[Trying4Thin]

Hi Carol,

I too have been wondering about the speed of this site and I was thinking it had something to do with RoadRunner or my pc. Glad to know it isnt. It does seem to be running better today. There is nothing worse than putting a ton of effort into a post and then losing it because the site "times out" or you hit the "back" or "reload" buttons. Grrr...day 2 and no smilies still. I am not a happy camper.

I have become very skeptical of the calorie burners that you can use online. I know I have given links to some on here, and so have other people. I used to bike 30+ mph and the sites didnt even register that high. Since I am trying to fat burn; I am forced to bike slower. If I go with guns blazing; my fat burn will suffer. The problem with the monitors on those sites is that they arent taylored to a particular individual. Yes they ask for weight, but there is more to it than that. In order to come up with accurate info; they need to include fitness level, HR (elevated and normal range HR), etc. Honestly I was shocked to at the number. But the tension was barely on, and I was lollygaging for pace. Increase either of those and the burn would have been higher. Once you do your fat burning cardio; then you can go nuts and burn a crazy amount of calories. Yeah I was skeptical too; but my shape is starting to change. Keep this in mind too...You will burn an insane amount of calories doing a new activity because you arent used to it, or if you are a former couch potato just starting to introduce any sort of activity. However, as you lose weight you will burn less calories for 2 reasons. 1) Your body becomes used to the activity you are doing and will become more efficient at calorie burning. 2) As you get closer to your goal weight your body will realize that it is getting less fuel and it will do anything and everything to hold onto what you give it. Hense the dreaded "P" word. Plateau. So that is why it is good to cross train and shake things up. For instance; I know I am not going to tax my rear end on the bike for another 2 hours so I am going to hit the pavement before the high heat today. Back to the auto calorie pages. I once got the response that I would burn over 1,000 calories doing one thing and when I did it...I was nowhere near that. So I take them with a grain of salt. In the end, as long as you keep your booty moving and you will be constantly burning calories. You can even burn calories watching tv, using the computer, and even breathing. One of these days I am going to wear my monitor for an entire day just to see what my total burn is. But if you keep raising your metabolic rate and lean muscle to fat ratio; you will be burning more calories than you know what to do with. That is what I have been trying to do by slowing down my workouts. Hope this helps. I am not saying dont use the automated sites; just dont measure your food intake by them. And just for the record; a 400 plus calorie burn on a walk is awesome. Do you have a pedometer? That in itself will keep you wanting to walk more and more, plus it will bring out your inner competitor and best of all; it will help you build endurance.

I know what you mean about Napster. I had 400+ songs stored on my Packard Bell that I cant get to now because I dont have a burner. I understand about losing stuff you paid for. If it is in your library and everything is updated then you should be ok. But ITunes always warns you to back up your files. I think putting them on cd is an excellent idea. Cd writeables are very cheap, and can save you the burden of having to rebuy everything you could lose. If I lost 1,000 worth of stuff they would have to sedate me. Check out the Apple site and see if they have what you are looking for. Or if you dont know what you are looking for; then just go in with an open mind. Yesterday at work I had a long layover and one of the dispatchers brought in her computer and she has over 4,000 songs on it. She also has podcasts, videos and tv shows. I watched the episode of "Scrubs" where 3 patients die and Dr. Cox goes nuts. My Ipod doesnt do that; but I can download shows to my hard drive and watch them on my pc. So just choose what you are looking for and go for it!! I guarrentee that your workouts will come alive. Or for a change of pace; load a book on cd to the Audiobooks section. Wonder how many miles I could go in the six hours it would take me to get through the entire, "And Then There Were None."

Well I have blabbed enough and I better get walking before it hits the 80's. Let me know what you decide to do.

Keep on truckin' ??
Ok...Beep beep honk honk!!

~Carrie