is the so called "afterburn workout" good for someone with overweight

Question

I weight 242 lbs (110kg) with 5' 9" (182cm). I want to lose weight.

My workout the last month was to walk an hour every other day.

Right now walk doesn't make me feel tired, so I run. But I can only run a litle until I feel tired, not more than 10'-12'. My cooper test is 1500m, given I am 29 my score is "bad" accordign to wikipedia.

I watched videos of bodyrock.tv and sixpackshortcut.com and they talk about doing afterburn workouts.

They say that if you workout intensily for a short period of time, you boost your metabolism and burn a lot of calories in the rest of the day rather when you are working out.

This workouts last very few minutes, something like 5 to 20 at the most.

This is an example of a workout that last 7' http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/12/07/the-one-that-got-away-workout/

this is the Workout Breakdown of that routine:

• 8 rounds of 20'' work + 10'' rest doing: MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS and SPLIT LUNGES
• 50'' PLANK BUTT SQUEEZE
• 50'' PLANK
• 50'' REPTILE PUSHUPS

I am a litle skeptical about doing it.

First of all, most of the exercises are very difficult to me, since my weight and current strenght are not the best right now.

Second, it sounds too strange that if you only workout for 20' every other day you are going to loose weight.

The question is: Is this kind of workout right for me?

Answer 1

I have to agree that at this stage, from what you describe, moving from a 1 hr walk every other day to High Intensity Interval Training plan is probably not right FOR YOU at THIS TIME. The best way to lose weight is through diet, start with logging what you eat daily for 2 weeks (no cheating/excluding anything) - take a look, add the calories up and work out where you need to be. Here's a link to a daily intake calculator to help determine where you should be: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

The next step is to increase your endurance and strength. Your approach of adding sprints to your walk is right on. I would suggest 5 day a week workout - 3 of walking and start to add some simple body weight exercises such as push ups, situps, squats - all body weight.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

I agree with the folks above: probably too much for you to jump into right now. I second the point about starting with nutrition and logging calories and exercise.

Work on improving your diet: More protein, less carbs, more fiber, less refined sugar.

Try to hit about 500 calorie deficit each day (eat 500 less than you burn), there are all kinds of websites out there to help you track this. One I use is called Fitclick.com.

Finally, you are right to be skeptical about the afterburn effect. It exists, but as this study shows, you can expect less than an extra 200 calorie burn after 45 minutes of fairly intense (73% of VO2 max) exercise: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21311363

Keep at it...slow and steady wins in the flab fight! Stay away from "Diets" and routines that promise big results (for your $$).