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Losing weight
Weight loss help |
Gym vs. Lifestyle
for Burning Calories
To
lose weight which is best, having an active lifestyle or going to the gym 4
times per week?
We
received a question from a visitor who hates working out, she said what
would be best for weight loss, developing a more active lifestyle/job or
going to a gym 4 times each week?
We decided to answer the question by looking at a fictional case study.
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Working out at the local gym
Before we can estimate the calories burned from any gym session we first
need to look at the individual, the type of exercise and the intensity
level. We must set the same standard in order to compare the two ways. The
individual I am using for this example is a 30 year old male weighing 154
pounds (70Kg, or 11 stones). Every gym session he will jog for about an
hour. He would have some breaks during the hour but for this example I will
calculate for a full hour. For this example the exercise will be a jog, and
the intensity of the jog will be a very light, easy pace.
For the case of jogging this individual would burn up to 500 calories. This
is not a bad number of calories burned during a training session; after all,
another 6 workouts and it would equal the same calories in one pound of fat.
However, don’t forget this is assuming a frequency of 4 workouts per week,
what if he did no other exercise for the other 3 days in the week?
If we take into account the 3 days without exercise then that 500 calories
actually becomes 285 excess calories burned per day (500 x 4 workout days =
2000 divide by 7 days = 285 excess calories burned every day). Also, because
there are 3500 calories in one pound of body fat, it would take at least 12
days to lose one pound. I don’t think many dieters would be motivated with
such slow progress.
These calculations make me realise how poor gym workouts can be for an
overweight person who joins a gym just purely to lose weight. I mean 285
calories is nothing; this can easily be spoiled with one extra chocolate bar
or a dessert! Plus many dieters find it hard to drag themselves to the gym
just for a few sessions per week, but in this case we are talking about
four, one-hour sessions each week!
This doesn’t mean working out is a waste of time, after all there are many
other health benefits to exercise, however, losing weight is all about
calories and in this case the energy expended is fairly low to produce any
real results.
For any dieter to lose a satisfactory amount of weight in the above example
he would have to follow a strict calorie reduced diet along with the gym
sessions.
Develop an active lifestyle
With an active job or lifestyle fewer calories are burned per hour than a
gym session but the consistent rate can make a greater total of energy
burned over the course of a day, even with a job that doesn’t make you feel
like you’re exercising. For example, if our male worked as a postman with an
average 8 hour shift, we could estimate that during an average day he would
be walking 50% of the time, 40% he would be standing, and the other 10%
would be coffee breaks, lunch, etc. This calculates to 4 hours walking and
over 3 hours standing. Our average man would burn up to 1100 calories per
day (700 walking + 400 standing). Over a thousand excess calories burned
every day is a huge amount and means he would lose weight relatively quickly
with little or no dieting.
Ok not all dieters are postmen, nor am I saying they should change jobs in
order to lose weight. The point is any job could be made more active with a
little imagination. Using every excuse available to become more active at
work can really add up to a big difference in energy expenditure. Maybe go
fetch everyone’s lunch from the canteen, go to the furthest toilet in the
building when you need to spend a penny, use the stairs rather than the lift
or get off the bus one stop before your normal stop and walk. These are just
suggestions but if you use your imagination you can find many other ways to
burn off more calories during an average work day. Also a job is done every
day so the calories burned per week add up higher.
Even if you cannot possibly make changes to your work day, there is still a
chance to make changes in your own time. Simply focus on completing more
everyday tasks such as cleaning, maintenance, gardening, housework or
walking the dog. Again it’s all about using the imagination to create
activity. I’m sure 2 hours cleaning out the garage, and one hour walking the
dog will burn more calories than working out for an hour.
Which is the best way to lose weight?
An active job or lifestyle is the obvious winner here. The calorie burning
potential was more than twice that of the workout. Yes, in the real world
not many dieters will work as postmen, roofers or on a construction site,
but we could also state that not many people would be prepared to run for a
complete hour for four workouts a week. The above examples were used to
illustrate the positive effects of any change in lifestyle.
In other articles on my site I do write about what would be the best
exercise, but this is no contradiction as any suggestion would be in a
different context, in this article I was considering those who struggle to
get to the gym or really detest exercise. If I hated working out I would
definitely try for an active lifestyle, after all, I could complete all my
chores and burn many more calories, and probably without the necessity of
following an awful, restrictive diet!
Want to monitor how active your lifestyle is?
Use a pedometer. These cheap, easy to use gadgets calculate how many steps
you take in a day. Many health experts believe we should be targeting around
10,000 steps to achieve an active lifestyle. This may sound a lot but you’ll
be surprised how many steps we take just doing general everyday tasks.
You can obtain a low cost pedometer from here
Bodybuilding.com
If you start any new exercise or lengthy
activity you must consult your doctor before starting. We will not be held
accountable for any injuries caused as a result of the information provided
on this site.
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