Which is better intensity or duration?

Hi, I am struggling with a 15 lb weight gain and it just won't go anywhere. I have resumed exercising after about 4 months without  it and keeping my calories at about 12oo a day. I am 5'2" and 160 lbs now. i should be losing, but i am not. SO for the sake of willing to try anything, which is better, to exercise longer at lower intensity or shorter like 30 minutes at higher intensity? Thanks in advance, Melinda

Melinda, It's a litle bit of a pet peeve of mine when you hear the professionals say that using a lower intensity burns more fat.  The thing they don't tell you is that the diference is so small it's barely measurable.  Of course if doing lower intensity exercise keeps a person exercising, then that may be what they need.  You don't really get a lot of benefit from low intensity cardio activities.  It takes the higher intensity training to increase your cardiovascular fitness. If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories.  They way to burn them is to increase the intensity so you burn more calories in the same time period - espcially if your time is limited.    The longer you can maintain the higher intensity, the more calories you're going to burn and the more fit you will become.   That being said, there are definitely times to go hard and times to go a little less hard.  The idea behind that is to give your body time to recover and rebuild.  Try not to do the same cardio exercise more than 2 days in a row.  I don't even run more than 4 days a week.  My marathon training looked like this for the week:  Easy run (M),  studio cycling (T), higher intensity or speed run (W), easy run or studio cycling (Th), cross train  or easy run (F), long run (Sa), rest.(Su).  So one day I'm getting a high intensity shorter workout and one day I'm getting a low/medium intensity much longer workout and the ones in the middle are designed to help in recovery and maintenance of what you're building on those 2 much more difficult days.  By the way, it may take several weeks before you see much in the way of results even increasing your activity levels.  When I first started running, I think I went through about a month or 6 weeks without seeing much difference in either my clothes or my weight.  Don't give up on the exercise just because you don't immediately see the benefits because you will eventually see them.  My best guess is it does take a while to be able to increase and maintain an intensity level that really burns a lot of calories. I'm sorry I'm not much help in the calorie department because I don't count anymore.  I just eat when my body says I need food, and my best guess is that I eat 1500-1800 calories a day. Let me know what you think.  My views aren't always the most popular. Linn

I agree with the prior poster about mixing things up between high intensity, low intensity, workouts of different duration, and doing different types of cardio.  In addition to burning calories, this type of routine will help improve your overall cardiovascular fitness.   If you are exercising a lot, you may need to increase your calories a bit to start losing.  If your daily calories are at or below your resting metabolic rate and you are also burning calories through exercise, your body may be holding on to your energy reserves (fat tissue) because it's not sure whether enough energy will be coming it's way.  I know it seems counterintuitive that you may need to eat more to lose, but that's the case for some folks.  Try adding 100-150 calories per day -- maybe just one more snack -- for 2-3 weeks and see what happens.  This has worked for me and one of my co-workers, who is not a WLS patient.   As a bit of additional background, I started at 396 pounds, am currently at 190 pounds, I exercise 8-9 times per week (strength training x4 @ 60 minutes/session and cardio x4-5 @ 45-60 minutes/session), eating about 2200-2400 calories per day, still losing 3-5 pounds per month at 27 months out.  Good luck on your continuing journey! Kellie

Are you doing any strength training?  It gets much more difficult to lose weight the closer you are to goal.  The sad fact is that as we lose weight, some of that is muscle.  When we lose muscle, it decreases the metabolism, meaning that you have to eat less, just to maintain, let alone lose.  The one sure-fire way to combat that is with strength training.  The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn with every breath you take.  Don't get me wrong, cardio is important too, and you already got some great advice on that.  Just don't overlook strength training as an essential component to health, fitness, and weight loss. Tami

It does take longer to those last 10-15 pounds off than when one starts exercising. It stinks, but it's part of life. Whether or not you want to increase cardiovascular fitness or if you want to lose the excess fat, there are recommendations from the American Heart Association, American College of Sports Medicine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just going and starting an exercise program where you run or walk or whatever is not the best thing for someone who hasn't exercised in a while. Increase your activity gradually, start exercising for at least 10 minutes more than twice a week, I would say 40 - 50% (at the most) of your Max HR (220-your age). Gradually working up to 55 - 65% of your Max HR for at least 20 - 60 minutes most days of the week is recommended from the ACSM. If you want to start exercising for your health, the good news is that research has shown that moderate exercise (i.e. gardening or walking more than 60 minutes per week) performed regularly will reduce the risk of a first heart attack to the same as higher-intensity workouts. Here are two links that I think can help you (1) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/interval-training/SM00110 and, (2) http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/Intervals.htm. Hope this helps!