Burn More Calories

Ask Mr. Fitness

A reader asks:

My name is Tom and I am 42 years old. I have lost approximately 2 pounds a month for a year, but the last 3 months I have not lost any weight. My diet has been perfect and I presently walk for ½ hour at 4mph every day on the treadmill in my home. I would like to start jogging. However, I can not seem to jog for more than 2 to 3 minutes without stopping because I become extremely out of breath. My schedule only allows me ½ hour per day to exercise. I would like to burn more calories in that ½ hour to help lose weight. What do you recommend?

Answer:

Tom there are many ways to increase intensity to burn more calories, but from the information you have given me, I will have to assume a few things.

First, I will assume that you have seen your doctor and he has cleared you for vigorous exercise. Second, I will assume that you are still overweight and not trying to lose more weight than what is considered healthy. Have you had your body fat checked or at least checked a height/weight chart? Lastly, I assume that you only have access to a treadmill in your home and no other equipment.

With these assumptions, I recommend these options on the treadmill. The latter being more effective.

First, you can swing light hand held weights during your walking. This does increase intensity but only by 10% maximum.

Second, putting an incline on the treadmill is a way of increasing the intensity. Going from a brisk walk pace to a jog can be a big jump in intensity for some people, as you have experienced. Increasing the incline on the treadmill can ease you into higher intensities. It is also less jarring on the body and joints (e.g., walking at 4.0mph with a 0% incline for 15 minutes burns 120 calories, walking at 4.0mph with a 4% for 15 minutes burns 152 calories). You should raise the incline in slow progression, making sure your heart rate stays in its target zone. You can take your pulse at your wrist or neck, but if you have trouble you may want to invest in a heart rate monitor. Tom because you want to exercise to improve your endurance to exercise more vigorously you target heart rate will be no less than 131 beats per mintue and no more than 158 beats per minute (e.g., 220-45 years x .75 = 131, 220-45 years x .90 = 158 for vigorous exercise).

Third and most effective is not to give up on jogging or running. The best way to break into a jogging program from a walking program is to do interval training. Interval training is interspersing periods of high intensity exercise with lower intensity exercise (e.g., jog at 6.0mph on treadmill for 1 minute, walk on treadmill for 1 minute, and alternate speeds for 30 minutes). There are no set rules to the amount of high intensity and low intensity time, but generally the ratio starts at 1 minute to 1 minute and works up to 4 minutes to 1 minute or 2 minutes to 30 seconds. Keep track of your intervals and times so you can progress slowly from 1 to 1 up to 4 to 1 ratios and before you know it you will not need any lower intensity periods. Additionally, heart rate can not be tracked during interval training because the exercise is not steady state.

Lastly, Tom if you are working out 7 days a week I would definitely incorporate some resistance type exercise into your program on at least 2 days. I recommend this because eventually running 7 days a week will be too much on your joints and because it will make your exercise habits better rounded.

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