working out daily and no weight loss!

[Faithfullizhe]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

Some basic physiology & arithmetic, and you can see why exercise doesn't do much to help you lose weight:


Muscle prefers to use glucose as an energy source. We store glucose as glycogen in our livers (100gm) and muscles (400 gm), for a total of 2000 cal of energy already stored, and the ability to continuously replace it as it's used.


Muscle can use ketone bodies as an energy source, which we supply by breaking down fat. One pound of fat contains 4086 cal.


It's not quite as simple as "burn all your glycogen, then burn fat," but close enough for illustrative purposes.


An hour's worth of hard exercise only burns 600 cal or so. You'll use your stored glycogen first, so you probably won't burn any fat at all, and even if you did, it would take almost 7 hrs of hard exercise to burn up one pound of fat.


One Big Mac is about 600 cal.


Exercise is good for you on many levels, but as a way to lose fat, it stinks. Cutting cals in the diet is the only way to do it. That forces you to replace your glycogen buy mobilizing your own fat.

Your 100% correct. Exercise is very inefficient for weight loss. The time spent say riding a stationary bike for a calorie burn is so small, maybe 250 cals for an hour on that thing.

[lchoro]

Originally Posted by Amisi

I have been going to the gym 6 days a week since they finally reopened here in NY. (it's been a month). I do the circuit, using most of the weight machines, then do 35 minutes on the treadmill at a steady pace. I cannot run or walk too fast due to knee and leg issues.

I can feel the soreness from working with weights. I also feel good after the treadmill.

Problem is, I have not lost an ounce!! Nothing!! To the contrary, I have gained 2 pounds! I am getting so discouraged!

I need a major surgery and the doctor wants me to lose 40 pounds before surgery to avoid complications afterwards. My goal is actually to lose 70 to be at my goal weight.

My other goal is to add muscle and I don't see that happening. I've increased the amount of weight on each machine last week. I tried to increase it this week but I couldn't do it (I try to increase between 5 & 10 lbs each week)

What am I doing wrong?????

By the way, I am in my mid-50s, female and I'm wondering if that is the problem?

How much calories you burn depends on the length of time and intensity.

I would use a stationary bike or elliptical so you can increase the intensity of the exercise. 30 minutes is minimal time. Get one of those machines that feedback how many calories you're burning. When you start to slack off, you'll notice the calories aren't rising much.

I would also lower the weights and increase the repetitions to improve tone and endurance. It'll help your cardio exercise.

If you're having trouble moving up in weights at the start of an exercise program, you probably are doing too few repetitions and sets. Lower the weight until you can do 3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions each. They say that the repetitions should cover 1 minute of exertion each time. Then go up a weight and see if you can do the same thing.