Obese to Powerlifter, is my goal.

KourageousKarina

Hey everyone.

My name is Karina. I'm 5'4 and weigh 232 pounds. I've lost 20 pounds so far by just portion controlling. No exercise and no weighing foods. I do understand the importance of all of those things but at the time I just wanted to establish some kind of good habits. I'm still in the starting phase of my journey.

My goal is to lose another 80 to 90 pounds. I don't want to lose weight for the attention. I want to lose weight so my knees, ankles, and most importantly my lower back can be freed of pain. I would like to add people who lift weights and can help guide me to my goal of becoming a Powerlifter.

I'm also working on an NASM certification in Personal Training. I'm doing it mainly for myself and then so I can help others like me, beat obesity.

Honestly, I'm not sure where to start. Pure cardio? Then some point closer to my goal weight start lifting... And 1300 cals a day, suck. Just saying...

If you'd like please feel free to add. I'd love to have your support and vice versa.

bioklutz

Why wait to start lifting? If it is a goal start now.

This a great list of routines. Look at the beginner programs and see if there is anything that sounds interesting to you:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

LeeBGoode

Congrats on the weight loss so far!

I am and ACE Certified Personal Trainer and I am loving working in the fitness industry. Good luck with your certification.

As far as weightlifting, you can start now. The main thing is proper form. If you belong to a gym, sometimes they offer a free intro to weight lifting session. If not, it would be worth it to invest in a few personal training sessions to make sure your form is good. If that is not an option, YouTube the heck out of lift demos and practice without weights. Form is so important to reduce risk of injury and to get the most out of the exercise.

I'm not getting into specifics about calories, as that can be controversial around these parts haha, but definitely check out NASM's recommendations. It helps in learning the material to start treating yourself like your own client, and it will help you in the long run when you start working with other people.

_benjammin

Congrats so far and good luck. I wouldn't wait to start lifting. Find a routine you enjoy for now. Eventually you can do a more specific powerlifting routine.
A bit of cardio is good for your heart but not necessary for weight loss and shouldn't be used as punishment or followed by food as a reward.

KourageousKarina

Thank you all! I will check that link out.

Would it be alright to add you guys?

richardgavel

I agree with the idea if lifting now, but not with the expectation of gaining any significant amount of muscle, but for form, strength (due to more complete neural firing of muscle), and to maintain what muscle you do have during your weight loss. Once you get to your target weight, then while eating at maintenance or above it is when you can think about muscle additions as a real goal.

trigden1991

Lift now!!!

KourageousKarina

Thank you guys

nomorepuke

Congrats! It's so inspiring to read that you're immensely working towards your goal. People above have given you very important info, you got this!!!!

leanjogreen18

Join this group for some helpful info too.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress

bbell1985

You're going to want to lift now. You'll have lots of practice under your belt, and you'll have a better body composition as you near goal weight. Pick a program like Starting Strength or SL 5x5

SideSteel

Now is a good time to start learning how to properly squat and bench and deadlift.

Powerlifting is not exclusively about strength, it's about expressing that strength through the skill of the squat, bench and deadlift.

They are skills that require practice, and so learning to do those skills now would be a good idea in my opinion.

Plus all that other stuff people just said about lifting now rather than later

not_a_runner

Similar starting stats here, 5'1" and 215 lbs. Down to 185 lbs now and I'm 10 weeks out from my 2nd full power meet.
I would definitely start lifting now, I actually started lifting before reaching my heaviest weight, slowly gained, and am now working on getting my body fat down. Best decision I ever made, I'm sure I would have just continued to gain weight had I not found some form of exercise I enjoy so much.
I'm sure 1300 cals sucks ALOT, and honestly you could eat a lot more than that and still lose at a reasonable speed. (I've found it helps me stick with it when I'm satisfied with my intake. I'm currently eating about 2000 cals a day and losing 1 lb per week.) Since you do have a lot to lose, starting with higher cals allows you to slowly cut them back as your body requires less.
You can definitely do cardio, again it can be helpful to start out slow and add it in as you progress through your weight loss. I would recommend Starting Strength for a beginner.
Just some things that I've found helpful! Feel free to add me.

EdithSimmons1

No need to wait to powerlift! ☺ usually people lose weight while training. 1300 calories a day sounds very low to me though. But everybody's different. Good luck and add me if you'd like!