Free Weight Loss Exercise Program Review

Let’s assume the following

Sex: female

Age: 30

Weight: 180

Height: 5’7’’

Activity per day: Less than 30 minutes

Step 1 Make A Goal
I want to lose 10 pounds (This will be my first milestone)

Step 2 Nutrition
I click on the Food Pyramid Link under the "Nutrition" heading. I type in my information above (sex, weight, age, height, and activity) and click submit. After doing so I will get a warning that I am at risk for health problems. Then I will get the option for a food plan at my current weight or for a healthier weight. I select Healthier. You are provided with the following daily food recommendation:

6 ounces of grains, 2.5 cups vegetables, 2 cups fruit, 3 cups milk, 5.5 ounces meat & beans

You are also given a weekly recommendation. By clicking on the vegetable categories I can get a long list of vegetables in that category.

Next I will compare these recommendations to what I’m currently eating. To do that I will have to start keeping track of what I am currently eating.

Now I click on the calories link under the "Nutrition" heading. If I look towards the top of the page I can see that "Activities" is currently selected. I’m going to select "Foods" from the menu instead. I can select any food listed, including fast foods and restaurants and see its nutritional information. Looking up everything you eat everyday will be way too slow and tedious. I will just look up most of my routine food items. This will give me a good idea of how many calories I need to burn.

Step 3 Select an Activity
Now that I know how many calories I need to burn I look under the heading "Activity List" on Jay’s Free Weight Loss Exercise Program. I try to pick a few activities that I would love to try. I don’t base my decision on calorie burning right now because if I don’t like what I’m doing, I will probably quit and that will not burn any calories. I would like to try aerobics, power walking, and Ice-skating. Note that I pick power walking which I can do anywhere right now. I also choose aerobics and ice-skating because I think they will be fun, but I will need a little instruction. I will have to do a little research on where aerobics or ice-skating classes are being held, pricing, ect.

Step 4 Make A Plan
I need to make a plan that will help me accomplish my goal of losing 10 pounds.

Now I will click back on the calories link under the "Nutrition" heading. Notice "Activities" is selected. Next I will try to find out how many calories per hour my activities burn. If I can’t find my activity, I will use the closest related activity listed.

Ice skating (general): 476 calories per hour

Power Walking ( 3.5 mph): 258 calories per hour

Aerobics: 442 calories per hour

Our weight is 180 and the calories burned are for a 150-pound person, so remember it is just an estimate.

Remember that you also burn calories during inactivity, just not as many. Add your inactivity calories up too.

Watching TV: 68 calories per hour

Sleeping: 61 calories per hour

Lets assume my usual schedule per 24 hours looks like this:

Activity Hours Calories per Hour burned @ Total Calories Burned
sleep 8 61 488
light office work sitting 8 102 816
driving car 2 136 272
Watching TV 3 68 204
chores 2 170 340
exercise activity 1 ? ?


@ Calories per hour burned is obtained through the calorie link under the nutrition heading.

Total = 2084 calories burned per 24 hrs (without 1 hr of exercise added)

Now its time to figure out how many calories I consume:

Breakfast Calories
1 cup orange juice 112
corn flakes cereal 110
2% fat milk 122
coffee Caffe Latte with whole milk 272

Breakfast Total Calories:616

Lunch Calories
Salad, Mesquite Chicken with Dressing 350
Pepsi 100

Lunch Total Calories:450

Dinner Calories
1/3 LB Mushroom 'N' Swiss Thickburger 720
French fries 250

Dinner Total Calories:970

Dessert Calories
Strawberry Shake 700

Dessert Total Calories:700

Total Calories per 24 hours: 2736

I consume 2736 calories per 24 hours, but only burn 2084. That’s a difference of 652 calories. But we still haven’t added in our 1 hour of exercise. Lets look back at our activities we have chosen.

Ice skating (general): 476 calories per hour

Power Walking (3.5 mph): 258 calories per hour

Aerobics: 442 calories per hour

We can easily see that with only 1 hour of exercise using any of these activities, we are still consuming more calories than we burn. That means we will be gaining weight! We have three choices.

1. We can change our diet to include fewer calories.

2. We can look for activities that burn more calories per hour (652 calories or greater).

3. We can exercise longer per day (2 hours instead of 1 hour).

Changing our diet seems the most reasonable choice to me. Lets exchange our strawberry shake (700 calories) for watermelon (46 calories). Now we consume 2082 calories and we burn 2084. We’re already burning 2 calories per day before 1 hour of exercise. Any of our exercises will now result in burning even more calories per day and losing weight.

Now lets check back on our food pyramid daily recommendation.

6 ounces of grains, 2.5 cups vegetables, 2 cups fruit, 3 cups milk, 5.5 ounces meat & beans

We need to eat more grains, so maybe try a cereal with whole grains. We ate a salad for lunch, but we need other vegetables too. It would be a good idea to exchange our dinner fries for corn and potatoes. We are eating fruit for dessert (watermelon). We had milk in our cereal and a lot of meat from our burger.

Now I need to go back to Jay’s Free Exercise Program and open the Track Link under the heading Progression. Here I will see an example of an exercise plan using Hiking. Notice the first week starts off easy. Also notice each following week an improvement is made to the frequency, intensity, or duration of my activity. I have accepted that weight loss will take some time and improvements will be made gradually.

Now Lets Make A Plan!

Week Frequency (days per week) Duration (minutes) Intensity Activities
week1 3 30 easy P
week2 4 45 moderate P
week3 5 60 moderate P,I,A @
week4 6 60 moderate P,I,A @
week5 7 60 challenging P,I,A @

P= power walking I= ice-skating A= aerobics
@ Substitute ice-skating or aerobics as desired

Now you can make your plan. What is your goal? Go back and look up calories burned from your daily schedule. Calculate calories consumed for your routine meals. Do you need to adjust your diet? What activities are you interested in? How many calories per hour do they burn? If you want to lose weight your calories burned from inactivity + activity need to eventually be greater than your calories consumed.

Step 5 Talk to your doctor
Before taking on an exercise program I need show my plan to my doctor or health care provider. Do I understand the risks I am taking. Does my doctor approve of my plan or do I need to go back and tone it down a little. Am I healthy enough for this kind of activity?

Step 6 Start
If your doctor approves then start your plan. Make sure you know how to properly stretch first.

Disclaimer

Jay's Free Weight Loss Exercise Program