Cold Weather and Weight Loss

By NCN, on January 7th, 2013%

It’s cold.

Well, cold for the deep South.

So, most of my exercise is taking place indoors (except for those few hours after lunch when it’s warm enough, when bundled, to walk around the neighborhood).

I have been walking a minimum of 5 miles per day – and reintroducing some high-intensity interval training.  Back a few years ago, I lost several pounds (which I put back on, because I went back to bad eating habits) and the h.i.i.t. really helped me.  If I can drop a few more pounds, running will become more of an options, but for now, I’m really working on walking and maintaining a good heart rate.

As of yesterday, I am down a total of 7.6 pounds.  My goal is to lose 80 pounds.

My diet consists of lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.  Basically, I’m eating real foods, in quantities that are satisfying but not stuffing.  This worked before, and is working again.

Today’s score, with 1 being “I just consumed an entire box of chocolate-covered-chocolate” and 10 being “I am awesome at losing weight and being awesome” – I give myself a solid 8.5.  I ate well (maybe a little too much, we shall see) and needed to push a little harder on the old treadmill, but I still had a great day.

Comments are closed   2013, Fitness, Project 80, Weigh Ins

Treadmill Distance Math

By NCN, on January 4th, 2013%

While walking on the treadmill today – a great place/time to think, by the way – I started calculating exactly how long it would take, at a fixed-pace, to walk a mile.

My particular treadmill does this calculation for me, but with nothing to do but walk, I figured I’d work out the math anyway.

Speaking of treadmills – Amazon has their treadmills and lots of other “new year’s resolution” stuff on sale.  Check it out here – Shop Amazon – New Year, New You Event

We measure speed in miles per hour.  There are 60 minutes in one hour.  Here’s the basic equation for figuring out how long it takes to walk 1 mile, given a fixed speed.

60 minutes / x (minutes to walk 1 mile) = speed (in mph) / 1

Using 3.7 mph, let’s figure out how long it takes to walk one mile.

60  min / x = 3.7 mph  / 1

A little old-school cross-multiplication yields

60 = 3.7x

x = 60/3.7

x = 16.22 minutes

We then need to convert the .22 minutes to seconds

60 seconds per minute * .22 minutes = 13 seconds

So, it takes 16 minutes 13 seconds to walk 1 mile at 3.7 mph.

Here is a quick chart with speeds from 2 mph to 6.5 mph.

Speed            Time (m/s)

2.0      0:30:00
2.1      0:28:34
2.2      0:27:16
2.3      0:26:05
2.4      0:25:00
2.5      0:24:00
2.6      0:23:04
2.7      0:22:13
2.8      0:21:25
2.9      0:20:41
3.0      0:20:00
3.1      0:19:21
3.2      0:18:45
3.3      0:18:10
3.4      0:17:38
3.5      0:17:08
3.6      0:16:40
3.7      0:16:13
3.8      0:15:46
3.9      0:15:23
4.0      0:15:00
4.1      0:14:38
4.2      0:14:17
4.3      0:13:57
4.4      0:13:38
4.5      0:13:19
4.6      0:13:02
4.7      0:12:45
4.8      0:12:30
4.9      0:12:14
5.0      0:12:00
5.1      0:11:45
5.2      0:11:32
5.3      0:11:19
5.4      0:11:06
5.5      0:10:55
5.6      0:10:42
5.7      0:10:31
5.8      0:10:20
5.9      0:10:10
6.0      0:10:00
6.1      0:09:50
6.2      0:09:40
6.3      0:09:31
6.4      0:09:21
6.5      0:09:13

Most treadmills will do these calculations for you, but it’s cool to re-visit some per-algebra once in a while.  I rounded when making calculations, so I could be off by a second-or-two.  Let me know if you find an error in my calculations.  Be blessed.

I used some of the great information found at Fitness Math to verify my calculations.

Comments are closed   Fitness
 
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