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Talk City presents

Registered Dietitian Karlyn Grimes
Slim-Fast Fitness Chat

February 27, 2001

Registered Dietitian and exercise physiologist Karlyn Grimes chats about fitness and sports nutrition. Whether you're a regular exerciser or have never exercised a day in your life, this chat will provide you with the information you need to create a well-rounded workout routine.

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SlimFast: We would like to welcome everyone to our Slim-Fast fitness chat session with registered dietitian and exercise physiologist Karlyn Grimes. During this chat, Karlyn will answer all of your most intimate fitness and sports nutrition questions, including how to set up a well-rounded exercise program that gives you the most bang for your buck and how to keep yourself motivated to exercise. Feel free to ask any questions related to fitness and nutrition that come to your mind, and Karlyn will do her best to answer as many questions as possible during the hour. We welcome you again, and thank you for joining us today!

Karlyn Grimes: Hi everyone. I'm looking forward to spending the next hour with you and hope I can answer all of your questions about physical activity and fitness, so let's get going so we don't waste a minute.

Nell: When exercising, do you burn a greater amount of fat when you go slow or fast?

Karlyn Grimes: If you exercise at a moderate pace and you want to concentrate on large muscle groups (and moderate is equivalent to brisk walking, swimming, cycling, dancing) at this moderate pace a great proportion of the calories you burn will come from fat. If your pace is quicker or more vigorous, so basically activities that are at a higher intensity than moderate physical activity, a smaller proportion of the total calories you burn will come from fat. But you will burn more total calories. Therefore, you generally burn a similar amount of fat calories when you exercise at a slower or faster pace. It is generally recommended to focus on moderate exercise, because people generally have an easier time sticking with an exercise program that involves moderate, more comfortable exercise. This type of exercise also reduces the risk of injury, which can completely derail your weight management efforts. The only benefit to exercising at a vigorous pace every now and then is that you will burn more calories after exercise. Essentially what I mean is you'll burn more calories for a longer period of time after exercise - the after burn effect, it's called. But stick with moderate exercise so you make exercise a lifelong commitment.

Wanna: Hi Karlyn, I work out about 5 days a week and am on the Slim-Fast plan for breakfast and lunch. I have always worked out regularly, but the only thing that I don't feel that is firming is my stomach. I do the ab roller, but it isn't enough. Any suggestions?

Karlyn Grimes: What's most important in order to reduce the fat in your stomach/ abdominal area is to continue doing your strengthening, doing the ab roller and variety of abdominal exercises, but really what your main goal should be is to burn body fat, and the way you do that is perform aerobic exercise like you're doing, perform strength training that works all your muscles, not just your abdominals, and when it comes to your aerobic training try to mix it up. What I mean by that is try to cross train a little more. You should vary the intensity of your workouts and the duration. If you exercise more intensely one day, exercise for a shorter period of time, and if you exercise less intensely, then you can exercise for a longer period of time. Also vary the types of activities you perform so you're using all different muscle groups. For example, you can walk or run one day. You could do strength training and maybe biking another day. Or you could even do strength training and cardiovascular workout mixed together, meaning that you do one weight-training exercise and then maybe two minutes on a cardiovascular machine and then perform another exercise that focuses on strength training. So essentially you asked about your abdominals, the ab roller is a good one, it's fine. I would basically focus on overall fat burning and muscle development. That's what's going to take the fat away from your abdominal area and tone your abdominal area.

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