AboutScott Demaree Expertise I can answer questions about training, physiology, nutrition, technique, equipment and injury prevention. My background is not medical, so I will not be able to answer detailed questions about injury treatment. However, during 30 years of endurance exercise I have had a few injuries so I feel qualified to talk about things that have worked for me and others.
Experience I have been a long distance runner since 1978 and took up racewalking in 1982. More recently, I have worked as a certified personal trainer helping people with a wide range of exercise needs. Last year, I coached several people to successfully finish the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in Dallas (60 miles in three days).
Organizations American College of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, National Science Teachers Association
Publications Journal articles associated with my graduate work with me as the primary author were published in the Journal of Nutrition, Acta Physiologica Scandanavica. Additionally, I co-authored the chapter on exercise metabolism in ACSM's Resource Manual for Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 4th Edition. Finally. I co-authored a book for beginning marathon runners (Marathoning 101).
Education/Credentials I have recent Master's degrees in Exercise Science from Wichita State University and Nutrition from Texas A&M University.
Awards and Honors I won national championships in the 1986 100-Kilometer Racewalk and the 1989 24-Hour Run.
Expert: Scott Demaree Date: 3/13/2008 Subject: is too much walking a bad thing
Question i am around 300 lbs at 20 years old. i want to walk it off bysides cutting back on my eating, i stopped drinking pop. when i told my friends and family about how many hours a day i want to walk they said i am over doing it. this is what i was planing 2 hours walking then a 30 min break at the end of the day i will have 10 hours walked. so is my friends and family right that i am over doing it?
Answer Ten hours of walking in a day is too much! To maintain your health, you must adopt a plan of gradual weight loss -- no more than 1 and a half pounds per week. That may sound too slow, and you actually might be OK losing up to 5 ponds per week in the first few weeks of your program. But fast weight loss is the surest way to quickly gain it all back.
You should start with a mile of walking every other day, and gradually increase over some months to a maximum of 5 miles every day. The reason for this is to avoid getting injured, which will stop your weight-loss plan in its tracks. Unfortunately, at your weight, injuries happen easily. You have to give your body time to adapt to the exercise in order to avoid injuries.
You also should be cautious to not cut your calories to below 1500 per day. Too few calories throws your body into starvation mode, which causes a drastic slowdown of your metabolism. Then it will just get harder to lose weight.
