Most folks here might not be aware that I am somewhat on the fat side -- not exactly obese, but close.
So a few weeks ago, I started in on an exercise regimen designed to lose weight. The centerpiece of my program was jogging. I went to this site and used it to calculate how many calories I would burn if I weigh 210 lbs and run at 10 mph for 30 minutes. It told me 856 calories, which is pretty good!
But I wasn't sure I could start out that fast or that long. So I changed the inputs to 8 mph for 20 minutes. The system calculated I would burn 428 calories. Then 7 mph for 20 minutes -- 274 calories. 6 mph for 20 minutes -- 160 calories. I wasn't sure I could start off running 6 mph for 20 minutes -- but I figured I could certainly work my way up to that.
But that was before I read this article by Reinoff and Roghart...
It seems that Reinhoff and Roghart had done this study that clearly shows that once you run slower than 6 mph, you actually gain fat! Although at 6 mph for 20 minutes, I'd be burning off 160 calories, if I started out at only 5 mph, I'd never get to 6 mph because every day I'd be towing more weight! They showed that burning calories is not linear -- once you run at less than 6 mph, you sort off fall off what we might call a "physical cliff" -- and you can never catch up because the rate at which you are burning calories is less than the rate at which you are gaining fat!
Thank God for those two and their Harvard study -- if not for them, I'd have become fatter and fatter, and ultimately obese and then morbidly obese and then dead!
Thank you, Reinoff and Rogart -- you saved my life! (Have to stop writing now and eat some ice cream.)