I'm glad I am still losing. I was worried for a little while there. This month we tried Angel Food Ministries, and I have decided that while the $25 box of food was nice, it had too many of my culinary temptations in it for me to justify buying it again. I am not in the least someone who will go ga-ga for a candy bar (yuck) but I have very little self control when I have a 10 pound box of frozen popcorn chicken in my freezer. Good thing I'm working out LOL.
Another Email!
I got this email from a reader:
I only get through the warmup part of a workout video before I am too tired to do any more. I'm very out of shape. It doesn't seem like enough exercise though. I read you have to do exercise for at least 20 minutes before you read the spot when you are burning calories. How can I burn enough to make a difference?
Any exercise is better than no exercise at all. (and by any exercise, I mean quantity--make sure you are doing the moves correctly, however slowly you are doing them---moving properly is more important than moving for an hour!
Personally, and keep in mind I am not a doctor, exercise guru (LOL), or fitness expert--just a mom who is taking on the challenge of getting the family moving more----personally I think if all you are doing now is sitting on your behind, then doing just the warmup (and cooldown) parts of an exercise DVD is probably a great place to start...you have to build up to it.
I read a little while ago some article where they decided (after some study) that exercise doesn't burn enough calories to lose weight. I think that is ridiculous, and obviously they never interviewed me LOL.
My own experience (and that of several severely overweight friends who have taken off at least 50 or more pounds) is that you need to both eat well and move your body daily.
Again, I don't have a permanent head damage degree (PhD) in exercise or anything like that, but I have found that it doesn't seem to matter about focusing on how many calories you are burning when you do such and such an exercise. I think it is all pretty relative. The act of being "in oxygen" (aerobically working out--not to be confused with complicated choreography and scantilly clad workout instructors with impossible moves) and of working your muscles (light weight training) seems to do your body good, even if "the charts" (which are not infallible) say I only burned enough to cancel out my fat free salad dressing.
I'm sure you can look this up more on the internet somewhere to have all of the scientific details, but working out (especially weight training) benefits you more when you are resting afterwards than when you are doing it...the results don't just end when your workout does. And, if you are building muscle, it affects how you burn calories. If you are exercising, the hormonal changes that go on as a result of what happens on a biochemical level also contribute to a more efficient (or maybe even a properly functioning) metabolism.
On the other hand...if you are only able to make it through the warm up before you are seriously sucking wind, you are better off stopping there (maybe doing the cool down portion of the workout though!), than forcing yourself to do what some 20 year old fitness guru can do, if you are an out of shape, overweight, 30-something mom of 9. All that I have read on the science of exercise seems to indicate that over exertion can do lots of damage, and undermine your efforts. Again, I'm not someone who has a degree in all of this stuff--I just read a lot. :-)
Bottom line--if you are waiting until you can do the entire 60 minute Tae-bo tape you bought on a daily basis, you should know that the longer you wait the less likely it is that you will even be able to do the warmup itself ,girl!
No comments:
Post a Comment