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thoughts on calories
Here's what I know about burning calories: since I don't know the calorie counter you are using, can't comment.
When you see calories burned in tables: these are generally meant for a person weighing 125 pounds.
As an example, a rule of thumb for running or walking a mile is 100 calories, if you weigh 125. If you weigh, say 200, you have to do some math.
Then if you ran a mile, it would be 1.6 times a hundred or 160 calories.
If you are running 6 minute miles, and you ran for an hour, and you weigh 200 pounds, then by my math, you burned 160 x 10 or 1600 calories.
But then again, if you weigh 200 pounds and you can run 10 six minute miles, you rock.
Best method? Something that engages all four limbs.
I'm partial to heavyhands. It's a practically forgotten system in which you walk and pump small weights. I weigh 220, and using puny three pounders, and walking at 4 miles per hour, I burn about 1300 calories. If I ran, and I am pitiably slow, I could maybe manage 12 minute miles, or 5 miles in an hour. At 220 I burn about 180 x5 or 900 calories for an hours run. It's cheap. For about $50 you can get a variety of small hand weights. For about $2 you can get a cinder block if you need a step, for winter/bad weather.
I'm not great at math, but.... it's a whole lot easier on my crappy knees to walk
4 miles - and I often go past an hour and do 6-7 miles - and burn 1300 calories.
To make it harder, I'll throw in skipping while pumping weights - which sounds juvenile, and is, but is also really hard. Or I'll go to either a near by park and do
50-100 flights of stairs, or to the nearby stadium and do 30-50 stadiums walking or jogging up, walking down, while pumping weights.
Climbing stairs while pumping weights burns calories like there is no tomorrow, but it also pushes you in to the red zone. It's very easy to overdue and then not be able to sleep for a day or two because you've overtrained.
I've had an operation on one knee and need one on the other. I have pot holes in the cartilage.
You can find out more on heavyhands by either going to Amazon and looking for Heavyhands or Heavyhands walking. I think they are both out of print. The last time I bought Heavyhands - which is the original and the best of the two, because it has all kinds of geeky tables in the back, and I'm basically a geek, I got one for $1.
Or you can go check out more info on Heavyhands at cbass.com
Clarence Bass's site is, if nothing else always worth checking out. His articles, his eating plan, and his thoughts on working out are generally state of the art. Schwartz, who developed heavyhands is in his 70's and still going strong.
Still, the biggest thing is: what will you do.
Cycling is great because it doesn't aggravate bad knees, it uses the biggest strongest muscles, and it's fun. Ride to work and back, and you could burn a surprisingly huge amount of calories over a years time. It doesn't engage all four limbs, and can be rather pricy.
Cross country skiing is great, but again, expensive and only can be done part of the year. You can get in line skates and poles and simulate cc skiing.
Just a story to illustrate. I recommended heavyhands a year ago to a friend of mine in Houston Texas. Robert, my friend weighed maybe 150 pounds when he graduated from high school. Thirty years later he had balooned up to 250 pounds. In june 2005, he started walking 45 minutes a day - about three miles - while pumping three pound weights. Weights cost him about $10 new. He didn't change the way he ate, or drank, and he didn't lift weights or do anything else. He did Heavyhands 5-6 days a week. By January 2006, basically 7 months later, he weighed 204 pounds. His belly was gone. He's muscular as hell, even though he didn't do big weights of any kind.
Heavyhands has one of the best explanations on calorie burning I've ever read. It was made for heavyhands, but also includes all kinds of sports. It also includes a great explanation of MET's which is what is generally used to measure energy output, and on VO2 max.
Schwartz, the inventor, is a medical doctor and he really knows his business.
If I were to run 5 miles in an hours time, I'd be toast for a few days afterward. But I can walk 4 miles, pump tiny weights, and burn an extra 400 calories. Over a years time, done say 3 times a week, this translates into 1200 calories x 52 weeks (hah!, as if I wouldn't take a week off now and then!) or 17-18 pounds of fat incinerated above what I'd burn if I was just running.
So, forgive me for getting off on heavyhands. But if you are looking for hands down the one activity that engages - and at a very cheap price - tons of muscles and burns more calories than anything else, heavyhands is it.
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