Can you lose weight and get in shape walking on a treadmill?

Answer 1

Yes. That will go a long way toward fitness. Here are some additional ideas.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 2

Absolutely! A treadmill is a great way to burn calories and improve leg muscle tone. It will rev up your heart rate and help you lose weight. However, keep in mind that full body fitness can only be reached if you are toning your arms as well. You may want to get some hand weights and alternate days between strength training and cardio. A treadmill is a great place to start though! Good luck! ♥

Answer 3

Sure...if you do it the right way.

1st-walk at a steady pace at least a few times a week, gradually increasing the pace. Try to go for at least 20 minutes. As it becomes easier, increase time and speed.

2nd-drink plenty of water and choose healthier food choices

3rd-when you've plateaued (stay the same for a while) on the weight loss, try interval training. Try to walk fast for 5 minutes and kick up the speed to a run for 90 seconds. Do cycles of this through-out the work-out to boost your body back into the weight loss mode. You can also incline the treadmill when you're ready.

4th-after you've become used to the treadmill, try to alternate some days with weight training and target zone sculpting (butt, thighs, arms, abs). Start out light and work your way up. Toning your muscle will help you burn more calories, speed up your metabolism, and trick your body not to become bored with a work-out.

Answer 4

Treadmills are good for the cardio system and fat buring.
You have sugar burners and fat burners. If you want your body to become a fat burner all you have to do is stop eating carbs and your body will automatically strat feeding on your fat for the carbs and you lose weight its that simple.
Be advised that there is one more thing to expect...when you starve your body of carbs it will react within a few days and it gets worried that there will be no more fat to feed off so it triggers a sensor to your brain that makes you crave sugar. What ever you do, don;t give in and eat anything sweet...that's a no no.

Answer 5

Yes but it depends on how fast you walk, for how long, how many time a week you spend on the treadmill and what you eat afterwards.
Exercise and diet are great in combination.

Answer 6

Absolutely. Just walking for 30 minutes everyday will help you lose weight. You also need to watch your intake of food. So long as your calorie intake is less than that which you spend on exercise, you'll lose weight.

Answer 7

yes. but remember, the harder you push yourself, the faster you'll see results. 30 minutes 4 to 5 times a week is good, but you'll want to go longer if you can. TIP: walkingfast/jogging, especially on a hill setting, will increase your calories burned, and walking for a 5 minute warm-up, doing a 10 minute arm work out with light weights or resistance training, then continuing your cardio will help you work out longer and tone your body as well. make sure you drink water, and you're SWEATING and breathing hard when you're done. (paired with healthy eating habits, you're on your way to a magazine cover) go for it!

Answer 8

yes you can, probably pretty quick too, with the right diet and exercise.. drinking lots of water and walking on the treadmill for about 30 min a day ( with incline works better at toning butt and legs!) hope that helps =)

Answer 9

Do you think you work all the muscle groups on the treadmill? It's a start, but you need other forms of excercise as well.

Answer 10

absolutely. I do it all the time. You have to break a sweat and be on it for a minimum of 20-30 minutes. It's great cardio.