Physical Fitness by Dre – Page 17

Maria stopped to ask me, not for directions, but whether walking can actually get her Fit.

Walk to fitness!

Does your Body Move?

THEN YES!

For the average person, walking will burn 200-300 calories per hour and guess where the energy comes from?

Glorious, glorious Fat reserves. Since the body moves at a slow enough rate while walking, it can utilize the fat stored on your body.

If you live in an Urban environment, you are probably already walking an hour a day — walking still gives you the benefits even if it’s spread out through the day.

How To Use Walking To Get FIT:

Embrace walking in everyday life. Park your car far away from your destination, take the stairs, and watch yourself become leaner.
People who are very out of shape can use walking as a progression in order to start more intense activity.
–> Walk 35 mins per day, 4x a week for two weeks. How do you feel now?
Go to the city, but bring your own food. Walk around the city all day, go shopping, see events, and bring a healthy snack with you so at the end of the day, you look even better!
Lose the car. Walking during the day ADDS UP. City dwellers burn an extra 300 calories per day just by walking. That means 1 pound of fat in 12 days. If you walk an hour a day, you burn 30 lbs of fat more per year than a sedentary suburbanite. Pretty girl in the city, walking everyday, no wonder, eh!

Yes, more intense activities will give you more bang-for-your-buck, but walking is unique.

Incorporate walking as part of a lifestyle and you can burn REAL calories without breaking a sweat.

Sweet deal, friend.

You’re looking better already.

The traditional belief is that highly active lifestyles lead to higher metabolism, but this knowledge is being challenged.

Sixty five subjects engaged in some form of cardio workouts twice a week on bicycles or endurance running. This is another study confirming that steady-state cardio exercises only burn calories during the activity itself.

None of these studies, which involved a total of 65 exercisers whose dietary intake was closely controlled, showed that people burned substantially more fat in the 24 hours after they exercised than on days when they didn’t exercise. Melanson says other experts in his field have been “flabbergasted” by the results.

The next study should examine the fat loss effects of Steady State Cardio (such as endurance running) versus High Intensity Interval Training (like sprinting)!

High Intensity Interval Training saves time and gives you similar benefits!

A study published in 2008 took a group of young males and had them exercise for sessions of a maximum of 15 minutes! Improving insulin action and strengthening heart function significantly decreases the risk of Type II Diabetes and Heart Disease.

The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable. This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.

How can YOU do it?

Three High Intensity Interval Training sessions per week
4-6 sets of 30 second intervals on the bicycle at all out effort
Four minute recovery in between sets
Total time committment is less than a half hour

Take home point: Exercise can benefit your health, muscles, and bones and also burn calories and shape your body into fitness. However, it is ultimately your diet and nutrition that determine whether or not you lose weight.