying - "I don't mind having to pay $13, I just don't want to give it to you"

Winning Strategy

Got myself a Heart Rate Monitor that counts calories burned (a cheap Suunto).
Get a reasonable set of scales (ebay: Tanita scales that measure fat% for $1+$9 postage, felt so guilty I paid him $30).

Set up a spreadsheet with a row for each day; (exercise calories out + basal calories) - calories consumed = projected weight change based on 7000 calories/kg, and a graph of actual weight change. A little fudging of the basal metabolism to get the projected weight to equal the actual and it should all just work.
Every morning weigh yourself after you have unloaded and naked. Plot the graph print it and pin on the wall where you see it often.

Calorieking.com.au is a great source of information... after 3 or 4 weeks you will find that most meals are repeats, subsets or supersets of earlier calorie counts. Getting into the calculation was good for me - I had no idea of the calorie content of particular foods - it taught me a heap.

If your only exercise is cycling you may not need a HRM, Strava calorie counts are actually pretty close to the HRM calorie numbers - who da thunk it?

good luck!

- carpetrunner
 

Bryce88

Likes Dirt
Fitbit size help

I am looking at buying a fitbit charge hr but not sure what size to go. Basically sizing goes Small, Large or extra large. I've tried on both the Small and Large and fall right in the middle. Just wondering if anyone else has been in the same situation? If I buy the small I am on the last couple notches available and if I buy the large I basically on the 1st or 2nd notch. Curse my 17cm wrists..

Cheers everyone.
 

poita

Likes Dirt
Have you checked out the accuracy of the hr monitor on those? I'd say get the one that will be tighter, sealing out light is the number one way of increasing accuracy on optical hr, so right is better.

I know it's an old thread, but to the OP or others, Google fit is a pretty good background activity tracker that's free. Just guesstimates things from all the different sensors in your phone, I found it quite accurate differentiating between riding, running, walking.
 

Bryce88

Likes Dirt
Have you checked out the accuracy of the hr monitor on those? I'd say get the one that will be tighter, sealing out light is the number one way of increasing accuracy on optical hr, so right is better.

I know it's an old thread, but to the OP or others, Google fit is a pretty good background activity tracker that's free. Just guesstimates things from all the different sensors in your phone, I found it quite accurate differentiating between riding, running, walking.
Hey mate, HR apparently works better an inch above the wrist which makes me lean towards a large as I know a small won't let me do that. I also think that when I tried the bands on I had them rather firm which felt nice, however now that I think about it, it may become constricting after a while. I think I've answered my own question, but reassurance is great haha.

Already use google fit. I agree, it is great.
 

stirk

Burner
I am looking at buying a fitbit charge hr but not sure what size to go. Basically sizing goes Small, Large or extra large. I've tried on both the Small and Large and fall right in the middle. Just wondering if anyone else has been in the same situation? If I buy the small I am on the last couple notches available and if I buy the large I basically on the 1st or 2nd notch. Curse my 17cm wrists..

Cheers everyone.
Buy the large and punch some extra holes in it.
 
I really don't understand this fitness band phenomenon. Well I spose I do, Tis pure consumerism, nowt more than that.

Why you need a device to tell you that you had a shit sleep is odd to me. Same as wanting to measure your HR all day long. There is no point.

I can see the value in a pedometer, and using a HRM when exercising, calorie counting as well has a benefit. Other than that it's a wank.


And If you have an iPhone the apps you "need" are free.
 

Bryce88

Likes Dirt
I really don't understand this fitness band phenomenon. Well I spose I do, Tis pure consumerism, nowt more than that.

Why you need a device to tell you that you had a shit sleep is odd to me. Same as wanting to measure your HR all day long. There is no point.

I can see the value in a pedometer, and using a HRM when exercising, calorie counting as well has a benefit. Other than that it's a wank.


And If you have an iPhone the apps you "need" are free.
Agreed there are some unusual features that I won't use.

For me it's watch, a HR monitor, step counter and silent alarm. Ticks my work needs, workout needs and the silent alarm means I won't wake the missus or kids up at 6am anymore.
 
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