A couple questions about weight loss

[Jason Halm]

Nah, you definitely aren't coming off as arguementative. Eric knows more than myself, but my guess is that you'll feel it when it's too late.

[Josh Martin]

One thing I'd like to point out is that weight loss will be more effected by your dietary changes then exercising.

I think Eric answered most of your questions in his last response - you HAVE to recover and eat enough in order to lose weight. You may not "feel sore", but that doesn't mean your body is recovering properly. Even now, 100 lbs later and KNOWING that I HAVE to eat enough in order to increase my fitness level, I still have that fat kid on my shoulder yelling at me that I'm eating too much sometimes, and that just isn't the case. When you're training hard and eating good, whole foods, its pretty hard to over eat. I also have a really hard time taking my rest days, especially if the WOD is working one of my weaknesses and its supposed to a rest day (because really, pretty much everything is still a weakness, lol). But it never fails, I'll do too many days in a row, have terrible WOD times, then take the correct days off and start hitting PRs.

One last thing, now knowing that you're a police officer and that you're running as part of your job conditioning, I would be even more inclined to tell you to lay off the running. I can tell you from experience, and you can read it all over these forums, that you'll start drastically improving your mile/5k/half marathon times by simply doing Crossfit. The strength and capacity you'll gain from the WODs will vastly over shadow any kind of jogging/running you're doing now. (As an example, my wife went from not being able to run a full mile, to running 5 miles on a 9min/mile pace in a little over 6 weeks. And that was with absolutely 0 dedicated "running" workouts, just the normal interval stuff Crossfit already incorporates.)

[James White]

Originally Posted by Josh Martin

One last thing, now knowing that you're a police officer and that you're running as part of your job conditioning, I would be even more inclined to tell you to lay off the running. I can tell you from experience, and you can read it all over these forums, that you'll start drastically improving your mile/5k/half marathon times by simply doing Crossfit. The strength and capacity you'll gain from the WODs will vastly over shadow any kind of jogging/running you're doing now. (As an example, my wife went from not being able to run a full mile, to running 5 miles on a 9min/mile pace in a little over 6 weeks. And that was with absolutely 0 dedicated "running" workouts, just the normal interval stuff Crossfit already incorporates.)

As an LEO, I'll second this. I've NEVER had to run a mile or more during a chase. Usually a few blocks and some fence jumping, then perhaps a struggle to get cuffs on. Interval runs (and rows), coupled with compound movements (KB swings, burpees, box jumps, squats) makes the most training sense to me if you wanna get faster.

Exercise increases cortisol and I agree that although you may feel okay, you'll probably find that you're overdoing it before long. Do the CF warmup, hit the WODs HARD!, stretch, recover, rest, and eat right sounds like a plan for success to me.

[Eric Montgomery]

Originally Posted by Josh Martin

One thing I'd like to point out is that weight loss will be more effected by your dietary changes then exercising.

I think Eric answered most of your questions in his last response - you HAVE to recover and eat enough in order to lose weight. You may not "feel sore", but that doesn't mean your body is recovering properly. Even now, 100 lbs later and KNOWING that I HAVE to eat enough in order to increase my fitness level, I still have that fat kid on my shoulder yelling at me that I'm eating too much sometimes, and that just isn't the case. When you're training hard and eating good, whole foods, its pretty hard to over eat. I also have a really hard time taking my rest days, especially if the WOD is working one of my weaknesses and its supposed to a rest day (because really, pretty much everything is still a weakness, lol). But it never fails, I'll do too many days in a row, have terrible WOD times, then take the correct days off and start hitting PRs.

One last thing, now knowing that you're a police officer and that you're running as part of your job conditioning, I would be even more inclined to tell you to lay off the running. I can tell you from experience, and you can read it all over these forums, that you'll start drastically improving your mile/5k/half marathon times by simply doing Crossfit. The strength and capacity you'll gain from the WODs will vastly over shadow any kind of jogging/running you're doing now. (As an example, my wife went from not being able to run a full mile, to running 5 miles on a 9min/mile pace in a little over 6 weeks. And that was with absolutely 0 dedicated "running" workouts, just the normal interval stuff Crossfit already incorporates.)

Pretty much that. You may feel like you're recovering ok, but that extra running isn't doing much good for you and is probably hampering your recovery and progress even if you don't notice it. Since you're a beginner CFer you're going to see gains regardless of what you do, but you'll see faster and more sustained gains if you cut back on volume a little and give yourself more rest and recovery.

Plus long slow running just doesn't burn much fat or do anything for your metabolism or EPOC--if you must run, do some CFE-style stuff or run a few 400m or 800m repeats a few times a week. They'll do a lot more good for you.

[Steven Chicoine]

Originally Posted by Mike Finklestein

@ Jason and Eric - I certainly dont want to come across as argumentative, cause I'm just trying to understand this. If my body were being over worked from the workouts I'm doing, wouldn't I see some of the classic signs of overtraining like, low energy levels, muscle fatigue, decreases in strength and cardio? Because I'm still seeing positive results in terms of my WOD performance, obviously the weight loss, and after the first few days I've had very little muscle soreness after the workouts.(at the suggestion of some in another thread Ive picked out about 10 WODs and cycle through them since I don't have the time or a lot of the equipment that is needed for the standard Crossfit plan) As far as my weight goes, Ive been a runner for a while (I'm a police officer, so running is emphasized as part of the job performance) and I don't have any more knee pain than the average runner... and my physician does not have any problems with me running as long as I listen to my body.

The issue is that you over-train for a couple of weeks / month (especially cardio) and feel fine, then it will all the sudden hit you like a ton of bricks and you aren't going to like it.

[Allen Tluczek]

What if some people enjoy running?

[Lincoln Brigham]

My goal is to obviously lose weight

It's not so obvious to me. To me, both weight loss and weight gain are BAD things. The long term implications for health are bad in both cases. Weight maintenance is where it's at. The goal should be to find an acceptable weight that you can maintain. Sure, you need to get to that acceptable weight first. But recognize that every time your weight changes, up or down, it has a negative impact on your ability to maintain a desirable weight.

We live in a culture with the wrong priorities for bodyweight. Someone like Oprah makes money - tons of it - every time she loses weight. She also makes money for gaining weight - there is no such thing as bad press. She gets tons of press when she puts weight back on. She would make nothing for keeping it off. No one would notice her. Same thing with Kirstie Alley. This is wrongheaded.

[Shannon Mullens]

Well, there's always Jared....

[Lincoln Brigham]

... who doesn't get nearly as much press today, after 10 years of keeping most of the weight off, as he did when he first lost the weight. He should be a superstar today instead of an afterthought. It's a travesty.

[Shannon Mullens]

So is a diet of Subway subs, but I give him mad props for keeping the weight off.

Though didn't he get a Superbowl spot with an ad for Subway about how he was going to run a marathon?