Starting Over - Need Help

MaiLinna

Long post ahead!

I'm not sure if I should keep saying that I'm sedentary or if I should change it to light activity now. I took a break yesterday because that time of the month has come along and I'd slept for 12 hours straight, but ever since I moved I've been out walking for an hour+ every day. I moved to an area where I specifically don't have to drive, so I walk and occasionally take the bus everywhere. I started doing this every day as more of a need to finally get up and build some endurance, not really as a point of losing a couple pounds.

I have a few questions for you.

1. Is walking alone going to be enough to help me reach my goals, or am I going to simply stay skinny fat?
2. Should I change my status from sedentary to lightly active, or should I wait until I get a part time job first?
3. I used to do yoga every day on my Wii U. Is that something I should get back into the habit of learning, or is it a little too dangerous? (What if I hurt myself? I don't have health insurance and probably won't have any for a few more years.)
4. I've been looking into body weight strength training exercises and I have recently started a 100 push ups program. What kind of body weight exercises do you suggest to work multiple muscle groups that you, in your experiences, really liked?

Sorry if I'm kinda asking a lot of really general questions, but I'm not sure what I'm specifically looking for. I hit my previous goal in December, and through a lot of stress I slowly started gaining. It's only a few pounds, but it really shows on my frame. Always has. I can wear a size 8 jean comfortably and medium sized dresses and tank tops very well, but the muffin top and chubby belly really bother me. I could care less about my thunder thighs. I think they're sexy. But as a woman who is, uh...not very well endowed...I look very awkward because my little tumtum sticks out more than my breasts. I read the post "So you want a flat tummy" or something like that, and that's how I got started on TDEE again, which I'd forgotten how to do so I'm thankful for that, but I still have questions I suppose.

cheshirecatastrophe

So let me break this down:

1. You'd like to lose a little bit of weight, but not a ton.
2. You're mostly interested in reshaping your body.

As to step 1, you know how to do that: eat at a calorie deficit. Whether you do that by food alone or use exercise to create/increase your daily or weekly deficit is up to you. Honestly, for walking an hour a day I would probably leave it at sedentary (unless you're crazy-fast power walking everywhere)--IIRC, the calculation for "sedentary" actually includes a certain amount of movement anyway.

As to step 2, you will want to follow a strength training program, not just an individual exercise. If you want to stick with bodyweight stuff, check into You Are Your Own Gym. If you have access to a gym or someone with free weights, a lot of people find success with Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5x5, Strong Curves, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Some of these are books; you can find the instructions for most of them online as well. You will almost certainly see better results, for the purposes of reshaping your body, with a heavy lifting program rather than bodyweight alone.

Oh, and question 3--yoga is great! It increases flexibility first of all, which is *enormously* helpful if you are doing any kind of dedicated strength training or cardio program, as well as for general life fitness and growing older healthfully and functionally. You can see some strength gains from it, too, but probably not of the body-reshaping that you're looking for.

Congratulations on your progress so far!

thegrimmycrew

good advice chesire.....100 pushup chalenge is great way to build upper bory strength. Im a huge fan of burpees myself. Don't think just walkin will cut it. Deff have to lift weight.

DesertGunR

Not sure I have all the answers, though I'll give it a shot.

1. Walking will help you get to your goal. Whether you are going to remain skinny fat mainly depends on your current body fat percentage. If it already on the low side, odds are no. If it's on the high side, odds are yes. Having said that resistance training will help you build lean muscle and in the end burn more calories for you on a day to day basis.
2. Changing your activity type is subject to your lifestyle. If you currently are only active for your exercise periods only, then remaining at sedentary might be the better choice. If you job or daily non-exercise routine keeps you moving more than it keeps you sitting, then maybe lightly active would be a better choice. This is a personal choice that only you can really decide.
3. If you enjoyed yoga then by all means resume it. If you are still a beginner at it make sure that you make those changes to the settings to the Wii U, if possible. If it is not possible to change the settings, remember to go slow. Go into each position only as far as your body will allow. As you become more flexible you will find that each position will get easier to achieve.
4. A 100 push ups program is a good start. Keep it up. As for body weight exercises there are tons of them out there to choose from. Search for other to add like scissor kicks, burpees, crunches (too many different types to mention), body squats (nothing more than doing a squat, just without using extra weight), lunges and box jumps (these can be done up on a very sturdy platform that is as low as 6"-8" to start). A couple places to check out of you want more information. (calisthenicexercise.com/ & military.com/military-fitness/workouts/avoid-gym-by-using-calisthenics). If you are limited on space a TRX suspension trainer has an almost unlimited amount of variations to be done that require only your own body weight. For more information check it out here https://trxtraining.com/.

As for the rest, muffin top, dress size, etc., those are issue that once you get into a routine that you like will improve. The visual part of the improvement as you see it take effect will help, though not totally eliminate those issues. You will have to do the mental workout to change that on your own. If you have further questions feel free to message me, add me or both.

Good Luck!

MaiLinna

Once I finally figured out how to position my body correctly, squats became a favorite of mine. I think I'll do a squat challenge after the pushups challenge, then create a routine from there. I understand nothing happens overnight and I am very happy to slowly work my way back into my energetic teen days (100+ push ups, 100+ crunches, and at least an hour riding my bike every day! Just for fun!)

Biking is going to be a little too hard on me here because of the mountains and hills. A work injury set me back a few years ago and it wasn't allowed to heal properly, so now I have a "bad ankle" and feet that swell. >.< I'll never be an athlete, and that's okay. I just want this little pudge to go away. I appreciate all your advice! If anyone else has anything to say, feel free to chime in.