| Re: Why??
It's not the exercise, it's the diet. You say you walk / jog / run on the treadmill for an hour a day. Let's break that into three 20 minute segments to give an example of how much that really means.
Walking (3mph) burns around 6 calories per minute.
120 calories burned in that 20 minute segment.
You would be covering about 1 mile in that time.
Jogging (4mph) burns around 8 calories per minute.
160 calories burned in that 20 minute segment.
You would be covering about 1.33 miles in that time.
Running (5mph) burns around 10 calories per minute.
200 calories burned in that 20 minute segment.
You would be covering about 1.66 miles in that time.
All told, given this example, you would be burning 480 calories per hour.
And you would be covering a distance of about 4 miles in that time.
I'm not sure what kind of readouts your treadmill has, but you can probably check these figures to see how close my guesstimates actually are.
If you did that seven days a week, you would have a deficit of 3360 calories per week, which would equal a little less than one pound of weight loss IF your nutritional intake met your body's needs EXACTLY.
That's assuming you do it SEVEN days a week (which most people don't) and that you have your diet tuned very carefully (which most people don't).
Let's say you take two days a week off from exercising. After all, working out five days a week is reasonable, isn't it? That removes 960 calories a week from your deficit, leaving you with total weight loss of only three-quarters of a pound per week. Or in other words, you've cancelled out the effects of the jogging portion of your workouts.
Now let's say you allow yourself to have two cookies per day as a "treat" for sticking with your "diet." I'm just estimating again, but according to the box of cookies on top of my fridge, one cookie is about 60 calories. Basically, by eating those two cookies, you've also cancelled out the 20 minutes of walking. And of course, you are going to have those two cookies even on the days you don't work out. So now you are at a total weekly deficit of 1700 calories, which is less than half a pound of weight loss per week.
And finally, let's say that twice per week, you allow yourself to have a typical fast food meal. Let's make it a "healthy" one... say a grilled chicken combo from Wendy's. That combo is 860 calories (based on a sandwich, fries, and iced tea). So forget about all the running you did this week too, and then some. And now you are looking at a net weight GAIN, not loss, for the week. See how quickly that turned from a good thing to a bad one?
Remember, this is assuming that the rest of your nutritional intake is "spot on" for the rest of the week. This means you are eating the right number of calories to equal your BMR (basal metabolic rate), or the amount of food energy your body needs to function without exercise or additional efforts. And that doesn't even begin to consider what happens to your body when you dip BELOW your BMR by restricting your food intake (or "dieting").
I'm not trying to come down on you, and I certainly don't know what you are eating, or how intensely you are exercising, or even what your current height, weight, age, or activity level might be. I'm just trying to show you that exercise is only a small part of the overall plan. And that even little things can add up over the course of a week to negate all the hard work you put in on the treadmill.
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PhillyDude
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