I found this info on...

I found this info on line and I thought I would share it. I think we all could use a reality check when it comes to exercise. ESPECAILLY ME! Anyone have any experience or opinion of this article? I have always known you need to mix it up a little but I didn't know that we should "mix" it up this much. It seems to make sense to me. 1. Exercise in short, intense bursts (interval training) for effective fat burning after exercise. 2. Increase the amount of resistance/strength/weight training you do, to build more lean muscle. Muscle is 'metabolically active' and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you're not moving. And of course, for best results: 3. Chill on the amount of food you are eating. Technically: 1. Our bodies are built to survive, so when you exercise for long periods of time (often and consistently) your body thinks it needs to hold on to fat for energy. Doing short (12-15 minute), intense exercise sessions builds strength and burns calories, but not fat, so it "feels safe" using fat stores for energy after exercise. 2. Resistance training (using extra weight) helps build lean muscle mass (and strong bones), and muscle burns more calories than fat. 3. If you are obsessing over things like fat grams and not eating a nutritious diet, your body will reserve energy (store fat) to survive. Realistically: 1. Varying your exercise is the most effective and efficient way to stay lean and healthy. You must do some longer exercise to build cardiovascular endurance, burn lots of calories, and yes, even burn fat during exercise - your body will not click in to "save" mode unless you exercise for long periods of time, regularly and often. 2. You must do resistance training in order to build muscle and strong bones. 3. Nobody wants to exercise more - and we don't want to train our bodies to need more exercise to stay fit. So exercise efficiently - two short, very intense (relative to your level of fitness) training sessions weekly, like a 15-minute fast run/walk or fast cycling sprint intervals, and two moderately long, moderately intense sessions (30-45 minutes) of strong walking, cycling, or yoga, with one long day (60-90 minutes) of a moderately paced walk/hike. That's a great five-day/week training schedule. 4. Instead of adding more days to your workout schedule, add a weighted vest to your training. I have said this before, but this is the most efficient way that I know of to build muscle while burning calories. For more information, go to www.walkvest.com. 5. Eat moderately - stop counting fat grams and calories and look at how much food is on your plate! And eat more nutritiously by eating foods that are natural and unprocessed. Keep it real - Debbie Rocker

Thank you so much...That was very interesting to read....

I heard that exercising intensely can be dangerous...especially if you are someone who is "pre-op", complications etc. But a good one for the above is aqua aerobics. It gives you strentgth training and cardio at the same time and you burn calories especially if the water is about 98, because you are sweating more than usual. I am pre-op and lost 20 lbs from doing aqua aerobics, as I can not walk that well or exercise too many health problems, ie back surgery, arthritis etc. I now have guns instead of a turkey arm and that is just from water aerobics Of course I have been watching what I eat including portions and calories and I journal on Bettermd.net.

Hi Sonia, Thats some good advice. You are right some pre-ops aren't able to do this kind of work out. I have done water aerobics before and I loved it. I didn't know the info about the water temp making a differnce, very interesting. Congratulations on your pre op loss that is fantastic. That is what this surgery takes a commitment, it sounds like you are very committed. good for you. Do you have a date yet? Good luck on your journey---Toni

No date yet, my consult is this friday...I've already seen him in 2005, but I had to have back surgery so it was post-poned. Ty for the compliment I actually lost 40 I am now down to 290 instead of 340 Dr. Carlin will be pleased, but I think most of the weight loss is because I've been sick so much. My sig has a ticker but it won't come up here. I think I am committed, but its the water that and addiction to Pepsi I am having trouble with...my man is a Pepsi-aholic. He can drink 36 cans in one week or less and if you look at my Profile he is a stick! GRRR, but he is very active at work...he is a high rise window cleaner and swings from a rope! My little Spiderman

Thanks Toni! I printed it out....I've heard this, but it's nice to see it written out as to what type of ideas for exercise...that's always one the hardest things to figure. That makes a lot of sense now that I think back to when I was walking briskly 4 miles every single day at the same time of day, etc. Worked great for quite a while for weight loss, but kind of just leveled off...felt like it wasn't "working" anymore to burn enough fat. This makes sense. I'll give it a try! Hugs, Theresa

makes sense! thanks for sharing! hug rae

From the extensive research I've done on exercise, this article seems to be right on point with most of the information. Cardio exercise is best for burning fat DURING the exercise time. Resistance Training (weights) is best for building muscle which will actually burn fat at all times - muscle requires more energy to survive. Which is why you should mix up your cardio workouts and your resistance training workouts (3 days of cardio, 2 days of RT, for example). The only item that differs from what I've learned is the "short" workouts vs. "long" workouts. There's a pretty wide valley between the school of thought of short workouts being better or long workouts being better. From what I can tell, it all depends on your intensity level and what your body and health conditions can withstand. "Intense" cardio workouts mean that you keep your heart rate at it's maximum level (80-90%) for a sustained period of time. But this is a muscle building type of workout just like intervel training (anaerobic). When you're talking straight cardio (aerobic), you actually burn more fat during your workout if your heart rate is in the 60-70% range. Here's some interesting info about which "Training Heart Rate" works best for burning fat. Scroll down to about the middle of the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate Here's an easy "maximum heart rate calculator" that'll tell you how many beats per minute should be your goal based on the heart rate percentage you're shooting for. http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/hr.shtml Here's a good little article that talks a bit more about exercise: http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100138677 HTH Pam