Posts: 56
5/26/09 10:40 A

Hi - Just wanted to add some words of encouragement...I am now 56 but quit smoking a little before I turned 40. It was my third attempt and I did it cold turkey learning from my previous mistakes.
The reason that I'm replying is that I too liked to swim and went back to the pool at that point - uffda! Out of breath for sure. I could barely swim one length of the pool and if I did I clung to the side when I reached the other end! Little by little I kept adding and this many years later I still love to swim - I like to do at least half a mile during my noon hour as we have a pool on the campus where I work. At the lake in the summer people just watch me swim because I'm like the Energizer bunny - I just keep going and going. Go for it! If I can do this you can do this! GREAT exercise for weight loss!

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5/25/09 11:09 P

Walking is my perferred exercise in the summer. I live near a beautiful park that has a few great hills. Depending on which route I take I will hit at least two of them. I then do the daily workout videos and do circuit strength training at least twice a week.

I'm just getting into this routine so, I'll let you know how it works.

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5/25/09 7:38 A

You gave a lot of information, thank you!

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5/24/09 11:07 P

No your okay. Just realize over time when you become more physically active your going to have to increase your food intake, becasue of starvation mode. You have to keep so many calories in your body to function, breath, pump blood, etc.. So just like every 10 pounds lost you might want to increase you calories by about 100/day. I eat on my higher end of calories on days I am more physically active. Like today I just walked so I eat a little over 1400 cals.

Over time you'll learn what works for you. I understand were your coming from. I use to fear eating more than 1200 calories. When I joined Spark 60 days ago I was eating 1200-1400 calories a day. In 25 days I only lost 2 pounds not much exercise. I incresed it to 1400-1600 and in the past 5 weeks I've lost 8 pounds and increased my activities. Now I've increased it again 1430-1780 so I will add some more cardio and I have come up with a strength training to do. If I lose well than I will increase again.
Hope I helped ... Good Luck

Lisa

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5/24/09 11:02 P

walking is great
but from what i understand -- interval training at least 2x a week is imperative
that means pushing yourself with in that walk
2 ways to do it
1 hills
2 speed
so you warm up for 5 mins
then make sure you alternate fast and uphil with 10-15 seconds of recovery between minute intervals

Posts: 138
5/24/09 7:57 P

ZiggyMom- If Iam only eatting 1550 cals a day do I still need to eliminate 1000? I really don't want to eat over my recommenede calories which is 1200-1550. I am a bit confused about this. Just need to know what I should set my goals at. Thanks

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5/24/09 7:37 P

i use to swim like a fish but i have been smoking so long that it is hard to breath when i try to swim now. i kinda miss it.

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5/24/09 7:12 P

T180, in order to lose 2# a week you have to eliminate 1000 calories a day from your daily intake.
At 270 to maintain that weight you would have to eat 3240 calories a day. That's if your active (cardio) w/ at least 60mins a day.

So if you burn lets say 500 cals a day in physical activity you would take that away from the 3240-500= 2740 - 500 (caloric intake)that would be 2240 calories a day. You would re access that every 10#

It sounds like a lot. However it depends on what you eat. If your eating saturated fats and a large amount of fat that won't help. If your eating the wrong kinds of grains (white bread) that will just turn into sugar quickly in your body. Whole wheat takes longer to process. You might want to balance out how often you eat, certain amount of proteins, grains, and fats

I count calories but I also count how many proteins, veggies, fruits, grains and fats I eat a day.
Personal I would set my goal for 1# a week, if you make 2 that's good. I personal right now eat 1430-1780 calories a day. This is my first week at it so I'll see how that works.

Just let it be a slow and steady process, because 1 it's healthier, 2 you will learn more from it. It will make you become more conscious of a healthy lifestyle. You don't want to burn yourself out on exercise.

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5/24/09 6:58 P

I do both swimming and walking. The pool is right at where I work so I don't really have an excuse. I don't have an excuse for not walking either it's sometimes I'm just too lazy lol. Walking is the best, and easiest form of exercise though, and you can lose quite a bit of weight with it.

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5/24/09 6:41 P

I am constantly reminded of the advice a doctor gave me almost 35 years ago. We were talking about fitness and he asked me about my exercise. I told him I love to swim. I had been a competitive swimmer in High School and Loved IT. I also did Synchronized Swimming. He said that swimming was excellent exercise, his only concern was with ANY exercise that required us to change clothes go to a special location to do it because it gave us too many opportunities to NOT DO IT.
He said that was the reason, he chose to walk or run for his daily exercise. Anything that is easy to do and requires very little extra work is a GOOD CHOICE. At least that was his advice to me.

And, here I am walking to get in shape and reminded daily about the TRUTH in his words so many years ago.

Funny how life works.

Paula

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5/24/09 6:08 P

I have another question for you all. Sorry but this is the first time I have ever been serious about getting healthy so I have a lot of questions at times. I decided today I will consume nomore than 1550 cals daily. I am tired of the low carb junk. I want to aim at losing at least 2 pounds a week, if I can lose more a week wonderful for me, I would like to. So eatting 1550 cals a day or less what amt of cals a week do I need to burn to ge the weight off?

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5/24/09 5:28 P

I love walking and swimming. Anything that you will do consistently is what is going to make the difference for you.

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5/24/09 4:27 P

I love walking, joggin and running races.

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5/24/09 4:10 P

i have been at this for about 3 years and i am now finding that changing up the pace and doing circuits is what it takes for me to continue to lose. it seems like if i continue to do the same exercises or walking pace, it stops being effective. experiment with different speeds and times and see if that helps you.

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5/24/09 2:01 P

I don't know if you lose more but I know for me since I've started adding more jogging into my walking program that I have noticed my weight and inches starting to slowly decrease.

I totally agree with one of the other women: slow and steady and doing it on a consistent basis is what's going to win the race.

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5/24/09 9:42 A

i love walking, it is the easiest way for me to burn calories. after i loose a little weight i would like to start jogging but i have to work up to that.

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5/24/09 9:11 A

Walking is great. Any exercise in the water is also great and so easy on the joints.

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5/24/09 7:42 A

At 270# if you walked 2.0 MPH for 60 mins you burn 306 calories, if you walked 3.0 MPH you would burn 402 Calories. As you lose weight that amount of calories burned decreases.
To maintain your weight 270# you have to eat 3240 calories a day thats if you are more active. To lose 1 pound a week you have to eliminate 500 calories (daily). Either by decreasing your food intake, or combo of burned calories & caloric intake.
Walking is the safest way to lose weight because of the strain on your body is less intense. Slow & steady is the best way to lose weight.

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5/24/09 6:53 A

It does if your calories are adjusted for the level of activity. You would need to adjust speed up once you are doing well with your starting speed.

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5/24/09 5:32 A

walking helps in ur w8 loss journey but u must add more activities 2 help .Look at SP videos I love 10 min cardio kickboxing

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5/24/09 3:04 A

Do you lose more weight than what by walking? You lose more weight by walking than not walking, obviously, but other than that it depends on the intensity and duration of the cardio. You can try imputting different activities on the Spark People Activity Tracker for the same amount of time and see the differences in calories burned for an idea, but remember that's just an estimate. A great website for a general idea of the calories burned during different activities is: primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calc
ulat.htm

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5/24/09 2:28 A

I heard that you lose more weight by just walking. No power walking,jogging,or running. Does antone know if this is true?

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