Fashion has long stopped being merely utilitarian. Instead, it is at least as important if it makes us look good. This is particularly important for women. However, when you think about it briefly, you realize that spending a lot of money is downright misguided if the purpose is not to fit in with a crowd that likewise likes to wear certain brands. The latter is, perhaps amusingly, seemingly much more common among the less affluent than the rich. In fact, it seems that the local small-time criminals and welfare aristocrats spend all their money on clothes and their car, in an utterly gauche way.
If you take a random woman, I would argue that no clothes in the world can really make up for physical imperfections. A young woman in her physical prime could easily wear a $5 summer dress and turn heads. In contrast, that very same women, twenty or thirty years later, will not be able to get the same effect even in a $10k dress. It is not any different with guys. As a young, muscular chad, you can walk around in a $5 wife beater and one chick after another will get wet for you. This will also not work nearly as well as you get older, albeit the effect is not nearly as pronounced as it is with older women who pretend that they still got it.
Of course, the contrast becomes even more obvious if you put someone very attractive next to someone not nearly as attractive. Physically attractive women will look good basically regardless of what they wear, albeit there are sometimes fashion fads that make even a 9 look like a 6. When I was living in London, for instance, there was a (very) short-lived fad of hipster chicks wearing maternity dresses. No matter how hot the woman was, they all looked like crap in it. Presumably, these women quickly realized that they suddenly did not nearly get the same kind of attention they used to get. After all, when it comes to the sexual marketplace, all those inherently socialist women do not embrace equality by looking as frumpy as every other woman in a maternity dress.
Men also greatly benefit from their physique. Without wanting to sound like a braggart, I can objectively state that I look pretty good in a suit because I am very tall and slender. Even a relatively inexpensive suit can look good on me. The other day I put on my favorite Italian suit, which I bought years ago at a suit outlet store, and it still fits me really well. My wife was surprised when I told her that I bought it off the shelf. To her, it with so well that she thought it was a tailored suit. Yet, if I was a short, fat dude, I would not look any better in a $5k tailored suit. In fact, I think that short, fat men in a suit can easily look ridiculous.
The bottom line is probably that instead of spending thousands on clothes, better lift some weights and limit your calorie intake. This will seriously improve your looks whereas clothes that supposedly camouflage your imperfections won’t. In fact, quite often they only draw attention to it as any ugly woman in expensive clothes can attest.
I’ve sadly regained some weight back,but I compare the photos of mine from the past to my current self at the same weight…we do not look the same. Physical limitations are also not the same (I’m able to do planks much longer now despite not training it specifically, which was quite a surprise)
I have to admit,I think getting into lifting iron probably makes one of the top 10 or even top 5 best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I’d say as of the current moment,its benefitted me even more than Combat Sports. (although that activity is how I get my cardio/conditioning)
If anyone else here also happens to be on the flabbier side of the spectrum (or even if you’re on the opposite spectrum,really…),I heartily recommend it. It’ll probably change your life in ways you do not expect.
I want to point out that while both of those things will make you look better, the calorie restriction will contribute 90% percent of that, and working out 10% at best. So I think it’s better to lose weight first, and only consider losing weight after. Of course, some exercises may be useful for weight loss, but weightlifting is not one of them.
While weightlifting itself won’t cause weight loss (a caloric deficit will),I’d say its definitely a good idea to get started on it right away. (unless you are morbidly obese to the point of physical limitation. you can probably judge that for yourself though.)
Weight training,or rather…Resistance Training (if you’re fat and a been a couch potato all your life though,I assume bodyweight workouts are probably mostly unworkable for you. I didn’t start being able to do full proper pushups until I lost around 70lbs AND more than doubled my Bench Press),is key to being able to lose fat without losing muscle.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/how-to-lose-fat-without-losing-muscle/
Depending on your starting point,it takes FOREVER to finish the weight loss as well. I’ve been doing this for over year,and while I’ve made significant progress,I STILL haven’t fully finished. You’d be wasting a LOT of time not starting on this while losing the extra flab. I wouldn’t look as good as I do today had I not started already alongside the weight loss.
That being said,I personally lost 30lbs before I stepped into the gym. I’d say it IS a good idea to not involve any exercise at the very beginning,to see if your diet is actually on point with achieving the necessary caloric deficit. and if you’re at an extreme point like I was (I started at 320lbs),its probably a good idea to get some unnecessary load off of your body before you start putting external stress on it.
But definitely DON’T wait to finish your fat loss first before starting on weight training. Its a great time anyway to focus on learning Lifting Form/Technique AND learning how to actually train without worrying about having to bulk during that period. I’d say this guy here puts it nicely:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gainit/comments/11tpzen/if_you_just_started_training_dont_bulk/
If you’re making gains despite being on a deficit,you definitely know you’re training right.
I’ve personally found that cardio is the best way to lose excess weight quickly. Of course you watch the calorie intake as well. I’ve actually heard guys say that lifting alone will do it. Not sure what they were smoking.
I’m personally at the point where Cardio (My Combat Sports training) is playing a beneficial role in the fat loss. The issue however with many casual fitness enthusiasts however is them thinking that cardio entitles them to “reward themselves”.
Unfortunately.30 minutes of cardio (or even an hour+) can easily be outdone or even eclipsed by 30 seconds of eating. It is the harsh truth. lol.
Its also the case that,for some people,intense cardio causes your appetite to spike up. That’s great if you’re trying to GAIN weight,not so much for the opposite.
My general recommendation for Cardio stays the same. Get it through a Sport you enjoy. Torturing yourself on the treadmill when you don’t have to probably hurts more than helps in most cases.
Depends. For me personally I always end up losing a bunch of fat when starting to lift weights. Its probably regaining old muscle.
But in any case, the same effect can be seen with newbie gains in the gym. If you gain 15lbs of muscle, it’s going to displace 15lbs of fat, without you having to worry about nutrition.
So the distinction I would add is this: after the newbie gains period, it flips to being 90% diet, but it doesn’t start out that way.
Re: Cardio. In two decades of trying to find a way of cardio that doesn’t backfire, I never did find anything outside walking.
For me walking though works perfectly, it’s like (how many calories do you want to add to your deficit? Ok just walk it out)
Now, I do have an advantage that a lot of what I do involves watching courses, podcasts, audiobooks… So i can walk a few hours a day whilst doing something else.
I end up losing weight in a very easy way. I don’t feel like I am on a diet, but am reducing the weight, slowly but surely.
Its kinda ironic that more intense forms of cardio is probably more useful for bulking/gaining muscular weight because of that appetite boost. Many gymbros out there avoid cardio like the plague thinking it’ll kill their gainz,but done right; Cardio…or “Conditioning”,rather,will actually help you quite a bit in the weightroom.
https://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2021/11/conditioning-is-magic.html
I still remember during my earliest period in training when I would lie down on the floor in-between hard sets of Squats and Deadlifts. I was literally laying down gasping on the floor while my rest timer was going. After I started incorporating cardio in the form of Combat Sports,that stopped happening,and hasn’t happened since.
Lack of sufficient cardiovascular fitness might prevent you from effectively employing higher volume weight training programs that you’ll need to do later on once you start stalling on the beginner program.
I might be a unique case, but when I was in my best shape doing both lifting and cardio, the fat loss came much quicker. The weight training muscle gains were slower but eventually replaced the weight losses from fat. So in the end I weighed the same as before I started exercising, but looked way better.
About walking, I know 2 guys that were fat fucks and lost all of it from walking 5 miles a day, 5 days a week. No lifting. I think they cut back on calories/carbs as well. One guy even got off his blood pressure meds simply by walking. I personally don’t pay that much attention to calorie intake. Except I’ve sworn off sugary soda and most junk food, except every once in a long while. I watch carb intake in general, but I feel like I eat a lot., I don’t even pay attention to fat intake. But like you guys have said, maybe it’s satiation. Running and lifting makes me hungry as fuck, but once I’m full, I’m full.