Diet and Fitness

Nice one/ Your run pace is faster than mine! :blush:

Wow, thatā€™s amazing Jon :astonished:

A bit late to ask now, but do you think walking for 2.5 hours a day will have helped or hindered recovery from the weekendā€™s cycling. I wore heart rate monitor this morning and Iā€™m averaging ~ 50% of maximum heart rate and never going above 60%- takes me about an hour and 15 mins to walk to or from work.

Would I have been more sensible to get the bus?

Yes, just a little faster - That surprises me a little as my fitness level is pretty low. I guess that you are working to your plan, being very careful and have plenty reserves of energy? This run for me empties my tank. At the moment I want, on occasions, to find cheap and quicker ways of using energy than just walking. I cannot use kettle bells because of my shoulder issue (booked to see physio in August) and jogging fits the bill nicely. I am rather hoping I will do some sort of 6k/10k run in the future. We shall see.

Following the couch to 5k thing sounds sensible to avoid injury.

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My pace is deliberately being held back to focus on distance and recovery. Typically the plan Iā€™m on dictates 12 min miles and then some tempo runs of 9-10 min miles. Iā€™m going slower at the minute to adjust to ā€˜barefootā€™ running in Vibrams.

If you want to metabolise fat then perhaps instead of emptying your tank which probably has your heart rate at zone 4, it would be better to spend more time at moderate exertion zone 2&3 which is more likely to trigger fat burning.

The major disadvantage of going for it and maxing your heart rate for prolonged periods is the stress on your system and the release of cortisol - if thatā€™s swimming round your bloodstream then itā€™s very hard to burn fat or build muscle.

If you want a low impact way of getting your heart rate up and down to burn fat then I would recommend short Tabata workouts. Pick 3-5 low impact exercises and do them in short hard bursts of 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest in a circuit. This induces the afterburner effect which means youā€™ll burn calories during and after the workout over 24 hrs.

http://www.active.com/fitness/articles/what-is-tabata-training

Id pick things like -

  • star jumps
  • bodyweight squats
  • mountain climbers
  • burpees
  • lunges
  • etc

I.e. Nothing with weights at the moment.

You can get apps for your phone to count you down and tell you to start, rest etc.

My jogging is a small part my exercise so far, not even 30 minutes every third day - Most of my exercise is walking or domestic duties. Over the last week my HR has been 10 hrs zone fat burn 53mins cardio and 25mins peak.
Thatā€™s reasonable isnā€™t it?

I will try Tabata thanks but I generally struggle with engaging with gym type stuff.

Yeah looks good.

Tabata is good because you can do a short sharp circuit of 4 mins or 8 mins or 12 mins etc in your front room etc so thereā€™s no time to get bored.

Have we not had the ā€œfat burning zone is a marketing ploy by the fitness industry because people donā€™t actually want to make an effort she theyā€™re working outā€ thing on here already?

Building up slow is good because it will minimise risk of injury. You burn more fat working out hard than working out easy.

I know someone who claims to work out exclusively in the fat burning zone. They are fat.

Didnā€™t say easy. I said spend more time in heart rate zones 2&3. Zone 1 is easy - thatā€™s for warm up and cool down. Spending most of your time in zone 4 is counterproductive for the reasons I outlined above.

One sample. Iā€™ll bet they donā€™t workout with enough frequency (which is one of the advantages of sub max workouts), and they eat too bloody much.

We can only speculate :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

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What is the ā€œfat burning zoneā€ as %mhr?

As the saying goes ā€˜you canā€™t outrun a bad dietā€™ :slightly_smiling_face::nerd_face:

60-70% of mhr. Mhr is typically 220- age as a very rough guide.

I do actually think itā€™s a good idea to do a decent volume of lower intensity exercise rather than just concentrating on high intensity, but not because it burns fat.

That said, Iā€™ll admit Iā€™m not entirely sure what heart rate range weā€™re talking about here.

My 5.5 hour ride on Sunday was done at 65-80% of MHR, with very occasional peaks above that on hills up to 87%. Average was 74%MHR

Remember thereā€™s a difference between burning calories and burning fat. At maximal effort your body will reach for every drop of rapidly available energy from the food in your stomach to the glycogen in your muscles.

At the moderate level of intensity over slightly longer periods (including the afterburner effect) the body will reach for your fat stores because the urgency is greatly reduced.

30 minute session of weights last night - upper body. Can certainly tell this morning!

Interesting that - Iā€™ve always felt that Iā€™ve dropped weight with exercise that is little and regular. And Iā€™m always disappointed at weight loss when Iā€™m training for big rides and doing say, one or two long ones per week