first: I'm no medical doctor nor scientist nor competitive athlete.
My age is 45, I'm 178cm (5,83ft) tall, 71.5kg (157lbs) heavy. I did sport all my life - with breaks of years.
My weight changed from 65kg to 80kg up and down over the years. I looked from greasy to sporty.
(please feel free to correct my non-metric information, if I calculated them wrong).
I'm a person, that is gaining weight/fat very fast, just when looking at food.
For two month I constantly loose 4kg a month, so I lost 8-9kg in two months.
The self-flagellation was limited so far. The fun factor was great!
So here is what works best for me - short story:
1. Improved nutrion / tracking
2. Workout 5-7 days a week, 30-90 minutes with variation
3. Keeping my heart rate in view
So here is what works best for me in detail:
1. Nutrition
a. Do not lie to yourself. Often people complain: I do not loose weight, I'm not eating a lot, I don't eat "wrong" food
i. That's in most cases not true (I speak for myself!)
ii. Often one eats the wrong things, too often, too much
b. Use a calorie tracker app - the food industry uses so much sugar and shit in nearly every product
c. No/little alcohol, like said (just on weekends or holidays, sometimes a beer or two)
d. No sugar (as far as possible), no sugar substitutes
e. No convenience food, like sauce mix
f. Read the nutrition labeling, when you buy food. A lot of "healthy" products contain as much sugar like a coke
i. Example: 1 liter of a "fake-healthy-drink" contains often 9grams of sugar/carbohydrates per 100ml(!).
That's in total for 1 liter: 90grams. 1 lump sugar is 3 gram, so 1 liter is 30 lump sugar
g. Be "careful" with fruit/fruit drinks. They also contain a lot of sugar. Better drink water
Dont's get me wrong: Eat fruit, but be sensitive, what kind of fruit and how often. Better fruit than fruit drinks/smoothies
h. Eat vegetable like crazy ... eat more vegetable
i. Eat less meat
i. I changed from "meat is my vegetable" to 1-3 times meat a month
j. Drink a lot of water. 30-40ml per kg weight
k. Don't do all the things above all days. Reward yourself - but not on a regular basis
2. Workout / tracking
a. Use a smartwatch - I highly recommendate (Apple Watch, Android, etc.)
b. Monitor your trainigs, movement, calories burned
3. Workout / heart rate
a. There are a lot of pulse calculators on the internet - use one. Read about "aerobic/unaerobic)
i. Example for me:
1) My maximum heart rate is 184
2) Fat burning zone: 110-129
3) Aerobic zone: 130-147 (fat burning and improvement of breathing and cardiovascula)
4) Unaerobic zone: 148-165 (only get into this zone for a short time - more information on the internet)
b. In my trainings, I try to have a heart rate of 120 - 145
4. Workout / regularity (example, how it suits me)
a. First: I'm doing it very often for now - do it like it suits you!
b. 5-7 days a week (or less, but try to have a regularity)
c. 1 hour walking with a heart rate of 120-135. No jogging, no regular walk. Something inbetween, so you sweat
i. In my break, when I'm at work
ii. Don't use your phone, if you may reach your interlocutor by feet! Walk!
iii. Use functional underwear!!!
d. When I'm at home: 30-60 minutes rowing
i. I use a heart rate belt
ii. Not at difficulty "10", but at "6". Sometimes I change (variation)
iii. I split the time into 8 minutes, 20 seconds break, 4 minutes, 20 seconds break, 6 mintutes and so on
iv. I watch youtube videos I'm interested while rowing or netflix on my tab with tab-holder .. so I don't "feel" the time rowing
v. Have variation in your trainings. I rarely do 30-60 minutes in one step
v. Heart rate in between "your zone" (mine is 120-145 with peaks) and sometimes I do it for peaks up to my max zone
5. Functional training
a. Push-ups (easy ones with knees on the ground and regular ones)
b. Abdominal workout
c. Sometimes weight training
d. Sometimes I ride my bike
e. Allways walk, if you do not need your car. Walk!
All in all, that seems to be much, but it was an evolved process over a longer time with
a lot of experiments for me, to find *my* best training, which does not stress me.
Regards and good luck!
Daniel