Running vs Walking to lose body fat
meddiez
Posts: 3
Hello everyone, I'm a guy and have been exercising everyday. I dropped from 146lbs down to 119lbs. My goal weight is 115. I am an ectomorph body type and my height is 5'6. My main goal is to lose body fat, especially around my gut area, this seems to be the problem area where it all collects, especially lower belly and love handles. It seems like I'm starting to noticing more definition in this area, and its motivating me to work even harder. I can almost see some lines in my abdomen area showing through. But not quite where I want it yet. Still want to burn more fat and looked more ripped.
My excercise is as follows.
I am active on all 7 days.
Monday - Walk for 50 minutes, doing an average of about 3.6mph for 3miles, I lose about 255-300 calories, do 3x25 crunches on fitness ball, and 25 pushups, do barbell (12lbs) curls 3x10, and then love handle barbell curls (100 per side), and then the other 2 excercise with the barbells i don't know the name, but its like i'm lifting my arm up to the side, and then also forward. And if i'm feeling really motivated, i will do another 50 minute walk late at night.
Tuesday - Run for 20 minutes (5 minute warm up walk, then alternate between running for 1minute and walking for 1m30s repeat 3 times and then finish up with 5 min cool down walk), 3x25 crunches, 25 pushups, love handle barbell curl exercise (100 per side)
And i basically repeat that throughout the rest of the week, am I'm seeing pretty fast results.
I try to eat 6 meals a day:
Breakfast - Cereal with 1% fat milk
Snack - banana and about 10 pcs of cashew nuts unsalted
Lunch - white rice with scrambled eggs with tomato and onions
Snack - sometimes snickers, candy or chocolate or ice cream (but in small portions)
Dinner - white rice and chicken or sometimes home made potato, carrot and pumpkin, pork soup
Snack - banana and 10 pcs of cashew nuts unsalted
I don't eat the healthiest food, but I try to cut back on a lot of fatty foods, such as beef. I try to get my protein from chicken, and for snacks i have a banana and some cashews, I eat white rice with my meats, but i am eating in small portions instead of huge ones.
Can somebody tell me if i'm doing a good job so far and what I can do to further improve my results? I'm not into bulking up or getting big, I just want to lose weight and burn the fat to get lean as possible so that my muscles will look more defined.
Overall, will I lose and burn the fat much quicker doing the 50 minute walk that burns about 255 calories or doing the Interval Running for 20 minutes that burns about 120 calories? If it's the walking, I rather do that because it doesnt hurt my ankles as much and its much more enjoyable as I can do it twice in a day.
My excercise is as follows.
I am active on all 7 days.
Monday - Walk for 50 minutes, doing an average of about 3.6mph for 3miles, I lose about 255-300 calories, do 3x25 crunches on fitness ball, and 25 pushups, do barbell (12lbs) curls 3x10, and then love handle barbell curls (100 per side), and then the other 2 excercise with the barbells i don't know the name, but its like i'm lifting my arm up to the side, and then also forward. And if i'm feeling really motivated, i will do another 50 minute walk late at night.
Tuesday - Run for 20 minutes (5 minute warm up walk, then alternate between running for 1minute and walking for 1m30s repeat 3 times and then finish up with 5 min cool down walk), 3x25 crunches, 25 pushups, love handle barbell curl exercise (100 per side)
And i basically repeat that throughout the rest of the week, am I'm seeing pretty fast results.
I try to eat 6 meals a day:
Breakfast - Cereal with 1% fat milk
Snack - banana and about 10 pcs of cashew nuts unsalted
Lunch - white rice with scrambled eggs with tomato and onions
Snack - sometimes snickers, candy or chocolate or ice cream (but in small portions)
Dinner - white rice and chicken or sometimes home made potato, carrot and pumpkin, pork soup
Snack - banana and 10 pcs of cashew nuts unsalted
I don't eat the healthiest food, but I try to cut back on a lot of fatty foods, such as beef. I try to get my protein from chicken, and for snacks i have a banana and some cashews, I eat white rice with my meats, but i am eating in small portions instead of huge ones.
Can somebody tell me if i'm doing a good job so far and what I can do to further improve my results? I'm not into bulking up or getting big, I just want to lose weight and burn the fat to get lean as possible so that my muscles will look more defined.
Overall, will I lose and burn the fat much quicker doing the 50 minute walk that burns about 255 calories or doing the Interval Running for 20 minutes that burns about 120 calories? If it's the walking, I rather do that because it doesnt hurt my ankles as much and its much more enjoyable as I can do it twice in a day.
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Replies
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Interval running... but if it hurts your ankles my advice is not to do it but just walk a bit faster or try swimming or cycling which will not impact on your ankles, otherwise you'll cause damage and you will need to rest...you'll then have problems! Hope it works out for you.0
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Congratulations on your weight loss so far! Walking and running are both great cardio and help you drop the calories. I personally prefer running simply because it takes less time! I'm not an expert but I would say you might want to start lifting heavier weights? The more muscle you build, the more calories you'll burn overall. Increasing muscle + losing fat = a leaner, more toned, more ripped you! :-)0
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Congratulations on what you have achieved so far. Walking is effective and combined with the strength training it all seems to be working for you. Running burns more because it is more intense but if it causes you pain, stick to walking. Either way it is working for you so just keep it up!0
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Have you got good trainers? You may need to pop into a store like Nike and have a gait anylise done. They maybe able to help you0
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It's been a while since I was doing a lot of jogging/walking, but as I recall it was about when I was doing a brisk walk, at the pace you are now walking, that I was able to start jogging. Also, like the others recommended, I started out with interval running.
I don't have any data to back this up, but I kinda felt like once I was walking faster than 3.5mph, it was actually an easier and more fluid motion to begin jogging rather than push the walking speed faster. It just felt really awkward trying to walk at 4mph and seemed harder on my joints than transitioning into a more natural jogging motion.0 -
TweetAddict sorry no I haven't, what is a gait anylyze btw? Also what shoes do you recommend for walking/running? I may invest in a pair since I'm doing this 7 days a week.
And thanks to everyone for their positive encouragement.
I've never felt so good before. 0 -
You are eating very few vegetables. Increase the variety and quantity of vegetables you eat.
Losing weight is almost all about how much you eat. What you determines how easy or hard you find it.
Run if you enjoy it. It takes less time to burn the same number of calories and increases your cardiac fitness but for the same calories it makes no difference what you do.
Don't keep on upping the ante with your fitness activity unless you have a fitness goal. The thing is when you stop running or doing your fitness, it can be very difficult to cut back on what you eat and that's often when people regain all they lost. Its happened to me many times. so this year i didn't bother with fitness too much. I have just taken up tennis but i am close to goal now. I'm hoping its an activity i can keep up in the long term and because of its social aspect i think i've a greater chance of making that happen.0 -
TweetAddict sorry no I haven't, what is a gait anylyze btw? Also what shoes do you recommend for walking/running? I may invest in a pair since I'm doing this 7 days a week.
And thanks to everyone for their positive encouragement. I've never felt so good before.
Gait Analysis is where they look at how you walk and/or run and determine how your foot moves when it walks or runs. They will tell you if you over pronate (roll your foot in), under pronate (roll your foot out), or have a neutral foot (neither). They will also look at your arches and determine if you have a high arch, normal arch, or flat foot. All of these things play a part in what kind of shoes you need.
I would definitely recommend you get a good pair of running shoes, but we cannot determine which are right for you without at least a gait analysis. It will cost you over $100 for a good pair. They also recommend changing them every 6 months or 500 miles. It may take a few tries before you find the right shoe for you. I started off with Brooks Ghost 7 shoe (I'm neutral and more flat footed, but with an arch that supports me. I'm complicated). It worked great until it started creating a blister on my left foot at about 1.5 miles running. I tried Asics, but that burned up my feet (possibly because it's 0.5 size too big). I'll probably be trying a third shoe at least unless I can handle one of the insoles on my Ghost 7s.
Also to answer your original thread, it sounds like you need body recompositioning at this point. I believe that includes lifting heavy, but other people in the forum might be able to help you more with that. If no one responds about body recomposition, try creating another thread with that in the title.0 -
As a 5ft 7in male I'm gong to ask......why are you trying to get down to 115lbs? I bottomed out at 163 and thought....ya I went a bit to far.. You really, really should look into body recomp to lose body fat. Losing more weight isn't going to help you. You should be eating at least at maintenance, doing cardio if you like, and be on a progressive weight training regimen....like yesterday.0
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As RGv2 points out, I think you've got the wrong idea right now. I'm 5'6" and 178 right now and my goal is like 170. I'm also lifting 3-4 times a week with a couple days of running thrown in.
You don't need to lose anymore weight....in fact you should begin lifting weights progressively adding weight where you can. You're lean enough, it's time to add back that muscle, and not just in your abs, your whole body.
You can have a flat stomach all day, but without building muscle in that region, it's going to stay flat.0 -
^^^^what he said! you are almost to underweight according to BMI (which I don't usually believe in, but if you are concerned about body composition, then it's probably right in your case.) If you continue to diet at this low of a level without doing anything to preserve your muscle, you can just expect to get smaller with a similar body comp to the one you have now.0
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OP, maybe seek help regarding your self-image. 115 is extremely thin for a man at 5'6".0
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OP you seem extremely underweight for your height. What fat could you possibly have? I suggest you reevaluate your goals with a doctor's help; possibly two - one for your mental health and one for your physical health. That is what I would tell anyone I was friends with or who I cared about, so that is what I am telling you.
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I think you need to adjust your meal choices a little. Why all the white rice? You provided us an example of just one day, but it appears you need to add more protein, vegetables and whole grains into the mix. Also -- and I'm not criticizing -- but I'm curious about your low weight goal. You're two inches taller than I am (I'm 5'4"), yet you weigh only 119. That seems awfully thin to me for a man of 5'6". I've almost reached my goal weight and it's around 130 pounds because of all the muscle I've added. Do some research on what a healthy weight should be for your frame and aim for adding muscle. Don't worry about the number so much. If you're the size you wish to be and you have a healthy BMI, your weight is secondary in importance.0
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As a 5ft 7in male I'm gong to ask......why are you trying to get down to 115lbs? I bottomed out at 163 and thought....ya I went a bit to far.. You really, really should look into body recomp to lose body fat. Losing more weight isn't going to help you. You should be eating at least at maintenance, doing cardio if you like, and be on a progressive weight training regimen....like yesterday.
All of this... 115 is underweight for a man?0 -
I read once that forward movement is what matters. So if you travel 3 miles, it should burn near the same whether you walk or run (though it will take much less time, and will tone your muscles and lungs more if you run). Though I've never looked further into the science on that, so take it with a grain of salt!0
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My BMI is in the very low end of the normal range. I believe its 18.9 and I wish to keep it this way. I just prefer the skinny look thats why I wish to maintain my weight at about 115lbs. It's just a personal preference.
Yes, surprisingly with my low BMI and very low weight that some of you are saying, I do have some areas of body fat which I mentioned earlier. They are in my love handles and lower stomach area. Which is what I'm trying to get rid of. I know to lose body fat, you have to lose it all over as you can't spot reduce it. But after about 2 weeks of sticking to my plan, I'm seeing results as in the body fat around my abdominal area is finally starting to shrink and I'm hoping the next to go will be the love handles.
I went down from about 125lbs to 120 in about 2-3 weeks, I'm not sure what my body fat percentage is and have no way to measure it, but I'm guessing its maybe 20%.
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OP - sounds like you need to add some HIIT (high intensity interval training). There are a lot of good, recent article on HIIT, fat loss and the after burner effect. I've pretty much been doing 45 minutes of high intensity workout, instead of lower intensity, steady state cardio, 6 days a week for the last 50 days.... now i'm extremely overweight, but i've dropped 45 pounds and a lot of it is fat from my gut. I started at a 48" waist and can now fit into 42". So yeah, I'm a firm believer in cranking the heart rate up!
Also, i simply can't run, so i pedal! I get an great workout doing Spin classes on the days when i can't ride outside...0 -
I read once that forward movement is what matters. So if you travel 3 miles, it should burn near the same whether you walk or run (though it will take much less time, and will tone your muscles and lungs more if you run). Though I've never looked further into the science on that, so take it with a grain of salt!
Correction. I just looked this up and sure enough the science is not sound: http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning0 -
Walking or running will both burn fat but you have to walk about twice as long as you'd have to run. That said, I used to run (in my 30's) but I switched to walking because the running resulting in knee damage. My feeling is that running is more efficient at the time of exercise but, in the long run, your body pays a price for it.
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I read once that forward movement is what matters. So if you travel 3 miles, it should burn near the same whether you walk or run (though it will take much less time, and will tone your muscles and lungs more if you run). Though I've never looked further into the science on that, so take it with a grain of salt!
No, walking and running are very different for net calories and it he is not burning what he thinks he is either. He is only burning about 120 net calories for three miles based on his body weight and he will burn 240 if he ran it. You can see more here: runnersworld.com/weight-loss/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn?page=single
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I read once that forward movement is what matters. So if you travel 3 miles, it should burn near the same whether you walk or run (though it will take much less time, and will tone your muscles and lungs more if you run). Though I've never looked further into the science on that, so take it with a grain of salt!
Correction. I just looked this up and sure enough the science is not sound: http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning
Oh, just saw your second post.
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My BMI is in the very low end of the normal range. I believe its 18.9 and I wish to keep it this way. I just prefer the skinny look thats why I wish to maintain my weight at about 115lbs. It's just a personal preference.
Yes, surprisingly with my low BMI and very low weight that some of you are saying, I do have some areas of body fat which I mentioned earlier. They are in my love handles and lower stomach area. Which is what I'm trying to get rid of. I know to lose body fat, you have to lose it all over as you can't spot reduce it. But after about 2 weeks of sticking to my plan, I'm seeing results as in the body fat around my abdominal area is finally starting to shrink and I'm hoping the next to go will be the love handles.
I went down from about 125lbs to 120 in about 2-3 weeks, I'm not sure what my body fat percentage is and have no way to measure it, but I'm guessing its maybe 20%.
I would worry more about a BF% target rather than a weight target but at 37 you will naturally gravitate to a higher BF%. You are not going to be 20% BF at your weight unless you have no muscle. The easiest way to get an estimate is to take a tape measure and use the Navy method: fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy or grab the calipers at GNC for about $15 or so.0
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