canstey

Your two points originally were pretty much spot on and did not contradict what I posted originally so why all the angst over the reality checks I posted? There are lots of studies that show the benefits of strength training over cardio to combat the effects of aging whether muscle is added or not. There is no reason to…

I did not contradict myself as Azdak pointed out. Your logic is completely flawed. Let's take a real world example. Two people both weight 150lbs. One does cardio and the other strength training so the strength training guy has 10lbs more muscle than cardio guy, who has 10lbs more fat. Strength guy's BMR is (8.5 calories…

If you gained weight then you ate over 1200 calories a day so you either underestimated the calories in the meal or you are missing some food/snack. You could easily be under estimating if you eat the school lunch. They may be kid's portions but they are loaded with calories. Probably somewhere between 500 and 1000…

Sorry I misquoted, it is 7-10 calories a day. http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=how_many_calories_does_muscle_really_burn_not_as_much_as_you_think It is because you are counting it in the wrong column. Muscle takes 10 calories a day to maintain at rest (fat ~2 calories), i.e. BMR, so adding muscle to increase…

Weight lifting does not burn as many calories per hour as aerobic exercise because of weight liftings very intermittent effort of lift, rest, lift, rest. The amount of calories burned is highly variable and only a blood test to find lactate can get a reasonable approximation. Some say it increases metabolism but that is…

Yes. As long as the calorie deficit is 1000 calories a day whether you exercise or you don't, the weight loss will be the same. Exercise has many other wonderful benefits but if you stick with a fixed calorie deficit (i.e. eat back your exercise calories) then it doesn't increase weight loss. There are some subtle nuances…

I wouldn't worry about counting calories because you won't know how many you are burning. Instead listen to your body and eat more if your body is indicating it isn't getting enough fuel. Also depending on your current fitness and experience doing that much hiking, you could end up gaining a fair amount water weight from…

Ignore everything about speeding up/increasing metabolism and ignore everything about slowing it down (starvation mode and its ilk). Nearly everything about changing metabolism is either completely false, extreme exaggeration, or the wrong explanation of what is really going on with your body. Simply count your calories…

I know many people here think it matters but for the most part anything between 60% carb/25% fat/15% protein to 30% carb/30% fat/40% protein should work just fine. Study after study shows that the breakdown of macro nutrients doesn't change weight lost when calories are equivalent. Now if you have health problems then a…

I take my German Shephard out about 4-5 times a week for 3-4 mile walk (60-75 minutes). He likes to go and sometimes I just need the calories. Plus it calms him down for quite a while.

Because you have a lot of weight to lose and you are a bigger guy to begin with, losing 3-4 pounds a week for the first few weeks is pretty common. Also a fair amount of it may be water weight. I don't like to use absolutes when deciding how much weight loss is too much because it depends on how much you have to lose,…

The advocates of exercising first thing in the morning before eating say that you will burn more fat on an empty stomach than if you eat. This is technically true but it is the difference between burning 60% fat vs. 65% fat and seriously flawed logic for the desired goal. 1. After not eating all night long the workout may…

That is true for activities that completely depend on how much effort the individual puts into it like Zumba and are pretty much impossible to quantify. However for simple mechanical work where the distance is known like walking/running X miles the number of calories is about the same whether you waliked 3 miles or ran 3…

The guy at Polar doesn't know what he is talking about. You don't burn more calories doing the same exercise because you are out of shape compared to when you get fit. It is approximately the same calories assuming you still weigh the same. Use some setting and then keep track of everything over the next 4 weeks to see if…

Total hype. People who count calories know that you need a healthy balanced diet and adjust accordingly. If somone goes through the effort of counting calories then this is a pointless statement to make you think he knows something the calorie counting folks don't. Extreme exaggeration. Yes your body does burn slightly…

After having recorded my workouts for the past 4 months, I would say that average HR is the one that gives you the best overall estimate of how hard you worked. For me, in the low 70's is an easier day and upper 70's near 80 is a hard effort day. Not much difference in % but a fair amount of difference in perceived effort.…

Let's start with the basics. 1. Have you recalculated your BMR+lifestyle now that you have lost 60 lbs? That much less weight will have reduced your normal daily BMR+lifestyle needs and you need to readjust your calories-in to maintain a deficit. 2. Have you updated with your new weight whatever you are using to compute…

Yes you are "slowing" your metabolism down but not in the way you think. It is normal for you to need fewer calories to maintain your lifestyle as you lose weight or in reverse, you need more calories per day to maintain your lifestyle the more weight you have because you are moving more weight around and your organs have…

I try to eat my exercise calories on the day I use them to prevent the next day hunger and potential overeating. What is happening the next day after a hard workout is you are putting your body through double duty. It not only has to maintain normal function on a calorie defict by getting the deficit from fat reserves but…

So what did resting HR have to do with finding maxHR? Also the 220-age or 226-age is not accurate for all people and just a reasonable starting place if you have no other information. MHRes can be a more accurate way to determine training zones if you care about such things but it doesn't help to determine maxHR or VO2Max…

You do not need to be in excellent shape to walk 5 miles a day. You could be in poor shape and still be able to do it. Running 5 miles a day without ever needing to walk during the run would qualify. The above desription of excellent shape is inaccurate. The number of hours per week is much too low and it isn't the number…

From your other post I would say as Azdak said, your maxHR is set too low for you. Here are some general guidelines that you can use to see if the HRM seems to be set correctly. 1. Most people cannot average above 80% maxHR for an hour unless they are in excellent physical fitness. Typical is 70%-80% and that would feel…

Why do you think it is too high? Have you had a stress test showing that the HR you are seeing is too high for you? Similar people have very different max heart rates. My wife and I are the same age and her maxHR is about 20 BPM more than mine. She can average what it takes me a full out effort to achieve and it is correct…

How are you deciding your maxHR? The standard 220-age is only accurate for some people and many have a much higher actual maxHR. It sounds like your actual maxHR is much higher than your current setting.

I would recommend that you don't attempt to back out your BMR/RMR calories and here is why. When the charts used in the calculations for calories burned during exercise were created, it was based upon measuring O2 consumption during activity, as in purely aerobic activity. However there will be some anaerobic (without O2)…

You missed the point. One way to gauge whether your HRM is set correctly to give an accurate estimate is to use additional information for a sanity check. If two people of about the same weight go for a walk together and one HRM says 250 calories and the other 500, at least one of them is wrong. Your view is they must both…

I am quite sure this is incorrect if the two people weigh the same amount. Being in better shape does not increase mechanical advantage such that you can do the same work with fewer calories. It just becomes easier to do. You would have to improve your exercise technique to one that is more efficient but that is separate…

If your gym workout is mostly strength training and not an intense aerobic workout for the full hour, it sounds like the calorie estimate is high. Since your weight loss is set to 1lb a week and it looks like you could handle 2lbs a week with no problems and strength training exercises are notoriously hard to estimate and…

I would say yes and no. How's that for ambivalent? Yes it is because of the pleasure it can bring and the difficulty stopping yourself but no because it does not have anywhere near the actual physical withdrawal symptoms that many drugs have. However food has the added bonus of requiring it to be consumed regardless of…

But only because of weight change and not because a person becomes more fit, which only lowers perceive effort and not calories burned. Two people of the same weight doing the same mechanical work, i..e walking the same 3 miles, should burn about the same number of calories even if one is appearing to work much harder than…