Rowing for weight loss question

[Ari79]

I just bought a rowing machine and would like to lose some belly fat. I'm 45, 6'2" tall and 230lbs. I'm naturally thin but over the last yr or so my stomach has started to expand from a 36" waist to a 40". My diet is pretty good, I don't over-eat, don't eat lots of sugar and have a can of soda once or twice a week. The rest of the week it's water, at least 64oz a day. I don't drink, don't smoke and get about 10k steps a day at work.

I'm trying to find out what a good pace and time would be to help slim down. So far I'm averaging 24spm between 35 to 40 minutes. Yesterday for example I had 814 strokes over 35 minutes.

From what I've read you need a good 45 minutes of rowing daily to start losing weight. I understand calorie deficits, but having never rowed before I'm just not sure what numbers I should aiming for (time, strokes, split, etc).

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[ahooton]

I just bought a rowing machine and would like to lose some belly fat. I'm 45, 6'2" tall and 230lbs. I'm naturally thin but over the last yr or so my stomach has started to expand from a 36" waist to a 40". My diet is pretty good, I don't over-eat, don't eat lots of sugar and have a can of soda once or twice a week. The rest of the week it's water, at least 64oz a day. I don't drink, don't smoke and get about 10k steps a day at work.

I'm trying to find out what a good pace and time would be to help slim down. So far I'm averaging 24spm between 35 to 40 minutes. Yesterday for example I had 814 strokes over 35 minutes.

From what I've read you need a good 45 minutes of rowing daily to start losing weight. I understand calorie deficits, but having never rowed before I'm just not sure what numbers I should aiming for (time, strokes, split, etc).

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi Ari, I was about the same size as you in December 23 (a few inches taller), and i also bought a concept 2 and can honestly say it’s changed my life- so well done taking such a positive step. I’m still a novice and you will get far better info from others on the forum. However, I think mixing up the workouts is huge, for the first few months I just did WOD on ErgData followed by a steady 5 or 10k. I’ve learnt a lot since then and have structured my schedule better. At least 3 long steady rows per week(90mins or more at 130- 140bpm), interspersed with hard interval days to keep the strength going (I do WOD solely for variation, I am easily bored and it seems to work for me).
2 huge points I learnt early on were ensure your technique is spot on ASAP, and also nutrition. This bit me hard within the first few months. I just wasn’t eating enough to keep up with the volume I was rowing and felt absolutely sapped all the time. Completely understand you’re rowing for weight loss, I was too, it’s a tricky balance though. Once the fitness and ability to row long is there the weight will come off naturally and it will plateau and you will become leaner rather than portly.

Finally, enjoy it

[Sakly]

Loosing weight is all about energy expenditure (oxidation) from stored locations and absorbing food to restore that energy - so called caloric deficit. As the body is not a calorie meter and does not function that way (it is not burning the food like a calorie meter does), it is also related to what you eat and how your body absorbs that nutrients.
You say, you don't overeat. But how's possible to build mass up in that case?
To compensate, you can add movement or tweak diet or both.
I added rowing over two years ago, averaging 50-70km per week. I added 4kg - rowing will not make you loose weight necessarily unless you're changing/adapting your diet accordingly.

[Tandstad]

Hi,

Unless you have some underlying condition that makes you store fat, I do think you might be suffering from the same as myself, overeaters who do not feel like they are overeaters Weight loss is simple on paper(use more energy then you take in), but difficult in practise. Usually we take in more than we think.

Good luck on the weight loss journey If you stay focused it is possible to lose weight and get that waist line down quite fast.

[gvcormac]

SPM is not really relevant. You want to look at pace (minutes per 500 metres) or power (watts) or calories per hour.

Personally, I do at least 30 minutes on my erg every day before breakfast. The evidence is not overwhelming, but it is the case that you burn more fat when fasted, compared to not. Whether or not that stimulates you to eat commensurately more during the day is not entirely clear.

You burn proportionately more fat when you work at lower intensity. At 25% of your max power, you burn almost all fat. At 50% you burn some more fat, but proportionately more carb. Beyond 65% you actually burn less fat. But you still burn fat, and you still burn more calories, which is what matters -- provided you don't eat them back.

[dabatey]

My belly dropped from a skinny-fat 36 waist to a healthy for me 31ish with only the loss of a couple of kilos. So you might not have to lose too much in the way of belly fat. In which case you will quite possibly get away with continuing your current diet if rowing most days I think.

The important thing is to go by waist size and not weight as if you are the type to put on muscle that might offset the belly fat loss.

[hikeplusrow]

If you're operating at a calorific deficit, higher intensity workouts become extremely challenging. When I was cycling about ten years ago, I lost a lot of weight by significantly reducing calories. However, I could only ride at a comparatively low intensity (UT2 level) as I simply didn't have the strength to raise my HR beyond that level. In my experience, it's difficult to increase performance and lose weight simultaneously.

[iain]

Metabolism and "normal eating" is very individual and so comments are necessarily subjective. As stated above, it is easy to replace the calories burned from even quite long rows. That said, initially someone who has not done much training for some time will initially increase blood volume and possibly muscle fluids and so you may initially see a small increase in weight. this plateaus in a few weeks so don't worry if you don't see losses for the first few weeks. The main advantage of rowing while losing weight is to maintain your metabolism. Otherwise reduced eating will cause your body to reduce energy use in "starvation mode" and so calories would need to be reduced significantly more. You can also burn significant calories, but you need to burn an excess 3500 cals to lose each pound, so this may balance a mildly excessive intake, but will not cause the rapid weight loss many expect from high volumes of exercise. Basically you should lose weight slowly and so significant losses take time. As a result the most important thing about your training program is that you get satisfaction from it and will maintain it long term. The bad news is that you are likely to resume weight gain if you stop rowing as even 3 modest sessions a week will burn more than a pound of fat a month, so from stable weight you would move to adding a stone a year!

Regular long sessions will burn the most calories as high intensity sessions cannot be maintained for as long. But the latter will increase your metabolism after the sessions as your muscles recover and rebuild, so the difference is not as great as you (of the C2 monitor) would calculate. Many people find that challenging themselves in harder sessions are more enjoyable and so doing more intense sessions helps to continue rowing, although some do find rowing long distances at low intensity, perhaps by watching videos or listening to music is sustainable long term, so find a balance that will work for you long term rather than following an "established program".

Regardless of what you choose, you should be generating significant force when rowing. Slow rowing is done by doing fewer strokes per minute by driving as hard, but crawling back up the slide to give your body time to recover for the next stroke. It is often described as doing a horizontal squat, much more force than more continual exercises like cycling or running. 24SPM of good quality strokes will be taxing to maintain for 40+ minutes. 18-20 is more realistic for lower intensity sessions.

Best of luck and come back to tell us how you get on.

[Ombrax]

In my case I've found that the only truly effective way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories.

Unless I'm riding the bike for more than 10 hrs per week it's nearly impossible exercise enough to burn off and excess amount of calories on the bike or on the erg. Figure out how much time on the erg it takes to burn the calories in single chocolate chip cookie and you'll conclude that it's easier to just not eat the cookie (or whatever it is in your diet that's providing more calories than you truly need).

Bottom line, for me the journey to weight loss starts in the *** DELETE - SPAM ***, not in the gym.

Good Luck

[jamesg]

I'm 45, 6'2" tall and 230lbs. not sure what numbers I should aiming for (time, strokes, split, etc).

Take your target weight in kg (80?) and multiply by 2. The number you get is the 160 Watts you'll need to deliver, (C2 pace about 2:10). It won't be easy, but doable if you use correct rowing style, which can be seen on the C2 site (technique). You'll improve sharply with time.

Apart from weight, keeping fit is essential anyway, so never stop: walk, swim, row, anything will do. In particular freestyle is the ideal complement to rowing because it works the shoulders, but needs water. Walking uphill with ski-sticks is also effective.

Suggest you do 4-5 days a week but not more than 2 short and fast for strength (or an hour total, maybe using C2 Wods), the others long and slow. Total will be 2-3 hours a week, so you won't be able to deliver more than about 2500kCal/week, ie only 15% of your energy intake. Note that kCal rate is roughly 4xWatts. Another 500 to 1000 kC/day can come from removing all carbohydrates and fats. The gut wants something to work on though, so fibre is needed, which may mean more work for the cook.

[fancyoats]

I have lost 90lbs (from 245lbs down to 155lbs) since January 2023, and I would attribute a large part of my success to being consistent with the erg. As you say, it’s all down to keeping your “calories in” < “calories out”. Eating less than you burn.

That said, as long as you are tracking accurately and controlling your intake (use a food scale!) then spending time on the rower really really absolutely DOES help boost the “calories out” bit. If I do an hour of steady state at 2:30ish splits I will burn approx 650 calories according to the PM. That number may or may not be totally and completely accurate, but I have a year + worth of data now, and let me tell you, it tracks pretty closely with my calories/weight trend data. It’s not *that* far off.

You can do it. Being consistent and putting the time in is what matters most.

[RWAGR]

90 lbs is a stunning achievement!

[gvcormac]

I have lost 90lbs (from 245lbs down to 155lbs) since January 2023, and I would attribute a large part of my success to being consistent with the erg. As you say, it’s all down to keeping your “calories in” < “calories out”. Eating less than you burn.

That said, as long as you are tracking accurately and controlling your intake (use a food scale!) then spending time on the rower really really absolutely DOES help boost the “calories out” bit. If I do an hour of steady state at 2:30ish splits I will burn approx 650 calories according to the PM. That number may or may not be totally and completely accurate, but I have a year + worth of data now, and let me tell you, it tracks pretty closely with my calories/weight trend data. It’s not *that* far off.

You can do it. Being consistent and putting the time in is what matters most.

The Concept 2 calorie count gives you 300 cal/hr just for being alive. If you subtract that, you get a reasonable (but still coarse) estimate of net calories burned from exercise. So your hour is probably 350 net calories burned. That's a pound of fat every ten days -- if you don't increase your intake by 350 cals, which is easy to do!

[fancyoats]

The Concept 2 calorie count gives you 300 cal/hr just for being alive. If you subtract that, you get a reasonable (but still coarse) estimate of net calories burned from exercise. So your hour is probably 350 net calories burned. That's a pound of fat every ten days -- if you don't increase your intake by 350 cals, which is easy to do!

I’m not sure where you got that 300 for just being alive number and maybe it’s true. I was in fact alive during this past year though and all I can say is that the math worked for me, taking the calorie burn from the PM5 at face value. Worked out my average calorie intake and compared to my average rate of loss over a period of months to figure out my average deficit and what my maintenance calories would be, etc, and it all tracked very closely.

However, I’m just one person and your mileage (meters? metabolism?) may vary.

[fancyoats]

90 lbs is a stunning achievement!

Thanks, it’s truly been life changing