Walking...lowering exercise intensity
 

I am currently on Jenny Craig and have been placed on the 1500 calorie menu. I typically do 60 minutes of intense exercise 5 days a week, and 1 day of 30 minutes of light cardio. I wear a heart rate monitor and burn 900-1200 calories a day. Right now, I run about 3 miles a day, walk for about a mile, and do some strength training twice a week.

I have been really hungry this week and believe I may be exercising too hard for my calorie intake.

I've also been losing pretty slowly. I'm going to talk to my consultant about all this, but I'm thinking I need to lower my exercise intensity, but I'm really scared to do that.

I'm thinking of going back to just walking, the elliptical, Walk Away the Pounds Videos, and Firm videos instead of running so much. By doing this, I will probably drop my calorie burn from approximately 1000 calories a day to 600-800 a day. I'm hoping this will compensate for the 1500 calories I'm eating. I just think my body may be holding on to as much as it can since I"m exercising so hard and only eating 1500 calories a day.

My main question is...has anyone here lost their weight and reached goal without running? Have you simply walked or used Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds videos? Everytime I start running, I also have foot issues because of the impact (already have custom orthotics).

Just wondering if anyone here has had weight loss by only walking. Thanks!!

Yes, yes, yes. I did not run one step on this journey. I did aerobic dance, yoga, LOTS of WATP, fitness bands, weights, etc. My only cardio was WATP and dance DVDs.

It CAN be done. I am fit and healthy and wouldn't change ANYTHING about my exercise routines.

Wow, that's great to hear. My goal is pretty close to what yours was. I'm aiming for 135. I've been as low as 125, but that was too small for me.

Your post was very encouraging. I have plenty of other exercise DVDs to choose from, too (step, floor aerobics, the Firm, etc.)

I honestly HATE running! I guess I only do it because I feel like it's a really intense workout.

Another way to get a good workout without the pounding of running is to walk on a treadmill, but increase the ramp angle to maximum.

This is what I do and I'm seeing pretty good results.

My physical therapist has advised me aganist any type of high impact cardio due to the fact that I am knock kneed, have very low arches, and one of my legs is alittle shorter than the other. (Don't worry...I look relatively "normal" inspite it all).

So yeah....I have a treadmill routine that I use for walking only and I'm usually sweating and panting after an hour.