Results not as expected
ManlyMutt
Posts: 23 Member
I'm 39 y/o, I'm 295 pounds.. I was 385 may of 2019, 325 Nov of 2020. I bought a treadmill last week and been working out at 2.5mph.. Today I picked up the pace to 3.0 for 45 minutes. It was hard. I'm far more tired.. And I found out I only burned like 10% more calories than at 2.5. Doesn't seem all that worth it so going back to 2.5mph but bummed 3.0 was so much harder and hurt so much. I figured that much more effort would have resulted in a bigger caloric loss, so rather bummed out today.
7
Replies
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It takes time to work up to higher levels. Think of exercise as a way to make general life easier through conditioning rather than just burning calories.6
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^^ This. Also...you proved to your mind and body that you CAN do it! More upside than not in this story. Kudos from me in Canada!3
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Plus the more muscle you tear when working out (esp going at a faster pace) the more will build, and the more calories you will burn when you're resting/sleeping.
Instead of speed, or even in conjunction with speed, play with inclines too! It will be worth it!0 -
There's a general rule of increasing speed/intesity/duration no more than 10%. If you go too fast too soon , you'll end up with injuries, and that will just slow progress. Also be aware that the calorie burn isn't always accurate.3
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You could try doing intervals, not necessarily timed just going by how you feel.
So maybe you increase the speed for a few minutes then reduce it again. You could do that again, or not according to how you feel. If you think about walking outside you probably don't maintain the same pace all the time, it varies with terrain, hills, etc.
You might also try increasing the incline rather than the speed, again just for short periods to see how you get on.1 -
I'm 39 y/o, I'm 295 pounds.. I was 385 may of 2019, 325 Nov of 2020. I bought a treadmill last week and been working out at 2.5mph.. Today I picked up the pace to 3.0 for 45 minutes. It was hard. I'm far more tired.. And I found out I only burned like 10% more calories than at 2.5. Doesn't seem all that worth it so going back to 2.5mph but bummed 3.0 was so much harder and hurt so much. I figured that much more effort would have resulted in a bigger caloric loss, so rather bummed out today.
Exercise has far more benefits than just burning calories...burning additional calories is kind of an aside and nice bi-product. Regular exercise has numerous health benefits, and including some more strenuous efforts in your exercise regimen have even greater benefits to overall health and well being.4 -
whats more depressing? as you lose weight, you burn fewer calories for the same workout.
life sucks.
but its not always about how hard or how fast or how many calories burned. its about an accomplishment. Setting milestones or goals and meeting them. Being able to go a little further, or a little faster. Its improving your conditioning, and stamina, how effectively your heart pumps blood. how quickly your body resets to your normal pulse and heart rate.
its about self improvement. not calories. I learned a long time ago that (for me) running and walking burned so similar of calories, and I hated running SO much... that walking it was. and I still lost 130 pounds
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IMO, you've learned something extremely useful from this, that I've seen people here unwilling to recognize (to the detriment of their odds of long-term success, IMO). I say this as a long term (17+ year) serious exerciser and masters athlete, with coaching education in my sport.
As a generality, each incremental increase in exercise intensity (such as walking faster) increases energy expenditure a small amount (i.e., burns more calories per minute). The increase in intensity minute-for-minute also increases accumulated fatigue, and increases recovery time needed . . . disproportionate to the increase in energy expenditure. More simply, increasing intensity increases calorie burn by a little (per minute), but increases fatigue/recovery-needs by a lot. There are diminishing returns for calorie burn, and increasing costs for fatigue/recovery.
Now, there's much, much more to it than that for athletes in formal training plans, but that fundamental idea is basic to decent athletic training plans.
For anyone, if the main goal is calorie burn, IMO there's a "sweet spot". You set your time budget for reasonably-enjoyable exercise, and you do it at the intensity you can sustain for that time period (with a little warm up and cool down if sufficiently intense), without feeling fatigued for the rest of the day. There may be a few minutes of a "whew" feeling right after the exercise, but you should feel energized, not depleted, for the rest of your day. (When very new, a person may not even be able to use their whole manageable exercise time budget right away, even at low intensity, so it can be good to gradually increase length and frequency of exercise sessions, if that's true.)
Becoming excessively fatigued from exercise can be counter-productive for weight loss. It tends to bleed calorie burn out of daily life. For example, we may sit/rest more, even sleep more because we're tired. We may drag through daily chores, make the simple dinner instead of the complicated one, put off or simplify chores and projects because we don't feel energetic enough to take them on. This can be pretty subtle! Maybe we just fidget less (research has shown fidgety people burning up to low hundreds more calories daily than otherwise similar but still/placid ones. We might choose not to window-shop, but watch TV instead, in free time. And so forth.
If excessively fatigued, to the point of dragging a bit, our daily activity burns fewer calories, maybe all day long . . . vs. the few extra calories the intensity added to our workout burn. It's pretty easy to wipe out a good-sized fraction of the extra burn from intense exercise. On top of that, very intense exercise inherently limits exercise duration: We can only keep it up for so long, even if quite fit (for physiological reasons even beyond fatigue); whereas after getting some base fitness in place, we can do low-intensity activities for a much longer duration, without becoming so fatigued that our body simply won't/can't keep going.
Sure, higher intensity exercise has benefits, physiologically. But, for fitness, someone relatively new to exercise is best served by getting good base aerobic fitness in place via lower-intensity exercise, which takes weeks to months depending on starting point, before integrating high intensity. (Note that the objective definition of "high intensity" varies depending on current fitness level.) Even then, true high intensity should be more of a condiment or side dish, in schedule terms, not a daily main meal. That's how smart athletes do it.
So: Good insight! Some folks who believe they have to do HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for long periods daily in order to lose weight would be smart to come to a similar insight, IMO.8 -
IMO, you've learned something extremely useful from this, that I've seen people here unwilling to recognize (to the detriment of their odds of long-term success, IMO). I say this as a long term (17+ year) serious exerciser and masters athlete, with coaching education in my sport.
As a generality, each incremental increase in exercise intensity (such as walking faster) increases energy expenditure a small amount (i.e., burns more calories per minute). The increase in intensity minute-for-minute also increases accumulated fatigue, and increases recovery time needed . . . disproportionate to the increase in energy expenditure. More simply, increasing intensity increases calorie burn by a little (per minute), but increases fatigue/recovery-needs by a lot. There are diminishing returns for calorie burn, and increasing costs for fatigue/recovery.
Now, there's much, much more to it than that for athletes in formal training plans, but that fundamental idea is basic to decent athletic training plans.
For anyone, if the main goal is calorie burn, IMO there's a "sweet spot". You set your time budget for reasonably-enjoyable exercise, and you do it at the intensity you can sustain for that time period (with a little warm up and cool down if sufficiently intense), without feeling fatigued for the rest of the day. There may be a few minutes of a "whew" feeling right after the exercise, but you should feel energized, not depleted, for the rest of your day. (When very new, a person may not even be able to use their whole manageable exercise time budget right away, even at low intensity, so it can be good to gradually increase length and frequency of exercise sessions, if that's true.)
Becoming excessively fatigued from exercise can be counter-productive for weight loss. It tends to bleed calorie burn out of daily life. For example, we may sit/rest more, even sleep more because we're tired. We may drag through daily chores, make the simple dinner instead of the complicated one, put off or simplify chores and projects because we don't feel energetic enough to take them on. This can be pretty subtle! Maybe we just fidget less (research has shown fidgety people burning up to low hundreds more calories daily than otherwise similar but still/placid ones. We might choose not to window-shop, but watch TV instead, in free time. And so forth.
If excessively fatigued, to the point of dragging a bit, our daily activity burns fewer calories, maybe all day long . . . vs. the few extra calories the intensity added to our workout burn. It's pretty easy to wipe out a good-sized fraction of the extra burn from intense exercise. On top of that, very intense exercise inherently limits exercise duration: We can only keep it up for so long, even if quite fit (for physiological reasons even beyond fatigue); whereas after getting some base fitness in place, we can do low-intensity activities for a much longer duration, without becoming so fatigued that our body simply won't/can't keep going.
Sure, higher intensity exercise has benefits, physiologically. But, for fitness, someone relatively new to exercise is best served by getting good base aerobic fitness in place via lower-intensity exercise, which takes weeks to months depending on starting point, before integrating high intensity. (Note that the objective definition of "high intensity" varies depending on current fitness level.) Even then, true high intensity should be more of a condiment or side dish, in schedule terms, not a daily main meal. That's how smart athletes do it.
So: Good insight! Some folks who believe they have to do HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for long periods daily in order to lose weight would be smart to come to a similar insight, IMO.
That was very good information and made me feel a lot better at only doing 2.5mph.3 -
Which is why the term " you can't outrun a bad diet" is prevalent in weight loss. The body stores energy quite efficiently. Using it up.....................not so much.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Lots of benefits from exercise. But weight loss isn’t really one of them. Exercise is overrated as a weight loss strategy. Weight loss takes place mostly in the dining room.
Fact is I can undo an hour at the gym in less than 5 minutes with a fork in my hand. I look at it different. I maintain my weight to support my fitness goals.
And congrats on the loss so far. I think you’ve definitely got the right idea- get moving. It’s liberating. But all of these gadgets that are supposed to calculate calories burned just make things more complicated. Like you, I didn’t see where my 30-40 minutes on various cardio machines amounted to much so I just dumped the idea of tracking workouts. People training for marathons and such need to be concerned about that. I’m in the gym for recreation. The “burn” makes a cushion for when I go over my numbers. Putting up a daily number just encourages me to eat more. Don’t need that.1 -
You have gotten some great advice from some really knowledgeable people here. I would only add that if you want to keep some level of fitness in your life, remember to make it something you enjoy. It can be "fun" to challenge ourselves physically, to see how hard we can go, how much we can push ourselves, but it's not a realistic fitness plan for most of us. If you can reach a point where you enjoy your walks, they'll naturally become longer and more challenging as your body adapts and can do more.
You're doing great! Don't discount that!
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It is all so personal. I consider exercise a way to get strong and to be more able bodied. I don't depend or use exercise as a way to lose pounds. Nothing is worse than feeling weaker than you did last year. Weakness and loss of muscle is a true sign of decline and aging.
so hop on your treadmill... make is slightly challenging... and just stick with it until it gets easy.. then bump up the time or intensity and tell yourself.. I'm getting strong! I'm building endurance!
Exercise for fitness
Eat the right things at the right amounts to lose weight
they compliment each other are not interdependent5
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