Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 2

So, week 2 of my ‘exercise’ routine has rolled around and how am I doing I hear you all scream so very, very loud. Well, mixed I would say. Because I spent a lot time at Vivs, I wasn’t able to do my usual cardio, but kept doing my sit-ups. As I currently stand, I can do 40/40 (that’s 40 minutes of cardio, 40 sit ups). The sit-ups are getting easier surprisingly quickly. But yes, no cardio for a lot of this week, which wasn’t bothering me too much, because I was under the impression, that my previous impression, that doing reps didn’t burn much fat, just built muscle, was a wrong impression. But it later turned out that I had the wrong impression about having the wrong impression (but both impressions were still wrong). Long story short, reps don’t burn as much fat as cardio, but the still burn fat and help maintain core muscle. So I was a bit disappointed that I’d let my cardio slip. But there I found out something (not really that) surprising; walking and running burn roughly the same calories per mile.

You see, I usually calculated my cardio burn based on calories per hour, which is a very deceptive measurement scale. If you think about it, it would be much easier to walk for an hour than maybe run at a solid pace for 30 minutes, but running burns more calories per hour than walking, so walking isn’t the best option. But then I discovered/realised that if I look at calories per mile rather than per hour, they’re both the same, and it’s all due to thermodynamics. You see, calories are a measurement of energy, and work is the amount of energy (foodies) expended/transferred by moving a mass (fatty me) through a distance (the walk to shops). This is independent of velocity, and as such, a walk to the shops one mile away burns as many calories as a run to the same shop. Obviously the power (work done over time) is much higher for running, but when time isn’t a concern, walking is much better an option.

With this ‘new’ found knowledge in hand, I decided to sort out some errands I had to run. Now, a 4 mph walk speed burns 114 calories per mile, slower than this burns slightly less. With this in mind, I came up with a clever little plan:

1. Using Google maps, I planned my route to where I was going, choosing the longest route I could feasibly do (just under two miles). The trick is to not pick a route that is inanely longer, just say the longest out of your usual two or three routes.
2. Again using the googly maps, I made a note of 1/2 mile way point landmarks along the route. This worked out really well.
3. Knowing that I wanted to average 4mph, I set myself of reaching each waypoint at 7m30s intervals.
4. I left, stop watch running to help me keep pace. 4mph is a little faster than most peoples walking speed, think ‘the train is pulling into the station, you’re almost at the platform, ticket in hand, don’t want to run so you’ll just walk fast’ It’s sustainable
5. Much to my surprise, I made it to my destination within a minute (under actually) of my target and my return journey was bang on.

After working out how far I’d walked today (about 10 miles) I calculated I’d burnt just over 900 calories! I did two forty minute round trips (had to take something back to the shop two hours after purchasing it) and one thirty minute round trip.

Having learnt that walking can be a very viable way of burning the pounds, I’m planning to do it more. Obviously 4mph might not be feasible if you’re walking with others, but even 3mph burns 90 calories a mile!

I found the majority of my information from this article on the interwebnettubes. I haven’t managed to weigh myself yet (I’m still assuming I’m pretty close to my starting 200lb) but I’ve noticed that my wrists are looking thinner, lol!