Well I'm looking for a panacea. I would like to lose about 10 kg, I'm not massively overweight but at 1m76cm and 82 kg I could do with losing a bit, most of it seems to be doing extra chin duty or adding to the Michelin Man profile. I'd like to shift the weight and put on a bit of muscle, mainly in my arms which are a bit, shall we say, spaghetti thin like? I used to do quite a lot of training, mainly Kieser style machines rather than free weights but that was a while back. What I'm looking for is something that is fun to do, cheap or free, doesn't need lots of equipment (better still, no equipment) and doesn't take up huge amounts of time as I'm working full time and have two small children that take up free time at the evenings and weekends. Two years ago I was cycling to work everyday with my two children in a bike trailer which was a combined additional weight of over 50kg, that really worked wonders. That isn't possible now as the children have outgrown the trailer. Running isn't really my thing but maybe with a MP3 player it would be tolerable.

What do the good folk of EF suggest?

(apart from losing ten pounds of useless fat by cutting my head off )

Easy, read this thread http://www.englishforum.ch/sports-fi...s-support.html from start to finish, without eating anything during that time. You'll likely lose a few kg's in the process.

You are right. You should be 10kg lighter. Most probably you must shed 14kg of fat and gain 4kg muscle. There are weighing scales that show the body fat content. You must exercise while watching the calorie intake. Otherwise, you may be scavenging your muscles.

Best would be for you to rejoin a gym. Pick one near work and go during the lunch break. Thus, you also lower your calorie intake!

Gym trainers can coach you and motivate you to reach your goals. The fee is money well invested. You may get a subsidy from your employer, medical insurer, etc.

You could buy a cross-trainer or a rowing machine for home use. You will find specific recommendations in other EF threads. Those machines cost money and can be justified only if you have extreme work hours.

There are also methods to train with own body weight. Maybe a course in power yoga would teach you the technique.

Thanks - I did have a quick look under the Health and Fitness category before posting but I missed that thread. Cheers!

Post your typical diet ie what you eat by day for an average week.

well I'm not sure many people would really want to know all that much detail. Suffice it to say, I eat what i would call a reasonably healthy diet, I almost never eat fast food or pre-prepared food and prepare almost all my measl with the exception of lunch myself. Lunch is provided by my company but I have switched from the normal fare to the salad bar and avoid deserts. Bad points are that I often skip breakfast and I also enjoy a bottle or two of beer in the evenings. I think I should switch to having a "breakfast like a king", light lunch and normal evening meal but skip the beers for a while. That should help with the balanced diet but then I need to up the sporting activity level.

Pork scratchings for breakfast, kebab before lunch and kebab after dinner will sort you out. You can wash it down with ice cream and beer. Your arms will get big in no time

Seriously man without pain there is no gain. You got to sweat and work those muscles and at the same time eat very healthy and nutritional food.

Concept2 Rowing machine...those things are the bomb when it comes to weight loss. All weather, non-impact, and uses major muscle groups. most gyms have them. Do 30-60min sessions 5 times a week on one of those babies and you'll loose 10kg in about 2-3 months, provided you eat sensibly.

thanks Litespeed,

I saw your post re rowing machines on the link provided earlier in this thread - sounds like a great idea. I'll check to see where I can find one locally.
Thanks!

How are they on hip joints? Do they strain them a lot?

Not a lot as you are not putting you weight on your joints. Highly recommended for knee injury recovery.

You are welcome to try mine out if you like (time to return the favour after seeing your gym). I have the old (noisy style).

http://concept2.de/196.html - German site

http://www.concept2.com/us/default.asp - English Site

Good question. I would say not as much as running or cycling, because you are seated, and using symmetrical motion. So if you can cycle, you should have no problem starting with very light rowing. I would consult a physio first if you're in any doubt.

I recommend the UK Concept2 site, even if you're not interested in rowing. They have great weight loss and training info guides that you can download in PDF format.

Chewing the Fat is quite a interesting myth buster for starting weight loss.

That would be great as husband & I are trying to decide between a rower & an eliptical trainer.

I've got a Model D at home. The RowPro interface reduces the boredom!

If your travelling to UK (its in Leeds) anytime soon then you are welcome to buy my Concept 2 Model D for market rate (new shape ie without the structural flaw which Concept sent DIY repair kits out for ). Comes with a PM4, manual & floor mat. Hardly used as bought then just never had the time.

Rowing machines are good as dont place any stress on jonts unlike running etc and excercise every major muscle group.

Got a whole load of stuff to ebay when i have time lol.

1) have 5 small ish meals throughout the day rather than 3 as keeps your metabolism going, try to eat carbs early in the day/after training
2) Tip - Oats are probably one of the best breakfasts you can have, sold in Co-op, Migros etc. Clean Complex carbs which will provide slow release energy you need without all the crap which is in cereals etc

Concept2 (Schweiz) GmbH
Soodring 13
8134 Adliswil
Fon :+41 (0)44 711 10 10
Fax: +41 (0)44 711 10 12
Email: info@concept2.ch

Almost 2 years ago now my metabolism suddenly slowed down, which I did not notice because I was working as a waiter at the time which of course used lots of energy and I could eat as I had always eaten since my growth spurts in my teen years. Then I went home for 2 months and much beer, wine and spirits and food were consumed with family and friends. During this time I did not exercise.

I got back to Switzerland and stood on the scale and was totally shocked to see I had gained about 10 kilos! I am the same height as you and went from a comfortable 72kg up to 82kg. I immediately started jogging again and saw some progress and quite quickly lost about 4 kilos and my weight stayed constant at around 77 - 78kg.

I then stayed at that level for several months until one year afte returning I visited a doctor while sick who tested my blood pressure and told me I needed to lose more weight as my blood pressure was too high. I felt enourmously frustrated as I had been jogging and swimming quite a lot but nothing was changing. So I decided hey why not google "weight loss" and see what came out. What came out surprised me: I found a few web pages advocating weight training as an important part of a weight loss regime - the theory being that building muscles raises the metabolism and results in more calorie burn all day long. Also, excessive cardio training on it's own can be pointless as one can end up losing muscle as well as fat. I had never considered it before but decided to give it a go.

Since I did not wish to shell out for a gym membership I decided to try one of the suggestions on the websites which was to buy a training dvd and some weights to use at home. I stopped all other exercise for a while did around 4 -5, 10 - 20 minute training sessions a week for around 2 months. I very quickly noticed that I started waking up earlier in the mornings with less effort and that my appetite slowly adjusted itself and I started eating less without having to force myself. I lost about 1.5 kilos during that time and was not doing anything other than weight training - it's worth mentioning that my job is also fairly demanding activity wise though. Then when summer came I decided to take advantage and brought cardio into the mix and have been doing a mixture of jogging and mountain biking as well. I bought a watch with a heart rate monitor and have been keeping track of each exercise session - calories and fat burnt, time, distance etc. It's interesting to note how one's heart rate changes as one does more and more and becomes fitter. 74 kgs now and more to lose in the coming weeks and months for sure.

So then my suggestion would be: start with some muscle building exercise and keep at for a while and then see what cardio exercise you can fit into your schedule later.

I did my research, and when I bought mine in 2005, Switzerland was the cheapest place to buy them new. It seems they've even dropped 100chf in price since I bought one. (due to dropping US dollar no doubt). You can usually sell them for at least 70% what you bought them for if you get tired / bored of it.

Is it very noisy for home use?