working out, walking, cold

If you want to get rid of overweight
juicyfruit
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working out, walking, cold

Post by juicyfruit »

I am SO glad there's a forum running again!

First of all, a bit of background on me: I've been eating a mostly raw foods diet for the past three years (though not exactly Wai's diet). For most of this time, I've been at a good weight, doing strength training about 3 times a week, plus a ton of walking--I don't have a car :)

But this summer I started doing a LOT more aerobic exercise, especially mountain biking and jogging. I thought it would just get me in better cardiovascular health. But instead, I have GAINED weight, to my shock, and am now feeling a bit pudgy :(

At first I couldn't figure out why I had gained weight. Everyone says to do aerobic exercise to lose fat. So I started doing more and more exercise to lose the weight I'd suddenly gained, but that just made me gain more, and also made my appetite out of control. I started binging and overeating, and then tried to work it off with more exercise... and so on.

Anyway, I finally found Wai's site and read the part about exercise and weight loss. What an eye-opener! Now I'm ready to cut back on all this exercise, but I have a few questions first.

1) Can I keep working out my arms with weights and still lose fat? As long as I keep doing lots of walking?

2) How much walking is necessary to lose weight? I typically walk between 1 and 3 hours a day, but I find that when I do closer to 3, I get really hungry and eat too much.

3) Sometimes when I'm walking, I get the urge to sprint up a hill. Would this be harmful for weight loss? If I do mostly walking with a few sprints here and there, is there anything wrong with that?

4) Does the temperature have any affect on weight loss? It's really cold where I live, and sometimes I am walking outside in freezing temperatures. I remember reading somewhere (not on this site) that your body will want to store fat if you're out in the cold a lot.

Thank you SO much!
nick
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by nick »

1) Can I keep working out my arms with weights and still lose fat? As long as I keep doing lots of walking?
Instead of doing really intense workouts, you should do isolation exercises, which target a specific muscle. By using lighter wieghts you will target a specific muscle instead of engaging more muscles. As far as losing wieght, its about utilizing body fat most effeciently without depositing additional fat, so as long as keep walking and not overdo the lifting wieghts. Or perhaps, you will just walk and then do wieghts later when you have lost your desired wieght.
2) How much walking is necessary to lose weight?
Walking is the best way to lose wieght. When you wieghtlift or do more intense exercises you will need more sugar and less fat. The muscles mainly use sugar, so fat utilization will decrease in relation to sugar utilization. When walking the fat utilization will increase relative to the sugar utilization. Thus, by walking you will use more bodyfat than when doing high intensity exercises.
I typically walk between 1 and 3 hours a day, but I find that when I do closer to 3, I get really hungry and eat too much.
You should probably walk 2 hours then. When you decrease your sugar level, from high intense excercises or from a 3 hour walk, you want to eat much much more!

You could take some juice on your walk.

I don't have an answer for your last two questions.
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RRM
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by RRM »

Originally posted by juicyfruit:

2) How much walking is necessary to lose weight? I typically walk between 1 and 3 hours a day, but I find that when I do closer to 3, I get really hungry and eat too much.
That totally depends on how effectively you manage to prevent gaining new fat throughout the day.
The more you walk, the better, but you need to make very sure that your blood sugar level doesnt go down too much while walking. So, as Nick said: you need to drink enough energy while walking. (its perfect if the glycogen in your muscles goes down, but not the glucose in your blood)
3) Sometimes when I'm walking, I get the urge to sprint up a hill. Would this be harmful for weight loss?
Yes, in the sense that if you would have used up that energy by walking, you would have burned way more fat with it.
If I do mostly walking with a few sprints here and there, is there anything wrong with that?
Nothing except that it makes losing fat a bit harder.
4) Does the temperature have any affect on weight loss?
Yes, the body prefers to retain more fat when its colder, for isolation purposes.
Also, when its colder, usually you will also not get as much sunlight exposure, which is not helpful regarding serotonin levels (serotonine is an essential weight-regulator).
juicyfruit
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by juicyfruit »

Thank you both SO much for the replies!
Originally posted by RRM:
Yes, the body prefers to retain more fat when its colder, for isolation purposes.
Also, when its colder, usually you will also not get as much sunlight exposure, which is not helpful regarding serotonin levels (serotonine is an essential weight-regulator).
It's pretty sunny year-round where I live, just very cold, so I can still get sunlight in the winter. For fat loss, do you think it's worth it to go outside to get some sunlight, even though it's so cold? In other words, is it more important to get the sunlight for seratonin, or to keep my body warm so it doesn't want to start storing fat?

Thanks again!
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RRM
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by RRM »

Naah, in your situation it really doesnt make much of a difference, especially if you are working on it, as you are doing right now.
rafaelo
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by rafaelo »

rrm, what do you think of pull-ups, dips and push-ups ? are these considered isolation. they don't require weights; just one's own body weight.
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RRM
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by RRM »

These are not considered isolation exercises.
But they also are not "volume-exercises"; they are kind of 'in between'.

It doesnt matter whether the contra-weight is from an actual weight (dumbell or something) or your own bodyweight. What matters, is how precise the exercise is.

Weights may be more precise. (or not!)
Pull-ups, for example, exercise your biceps, the back of your shoulders and your back-muscles.
Pulling up dumbells while you are sitting in a chair, may be far more precise. Depending on the traject of the exercise, you may train only your biceps, or primarily the back of your shoulders and secondary your biceps.

Pushing up dumbells you may more specifically concentrate on the front of your shoulders, while push-ups (or using a bar with weights) will always include exercising more of your breast-muscles than with dumbells.

This doesnt mean that push-ups or pull-ups are not okay. What matters, is what muscles exactly you want to make bigger...
Making all muscles bigger is just making you look more sturdy.
See yourself as a sculpturer that has the opportunity to make specific muscles bigger to improve your figure, which always means leaving some muscles as thin as they are right now. (the lower abdominals, for example, and the muscles around your waist. the muscles in your neck are also an excellent example)
juicyfruit
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by juicyfruit »

Hi again, here's an update...

I haven't done any intense cardio for about a week now, and I've been walking a lot every day (averaging about 2 hours a day). And already, my legs are slimming down and I'm definitely losing fat! My legs are looking really great, if I do say so myself :)

I really wish this info could reach more people. So many people slave away at the gym and don't get the results they want, and then don't understand why they aren't slimming down. Today my friend was telling me about a marathon runner he knew, who died right in the middle of one of his marathons... he was very young. Everyone thought he was in great shape just because of all that exercise.

It seems like the cultures known for their longevity (especially in Asia) do a lot of walking, and not much intense stuff.

Okay, I'm done rambling now. I just wanted to share that the whole walking thing/less intense exercise really does work!

:)
juicyfruit
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by juicyfruit »

Oh, and I had one more question: is there any difference between two one-hour walks, and one two-hour walk? If the total time is the same, does it matter if the walking is split up into different sessions?
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Oscar
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by Oscar »

[quote]Originally posted by juicyfruit:
My legs are looking really great, if I do say so myself :)
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RRM
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by RRM »

Originally posted by juicyfruit:
Oh, and I had one more question: is there any difference between two one-hour walks, and one two-hour walk? If the total time is the same, does it matter if the walking is split up into different sessions?
No, that doesnt matter.
juicyfruit
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by juicyfruit »

Originally posted by Oscar:
Well, show us a picture then! :)
That's a good point... lead by example.

And if I can get a hold of my friend's digital camera, I WILL post a picture :)
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Oscar
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Re: working out, walking, cold

Post by Oscar »

Hahaha, okay cool :)
curiousz
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Post by curiousz »

Why is it bad to run/jog instead of walk?
johndela1
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Post by johndela1 »

RRM,

Don't y ou think by doing some big compound moves (dips, pushups, pullups, squats) you add more muscle and that extra muscle burns more calories all the time?

I'm trying to say adding extra muscle mass to your body will cause you to burn more calories even while sleeping.

do you think this will also increase your appetite, too, so it will balance out?
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