Exercise: Break It Down
When you’re exercising to lose weight, that recommended half-hour per day simply isn’t enough. Experts want you to double that — and make it brisk — to help shed the pounds.
Between household chores, homeschooling my son and my online work, I have a hard time finding an uninterrupted half-hour to exercise, much less an entire hour. Which means, more than often, I’m often tempted to just skip the whole exercise thing. Then the scale doesn’t budge and I get depressed and, as we all know, that’s what triggers emotional eating binges.
I just lost any excuse not to fit some exercise in: the latest report encourages breaking your exercise routine into two parts.
Half-hour exercise sessions divided by a 20-minute rest period were found to lead to greater fat metabolism than single, hour-long sessions. Which is good news for Chubby Mommy, since I’ve yet to be able to get through an entire aerobics video without needing a break.
I’ll just have to make sure I’m not running off to the kitchen during that time.
2 Responses to “Exercise: Break It Down”
When I lost the most the “easiest” (meaning following a plan and it working) was with the Body for Life program. The exercise is 20 minutes a day, but it’s leveled intensity training. It worked and once I (quickly) built up some endurance I found myself WANTING to go longer. Which was when the slowdown started, coincidentally. But anyway, I’m going to get back to that. It’s the only time frame I have so might as well run with it.
Actually, I’d been thinking when I stumbled across that report this morning that it certainly would explain why I find it easier to lose weight at the beginning of an exercise program — when I can’t do the entire tape without a rest period, so do half then return again to finish it after catching my breath.
Although anecdotal, that would certainly explain why I went through the same thing you did: after I’d built my endurance up and was able to finish the tape without a rest, my weight loss began to slow.
Something to think about.