Hello, I am new here on traineo.

I post a message, because I was wondering if you could give me ideas if a treadmill exercise could really help me loose weight?

ANY exercise, as opposed to none, is a step in the right direction, but how you use the treadmill is going to vary based on your own personal goals and how your body responds to it.

If your primary focus is to lose weight/burn fat, I'd recommend doing some form of intervals and limiting cardio sessions to 30 minutes tops or else your body will cannibalize muscle and store fat for energy. If you're focusing on endurance training, well then the sky is the limit on how long you run...

In terms of intervals, do you mean...

For example.. a 30 minutes cardio session.

1-5 mins, 1 to 2 Mph of speed
5 to 10 mins, 3 to 4 Mph of speed
10 to 15 mins, 4 to 3 Mph of speed
15 to 20 mins 3 to 4 Mph of speed
20 to 30 mins 4, 3 and Mph of speed

And..

I've heard that walking is better than running on a treadmill if you really want to loose weight, is it really true?

Would this be ok, If I do a 30 minutes session every day? or every other day?

BTW, thanks for the info. I am glad, I am doing something to help improve my health.

Intervals I'm familiar with are the 1-to-2 ratio of hard-to-medium work.

Ex #1: 1 minute of hard running, 2 minutes of walking, repeat 3 times
Ex #2: 30 seconds of hard running, 1 minute of walking, repeat 3 times

This ratio can be applied to any type of cardio (elliptical, bicycle, stairmaster, etc).

Louie, welcome to Traineo! Just getting off the ole couch and doing something will help you with weight loss. If you are very out of shape, try just going for 10 minutes and slowly building up. I've never tried it but I've heard that the Couch to 5k program is very good.

Hi Louie

I never heard that walking on a treadmill was better than running on a treadmill for weight loss. It depends on how fast you can go. You can walk really fast at 4.4 with an incline of 1 or 1.5 or run at 5.0 on a 0 incline and the calories lost would be similar.

If it is not too hard for you, you might want to check out Couch to 5 K running program (C25K). There is a website about it and there is a club for it here and on many other boards as well. LiveJournal even has a community.

Hi Louie! ANYTHING that picks up your activity level (while you eat the same number or less calories) is going to help you lose weight, and walking on a treadmill is certainly one thing that can. The major factor is being consistent in using it though - it sitting lonely in the corner will not help you lose weight. Before you make the investment, consider setting a goal to walk outside for 20-30 minutes six or seven times in the next few weeks, to see how you do with sticking with it. After that, if you want to bring it inside on a treadmill for convenience, weather, and progress-tracking sake, go for it. You might get there eventually, but don't feel the need to rush into running- walking is a great way to lose weight all by itself.