How can I burn more calories?

work harder

I do own a treadmill, and a stability ball as well as two 5 pound dumbbells. The thing is everyone is saying "go run!" but i'm young and like 200 pounds and can only run for maybe 2 minutes! What are your thoughts?

Everyone is different. Do what you can, be your own judge of how you feel. It seems like high impact would be hard on you when you are big, a treadmill has a little more softer impact. I found the stair machine gets your heart rate just as high as running (I use like an escalator so it's not the pedals, you are really taking the step ups). I ran when I was obese but I'd also already been running for over 30 years.

5 lb dumbbells are not enough. You need a good all body workout with a variety of dumbbells and a bench. You want to lift hard enough to NEED the rest before the next set. For example if you are doing 10 reps you want the last few to be hard and you are catching your breath for 60 seconds before you start the next set.

Exercise is for making your lean body mass pretty (especially lifting weights) for when the fat is gone. Losing fat with no muscle is ugly and cardio alone will not make you pretty. You cannot out exercise too many calories. Exercise burns can trick you into thinking you can eat more. Of course you burn calories but not near as much as they say and if you have a lot of fat reserves you want your body to use the reserves. You will lose fat faster than your will gain muscle so best to start lifting asap for a better look.

Lifting weights is KEY. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am.

Start lifting now, lift heavy and change it up often, find a lot of weight routines with free weights, make it fun, embrace it, make it part of your life. Only 3 days a week is all it would take. Crank up your tunes and learn to love it, because your body will love it and it will make your quality of life better in many ways, especially when you get older like me.

Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

If you are female you don't have the hormones to get big naturally. I lift heavy and I'm still really tiny. My lean body mass is only 104 lbs and that is fairly heavy for a 5'1" female, and quite a bit of this is due to my having very dense bones from 30 years of lifting, not all muscle, and I'm still quite tiny.

My muscles really are not that big, but they show a lot of definition because I'm quite lean. If I gained some fat then I would have a softer more toned look (which is OKAY too!). Then if I gained more fat I would look bulky and hefty like I did most of my life until last year. YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER YOU WANT. Lean and ripped, soft and toned, or hefty, it all depends on how much fat you leave on your body. Calories are the only thing that changes fat. Exercise is for changing or maintaining your lean body mass only. Lifting weights will give you the best bang for your buck for shaping your body. I finally changed my shape by putting lifting first and cardio 2nd. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

I found the stair machine gets your heart rate just as high as running (I use like an escalator so it's not the pedals, you are really taking the step ups).

this is so true! I use a stepper with pedals, it has me sweating buckets and gritting my teeth every time! When I stop I can barely climb off the pedals :laugh: I started out telling the trainer I couldn't do it and didn't want it in my program (talk about being negative!! But that's how we often are when we start something new and scary). A few months later I told her I would like to try. At first it was just two minutes, now I get through ten minutes of varying resistance.

See, that's two examples of 'yes you can'
P.S. Send me a friend request if you want someone to cheer you along.

run intervals, run walk, run walk. Try doing the c25k program. Look at getting an exercise dvd the more you do or the harder you work the more you will burn

I've posted this before, but when I started exercising I was 252 pounds. I could only walk a short distance, for a short amount of time. Start with what you can do. Today I'm 200 pounds and will jog (lightly) 5 miles. I did a modified C25K. Just because you can't run a marathon doesn't mean you can't run at YOUR level and ability.

I would suggest walking in intervals. Maybe start at 3-3.5mph. 2 minutes at a 0 incline, 2 minutes at a 10 incline, back to 2 at 0 etc etc. I was 185 when I started doing that. It was tough, but def not as hard as walking! And i've lost almost 10 lbs so far. Right now I'm doing the 30 Day Shred and walking maybe 2-3 days/week. I found that switching from 0,10,0 was the easiest thing for me, while still burning calories, feeling good, and losing weight. Good Luck!!

I'm really into jogging in place while I'm washing dishes (I do this for like 30 minutes or more)

It's getting two things done at once..and I'm sweating like crazy by the time I'm done.. I put on a really upbeat playlist on my laptop and time goes by so fast.