How to Accelerate Weight Loss with Anaerobic Walking and Cycling
I'm a certified personal trainer and will tell you quite clearly that walking CAN melt off the pounds, if done a certain way. So can pedaling a stationary bike.
Even if you've spent what seems like 80 percent of your life pedaling a stationary bike or taking walks at the park for weight loss, and not much happens, do not give up hope. The problem is that because walking and the stationary bike are such easy, simple activities, it never dawns on many people that how you conduct these activities can make a huge impact on your weight loss goals.
In other words, walking and cycling in the "aerobic zone" has limitations. But walking and cycling in the "anaerobic zone" will ignite loss of body fat. But first, I'd like to list two obstacles to weight loss:
1) Believing that it's harmful for extra-large people to huff and puff and work up a sweat
2) Believing that weight loss is impossible unless a person can run like a jack rabbit. Another way of saying this is: "confusing effort with performance."
This isn't about performance. It's not about a gold-medal run around the gym's track. It's about effort - your very best effort, even if all that amounts to is a sustained 4 mph walk. Because if walking 4 mph on the treadmill (keep hands off machine!) has you panting so hard that you cannot carry on a conversation, then this is the kind of exertion that will start melting body fat. And if your buddy next to you must run at 8 mph to start panting hard, then that's his anaerobic threshold.
Everyone has a different anaerobic threshold-the point at which the body's fuel system shifts from aerobic to anaerobic. The more fit a person, the higher his anaerobic threshold. You must find where yours is with walking and cycling. And here is how to do that: Imagine you have a number scale, in which 1 is how you feel when soaking in a hot tub, and 10 is how you'd feel if you just outran a hungry lion.
Even if you've spent what seems like 80 percent of your life pedaling a stationary bike or taking walks at the park for weight loss, and not much happens, do not give up hope. The problem is that because walking and the stationary bike are such easy, simple activities, it never dawns on many people that how you conduct these activities can make a huge impact on your weight loss goals.
In other words, walking and cycling in the "aerobic zone" has limitations. But walking and cycling in the "anaerobic zone" will ignite loss of body fat. But first, I'd like to list two obstacles to weight loss:
1) Believing that it's harmful for extra-large people to huff and puff and work up a sweat
2) Believing that weight loss is impossible unless a person can run like a jack rabbit. Another way of saying this is: "confusing effort with performance."
This isn't about performance. It's not about a gold-medal run around the gym's track. It's about effort - your very best effort, even if all that amounts to is a sustained 4 mph walk. Because if walking 4 mph on the treadmill (keep hands off machine!) has you panting so hard that you cannot carry on a conversation, then this is the kind of exertion that will start melting body fat. And if your buddy next to you must run at 8 mph to start panting hard, then that's his anaerobic threshold.
Everyone has a different anaerobic threshold-the point at which the body's fuel system shifts from aerobic to anaerobic. The more fit a person, the higher his anaerobic threshold. You must find where yours is with walking and cycling. And here is how to do that: Imagine you have a number scale, in which 1 is how you feel when soaking in a hot tub, and 10 is how you'd feel if you just outran a hungry lion.
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