Need some exercise advice

Okay, wise people of Minimins. I need some exercise advice. More specifically, I need some "what plan should I be doing" together with exercise advice.

Let me explain. At the beginning of the year, a colleague of mine said that she'd like to get a bit fitter this year and go walking in her lunch hour. And I thought it would be a great idea and said I'd join her.

I soon discovered that trying to walk for an hour on 450 calories a day didn't seem to be working too well (I got ravenously hungry in the evenings, unsurprisingly, perhaps (so kept cheating) - and felt completely done in to boot). So after seeking advice from my CDC, I upped my Cambridge plan to 810.

This has admittedly helped a lot (it seems to have curbed the urge to cheat), but I still find that I'm getting really tired. Today we managed 4 miles and right now, I feel quite poorly, to be honest.

Now I know I could just cut back on the walking a bit, maybe work back up to the levels I'm currently doing over a longer period of time. But my colleague and I have signed up to do a 10-mile midnight walk for charity on May 1. It's something I really want to be able to do - and I think I will be able to - but I'm wondering whether I'm being just a little bit too ambitious to try doing this on 810.

What do you think? My weight loss is pretty woeful on 810 as it is, so there's a big part of me that's reluctant to go up to 1000 calories. But is the reason my weightloss is woeful because I actually need more calories? I'm kind of confused as to what my body needs right now!

Any advice would be enormously appreciated. I should add that before we started walking at the beginning of the year, I was completely unfit and thought that walking for 20 minutes was pretty good going. I'm quite proud that I can keep going for more than an hour now!

But walking isn't that intensive an exercise, is it? So shouldn't 810 be enough?

hopeful *bump*

Hi Lily,

I don't have any answers I'm afraid, I was going to post something similar. I'm just back from a 'Live Active' referral from my doctor to a fitness coach. He won'tt ake me on to the scheme cos I'm doing CD. I should have kept my big mouth shut

Anyway, would be interested to know what kind of level we should be pitching at for exercise also.

I told him I'd be happy to go up a few steps while thinking I won't be really, but maybe I should if I want to introduce exercise. Or should we forget about exercising altogether?

I'll be interested to know this too?? Thanks, good question to ask..

810 is only just over a VLCD ie by 20 calories.

If you really want to do longer distance walks, you should work out your BMR and make sure you are getting enough calories in.

I love exercise and normally train 5 days a week for at least an hour. I had to give that up on 810 and mainly did weights and core work. (I did some running as well but that was based on keeping my heart rate low using a heart rate monitor and that's a whole other story. Also, I had a good running base beforehand).

Honestly, it sounds to me like you need to decide between losing the weight fast and cutting your exercise back down again until you are at the weight you want to be or moving up the plan a bit more.

Two links:

BMR Calculator

http://www.minimins.com/cambridge-diet-forum/111478-confused-about-exercise-weight-loss.html

Thanks Laura. I read the 'confused about exercise' thread a couple of weeks ago when it was bumped up - in fact, I think it was you that bumped it up, wasn't it?

But now I'm stuck with a real dilemma. On the one hand, I really want to get shot of some weight. I couldn't believe that I'd let myself slip all the way back to 15st at the beginning of the year. I can live with being 13st something for a bit, but I have to confess that I hate being 14st something.

But on the other hand, I really want to do this charity walk. Grrrr. Am I really going to have to choose?

Daft, isn't it? Everyone thinks that exercise should be the thing that helps you to lose weight, but on Cambridge, on the lower plans at least, it doesn't help at all.

I suppose, on the plus side, it's still quite a long time until May. I could cut back on the more strenuous walks for a month or so and get back into my 'comfort zone' of being 13st something, I s'pose.

Hmm... :sigh:

Yes I bump the thread regularly because the question gets asked frequently.

Okay better idea. You are right that May is a few months away so see if you can make a plan of sticking on 810 (and low exercise!) till you hit 13 stone (by late March?) and then come up with a plan of how to exercise more.

All that said, coming up the steps, as you know is tough and I mucked it up the first time simply because I wanted to exercise. If I'd waited a few more weeks, I may have been okay but I was just too confident

Don't know if this is any help to you, but my CDC has suggested interval training. About 30secs-1 minute of high intensity exercise to get you 'puffed out' and then do nothing until you are completely recovered. Do this a few times a day and alternate days do some kind of muscle toning; squats, lunges etc. I have to say it's completely manageable, not knackering me out and I've raised my metabolism, despite losing 4lbs the last week. If it's fat burning you're after, everything I've read so far points towards this kind of interval exercise. Don't know if anyone else has had success with this kind of routine?

Laura Croft said:

Yes I bump the thread regularly because the question gets asked frequently.

Okay better idea. You are right that May is a few months away so see if you can make a plan of sticking on 810 (and low exercise!) till you hit 13 stone (by late March?) and then come up with a plan of how to exercise more.

All that said, coming up the steps, as you know is tough and I mucked it up the first time simply because I wanted to exercise. If I'd waited a few more weeks, I may have been okay but I was just too confident

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LOL, I didn't exactly come up the steps last time - I just got in the lift.

Okay, sounds like a plan. Some of my reluctance to back off the exercise a bit is because I don't want to let my colleague down - we've been walking every lunchtime for a few weeks now.

But I've got to accept that I just can't do as much as I have been doing. I think I should be able to do an hour of walking three times a week and still stay on 810. Any more than that though, and I think I run far too big a risk of falling right off the wagon - or making myself ill. As it is, I'm still feeling pretty ropey today and I seem to have hatched a batch of mouth ulcers, sigh.

Thanks for the advice, hun. :hug99:

I couldn't do interval training when I was on SS+. From my knowledge, and I could be wrong, our glycogen store is very low and as the body didn't have enough in store, it sent me really strong hungry signals and it was not a pleasant experience. If it works for you, then great I hope that's all fat loss and not much muscle (the toning will help save that).

The way it helps me is that it is not sustained for long periods, I'm talking a few times a day- once an hour or something, just for 30 seconds- doing things like running between buildings at work, a few starjumps while the kettle's boiling, it's so quickly over with that my body thinks 'oooh that was a shock, but hey, I'm ok and I'm recovered already!' Instead of 'ugh I'm running low, feed me, dammit!'

I totally agree on the toning thing, my shape is changing and firming, and it's amazing how quickly your arms can begin to firm up!

Lily said:

LOL, I didn't exactly come up the steps last time - I just got in the lift.

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I love that! :8855:

Lily said:

Okay, sounds like a plan. Some of my reluctance to back off the exercise a bit is because I don't want to let my colleague down - we've been walking every lunchtime for a few weeks now.

But I've got to accept that I just can't do as much as I have been doing. I think I should be able to do an hour of walking three times a week and still stay on 810. Any more than that though, and I think I run far too big a risk of falling right off the wagon - or making myself ill. As it is, I'm still feeling pretty ropey today and I seem to have hatched a batch of mouth ulcers, sigh.

Thanks for the advice, hun. :hug99:

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My rule of thumb when I was exercising was not to go below 550 cals as a net intake (ie calories - exercise) and I stuck to that pretty much when I was on 810. Don't know how fast you are walking but your body will tell you when it's had enough.

BubblyPenguin said:

The way it helps me is that it is not sustained for long periods, I'm talking a few times a day- once an hour or something, just for 30 seconds- doing things like running between buildings at work, a few starjumps while the kettle's boiling, it's so quickly over with that my body thinks 'oooh that was a shock, but hey, I'm ok and I'm recovered already!' Instead of 'ugh I'm running low, feed me, dammit!'

I totally agree on the toning thing, my shape is changing and firming, and it's amazing how quickly your arms can begin to firm up!

Click to expand...

I'm just curious here and hope you don't mind me asking. What benefit is your CDC saying that these short spurts of exercise will do? I get the toning thing.

As she explained it to me (she's a nutritionist as well as CDC and has research she showed me) and as I understand it, exercising for any longer makes your body think 'heck, I'm out of energy and I can't keep this up so I need to store some fat away to keep me going' whereas the short bursts begin to burn the fat but then recovers before that message goes through, so the body thinks 'hey, that's OK, I'm back to normal now with no harm done'.

That's the very basic level that I understand it anyway. It worked for her and it's definitely working for me so far! One thing I've also noticed is that my recovery time is getting much quicker, so I just up the intensity, not the length of time when I feel ready to progress

The best thing about it is that body continues to burn fat for a long time afterwards and the more you do, as you build, the more fat stores your body releases to use as energy.

How great your CDC is also a nutritionist. I'm jealous

Next time you go to see her, if time allows, can you find out the names of the papers she showed you? I'd really like to read them. The way I'd always understood it, we'd burn more calories and less fat in a higher heart rate zone but less calories and more fat in a lower heart rate zone and so this is why some people who exercise too much on CD lose less weight (ie fat, and probably more muscle.) I understand you are only doing short bursts and am really keen to read their evidence. Please don't think I'm having a go at you or your CDC because I'm not - I'm quite into fitness so like to read

I'll ask her when I see her next- she showed me a study in a book, but I can't remember what it was called! There's quite alot on the web about interval training with a lower intensity rest/recovery designed to tackle fat loss, but I'm doing it sporadically through the day, instead of in one lump! I swear I'm getting my heart rate up for longer throughout the day by doing it in short bursts and more often, instead of putting off! I don't have that horrible hunger pang or feel light headed either!

I know what interval training is in the traditional sense (ie high bouts of cardio followed by low impact stuff or as I do 10 mins or so of weights till heart rate is back down and then do high heart exercise and repeat ) and agree it's fabulous for weight loss. Thanks for asking