Shaving pounds

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Anyhow, my posting is up today because I am over a week late with a report. Maybe I'll work on it some more now.
D'Oh !!! :smileyballs:

How'd you do it? Congrats on that too!
Thanks ... it actually happened when I removed myself from the angry and bitter Soon-2-B ex-Mrs. JR who persistently drug me down the tubes when it came to losing weight. I haven't been dieting per se as much as I have been careful to watch what I am eating. The biggest changes I made were:

  • Drink more water
  • Eat more fiber
  • Focus on 'lean' protein (mostly fish, shellfish, chicken)
It has worked well so far ... :)

I just ate a honey bun.
Damn it!

:dunno:
As long as it was good for you ..... that is all that matters! :) :plusone:

JR

 
Last edited:
Finally, one more small tidbit I just read - Whether you run 5 miles or walk 5 miles you're basically doing the same amount of work and therefore burning the same amount of calories. The walking just takes more time. So simple I never really thought of it like that. It seems like so many people think they have to work out to lose weight without realizing what a benefit going for a walk would be.
I came across this years ago in "The Runner's Handbook" and was as surprised as you to realize that it's basically correct. I mean, I do think that the motions of running use up more calories than that of walking, but I can't prove it.

 
A little while ago I got to thinking, how do you actually lose weight? I'm talking about mass balance here. On top of waste products, I always thought that sweating/exhaling water vapor and releasing carbon through CO2 was how you actually lost weight. Turns out I am basically right, but in discussing it with my wife (she of the biology background) she thought I was crazy. She was on the "mass turns into heat and energy" bandwagon which of course is kind of going on but of course I countered with "Mass is neither created nor destroyed" which didn't fly by her. Not being 100-percent sure of myself and having done poorly in organic chemistry and biology I let it go.
It all comes down to calories. For every 3000 net calories you can cut from your diet, you will lose one pound. When you diet, you just take in fewer calories. When you work out, you burn extra calories (as opposed to just sitting on your *** all day). There for a while, I was losing 5 lbs about every 2 weeks. That means that I was netting 15000 less calories per fortnight, and about 1075 calories per day. I did this by exercising every single day and closely monitoring my caloric intake. It's a pain in the ***, but it was worth it. 7 months, 70 lbs lost...and counting.

 
I've got a way that will help you lose weight if anyone is interested.

I don't want to be "crazy salesman guy" so PM me if you want to hear more about it.

 
I came across this years ago in "The Runner's Handbook" and was as surprised as you to realize that it's basically correct. I mean, I do think that the motions of running use up more calories than that of walking, but I can't prove it.
We're engineers dammit. The definition of "work" is force x distance. So if you move your body 1 mile. It doesn't matter how long it takes trhe work is the same.

Therefore, running in place/using a treadmill should not result in any weight loss because no work was done. right?

And I don't think the plane will fly, and it a 50:50 probability that the card is black.

 
Therefore, running in place/using a treadmill should not result in any weight loss because no work was done. right?And I don't think the plane will fly, and it a 50:50 probability that the card is black.
:Locolaugh:

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It all comes down to calories. For every 3000 net calories you can cut from your diet, you will lose one pound. When you diet, you just take in fewer calories. When you work out, you burn extra calories (as opposed to just sitting on your *** all day). There for a while, I was losing 5 lbs about every 2 weeks. That means that I was netting 15000 less calories per fortnight, and about 1075 calories per day. I did this by exercising every single day and closely monitoring my caloric intake. It's a pain in the ***, but it was worth it. 7 months, 70 lbs lost...and counting.
I certainly understand all of that - and agree that if you keep a calorie log you will be amazed where you pick up a few hundred extra calories in your day. Like that bedtime milkshake, for example. So burning excess calories aside, how does the mass actually leave your body? To my knowledge, there's only three ways:

Getting rid of it the old fashioned way (bathroom visits, including scotch-ramen incidents)

Prespiration (gets rid of water and minerals)

Breathing (gets rid of water and carbon)

 
We're engineers dammit. The definition of "work" is force x distance. So if you move your body 1 mile. It doesn't matter how long it takes trhe work is the same.
That's why I was surprised that I had never thought of it that way. Of course, I do agree with Dleg that running probbaly is a little bit more since the mechanics of running are different (more vertical motion)

 
I came across this years ago in "The Runner's Handbook" and was as surprised as you to realize that it's basically correct. I mean, I do think that the motions of running use up more calories than that of walking, but I can't prove it.
You will definitely burn more calories by running. The impact on the muscles associated with the mechanics of your stride result in greater levels of force being exerted on the ground in a vertical plane, so the total force is greater than walking. The increase in work done over the same amount of time also causes increases in our circulatory and respiratory systems, burning additional calories. This doesn't even take into account the metabolic consequences associated after the exercise has ceased.

Just think of your body as a vehicle. You can drive 100 mph on the highway, or cruise at a leisurely 55. Which will result in more fuel being burned?

 
I certainly understand all of that - and agree that if you keep a calorie log you will be amazed where you pick up a few hundred extra calories in your day. Like that bedtime milkshake, for example.
Or the brownie that used to be on my desk. :D

 
Just think of your body as a vehicle. You can drive 100 mph on the highway, or cruise at a leisurely 55. Which will result in more fuel being burned?
So wind resistance accounts for me burning more calories when running? Are you calling me fat? :angry:

 
Last edited by a moderator:
We're engineers dammit. The definition of "work" is force x distance. So if you move your body 1 mile. It doesn't matter how long it takes trhe work is the same.

Therefore, running in place/using a treadmill should not result in any weight loss because no work was done. right?

And I don't think the plane will fly, and it a 50:50 probability that the card is black.
Work = the change in kinetic energy

we could really break this down if we want to...lol.. anyway, a living being has so many systems with in that you can't simplify it to not moving versus moving... work done versus not... we burn calories just breathing. Did any of you do the peanut experiment in chemistry ever? My peanut burned but it didn't go any distance and calories were used up.

 
So wind resistance accounts for me burning more calories when running? Are you calling me fat? :angry:
LOL

Hell, I've got to account for frictional coefficients of my thighs when I run :dunno:

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cutting nails, cutting hair, shaving, shedding skin, having that ugly mole removed, amputation, circumcision???
You're right - I suppose various reproductive functions shed some mass too - sometimes twice a day!

 

Latest posts

Back
Top