<p>Lots of trails around here but no, I am still inside. I would need a new bike and helmet to be outside! I am a creature of habit so I head to the gym! D2 exercised next to O’Neal from Biggest Loser yesterday! Said she was starstruck!</p>
<p>I’m spending the week in my “city home,” in Hoboken, for my new job. I plan to go for a jog tonight (I’ll be addressing the gym issue in another week or so) but **I forgot my ipod **at home!!! I’m so annoyed with myself – how will I run? This should be interesting.</p>
<p>I run without my iPod frequently. I love to have it, but sometimes it’s nice to just focus on your surroundings, too. Especially if I’m out of town I tend to go sans-music. See what you think.</p>
<p>I’m one of those non-ipod wearers, partly for safety, partly cuz I do like to hear what the world has to say, for good or bad ( I get great story material by eavesdropping).</p>
<p>I’ve been a total slug since MD weekend ended. Musta wore myself out, can barely walk to work and back. Have next week off; hope to up the exercise then.</p>
<p>North Minnesota, any luck on the scales? I went back to the gym today, and found that not only had the 2 phantom pounds vanished that I had “gained”–I’m sorry, but you just can’t gain real weight on a 1200 calorie per day low-carb diet!–but they took a couple more with them! 
So I blew by the 10 lb milestone and have my sights set on 15!</p>
<p>On the downside, after 45 min on the eliptical I feel pain in my left hip joint again, and I’m not even lying down yet. A friend of mine who is a doctor agreed that sciatica caused by a herniated disk is highly unlikely, given that the pain is caused by lying down. But there are little bony protrusions called “facets” that may be nipping at a nerve…</p>
<p>So I was checking the weather sites just now, and one of the ads was for a link to check your target heart rate. This has come up from time to time, so I thought I’d provide the link. You just plug in your age, resting heart rate, weight and gender. It calculates it for you.</p>
<p>[weather.com</a> - Fitness Tools - Heart Rate Calculator](<a href=“National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com”>National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com)</p>
<p>I did better jogging without my ipod than I thought I would, but I really need that beat.</p>
<p>Consolation…tomorrow is my weigh in day! Keep your fingers crossed!</p>
<p>No “mom” jeans for me! Actually the lower rise jeans work well for me since hips, rear and thighs are smaller than my stomach! ;)</p>
<p>Worked out for almost 2 hrs today. 65 minutes on the bike and 47 on the dreadmill. Will most likely surpass my mileage goal for the week! Yay!
Have really cut back on what I am eating. I tend to have a lot of acid reflux if I don’t have food in my stomach so I have been taking lots of zantac. Bothers me a little bit that I am taking ibuprofen and zantac several times a day to feel better. I am trying to be really careful at breakfast and lunch and then eat a fairly normal dinner, no evening snacks and I have cut out daily glass of wine with H to 1-2 times a week. This better work or I will be crabby! I really want to hit that 10 lb increment goal!</p>
<p>Good luck NM! Your exercise schedule is amazing…wow. Hope you’re not hungry with your new eating habits because it’s hard to sustain that. One thing I have done recently that has really helped is add lots more fiber and water to my diet. I buy an organic kind of Fiber One at Wegman’s (no high fructose corn syrup!). It has 13 grams of fiber per serving and some of it is insoluble. I also have added beans, mini apples, and other high fiber items to my diet. And LOTS of water. </p>
<p>Anyway, if I’m super hungry and can’ t stand it, I eat a small bowl of high fiber cereal and it helps. I also have it every morning. So far, so good (it helps that I like the taste!). 2 pounds down in just a couple of days…and at a time when I’m usually bloated and weigh MORE.</p>
<p>teriwitt- The problem with the HR calculators is that you really need to know your real max HR. That can really vary from person to person- even in the same age group. Max HR is NOT a sign of fitness, but your target zone is calculated on a formula based on resting and max. I have had max stress tests as part of studies and many years later it seems my max is close to the same (based on what the Garmin reads at the end of races). </p>
<p>On another note- found an awesome treat. Jello Fat Free Pudding Snacks Dulce de Leche flavor. 60 (that’s right SIX ZERO) calories and it tastes like something that would be served at an expensive restaurant. I wasn’t even tempted to eat three or four of them- one satisfied me!!</p>
<p>MOWC…take a strawberry and dip it in your pudding…heaven!!!</p>
<p>Any suggestions for my D. She started back up at the gym about 6 weeks ago. She is working out strenously 5 to 6 days a week. She is running on the treadmill and doing the weight machines. She has greatly improved her HR and her stamina is increased. Muscle definition is coming along in the arms, back and abs. She is feeling frustrated that she feels like she hasn’t lost any weight. I don’t know if that is a fact or she is exagerating since I haven’t seen her. I think one of her problems is her eating habits. She doesn’t eat a ton but her diet is heavy on the carbs.Plus due to her schedule she leaves home in the AM and usually doesn’t return home till 8 pm and eats at that time. Most days she eats only one meal a day. Any suggestions for jump starting her metabolism?</p>
<p>mom60…I just read a book called the “I diet” (I for instinct). It’s written by a professor of nutrition AND psychiatry at Tufts. Has received terrific reviews - one reason is that it has a focus on changing lifetime eating habits and lifestyle. </p>
<p>Anyway, one thing she says, which isn’t really news, is that you must adjust your eating habits to lose weight. Exercise is great…but it’s not all that effective at helping you lose weight. (except if you’re a marathon runner like MOWC!) </p>
<p>She has an eating plan that lasts eight weeks…the first two weeks are the toughest. I’m in my first week and have veered a bit. But I’ve already lost 3 lbs and have not been hungry. That’s good because I’m not that much over my end goal…and I’ve hit a plateau recently. Lots of fiber (but stuff I like like apples and beans so that’s good). Lots of water. Allows dark choc (yay). Hard parts are no wine for the first two weeks ( i might just have to break that once or twice!). And very limited sugar…</p>
<p>Oh…eating one meal a day is not good. My Personal Trainer advocated eating smaller amounts of food every 3 hours to keep the metabolism stoked. Makes sense to me!</p>
<p>Exercise will not lead to weight loss. Diet does and by “diet” I mean eating less and then eating better for extended periods, as a regimen - which is what diet meant of old.</p>
<p>Here’s a simple example. Say that you exercise for an hour and burn 400 calories, which is roughly equivalent to running 3-4 miles (100-125 calories per mile is standard). You would have been doing something else, with even lying around burning 50-75 calories (more if you weigh more). Almost any activity means you’d burn 100-150 calories. So the net is more like 250-300 calories and that’s if you run over 3 miles. If you eat the exact same amount as before - and assuming you weren’t gaining before - then in a little less than 2 weeks you should lose one pound (3500 calories). That rarely happens because you eat more because you’re hungrier. A piece of bread is 100 calories. A latte can be more than your net calorie loss. </p>
<p>There are lots of benefits to your blood chemistry from exercise but it’s not an effective way to lose weight. Your appetite increases and I often see people gain - including me on occasion. </p>
<p>So the key is to exercise because it teaches you discipline and improves your health in myriad ways but to diet to lose weight. That means mostly cutting out sweet things, starting with soda. </p>
<p>The problem with eating a lot at one meal is that it leads to binges and your metabolism seems to slow - contradictory evidence in diet is everywhere - as you run out of energy. People think you are burning fat by starving yourself during the day but you’re just depleting the sugars you need in the short term. Small meals are better. Avoid lots of carbs because they convert very quickly into the sugar your cells burn. The glycemic index points you to carbs (whole grain) that burn slower but you really need to mix in protein and fat. Again, avoid sugar because it burns right away, gets you feeling high and then you feel worse because the burn is so short. That then, at a minimum, creates an addiction-like cycle where you keep taking in sugar to feel energetic.</p>
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<p>Don’t agree with this… as my husband, who reached the under 190lb. mark for the first time (since high school) this morning said, “I don’t eat any less, I just don’t eat the junk I used to.”</p>
<p>teriwitt…well I agree with the quote. I eat about as clean as anybody can…fish, whole grains, veggies and fruit. Water. No sweetened drinks - NONE. My vices are dark choc and wine but I really don’t overdo it. Yet I cannot lose those last 10 lbs. So now I’m trying eating less. We’ll see. I might just want to live with those 10 lbs but then I’ll have to swear off that “dressing young” thread. Right now, I just don’t look good enough to wear those cute dresses everyone keeps posting over there!</p>
<p>There’s more to exercise and fat loss. As you build lean muscle, your calorie burning increases, which in turn contributes to the 3500 calorie deficit needed to lose one pound of fat. This is why a well-rounded exercise program should include some kind of weight training (bodyweight/core exercising is fantastic) in addition to cardio.</p>
<p>Also, intense exercise increases metabolism for up to 16 hours afterwards. This is why doing intervals instead of just putting in hours on the treadmill, is important for fat loss.</p>
<p>I know that theoretically you can’t lose weight only be exercising, but I swear after graduating from college and having a summer job that required biking to work, I lost 20 pounds eating just the same as I always had. In general exercise does not make me hungrier.</p>
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<p>I’m glad you mentioned this. People are always quoting that Time Magazine article saying that exercise cannot make a person lose weight. YES it can, particularly if you do strength training or high intensity intervals. I’ve read comments like this </p>
<p>“exercise A only burns x amount per hour, so you’d have to work out 10 hours to negate that donut.” They completely neglect to consider the metabolic afterburn of strength training or other high intensity workouts.</p>
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<p>Why not? If you are maintaining your weight i.e. calories in = calories out, and change one part of that equation i.e. adding daily exercise or increasing the amount of exercise you are doing, it makes total sense that now you have calories in < calories out, thus you would lose body fat.</p>