If I do the same exercise all the time does it stop becoming useful for losing weight?
LynseyJx
Posts: 22 Member
I walk a lot, I don't have a car so I walk a mile to work everyday. When I want to burn some calories I go walking again. According to my endomondo app I've walked 48 miles in 2 weeks. But I'm kind of stalling on my weight loss now. Are the amount of calories they show that you've burned accurate on this or endomondo. I walked over 8 miles in 2 and a half hours and it said I burned over a thousand calories, surely that's a bit high. I found out my BMR and it says I should consume 1555 calories a day for my weight, height and age so I stick to this and then all that walking and calories burned I should have lost more than 1lb in the last 2 weeks. I weigh my food, there's no point cheating when I really want to lose the weight. If you do one exercise all the time does your body start just getting used to that and then it stops helping with weight loss?
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Doing the same exercise all the time becomes less and less effective. The body is great at adapting so to challenge it which is what we need to do to continue to see results it is best to change the type of exercise. It is recommended to do so every 30 days to see better results. Try a kickboxing class or video, maybe Zumba or cycling if you have a bicycle. Your body will work harder as you challenge new muscles and you should see results.0
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I have a stationary bike, so instead of going for a walk I'll jump on that more. I have a zumba game on the wii, haven't been on that for ages, I'll have to dig it out!0
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I never understood that. If I burn 100 calories on my walk, and walk for a year, will that be less calories burned than 100 for the same type walk?0
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No, it will not become less effective. As you lose weight, you will burn less calories by walking, because you have to carry a smaller weight over the same distance, so you will need to increase your distance to keep burning the same calories, but it will be a slow adjustement.0
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Great idea. I know you will see a difference.0 -
I think it all boils down to the fact that our bodies become use to the exercise and don't need to exert as much energy as we improve stamina and endurance. I walk on the treadmill all the time, but as soon as I see that my heart rate isn't staying in the zone I want, I know it's time to start pushing myself more.0
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I thought that was really wrong! Some days when I'm not being very good I eat some of my calories from exercise back but not too many. I wonder why it's so wrong on endomondo? Ok I'll mix up my exercises a bit and do different things.0
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If you do one exercise all the time does your body start just getting used to that and then it stops helping with weight loss?
Not really for walking - you are moving "x" amount of weight over "y" distance - that's the calorie burn not the perceived effort. There's not even going to be any significant change in efficiency for walking unlike some other exercises when you can become more energy efficient and get faster for the same effort (swimming for example).
The calorie burn will change as your weight drops though.0 -
You could kick it up a notch by incorporating some of the following:
Walk faster
Jog/walk
Add weights to your body
Add lunges, squats, burpees along the way
Walk backwards
...
You can definitely see improvement when you incorporate some or all of these moves into your walking routine.0 -
The calorie burn does not change over time. There may be some small variations as you get fit, but it is too small to worry about. I walk on a treadmill, and that is the only exercise I do. My weight loss has not stopped.0
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There several factors that go into your calorie burn, one of them is your heart rate and how you keep it up over an extented period of time. If you walk all the time, your body adjusts and you burn less and less as you get into better cardio vascular shape. I have seen this with my running. I wear a heart rate monitor a fair amout of time, and I have seen as example; a year ago a 5k at 8:00 per mile burned more calories than a 5k at the same pace today. My body has adjusted and if I want to burn more cals, i need to change up my workouts, or work harder for longer. Try adding in some body weight "lifting" for a few weeks, and then jump that up to using some light weights. Plus keep walking, and throw in some running when you can. Good luck, and great job!!0
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I think I'll have to get something that monitors my heart rate while I'm exercising. Because I've always walked a lot and walk everywhere I guess I'm just used to it0
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I think it all boils down to the fact that our bodies become use to the exercise and don't need to exert as much energy as we improve stamina and endurance. I walk on the treadmill all the time, but as soon as I see that my heart rate isn't staying in the zone I want, I know it's time to start pushing myself more.
The effect this adjustement has to calories burned during walking or running is negligible. If you do it long enough, your body will learn to walk or run more efficiently, but this will be mostly of academic interest where calories burned are concerned. In the end, it is a matter of how much weight you carry, over what distance and at what speed.0 -
You can do this without a HRM, just push harder, walk faster until you feel your heart rate increase, then keep that up for as long as you can. Walking is good, but you need to get your HR up to really see results. The other ideas about zumba and other classes are a great idea too.0
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Not really for walking - you are moving "x" amount of weight over "y" distance - that's the calorie burn not the perceived effort. There's not even going to be any significant change in efficiency for walking unlike some other exercises when you can become more energy efficient and get faster for the same effort (swimming for example).
The calorie burn will change as your weight drops though.
^ This is the truth. If you lose weight, you'll burn fewer calories walking/running/swimming/etc.-ing the same distance, because you have less weight to lose (though for cycling on flat ground, weight is less important than cross-section).
In some activities, form makes a huge difference to efficiency, and thus calorie burn, but not walking (unless you're race walking).
As you get fit, your heart rate for a given activity level will generally drop; the heart gets bigger and the muscles get more capillaries and become better at extracting oxygen from your blood. Most HRMs will estimate a lower calorie burn as your heart rate drops. But that's a limitation to the equation that they use, not an actual decrease in energy.
Exercise does not become "less effective" as your body "gets used to" it. Rather, your maximum capacity increases. Put me and Lance Armstrong on identical bikes. If we're riding side by side at 20 mph, we'll both be burning about the same amount of energy. The difference is that I would be close to my maximum speed, and thus energy expenditure, while he could crank it up to over 30 mph, and thus burn many more calories than me.0 -
Thank you all for your quick replies
Yeah I think I'm just going to push myself harder until I get out of breath and sweaty! My sister runs a lot, I've tried going with her a few times but I always feel a bit silly running because I don't look half as good as her, just a sweaty mess when I do it lol. But I will just have to push myself to do that and not care what I look like. I live in a place with lots of mountains, so when I walk it's all up hill, it just makes me a bit frustrated that it doesn't seem to help me lose any lbs 0 -
Thank you all for your quick replies Yeah I think I'm just going to push myself harder until I get out of breath and sweaty! My sister runs a lot, I've tried going with her a few times but I always feel a bit silly running because I don't look half as good as her, just a sweaty mess when I do it lol. But I will just have to push myself to do that and not care what I look like. I live in a place with lots of mountains, so when I walk it's all up hill, it just makes me a bit frustrate that it doesn't seem to help me lose any lbs
Pushing yourself harder will increase your endurance, it will not really burn more calories. Unless this means you will also walk a bigger distance.0 -
[/quote] Pushing yourself harder will increase your endurance, it will not really burn more calories. Unless this means you will also walk a bigger distance. [/quote]
???
Say it ain't so.0 -
Keep doing what you are doing. Whatever you were burning 1 week or 1 month ago, you are still more or less burning today. It will be a bit lower if you lose say 50 lbs, but then you will not need to be losing that fast either.
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What ain't so? Lost me there.
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Increasing intensity of workouts burns more calories. Yes?0 -
Maybe I'm just being impatient, a lb is still losing even if it did take two weeks. And yep I thought you'd burn more calories if you pushed yourself a bit more0
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I know when I push myself I burn more calories unless Im crazy and just seeing things lol
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Increasing intensity of workouts burns more calories. Yes?[/quote]
I believe the point is that if you walk a mile you will burn X calories, whether you walk it fast or slow.0 -
Maybe I'm just being impatient, a lb is still losing even if it did take two weeks. And yep I thought you'd burn more calories if you pushed yourself a bit more
Not sure you have quite got it...
Walking for an hour at 2mph will burn "this amount of calories".
Push yourself a bit more and walk for an hour at 4mph and you will burn twice as many calories because you have gone double the distance.
It's the distance not the "pushing".
But thinking that exercise is the biggest factor in weight loss is a mistake. It helps but it's not the major player.0 -
stillnot2late wrote: »I never understood that. If I burn 100 calories on my walk, and walk for a year, will that be less calories burned than 100 for the same type walk?
No it will be mostly the same, unless your weight has changed. There are a number of factors in the "calories in, calories out" equation. People tend to draw false conclusions from their observations.
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trailrunner81 wrote: »There several factors that go into your calorie burn, one of them is your heart rate and how you keep it up over an extented period of time. If you walk all the time, your body adjusts and you burn less and less as you get into better cardio vascular shape. I have seen this with my running. I wear a heart rate monitor a fair amout of time, and I have seen as example; a year ago a 5k at 8:00 per mile burned more calories than a 5k at the same pace today. My body has adjusted and if I want to burn more cals, i need to change up my workouts, or work harder for longer. Try adding in some body weight "lifting" for a few weeks, and then jump that up to using some light weights. Plus keep walking, and throw in some running when you can. Good luck, and great job!!
This is incorrect. What you are observing is the inaccuracy of HRM technology, not a change in physiology.
If, via training, your fitness level has improved, then a decrease in heart rate for a given exercise workload DOES NOT mean a decrease in calories burned. The drop in the number on the HRM means the HRM settings are now wrong.
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