Exercise calorie source.

snowy0wl

Does low intensity exercise worth less calorically in the long view when compared to high intensity exercises because it's much easier for the body to adapt to low intensity exercises? Meaning that at some point the body will just get used it and use LESS calories which is typically not picked up by any machine/monitor.

I.m not saying to exclude it but relying on walking the pounds away will set you up to be fit to walk and burn less net calories.

Or does this apply to both high and low intensity exercise.

_Zardoz_

A calorie is a calorie if you burn one walking or one running you still burn that unit of energy.

TimothyFish

Anything you do, you will become more efficient at with practice. You're unlikely to become much more efficient at walking because we do it all the time, but with all other exercise you will.

Liftng4Lis

A calorie burned is a calorie burned.

snowy0wl

interesting, thank you, this is contrary to what I've been reading but it's something I'll watch with my own progress.

SergeantSausage

Just keep moving ... and pushing/pulling on heavy things ... and you'll be fine.

It'll be quite a while before specific details are important.

The only important thing this early on is to get up off the couch and move.

Analysis paralysis has UNNECESSARILY sabotaged quite a few folks with their workout plans.

Just get up and move more.

A lot more.

And move stuff, too.

snowy0wl

@sergeantSausage, it actually helps me and make decisions based on how my body feels. I am analytically in nature and I totally get that I'm in the 'newbie gains' territory. I'm 12lbs away to getting to my goal weight (up from 10) so I'm sure I have a lot of room to hit walls and plateaus.

I just want to be ready when the time comes that I can see that hey I better stop moving because moving around without enough food is a bad thing.

Moving around a lot and eating in calories isn't beneficial and would stall my progress (does it really help with anything?)

bwogilvie

There are a lot of misconceptions about this. When you do an activity regularly, your body "gets used to" it by adapting: your cardiovascular system adapts to supply more oxygen to muscles that are contracting; your nervous system adapts to coordinate activity more effectively (this is why you can get stronger and build endurance without adding any more muscle tissue); your muscles produce more mitochondria, and if you're lifting heavy and eating a calorie surplus, you'll put on a little muscle mass, too.

These adaptations stop if you keep doing the same activity at the same level. If I run 5 miles, three times a week, always at the same pace, I'm not going to improve my running. If I want further adaptation, I have to keep pushing myself.

However, your body does not consume fewer calories in an activity once you've adapted, unless it's an activity where form makes a big difference to efficiency and you improve your form. Rather, you become capable of more. Put Lance Armstrong and me on identical bicycles, on identical terrain, and have us ride at 18 mph; Lance and I will burn about the same number of calories at that speed. The difference would be that I would be near my upper limit at 18 mph, while Lance could exceed 30 mph (thanks to doping)!

Put another way, I burn the same number of calories cycling at 14 mph as I did five years ago: about 300 calories an hour, with a power output of about 85 watts. It's just that now, I am capable of putting out about 170 watts for an hour, which means I can burn about 580 calories an hour.

Of course, if you lose weight, you'll generally burn fewer calories doing the same activity, because there's less of you to move. How many fewer depends on the activity; in cycling on flat terrain, for instance, wind resistance is the most important factor once you reach a reasonable speed, whereas body weight matters more for running.

snowy0wl

@bwogilvie, excellent clarification. I always base my effort on intensity and I think I'm doing enough change up to keep my body 'alert' so it can't really 'adapt' to anything.

bwogilvie

snowy0wl wrote: »

@bwogilvie, excellent clarification. I always base my effort on intensity and I think I'm doing enough change up to keep my body 'alert' so it can't really 'adapt' to anything.

I think you misunderstand what "adapt" means. Any time you challenge yourself, you adapt to it (unless you overreach and injure yourself). It's when you stop challenging yourself that you stop adapting. If you weren't adapting to new stresses, you wouldn't improve.

snowy0wl

Thank you. I'll keep that in mind.