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New Gym member- eating differently?

cinbol
cinbol Posts: 27 Member
edited January 26 in Fitness and Exercise
I am a 61 year old female who has NEVER belonged to a gym before and am trying to get a routine going. I am down 31 lbs (with 20 to go) doing LCHF and my cholesterol and sugar are now in "normal" ranges without meds. I have been overweight almost all of my adult life but gained the most in the last 10 years after a family tragedy and I just stopped caring. Now I have two beautiful grandchildren who are growing up way to fast and I want to keep up with them!

I joined our new local Planet Fitness - there seem to be a lot of women there my age (and shape) and no pressure to "perform" along with the ultra slim people so far I am liking it. The staff has been good about getting me set up with a routine but I wanted to check on it.

My goal is strength. I want to be able to hold grand-babies without getting pain in my neck and arms. Holding my 12 lb grand-nephew caused my neck to ache and my back muscles to spasm so bad I had to give him back after only 5 minutes....

I have been walking on a treadmill for the last 5 months every morning for 15-20 minutes just to get my body "going" for the day and that has helped my "stamina" immensely but now I want more.

I am doing the following routine: 15 min cardio/ABS/Upper Body workout/15 min cardio - on the next visit I do the same only Lower
Body (meaning using the circuit equipment related)- 3 set/15 reps each. I feel good after each workout - not sore but feeling the difference in using the different muscle groups. I work in a very sedentary job ( desk jockey) which doesn't help.

My question is: Should I be eating any differently now that I have added 3 visits a week to the gym? I am keeping my carbs around 50 per day which puts me at about 1500 calories and I am slowly loosing about .5lb - 1 lb per week - I am okay with that pace as well as I believe it will be easier to maintain.

I have read that I should be "eating" back my deficit but I don't really count calories - I only count carbs so not sure how this plays into the fitness routine...

Any advice will be considered helpful

Thanks!
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