[seperalem]

I've always known this but have bitten my tongue because everyone has to make their own decisions about how much to put in when it comes to additional effort above and beyond dieting, but now that it's kinda out in the open.....

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...827342,00.html

[ResuNezily]

I saw this yesterday... thought about posting it but then didn't. Most people don't want to hear it. LOL

"A study published July 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine adds to the burgeoning scientific consensus: when it comes to exercise for weight loss, more is better. It suggests that obese people would have to exercise at least an hour at a time to see any significant difference in their weight."

I get "into" this all the time on another forum. They don't want to hear that their evening stroll around the block isn't going to help them lose weight. There I go again...

[seperalem]

Well it falls into the category of "if it feels easy, its probably not doing anything"

For the purposes of the people who have asked the questions about how much they are getting out of walking.


A medium pace walk, 20 minute mile which is a good clip for a walk, just under a power walk but faster than a regular stroll, burns 230 calories for 45 minutes. 230 calories is a very small amount of calories, to put it in perspective, it is 0.06 of a pound of fat.

Also its not strenous enough to cause your body to increase its metabolism in order to ramp up its energy production. Unfortunately its just the cold hard facts that you gotta sweat to burn.

In this as in all things, its about breaking the mental barrier. People convince themselves that their body can't "handle" a quick and large increase in the exercise they do, so they must work into it "gradually." That myth is one of my least favorite, every time I hear it I grit my teeth. Numerous medical journals and publications have studied the adaptability of the body from a sedentary state to a highly active state, and the conclusions are that the longest it takes a adult body, even up to late middle age and old age is 3 weeks at the outside to completely adapt to a high level workout. 1 hour of strenous cardiovascular exercise or anaerobic weight training 5 days a week will make you hurt like the dickens for the first couple weeks, but you're not DAMAGING anything and you're training your body to deal with it.

The people that slowly creep into their exercising are doing two things that will hinder them. Number 1, they're burning their motivation and discipline by not training themselves to push through the mental barrier and to see the results they could be getting, and Number 2, they're setting themselves up to CONSTANTLY hurt every time they up their program a bit. If you jump in with both feet, you're going to hurt for two weeks or so, and then get acclimatized. If you keep ramping up slowly, every time you make a change to your exercise routine its going to hurt again,which is going to be a negative reinforcement.

I kinda feel bad, but its the truth. I know some people have asked how much walking helps. Sorry, it doesn't

[ResuNezily]

"A medium pace walk, 20 minute mile which is a good clip for a walk, just under a power walk but faster than a regular stroll, burns 230 calories for 45 minutes."

Maybe YOU could burn that much... at 130# I would only burn 146 calories in 45 minutes. At goal I'll burn 132 calories. What's that... bite of cheese?? LOL

I used this calculator if anyone else would like to see what they would burn... http://www.prevention.com/cda/toolfi...hannel=fitness

Tril

[klubneras]

We just did a year-long emphasis at work on doing SOME exercise every day - ANYTHING, people - for at least 10 minutes a day, because more recent studies were saying that was ENOUGH. Now this new study saying doing an hour or it's no good. GREAT. Just when we got couch potatoes moving, someone upps the ante to an impossible level for most people, which in most folks case will mean they'll simply give up and do nothing.

Brilliant.

[ResuNezily]

Or... they'll stop saying "exercise doesn't work" and realize they need to add an eating plan and move MORE. 10 minutes a day hardly removes the "couch potato" tag anyway.

[klubneras]

Agreed, but the emphasis was on doing SOMETHING as opposed to absolutely NOTHING.

[seperalem]

I hate to be the one who says stop crying, but since when Is an hour of exercise 4 or 5 days a week an impossible goal?


Seriously, I guarantee if everyone who said that posted their daily schedule there is an hour or so of time in there somewhere that could be used for exercise.

If you want the truth, the "do something instead of doing nothing" thought process was put in place for the people who I already commented on who just think that doing a strenous exercise is just too hard for them. Its like a reverse gateway drug. The hope is that you START doing something, which gets you to realize that A: this isnt too hard and B: its not really doing much, so maybe I can up the ante since I haven't died yet.


Im sorry BackToLowCarb, but I just dont see any particular sense in getting actually angry about the fact that medical professionals finally came out and said hey, if you want exercise to work, it actually has to be exercise.

I don't know who was the one who purported that 10 minutes or so of walking or stretching and t hings was going to be beneficial, but they're grossly irresponsible if they have conveyed to you and to others that this method is doing much.

No one said it was doing NOTHING, but the evidence has always been there that it wasn't really having much of an impact. The evidence shows that it was most likely the better food choices and the diet that had the impact, not the small amounts of exercise.

[HakTaisanip]

Maybe people who cannot do an hour of exercise at a time, can do six ten minute sessions a day. It is not so daunting when it is broken up and at least it will get them moving.

I personally love to do an hour at a time. It really makes me feel great all day. I have pushed myself to that point and I have increased my pace by four minutes since I started. Before I could only do thirty minutes and then I thought I would fall over!

I had to push through the mental barrier and all of my reasons that I couldnt do it. And now I feel like my body "needs" to do it.

[klubneras]

LOL! Slow down there.... I'm not angry about it, just commenting that knowing human nature like I do, folks who finally came out of their do-nothing mode and agreed that doing something was a worthwhile goal might find the suggestion that you have to do at least an hour daunting. That's just human nature - a certain percentage of people who started doing something, even if it was only a few moments a day, will see that study and use it as impetus to go harder/longer/achieve more. But a certain percentage would find it defeating.

You're preaching to the choir here. I'm an avid exerciser myself - I do cardio and an intense strength training regimen at least 5 days a week for at least an hour and a half. No slacking here! But I'm also work in the mental health field and I know a lot of the people here at work that finally got moving and were taking some pride in that, after basically inactive lifestyles, will find the message that it needs to be an hour or else daunting, to say the least. I can see some of them mentally throwing in the towel already. Hopefully not too many.

[Sandra_18X]

I seriously didn't know that the gradual idea was a myth...wow. Though funny thing I did live out that whole jump in with two feet idea too, with spinning. I loved it and even though my body was hurting, I jumped from a thirty minute class to an hour class really quickly and yeah I nearly fainted one class but eventually, it got easier and easier and my body adapted *nibbles asparagus thoughtfully*

[cefunonge]

This is a very interesting topic to me right now because I just finally hit the gym for the first time in ages and ages.

I'm looking for clarification about what we're saying when we talk about "slowly ramping up" exercise. For my first workout, I restricted myself to 20 minutes running on the treadmill, alternating running and walking to keep my heart rate in a certain range (I was huffing and sweating like a fountain). I decided to just go for 20 the first time to avoid injuries and too much soreness in my tendons and so forth. And that seems to have worked--no significant soreness today.

I've run marathons in the past, and the very definition of marathon training is ramping up slowly, adding a mile a week until you get to higher mileages, then adding them 2 at a time, and so on, until you can run the full marathon. Taking 4-6 months to do this (depending on your goal and speed) can prevent injuries that would stop you running at all. It does seem to take the body a little longer to build ligaments and tendons and muscles than it does to get your heart and lungs into the action. I've notice faster cardio response than the muscle building/toning in my legs, for example.

So can we define what is meant by ramping up, and how slow is too slow and how fast is fast enough (or too fast) for the very out of shape person looking to get back to exercise (and seriously committed to it)?

--Chris

[HakTaisanip]

LOL!

I am laughing because I was so huffy and puffy from the begining too!

I started out slowly because I was really overweight, even though I played soccer for nine years.
I ramped my exercise up pretty quickly by pushing myself consistantly by adding incline and speed, but always dropping back down to my start point to let my muscles and my heart recover for a moment, and then I would go right back into pushing it up again.

Another thing that increased my pace quickly, as well as my stamina, was doing wind sprints. For example, walk at 3.7 for five minutes and then at 5:20 ramping up the speed to 4.3 (still walking) for forty seconds and then dropping back to 3.7, keeping that pace for four or five minutes and then back up to 4.3. I incorporated at first three and then pretty quickly, six to eight windsprints per workout and it really helped me increase my pace and the ability to breathe slower and deeper. I ultimately want fat loss, so I want my heart rate to stay pretty stable.

Maybe this will help a bit???

Good luck to you!

Steph