Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I know that exercise is good for general health, but do you find it has much impact on weight loss? I seem to be able to walk 50 miles in a week, and not lose anything noticeable, but starve myself a couple of days a week and the pounds drop off.
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Diet has much bigger impact on how much weight you are losing. Unless you start doing significant amount of strenuous activity.
But! When you are losing weight due to caloric intake deficit your body will start processing your tissues to get energy. And it will begin with unused muscle. So if you want to lose weight and retain your muscles you should use them. (and eat enough proteins in your diet ...)
Daily cardio exercise seems to have very positive effect on my blood pressure. (Not weight!) I have purchased a cheap heart-rate monitor. A sensor goes across your chest and a cheap plastic "sports" watch shows your heart rate and percentage of your maximum heart rate according to your age.
"Proper" cardio exercise is when your heart is beating at 85% maximum heart rate, you are breathing hard, you are drenched in sweat and feel that your muscles are starting to burn. That does not typically happen when you are walking.
Do not get me wrong, any exercise is beneficial for your health. Just different kinds of exercise give us different benefits.
Just yesterday I have stumbled upon
this article on BBC when I was looking at news.google.com
As for the diet, it seems to be much easier to watch my carbohydrates then count calories and limit just the amount of food. And if you avoid highly processed carbohydrates you will stay satiated longer after a meal and when you do get hungry it is not the kind of "saccharides crash hunger".