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subject: Can Overexercising Make You Fat [print this page]

You can go into any large gym in the country and see scores of folks

on treadmills, ellipticals, stairclimbers, stationary bikes and

spinning machines. They think that using these machines for long

periods of time will help them lose weight and get fit.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, overdoing the cardio, or overexercising in any form, can

have a deleterious effect on your health. This might come as quite a

surprise to the health industry and to the millions of people who

are doing themselves more harm than good.

As it pertains to weight loss, the idea of exhausting calories

through constant exercise has proven to be inaccurate.

Overexercising actually increases your appetite, as many a

discouraged Lardassian has found out, the hard way. The combination

of stressful exercise and extra eating winds up being a fat

gridlock.

The way to break the fat gridlock is to move regularly, at a slow,

easy pace. You can do this by walking, hiking, cycling, or by any

light aerobic activity. This is far different advice than you will

get from 99% of personal trainers and gym rats, who usually advise

raising your heartbeat to an almost maximum level and then

sustaining that level for a period of time.

This may be the way to train elite athletes, but most of us don't

fit in that category. To lose some weight, you need to operate in

the 55 to 75% of maximum heart rate capacity. That's good enough to

get results, and you'll avoid the need to take in more fuel, which

won't help you at all.

Now I'm sure that someone is thinking, "Should I ever run fast, or

sprint?"

The answer to that is: Yes.

If you want to max out, you can do it once, maybe twice a week.

Believe me, you don't need to do that much, or for very long. This

type of workout should only be done, once you get yourself into

moderately good shape. I have used this with a lot of success and it

doesn't take but 15 minutes, maximum.

When I started doing this, I measured off about 40 yards. I then

sprinted the forty yards, as fast as I could go. (I did this up a

hill, because of my bad knees.) Then, I walked back to the starting

point, which gave me a minute of rest, and then I did it again. When

I started this, I could only do 5 sprints and they really took the

wind out of my sails. I can now do 13 or 14, but usually I only do 8

or 10. That's it, that's the entire workout and you don't need a

minute more.

The actual exercise time is about 20-25 seconds for each sprint. (So

you can obviously see I'm not Usain Bolt.)

You also need to warm up before and stretch out after this type of

exercise. You will get even more benefits from walking and this

short sprinting session, once or twice a week, than from many hours

of mind numbing and stress inducing cardio. Yes...long cardio

sessions induce a lot of stress, which tempers any metabolic

benefits.

If you want to get old before your time, keep logging those marathon

cardio sessions.

by: Dr.Bill

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