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SparkPoints: (4,199)
Fitness Minutes: (10,023)
Posts: 648
11/20/09 11:23 P

An other issue with using Calories read out on a cardio machine is the Calorie read out is typically a bit flaky at best.

When I was using an elliptical at the guy, I found that dropping 200 calories reported by the machine on a Calorie burn of 800 to 1200 was about right to make things work out. So that suggests the machine was report about 20% high.

Ramping up the intensity of your work out will burn more calories, and intervals are a way to improve speed and general cardiac fitness.

I have just changed from running 15k per day at a stead pace, to doing a mix of shorter, Longer and medium runs, with different intensities. To early to really say how that will change things. I will still average about 10k per day over all, but with a mix of distances and a mix of tempos.

current weight: 160.0

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Posts: 6,164
11/20/09 10:58 P

Ultimately what matters in terms of burning fat is the total calories burned, not the particular form of exercise.

Doing intervals is one of the best ways of increasing your fitness, and is perhaps worth pursuing on this basis. Intervals of walking and running are also a great way of progressing towards running.

I'm not sure about learning to run on an incline though. Using an incline is a good way of increasing the intensity of your workout if you have maxed out your walking speed on the flat (and don't want to move to running). But if you are looking to mix running and walking, you may want to set the treadmill to the flat or very slight (1-2%) incline. Too steep an incline while learning to run can alter your gait, and lead to impact issues.

Basically, increasing speed, duration or incline are all great ways of increasing the intensity and calorie burn of your workout, but you really only want to work on one variable at a time.

M@L

current weight: 196.0

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SparkPoints: (87,280)
Fitness Minutes: (51,975)
Posts: 25,147
11/20/09 10:11 P

Peace,

That is one way to run intervals, but most people will run time or distance as these are stable factors whereas caloric readouts on the machine are not necessarily consistent.

Nancy

current weight: 125.0

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Posts: 224
11/20/09 9:47 P

Hey a trainer at my gym told me that the best way to burn fat is to run then walk on an incline and alternate back and forth.

I usually alternate between running for 25 cals and walking for 25 cals until i reach my calorie burn goal/ the next time i run i do 50 cals run then 50 walk/ I also have one where I run 75 cals walk 50 and another where i run for 50 cals and walk for 25...

does this sound like a good plan? anyone else have success doing this?

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