Why Treadmills are Good for Weight Loss

When you hear people talk about treadmills, you typically don’t hear them say that they are grateful for their treadmill. But I truly am!

When my son was born, we used to frequently visit McDonald’s and other fast food joints. My son and wife are not big eaters. But I pretty much am so this didn’t go well for me.

So what this did was it kind of gave me permission to always finish my sons meals and occasionally I’d be getting my own meals as well. Even though, I was never a real big McDonald’s or fast food fan, slowly but surely, these visits added up.

After my son was born and then my daughter, I ended up kind of indulging a little bit more and more in the fast food. I’d always be finishing their chicken tenders and fries or cheeseburgers. Ugh.

I’m not just feeding you a line when I tell you that a treadmill is your biggest partner for contributing to your weight loss when things go a awry.

And if you watch the biggest loser, you’ll know that I’m not feeding you a line here, there’s no bull in this. And in the biggest loser, you’ll see the contestants walking and running on Lifetime Fitness treadmills with Planet Fitness on them about every episode. Because Cardio = Calorie Burning & Calorie Burning = Increased Metabolism. It works very well for weight loss!

That’s the gym that I go to now, Planet Fitness. And I start my routine with a short warm-up walk on the treadmill and then progress into a 1 mile run. I complete a 1 mile run while in my maintenance stage weight. Before I was maintaining my weight, I was actually running 2 or 3 miles before starting my routine.

And preferably working out in the morning doing this early without anything in your system no food whatsoever only maybe a little bit of coffee to stimulate the metabolism is the best way to go.

Doing it this way feeds off your body fat not feeding off the food that you may have just eaten. Do you want this to draw from your fat. That’s why a morning treadmill routine is best.

Of course, a short treadmill walk or run in the evening doesn’t her to that just gonna burn even more calories and help you even further. But the morning is the one I highly recommend it works for me it worked for me and it continues to be the best.

I recall a period when I was close to 204 pounds. At this time I went to Bally Total fitness because I had a family membership there. I met a friend and I recall seeing a couple people that I remember from high school. I wasn’t close friends with them. But I remember seeing them around the school, a female and a male.

I recall them looking over at me a few times. I didn’t know why. Maybe they were looking at me because they recognized me from high school? But then I realized that they had to be looking at me because I looked so much different than I did when I was in high school. I was 40-45 pounds heavier.

When I was 204 pounds I didn’t even wanna really leave the house I’m only on a 105.85 foot eight frame and being 200 pounds 204 pounds I just always felt not just lethargic and tired I was pretty much OK with that but I just always felt just unhappy and I didn’t feel good being in my own skin.

Plus I was crabby all the time. I recall my social butterfly wife always having plans with friends or relatives. And I just never want to go because I just hated the way I looked.

Although I can’t be 100% sure if those two people at the health club we’re talking about my weight and I can pretty much shirt be sure that they were. I just remember that and how uncomfortable I felt.

When I decided to join Lifetime Fitness, an elite club which was definitely bigger and better than Cardinal Fitness, I was 204 on the scale. It was time, I was ready to make a change. Can you relate to this?

Back then, money wasn’t an issue because my real estate appraisal business is flourishing with eight appraisers. I was going to the gym and doing a lot of different types of exercises and I really needed some guidance and there is one fitness trainer that really stuck out like a sore thumb.

This guy was totally muscular but you just knew by looking at this guy that he was something special. His name was Darin Steen and he became a fitness trainer and really helped me a lot. We even became partners on a couple different fitness websites in the future.

So I trained with him for I think a period of a few months and I got my weight from 204 down to 177.6. I thought that was a good number so I think after I finished with him I felt like I could splurge a little bit here and there and that’s pretty much what I did and I got myself back into the 180s and then back under 180 and I remember going to the health club and meeting my dad there.

And remember after the work out being in the locker room and I had my shirt off and I told my dad I said I’m doing pretty good I did 178. And he looked at me and said boy Jeff I don’t know about you I think that you need to lose more. I think 168 is good for you.

And I was shocked I thought I looked good and then since you said that I remember looking in the mirror more and more and realizing you know what this really isn’t the body that I want. So in time I kept doing more and more on the treadmill and on the free weights. I kept at it and got my weight down to beach body material at 168 Lbs. I realized my dad was right!

Now it’s been roughly 15 years later and I have kept my way down in the 165 to 169 range. And I always feel like I am beach ready. It is a great feeling!

One of the keys to my success is:

1. treadmill use 4 to 6 times per day.
2. not eating after 7 o’clock.
3. decreasing your carbs as the time goes by so yes it’s approaching seven it doesn’t mean You start eating a ton of food because you know you can’t eat after seven no your decreasing your food and your intake as the day goes by if you feel the desire that you have to have a buffet or you’re really starving you need want to eat a lot of food at once do it early get it done go to fade 11 o’clock and get it out of your system and then you have to Intake less and less as the day goes on. Number 35 to 6 small meals per day it’s fine to continue to eat snacks as long as you’re healthy ones.
4. don’t listen to family and friends that you’re too skinny and you got to eat and it’s OK to have this or that sometimes and you can’t starve yourself blah blah blah. Listen to the experts and you’ll be better off
5. don’t take anything in from someone that knows less than you or even someone that you think might know a little bit more than you. Chances are they don’t know and they’re just guessing and they’re just trying to get you to binge with them and be on the same page with them just like people that say I’ll have a beer with me how old I have a cigarette with me and hang out or hey all let’s just go through Burger King and get a whopper, it no big deal. It is a big deal.

You likely know if you’re doing something wrong or not. It’s fine to do things in moderation but you also know if you’re rationalizing just for the simple fact of being able to do something that you know you shouldn’t be doing.

I know some people that rationalize and say everything in moderation is fine and then they’re actually eating big Macs 3 to 4 times per week and then they’re having steaks on another day and they’re having deep-fried fish on another that’s not moderation that’s a big mistake.

I’m not the one to tell you that I don’t eat chips and I don’t eat meat and I don’t eat cake because I do. But I do my best to do it at a time and at a time that is favorable for me so I would do my best to do it early and do it very in frequently as well. And even then I might be at a gym in the evening doing 30 minutes of cardio to try and burn some of that off so I wake up at my ideal weight in the morning.

When I was 204 pounds I think I got scared. I looked in the mirror and I hated what I saw. And I also got scared because I thought, wow… You just gained 40 pounds over. Five years what if you get another 40 in the next five years? I didn’t want that so I took action thank God I did. I have never been more happy with my weight.

You can do this and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. If they do, block their negativity out of your mind. 

You can get to the weight of your dreams, are you ready?