How to lose weight consulting?
I already posted this on the investment banking forum, but I want to hear your take on the consulting lifestyle diet. I know from all of the traveling to all of the business dinners, we can get quite fat. I've tried to maintain my weight by running and playing recreational sports at my neighborhood gym; however, the weight gain is still there. I've been following the advice of a couple of articles that I read lately, and I'm not seeing much of a difference. What are you guys doing to lose weight?
The two articles: SPAM LINK
Love to hear some thoughts from other consultants instead of bankers.
Mod note: If you are going to post links to your blog, please do not be disingenuous about it. Further attempts to post blog links without posting blog ownership will result in a ban. -IlliniProgrammer
A lot of it depends on your metabolism. I would suggest fitting in as much cardio as possible. If you can RUN (not walk) 8 - 10 miles a week then that will shed a few pounds. How much do you run right now? Also, with the summer heat you get more out of running outdoors than in a gym. It honestly only takes 12-15 mins to run a mile, so try and crank them out on the weekends or before work. Swimming is also a great option as it provides resistance. Diet wise, I drink water, water and more water. I shoot for a gallon a day, but I don't always make it. Lastly, I live on oats. One, they keep your cholesterol down. Two, they keep you really regular, so you don't have excess waste in you. Jm2c
net shaker got the main points down, but your main workout objective needs to be CONSISTENCY. If you can run just 1 mile a day (literally 10 minutes of running), you will feel way better. Client dinners and travel won't be that bad if you keep the rest of your meals healthy, and a consistent workout schedule, no matter how brief the exercise, will help keep you in manageable shape.
But I can't stress the main idea enough: without being consistent, you may as well not work out at all. The idea is to get your body accustomed to a new level of metabolic activity. You can only do this by consistently challenging it to run and / or lift weights.
Exercise being a relevant factor to weight loss is almost a myth. 90% of any fat loss will come from diet. To put things in perspective, a marathon will burn 2500 calories. That's about the same as a pack of double choc cookies.
Exercise is good for building and toning muscle, depending on the type you do. Your fat loss will come from what you eat. Exercise also makes you hungry, which if dealt with poorly can undo any fat loss benefits obtained from the exercise, so in some cases exercise can make you fatter.
I've shifted a load of weight recently by going strictly low carb, and having some healthy carbs before workouts. I get naysayers from other people but they stopped commenting after a dressdown day where I wore jeans that were new 3 months ago. GG fatties. Which diet you use is up to you. A resource I use is www.drbriffa.com. A well informed nutritionist who's diet has yielded significantly better results than others I've tried, and it's stayed off.
An important factor that the scientists often omit is the psychological one.
Mental staying power is incredibly important. Diets that say eat less dont work for me because when I'm hungry I'm grouchy, and I'll break if I stay awake long enough. Being able to eat until you're full is a great way of not snacking on junk.
Noticing a 1kg of lean muscle mass gain is pretty hard when its covered in an inch of subcutaneous fat. Therefore:
Use a strict diet to get down to a lower fat level. 8-12% is what you should aim for. Google images various percentages to see what you want to look like.
Hit the weights. You'll have to change diets (no carb makes gyms unproductive, so have some before workouts), a fraction, but you'll see the results better, and feel motivated to carry on.
You could drop the fat you want in 3 months if you were serious about it.
Gl hf. T
^ He's wrong, OP. Sounds like he drank the kool-aid for fat people. Without proper exercise, you're just going to be a smaller fat person.
arguing against evidence using theory. Good luck with that one. FSC for Pope.
What evidence are you talking about?
Edit: for that matter, we're on a website. Any evidence is arbitrary because it'll all be online. I could make some shit up right now.
My point is simply what has been touted since the dawn of the idea of fitness: exercise will make you fit. I drank the diet-is-everything kool-aid before and so has a close friend. Diet alone doesn't work. It simply doesn't.
I think what trazer wanted to point out is that it's around 80/20 diet/exercise when looking for results. Diet is more important in dropping bf % (which is what the original poster was asking about). If you want to look better (e.g. more muscular) then more of the exercise portion is necessary.
That's what I thought too until he said athletes aren't in shape and that you don't need exercise.
Did you even read what I wrote?
I've lost significant mass (2 stone in 3 - 4 months). I outlined some pretty hard facts (the calories burned in a marathon and gained from a pack of cookies), and you still preach this exercises burns fat bullshit.
How many sporty people are in shape? Even at quite high levels of the game. Why is that? Maybe because it's bollocks. try backing up your reasoning with some numbers.
I could burn more fat with no exercise on a no carb than the vast majority of people could with exercise on a calorie counting diet, strictly because of willpower. Mine isn't particularly good, but I can't even look at a bar of chocolate or an icecream after eating a kilo of bolognese sauce and greens.
T edit: in response to your edit. and i'll repeat this until you do it. Numbers please. Calories burned with specific exercises. How many runners have the body shape you want. google marathon runners and click images. It's like watching a charity appeal.
LOL. You mean to tell me that Zidane isn't in shape? How about Rafael Nadal? Totally different sports. You really think they just wake up and eat a banana? Then play tennis or kick around all day and follow it up with a low-fat yogurt for dinner? And some cheese sticks for a midnight snack?
You need to eat enough calories to supply your body with energy for the day. If all you do is sit in a chair, good for you - you can cut it low as hell and you'll be fine. You won't lose anything beyond abnormally excess weight though, which I assume you have. Cutting 28 pounds by changing your diet is for seriously obese people.
If you exercise, which builds muscle, you will increase your daily energy expenditure by increasing your daily energy requirement to sustain the muscle. Combined with a healthy diet in which you BALANCE your caloric intake at a level slightly lower than what you burn, increase your protein intake to promote muscle growth, lower your sodium and suger intake, and ensure you get the proper levels of nutrients, minerals and essential fatty acids, you can begin to get in shape.
You can follow a "diet only" approach if you want to fool yourself into thinking you're doing good for yourself, OR if your diet was so piss-poor that it was literally KILLING you. But if you're like normal people and don't order 5 McDoubles and an extra-large Pepsi for lunch, you will need exercise to get in shape.
You have an embarrassingly poor level of fitness knowledge. I'm done - OP, good luck and remember: consistency is key.
I clicked first result every time, I didn't cherry pick these photos.
http://www.saveoursouth.co.uk/sites/default/files/Cup1.jpg amateur football champions http://www.broadbiz.co.uk/images/gfinalteam.gif amateur rugby champions http://www.dewsbury-moor.co.uk/files/gallery/TEAM_PHOTO.jpg another rugby
tried hockey, but no photo was helpful, either Ice Hockey with armour, or field hockey with womens baggy clothing.
As a player in a lower team of a highly ranked club, our 1st and 2nd teams had very few people I would consider "in shape".
http://bournemouthbarbell.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/general/welsh-champi… powerlifting
So they're the best in their chosen sports, so are either all naturally talented or they train frequently. Hang on a minute. Exercise != getting in shape. Fuck me sideways.
No you need to eat enough to keep your body nourished but force it to use up its own energy reserves, (i.e. fat). Oh look the assume word. I was never even obese. I was on the upper boundary of healthy/overweight (i'm 5ft 11 if you want to do the comparison on the chart). Yes in theory this works, but exercise releases a hunger hormone which makes you eat more. If you're eating the wrong stuff you can do more harm than good. Given that people on diets are overweight in the first place, I think it's safe to say they are eating the wrong foods.Ah now you've changed the goal line. You said in shape. OP said lose fat. They are not the same thing. 8% body fat with no exercise looks horrible. You cant build muscle without doing exercise, that's obvious.
Oh look you've gone down the name calling route. Well, I've provided evidence, you've provided me with the names of superstars, who are in the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of their sports. Who's more credible?
Bro, who the hell are those people? Even if you didn't cherry-pick the photos, A. we can't see shit in them and B. it doesn't prove a damn thing.
You've still not refuted the point that one needs exercise to lose fat beyond a certain threshold, and that once past it a balance of both exercise and diet is necessary.
Nor should you try to refute it - it's fact. Even if the OP was in the crowd of people who would benefit from a diet change alone, it's a fact that increased exercise would benefit him.
And no, what is true for one is certainly not true for all.
While we're throwing out completely arbitrary links from places that may or may not be credible, here's one: exercise SUPPRESSES appetite (hunger hormone? LOL):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211081446.htm
For the record, diet won't get you "in shape" either. Like I said, a balance of both is key.
And to wrap it up, sorry if I called you any names.
being fat is the one thing you don't have to do anything to fix
I thought consultants were smart.
HIIT and clean eating is all you need.
Of course you can lose fat "beyond a certain theshold" with just diet. Look at any model (female). They aint going running.... They dont have any muscle (as no exercise, nor do they have the nutrition to put it on even if they did), but they're certainly not fat.
Exercise + Diet is best, but you can't eat what you want and just burn it off.
Regarding the exercise and hungry, we'll do a much simpler and less scientific test. Do your gym routine and then see how much you eat, the next day, don't do it and see how much you eat. On both days eat until you no longer want to eat any more. I know where my money is. Hand on heart say its not like that for you and I'll believe you.
Many people have demonstrated you can get the muscle tone you need from just 20 minutes of exercise a day, 3-4 times a week. I don't believe that's long enough to burn a meaningful amount of calories.
http://johndotorgslashblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/because-its-marisa-… http://www.ayushveda.com/mens-magazine/brooklyn-decker-hot-or-not/
You said any model? You mean to say that Marisa Miller and Brooklyn Decker don't exercise? That they just go to clubs and gag their food back out? That's the only way to look the way they do, save for eating almost nothing every day.
You're missing the point. Exercise is not about burning calories. Exercise is about changing your metabolism. If you run more, you burn more fat through increased carbohydrate utilization. Weightlifting will use your body's creatine and protein to induce muscle hypertrophy. Both are meant to increase the RATE at which your body burns calories.
It is much more useful if your body burns 3000 calories a day because you're used to exercise than if it only burns 1500 because you can't walk up a flight of stairs without being winded.
In the case of the 3000 calorie/day metabolism, dropping 500 calories is simple. Skip the slice of pizza. In the case of the other guy at 1500, dropping 500 calories is like being sent to a gulag. You can do veritable harm to your body if you're a grown man eating only 1000 calories per day.
For the gym routine test: yesterday was a non-gym day for me and today is a gym day. I ate nearly nothing yesterday aside from protein shakes, oatmeal and some lean chicken and broccoli for dinner. Today I started with a protein shake, following it up now with some oatmeal. Why am I able to eat this way without cravings?
Cravings are caused by an unbalanced diet. If your sugar, sodium and EFA intake is out of control, you'll have cravings no matter what. Eat a balanced diet, and your cravings aren't there.
i know a personal story is not a scientific proof, but i will go with it anyway. I have always been athletic, however due to some injuries first, and being lazy later i stopped running (however kept lifting 2-3 days a week). I have gone through 173lbs (my "perfect" weight) to 205 over the last 5 years. Now, that i have 3 months between finishing my MBA and staring my management consulting job i have decided to get back to running, while still doing my work outs. It's been just over a month from the day my classes ended, and i am at 190lbs. My diet stayed exactly the same.. i don't chose what to eat, i don't restrict calories.. But i run every day between 2.5 and 6 miles before breakfast. At this point I strongly believe that just by adding these runs to my daily schedule I will be able to get back to my 173lb weigh by Aug13.
Quantifying this for you. I'll average out the 2.5 to 6 miles a day to halfway,nearest .5, so 4.5 miles a day average. (assuming 7 days a week). Just over a month I will call 33.3 days. 100 calories / mile (generally accepted statistic, and 3500 calories / pound of fat (again, generally accepted).
So you ran 150 miles in that time. Burning 15000 calories. This would come to 4 and a bit lbs of body mass. Incidentally, thats the same as about 90 oreos, So if your diet included 3 oreos (individual, not packs) a day, your fat loss benefit would be the same as the 4.5 mile runs.
For your results (15lbs) of mass lost in a month to be solely from running, That equates to 52500 calories, or 525 miles ran in a month. That's the same as 16 miles of running every day for those, (2/3 of a marathon).
While your running would be a contributing factor, discounting the benefits of muscle tone, happiness etc. I believe a more likely combination of factors is the cause, which may include less stress (you finished your course and are waiting for a job to start), being outdoors more (cooler temperatures makes your body burn more to stay at the same internal temperature). Additionally without a 9-5, you have less reason to be indoors as much, so are more active generally throughout the day.
Incidentally, assuming you are 100% water (probably closer to 80% but hear me out), 1 calorie is defined by the amount of calories required to raise 1 kg of water by 1 K. So, if you weigh 80 kgs, and your ambient temperature is 2 degrees lower than usual, you burn an additional 160 calories on top of your normal metabolism (which is 1/3 of the energy you burn from your running, even if it's only an extra 160 calories a day (which is a worst case scenario estimate).
Why can't you just accept science fact and admit that exercise = a higher metabolic rate?
fat people disgust me
I lost ~30 lbs in two months by eating Paleo + Potatoes and white rice and walking about 3 miles a day. Unlike most Paleo followers counting calories is crucial, as too little or too many will affect weight loss. Read the Fat Loss Bible by Anthony Calpo (he doesn't believe in low carb as much as calorie count) and Mark Sisson- Paleo Blueprint. Basically, it comes down to eating clean and eliminating breads and pastas.
Trazer, Actually, even using this simplistic calculation running burns .63 calorie/lb/mile http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html so, using my weight average (200lb) and miles (150) i get 19000 calories. at 3500calories/lb i get 5.4lbs (over a third) contributing directly to running.
As mentioned before, running, especially in the morning bumps up metabolic rate, which contributes to additional weight loss.
I will give you less stress, and more outdoor activities as a minor contributing factor.
The point is.. even running 30 minutes every morning over several month will get a person to a target weight goal without any diet modifications
Trazer985: You are vastly underestimating the benefits of exercise by not including the benefits to metabolism caused by regular exercise.
Anecdotally, I ran college cross country and my teammates and I ate unbelievable quantities of food that far surpassed the amount of calories we burned in a typical week of running. Our average weight was probably around 130-140lbs.
Check out this article for marathoner Bill Rodgers diet. This guy had a horrible diet and was skinny as could be. http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/microsite/article/0,8029,s6-239-506--13…
"As a kid, he put ketchup on brownies, peanut butter on eggs, mayonnaise on everything," says Martha Chuprevich, Rodgers's younger sister.
In his competitive prime, a postrun repast for Rodgers meant sticking a fork in a jar of peanut butter and then plunging it into a bottle of bacon bits.
"I brought a friend to see him after the race one year, and the friend couldn't believe that the guy who had just won the Boston Marathon was spooning mayonnaise onto a pizza," says Amby Burfoot, who won Boston in 1968 while a senior at Wesleyan University, where he and Rodgers were roommates. "
Michael Phelps eats 10,000 calories a day and is at no risk of becoming obese.
In short if you exercise enough you can eat whatever you want.
I was waiting for that last line. Michael Phelps does NOT burn 10,000 (it's actually 11) calories a day through exercise. That's 4 fucking marathons. He does swim ridiculous amounts, but he also does it in near freezing water. Exposing his body to the temperature of a racing pool (I played water polo on a regional level, trust me they're bloody cold), for the length of time that he does, does NOT mean his body burns it because of the exercise.
That last part was researched by a NASA scientist, I'm reciting the results as he portrayed them.
Correlation != Causation.
So all I have to do to burn calories is sit in a cold pool?
Runners run in all type of temperatures. What about them?
TEMPERATURE DOESN'T MATTER.
A 3 Degree fahrenheit drop in body temperature = hypothermia. Those pools are cold, but not 32 degrees fahrenheit. More like 77 degrees fahrenheit.
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool
And by your logic, everyone in Singapore should be obese. Your body maintains itself as close to 98.6 degrees fahrenheit as it can by sweating a ton when you exercise and activating more muscles when you're in danger of dropping below that level, which usually causes one to shiver. Swimming in a cold pool just means you don't heat up as much, not that your body is somehow burning calories to stay warm.
On a final note, trazer, for a finance guy you have a seriously difficult time understanding the concept of rates. Diet = one-time arbitrage. Exercise = compound interest (interest gained = metabolic increase).
trazer is english..hes fat..eats fish and chips or kebabs every day..and likes to yell at others for his shortcomings
Diet is, without question, THE most important aspect to looking and being healthy. Just look at any bodybuilder. Without the proper diet (typically high caloric with high protein, carbs and fat) you can't build muscle and without the proper diet (typically lower calories with high protein and low carbs and fat) you can't take the fat off from around the muscle you built.
Diet is very key. Exercise will help, but as one of the other poster pointed out, you could run a marathon and then squash all of your gains in one sitting with a box of cookies or a million other foods. Low carb diets can be great for fat loss because it forces your body to burn stored fat.
There is searchable science behind weight loss and how to go about it. A good bit of it is simple trial and error because everyone's body is different but they tend to follow certain scientific/biological/physiological guidelines.
Regards
Negative. You need both diet and exercise. They do different things.
You won't squash your gains in one sitting because your body doesn't absorb 100% of everything you put in it. That's why we see shit in our shit from time to time, and it's also part of the reason our shit changes color.
It is true that you need to eat correctly regardless, but one must NOT neglect exercise when trying to get fit. Exercise raises your daily caloric intake level, allowing you to eat differently (which may include eating more).
Negative on your negative. Diet is the most important aspect. Period. I am not saying that exercise isn't important, but diet is the MOST important aspect. Just ask any thin running that has dropped over from a heart attack.
How do you know that someone won't squash their gains? Do you know everyone and their diet? Probably not. I said that it is possible and that's very clear. It's far easier to eat a large amount of calories than it is to burn it off. You can eat 2,000 in the matter of minutes...even if you say only a 10% or 20% of that total is actually absorbed it's absolutely impossible to burn the equivalent number of calories off in an equal amount of time. Case in point...I could eat 200 calories of potato chips in the amount of time it takes you to read this paragraph, and I can do that while I work at my computer at my office accomplishing work...I can't burn that amount of calories while I work at my computer at my office accomplishing the same work.
I never said you could neglect exercise but, again, I can out eat my metabolism any day of the week...as can most people.
Regards
Also, you can, in theory, burn off any food you eat through exercise, which is why most people will say that exercise is superior to diet but we all know that we don't have unlimited time, nor unlimited energy, to hang at the gym all day long. So, for the OP, diet is going to be most important.
Try to pick healthy choices when you are at dinners and then fit the gym in as often as possible. Either one is a great way to get in shape, but combining them is even better.
Regards
That's not the point of the discussion. OP could run 2 miles a day (literally 25 minutes running at maximum) and achieve noticeable results approaching actual fitness. Changing hit diet will NOT make him look better unless he's obese, he'll simply have a smaller waistline to his (potentially) flabby figure.
How do you know the OP can even run 2 miles in any amount of time? The OP was asking abut losing while on the job, presumably with a finite amount of time. Furthermore, he talked about his physical activity and that it hasn't worked/hasn't been enough to shed the extra weight. His next step should be looking at his diet. Granted he could try to run for longer times/distances or spend more time at the gym, but it's unlikely he has that as a real option and it's even more unlikely that he would want to do it.
Again, you know very little about the OP. He could be a naturally muscular guy with extra pounds. He doesn't need to lift so he isn't flabby, he could just need to lose the extra weight which would reveal more of his muscle. I know plenty of people like that. Losing just a few pounds can make a dramatic difference in their appearance because it makes their already existing muscle more defined.
Lastly, diet is important to more than just your looks, it is the basis for your health. I know a guy that ran cross country in high school (15 years ago) and who is still thin with a fair amount of muscle mass. He looks to be in great shape but his diet is disgusting horrendous...I mean like eating large extra cheese pizza in a single sitting, etc. Give him the slightest bit of physical activity and sounds like he is going to fall over dead. I'm not sure what his vitals are but I would be willing to bet that he is extremely unhealthy, because of his diet. He has the luxury of having a fast metabolism, so he can eat as he pleases...but it will eventually catch up to you. So the OP should just work on his diet, eat healthier, feel healthier and that will lead to a more active lifestyle and potentially longer times in the gym or on the treadmill.
Regards
Fair point. Excercise takes time, which is scarce. Healthy eating can be acheived by making different choices when you buy your food.
I have found though that with regular excercise your body is a lot more forgiving on a poor diet.
I rest my case. OP, you probably have enough knowledge from this thread alone to achieve any fitness goal you like, and still know what temperature water to jump into lol.
Good discussion folks.
I still hate fat people
Don't worry, they hate themselves as well.
Regards
honestly if fat people just did this every day...they wouldnt be fat. and im doggin it the whole time
http://www.youtube.com/embed/aY0f_sB1oUk
Haha, I would never have thought to go to an online community that discusses issues and careers specifc to professional financial services to ask about the relative importance of diet/exercise to weight loss.
Same reason I wouldn't go to thevegandietician.com for an informed analysis of the different exit opportunities offered by BB banking and MBB consulting.
With that said, opt for the fish instead of the filet, order the veggies instead of fried calamari, and make it to the hotel gym at least twice during the week.
smack some top shelf booty...when you underperform, that'll push you to get serious about winning again
slapping women is fun
Your not going to see results if you have a shit diet but there's more to burning fat than just restricting calories. The best thing you can do is high intensity strength training with minimal rest time. Not only does this burn more calories than running and increase your metabolism, it also will raise your overall testosterone levels. This is key since testosterone is a natural fat burner. This is offer overlooked in weightless regimens. For example, many people attribute weight gain from alcohol to the excess calories when in reality a large part of your "beer belly" is due to the fact that alcohol decreases your testosterone and increases your estrogen levels.
I'm pregnant?!?!?!?!?
Only kidding. To add to the point above, there is some evidence that fasting after intense workouts actually stimulates the production of HGH in the body which, of course, can be very beneficial...though I'm not sure what the required fasting time actually is. I guess this is our body interpreting that no food means we couldn't catch that Sabre-tooth tiger we were chasing and we need to be faster/stronger next time.
Regards
I've never heard that before, but that's pretty interesting. I would think though that the benefit of increased HGH production from the fast would be offset by less effecient recovery due to lower nutrient levels. I've always been told to eat something with protein(sabre tooth tiger being ideal) immediately after a workout.
How bad do you want that Jesus on the cross look?
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