Cutiing back excercise, but what exercise?

EBurnham
EBurnham Posts: 31
edited September 19 in Fitness and Exercise
After seeing my doctor recently, he expressed his concern about me having a possible eating disorder that involves compulsively over exercising. He wants me to decrease some exercises. He's also concerned about my joints as well. The thing is, he didn't tell me what to decrease, so I need some suggestions. Here's my normal weekly exercise routine:
Sun. - One walk about 2.0 mph, with my daughter and husband for 25 min.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - Two walks about 2.0 mph, about 30 min. each, One brisk walk / jog about 4.0 mph for 10 to 15 min. and 1 pilates DVD workout for 30 min.
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday - Two walks about 2.0 mph, about 30 min. each, One brisk walk / jog about 4.0 mph for 10 to 15 min.

I want to try to maintain my weight, but not feel lazy about not doing a lot of exercises. I'm a stay at home mom of one, so I'm mostly sedentary throughout the day.
Any tips or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Replies

  • EBurnham
    EBurnham Posts: 31
    After seeing my doctor recently, he expressed his concern about me having a possible eating disorder that involves compulsively over exercising. He wants me to decrease some exercises. He's also concerned about my joints as well. The thing is, he didn't tell me what to decrease, so I need some suggestions. Here's my normal weekly exercise routine:
    Sun. - One walk about 2.0 mph, with my daughter and husband for 25 min.
    Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - Two walks about 2.0 mph, about 30 min. each, One brisk walk / jog about 4.0 mph for 10 to 15 min. and 1 pilates DVD workout for 30 min.
    Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday - Two walks about 2.0 mph, about 30 min. each, One brisk walk / jog about 4.0 mph for 10 to 15 min.

    I want to try to maintain my weight, but not feel lazy about not doing a lot of exercises. I'm a stay at home mom of one, so I'm mostly sedentary throughout the day.
    Any tips or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    you should give yourself 1 day of recovery. give your bones, muscles and joints a day to recover. The two sets look about the same as far as intensity, so I would say, cut out wednesday, let your body recover. Also, I would personally replace 1 or 2 days with either resistance, weight training, or some kind of non-impact class like spinning or Body pump (pilates is good, but also keep in mind that's more of a isometric routine and doesn't fix everything), just to change up your routine, make your muscles work differently, and add some tone to the endurance muscles.
  • mickie
    mickie Posts: 183
    I don't know about your eating disorder but it sure doesn't look like you're overdoing it to me. It must have more to do with the psychological aspect (just guessing; not a doctor). Personally, I would give up one of your two walks (per day) and add strength training. Youn also should take at least one day off (especially if you add strength training in). Your doctor would really think I had problems!:laugh: :laugh: Anyway, you should really listen to your doctor, he knows best! He obviously knows you better than we do. :happy:
  • Starchaser
    Starchaser Posts: 69
    I hate to be so glib.
    But if your doctor told you to cut back on exercise (or anything for that matter) and wasn't specific enough, go back and ask him!

    Take your training schedule to him and tell him (or her) "You told me to cut back. This is what I do. What do you want me to cut back on?"

    You're paying for it either through tax or through health insurance, so make it work for you!

    Pin him down and get an answer out of him!
  • EBurnham
    EBurnham Posts: 31
    If anything, I'd like to cut my brisk walk out on the days I do the pilates, or find something that will burn about the same amount of calories but be less strenuous on my joints. The pilates involves strength training with resistance bands. Any ideas?
  • yellow_pepper
    yellow_pepper Posts: 708 Member
    Why not consolidate your walks? Each day you walk, you can do a total of 1 hour at 3 mph. Break it up however you like. You'll end up covering the distance and avoid the stress from your brisk walking.

    Are you sure you're going 2 mph as it is? That's... pretty... slow...
  • EBurnham
    EBurnham Posts: 31
    It may be more like 2.5 or 3 mph, but I like to err on the slow side. Those are some good ideas, thank you everyone.
  • singfree
    singfree Posts: 1,591 Member
    A "brisk" walk @ 4 mph for 15 mins. is only one mile. I don't think you are doing over 3 miles in any one day. I added up all of your walking/ jogging and it came out to 19 miles per week. Unless the Dr. thinks you are eating too few cals due to an eating disorder, the exercise looks a bit easy, imo.
  • EBurnham
    EBurnham Posts: 31
    One more question: Would I still be burning about the same amount of calories by still walking the same distance at a slightly slower pace or would I have to increase the time walking or anything?
  • Starchaser
    Starchaser Posts: 69
    Many have argued this for a long time saying walking for an hour burns the same calories as running for an hour.

    I say cr*p to that.

    The treadmill says me that when I did sprints for ten minutes after a 5 minute warmup I burn the same calories as a light job for fifteen minutes. It's nonsense. Since calories are a measure of energy, the heat I generated sprinting is an indicator that sprinting burns more calories than jogging.

    So short answer, no.

    If you want to burn more calories over distance, do it quicker.
    If you don't want to do it quicker, do it for longer.

    It's all about effort. Exercise is exactly that: an exercise, if it's not pushing you or making you sweat even a little, it's not doing you that much good.
  • EBurnham
    EBurnham Posts: 31
    Okay, I crunched some numbers, which I know I should have done so earlier >_< and my slower daily walks are at least 2.5 to 3 mph, and my brisker walks average about 5.0 mph, alternating brisk walking and jogging.
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