How do I measure up? Is this good?

I just did a half hour on the treadmill... mostly jogging at 3.7 and a couple recovery walks at 3.3.  I did 1.7 miles (I think its miles and not kilometers) and burned around 200 cals.  I am noticing as I am losing weight that I am not burning as many calories in that half hour even though I am running the majority of the time now.  Also I did 4,125 steps.   Thoughts?  thanks...

That's pretty much how it goes.  When we're really heavy, we burn more calories just moving ourselves around.  As we get lighter we have to work much harder for the same caloric burn results.  Weight training also helps a lot because muscle burns more calories than fat.   And not letting your body get used to one excersize helps keep your metabolism guessing and helps, too.

Hi Amanda, Thanks for the info, it makes sense.  I need to figure out how I am going to incorporate strength training into my routine since all I have is 5 # hand weights.  Should I get bands?  I do not have a gym in my small town and it wouldn't make logical sense to join one and drive 45 mins each way to get there, especially since I only work 2 days a week (12 hour shifts) in that town.  Any suggestions for at home products I can use?  Thanks so much!

sounds great.. and yes she is right. your muscles burns more calories so if you do strenght training you will burn more calories while not exercising. thats why really muscular people eat so much. their body is burning the calories. Keep the cardio up.. thats great but add some strenght training in there and u will see the difference down the road.

Thanks Cwalden! I will do this.  Any suggestions for at home use with the strength training?  I do not have a gym in my small town and the closest one is 45 mins away, I work in this town but only 2 days a week and its 12 hour shifts as a nurse (won't be able to squeeze it in, I only get about 6 hours of sleep between shifts as it is by the time I drive and get home, etc.) Do you have any suggestions for at home use with weight training?  Bands, etc?  I have 5 # hand weights and that is it.  I haven't really used them yet but will start.  Thanks!

There is a lot of material on the internet that you can pull from. Have you checked out sparkpeople. It is a web site that you can monitor your intake as well as exercise. they have a whole list of things you can do at home. Get a ball, bands and weights if you can (not the big ones). Start with 3's, 5's, probably dont need higher than 10 for now. Sparkpeople will actually help you set up a strengh program using the examples they have on line. The pictures are there to explain how to do it and everything. You may want to get a couple cardio type videos just to do some cardio with each day, but videos tend to get boring. If you have cable you may have a channel called FITTV or something similar to it. You can pick shows you like there and do those for exercise. they even have strengh training shows that you can work with..

Good luck and remember to just keep moving.

You are off to a good start.  As the other posters mentioned, it is vitally important to continue to add and adjust your routine.  Our bodies are so advanced, that they can adjust to "survive" just about any condition we find ourselves in: including exercising!   Add some strength training, do not worry about bulking up because as a woman it's very very very unlikely that this is going to occur (with free weights or machines).  We as girlies have a tendancy to fear this kind of work because we "think" that we're going to get huge muscles over time.  As your muscles grow and tone up, you will increase your calories burned (all-be-it not as much as we'd like but we take what we can get)!   I typically half - n - half my routines.  Cardio is great for straight out calorie burning.  Switch up your method of doing cardio so you do not get too use to one way.  Run outside, use a different machine, add incline, drop incline, change speeds, use stairs, etc.  For strength training I typically work all of them a little with a day in between for them to recover (when we strength train we cause small tears in our muscles so it's important to let them heal). To get an idea of what some of us do you can read the " Exercise> posts.  Earl, myself, and a few others will post what we've done for the day.  Also, if you've joined a gym or have one near, take advantage of any free consultation services they have with personal trainers to get additional ideas and to take an over all inspection on your health (bmi, wght, etc).

Thank you Beautiful Dreamer for all of your information! I really appreciate it!  I posted to the other replies saying that I do not have a gym in my town, the closest is 45 mins away.  I do work in that town but only 2 days a week, 12 hour shifts as a nurse so it really isn't feasible.  I already only get 6 hours of sleep by the time I get home and get stuff done.  So I would love some at home ideas for strength training.  I do have 5# hand weights, what else do you recommend?  bands, etc?   Thanks so much for your ideas, I really appreciate it.

Before I begin let me just note that there are four parts to strength training: 1) Set up - Proper form and positioning is important 2) Positive Action - The motion in which you are doing to contract / use the muscle 3) Negative Action - The motion in which you are doing to release / relax the muscle 4) Recovery - The time (no matter how small) between each set / exercise Things I suggest getting: A yoga mat.  Strength Training at home: Push-ups: 1) Decide whether or not you want to do these in the "standard form" or "girly form" (ie: fully supported or on your knees).  Whichever you choose, your body should be aligned.  Keep the butt down and tight, your hands should be positioned at or about shoulder level. 2) Lower yourself by bending your arms, go as deeply as you can.  Do not stress over how many you can do or how long you can hold them.  Pace yourself and listen to your body. 3) Push yourself back up, but not too quickly.  Going down and lifting yourself back up is a joint effort in working these muscles. 4) Breath and repeat when ready for how ever many you can do.  I started out at 3 sets of 4 intially. Squats: 1) Your feet should be should length apart.  Your form can vary a bit here, but not in your stance or how you move through the motion with your legs.   If you  havent done squats, then start with your arms up close to you.  If you have or you do not like that, then when you proceed through the squat motion bring your arms up in front of you as you go down.  As you progress you can add weights in the lifting motion for more resistance. 2) Sit back as you bring yourself down.  It feels akward and you will feel like your going to fall, dont worry it's a good thing!  You do not want to lean forward or sit forward bringing your knees passed your feet, this is bad for your knees.  Catch yourself if you need to, it is okay. 3) Bring yourself back up, no faster then you went down.  You want to keep the contractions of the muscles nice and steady.  Our bodies like to cheat here! 4) Breath.  You've made it through the squat.  Continue until you finish your sets. Lower Back: 1) Lay on your stomach if you can.  Extend your arms above your head and your legs straight out behind you.  Pointy toes!  If this is uncofortable, then dont do it! 2) Lift your upper torso about 30-45 degrees from the ground, squeeze your buttock if you want to get them involved.  Hold the movement for a few seconds. 3) Release the stretch (yes te*****ally that's what it is but it is working the muscles to strengthen them).  Do not just flop to the ground, lay back down slowly. 4) Make sure you're breathing!  Rinse and repeat until you compelete your sets. Treadmill Arm Motions: 1) While walking or running you're going to be using your arms (or at least you should be!) so adding some weights should increase how much your body works. 2) Your arms should be mobile.  In each arm, you hold a dumbell or some easily held object with some weight to it.  I like doing punches from my martial arts training personally but whatever motion is comfortable to you. 3) When your work out speeds up and slows down you should adjust  your arm motions accordingly. 4) When and if you feel any discomfort in joints stop.  Remember to breath during the entire work out. Dumbbell Lateral Raises 1) You can either grasp dumbbells in front of thighs and bend over at hips slightly with knees bent and shoulder length apart or you can have your feet shoulder width apart, torso straight and the dumbbells on each side at the thighs. 2) With elbows slightly bent, raise upper arms to sides until elbows are shoulder height. Maintain elbows' height above or equal to wrists.  Keep your shoulders down, our bodies like to cheat for us so we must consiously be aware of this! 3) Lower them at the same rate you lifted them. 4) Breath, rinse, and repeat :D (((That's all I can think up right now I'm sure I'll have more after my workout this evening!!))

Oh thank you thank you!! I am gonna print this out so I have it.  You are the best!!!! :O)  So nice of you to type all of this out for me,  I really appreciate all the detailed explanations. Huggs!