4 months/16 weeks til a cruise!

havalinaaa

My boyfriend and I are going on a cruise with my mom and stepdad, possibly more family! I am over half way to my goal, only have 14 pounds left. I know it is unrealistic to stay exactly on a pound a week schedule when my goal weight is so close but am wondering how much I can realistically expect to lose. I plan to reduce my deficit from 500 to 250 once I hit 145, sooner if I hit a plateau. I just joined a gym and am building up to taking a kettlebells class, yoga, and pilates - once a week each - with intermittent lap swimming and stationary biking. I already do a lot of walking, around 5 miles a day on average.

My diet is pretty in check for the most part (or so I like to think, feel free to take a look); I rarely go over on my calories, set at 1350 but I usually log at least 150 in walking, and stay within my macros (50/20/30). I've been thinking about upping my protein but I'm not really sure if that's necessary. If I did this, what I would do is keep the ratios the same for my base calories but then try to eat higher percentages of protein when eating back exercise calories. I don't always eat all of my exercise calories but usually eat most of them. I do allow myself to eat to maintenance level three times a week, though I rarely go that high - usually to a 250 deficit. I suppose this is zig-zagging but I do it mainly for sanity/instead of a 'cheat day'.

I know you can't spot focus on weight loss, but if you wanted to be bathing suit ready in 16 weeks what would you focus on? My problem areas are my inner thighs, my spare tire, and my upper arms to some extent, though I know from past experience they tone/lose weight pretty quickly once I start actually doing something with them. What exercises would be best for toning the muscles in that area, in hopes that they'll look less noticeable despite the fat if the muscle is more toned. Can you actually tone muscle as opposed to building new muscle?

I guess what I'd like to hear are specific diet changes, specific exercises, and general advice. Running is not an option, I hate it and have asthma that is horribly aggravated by running. I'm much better able to control my breathing in the pool or on a bike, prior to my weight gain I did both regularly as part of my life (I was a lifeguard and lived for several years with a bicycle as my primary mode of transportation).

PennyNickel14

It sounds like you have an awesome plan in place.

Swimming is such a great full body exercise and the burn is really great. Strength Training will really help you get the shapely body you are looking for .

Keep staying on and even if you don't hit the numbers, you are going to look great and feel great on your cruise!

Tonnina

In 2008, I lost 35lbs in 16 weeks for my wedding. I will say that I was much heavier than you (I still am!!) so that may be why I lost so much, but heck, if I could lose that much in 16 weeks, you could lose your 14lbs!
Back then I was eating no more than 1300 calories, I walked every other day and never ate back my exercise calories... mostly because I had no clue you could do it and I was doing this with out any help, just me, my notepad and my pen tracking my caloric intake each day... I went from 265lbs to 230lbs... I was happy for that, but I should have kept going on my diet. I was like "Alright, honeymoon time, no more counting calories!" big mistake cause now I'm on here!
I think that you will do fine. You need to make sure you get your 8 servings of water a day and everything should be alright!! :flowerforyou:

havalinaaa

Strength Training will really help you get the shapely body you are looking for .

Is one hour of kettlebells and one hour of pilates enough strength training for a week? I haven't even started my gym workouts due to an illness and a neck/shoulder injury, but plan on starting this week with just the kettlebells and a yoga class, maybe some lap swimming depending on how quickly my neck heals.

I am interested in weight lifting but really have no clue where to start.

havalinaaa

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havalinaaa

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