Thanks again for making your thoughts clearer. I have interspersed some comments in red.
On 31/12/05 12:09 AM, "Stan Jakuba" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Pat:I have to say that I misunderstood this paragraph on my first reading. I was thinking in energy terms in that my ‘ordinary, slightly sedentary, and probably obese person such as myself’ needs to increase his energy output, measured in joules, rather than increasing his power rating, measured in watts. I don’t think that it really matters at what rate he uses the additional energy as long as it is done (for both our calculations) within a day.
I thought I addressed the normal person in the next paragraph:
.... an unconditioned person is unable to develop more than about four times his/her normal, day-time power. Energy measurements reveal that an average person performing only the necessary daily activities expends 8000 kJ in the 60 ks of the non-sleeping time. This represents an average power of 8000/60 @ 130 W. The unconditioned person's maximum power is therefore limited to 4x130 = 520 W. ....
You went on to say:
Our overeater needed to exercise at 2000 W, which is 2000/520 @ 3.8 times higher level than was physically possible in the initial sessions.
My take on this is that my obese person would need to increase his energy output sometime through the day but not necessarily at the power rating of 2000 watts.
Using you figures where you suggest a food energy intake of 11?000?kJ and his normal energy output of 8000?kJ then an excess of 3000?kJ would either be stored as an increase of body mass or it would need to be used. (By the way, I’m not sure that these figures are realistic — I think we might be muddling your overeater — and my obese man — with more normal people.)
This very high amount of energy use, 3000 kilojoules, would require my 95 kilogram obese man to walk briskly for a little over two hours each day but it doesn’t really matter when he does this. He might walk to work in the morning, again at lunch time, and then walk home or to a distant car park after work.
However, my article was not about such extreme situations but rather with how ordinary, slightly sedentary, and probably obese person such as myself could be encouraged to begin, but more importantly stick with a regular exercise program.
That is why a lot of sweat produces little lasting mass loss in sedentary people. Now, you and me do some walking (I snow-ski instruct) and so can perform at a higher lever. Keeping mass down is easier for us. This is just a thermodynamic explanation. Feeling good about oneself is another matter - see the numerous happy Buddhas around.
Personally, I am disgusted with the obesity prevalent everywhere in the US. The overburdened emergency rooms and health care in general causes the skyrocketing costs per capita. On well, sorry. Non-metric subject.
Have a happy New Year and if you are in the neighborhood, we'll go for a hike in the Berkshires. Strenuous on our scale.
Stan
I suspect that you would leave me many kilometres behind. Remember that I researched this topic and wrote the article that started this correspondence because of my concern with my own body mass issues.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Geelong, Australia
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: 05 Dec 30, Friday 01:14
Subject: [USMA:35512] Re: New Year's Resolutions
Dear Stan,
Thanks for the reference to your article. However, I would like to compare your ‘top athlete’ to a more normal person. You say:
‘The world of energy measurements tells us that a top athlete can expend at most 1750 kJ exercising for 1 ks (a quarter hour). From these numbers, the top athlete's power is 1750 kJ/ks = 1750 W. Our overeater's power would have had to be 2000 kJ/ks = 2000 W. This means that our overeater needed to exercise harder than a top athlete could to dispose of the excess food.’
But I would argue that we are discussing not a top athlete but an ordinary, slightly sedentary, and probably obese person such as myself.
In the instance below, I will use the example of a man of average height (1.75 metres) who has a body mass of 95 kilograms — that is his Body Mass Index is 31 — and he is just inside the obese range as judged by his BMI.
This man might do nothing, and, as you say, with ageing his BMI would gradually increase. However, if he found ways to go for short walks until he regularly walked briskly for 20 minutes each day, he would use an additional 450 kilojoules of energy each day that he would not otherwise have used.
Although he does not expend energy at the power rating of your ‘top athlete’ my sedentary and obese person is using more energy than previously and gaining many other benefits from his exercise. If his diet remained the same as it was then he might, at least, avoid the increase due to ageing in his Body Mass Index and might well begin to lose body mass because of the increase in muscle cells he builds up through his walking program. See:
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Metabolism_explained?OpenDocument
for sources of data for this calculation.
I am, however, convinced that he will feel much better for the other benefits of his walking program. The real issue, worldwide, is how to encourage people to take up additional activities such as walking. My article, ‘Walking for fitness’ at http://metricationmatters.com/articles was intended to encourage others to begin a walking program in a way that was simple and approachable.
You and I both know that this is a serious matter. Only about 1 in 10 of adults in Australia or the USA have a regular exercise program of any kind, and that this issue is causing serious health issues in both of our nations, such as the heart conditions and diabetes associated with obesity.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)*
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
* Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the National Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
On 30/12/05 3:15 AM, "Stan Jakuba" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Pat provides lots of hints for a casual mass-loss. Before you get too excited about the ease, read the attached. It was published some years ago in a monthly. The manuscript is intended to just present the facts; by no means it should discourage exercise. The opposite ! - make you work harder, starve more, and be happy at it by knowing that both are necessary.
Stan Jakuba
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: 05 Dec 28, Wednesday 21:08
Subject: [USMA:35500] New Year's Resolutions
Dear All,
As many of you will be about to commit yourselves to this year’s crop of new year’s resolutions, and I am thinking that some of these might include things like:
‘I must become fitter’ or
‘I should lose some of my body mass to get my Body Mass Index (BMI) back into the normal range’,
I have just finished writing (for myself because I need it) a metric guide to getting fit and losing body mass called:‘Walking for fitness’
I hope that you, too, might find it useful.
You can find ‘Walking for fitness’ as a pdf document at:
http://metricationmatters.com/articles
It is at the bottom of the page.
Cheers and best wishes for your fitter and lighter new year,
Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)*
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
* Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the National Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
