Comments for Kendo and weight loss

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Sep 27, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		Its' simple but...
by: RF

Weight loss (or perhaps better put fat loss) is ?simple? burn more calories than you consume. Unfortunately as all but the fortunate few know this is easy theory but, like kendo difficult practice.

The best way to control weight depends on you. Finding an exercise you enjoy doing, however is well known as an important piece of this puzzle.

I suggest, however getting acquainted with the physiology of weight control. While it may not alone get you to your goals, it is helpful to understand the mechanisms in your body that are working against those goals.

Once you've done that seek help from your physician. There are many bad, unhealthy ways to lose weight, you want to be sure to avoid those, and work with your physician to develop a plan that is safe and effective for you. This may take several tries and iterations.

It may become, like it has for me, a lifelong struggle. But then again, that's exactly what kendo is, so the experience of kendo training will help you get through and over the rough spots with fudoshin (equanimity?).

Best of luck.

Kendo-Guide.Com: Thank you for sharing your comment. Fudoshin is immobile mind, if we want to translate it in a few words. Fudo means immobile and shin is mind. You want to keep yourself strong so you will not react to your opponent?s action easily.

Thank you again for your post.
Jun 23, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		some gain, some lose
by: Willy

For me it's been a tug-of-war about the weight loss, on one hand, doing Kendo leaves me veeeery hungry so when I get back home I stuff myself to death with whatever I can find.

On the other, I have no idea if I actually ate more than I burned in practice (and my metabolism is very good too).

We should also remember that you'll build some muscle with the training so IF you gain weight, it isn't necessarily because of fat, it could be muscle..

What I like to do is eat something very sweet at least 1:30hrs+ before the practice (yoghurt with cereal and lots of sugar) and that calms my post-hunger lots (and helps endure the practice better).

In my case(and due to having fallen ill between) I lost around 8 to 10KG after starting kendo, but I attribute most of the loss to a particularly nasty gastric virus(what do you know, best way to lose weight after all, haha)....

Kendo-Gudie.Com: Thanks for sharing your experience!
May 16, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		My experience
by: Matt

Losing weight in kendo depends on 2 things; first the dojo: some dojos practice hard, others are very yasashii (easy-going) and take breaks, do a lot of talking and don't get as much physical work in. (not that this is bad, it's just not helpful if you want to lose weight).

And second, it depends on you; how hard you practice and how much effort you put in. I have been told that if you are doing kirikaeshi correctly you should only be able to do 3 before collapsing in exhaustion.

However, most people always try to 'save' themselves. Same goes with any practice. The instructor can't make you work hard. He can only make you do the specific drills and they will be as hard as you make them for yourself.

There are plenty of opportunities in a kendo practice to get 'lazy' and you will have to fight that and make sure you practice hard and seriously if you want weight loss to be a goal.

One final thought, while I was at my lightest practicing kendo, somewhere after about shodan I started to get much more efficient with my body movements (this is supposed to happen, as kendo is very basic and simple motions, people just like to try and make them more complicated).

Once I was able to practice fairly efficiently my weight loss stopped and I even gained some fat back (you might not actually lose any weight as the muscle mass you might gain doing kendo could exceed and fat loss, but you would be more tone.)

Kendo-Guide.Com:
 Thanks for sharing your experience, Matt!
May 14, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		Losing weight with Kendo
by: Neil from Cleveland


After five years of practicing kendo 2-3 times per week, I am convinced that unless I stop stuffing my face with food, no type of excercise will take of weight.

Only when an excercise program is combined with portion control will one lose weight.

Formula: If Calories burned > Calories absorbed then result = weight loss!

The morale of the story is: do lots of kendo and keep your mouth shut :)

Kendo-Guide.Com:  Thanks for your post!

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