Hi all,

I recently found out that as a part of my job I get access to a small gym in the building. I think it has your basic cardio equipment and some other stuff for building muscle (but small enough I don’t think there is equipment to do stuff like dead-lifts or whatever in there).

I don’t know anything about working out really, but I could stand to lose some fat, which draws my attention to the treadmill that they have. I am not so concerned about building muscle and everything that involves.

I have mostly neglected going to gyms for 3 reasons.

  • They are usually out of my way
  • I don’t usually have the time
  • I don’t want to spend what they charge

All three of these are now non-factors now that I have found out I have access to this one.

I would be using it twice a week as that is how often I am actually at the location.

So my question is, since it’s not really something I have ever looked at - if I want to lose a bunch of fat, what do I do? I can try to diet first off, and I am glad to take suggestions on what worked for other people in that regard, but more so I just don’t know how long or how fast I should run, what equipment is good for this otherwise, or really anything about using a gym.

Please note that the facility is self-serve and has no staff - they just have cleaners come in each day to clean it, the rest is up to you. I do not have the money to spend on something like a personal trainer, and the location doesn’t offer such things as well given its self-serve nature.

Thank you.

  • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
    9·
    16 hours ago

    Training with weights combined with diet is the best way to lose fat. Cardio exercise is good for cardio respiratory health and helps with calories in/out calculations but adding muscle increases your bodies caloric demand, meaning more fat burn.

    As a complete beginner a simple routine of hitting weights twice a week with cardio (30 minutes 2-3 times per week) in between will be plenty. You want to hit each muscle group with 3 hard sets twice a week. A hard set is when you get near (within 2 reps) failure (which means you can’t complete another reporting with good form) with a range of repititions anywhere from 5 to 30.

    For a basic full body routine, you want to think about pushing and pulling with arms, legs, and chest/back/shoulders. So bicep curls (pull) and tricep extensions (push), for example. Chest press/fly (push) and rows (pull). Leg curls (pull) and extensions/presses (push). If the gym has a set of circuit machines, use those to start with so you get a feel for the movements.

    Look at the Hevy app, which has a free version and has a library of workout routines broken down by beginner/intermediate/advanced and location/equipment (at home, at gym, travel, bodyweight only, dumbbells only, etc). It also has a bunch of community-shated routines.

    Diet is going to determine if you lose fat or both fat and muscle. Target about 1 g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day to maintain/gain muscle Split the rest of your calories between unsaturated fats and carbs in whatever way you can maintain. Avoid added sugars. Switch to drinking mostly water, or at least diet soda or carbonated water. Fruit juices, even without added sugars, are loaded with sugar but lack the fiber that is in the raw whole fruit to mitigate the sugar. So don’t switch from soda to an equal volume of fruit juice.

    There’s also a metric butt load of good content on YouTube. Channels I like are:

    Renaissance Periodization
    Jeff Nippard
    Jeremy Either
    Milo Wolf
    Dr Pak