Question about exercise for goal weight achievers

[gman]

Hello-

Realizing I am 20-30 lbs. away from my ultimate GW and in the groove to getting there in a matter of time, should I expect to pick up the amount of exercise I am doing as I progress now? While we don't count calories, I am looking at the chart on page 300, Number of Calories Burned in 30 Minutes.

I am 217 and the chart says 30 minutes of weight training at that weight burns 345 calories. At my GW of about 188, I will burn 300 in 30 minutes. However, I know having more muscle bulk will burn more calories throughout the day. I plan to keep exercising after GW as part of maintenance.

I'm doing aerobic exercise - running and biking, and anaerobic - weight training and calisthenics. Chapter 22 on Exercise is what I have been re-reading.

For those of you who achieved their goal weight, what did you find? Did you need to pick up the duration or intensity of workouts? Did your body compensate and become more efficient, requiring more exercise? Or was it not really an issue...as I get in better shape I am finding that I want to exercise longer, but there is only so much time to exercise. I know it could also differ by age, diet, and metabolism, etc.

Thanks,
Glenn

[chinadoll]

Great question, Glenn. I can't help but I will be following this thread to see what the experts say on this.

[chinadoll]

bump

[Kent]

I found that after I hit goal I didn't necessarily have to increase my intensity to keep my weight off, but I felt I needed to increase my intensity or find new goals to keep myself motivated to exercise. It was really easy to be motivated to exercise when I was seeing real tangible results like lost pounds before I hit goal. I exercised, the more weight I lost.

Well when you are at goal, what does that mean. You no longer see a numerical benefit and while it might seem easier than when you were heavier, it seemed harder to get up to exercise without a tangible goal like losing the final X pounds. I had to change my exercise to just being for weight loss to being about something I could prove to myself. If that meant, I increased the intensity or duration I did. Chances are you would have to change or increased it anyhow as the body plateaus and gets accustomed to certain exercise routines.

So at goal, I took up things like running. It is really easy to keep a numbers or tech guy enthused about running. You can always go a little further or train for a new distance or PR. Also at goal, I have found variety to be nice as well. In the last year, I have taken up P90x as a means to increase strength. Sometimes it is not just more intense or longer, it can just be different.