How many calories would this burn?

cymatty · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:33

I have recently been losing weight for a friends wedding (I am best man). 5 weeks in I have lost a satisfying 20.5lb, with 5 weeks before the wedding.

I have done this through diet (lowered carbs and 1500-1600 cals a day) and exercise. When I started I was mainly walking an extra hour a day and it was easy to calculate the calories burned from the net.

I have now however taken up a new exercise of walking/jogging up stairs, I have increased the number to about 1500 steps up and 1500 steps down, about 80 stories. This takes around 1hr 15m and leaves me tired haha.

So OCUK how many calories will my new favourite free exercise burn off?

PS I was guestimating 400-500cals

icecold · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:02

Do you not find that a bit of a waste of time? In terms of the total calories burnt in your 1:15 session, you could actually burn more with a much shorter but much more intense form of exercise. Exercise above a certain intensity threshold will burn calories for a long time after you've stopped exercising.

Any exercise is going to be better than no exercise, but I'd want to spend as little time exercising as possible.

Also, it's far better to exercise to a time or distance goal rather than calories burnt. If nothing else, this allows you to increase the difficulty in an accurate fashion.

In terms of your actual question, I have no idea

cymatty · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:12

icecold said:
Do you not find that a bit of a waste of time? In terms of the total calories burnt in your 1:15 session, you could actually burn more with a much shorter but much more intense form of exercise. Exercise above a certain intensity threshold will burn calories for a long time after you've stopped exercising.

I have a spare few hours every evening so do not mind spending the hour with some music or tv on passes some time. I like the fact that it is free and I can do it at home.

icecold said:
Also, it's far better to exercise to a time or distance goal rather than calories burnt. If nothing else, this allows you to increase the difficulty in an accurate fashion.

My target is to get to 1860 steps, which is the number in the empire state building (according to my google foo). I am just wondering how much this will burn to compared to other exercises.

icecold said:
In terms of your actual question, I have no idea

icecold · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:23

If you enjoy it and you're likely to keep doing it then I not saying you should stop, it's just that there are more efficient forms of exercise for fat loss.

Have a read of this: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...raining_performance/the_hierarchy_of_fat_loss

Congrats on your progress so far by the way

cymatty · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:38

icecold said:
If you enjoy it and you're likely to keep doing it then I not saying you should stop, it's just that there are more efficient forms of exercise for fat loss.

Have a read of this: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...raining_performance/the_hierarchy_of_fat_loss

Congrats on your progress so far by the way

Cheers thanks for that, I have started to run up the stairs rather than walk and step up and down on the top step 50 or so times in a set (like step aerobics).

I take it that this form of exercise would fall into category 4?

sigma · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:40

Have you tried skipping?

cymatty · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:44

sigma said:
Have you tried skipping?

Not in a long while, fairly cheap to buy a rope I guess if its a good calorie burner.

icecold · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:50

cymatty said:
Cheers thanks for that, I have started to run up the stairs rather than walk and step up and down on the top step 50 or so times in a set (like step aerobics).

I take it that this form of exercise would fall into category 4?

It depends on how tired you are at the top of the stairs. If you run hard enough up enough stairs continuously then you are getting more intensity.

Mix things up and try different intensities and see what works for you.

cymatty · 17 Aug 2011 at 19:53

icecold said:
It depends on how tired you are at the top of the stairs. If you run hard enough up enough stairs continuously then you are getting more intensity.

Mix things up and try different intensities and see what works for you.

Thanks, I do it 100 or 200 at a time when running, at the end of the set I am panting like a dog in a hot car and with a very moist face haha, I presumed that this was good intensity.

Rico_UK · 17 Aug 2011 at 22:23

I havent read the replies but here is my POV.

Best method of weight loss -
1) Your diet - what are you eating, when, and how much.
2) No weights? Best way to maintain AND lose the weight is doing heavy resistance work. Muscle burns calories 24/7 so you benefit day and night - just cardio leads to increased muscle loss which equals a slower metabolism.
3) Cardio - Do short intense intervals to save time and create a higher metabolic disturbance.

Any Q's let me know, this is my day-to-day job!