Getting Back Into Shape While At The Office?

rhuntley12 writes "Personally, I sit at a computer desk for 10 hours a day with very little actual work. I've also started to get a little belly and out of shape. I know it's real bad in my office, especially with all the beer I consume. What do you do to stay in shape? Any secrets? Recently I've started to do sit ups, push ups, and running up and down the stairs. I get a lot of odd looks, and would prefer something that doesn't make the whole office stare at me. I've looked through some websites with equipment, but it's all serious equipment I can't/won't lug into work. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Let's make a deal

[krog]

Eureka! I've got it.

We can switch lives. I bike everywhere, including to work, so exercise is omnipresent. How about I take your job drinking beer ten hours a day, and you get some exercise. To keep it fair we can split our pay evenly. You can even fuck my girlfriend sometimes (again, good exercise).

Now, does your workplace have taps, or is it all bottled beer? Domestic or imported? Is there a good bitter or porter there? I must know these things before we continue.

You're welcome.

Re:Let's make a deal

[chowdmouse]

Shucks! Beats the hell out of Atkins. Send picture of girlfriend and bike. We'll talk.

Re:Let's make a deal

[Illserve]

He's got a good point. Bike ride to work.

It works for me. Saves me money in car gas and parking and depending on how far you have to go, takes the same amount of time as driving.

Also, you make the earth cleaner, or some crap like that, but who cares. This is about YOU.

Re:Let's make a deal

[TerryAtWork]

This is a great message, however, if you're actually getting laid you have no business on /. , so I'd like to respectfully ask you to leave.

Re:Let's make a deal

[cdrudge]

Some friendly advice a friend once gave me:
During the first year, put a penny in a jar for everytime you have sex. After the first year, take a penny out everytime. The jar won't ever be empty

Re:Let's make a deal

[Choobius Gothicus]

This is wholly unsubstantiated, and mainly applied to individuals already diagnosed with kidney problems. If this were true, we would experience an epidemic of this phenomenon from people such as weightlifters who are recommended to eat 1gm/lb body wgt/day, much more than Atkins recommends.

The numbers don't lie for a proper implementation of the Atkins Diet: higher HDL, lower LDL, reduction of risk/elimination of Diabetes (type II), reduced volatility in blood sugar levels, etc...

A proper implementation != bacon and eggs for breakfast, 1 pound of macadamia nuts for lunch, and large quantities of prime rib and lobster for dinner, with butter and cheese for snacks. Although these foods are welcome, it's all in moderation. Atkins is a well balanced diet (not a fad diet) with an emphasis on severe reduction of carbs. There's a mini-conspiracy brewing with the food industry and their disagreement with this diet. The profit margin for serving hamburgers on enriched flour bread is substantial, and the extra value meal has an even larger profit margin %.

The FDA recommends that individuals ingest approximately 300g of carbohydrates a day. This amount is awful for just about any individual other than one who ingests pasta and whole wheat exclusively, and bikes 25 miles/day. For everyone else, this is simply a recipe for a spare tire (man) or a bubble butt/hips (woman). Obviously, the individual beginning this thread is not a threat of doing significant bike riding daily.

Re:Let's make a deal

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Heck,

I know how to "get in shape"...

The shape is "Round".

Re:Let's make a deal

[PatientZero]

When I moved to San Francisco back in 1995, I was a little overweight (180 vs. 165 target) and in poor shape from no exercise. I compounded the problem by discovering the many fine microbreweries in the City and ballooned to 195.

The first thing I had to do was stop beating myself up for being fat and accept that my body was how it was. I began looking in the mirror and saying, "Hey, that's not me" rather than, "God what a piece of shit." Changing my attitude toward myself allowed me to take the next step.

That next step was finding an activity that I really liked. I love to ski, but I don't get to do it often. But rollerblading is very similar in feel and fun aspect. I began rollerblading after work every night. I wanted to do it for an hour every night, but it was so damn fun I didn't want to stop before two hours.

Six weeks later I had dropped 30 pounds and had very nice, firm calves and legs. And DAMN did my butt look good. I've floated around 170 since then. Sometimes I'm in better shape; sometimes not. But I find that the key is finding activities you enjoy anyway and people to do them with.

I also took a diet/exercise course a little while ago that showed *why* eating healthy helps your body to remain healthy and strong as well as how to exercise effectively. Better to simply eat right than worry about cutting calories.

Fruit, vegetables, whole wheat and grains, dietary fiber, drop enriched/processed/refined foods, etc. Skip the Atkins diet as it's just not necessary, and there's enough evidence that it's not safe.

Secret to losing weight...

[PantyChewer]

Eat less, Shit more

Re:Secret to losing weight...

[gosand]

Eat less, Shit more

Simply removing a comma and a word gives more advice too...

Eat less shit

Get up and walk.

[doppleganger871]

Simple. Get up and walk around. Contrary to all the paid ads on tv... just burning calories will take weight off. You don't have to target yer stomach if you wanna lose a gut. Targeting exersize is for building/toning muscle groups.

Re:Get up and walk.

[Jucius Maximus]

"Contrary to all the paid ads on tv... just burning calories will take weight off. "

And lay off the carbohydrates too. This might start a flame war (Atkins diet arguments and such.) You should lay of the bread, chips, orange juice, and other things that have a lot of carbs. This stuff gets absorbed by your body and makes you fat. Actual fat is more or less just passing through and makes it into the toilet with your centrum multivitamin.

Cutting back on the carbohydrates and stepping up on the exercise is really what makes the difference.

Now, would anyone with a better understanding of dietary values care to correct me?

Re:Get up and walk.

[Toasty981]

I find the carbohydrates vs. fats arguments silly. It's all about calories. It's simple: If you take in more than you burn per day, no matter what the source, you gain weight.

That being said, there's a big difference in carbohydrates. Avoid refined sugars (manufactured, like cake)if you need sweet foods and stay with the natural carbs found in sweet things like fruit and veggies.

Also stick with complex carbohydrates/starches, found in cereals, grain, bread, pasta, etc. They're healthy, and if you keep your diet in check, you'll lose weight and be feeding good stuff to your body.

Of course, a lot of the above doesn't apply if you go the weightlifting route, but that's an entirely different argument.

Re:Get up and walk.

[crazyphilman]

I'm not going to argue the point, because you have a good one, but I'll add a warning:

If you're one of the 800 out of 100,000 people who are susceptible to gout, you'd better stick to a high-carb, low-protein diet or you'll be in a world of hurt in no time. I went on Atkins and lost thirty pounds. So far, so good, right? But, one morning I woke in agony. The high protein brought on a horrible attack of gout, which is a form of arthritis affecting the large joints of the foot, and often comes on overnight with very little warning. I felt like someone was driving red hot spikes through my big toe's largest joint, and within a few days I couldn't even walk. It's about a week and a half later, and I'm hobbling around, yoda-style with a wooden cane, but at least the pain has gone way down (I'm a vegetarian now, and I'm drinking huge amounts of water, cranberry juice, and cherry juice, which seems to be helping).

GOUT. And, I'm only 32!!!

Anyway, you won't know you're susceptible until you have an attack, and if you have an attack, you'll wish you were dead for at least a week or two. It's really, really horrible. The pain is really intense.

Re:Get up and walk.

[cybermage]

I find the carbohydrates vs. fats arguments silly. It's all about calories. It's simple: If you take in more than you burn per day, no matter what the source, you gain weight.

Not necessarily. Here's the rationale for low-carb diets in a nutshell:

1. In order to store calories as fat, the body needs insulin to get the sugar from the blood into the cells.
2. Most carbohydrates drive up the blood-sugar level causing the release of insulin.
3. If you greatly reduce or eliminate carbs from your diet, you have a very hard time storing excess calories due to the short supply of insulin.

So,

4. If you eliminate or reduce carbs, you have a very hard time creating new fat storage.

The trick, then, is to manage to burn existing stores. On a low/no-carb diet, any excersize that triggers the burning of fat should be permanent weight loss.

You are correct in saying that you need to burn more than you consume to lose weight, but a low-carb diet gives you a net to work with. If you consume too many calories in a day, you won't lose weight, but you won't gain either (as long as the excess isn't carbs.)

This advice comes to you from someone who's managed to lose 114 lbs dieting and has kept it off. I got BIG sitting at the computer. I can tell you that there's no substitute for excersize, but the right restrictions on intake can help a lot. Any Slashdotters who want some serious advice/support from someone who's been their, just drop me an email.

Re:Get up and walk.

[bmajik]

your first statement doesn't jive with the second. :)

you rightly say to avoid refined sugars, and that different carbs do different things to you.

but you first said that its all about calories.

thats about as empty as saying "the key to scoring with women, is the _intercourse_"

then the third thing you say - stick with starches - is a baaaaad idea.

here's what i currently understand to be the case: (based on the book "The Sugar Busters Diet", recommended to me by my doctor to try and avoid the onset of Type2 diabeties)

the majority of fat on our bodies comes from sugars. Eating any food with a high glycemic index will elevate the blood sugar level in the body. The pancreas secretes insulin to lower the blood sugar level. Insulin is the hormone that tells fat cells to open the gates and suck as much sugar out of the blood as possible.

See many thin diabetics ?

refined sugars and fast-burning carbs cause a glycemic reaction that effectively means your blood sugar level spikes. the body must gush insulin into the bloodstream to back that away into fat cells as fast as possible, because there's no way you could legitimately burn the energy stored in all that sugar in time to regulate your blood sugar back down via consumption. oh, theres a nice vicious cycle effect here as well. See, the more insulin you have in your blood, the more your body's cells are likely to develop insulin resistance. So you already need elevated insulin to quell the shitty food you just ate. Then you need to supplement that insulin because your body responds to it at a reduced rate. the pancreas eventually gives up, running at a dually accelerated rate. poor food choices are a 1-2 punch that basically guarantee type2 diabeties in people, which is why 30 and 40 year olds are getting it in droves.

the shitty thing about this is polluting your bloodstream with a glycemic spike means that all subsequent food you eat - no matter how healthy - goes straight to fat until the suger level is under control. the helpful, natural sugars in fruits? - straight to fat, because you've still got more blood sugar than you can handle.

Starch incidentally is one of the worst things to eat, because its turned into sugar by the body in an extremely fast and efficient manner. A baked potato is equivalent to between 50 and 85% of its volume of table sugar, from a blood sugar perspective. Nobody would knowingly eat that much refined sugar!!

Non diet pop is the absolute worst, however. It is literally bottled poison. There are more than 10 teaspoons of sugar in a can of coke. There is infact so much sugar in there that they salt it up a little to balance the taste. (why do you think pop is high in sodium ?)

case in point: on the nutrition card at burger king, they list the nutrition info for a extra-king size Coke. its 950 calories, and 108 GRAMS of sugar.

lets do some math - 108 grams is a tenth of a kilogram, and a kilogram is 2.2 pounds, so 108 grams is .22 pounds, or a QUARTER POUND. There is a QUARTER POUND of sugar in a king-size coke from burger king. Nobody in their right mind would knowingly add a quarter pound of table sugar to a beverage. the refined foods industry in the US is doing its population a huge disservice. Unfortuneately, heavily sweetened foods taste better, so people buy them. But the costs are staggering. obesity will replace smoking as the #1 killer in america within the next few years. Childhood obesity is estimated at almost 50%.

THe faster you cut all high glycemic foods out of your diet, the happier you'll be. (you being the "general you")

I go to the gym during lunch...

[gatkinso]

...there are some super hot chicks there, it breaks up the day, and I get a moderate workout in. I only stay for about 45 minutes, but I guess it is better than nothing.

drink water!

[Comsn]

if you drink pop all day, all of the sugar accumulates. try drinking water instead. you should lose a couple pounds after a week or two.

Re:drink water!

[MyPantsAreOnFire!]

This is a perfect way to start. There are two ways to reduce your un-healthiness: 1. Excercise 2. Eat well. Because of your long hours and potential lack of motivation, exercise may not be possible for you. So, change your diet!

1. Soda/Pop is terrible. It's like drinking liquid sugarcane that transforms into belly fat almost instantly (when you don't exercise.) If you can't live without caffiene, they have caffienated water available.

2. Watch what you snack on. I know that when I code, I get cravings to buy every candy bar in the store across the street and eat it. One way I get around this is drinking TONS of water -- if your stomach is full of water, you won't want to snack.

3. Bring a semi-healthy lunch to work. Don't go out to eat with everyone else when they do a mass exodus to {Wendy's, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, etc.}. Even if your lunch is bringing a frozen microwave burrito from home, it's still 100 times better than eating a double-double from In and Out.

4. Switch to Light beer (Ugh). Yes, I know, it sucks, but it will save you in the long run in two ways: 1. light beer has half of the calories of regular beer, and 2. usually light beers are domestics, so they tend to cost less at bars and the store than pricey (yet oh so tasty) imported beers.

5. Exercise. What I've found personally is that you can eat buckets of crisco all day but if you run marathons when you get home, you'll burn all that fat off. If you really want to eat and drink whatever you want, go home and run around the block.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Re:drink water!

[tomhudson]

Switch to Light beer (Ugh).

Why not just slit your wrists and be done with it?

Seriously, you can't get around the laws of thermodynamics. If you're putting on the pounds, it's because there's more energy going in than going out.

That's why I invented the Chocolate Chip diet. Bought 4-5 bags of Chunky Chololate Chip cookies twice a week, me and my dog would just sit there and eat 1, 2, sometimes three bags at a sitting.

So, how does this make you lose weight? Remember how your parents would tell you not to eat junk because it would spoil your supper? It works. Eating healthy still leaves you craving for a junk-food fix. Eating junk fills you up. After several months of this, not only did I not want to see another chocolate chip cookie, but I had also lost about 20 pounds. At that point, it was a pleasure to start eating regular-type meals, and the weight has stayed off (been about 2 years now, and I've gotten rid of another 30 pounds w/o dieting).Problem now is that I don't seem to be able to put any weight back on (metabolism sped up as a consequence of being lighter).

And, yes, you can have beer.

The only exercise I get is walking my dogs. Mind you, I bring them to the office, so when I get jammed on code, I can take a hike :-)

Eat a big breakfast, a small lunch, and junk out at night to take care of the cravings and you should be okay.

run

[AssFace]

there is no secret to losing weight.

you have to burn more calories than you take in.

so either take in less calories (stop drinking all the beer) or burn more (run).

I run in the mornings and am working my way back up to 70 miles a week.
I'm in shape.

funny how those go hand in hand.

Re:run

[blahtree]

A note for those wanting to take up running. Running can be pretty hard on the joints. You need to start slowly in order to not only build muscle strength, but to build the stregth of your connective tissues as well.

You might consider the American Running Association's12 week Walk/Run program. It's a great way to get started.

Plus, remember to stretch. You're setting yourself up for a world of pain if you don't.

Re:run

[mausmalone]

there is no secret to losing weight.

Well, there are a few secrets... but most have to do with learning to get into good habits. I think if you don't work out now, the prospect of running 70 miles a week is daunting enough to scare you away, so don't think you have to approach this thing immediately.

First, cut out all soda (pop). Like another poster said, the sugar accumulates. I was in a similar dilema, cut out the soda, and I was down 10 pounds inside of a month without much exercise at all.

Eat healthier. With every meal, you must have a vegetable. They are low-calorie, fill you up (so you eat less else), and they're good for your digestive system.

Eat less. A simple rule, but hard to follow. Cut back on snacking first, then cut back on portions. No matter how well you're eating, seconds are out of the question.

Avoid starches. Starches tend to trap fat and sugars in your stomach and prevent them from being properly digested. As such, you have to eat more to get the energy you need to keep going, and the extra gets converted to fat later. Basically, less breads, less potatoes, will do you good. Remember: beer is liquid bread.

Any activity is better than no activity. If you're unhealthy, it can be hard to exercise because you don't have the stamina, and you probably have a lot more weight to move around. But still, if you get out every day and do some walking, you'll lose weight much more effectively. Also, DDR is a great solution for those of us addicted to video games. It may not be all that amazing of a workout (by workout standards) but remember that every little bit of exercise helps.

Stick with it. Even if you don't meet your weight-loss goals, don't give up. Re-adjust your goals and keep trying. Gradually, you will get used to the smaller portions and exercise, which will make it easier to push yourself harder. Remember that you're not trying to lose a few pounds for a date or something... you're making a slow transition to a healthier lifestyle.

That being said, I'm no weight loss guru... I'm a web-page designer. I sit on my bum all day typing, and I don't wanna be a gigantic fat-ass. I used to be about 300 lbs., but using the above methods, I've worked myself down to 250 in about 6 months. It's not a radical change, but it's been slow, steady progress. My situation was a lot like yours is. There are no secrets to weight loss, but there are some tricks you can use to make it a little easier. The secret isn't that you have to take in less calories, the secret is learning to do that every day.

Make your body Open Source!

[Lieutenant_Dan]

I think it would benefit you not just physically, but also emotionally if you made your body available to the Open Source developer community. Their social integrity, hard work, and yoga expertise would enable to reach those goals you've had since Thanksgiving '96.

It is vital that developers allow the Open Source developer community to dictate their diet, physical exercise regiment, and holistics. Their experience will allow to gain a physique similar to Atlas, Ferrigno, or a trim body like Woody Allen.

Only when we realize the perverse writings of Suzanne Sommers are misguiding the children of our generation, can we free the stranglehold that Starbucks has on society.

Which is nice.

Well

[blitzoid]

A simple thing you could do is go for a quick job during your lunch break. Of course it would be wise to change clothing, but a quick jog every day can do wonders for you. It's good excersize and you could probably fit it into your current schedule.

And if it's a tech job, just move heavy computers around all day... it looks like real work!

How about absolutley no work

[indole]

Says he:

Personally, I sit at a computer desk for 10 hours a day with very little actual work.

I'll second that.
(although clicking refresh to constantly reload slashdot feels workish.)

My solution won't work for most of you, but...

[_Sambo]

I ride my mountain bike to work. I only live about 4 miles from work, which translates to a 15 minute ride to and from work. It's enough to keep me in pretty good shape.

Oh wait, also give up beer.

Re:My solution won't work for most of you, but...

[ctr2sprt]

Yes, for that svelte, thin you, I recommend vodka and heroin.

My own recommended tips

[Dark Paladin]

First, let me preface this by saying that I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.

I started to worry a bit more about my health when I hit 30 a few short months ago. I've been blessed with a decent matabilism, but even a good burn rate can't help you when you sit on the ass 12 hours a day between home/work/stuff.

So here are my own tips that have kept me pretty good so far:

Eating Habits

Eat more meals a day, smaller amounts. Between 4 and 6 is good. Instead of taking that lunch break and loading up on tons of stuff that just leaves you sluggish, keep some food at your desk. And try to keep it to good stuff. A veggie platter is good with ranch dressing or something like that, maybe even a meat tray with mustards, I like sardines in mustard/tomato sauce with saltines off and on (which is why my coworkers are glad I have my own office).

My personal adage for food is that it's better to eat a bit of something that tastes good, rather than a lot of something that tastes bad. Fats and oils are not the pure enemy - as long as you do it in moderation. I think Jon what's-his-name from Good Eats had a good point back in a slashdot interview when me mentioned people don't eat fats, then they get hungry later. Good point. So veggies good, dressing with veggies good, meat good - don't just have junk food.

And I'm sorry - but loose the beer. I don't drink it myself, but that's because I think it tastes like shit. At least cut down, go lite beer - whatever. It's a lot of calories you don't need.

Exercise

Again, I have my own office, so about the chime of every hour I'll stop, do some pushups/situps, and go back. Not a lot, but just enough to get the heart pumping a bit. After work, I am again blessed to have a gym right on the campus I work at, so I can hit the treadmill for 30 minutes before I grab my stuff and go home.

If you can't do that, then do what I did at my last job - squeeze it in. Park at the farthest point you can so you have to walk into/out of work. If there's public transportation you can use, do that - if you have to drive all the way in, then park far. Believe it or not, but my last job I parked about a good block oway.

When you go to lunch, don't drive there, walk to it. You know that Jared guy? I don't think he got thin off of the Subways, it was the fact he walked back and forth from the Subway to work every day. Never, never, never use the elevator or escalators - always the stairs. Make less phone calls to co-workers if you can - get up, go walk to them.

Now, I know some people will say "But - I'm a telemarketer/I can't get up/some other excuse". Bullshit. There's always something you can do.

You don't have to change your whole lifestyle, but if your health is important and you want to be more when you're in your retirement than a rotting bag of bones, you have to make the time now. And it's not much - studies I've seen show 30 minutes a day is the rule, but it doesn't always have to be consecutive. A few minutes going up the stairs to a meeting, a little bit walking down the block to your car, maybe you buy an Eyetoy (I had a reader who loved hers - the boxing/kung fu games alone should get a good sweat) and play with that, or a Dance Dance Revolution pad for parties. And I will kill for a set of the official Sambe De Amigo maracas - not the cheap ass rip offs. Whatever.

I'm no Richard Simmons (I like women too much), and I'm no Arnold, but I've been able to stay fit enough for wild monkey sex with my wife. I could probably even cut out the treadmill if my family was down here with me just running after my son when he steals my Gameboy Advance SP.

Anyway, that's my take. These may not work for you, and I'm no expert, but hopefully these help.

High Water Intake is a Good Idea

[opti6600]

Something I discovered is replacing soda (or in your case beer), with bottled water. It's just as convenient, and is more filling and actually serves a purpose.

Also, a high water intake (just as long as you don't start killing off your kidneys) will help to detox you a bit, always nice in cubeville.

Re:High Water Intake is a Good Idea

[autechre]

Most places in the U.S., you're perfectly fine drinking water from the tap. I heard ("conventional wisdom") that spring water loses any befirts after having been out of the ground for 2 hours. I haven't researched this, but it doesn't taste any different than good tap water to me.

I bring a plastic cup to work and refill it from the water fountain. Much cheaper*, and has the added benefit of making you GET UP every so often.

If you get bored of water all day (understandable), you can try fruit juice. But please, do REAL fruit juice and not colored hummingbird food. Juicy Juice and Ocean Spray 100% are my favorites. Also, don't spend all day drinking it or 1) you'll go broke, and 2) food will seem to pass straight through you without slowing down.

High water intake, OTOH, is a very good idea, and most people don't drink nearly enough. It's something like 2 quarts per day for an adult. May sound strange, but if your urine is clear, you're set.

* For those who haven't read YMOYL, it has the sensible notion of a "real hourly wage". Deduct the money you spend on work clothes, eating lunch out, transportation, everything, from your salary. See what you're really earning.

Re:High Water Intake is a Good Idea

[skryche]

As I understand it, that whole "Everyone is dehydrated"/"drink 8 glasses a day" concept is a myth.

if your urine is clear, you're set.

Yeah, if you have opaque urine, I'd definitely worry.

Use a Ball as a office chair...

[Gori]

One way I found to keep at least a marginal amount of excercise while I sit and work is to sit on a ball instead of a chair.

Have a look for example here (i'm in no way associated with these folks....)

It helps improve your balance, strengthens your back/stomach muscles and does a great job of preventing Repetative Strain Injury. You really notice the difference after you used it for a while and than go back to a normal chair. It feels all stiff and uncomfortable...

I've enjoyed it for more than two years now. I got some weird looks in the begining, but now there are a number of people in the office using them too. Hope it helps.

Re:Eh?

[The Turd Report]

Do these pants make my ass look big?

No, the fat in your ass makes it look big. ;) (C'mon, hasn't every guy wanted to say that to his GF when she asks that question?)

Just be sure you have...

[djeaux]

... burst resistant balls!

"Burst Resistant ... balls are strongly recommended in all environments as staples or other sharp items may unexpectedly pierce your..." Oh, nevermind...

Dance Dance Revolution!

[AtaruMoroboshi]

If you like video games, Dance Dance Revolution might be the answer for you. It's working for me, (ie, I'm losing weight and feeling better) and in the past I've only been able to stick to an exercise schedule if I was paying for gym access. "Better go exercise, I can't let the monthly fee go to waste!"

The basic set up for DDR is a pad on the floor with arrows pointing front, back, left & right. The game has over a hundred songs to choose from, with difficulties ranking from 1 to 10 feet, and basic, trick, and maniac modes for each song. There's an immense amount of replay value.

During the game, arrows scroll up the screen and you hit the arrows on the pad with your feet, in time with the music. For fast songs on difficult settings, this is very challenging, but more to the point: it's exhausting.

The key to DDR is learning how to keep your balance while hitting all of the arrows. I found that at first, I would bounce my whole body up and down in time with the music. This was exhausting, even on the easy songs. Nowadays, 5 months later, I am playing some fairly hard songs (6 foot songs on basic and trick), and while I am moving significantly more efficiently, the game is still pushing my physical limits of endurance and dexterity.

Because it is a video game with a scoring system and several levels of difficulty, there is a built in incentive to achieve the next level of ability, whether that means getting an A rank on a song, or trying a 6 foot song for the first time. This keeps me going, as I set goals and attempt perfect runs of my favorite songs. I can easily keep playing for an hour or more, and afterwards I jump right into the shower and cool off.

Get the home version, a cheap dance pad, and a PSone, and you're set up for $100 (including the PS1!!)

Run through the lesson mode, and you will learn the basics. If you stick with the game and play at least a couple times a week for 4 months or so, you will definitely lose weight and gain some footwork skills. Not to mention it's fun to show off in the arcade!

for more info on DDR: http://www.ddrfreak.com/

.

Get hungry and learn to love the feeling

[selderrr]

sounds harsh, but it works. It's all in the mind. The natural reflex of a human is to eat when yuo're hungry. Fight that reflex in 2 ways :

1. Don't stuff yourself when you're hungry. Eat a little. And eat stuff that contains fewer calories, like fruit or yoghourt.
2. Learn to appreciate the feeling of a tiny hunger. Consider it a sign from your belly to your brain saying "hey dude : you're losing weight right now ! Keep up the spirit !".

That, plus exercise offcourse. For myself, I found podBiking a great calory burner : iPod + real bicycle for 2 hours at least. Get a real bike though, not that mountainbike shit. That's for sissies. A racing bike is a bit more expensive, but it's so much more fun to ride since you don't get exhausted from rubbing the asphalt all the time with those huge gripping tires. When i switched from mountainbikes to racebikes, my appetite for cycling doubled. I do twice as many hours now as I did before.

Re:Get hungry and learn to love the feeling

[EZmagz]

I was going to mod you down, but couldn't help myself...

podBiking? Get real, my friend. If you're dumb enough to go biking on public roads for 2 hours a day listening to your iPod, don't be surprised when someone like me accidentally swipes you off the road in my '84 Cutlass hoopty. Honestly. There's absolutely no place for people to be biking while listening to music. Nada. Since /.'ers seem to love analogies, podBiking would be the close equivalent of being on a motorcycle while listening to music at full blast and talking on a cell phone. Dangerous, stupid, and setting yourself up for failure.

And just because you don't like mountain bikes, doesn't mean they're for "sissies". I mountain bike on singletrack TRAILS, where mountain bikes are SUPPOSED to be ridden, and it's great and at least as exhausting as road biking. Trust me. I've done both for a looong time.

However, your point about not stuffing yourself is a good one. There's a world of difference between eating and being content, and eating and being stuffed. Hence why more frequent smaller meals are better for you than 3 pig-fest buffets. The diabetic diet works for a reason.

Take the stairs

[RainbowSix]

Never take the elevator. Ever. Do you work on the 30th floor of an office building? Run them to get to your work area, then run them to and from lunch, then run them when you go home. 120 flights of steps right there. If you're like me and you live in an apartment, take the steps there every time you leave or come home, and when you are swapping laundry from washer to drier. It adds up very quickly. Last year I lived on the 9th floor and I took them at least 6 times a day to and from class, and to and from activities. 54 flights of steps a day.

Next time you walk past the elevator or are in an elevator, take a look around: what type of people are the ones taking the elevator up one story?

The really obvious solution

[Angst Badger]

1. Quit drinking beer in the office. If you really must be inebriated while you're coding, try whiskey instead.

2. People won't look at you funny if you work in the office and work out out of the office.

3. Tell me what slack-ass place you work at so I can get a job there.

Check out the Hacker's Diet.

[oneiros27]

It hasn't even been three months since the Hacker's Diet was mentioned.

Basically, one of the points made is that it takes a lot of exercise to lose weight. Although John Walker (the author) does suggest exercise, he recommends using a 10-15 minute a day program based off that of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Personally, by watching my calorie intake, without exercising, I've lost about 30 pounds since April, and I'm trying to shed another 10-20 to get back to the 150-160lb range. I'm guessing that cutting out sodas has has the most profound impact on what I've changed, diet wise. Of course, I had to slowly cut back... It's not like I was drinking 3L of Mt. Dew per day, as I was in college, but I was probably drinking a good 1.5L of sodas per day. Oh...and you do have to drink water, or as a compromise, sports drinks, as fruit juices tend to have just as mushc sugar as sodas.

Grad School!

[Tim]

Since entering grad school, I've dropped more than 30 pounds! It's a miracle! I highly recommend the Grad School Diet!

Seriously, when I was working a desk job, I was gaining weight, and now I'm losing weight. And this is despite the fact that I still sit on my duff 8+ hours a day while working. The differences are:

• I walk everywhere . Something about being in a college environment encourages this, but there's nothing preventing you from walking more often. Walk to the store, to the bus, to lunch, etc.
• I eat a lot less. When I was working, it wasn't uncommon to find myself eating high-Calorie fast food at my desk, sitting all day, then going home to eat a large dinner. These days, my schedule is less regular, and as a result, I eat smaller meals, more sporadically. I'm poor, so I often bring my leftover dinner to work (which reduces portion size). Finally, I just eat less now. I realize that this is harder when you're sitting at a desk all day long, but there's nothing stopping you from eating less food.
• When I get stressed, I go to the gym. This one is simple, deceptively so. You'd be amazed at how an hour of daily weight training or running can eliminate stress from your life. And it makes you healthier, too! The trick is getting in the habit, and that can be difficult. Try this: sign up for a gym with a friend. Go regularly, and go together, at least at first. You'll force each other to go in the beginning, but before long, you'll find that you need to go to feel healthy and productive. And that's when it becomes automatic.

I realize that this sounds a lot like the "eat less, exercise more" advice you're hearing from others. The thing is, they're right, but it seems impossible to follow their advice when you're out of shape and chained to a desk. You have to force these things to become habit. Start slowly (say, with walking daily), and gradually build up your exercise regimen. As you get bored, change what you're doing, and try something new. Before long, it will be an important component of your life (and as I said before, exercise is a great stress-reliever!)

(Side note: whatever you do, you don't have to kill yourself doing it. I used to make the mistake of exercising way too hard, giving up from the pain, and as a result, rarely exercising. Whatever you do, stay in your aerobic heart rate range, and realize that the fact that you're not dying doesn't mean you aren't getting exercise.)

Simple tips

[pla]

if you drink pop all day, all of the sugar accumulates.

I agree with that one 100%. At my previous workplace, we had free soda fountains for the engineers, and I would literally consume up to a gallon of Mountain Dew each day. Switching to diet Dew, though I had to buy it myself, cut literally 1500 calories per day from my diet, and it didn't "hurt" (in the sense of having to go without something) at all.


As a fairly typical geek, I tend to dislike most sports (particularly those involving "teams" - stupid primate dominance rituals). I also cannot stand going to the gym - You have to deal with too many people unless you go at obscene times of the day, bad smells, paying attention to which muscle groups you work, and at least one of my friends who go almost always have some gym-related injury they need to work around (Pulled neck, crunched knee, hyperextended bicep, blah blah blah). And, I personally consider going to a gym just incredibly boring.

You might, however, find that you enjoy an alternative form of exercise.

Personally, I enjoy hiking, and just getting out at least once each weekend for a good 4-6 hour hike will both keep you toned and keep the weight down.

Alternatively, swimming burns massive amounts of calories, and you don't even need to sweat while doing it.

As another nice alternative, though it does tend to involve a small number of other people, try taking up a martial art (a "real" one, not cardio-kickboxing or one of the cheesy pseudo martial arts designed just to give you an aerobic workout). I formerly took Kempo (and will again, when I find a good dojo in the area to which I moved), and found it quite enjoyable. You'll find yourself in the best shape of your life, it won't bore you nearly as much as going to the gym, since it engages your mind as well as your body, and as a side effect you'll gain the ability to defend yourself if you ever have a need to do so.


The real "secret", though, doesn't count as a secret at all. Limit your caloric intake and/or get more exercise. No other "fad" will help you, they all just find ways to hide the discomfort of denying our genetic predisposition to eating as much as possible in case of a famine. Find something you enjoy, and do it. Try a lot of different activities, you must like something. And find little ways to burn more calories during the day (walk/bike to work and/or lunch, if possible; Always take the stairs rather than the elevator; walk to a coworker's cubical rather than calling or emailing someone 50 feet away).

Re:Access to showers important...

[rworne]

Not a problem. Wear bike clothes on your way to work.

In the Panniers described earlier in the thread you carry your work clothes, some deodorant and a dampened towel in a large Ziploc bag.

Get to work, hop in the restroom, use a stall as a changing station. Wipe down with the towel & put it back in the bag. Apply deodorant. Change into your work clothes and comb hair.

When you are sitting around and sweating, the sweat is more oily and you will stink. When you sweat from constant physical exertion, the sweat does not tend to stink as much.

Change back into the bike clothes for the trip back.

BTW: Real cyclists don't wear underwear.

100% wrong - debunking the carb/fat myth

[siskbc]

No offense, but you're way off on the carb stuff..

And lay off the carbohydrates too. This might start a flame war (Atkins diet arguments and such.) You should lay of the bread, chips, orange juice, and other things that have a lot of carbs. This stuff gets absorbed by your body and makes you fat.

Yes, excess carbs do get turned to fat. However, so do excess protein and excess fat. The difference is that carbs and protein are 4 cal/gram, while fat is 9 cal/gram. You do the math.

Actual fat is more or less just passing through and makes it into the toilet with your centrum multivitamin.

Don't know who told you that but they didn't know what they were talking about. Fat is readily absorbed. Notice how people who eat a lot of fried food get fat? That's right. Fat makes you fat. Shocking, I know, but it's true. The only way fat isn't completely absorbed is to eat a ton of it really quickly. The problem is that 1) your body is then absorbing fat as fast as it possibly can, which is enough to make you morbidly obese, and 2) any fat in your poo gives you nasty diarrhea, which I'm assuming isn't an attractive solution. Otherwise, pretty much all fat is absorbed.

Cutting back on the carbohydrates and stepping up on the exercise is really what makes the difference.

Excercise is of course good - particularly intensive cardio, as the longer it takes you to get your heart rate back to normal after excercise, the more calories you burn. Additionally, doing a lot of frequent cardio can raise your metabolism. Think of it as excercising when you aren't excercising. Good deal, eh?

Regarding the carbs fiasco - I guarantee you, if I eat 1 pound of carbs, and you eat 1 pound of fat, you will put on twice the weight as you consume (more than) twice the calories. The mitigating factor is that simple carbs are broken down much faster. Put a cracker in your mouth, and within seconds it tastes sweet - because it's broken down into simple sugar before it even hits your stomach, and simple sugar is readily absorbed like nothing else.

That is bad because eating a lot of simple carbs spikes your blood sugar, causing your body to release a ton of insulin. However, because it was a short-term sugar spike, you now have too much insulin, causing blood sugar to plummet. At the same time, your stomach has emptied, making you really hungry. That's why simple carbs are bad.

So what to do? To lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than you use, of course. Naturally, that means regulating your blood sugar and keeping yourself non-hungry with the least calories possible. A nearly all-fat diet is bad because, while you're satisfied (fat digests slowly), you also consume massive amounts of calories. Simple carbs are the opposite - each binge is small, but you're hungry every 10 minutes. The best recommendation is a good amount of protein, complex carbs, and a diet with 30% of calories from fat. That way, you don't eat too often, and you don't get 2000 calories/meal, either.

Complex carbs are things like whole grains and such. So brown, whole-grain bread is good. If you like pasta and rice, again get the whole-grain stuff, and cook it less time than usual - cooking carbs in water breaks them down, effectively digesting them. The more they digest in the pot, the quicker they are absorbed in your body.

Bottom line is the Atkins diet is dangerous, containing way too much saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories from fat, and too much protein can be bad on the kidneys. Eat a balanced diet low in simple carbs, substituting complex carbs instead, and you'll do well.

Less beer, more liquor

[Axiom_1]

Beer has a lot of calories. Seriously - check your nutritional information labels.

Hard liquor is much better for you. In fact, if you drink enough right after a meal, you can actually get negative calories from it...

no way!

[lingqi]

the jar has went into deficite a loooong time ago.

oh wait. you don't mean only take pennies out when you have sex with your wife, do you?

shucks! (dumps back 500 dollars in pennies)

Re:no way!

[SeanAhern]

You're off by a power of 10.

$500 in pennies = 50,000 pennies.
Divide by 365.25 ~= 137 times per day.

Still, I'm surprised he survived, too! :-)

Re:Access to showers important...

[rworne]

And the bacteria feed on the secretions that come out of the sweat glands. Eccrine sweat glands are what cause you to cool off while exercising, Apocrine sweat glands are responsible for the bacteria B.O. fest:

Types of sweat glands

Eccrine sweat glands
The release of sweat from eccrine glands is the body's cooling process. Sweat is produced in a coiled tubule in the dermis and is transported by a sweat duct through the epidermis to be secreted. The entire body surface has 2-3 million eccrine sweat glands and can produce up to 10 L of sweat per day.

Apocrine sweat glands
In humans, apocrine sweat glands serve no known function and are regarded as vestigial glands perhaps useful to our ancestors. They are located mainly in the underarm and genital areas. Like eccrine sweat, apocrine sweat is also produced in coiled tubules in the dermis, but the apocrine duct drains sweat into a hair follicle from which it reaches the skins surface. Contrary to popular belief, the sweat from apocrine glands is odorless. The action of normal skin bacteria on excreted apocrine sweat is responsible for body odor.

Cars keep you in shape, too!

[BigBlockMopar]

Forget the girlfriend, just send a picture of the bike. I can just take the seat off and kill two birds with one stone.

Forget the bike!

Buy a real musclecar. Not some silly Honda with a bunch of stickers and a 3" exhaust tip on the 1" diameter manifold-back pipe, but something old and with a V8 driving the rear wheels. And restore it for the fun and love of the machine.

*Nothing* keeps you in shape better than lying on the floor of your garage trying to hold a transmission above your head with one hand while you fumble the bolts in place with the other hand. The threat of having a transmission fall on your head makes you discover strength you never knew that you had.

Carrying an engine block into your house to keep it from flash-rusting over the winter, or dragging a pair of cast iron cylinder heads *and* a toolbox from one end of a self-service junkyard to the other, all serve to keep you in excellent shape.

Never mind the feeling down below when you start that motor up for the first time, freshly rebuilt with 12:1 compression, a lopey camshaft and solid motor mounts... forget the bike! :)

Also, I drink like an Irishman, I eat like a pig, and I walk a lot because I like it.

Net effect? 6'4", 34" waist, 200lbs even, toned all over, and I can lift and hold a LaserJet 4si above my head. Also, mechanics coveralls and a welding helmet make a good Halloween costume when you're too lazy to go shopping.

Dating isn't a problem. (But make a habit of holding the drink in the left hand so that the right isn't cold and clammy when you shake hands with potential mates...)

Are you fat? If you want to fix the situation, the solution is really easy, but often overlooked. Stop eating so much, and/or get more exercise. That's it, that's all.

Difference between overweight and skinny people

[Linuxathome]

I remembered a presentation a while back ago about the difference between overweight people and skinny people. There was a study whereby a group of people were given the same amount of calories in their diet. They lived within a confined space, at the same time. At the end, with the same amount of food eaten by all, some gained as much as 15 pounds and others didn't. The difference between these two groups? The individuals who gained the least amount of weight tended to be people who fidgeted a lot more. They tended to shake their leg while sitting more often, and got up and out of their seat more often. The take home message? Well, maybe try to move around more often, even simple repetitive "useless" movements may help (and no, I don't mean the M word, that'll probably get you fired).

My secret is so simple it's hardly ever considered

[Qbertino]

I have a whole bunch of friends in the IT industry all going fat. I'm a little better off because im only in the IT mill for a few years having studied stage dance before :-). Stage dancers, especially ballet dancers are the people with the least body fat ratio.
Now, especially with my wife into really good cooking, I often notice that I eat beyond my appetite. I'm absolutely shure that people who become fat in 'sitting jobs' have the same problem. Far to often do they eat beyond their appetite, be it due to frustration or just bad habit.
Whenever I notice that I have to widen my belt by a hole I simply eat less. Period. I switch from a 3 course meal to Ramen and Broth. I don't eat 2 buns with peanutbutter and chocolate in the morining, I eat one. I don't take 3 balls of Icecream I take 1 and so forth. I do this for 3 weeks and then I'm down to ideal weight again.
The problem overweight people often have is that they then tend to be disturbed by the slightest notion of not feeling absolutely fed up and allways have to think about eating. They often also eat because it's dinner time and not because their really hungry. The best way to handle this is to learn not to center your life around eating. I actually had times when I wouldn't eat for a day or two simply because I was so occupied with other things that are far more interresting. It's really strange when you get really *hungry* (when the last time you're been really *HUNGRY*?) at 11o'clock at night and then come to notice that your last food is 36 hrs away :-). I also can get very anoyed at my wife when she thinks I *must* eat because it's dinnertime.
Bottom Line:
Apart from other things I'd suggest that have been mentioned allready (check out the Aikido posting further down, it's right on!) the solution for tendency to overweight is so simple it hurts: If you're gaining weight simply switch your diet and/or eat less.