I doing something wrong?

[lessuvhol]

Hi, all! I bought my concept 2 rower in January. I have been using somewhat consistently and try to use proper form/technique. I went for a period of 3 weeks doing between 45-60 min of rowing between 26-30 spm. Didn't see any results. No weight loss and no inches lost as my clothes all fit the same. I would have thought that I would have lost a few pounds just based on calories burned. I work up a sweat but am never sore. I know rowing is an all-over workout but feel I must be doing something wrong. I seem to have results doing workout dvds but not with rowing. Any input?

[jamesg]

The main purpose of using the erg is to get fit. It usually works, if you produce say 100W at least for 30-60 minutes (say 6-12 km), as would riding your bike 10-20 miles a day or swimming an hour freestyle. Try to do a bit more every day, in terms of both power and time aboard.

Fat on the other hand depends on your input - output balance, not just on sitting on the erg. First Law of thermodynamics.

Basic beginner guide to rowing is: low drag, low rating, long strokes, pull hard and fast, return slow. The further the handle goes per stroke the further the boat goes too. C2 has videos to see how it's done.

The relationship between your height, age, sex and the Power (Watts) you generate, can tell you what you're doing. In general a Power/Rating ratio (Watts/spm) of 6 to 8 is enough, as is 2 W/kg body mass (less excess fat).

[hjs]

Weight loss is mostly eating. Exercise helps, but to burn 1 kg of fat you roughly need 7 hours at 2.00 pace. You can,t outtrain a cappy diet. Low carb is, to me, the most easy way to get leaner.

[Bob S.]

Hi, all! I bought my concept 2 rower in January. I have been using somewhat consistently and try to use proper form/technique. I went for a period of 3 weeks doing between 45-60 min of rowing between 26-30 spm. Didn't see any results. No weight loss and no inches lost as my clothes all fit the same. I would have thought that I would have lost a few pounds just based on calories burned. I work up a sweat but am never sore. I know rowing is an all-over workout but feel I must be doing something wrong. I seem to have results doing workout dvds but not with rowing. Any input?

There is not enough information in your post for anyone to judge. Was the 45-60 minutes each day or each week? The stroke rate does not mean much. What counts is the wattage or the pace, which is based on the wattage. The Calorie count has some value, but you did not provide any specific numbers for that.

The fact that you work up a sweat is encouraging, but even that is ambiguous, since it depends a lot on the temperature and the humidity in the room where you work out.

If you provide your classification, i.e. gender, age, height, and weight, and additional data from the monitor like wattage, pace, or time/distance (or even calories), the forum members can be in a better position to give advice. Note that the calories displayed on the monitor are based on some shaky assumptions, so must be taken with a grain of salt.

[lessuvhol]

I am female, 46 years old, 210 pounds. I was doing 45-60 minutes per day at a stroke rate of 26-30. I just figured if the monitor said I was burning 500 or close to 500 calories a day I would have lost weight. I will play around with the monitor for the other things mentioned to go by since it seems stroke rate isn't a factor to use for assessing how hard you are working. Hopefully I can find a way to make rowing work for me. Thank you for the input!

[hjs]

I am female, 46 years old, 210 pounds. I was doing 45-60 minutes per day at a stroke rate of 26-30. I just figured if the monitor said I was burning 500 or close to 500 calories a day I would have lost weight. I will play around with the monitor for the other things mentioned to go by since it seems stroke rate isn't a factor to use for assessing how hard you are working. Hopefully I can find a way to make rowing work for me. Thank you for the input!

If the monitor says 500, you burned 200, 300 is the minimum cal the counter starts if you pull the chain, nomatter what intensity. Rate 26/30 is not important.
The numbers you should look at are either pace per 500 of watts.

If you did not loose weight, you eat enough to compensate. Re training, you should do more shorter pieces at a much higher intensity. Try to use long full strokes. You now use short very soft strokes, those hardly cost energy.

[Carl Watts]

The problem will be pace, its most likely up at 2:40 to 3:00. Nothing wrong with this to start off with but as your fitness improves you need to start increasing the pace.

Get off the screen that displays calories, its a waste of time get onto the default screen the monitor starts up with things like your pace, average pace and projected finish in meters and set yourself goals as your fitness improves.

Potentially you could see a slight weight increase before a decrease as the muscles develop.

[hjs]

Potentially you could see a slight weight increase before a decrease as the muscles develop.

Bizar statement. Weightgain in any form only happens if you eat in caloric overflow. So if you eat enough to gain muscle (which you don,t in this situation) you also enough to gain fatmass.

[lessuvhol]

RE:The problem will be pace, its most likely up at 2:40 to 3:00. Nothing wrong with this to start off with but as your fitness improves you need to start increasing the pace.
Get off the screen that displays calories, its a waste of time get onto the default screen the monitor starts up with things like your pace, average pace and projected finish in meters and set yourself goals as your fitness improves.
Potentially you could see a slight weight increase before a decrease as the muscles develop.[/quote

Thanks for the feedback. What pace should I aim for? Not sure what is a good pace to set for fat loss.

[jackarabit]

On the internet, search out a body mass index chart for women. For your age and height, find your maximum fit weight (ideal weight) in kilograms. One and one half to two times your fit weight is your target range for power production in watts. So for first attempt to establish what you're doing at present, multiply your fit weight in kilos by 1.5 and compare to your output on the watts screen of the monitor. At this level of intensity and above, caloric conversion to energy and heat will optimize both while exercising and afterwards. Please remember the seven hours per pound of weight loss illustration above! The vernacular version is "You can't outrun a donut." Sensible eating in terms of quantity as well as food choice is absolutely necessary to weight loss.

[jackarabit]

Sorry! 7 hrs @ 2 minutes/500m pace per kilo (2.2lbs.) of potential wgt loss. The point remains: exercise Is NOT a magic bullet for weight loss!

[Carl Watts]

Exercise is a big part of the equation however and reality is if your young and exercise enough you can eat anything you want, I have seen it with a mate of mine when he competitively rowed he ate like 3 dinners at once. There was nothing he couldn't stuff in his face and burn off rowing OTW.

The problem really starts when your 40+ and coupled with this you probably have not been active for over 10 years before this, its a cold start and your metabolism simply is not 20 any more. You can be exercising fairly hard and the results are just not fourth coming like they used to, I mean a few weeks of training and you used to be up to speed, now its a few months of training before you feel progress.

Forty some things have to be patient and just remember that any exercise is better then no exercise and the longer you leave it the harder its going to be get back into shape.

[Mags]

Really helpful for another 40 +. I have been rowing three times a week for months. No weight loss. But my clothes are fitting better.

I also was just concentrating on calories. This forum is helping me understand how to craft a better work out.