[mysticshaz]

Hi guys

i have never been one for excercise but now i know its something i have to do in order to get fit and healthy!

back in january i put myself on a strick diet and went on my wii fit everyday.

i only lost a couple of pound and got disappointed and depressed quit qucikly.

since then i have not been as strict and have only been swimming about 40 mins to an hour a week and i am sure i have put on weight again as my trousers dont feel a tad loose any more.

so i guess my question is how much excercise should i be doing?

how do i build this up in order not to shock my system?

much love

shaz

[DaisyNicole]

at the very least you should be out there 3 times a week for 30 minutes at a time. Though... 30 minutes of some type of fitness every day is ideal.

[Shmead]

One, think of this an a long-term investment. At first, you may not be able to do enough exercise to really make a difference, but in six months you'll be able to burn 500 calories a day. So it's okay to start really, really small.

I think you want to do a level of exercise that takes about 80% of your willpower to actually make yourself do, so that you can do it easily during normal weeks and so that you have reserves for those weeks where you have very good reasons not to exercise. If thinking about exercising X minutes a week makes you feel exhausted or panicky, it's too much.

Once you've started, increase steadily, but never past that 80% of your willpower point. Add one lap at the pool or a quarter mile on the treadmill at a time. If you start to dread your workout--not just grumble, but really dread--slow down, go back one increment for a while. Better to fall back one week than to go on using 100% of your willpower only to quit entirely when you get sick or your mother in law comes to stay or something else happens that demands some of that willpower.

If you feel like you are being weak, and you aren't really doing much and you want your exercise level to be noteworthy, remember that saying "I've exercised 6 days a week every day this year" or "I've walked 1500 miles this year" is much more impressive than one or two weeks of killing yourself.

As far as weight loss goes, exercise makes it easier and is essential for maintenance, but it's not going to make a dramatic difference right out of the gate. For that, you've got to limit calories coming in.

[mkendrick]

It's repeated often on here, I'm not sure what the original sources are, but weight loss is 80% diet 20% exercise. Despite infomericials selling every get-skinny-quick exercise gadget and gym memberships and so on. Unless you're doing hardcore exercise, you're probably only burning maybe 150cal in an hour. That definitely helps, and it's good for your body, but think how easy it is to eat 150cal. In one regular bag of M&Ms, there are 250cal...a banana is 100cal. So if you're eating like you were when you were gaining weight and exercising a few times a week, you're going to still gain, just slower. You NEED to get serious about diet restrictions first.

But exercise is also important. I'm a living example of "skinny fat." I went from a 12/13 to a 6, but I'm still 31% body fat. I didn't exercise nearly enough while losing weight, and I'm kicking myself for not starting earlier. I also hate exercise (not that I hate being active, I just don't like working out), so I don't go to a gym or anything. But I do force myself to move for 30min+ per day. That may be EA Active on Wii, may be Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, may be a walk, may be lifting dumbbells in my living room, etc.