Concept2 Forum

I'm kinda new here (got my Shiny New Model D a few weeks ago), and am looking to lose about 100 pounds. I'm 50 years old, I'm in the 280's and my Dr. would very much like me to get into the 180's (I'm about 5'-8"). I've been doing 5000m a day, including the last 4 days in a row, and am hoping to be ready for the Skeleton Crew individual challenge that starts in about a week.
Has anyone here used rowing to lose large amounts of weight and if so, has rowing helped you to successfully keep it off (long term)?

loghouse wrote:
Has anyone here used rowing to lose large amounts of weight and if so, has rowing helped you to successfully keep it off (long term)?

I am sure that you will get a lot of good responses from those who have had that experience, but I can make one suggestion. There is a programme (sic) specifically designed for weight loss that you may want to check out:

UK IP, Weight loss:

http://concept2.co.uk/weightloss/interactive

Good luck. From all I have heard a lot of people have had success using the C2 as a part of their weight loss program.

Bob S.

Hi loghouse, I used rowing as part of a program to go from 235 to 185 over about 6 months, so I think it's a great way to lose weight. More importantly, rowing has helped me stay at 185 plus or minus 5 lbs for almost 2 years now. I've lost a lot of weight 3 or 4 times before but never kept it off. Making a lifestyle change that included 60 to 90 minutes of aerobic exercise 6 days a week is the entire reason the weight has stayed off.

I posted some ideas that I used elsewhere on the forum. I'll go find a link for you.

Good luck! You've made a great start. Keep us posted on your progress or any setbacks. We're very supportive of your efforts and I certainly know the challenge you are taking on.

Here's a copy of a post from last year.

HI,

I hesitate to wade into this discussion, but I have a personal experience to share.

I started rowing about 9 months ago and it was part of my plan to lose weight. I'm 5'11" and started off at about 230. Through diet and exercise, mainly on the erg, I've reached my goal of getting down to 180.

I found that there were a lot of important things to stick with the plan. Stroke rate was on the list, but lower down than other factors
1. Limit food intake. When you start to exercise, your body asks for more fuel. You need to not give in to this or you will get fitter and fatter. I basically wanted to set up a 7000 calorie a week deficit, which the experts tell me results in 2lbs a week of weight loss.
2. Exercise every day. Life gets in the way, and keeps one from reaching this goal, but if you aim for 7x per week, you'll get 5 or 6 and that's good. If you aim for 3 and life makes you miss one, it's a bigger deal.
3. Take data. I weighed myself every day and plotted against my objectives. I roughly tracked calorie intake, mostly at the start until I had a good idea of correct protion sizing for different kinds of foods. I roughly tracked calories burned through exercise, using a HR monitor (good investment!). Add in the basal metabolism and viola, it seems to work. Without actually tracking the data, I bet I could have cheated myself out of any weight loss.
4. Get into erging as a competitive endeavor. I am not an athelete, but I am competitive. When I started logging and ranking my pieces, suddenly it wasn't exercise, it was training. I set a goal of getting my 2K time below 7:00. I'll be needing a new objective soon because this morning I clocked a 7:00.2. The next revelation was the Nonathlon, which uses all the times from 500m up to marathon length and uses "magic" to rank people regardless of age or gender. This drove me to make sure that my "training" was balanced between long and short distances. By using this as a motivating tool, I began to really think about form, technique and training plans. It has kept me engaged and has resulted in much more time on the erg than if I was just doing it to burn calories.

By the way, I used to row at high ratings (30 to 32), because it felt more natural. As my times got better, and I focused on technique, and my pull got stronger, it started to get easier to control my stroke rate. I've just started using the Wolverine Plan, and it is a huge challenge to pull hard at 16 SPM, but boy, I think it is going to be a good way to further improve. I don't think I could have done it earlier in this process though, because I didn't have the base or motivation for something so regimented as an L4 workout.

Sorry for the long post.

Greg

For long term motivation, get online and row with others using RowPro.

http://www.digitalrowing.com

My Erg pretty much sat round not being used until I found this. Have got a couple of mates to join and row with them 3 or 4 times a week.

Carl Watts wrote:For long term motivation, get online and row with others using RowPro.

http://www.digitalrowing.com

My Erg pretty much sat round not being used until I found this. Have got a couple of mates to join and row with them 3 or 4 times a week.

I would love to see an IPAD version of Row Pro. I don't like having to lug my laptop around each time.

Bob S. wrote:

loghouse wrote:
Has anyone here used rowing to lose large amounts of weight and if so, has rowing helped you to successfully keep it off (long term)?

I am sure that you will get a lot of good responses from those who have had that experience, but I can make one suggestion. There is a programme (sic) specifically designed for weight loss that you may want to check out:

UK IP, Weight loss:

http://concept2.co.uk/weightloss/interactive

Good luck. From all I have heard a lot of people have had success using the C2 as a part of their weight loss program.

Bob S.

Checked out the link and used the tools to create a program. (their BMI calculator says I'm "obese" - what a suprise !!).
The program is pretty similar to one I stumbled on in Men's Health's site a while back.
Thanks, Bob, for the link.

gregsmith01748 wrote:Here's a copy of a post from last year.

HI,

I hesitate to wade into this discussion, but I have a personal experience to share.

I started rowing about 9 months ago and it was part of my plan to lose weight. I'm 5'11" and started off at about 230. Through diet and exercise, mainly on the erg, I've reached my goal of getting down to 180.

I found that there were a lot of important things to stick with the plan. Stroke rate was on the list, but lower down than other factors
1. Limit food intake. When you start to exercise, your body asks for more fuel. You need to not give in to this or you will get fitter and fatter. I basically wanted to set up a 7000 calorie a week deficit, which the experts tell me results in 2lbs a week of weight loss.
2. Exercise every day. Life gets in the way, and keeps one from reaching this goal, but if you aim for 7x per week, you'll get 5 or 6 and that's good. If you aim for 3 and life makes you miss one, it's a bigger deal.
3. Take data. I weighed myself every day and plotted against my objectives. I roughly tracked calorie intake, mostly at the start until I had a good idea of correct protion sizing for different kinds of foods. I roughly tracked calories burned through exercise, using a HR monitor (good investment!). Add in the basal metabolism and viola, it seems to work. Without actually tracking the data, I bet I could have cheated myself out of any weight loss.
4. Get into erging as a competitive endeavor. I am not an athelete, but I am competitive. When I started logging and ranking my pieces, suddenly it wasn't exercise, it was training. I set a goal of getting my 2K time below 7:00. I'll be needing a new objective soon because this morning I clocked a 7:00.2. The next revelation was the Nonathlon, which uses all the times from 500m up to marathon length and uses "magic" to rank people regardless of age or gender. This drove me to make sure that my "training" was balanced between long and short distances. By using this as a motivating tool, I began to really think about form, technique and training plans. It has kept me engaged and has resulted in much more time on the erg than if I was just doing it to burn calories.

By the way, I used to row at high ratings (30 to 32), because it felt more natural. As my times got better, and I focused on technique, and my pull got stronger, it started to get easier to control my stroke rate. I've just started using the Wolverine Plan, and it is a huge challenge to pull hard at 16 SPM, but boy, I think it is going to be a good way to further improve. I don't think I could have done it earlier in this process though, because I didn't have the base or motivation for something so regimented as an L4 workout.

Sorry for the long post.

Greg

Thanks, Greg, for the great tips. I too have lost and regained a few times (lost 80 pounds 3 years ago, then huge increases in work loads and hours at work for the last couple years put a serious crimp in my exercise program - well, killed it completely). Last time around I had good success with weight training and low carb eating, along with treadmill work - which I HATED. I'll likely be doing weights and low carb again, (adding weight training after I've been consistant with the rowing for 2 or 3 months), but plan to row every day possible (I can vouch for your tip #2 - it works!). Keeping track of data also helped me a great deal last time.

Thanks again for the great post.
Rick

Greg,

I've had my Concept2 for just over a week now. I've just discovered the forums. I was wondering what the "LP" statistic is in your signature. (I figured out all of the rest, I just don't know what "LP" is.)

Thanks for all of your helpful posts. I'm enjoying reading them!

Lisa

hawkswind wrote:I was wondering what the "LP" statistic is in your signature. (I figured out all of the rest, I just don't know what "LP" is.)

http://www.c2forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7712
http://www.c2forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7537
http://www.c2forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5646

Thanks!!

Greetings. I am trying to do exactly what you are doing. Just getting started with the weight loss, but I love the Concept 2 Rower. Keep us all updated on how it's going. Thanks.