BBC Focus Magazine

[scott fairbrass]

is there a diffeance for e.g. Over 2 miles if i jogged the 2 mile or walked the two mile which would burn more calories?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Ooh now that is a difficult one Scott.

Same distance but different time.............. Well you know I would put my money on running two miles is better than walking it as it raises your heart rate and by default has beneficial effects on your overall health. So if we consider somone who weighs say 11 stone (154 Lb) walking at around 3 miles per hour consumes 80 calories per mile, whereas the same person running at 6 mph consumes around 120 calories every mile.
Roughly.
So on paper running is better than walking and obviously its quicker, excluding the 20 minutes spent gasping for you life on the living room floor of course and the shower you will need before facing the huiman race..... unless you are one of those super fit people who can run with the ease that most of us breathe...............but.......... if running is a problem (and for me sadly it really is these days) then any excercise is much better than sitting in front of the TV.

[Willxx]

The treadmill at my gym tells me I do 250 cals if I do 2 miles - that must be because I'm significantly more than 11 stone!!

If anyone has any suggestions how to or where to look for training programmes which burn most calories or fat loss I'd appreciate the assistance

[Lateralman]

Is this jogging uphill or downhill?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Thats a reasonable point Lateral, but we are assuming it to be on the flat here.

As Willxx mentioned it all depends on how much weight you are carrying so you could wear a rucksack containing a suitable weight that would increase your calorie consumption?

Thing is, it's actually better to not eat the calories in the first place, and although when I was in my twenties I could burn off 2,500 a day with ease, now I can manage quite well enough on half of that because I am very much less active.

[BrIDo]

Health and nutrition is a very interesting topic.

Since starting my desk-bound office job I've been reading alot about the subject and there are many, many different approaches and theories but basically it all comes down to finding what works for you. All of the advice about eating x amount of calories, don't eat after 8pm, run three miles three times per week, it's about finding the right combination that caters to your body.

In this order, the weight you are at present is down to:
[*]Genetics - some people are just born with a better ability to manage their weight, both consciously and subconsciously.
[*]Diet - What you eat is key. Not just the amount of calories, but the type of calories as well.
[*]Exercise - Obviously important as we are made to hunt, but a waste of time if you're diet is atrocious and you're unlucky enough not to have fast metabolics.

For very few people exercise and diet are reversed, i.e. Mr Wiggins, or Arctic explorers, or Military Personnel.

But an energy balance doesn't quite cut it. How can some people eat 3000+ calories per day and put on no weight, where as others struggle to lose weight on less than the 'recommended' 2000 per day? Does it matter whether you eat 2000 calories of ice cream or 2000 calories worth of vegetables? Ofcourse it does! What's just as important as the calories themselves is the effect they have on the body. Diet coke has no calories - but it's a chemical nightmare.

I'm a big believer in trying to be as natural as possible when it comes to food and the '3 meals per day' philosophy is garbage as far as I'm concerned. Fruit is another one. Yes, eat some fruit for vitamins but fruit is high in natural sugars which, in this country, in previous times would have been few and far between, or seasonal at best. Same with meat, how often would we be feasting on sirloin steaks or chicken breasts? Not every day, that's for sure.

My case study is this: I broke my foot in November and couldn't exercise until the end of January. I went to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and varied the cardio for about an hour, 3 x 20 minutes on various machines. I ate a calorie restricted diet following all the 'green' labels in the supermarkets and eating only diet meals in the evening. For lunch I had a sandwich/baguette, piece of fruit and water or diet coke. I actually drank alot of diet coke. After about 4 weeks I had lost maybe 2 or 3 pounds, and was almost 16 stone.

Disheartened, I took on another approach and found out about 'Military Style Fitness Classes'. They run for one hour and do a variety of core excercises - press ups, situps, squats, burpees, hill climbers, hands and feet, jumping jacks, bunny hops, tri-dips etc. The first 4 sessions, afterwards, I could barely walk for a few days. Every muscle in my body was sore. I did it on a Monday, eventually started doing a 5k-8k run on a Tuesday, and played 5 asides on Wednesday and Thursday.

I also changed my diet to basically eating green vegetables, meats and legumes and beans. No bread, potatoes or pastas. No diet drinks. At the weekends, I ate and drank whatever. I lost almost a stone in 6 weeks. This eventually evolved into something that looks a bit like a low-GI diet with less options. I stuck with with for about 3 months, then went on holiday. I must admit my results did slow down a bit towards the end, but I've spend 5 weeks on holidays over the summer and piled alot of the weight back on.

I was very interested in this idea now of 'High Intensity Excercise' which is the idea of break down the glycogen in the muscles by short bursts of maximum effort 3 times per week. The body has to take sugar from the blood to repair the muscles and prevents it being stored as fat.

Like I said, find something that works and stick with it. Also - don't aim to 'get fit.' Change your lifestyle and the rest will take care of itself.

[scott fairbrass]

remember watching a documentry about excersise by prof michael mosley, and he in it he studied two types of ppl, subject 1 was a bloke who had desk job so was sat doing nothing all day but went to gym 4 time a week fo an hour 1/2 and subject 2 was a female waitress who was on her feet and active every day but never went to gym, the point of the experiment was to determin who burnt more calories in the week and subject 2 did, because she was constantly moveing, so the key to weight loss was to try and not b still.