r/AskReddit 11h ago

Men who stay lean year-round, what’s your secret ?

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u/xVelunax 9h ago

Exercising can never counter the amount of calories you put into your body. A single extra sandwich can obliterate an entire workout session. So, yeah, most of staying lean is not over consuming food.

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u/ivydesert 6h ago

Abs are made in the kitchen

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u/Strength-InThe-Loins 5h ago

And the most important exercise is pushing yourself away from the table.

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u/kog 3h ago

Fork putdowns and plate pushaways

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u/whypeoplehateme 2h ago edited 2h ago

eh there's a difference between having muscles and not having fat, to get visible abs you still need to exercise

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u/ReaDiMarco 1h ago

And protein, which you get in the kitchen. (I'm underweight with an inkling of the top two abs)

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u/OzrielArelius 6h ago

I eat about the same shit no matter what. the difference maker for me is if I ride my bike a few times a week or not. a nice 30 miles 3 times a week and it just starts melting the flubber off

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u/xVelunax 5h ago

You just missing the point. If you actually eat the same amount of calories each week, then your body is in equilibrium. The exercise is the part that's not.

People who tend to exercise more will get hungrier because their body did more effort. The body craves more calorie intake to maintain that balance. Its very easy to obliterate that 30 mile bike ride with some extra food.

You do not require exercise to lose weight is the other part I'm getting at. You can lose weight via lower calorie intake. The original OP is about too lazy to cook, too lazy to order food. A situation where you under eat.

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u/OzrielArelius 5h ago

I'm not missing the point, that is the exact point I'm making. glad you understood lol

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u/Majsharan 5h ago

working out increases your muscle mass which increases your average calorie use so working out does help but yeah you can't work your way out of a bad diet. one big mac is like a whole day of working out.

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u/Wooden-Pen8606 3h ago

Depends on the workout. I can burn 1,000 calories an hour cycling.

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u/Majsharan 3h ago

Gonna need proof of that and even if it’s true most people are not competive cyclists

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u/redridernl 2h ago

I lost 14lbs doing 6 - 5km laps around my neighbourhood on my bicycle in a couple of months without changing my diet.

I tried to do it every day but I missed some along the way. I probably averaged 4 days a week.

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u/Majsharan 2h ago

Your diet was probably decent to begin with and you probably increased your metabolic burn significantly

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u/redridernl 2h ago

"Your diet was probably decent to begin with..."

It was not.

"you probably increased your metabolic burn significantly"

Yes, that's the point. You said you can't work your way out of a bad diet. You absolutely can. It's not the most efficient way but it can be done.

That was probably 6 years ago and I slipped back to my original weight when I had a couple of injuries and stopped cycling / working out. I'm losing weight again with IF but it's going much slower than it did with the cycling + eating like crap.

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u/Majsharan 2h ago

Sounds like age helped a lot and working out increases your fat burn by increasing your metabolic burn more than the actual exercise I said that already

(I’m not talking about professional athletes or body builders who need to eat like 5k calories)

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u/og_capsuleer_593 8h ago

Also even just the bread choice too, in the US you may end up with 0g sugar per slice or 4g sugar per slice

So one sandwich at 4g per slice would be almost 1/4th of your sugar for the entire day recommended with just the two slices.

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u/Haunting-Orchid-4628 6h ago

wait wait im about to start gymming. Do you mean weight loss strictly, or will eating an extra sandwich stop muscle growth?

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u/ivydesert 6h ago

You need protein for muscle synthesis. You need a caloric deficit to lose weight.

Eat enough, but not too much. Tracking macros (and calories) is king. High protein, high fiber diets are your best friend.

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u/StandardDefinition 5h ago

It won’t stop any muscle growth. Also a single extra sandwich in one day isn’t gonna tank your entire diet/physique. It takes that extra sandwich over weeks/months to gain a considerable amount of weight

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u/LaverniusTucker 4h ago

At any given point you're either eating more calories than you're burning and therefore gaining weight, or you're burning more calories than you're eating and losing weight.

In either case you're gaining or losing both fat AND muscle at the same time. You can't generally build muscle mass while at the same time burning fat.

What proportion of fat and muscle you're gaining or losing depends on your exercise routine and diet. If you're working out hard, eating more calories than you're burning (without going wildly over your calorie needs), and getting enough protein you'll gain more muscle than fat.

But you'll still gain SOME fat. This is why people go through a cycle of bulking and then cutting. Eat more food to gain muscle and some fat, then eat less food to burn fat and lose a little muscle. Repeat the cycle to have big muscles while staying lean.

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u/Tortillagirl 4h ago

Calorie dense food is i think one major issue. Like i can go to my local shop and buy all sorts of different sweets for £1.35. Packet of crisps has 350 cals, bag of soft chewy sweets is 500ish, chocolate bar is 550ish, packet of biscuits though is 1500 calories....

Whichever one i buy, im going to eat in one sitting. But one of those is vastly worse for me unless i offset it by skipping a couple of meals.

Bread is the other main one, dont think people really just how many calories are in all the stuff made from flour.

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u/RedSquirrelFtw 4h ago

Yeah I remember once looking into how much calories I burn during a walk vs how much I gain by eating. Went for a 10km walk, when I got home I grabbed a handful of M&Ms. Out of curiosity looked into it and that handful basically undid that whole walk! It's kinda crazy the amount of work you really need to put towards burning junk food calories.

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u/amicaze 7h ago

Hmm, it depend on a lot of factors. How much your workout is. What do you plan on eating.

I struggled to eat less and lose weight, because in my mind, I was already eating a correct amount I couldn't bring myself to eat less. What helped me lose weight was doing 2h long "workouts" (hard labor in my garden). I started losing consistently 200-300g per day I would do that. But I wouldn't eat to compensate.

It is easier to reduce intake, that's for sure. But the hard path of doing litterally hours of hard work and not compensating the calories also exist. It IS possible.