Re: Question: Walking speed

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (James Lynx) wrote:
>  During my lunch hour I walked throughout downtown LA.  I walk from 500
>  South Grand to 1900 South Grand and back which ends up being 1.5 miles
>  each way for a total of 3 miles.  I power walk so I get back to work
>  within one hour.  

> I weigh sadly 220 LBS and am 6.0 feet tall.  

You and me both.  (Well, okay, now that I've been walking for a week,
and eating less "junk" and "convenience" foods for financial reasons,
my scale is saying I'm a few pounds lighter... like 215-218.  But I'm
aiming for 180, so... still got a long way to go!

>  I'd like to know how many calories I burn. 

I checked out that caloriesperhour.com site someone else mentioned,
specifically http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html ... my
walks are shorter (the block I live on is conveniently 1.00-1.01 
miles around) and faster (12:27 is my fastest so far, for a speed of
just over 4.8 mph; I rarely go under 4 mph).  My best estimation,
extrapolating from their figures for 4.5 and 5.0 mph, is that I'm 
burning about 150-155 calories a mile at that speed.

>  I eat before I walk.  

I tend to walk before I eat, actually, in hopes of elevating my metabolism 
so my body will burn through whatever I eat faster.  (Of course, exercise 
strangely limits my appetite, too.)  An intense lap or two around the block
each day isn't burning all that much in and of itself, but combined with 
eating less and eating better, it just might work. :)  As I drop weight,
I'll have to add speed and distance, of course.

(Of course, walking isn't all I do... I should also work on going
snorkeling - without a snorkel, I'm weird - more often, as that's good
for about 700 calories an hour, and bicycling, which is apparently good
for about 800 calories an hour at my usual average speed.)

-Dan

-- 
Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim. | http://dan.birchalls.net/