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Ask HN: How do you stay in shape?

by deadfall on 7/9/15, 11:17 PM with 20 comments

• by _v9dc on 7/9/15, 11:42 PM

  There is no magic and you don't need any fancy equipment or clothing.

  If you want to improve your cardiovascular health, do some cardio 3-7 times per week for at least 30 minutes.

  If you have the will/want/time, add in some weight lifting 3-5 times a week.

  Lastly, controlling your diet will make arguably the biggest difference in your body composition. If you want to lose weight you need to eat less calories than you burn period, unless you have medical conditions. If you have trouble losing weight you need to count your calories and figure out your TDEE using a calculator(google will pull up a few).

  So personally I go to the gym directly after work(bring everything you need in the morning). This works the best for me because it doesn't allow me to get home and be lazy.

• by auxym on 7/10/15, 12:16 PM

  I've tried running, lifting and other training routines and I just can't keep it up. I don't have the discipline to keep up something I find so boring. No disrespect meant to lifters&runners, quite the contrary, I envy you guys.

  Somehow though, cycling does it for me. I can go fast. It can take me places conveniently. I can do it out there in nature when I get out of the city on weekends. And, it fits in with my need to tinker with mechanical stuff :)

• by seanccox on 7/10/15, 9:21 AM

  Eat in a manner commensurate with your activity level. I might be lucky in this regard, but I simply don't get hungry when I'm not sufficiently active. Drinking lots of water might have something to do with that, but I'm really not sure.

  Make being active a part of your daily experience: walk, run, or bike to your office. Get a gym membership nearby so you can clean up before going to work. Go back to the gym to do some lifting on your lunch breaks Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This will perk you up in the middle of the day and keep you from falling into a post-lunch food coma. After your day at the office is over, you've got another burst of activity awaiting you in order to get home.

  Diversify from workout routines and take time off. Block six to ten weeks for the routine, then take a break for two weeks and try out informal, social exercise (pickup sports, dance classes). Go hiking, do yoga, or catch up on your social life in an active way, like a pub crawl or one of the boozy bicycle group tours.

• by yunyeng on 7/9/15, 11:19 PM

  I come from work wind up couple of hours then, 9 - 9:30 PM go to gym until bed time then hit the bed 3-4 days a week.

• by milkcircle on 7/10/15, 6:46 PM

  As a student I have a similar problem of spending too much time at my desk, both weekdays and weekends. Here's what I hope to implement in the coming semester to stay more fit:

  1) Wake up very early (goal is 6:30am) to spend an hour working on fitness before breakfast and starting class.

  2) Follow /r/bodyweightfitness and /r/running, and use their beginner programs to come up with my own schedule Mondays through Saturday.

  3) Explore my city (walking, biking, hiking) early Saturday morning to Saturday afternoon.

  I think a major step in the right direction is waking up early and getting your exercise "out of the way" for the day. It serves as a huge motivator and is a great routine to become accustomed to. Not to mention, on Saturdays, if you wake up very early, you can fit in 6 or 7 hours of fun and exploration and still have half the day to be productive afterward.

• by Zergy on 7/10/15, 3:29 PM

  I work out for about 4.5 hours a week (3 ~1.5 hour sessions, 30m cardio and 1h lifting) and count calories. Fortunately I have a nice gym at my work and it allows me to leave after rush hour ends. Results in a net loss of 3 hours a week since my home commute at 6pm is 30mins vs the 10mins at 8 pm.

  Personally I love it as a time to unwind. I spend so much time staring at a screen both for work and for fun (I typically spend my down time playing Counter Strike) that its nice to do something more primitive.

  I also try to go hunting or multiple day hiking fairly regularly. I always feel more appreciative of what I have and my station in life after a few days sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag.

• by blooberr on 7/10/15, 4:49 PM

  Two things that really helped:

  1) I signed up for gym classes with a limited (13) number of sessions per month.

  This forces me to go 13 times a month. If I don't go, I'll be wasting money and psychologically I don't like knowing that I just threw away money. That's worked for me better than signing up for unlimited and never end up going since I would mentally think, "oh I could go tomorrow I've got infinite gym sessions."

  2) I stopped eating out every day and cooked for myself. I learned how to butcher a whole chicken to save on money.

  I've lost about 15% of my weight over 14 months. My clothes are all baggy now but that's a different set of problems.

• by wtf_is_up on 7/10/15, 1:49 AM

  Concept2 rower

  Amazing piece of equipment. Fits in a small space and will give you an amazing workout. I love mine.

  I mix rowing with pullups, pushups, curls, overhead press with kettlebell for upper body.

  Overall it's a nice base workout that you can do at home before or after work.

• by caseyf7 on 7/9/15, 11:26 PM

  I finally started doing push-ups again after getting the Perfect Push-up (yeah, the infomercial thing). It makes a huge difference with sore wrists/hands from RSI.

• by kelt on 7/10/15, 3:13 AM

  I play ingress, walk around, sometimes too much...

• by chudi on 7/10/15, 1:51 AM

  box 2-3 times a week, running every other day, eat homemade food, sleep all I can