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Originally posted by Skettios
I don't know what the deal is with the elliptical trainer. All I know is that I break a pretty mean sweat, but that it's also better on my body than jogging on a treadmill. I mean, I'm carrying a lot of weight around, it's pretty hard on my ankles and knees to be jogging.
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I know what you mean. The same can be said of walking: I would actually advise you to start doing short walks that gradually get longer, in order to toughen up your feet. And don't do this in either new or old shoes: you want your shoes to be broken in but not overly worn.
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The machine that I use is a Life Fitness model. It takes weight into account.
Today I did 40 minutes of random elevation, with a 3 minute high elevation resistance sprint at the end. Supposedly I burnt 800 calories.
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I can believe that, especially on machines that take your weight into account.
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I ate a half a sandwhich from the local butcher before I went, along with a V8.
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Note: V8 is a drink made nearly out of pure salt (slight exageration). And I can't help but think the blending process ruined most of the fibre. . . It is better than most of the alternatives, probably. =)
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For dinner I had a grilled chicken breast on the bone, no sauce, with another V8. Also had romaine lettuce with a little cheese and this cool lo-cal raspberry vinagarette that I found. I'm not sure how to estimate the calories on that.
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The vinagarette should have calorie information on it.
Edit: forgot the following bit.
The chicken breast: skin or no skin?
Calorie informationf or things like Chicken breast, lettuce and cheese is pretty easy to find on the web. Go to google. =)
Here is one chart:
http://www.caloriecountercharts.com/chart1a.htm
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Went back to the gym for another 32 minute jaunt on the elliptical. Again the readout said 700 calories by the time I was done. Don't know if this is real or not, but it would be nice if it was.
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I have heard machines tend to overestimate the calorie number. But, it was from an unreliable source.
Hope so! Every dietary Calorie you burn is generates enough heat to warm a Litre of water by 1 degree C. =)
(well, actually, you get ~528 Calories per Litre of evaporated water: phase changes expensive!)
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Here are my questions so far...
Is HIIT cardio better? It seems like I can do either way for about 40 minutes without much trouble, so if one is better than the other, I'd like to know.
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From what I have read, HIIT helps with conditioning much better. It might also help with weight loss, but I haven't seen any good arguements. Being able to exercise longer and harder will, however, allow you to burn calrories faster and better, so it is tempting...
I personally do interval exercise because it is less boring than doing the same thing for a huge block of time. =)
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My other hurdle is that I'm usually pretty hungry before I go to sleep at night. I was thinking maybe a 200 calorie protein shake might be the answer. I feel like I need something otherwise I have trouble sleeping.
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Aim for slowly digested foods. I personally don't like any diet that leaves you chronically hungry. Hence all the talk about Glycemic Index.
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Finally, are there any vitamins or supplements that I should be taking that might help muscle strain or help weight loss, you know healthy stuff?
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Bananas are a good source of Potassium. Potassium (and Calcium) shortages is what causes muscle cramps (those ions are used to single muscles to tense up and release).
That's the sum total of my knowledge asto what minerals are needed for an active life. =)
Me being the paranoid fuck I am think that if you are taking a multi-vitamin, take at least two (very) different brands of it on alternating days. (just in case one or the other has a flaw in their formula)