Hah thats couse the medical drinks are %$%^ and aren't always absobed well by the body, natural foods generally are, remember that calculated calorie content may not be the same as the number of calories being absorbed.  also when you were in bed you were recovering from the operation and healing, using energy.  If you had any sort of fever/infection with the teeth or surgery then that often causes weight loss.

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Sorry Adz, not disagreeing with you :).  Obviously what you eat has a great deal of bearing on your weight.  I still eat a lot but now I have to exercise more to keep it under control ;). 
An interesting note, when I was doing all that riding I had my wisdom teeth taken out.  I was in bed for about 5 days.  Doped up on painkillers.  I couldn't eat, so I drank those meal replacement drinks (Boost/Ensure in north america) I think I was still consuming about 2400 calories a day.  I lost about 10 pounds in those 5 days, lying in bed.  How I wish I had that metabolism back ;).
 

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I'm pretty sure it was me who said that weight is linked to diet.

Eating 5000 calories worth of pure fat is completely different to eating 5000 calories worth of protein or carbs. Your body handles the processing of the food differently, so yes diet does play a huge part in weight and energy sources!

It is simply a matter of hard fact that:

1) Controlled diet is best for controlling the bodies weight in relation to the exercise undertaken (hense how someone can eat 5000 calories a day whilst cycling 100kms - try eating that many WITHOUT any exercise).

2) Muscles burn calories so more muscle = more calorie burn = higher BMR = higher ability to burn fat.

Adz

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gregzilla - I am jealous.

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More fat on the fire ;-).
I have recently started doing some more serious "training" than playing squash several times a week.  Added some running, cycling and weight training.  I have seen various theories of the best way to lose weight through exercise.  One is that you need to exercise at a low intensity (say 60%-70% of your max heart rate) for a longer period of time to maximize fat burn.  Another is that if you exercise at high intensity (80% ), you are burning a lower percentage of fat, but as you are expending more energy it evens out in the end.  I think even at high intensity, you burn some fat. 
I have lost about 7 pounds, all fat and I generally do no "light" exercise.  Most is either squash or medium paced running (70%-80% of max hr).  That combined with some weight training has done quite a bit for me.  I can't say I have made a radical change to my diet, but I have tried to eat a bit better and drink a bit less.  I think I actually eat pretty healthy, but I do like to eat a lot :).
I picked up a fancy heart rate monitor and here is an example of what it tells me I have done for one of my matches.   It has been setup and configured to my age/weight/height/general fitness level/etc which is how it calculates these numbers.  I am 6ft 2in, 185 lbs and in pretty good shape:

Time: 1:32
Calories: 1475
% Fat: 35% - (1475x5 = 516 Calories of fat?)
Max HR: 185 (97% of my maximum)
Average HR: 156 (82% of my max)

Any exercise is going to help you stay fit and lose weight, but some are obviously better than others.  If you are already in good shape, squash will keep you that way.  I think it will get into shape as well, but it may take quite some time.   I burn way more calories playing squash than I do running, but once I started running I have lost more weight. 
I think Sleave is right, squash burns the most calories, but Adz/Sparticus are right in saying that most calories does not mean most fat burned. 

I do disagree with whoever said that weight is a function of diet.  I used to eat about 5000 calories a day, but I was also riding my bike 100km a day as well.  I never seemed to get fat  ;-).

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OK......... STOP............TAKE A DEEP BREATH............

 

That's better

 

Sleave, apologies as it wasn't written as a personal attack and nothing nasty was meant by any of it (Hense the "I'm sorry but..."). It was written quickly and admittedly upon reading it again it could be taken badly. So once again apologies!

 

I didn't disagree that squash wasn't a very good sport for burning calories, but what I did try to point out was that there was far more to it than that. Like Ray said, I'll continue this in the other thread!

 

Adz

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whoooooaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

calm down, take a deep breath and continue this "discussion" with me in this new thread, A Weighty Subject

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What´s going on ??????

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Just to stop your attacks on me:
"As for your 'medical research'" = This is NOT MINE research, ok? I did write who is responsible for those statements, so please read more carefully or put your words together with more care.

I am aware of the fact of the INDIVIDUAL aspect of losing weight and burning calories, and I am aware of the fac that the link provided by Rita is far from truth. It even claims to have margin of error.
But I am bit disappointed with the way you react and prove your right to be the only wise guy. Loose the grip, ok?  

Ciao.

PS. What is the KFC you refer to? Killing Fat Clowns?

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He can say you are wrong becuase you are.

To say that squash burns 1kg in 8 hours and tennis in 13 hours is totally ignoring the unique metablic rates of every individual. To say that is about as useful as those treadmills or other fitness machines in gyms that give you a 'calorie' reading. Actually they have no idea how many calories you are burning. How can it? the rate of calorific expenditure of an individual is dependent on a million variables including age, weight, height, race (nothing racist - fast vs slow twitch muscle composition varies massivebly between races which in turn produces different calorific requirements and expenditure) sex, muscle mass, cardio effeciency, blood type, not to mention all the millions of genetic variables that science doesn't even know exist yet! Just becuase a doctor did one study and that's what he found in that particular scenario means nothing.

As for your 'medical research'. Remember that 'Truth' and 'Fact' are ever changing ideas within fitness and medical science. An example that springs to mind is that of the American College of Sports Medicines recent offical stances that stretching muscles before exercise has no effect on preperation and prevention of injury, and is therefore unneccesary. How many of us were taught in years gone by to stretch before we play and SWEAR that it works - it was proven by 'medical science'. Well guess what? now 'medical science' says that it's a waste of time!  I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not gonna stop stretching before I play. Especially when they'll probably change their minds in year or worse tell me some other established rule is totally incorrect.

For some people squash JUST WONT WORK in helping them lose weight, others it will, others swimming will be better, others running. THERE IS ABSOLUTLEY NO WAY THAT SQUASH OR ANY OTHER ONE SPORT IS GONNA BE BETTER FOR EVERYONE AT ONE THING.

Furthemore, Adz is totally correct in that weight loss is largely diet based, and it doesn't matter what sports you play, if you head straight for a pint and a KFC afterwards then it ain't gonna make a blind bit of difference to weight loss whether you're a squash player or a golfer or anything else.

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Dear Adz, How can you tell me I am wrong if I give you the results of medical research???

Thanks god you wrote you think I am wrong. Please, refer to the Dr de Mondenard research. It only says that burning fat through sport activities is very difficult and gives examples of specific sports. Squash is the winner among this group. That's all  I wrote. Of course, I am a thinking human being (I suppose) and I am aware that better way to loose unnecessary kilograms is diet or healthy and reasonable way of eating.

Peace.

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I'm sorry to say that I think that you're wrong Sleave!

Squash is a good way to burn calories very quickly, but there in lies the problem. Fat is not the bodies first port of call when it requires large amounts of energy. First off the body uses the fast energy stores, but before the body will turn to burning fat, it will actually start to break down muscle! Now losing muscle is a VERY bad thing when it comes to weight loss. Muscle burns calories whilst doing NO exercise (sleeping for example!). So the more muscle you have - the more calories are burnt at rest - and slowly but surely the more fat is burnt off.

Squash is extremely good for cardiovascular exercise, but you need to limit the break down of muscle mass whilst playing if you intend to lose weight. Actually the best way to lose weight is through a calorie controlled diet and a set weight routine to limit the fats in and maximise the bodies natural calorie burners (the muscles).

What squash should really be marketted as is the ultimate in cardiovascular health. This leads to reduced risk of heart disease which is a major killer in the western world. Also squash can be an extremely good stress reliever.

So to summarise:

1) Use squash to strengthen the heart

2) Use weights to increase muscle density to burn more calories

3) Use a calorie controlled diet to control the intake of harmful fats (not ALL fats!)

 

This is the ultimate way to use squash in both keeping healthy and lowering weight.

 

By the way, as an example, I know of hundreds of squash players who play (or have played) at high levels who are now what most would consider overweight. The nature of the game forces the body to deplete its energy reserves in a very short space of time - how does the body react? It tries to store more energy sources as it believes it is being starved. So over time you actually end up putting on samll amounts of body fat in your times off between matches.

Adz

 

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Yep, squash is great to keep shape, and it sure hits you with a thud once you cannot train;  so looks like it is back to the stationary machines at the gym - damn, about as interesting as a drive in the dessert..

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Hello everybody...

Rita, thanks a lot for the link. Looks good, though I feel I have to comment on the topic of loosing calories vs. loosing weight and playing squash. According to my information - squash is the best way to burn fat. 1 kg of your body fat can be burnt in 8 hours of playing squash, when i.e tennis is 13 hours and swimming is 17 hours. There is no better sport to loose wight in this case :-)

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