I'm not talking a nice little stroll, i'm talking a fast paced walk while pushing my 3 yo in her jogging stroller. I've tried taking her to the gym with me, but she won't sit for more then 10 minutes and she wants to go check everyone out. Hubby works a second job apart from the military and works most evenings of the weeks which is the only time I can really go to the gym. We don't really know anybody I'd trust watching our daughter, and can't afford to pay for a daycare- we're broke as broke can be- so this diet should be cheap for us lol.
Anyhow, For a while I was walking 5 to 8 miles every morning. Course I wasn't doing the Atkins thing then and didn't lose anything. If I stick with it is that enough exercise? I was doing 5 yo 8 miles in around an hour to hour and a half with no resting.

It sure sounds like a lot of exercise to me! I try to either swim a mile, or walk three to four miles, four or five days a week. I have found that sometimes pushing it too hard -- walking too far and too fast -- actually slows my weight loss down. I'm not sure why that is. I think it may be because I get hungrier when I do more than my accustomed amount of exercise and I eat more calories than I need to compensate for the extra exercise.

Thanks for the input. I'm just curious because I have been doing this since september and have actually gained 15 pounds- and have not changed my eating habits any. I've probably actually eaten less and have been drinking more water. But I've discovered through the reading I've been doing, that I'm eating way to many carbs- event though I'm not eating much and not taking in a lot of calories, i'm taking in a lot of carbs.
SO I guess I'll get back into it- have not walked for the past month and half due to a bad bout of bronchitis- something I'm hoping will get better with losing this weight. I've had bronchitis every other month to every 3 months since we've been here the past 2 1/2 years- partly due to allergies and asthma.

I managed to balloon up to over 350 pounds while swimming a mile several times a week. I have always been active, but that didn't control my weight. IMHO, the key to weight control is what you eat. However, exercise is very important for over-all health, particularly cardiovascular health, and is something we need to do. It also helps you to maintain your muscle tone as you lose weight, so you don't get flabby.

Personally, I love to exercise and I just feel better when I do it!

[quote]I was doing 5 yo 8 miles in around an hour to hour and a half with no resting.[quote]
That is great-- congrats!!

~~Amaara

Thanks Amaara- except all I was doing was gaining- I got very depressed to say the least. I think since I'm changing to a new way of eating it should start working! We start tomorrow and a neighbor and I are going to start walking on monday- she started the Adkins diet on Weds.

Hi again Outdoormom!

I'm not an expert by any means ... but I have some ideas.

One is that maybe you've gained muscle mass since walking more. Were you pretty sedentary before September?

Another is maybe you're eating too few calories. Many people believe you need to eat as much as your basal metabolic rate (BMR) ... or at least not eat significantly less. It can put your body into 'starvation mode' and cause you to hang onto every calorie it can. I got your rate is at CaloriesPerHour.com: 2,231. If you are eating a lot less calories, you might want to consider the possibility that it's a contributing factor.

(BTW, you’d burn about 1,070 calories for a 5 mile walk in 1 hour!)

Just some ideas to think about. Lowering your carb intake changes your whole metabolic process. I’ve had really good results given that no other eating plan has ever been successful for me.

Good luck for your start tomorrow!

You might want to check your distances -- I don't know how you measured them. To do 5 to 8 miles in an hour to an hour and a half, I think you would need to be jogging, not walking, unless you were really doing speed walking. A 15 minute mile is generally considered a brisk pace and at that rate you would cover 4 to 6 miles in an hour to an hour and a half. Eight miles in an hour and a half would require doing each mile in 11.25 minutes. It usually takes me about 17 to 18 minutes to walk a mile (in a somewhat hilly area) and I pass most people who are not jogging or running. I can do a 15 minute mile when it is totally flat and I usually pass almost everyone doing that as well.

Well hubby and I checked the distance in September when i started walking- from our house to the end of town - beach side is almost 4 miles. So basically round trip is almost 8 miles. It is flat- there's not a hill from here to Philly lol- it's all wetlands and marsh. And I do pass the joggers. I push dd in a jogging stroller and I move fast- Hubby has a pretty long stride and he has a hard time keeping up with me. The longest it's ever taken me to walk that was 2 hours and that was when I was walking with a lady next door- quit walking with her because she was doing it for chit chat and pleasure- i was actually trying to get somewhere lol. I also cycle- even at the weight I'm at, which most people still can't believe this- I do around 15 miles in around 40 minutes.
I know some of my weight probably is muscle mass- or the weight I gained when i was still cycling and walking every day. Before hubby and I got married I was 200 pounds but didn't look a pound over 150 and wore a size 12.

quote:
Another is maybe you're eating too few calories. Many people believe you need to eat as much as your basal metabolic rate (BMR) ... or at least not eat significantly less. It can put your body into 'starvation mode' and cause you to hang onto every calorie it can. I got your rate is at CaloriesPerHour.com: 2,231. If you are eating a lot less calories, you might want to consider the possibility that it's a contributing factor.

thanks for looking that up! there is no way I take in even close to that amount of calories- maybe on a bad day and that time of month when i don't care what I eat. But a regular day usually consists of a cup or 2 of coffee for breakfast- cream and sugar- not a lot, lunch is usually some type of sandwich, glass of milk, and piece of fruit, and dinner whatever I make that night- usually meat, starch, and veggie. I was keeping track of calories for a while because my old doc- this was a year ago now, told me I should try to keep it under 2000 a day if I want to lose. SO at one point I was down to 1800 calories a day and still not losing- this was with spending an hour in the gym every day, plus a 20 mile bike ride 4 days a week- and don't forget the toddler lol.
Anyhow, I think this atkins diet looks like it's best for both hubby and I. I'm to the point where it has to work or I just don't know what I'll do with myself.

[QUOTE=outdoormom] It is flat- there's not a hill from here to Philly lol- it's all wetlands and marsh. QUOTE]

Are you from South Jersey? That's where I grew up and it is flat!

Well I'm not "from" here lol, but we live here- have for the past 2 1/2 years. I'm from seattle and there is no way I could walk that fast there- nor ride that fast lol- too many hills. I used to mt bike competitively before I was married and a friend I trained with- it would take us at least a good hour plus to do 15 miles around there lol- and that was when I was in peak shape.
So you grew up here? No offense but I can't wait to leave lol. Hoping to be going back to Seattle next month- means hubby will be gone for a year, but we'll do just about anything we have to in order to get out of here lol.

Well, I don't live there now and I don't think I would choose to do so. In retrospect, however, it wasn't a bad place to be a kid. There wasn't nearly as much development along the beach then (1960s) as there is now and we had a lot of freedom to run around. I lived 2-1/2 blocks from the ocean beach and 2-1/2 blocks from the bay (center of a barrier island), so I was always on the water. It's where I learned to love swimming and sailing. There are positives and negatives to living in a small town.

Well I will say this about this town- it is safe. I will miss the safety of being able to walk in the evening and not have to rush home because it's getting dark. I will definetly miss walking to downtown at dusk with the little one for a cup of coffee- course it's winter now and the cafe we like closes at 5- and of course now we won't be doing lattes anymore!. And i will miss being right by the beach- we're on a coast gaurd base and the bay is right across the street and the ocean beaches are about 2 blocks down the road.
definetly has some good points. I will however NOT miss having to drive an hour to shop lol- end up spending 4 hours driving around to shop at 3 stores. That drives me insane. I miss having Walmart, mall, and grocery store all within a 5 mile radius of my house. And I won't miss the wind lol. Of course- if base housing learned how to fix the exhaust fans it wouldn't be so bad, but when those winds kick up, nobody sleeps.
I will definetly miss being about to walk to downtown and look at the shops though. We only have one car and it's fine with me if hubby takes it since the lil one and I walk everywhere anyway.
What town did you grow up in?

You must be in Cape May. If you are, I grew up right across the bay from you. I remember when they built the big jetty to widen the harbor in Cape May so they could get all the Coast Guard ships in there. Huge trucks would drive by with big stones on the back.

I never saw a mall until I was 12 or 13 years old and I went to visit my cousin. Our idea of big-time shopping was driving an hour to Atlantic City which had one department store. About once a year, we would go to Philadelphia. On the other hand, we used to go down to the docks and get fish fresh off the boats coming in and in the summer we would buy our produce straight from farms that were a little ways inland.

Believe it or not, there is a lot more there now than there was 30 or 40 years ago. I was last there two years ago and I couldn't believe all the new development. My old elementary school used to have one classroom for each grade, because that was all the kids we had. I drove by it two years ago and it was twice as long and had grown a second story. They must have two or three classes of kids in each grade now.