Cardio ?

katie_wille
katie_wille Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have always been a bigger girl but I have always loved to run. of course my food choices has never been the best. So here is my dilemma. After I gave birth to my second son I started running at 4 weeks postpartum (which was ok'd by my dr). I ran all the way to 24 weeks pregnant, then it just became uncomfortable. It felt so amazing to run again. Was feeling really good for the first 2 weeks but of course sore. Then the joints in my knees started to hurt terribly. So I stopped running. My son is now 1 year old. Started running again and my knees are doing the same thing. I'm only 24 years old and have worse joint pain than my dad and he's 60! So I've been walking on my treadmill at an incline of 10 ( which is the highest it will go). I burn 323 cal. in 30 minutes. Will this be ok for a while to help me lose weight? I'm not very good at logging my food but I keep my calories at the most 1800. I eat the same thing pretty much everyday so I know my ball park number.

Replies

  • jax_006
    jax_006 Posts: 87 Member
    I say as long as your in a calorie deficit everyday and you are working out during the week AND NOT eating your calories back, you should lose the weight. Try doing some strength training to mix it up with your own body weight or some dumb bells. Muscle burns more calories than fat. :)
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    A calorie deficit will help you lose weight, so any cardio you do burns more calories and gets you in good cardiovascular health. Machines and MFP are notoriously bad at calculating correctly so it's recommended not to eat back more than 75% of those calories to give a little bit of a buffer. If you're in it to lose weight, tighten up the logging of your food (or when you start to stall at losing for several weeks repeatedly) otherwise keep on and best of good luck!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Have you tried riding a bike as an adult? Cycling is as intense or as easy as you make it, it can be a very good cardio workout like running. Well, not quite like running; running is a chore, riding a bike is fun. You might enjoy it. I'm saying this because you wrote "It felt so amazing to run again" and that feeling is a pretty wonderful thing, you should get it if you can. I'm also saying this because cycling is very low impact and can strengthen your knees.

    The 323 calories you burned will definitely help with your weight loss goals. Weight loss basically just comes from burning more calories than you eat, you can burn them from exercise or from just being alive, it's the math that counts. Exercising means you can eat a little more and for a lot of people, that makes it easier to stay under your goal and have a calorie deficit.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,278 Member
    You may want to visit your doc, just to rule out the possibility that there's some injury/condition behind the pain . . . if there is, you don't want to aggravate it. I have knee problems (torn meniscus + arthritis, avoiding surgery as long as possible), and find it helpful to ice my knees for 15-20 minutes after exercise. I got some gel packs from the drugstore that I really like; they have a velcro strap to hold them in place - I just keep them in the freezer all the time.

    Cycling or rowing machine are easier on my knees than any kind of walk/run thing, too - low impact.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    jax_006 wrote: »
    I say as long as your in a calorie deficit everyday and you are working out during the week AND NOT eating your calories back, you should lose the weight. Try doing some strength training to mix it up with your own body weight or some dumb bells. Muscle burns more calories than fat. :)

    No to the bolded part.

    MFP gives us a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. So eating back calories just brings us back to the deficit we signed up for. But, we have to be smart about it. Lots of things are estimates: the calories we burn thru exercise, our activity level, and most of all the food we log. Some of us are very accurate with logging food, others not so much. Start by eating back a percent 50-75%. Then tweak up or down as weight loss progresses....judge against actual results.

    OP - how are your shoes? You might have your gait analyzed. Are you stretching afterwards. I trade off high impact & low impact days to give myself more recovery.
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    katie_wille wrote: »
    I have always been a bigger girl but I have always loved to run. of course my food choices has never been the best. So here is my dilemma. After I gave birth to my second son I started running at 4 weeks postpartum (which was ok'd by my dr). I ran all the way to 24 weeks pregnant, then it just became uncomfortable. It felt so amazing to run again. Was feeling really good for the first 2 weeks but of course sore. Then the joints in my knees started to hurt terribly. So I stopped running. My son is now 1 year old. Started running again and my knees are doing the same thing. I'm only 24 years old and have worse joint pain than my dad and he's 60! So I've been walking on my treadmill at an incline of 10 ( which is the highest it will go). I burn 323 cal. in 30 minutes. Will this be ok for a while to help me lose weight? I'm not very good at logging my food but I keep my calories at the most 1800. I eat the same thing pretty much everyday so I know my ball park number.

    I highly doubt this calorie burn, unless you are running.

    Are you holding on to the treadmill?
  • katie_wille
    katie_wille Posts: 3 Member
    I wear a heart rate monitor. Thats how I get my calories burned.
    Thank you everyone for your amazing responses!! They are very helpful!
  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
    An incline of 10 is no joke! (I hate anything about 4 or 5 lol) definitely going to burn some calories doing that, especially if you are heavier.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    katie_wille wrote: »
    So I stopped running. My son is now 1 year old. Started running again and my knees are doing the same thing. I'm only 24 years old and have worse joint pain than my dad and he's 60! So I've been walking on my treadmill at an incline of 10 ( which is the highest it will go).

    Just want to comment on the knees thing. It's probably because you just started. Your brain remembers running from 1.5 years ago but your muscles/tendons/joints do not. I think your approach is excellent. I have stopped/restarted running multiple times. I always start with just walking and it helps. It helps me to get used to setting that time aside for activity and it will help strengthen all your muscles again. My personal rule is I walk until I just don't want to walk anymore, that I'm just itching to be running again. Usually this is several months of walking for me, your experience may vary.

    I bet after a few months of regular walking, your joints will be strengthened enough to try running again. As for what you are doing, great job and keep it up. Most people do not commit to regular walking so you are way ahead of most people.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    katie_wille wrote: »
    I have always been a bigger girl but I have always loved to run. of course my food choices has never been the best. So here is my dilemma. After I gave birth to my second son I started running at 4 weeks postpartum (which was ok'd by my dr). I ran all the way to 24 weeks pregnant, then it just became uncomfortable. It felt so amazing to run again. Was feeling really good for the first 2 weeks but of course sore. Then the joints in my knees started to hurt terribly. So I stopped running. My son is now 1 year old. Started running again and my knees are doing the same thing. I'm only 24 years old and have worse joint pain than my dad and he's 60! So I've been walking on my treadmill at an incline of 10 ( which is the highest it will go). I burn 323 cal. in 30 minutes. Will this be ok for a while to help me lose weight? I'm not very good at logging my food but I keep my calories at the most 1800. I eat the same thing pretty much everyday so I know my ball park number.

    While there are many reasons to exercise, you don't actually need to do it in order to lose weight - you can create a calorie deficit solely in the kitchen.

    How are your knees while walking on that intense incline? I suggest you don't try to "work through" knee pain - you don't want to end up like me, still with cranky knees 7 years after I injured them.

    I incorporate these knee strengthening exercises into my yoga routine:
    6o1jw0as2alb.jpg
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I do these in between sets when I lift weights. The first time I did them I was sore the next day. I've dropped Tree and now space them out rather than going through the whole routine at once.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLoMA7I7HOQ&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr

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