I have a friend who wants to start working out using a treadmill. He asked me what speed and incline should he use to get the best results? Now, I've always heard the faster you go and the higher your incline, the more calories you burn. When I walk, I usually do between a 3.5-4.0. My incline can be anywhere between 5 to 15. I would never suggest that to anyone just starting out. It took me forever to build up to a 15 incline. The first time I tried it, I was not able to walk for 3 weeks! I once heard Michael Thurman say the speed to go for ulimate fat burning is 2.5, but he did not mention an incline. Now, 2.5 is awfully slow to me. I would fall asleep if I walked at
2.5. Can anyone provide any feedback as to the proper way to ulitize a treadmill for optimum fat burning?
As Fast as you can go at as high of an incline as you can go for as long as you can go.
there is not an optimal Speed or Incline...it all has to do with your heart rate.
They say you will burn a higher percentage of fat at 60-70% of your max heart rate. but that doesn mean you will burn more fat. When Exercising at a higher intensity the percentage will be less but you will be burning more Calories total so you end up burning more total Fat.
You have also burned more total Calories which means you will have less glycogen which in turn will cause your body to burn more fat the rest of the time.
Burning Fat really is not much of an issue...its burning calories that really matters.
Lets say that you manage to find an Exercise that only Burns Fat. you do it for 60 minutes and burn 500 calories of fat! Great! but you have not Burned any Glycogen. your glycogen is full and not any more can be stored. you then eat some food of which after the body uses what it needs it has 500 calories that need to be stored....Glycogen is full so it stores it as fat.
Now lets say you do an exercise that Burns only Glycogen and no Fat. you burn 500 calories in an hour. you have not lost any fat. but now there is room in Glycogen to store 500 calories. so when you eat your food and there is 500 calories left to be stored it will be stored in glycogen.
The Result in both cases is the Same.
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Weight Loss can be Quick! But Fat Loss takes Time!
ok....when you Eat Carbs they are broken down into glucose. The Body Uses what it needs at that time and then stores the rest for later. the first place it stores it is in Glycogen. if glycogen is full then it will be stored as fat. When the Body needs energy it will get it from a combination of Glycogen and Fat....depending on the what it needs the energy for will depend if it gets it from Glycogen or from Fat. The Brain will ONLY get it from Glycogen. Things that need Quick bursts of Energy will Get more from Glycogen and things that dont need it as quickly will get it from Fat.
The Average person can only store about 1500-2000 calories of Glycogen.
And the only two places that you can store Excess calories are glycogen and Fat.
When it comes to Protein and Fat what the body doesnt use right away will be stored primarily as fat, Some Protein will actually break down into glucose and get stored in glycogen if there is room, but the majority gets stored as fat.
Think of Glycogen like your Wallet and Fat like your Bank. If your wallet has Little Money in it you will take more from the bank, if your wallet is full you will put more into the bank.
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Weight Loss can be Quick! But Fat Loss takes Time!
The body has 3 types of muscle, slow-twitch, fast twich and cardiac.
Though there is overlap, slow twitch can burn ANY fuel, sugar and/or fat.
Fast-twitch needs sugar.
Cardiac needs fat.
Soooo, if you want to burn off the most calories you want to be able to go at it for a long time...thus the exercise must be gentle, say 4 miles and hour. THis will start as mostly sigar burning and slowly transform to mostly fat burning but both are going on at the same time. THe key is the TIME, the longer the better. This is loosely called aerobic exercise
However, If your goal is to set records, you will train at higher and higher heart rates for correspondingly shorter periods of time. This needs the fast twitch muscles (the same as bodybuilding) and you might be talinking about a speed of 7 miles per hour and UP...a good fast RUN. You cannot sustain this for long because the anaerobic quality of the exercise produces muscle aching acidic wastes that you know as that awful ache in your leaden thighs. After you stop, you will refill the glycogen stores as blujbirdie pointed out but the net effect of the shorter time at this speed will generally not use as many calories as the LONG walk at 3 or 4 mph...think a HOUR or more (or TWO.)
Cardiac is different...it is not for weight or calorie loss although it CAN be. It is a maximum effort at a peak heart rate that is meant to gently (yeah, right) stress the heart to it's upper limits in order to stretch the vessels, strengthen the muscle, and even force the heart to grow new blood vessels. It is almost COMPLETELY fat driven...but it's intensity is so great that 1/2 hour is about IT for most people.
I am lucky in that all the equipment in my gym is electronic and all I have to choose is fat burn or cardiac and after putting in some data like weight, age and time, the machine determines speed and pitch <treadmill> (resistance on the elliptical and bikes.)
Without the electronics:
Subract your weight from 220:
Multiply this number by 60% to get the minimum heart rate you want for aerobic "fat burning."
Multiply it by 80% get the heart rate for a GOOD cardio workout.
Check your heart rate periodically.
Without the electronics:
Subract your weight from 220:
Multiply this number by 60% to get the minimum heart rate you want for aerobic "fat burning."
Multiply it by 80% get the heart rate for a GOOD cardio workout.
Check your heart rate periodically.
Lenin are you sure about this?
I always was told it was 220 minus your AGE (not weight)
Yes "minus AGE."
(I actually typed in "weight" AGAIN and had to cheange it...I must have a mental block about the word AGE...now WHY doesn't that surprise me?
There's an even better formula that accounts for the huge variability of people's RESTING heart rate:
Example for someone with a HRmax of 180 and a HRrest of 70:
50% intensity: ((180 − 70) × 0.50) + 70 = 125 bpm
85% intensity: ((180 − 70) × 0.85) + 70 = 163 bpm
This method seems very logical to me because you can see the extremely large difference between somebody with a resting heart rate of 120 working out at 140 BPM and the man on the machine next to him with a resting heart rate of 60 also working out at that 140 BPM. Man #2 is OBVIOUSLY working far harder.
I have a friend who wants to start working out using a treadmill. He asked me what speed and incline should he use to get the best results? Now, I've always heard the faster you go and the higher your incline, the more calories you burn. When I walk, I usually do between a 3.5-4.0. My incline can be anywhere between 5 to 15. I would never suggest that to anyone just starting out. It took me forever to build up to a 15 incline. The first time I tried it, I was not able to walk for 3 weeks! I once heard Michael Thurman say the speed to go for ulimate fat burning is 2.5, but he did not mention an incline. Now, 2.5 is awfully slow to me. I would fall asleep if I walked at
2.5. Can anyone provide any feedback as to the proper way to ulitize a treadmill for optimum fat burning?
I think useing a treadmill is a great way to exercise and lose weight, I purchased a good treadmill and its the best thing I even did for my health.
It was hard at first starting out on it, so I only would walk about 2.5 mph for about 10 minutes, then after about a week I increased the speed and time to 3.0 mph and 30 minutes, that was about 7 months ago now I'm at 3.7 mph for over an hour..I don't use the incline, just a fast brisk walk everyday in the mornings for an hour or more before breakfast...if you walk to long or to fast it will only make you less motiavted, you probably will only get burn out, so its very improtant to use your treadmill wisely and to ''your'' comfort for best results.
If a person don't like to use the gyms or can't afford them..then invest in some ''good'' work-out equipment, treadmill/ellipticals, bikes/weights/...be sure and get good quility equipment....it will be worth your time and effort..let alone your health!
JUST BE SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD PLACE TO PUT THEM..I USE MY TREADMILL IN MY KITCHEN FACING THE LIVING ROOM UP AGINST THE KITCHEN BAR OUT OF WALKING TRAFFIC AND WATCH TV WHILE I WALK.
ALSO YOU CAN GET SOME WRIST WEIGHT ABOUT A 1/1/2 POUND WEIGHTS THEY MAKE YOU SWING YOUR ARMS MORE AND BE MORE ACTIVE..i USE THEM AND A SWEAT BELT AROUND MY STOMACH TO HELP SUPPORT MY BACK WHILE TREADMILLING.
Don't believe what others tell you about walking like 4.2.4.5 mph for like an hour or more thats all nonsense and when you start to use the treadmill believe me you will see what I'm talking about here......its not eazy but its not hard if you keep to your comfort zone and not over do.
YOU CAN JOGG AND RUN ON A TREADMILL, BUT I PERSONALLY DON'T RECOMMEND THAT..IT WILL ONLY BURN OUT YOUR MOTOR SOONER AND POSSIBLE BURN YOU OUT TOO!
A FAST BRISK WALK WILL DO ALL YOU WANT IT TO DO.....ANY GOOD DR WILL TELL YOU THAT.
IT'S ALSO GOOD IDEA TO SEE YOUR FAMILY DOCTOR FOR A HEALTH CHECK-UP BEFORE YOU START OUT ON ANY TYPE OF EXERCISE PROGRAM AND EATING PROGRAM.
