2 Questions! Please help! :-)

hello, ok here is what i think......how many days are you working out? does your treadmill have pre-programmed workouts?

if you just did 1 hour in the morning you would see results faster than splitting the workout....when you do an hour it raises your core temp enough (as long as your sweating) to burn about another hour after your done!! you don't start burning until after about 22 minutes so your only burning 8 minutes on each 30 workout.....start slow...bring it to 45 minutes 5x a week then up to 60 minutes.....do 30 of fatburning and 30 cardio or whatever to break it up!

i did this 5-6x's a week and believe me i felt like a rockstar!!! and started shedding....i never ate the calories burned but did have a bit extra but VERY healthy.....
carbonated water is ok but flat is better (i heard too much of carbonation isn't good for bones or joints, i can't remember which)

hope i helped!!!

good luck

I don't know what they person above is talking about but hey I have seen some posts on here that can only be called a little crazy. However, posts here have been some interesting jumping off points for my own research.

I always feel a little sick if I try to do the treadmill with anything much in my stomach. If your walks can be accomplished on full stomach you may need go a little harder. I would also suggest that you do it before you eat b/c when I'm done the last thing I want to do is eat, so when I get around to it I usually eat less.

Also when I am using the treadmill I keep track of how many calories burned. The treadmill I use calculates them based on weight, time, and heart rate. I like to keep an eye on how long it takes me to hit my daily goal but that is really only and ego thing. I use this number b/c it will stay the same as my weight drops, I get into better shape, and as I have good days and bad days. This way I can also bump the speed up and down as well as the incline (I love drawing those mountains) to push my heart rate up then back off and when my heart rate drops back to push it up again.

I did 1641 calories in 115 mins today! A personal best! If you can do 30 then you can do 20 mins hard, 5 slower, 10 hard, 5 slower, hard for 5, then 5 cool down.

About calories burned...

EAT THEM! There are so many posts on this board about that. You don't necessarily have to do it everyday and if you aren't hungry that's ok if you don't eat but if you consistently do not get the minimum calories your body needs your body will hold onto everything you eat... this is starvation mode. You will see results at first and then you will hit a peak because your body won't let go of anymore. As I said, if you go under every now and then that's fine but not consistently.

Thanks everyone for the great answers! That's very helpful! I have a hard time doing the 30 right now. I am very out of shape and 240 pounds. So that's why I split them up for now. I also find at night, I can push harder and do more then in the morning which I find odd. But, I think I will start to try to do 45 in the morning then some days do 30 at night as well....for now! :-)


As far as the calories, if I am hungry I wll eat them, if not I won't! THANKS! :-)

Amy, good job thinking outside the box with your exercise. There's absolutely no need to do all your exercise at the same time, if 15 minutes, 4 times a day works, that's fine. Do what you can and when you can. My only caution with walking is this: If you have no conditions that would force you to NOT up the bar, as soon as you possibly feel you can, I would consider upping the pace, either by just increasing your walking speed incrementally (over weeks or months), or adding something else into your routine. That's just a little helpful advice from me to you.

Cardio vs fat burning zone are two heart rate levels that companies put out there to give you a goal Heart Rate to shoot for.

While the Fat burning zone may seem like the best zone to be in, and in truth you burn the highest percentage of fat per calorie burned in that zone, the total fat burned in the Cardio zone is actually higher. Why? Because the total number of calories burned goes way up as your heart rate approaches that 75 to 80% max range. Assuming you have been cleared for higher intensity cardio by a doctor (alway, always ask your doctor first, especially if you're new, or overweight), I generally tell people to go as high as you can toward the anaerobic threshold. If you can sustain 75% for 30 minutes, that's far better than sustaining 65% for an hour. I know this explaination actually creates more questions, and you're welcome to PM me if you have more, but we could go on for hours on the subject of ideal exercise levels for weight loss.

As to eating exercise calories, well, first I'll refer you to my technical explaination of how our body uses calories here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

once you read that, then I'll give you the simple version:

As we abuse our bodies, and become more and more out of shape, our body's internal mechanism for deciding what we need to eat (calorie wise) becomes distorted. This means that A) we shouldn't rely on only eating when we feel hungry, because at this point our body doesn't really know when it's hungry (truly hungry). And MFP is a specific program that already creates a deficit for you, that deficit doesn't include exercise in any way until you perform and enter it. So NOT eating them is equivalent to creating a larger deficit than recommended or specified. NOW, sometimes this is ok, especially when you have a lot of weight to lose and your body can afford to pull the extra calories from fat, but it's still a risk you are taking, the longer you deprive your body of enough calories to simply sustain, the more comfortable your body will be with it, and a comfy body does NOT drop fat.
Obviously, this is the non-technical explaination, but it's enough for now. Ideally it's about patience and willpower, we all WANT to lose weight fast, but doing so can (and eventually will) sabotage your efforts. If you really want to understand the details (which I would recommend), PM me, I'll explain in GREAT detail

I guess that's about it, go get em lady! You deserve to be healthy, don't let anyone stop you!

we miss you're happy face on here kerri! Hope all is going well for you.

what worked? Asking? LOL!


oh by the way, to answer your before or after dinner question, my opinion is: when ever you feel fits your schedule best. While there are some slight advantages to exercising a specific time after or before eating, those advantages play more into the realm of people who are working to gain specific muscle type and the like (I.E. people who are already at their goal body fat %). For now, I wouldn't worry too much about when you exercise, as the fat comes off, you can do a little more research into what's the best way to eat and exercise to gain muscle tone, strength, and size.

And no, really doesn't matter if your water is carbonated or not, not a lot at least.