Walking for 30-min straight vs. walking for 15-min twice a day

cheesecake

cheesecake

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The subject says it all - is it more effective to walk for a long period of time once a day, or can you burn just as much calories if you walk for smaller periods of time a few times per day?

Also, what is the best to maximize your work-out when walking? Should we do any motions with arms or just let them flow naturally? Should we tuck in our stomach (to tone it?)

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!
 
I don't think there is much difference between the 2, do whatever is convenient for you.

But, Not to discourage you or sound mean, but I'm not sure walking for 30min per day regardless of how you do it is going to help much at all. Its sure better than doing nothing, but it terms of calories burned, its really not going to be all that much more than what your body would have burned going about its daily business for those 30 minutes. Most of your weight loss would have to come from eating less, and not necessarily burning more. But if it makes you feel good to go out and walk, and keeps you motivated to stay committed, I say thats reason enough to continue. I would however challenge you to incorporate a higher intensity cardio that gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat a little.
 
Thanks for the info

What I usually do is walk a few laps around the track and then I'll ride my bike 10-15 times and then walk once more. I do this maybe 2-3 times a week. I'm also doing 30-min circuit training with resistance machines. I'd like to do more cardio, but cannot jog for the life of me. What sort of activities do you recommend (that I can do at home or at a park) to maximize weight loss in the next few weeks?

I usually do the walks just to get some fresh air and get out of the house, where I do nothing but watch TV.
 
Just starting out that this is just my personal opinion and I may be dead wrong or others may have other ideas, but... cardio exercise is not really all that important for weight loss. Its important for other reasons, but doesn't really help much for weight loss. I will also note I say this very hypocritically, as I have only lost weight successfully while doing a cardio routine. Let me explain that I do not believe that the cardio I do is burning fat and causing weight loss, more that it makes me feel good and helps me keep within my daily calorie range by keeping me motivated. However, I feel I would lose weight just the same without the exercise if I kept the same calorie defecit. So really, losing weight is all about what you eat.

However, most of us don't just want to weigh less, we want to lose fat. See when losing weight, you lose muscle AND fat. So really, the role exercise should play when trying to lose weight is that which maintains muscle mass, such as heavy weight lifting. The only type of cardio I've heard that is really beneficial for fat loss is HIIT, but I can't remember why right now.

But like I said, I'm a big hypocrit. I lose weight best when I'm doing medium to high intesnsity steady state cardio for 35 minutes a day 5 days a week. But being 370lbs with a high fat % changes things a lot too, mainly that my body will naturally lose more fat because it has more to spare. I know I should be concerned with maintaining as much muscle as possible as I lose, but I love cardio, and I have't really found a way yet to keep weight lifting fun.

All the same, I like knowing that I'm in as good or better cardio shape than a lot of people half my phsyical size. I easily out pace my wife while biking, but she's got some steps on me while running, mainly due to she's started running more and I haven't ran for a couple years now. Keep in mind though, I'm 370 and fat, and she's 150 and very skinny.

So, I see now I haven't really yet answered your question. I guess, if you're losing weight at a steady rate of about 1% of your bodyweight per week, you're already losing as much weight as you should. If you want to do it more efficiently i.e. lose more fat and less muscle, then you could try to look into heavy free weight lifting or HIIT. There are some around here more knowledgeable than me that can probably give you much better advice.
 
MAR1984 said:
Just starting out that this is just my personal opinion and I may be dead wrong or others may have other ideas, but... cardio exercise is not really all that important for weight loss. Its important for other reasons, but doesn't really help much for weight loss.
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I'm no expert but if you look at threads on this site and on supported research sites anywhere online you can read that cardio DOES help with weight loss. If you get a good work out goin you can boost your metabolism for up to 24 hours. I do know intensity of the cardio comes into place for this...we're not talking about a liesurely stroll. For me personally I can only get so far any time I've had success with diet alone. Eventually I hit a wall and the only way I've gotten past it is with cardio. Not to mention for us emotional eaters, the endorphins released and sense of well being always helps me. I'm sure there's even more benefits and better scientific explanations but I'm too lazy atm to go looking, lol.

As far as the amount of time in one stretch I've looked all over online and I see the same thing, you can do 1 set of 30, 2 sets of 15, 3 sets of 10 even and you're still going to benefit. Good thing for me cuz at the moment I can barely do ten, lol.
 
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if you have a bycycle it is a bit better at burning calories then walking. or if you go to the gym the elliptical machine burns the most. the constant movement of the arms legs torso burns alot.
 
Oh good grief. So much misinformation. People really need to stop posting random things they make up or that they "think" are true and stating them as fact.

Walking is good for you. Anything that gets your heart rate raised is good for you. Period the end. That's the answer.

As to the ORIGINAL question - it's not answerable as asked. Is breaking up your exercise better? Better for what? Better for burning calories? No. If you walk for 30 mins you're going to burn a certain number of calories. If you walk for 10 minutes 3x you're still going to burn the same amount of calories. It doesn't matter.

However. If you are talking about cardio vascular health, the only way you increase your C-V health is by getting in 20-30 minutes of cardio at a stretch. So from that perspective, breaking your walk into 2 15-min segments is less effective.

As far as exercise contributing to weight loss, cardio is an excellent way to boost weight loss IN CONJUNCTION WITH eating less/eating healthily. Cardio will add an extra amount of calorie burn to your day. As long as you don't try to "make up" for the calories you burn by eating more (whether consciously or unconsciously) then cardio does absolutely help.

When you're trying to lose weight healthily, it's important to add in some weight lifting / bodyweight work / strength training in order to help preserve muscle mass. Doing some kind of weight/strength training 2x a week and then doing cardio 3 or 4 other days is a good balance to help burn calories and maintain muscle.
 
KaraCooks said:
However. If you are talking about cardio vascular health, the only way you increase your C-V health is by getting in 20-30 minutes of cardio at a stretch. So from that perspective, breaking your walk into 2 15-min segments is less effective.
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You have said it all!

I would also add that there is a cumlative effect on your heart rate. If you have a heart rate monitor you will be able to see this. You start exercising and it starts of settling maybe around 135 for the first 10 mins, you carry on and notice its now settling around 145, but you haven't noticed yourself suddenly add more pressure to your workout, and then up to 155.... Its because as you warm up and get into things your heart rate picks up and carries on going up (so long as you carry on what your doing), the higher your heart rate, the more calories your body is using to keep the heart rate up.

I noticed this then read about it via the runners world website, they don't agree with using HRM to monitor your running as they have this cumlative effect and this does not say anything about your fitness or improvement.

But having said all that, the higher your heart rate, the higher the calorie burn.

Though it is very important to remember that your exercise will only have so much of an impact, what you put into your mough matters much more, the more energy you can put into your exercise the more of a difference it can make, but don't get carried away thinking you can eat Mc D's every day and just plough it out at the gym as that is not the case.
 
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Kara said:
Oh good grief. So much misinformation. People really need to stop posting random things they make up or that they "think" are true and stating them as fact.

Walking is good for you. Anything that gets your heart rate raised is good for you. Period the end. That's the answer.
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If this was directed at me, sorry :( I don't believe I said anything to the contrary, and I thought I made it clear that I was only stating my personal opinion and not fact. Either way, the rest of this post is not me trying to be argumentative, just making sure I'm thinking about things correctly. If I'm wrong, please correct me :)

Regarding cardio, I never said that it was pointless, just that (what I thought I was saying) was that it shouldn't be the primary method for facilitating weight loss - it should be diet. I do think cardio is important though, just not for weight loss (i.e. creating a calorie defecit).

A convincing artilce I read some time ago (that I unfortunately can't locate right now, but I found through links on this site) basicaly went to explain that when considering the "effective" calories actually burned from a cardio workout, you have to consider that you would have burnt a certain number of calories resting or going about your daily life rather than exercising, as well as considering the calories you won't burn the rest of the day if you rest more after the workout because you're tired instead of walking around doing laundry, dishes, walking the dog, etc, as well as your body possibly being more fatigued and not spontaneously moving as much (fidgiting) the rest of the day, or yes even eating more if you're hungrier from working out (thats actually the point I forgot about initially). So for low intensity exercising like walking, it is my belief (and not necessarily fact) that the effect of the exercise on facilitating weight loss is very little, and much more emphasis should be put on diet. I know people that walk until their feet are ready to fall off and they still don't lose weight.

Higher intensity cardio might create a larger defecit that does create weight loss, however I have read that cardio does not do as much to maintain muscle mass while losing weight. Also, aggressive cardio for weight loss can become a problem when a person reaches their goal and decides they don't need to keep up with the high intensity cardio anymore. Some people go crazy burning 500-1000 calories per day, and when they stop, if the stop is not accompanied by a calorie reduction, the weight can quickly come back. Coupled with the loss of muscle mass, you could possibly set yourself up to completely overshoot your original starting weight quicker than you could even believe was possible. I don't have references for this, only personal experience.

And I don't know I've heard of cardio "raising your metabolism for 24 hours" or anything like that, but I have heard of the effects of HIIT and Weight Lifting continuing post workout, but I don't remember the details so I referred to those around here who know much more than me, like Kara :)

The other thing I remember is that I have read stories of members here that only focus on diet and weight lifting and lose a ton of fat, without doing any cardio, and I believe it is better to lose "fat" than the generic "weight", which may include things like lean muscle mass. That is empiricle evidence at least that cardio is not all that important for weight loss, which is all I was tryin to say. Not that it wasn't important at all. I also made a point to say I do a ton of cardio, but I'm currently trying to cut back the cardio and incorporate weight lifting back into my routine. I had tons of success in the past losing weight doing nothing but cardio, but I lost muscle mass. I tried doing all weight lifting and no cardio for a few months and while I didn't gain weight and got stronger, I didn't lose any weight either. Then I got sidelined with gallstones and surgery, and am just now getting re-motivated. This time I plan to incorporate cardio AND weight lifting, so when I get to my goal, I can maintain.

These are just things I thought I learned along the way. If I am misinformed or got things twisted or mixed up from what I learned before, I look forward to correcting my thinking. I want to do things right, and I definitely don't want to be giving bad advice. :)
 
sorry, but walking isn't cardio (unless it's up a hill). It's better than sitting on a couch, but it won't help much in your weight loss battle. It's still considered being active and will keep your bones and muscles healthier, but don't expect any major results.

It's a good place to start if you've been inactive for a long time.
 
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