Hmm, stair stepper question

Carriehelene wrote: »

Yeah, the other setting came up with 126, so the calories were even higher. I did 10 torturous minutes lol. I’m 182 lbs. went back and forth between levels 2&3. I’m going to go with the machine estimate. And at the 15th flight of stairs, I decided I’m never going in a high rise building again, rofl.

Makes sense. For 10 minutes, and it being a somewhat strength-y activity with some resistance on, probably I'd go with the lowest estimate, the 60 calories.

I've been your weight (started losing at 183 pounds). At that weight, if relatively new to formal exercise or returning after a long hiatus - as I'm guessing you may be from your subjective experience comments - 360 calories per hour would be quite a vigorous thing, and 672 per hour (112 for 10 minutes) not necessarily impossible, but honestly pretty improbable IMO, even for just the 10 minutes.

I'm not dissing your effort when I say that: It would be hard! Good show, going for it like you did. You don't know what's the right activity or intensity, unless you try things.

Just as a general background comment, I'd point out that punitively intense, unpleasant exercise is not necessary for weight loss, and probably not even the best way to get maximum calorie burn or the best way to build fitness.

The sweet spot, especially if beginner-ish or returning, is usually a more moderate intensity thing performed at a pace one can sustain for whatever one's time-budget is in context of an overall balanced life. You'd want a challenge, but a manageable one. In other words, it's fine to feel a little "whew" for a few minutes right after the workout, but you want to be energized for the rest of your day, not dragged-out tired.

Fatigue tends to drain calorie burn out of the rest of our day (because we rest more, perhaps subtly), wiping out some of the exercise calories. That's counter-productive.

BTW, by "in context of an overall balanced life", I mean exercise type, intensity, duration and frequency that leaves you with enough time and energy for job, home chores, family life, and anything else important to you - something you could imagine keeping up long term, relatively happily.

Over time, that exercise will gets easier (no longer that mild, manageable challenge). That's fitness happening! When that happens, work at a little more intensity, a little more frequently, for a little longer duration (within your time budget!), or doing a different thing, to keep that small, manageable challenge in the picture. It's that challenge that improves fitness.

Persistently overdoing is counter-productive for fitness, too, because it short-changes recovery and can reduce intensity tolerance (things become fatiguing that didn't used to be). Recovery is where the fitness magic happens.

Best wishes!