Advice for me?

justagirl2013

Hi,

I'm new here and trying to get this all situated. For some reason, I am having difficulties with how many calories I am intended to consume.

A little about me. I'm a 27 year old female, 5'4, and 210 pounds. I am currently doing the C25k program, and I also walk 15 more minutes on treadmill, followed by 10-15 minutes on elliptical (trying to increase to an hour of elliptical, current at level 3/4 and not very fast). I also ride a horse once per week, and workout 6 days per week. I do alternate strength training using the gym's machines. (lower body/ abs or upper body/abs)

I really want to make sure I'm on the right path with my eating and exercising. I do know I need to get in more fruits and veggies. I love them, but I just don't know which ones are the right ones per say. I want to eat the most effective foods for my body. I eat a lot of organic unprocessed food if possible, and I love to cook. I'm interested in trying new foods, but I don't know a lot about many,and get confused.

Please feel free to view my diaries. From the 14th-yesterday I did not log due to the fact I was out of town and I don't remember what I ate most days...There are some things added, but it's not a realistic view of my normal eating patterns.

I'd appreciate any advice, and will take criticism as constructive. I am here to not only lose weight, but to become healthier. I quit smoking 22 days ago, and feel so much better already. Now I want to be the healthiest (and fittest) I can possibly be!

dovesgate

Your diary isn't open.

justagirl2013

Nevermind. I just made it open

justagirl2013

Bump? I hope its made public now. Thanks!

justagirl2013

I am bumping this again. I hope this is acceptable. I am really looking for some feedback/advice. I do believe my diary is now public (I changed the settings to Public)?

Thanks!

rw4004

Welcome to MFP!!I will check out your diary and give any helpful advice I can.Feel free to add me:)

AntWrig

Determine your maintenance, that includes factoring in your activity level. A general guess to start off with is your current body x 12-14.

Once you do that, that is weight you eat for the day. Try to get at least a gram of protein of target body weight in (be realisitc), target body weight should closely tie to lean body mass.

Fat intake should be around .5 of TBW or LBM.

Fill the rest of the remaining calories in with carbs.

You do that by subtracting maintenance calories, protein calories, and fat calories. Once you get that, divide the sum /4. That will give you the total carb amount for the day.

Hit your targets daily. Give it two weeks and assess. If you gain weight, drop calories, if you lose weight stay right there.

carlypreiss

You should definitely be eating more. I looked back at the beginning of February, and all of your net cals are below 1000. That's really hard on your body.

funkycamper

What you have input so far into your diary is too erratic to critique. You have too many days in a row at the beginning of the month where you are real under your calorie target. And then too many more recent days where you are way over. Lots of gaps. Lots of junk food.

I'd start with Fitnesssocial's advice, give it a month, at the very least 2 weeks, and then reassess. If you're still confused and/or struggling after a month and have diaried your intake/output enough for us to have something better to assess, then come on back and ask for more help. Good luck!

justagirl2013

RW- I will add you, thank you for the offer!

Carly- The month of January and first weeks of February were very hard for me. I had started some new medications and they made me really sick. Most of what I ate would not stay down, if I even was able to eat anything. I'm doing better now, but still having some issues with nausea. I'm not trying to make excuses, just providing background information

Determine your maintenance, that includes factoring in your activity level. A general guess to start off with is your current body x 12-14.

Once you do that, that is weight you eat for the day. Try to get at least a gram of protein of target body weight in (be realisitc), target body weight should closely tie to lean body mass.

Fat intake should be around .5 of TBW or LBM.

Fill the rest of the remaining calories in with carbs.

You do that by subtracting maintenance calories, protein calories, and fat calories. Once you get that, divide the sum /4. That will give you the total carb amount for the day.

Hit your targets daily. Give it two weeks and assess. If you gain weight, drop calories, if you lose weight stay right there.

So I would multiply 210 *13 (picked middle number) which is 2730? I would say activity level is lowest possible. I do a little walking, but not much. SO I need to eat 2,730 calories per day? I'm struggling trying to eat 1500 in a healthy way <sigh> (Last night I ate CFA, and that was horrid, definitely learned to make some adjustments and not eating fast food anymore!)

My Targeted body weight (from my doctor) is 145. She would like me to get to that weight and then re-evaluate where I am as far as fitness/muscle/etc. So I need to consume 145 grams of protein per day?

Fat calories would be 72.5?

I am confused on finding my total carb amount. I am not sure what my maintenance calories are? I did 2730-145 (protein) - 72.5 ( fat)= 2512/4= 628. There is no way that is right, lol!

Thanks for the help, I really do appreciate it!

(BTW- I am reading all the newbie threads, I had started last night, but my daughter closed them out this morning. I am starting over. I'm learning quite a bit from there. I am also making a 100% conscious effort to eat back my calories from exercising as I have read so much on that already!

justagirl2013

What you have input so far into your diary is too erratic to critique. You have too many days in a row at the beginning of the month where you are real under your calorie target. And then too many more recent days where you are way over. Lots of gaps. Lots of junk food.

I'd start with Fitnesssocial's advice, give it a month, at the very least 2 weeks, and then reassess. If you're still confused and/or struggling after a month and have diaried your intake/output enough for us to have something better to assess, then come on back and ask for more help. Good luck!

Thank you. Yes, I realize it was erratic. Last night was full of choices that should have been much better. Honestly, I wish I had ate before I went out, because I binged badly. I'm quite disgusted with over 1/2 of my food from yesterday. I can't change the past, but I will change the future.

Part of the reason for the eraticness is that I was put on some new medications at beginning of January. They made me sick and I struggled to eat/keep food down. I'm doing better now, but still fighting nausea. I really want this though, and want to get away from the junk food. This morning i cleaned my pantries out. Anything that was junk (cereals, canned soups, baking supplies, etc) went into some banker boxes. I plan on giving the stuff away. I feel the less access I have to the items, the more I will feel the urge to eat them. Of course my daughter was not too happy, but there is no reason she cannot learn to eat healthier also. I want to set her up for a good future of eating and healthy lifestyle

funkycamper

Since you have been dealing with stomach issues and new medications, it makes it all the more difficult to evaluate what you're doing and give you good advice. So, here's my best suggestion: At the top of this forum are a bunch of stickies. Read them. All of them. There is a ton of great advice in them that should answer most of your questions. (Oh, just read you're doing this already. Great!)

As for your math...." I did 2730-145 (protein) - 72.5 ( fat)= 2512/4= 628. There is no way that is right, lol! "

145 grams of protein x 4 calories per gram = 580 calories
72.5 grams of fat x 9 calories per gram = 652.5 calories
580+652=1232.5 calories
2730-1232.5=1497.5 calories (of course, that half calorie is silly, round up or down)
1497.5 divided by 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates = 374.375 grams of carbohydrates

Hope that makes sense.

Personally, while I think that is a great way to determine your calorie target, I prefer another approach. Go to the Tools section and figure out your BMR. Never net less than that. Track your exercise calories and eat most of them (I don't say all of them only because I don't trust the calorie burn calculations all the time).

Also, many very smart people on here say the following: Only go for a 2#/week weight loss if you have 75+ pounds to lose. From 50-75#, go for a 1.5#/week loss. For 25-50#, go for 1#/week loss. For under 25#, go for a 0.5#/week loss.

So I think you're definitely in the stage where you should only go for 1.5#/week loss. If this gives you a net calorie target higher than your BMR, then eat that target plus exercise calories and not the lower one for BMR. Whichever is higher.

As for exercise, what works best for me is a combination of heavy lifting 2-3x/week, high intensity intervals (2-3x/week), with 1-2 sessions of longer duration, steady-state cardio a week. But the main thing is find things you enjoy and stick with it.

Hopefully, all of this will give you a better sense of direction. Best wishes!

justagirl2013

Thanks Funky!

MY BMR according to the tools is "Your estimated BMR is: 1,673 calories/day*" Doing the other way that Fitness said I came to 2730? Or do I use my target weight for that too? I'm sorry for being so dense, I just don't get this. That's 1,000+ calories a day that I am missing in terms of these equations.

375 grams of carbs seems so high too, I'm so confused right now and I don't understand why.

I know that to lose a pound a week I would need to consume 3500 less calories per week. So 1.5 pounds would be 5250 calories less per week. So I eat 1,673 per day and burn 500 per day for exercise, then I would lose only a pound per week?

Should I just concentrate on those 1,673 calories? Don't eat back my exercise calories? Or only a portion of them? Argh!

As far as the exercise, I have been doing the c25k program. I'm on week 2 day 2 now. I've been repeating each one twice because I feel I am struggling with the running part. I then follow that by 20 minutes on the eliptical. I alternate rest/higher speed/ rest/ higher speed for the 20 minutes. I then do my strength training of legs/abs or upper body/ abs. I don't know if this is working for me yet (today I tried the bike, but to be honest I hated it. I like the elliptical the most!). I am trying to work out 6 days a week, because I need to keep the momentum. I worry that if I only go 2-3 days per week, I will lose my motivation and get in a rut. I do enjoy waking up and going though, makes me feel a lot better!

Thanks again for the help!

justagirl2013

Well I may have just figured this out (can't edit my post, sorry!)

My BMR is 1,673 (current weight), my TDEE is 2091. So the difference between those two is 418. That means in order to lose 1.5lbs per week, I need to burn at least 332 calories at the gym every day and not eat those calories back?

Now if I use this : http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/. It tells me to eat 1,742. For a sedentary lifestyle i should eat 1,752.

jeccalou

Razz, first let me say that i love your attitude! I think you have done the right research and have a good foundation. Having a basic knowledge of your metabolic info is so much more powerful than going at it blind. You will get slightly different bmrs and tdees from different sites using different calculators. I think I took stats from three or four and got my average. You can always adust in three or four weeks if something is off kilter.

What has worked best for me is to set my daily mfp goal to my tdee,make sure I daily net (through exercize and food) at the bare minimum my bmr, and I track my deficit on a weekly basis. It is so much more "normal" for me and seems to be setting me up for a forever healthy lifestyle, if that makes sense.

dburdi02

The diet portion is where I fail, the working out part happens to be part of my education/job. My educated advice to everybody is to get off the machines!! They work isolated muscles ONLY, whereas free weights work the target muscle as well as all the muscles that support the position; which helps us burn more calories and see results sooner. I'm going to incorporate more muscles if I do standing bicep curls with dumbbells or a bar than sitting on a machine. While standing you stabilize at the core, activating back and stomach muscles with every rep! The contraction of the muscle is where most of us think the most work is happening, believe it or not, if we control the return motion (eccentric part) we will challenge the prime mover and the assisting movers; control all motions, don't use momentum. If you are uncertain what to do, hire a trainer for one session every few months to change up your routine. I'm on the fence about cardio: if you are doing cardio at high PRE (can hardly speak short sentences) do you really need 60 min? If I go hard for 30-40 min sometimes I'm burning more calories than my casual 60 min stroll on the treadmill. In 25-40 min, I am red faced and dripping sweat, some days I just don't have that intensity in me so I have to increase my time. Ultimately this is all about what works for you and what you like, we are all different and some things work better for some than others. Yikes, sorry so long winded, hope this helps a little.

dburdi02

I forgot to add there are plenty of exercises like squats, lunges, pushups, dips etc (I could go on and on) that use just your body weight for resistance that are AMAZING for challenging multiple muscle groups and produce great results...just make sure you have good form

justagirl2013

Razz, first let me say that i love your attitude! I think you have done the right research and have a good foundation. Having a basic knowledge of your metabolic info is so much more powerful than going at it blind. You will get slightly different bmrs and tdees from different sites using different calculators. I think I took stats from three or four and got my average. You can always adust in three or four weeks if something is off kilter.

What has worked best for me is to set my daily mfp goal to my tdee,make sure I daily net (through exercize and food) at the bare minimum my bmr, and I track my deficit on a weekly basis. It is so much more "normal" for me and seems to be setting me up for a forever healthy lifestyle, if that makes sense.

Thank you! I'm determined to never be in the shape I am in today again. I wasn't always this way, but I had a intense job that required me to be extremely active. I could put away food like no tomorrow and be fine! I quit that job and next thing I know I'm huge. Reading these boards lately have been a real eye opener!!

Thanks for the tip, I think I will try that!!!

justagirl2013

The diet portion is where I fail, the working out part happens to be part of my education/job. My educated advice to everybody is to get off the machines!! They work isolated muscles ONLY, whereas free weights work the target muscle as well as all the muscles that support the position; which helps us burn more calories and see results sooner. I'm going to incorporate more muscles if I do standing bicep curls with dumbbells or a bar than sitting on a machine. While standing you stabilize at the core, activating back and stomach muscles with every rep! The contraction of the muscle is where most of us think the most work is happening, believe it or not, if we control the return motion (eccentric part) we will challenge the prime mover and the assisting movers; control all motions, don't use momentum. If you are uncertain what to do, hire a trainer for one session every few months to change up your routine. I'm on the fence about cardio: if you are doing cardio at high PRE (can hardly speak short sentences) do you really need 60 min? If I go hard for 30-40 min sometimes I'm burning more calories than my casual 60 min stroll on the treadmill. In 25-40 min, I am red faced and dripping sweat, some days I just don't have that intensity in me so I have to increase my time. Ultimately this is all about what works for you and what you like, we are all different and some things work better for some than others. Yikes, sorry so long winded, hope this helps a little.

I'm scared of free weights! I'm scared because I don't want to injure myself and have a setback. I'm also a person that is an over analyzer (can you tell by my posts?) and a person that has an extreme worrying complex. I also have very low self confidence and berate myself heavily on a daily basis.

I'd love to ask a trainer for help, but unfortunately my gym is a small gym in a very rural town. They don't offer personal training, but the next gym is an hour away. I have contemplated asking a few of the guys I see if they could help me (for money of course!) but my confidence gets in the way and I chicken out from approaching them. I will make that my goal this week, to approach someone and ask them for help.

As far as intensity, I'm extremely out of shape. When i do the C25k, I look like a cherry tomato and my clothes are soaked in sweat. Are you saying that the extra walking, elliptical, biking that I do is not really helping any? I read last night and am going to quit doing c35k everyday. I'll just do it 3 days per week and do the elliptical the other 2-3.

Thanks for the help, I do appreciate it!

funkycamper

Thanks Funky!

MY BMR according to the tools is "Your estimated BMR is: 1,673 calories/day*" Doing the other way that Fitness said I came to 2730? Or do I use my target weight for that too? I'm sorry for being so dense, I just don't get this. That's 1,000+ calories a day that I am missing in terms of these equations.

Actually, I think he forgot to tell you about the step where you create your deficit by subtracting your calories from your TDEE. Subtract 500 calories per day to lose 1# a week, for example.

I know a lot of people have success with this method but it has never made sense to me. Oh, I get the math part but applying it to the real world doesn't make sense, imho. At least not for me because I mix my exercise program up so much. Some weeks I might lift heavy 3x, sometimes 2x. Some weeks, I might not ride my bike outside at all or go for any long walks or hike because the weather sucks and I don't enjoy this stuff in the rain but as soon as the sun shines and the air has any warmth in it from that sun, I'm outside doing that type of stuff. Sometimes for just a bit, sometimes for hours. Sometimes instead of but, at other times, in addition to other exercise. Sometimes I run, sometimes I don't. And then I mix up all sorts of classes never attending the same ones but, rather, going to what sounds like fun that day and fits into my schedule better, and the calorie burns are really different from step aerobics to spinning to cardio-kickboxing to zumba to pilates to yoga to P90Y to hydro-fit, etc. And, sometimes, I realize I'm overtraining because I'm totally zonked all the time and I take 3-7 days off depending how long it takes to get my mojo back and where I'm really missing those workouts. So, you see, that system seems too static to me for my lifestyle.

Because of that, I prefer to go with BMR+exercise calories. And, if you do the math, It really doesn't come out much different. In your case, TDEE-750=1970. BMR+400 calories for exercise (just guesstimated on what you might burn)=2073. And,since I figure you should only eat back about 70-70% of exercise calories because burn estimates are always going to be iffy and since most people under-report their food intake, this really puts you at 1973. So, 1970 or 1973. Not much difference is it?

So, I say, go with whatever method works for you but I really like using MFP the way it's set up. BMR+ exercise calories so you have some control and can more easily tweak depending on your activity level. It just makes more sense to me and makes me feel more in control.

375 grams of carbs seems so high too, I'm so confused right now and I don't understand why.

Well, it would be high for me. I have diabetes (controlled via diet and exercise) and that amount of carbs would make my blood sugar levels sky-rocket. In addition, I would lose my ability to control my appetite due to blood sugar crashes that would require eating even if not technically hungry to raise the level and could get me on a nasty roller-coaster that's no fun to ride. It could also effect people with other metabolic problems like PCOS, insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, etc. Personally, I do fine if I keep my carb intake to about 80-100 grams/day although I do occasionally go over with my splurges, I seem to be OK with that as long as it's not chronic. I suggest you play around with the carb amount until you find what works best for you. Of course, if you lower the carbs, you'll need to raise the protein and fat. The easiest way to do this is with percentages by going into the Goals section and changing your goals, not letting the website do it for you.

I know that to lose a pound a week I would need to consume 3500 less calories per week. So 1.5 pounds would be 5250 calories less per week. So I eat 1,673 per day and burn 500 per day for exercise, then I would lose only a pound per week?

Should I just concentrate on those 1,673 calories? Don't eat back my exercise calories? Or only a portion of them? Argh!

BMR is what your body burns if you lay in bed all day and do nothing. I'm guessing you never do that unless you're dang sick. Your NET should never go below your BMR. So, do what I suggested above (eating back most exercise calories). The reason why you don't want to net under BMR is that this could lead, over time, to metabolism slowing down. If you have a low day here and there, no big deal, as long as you're not stringing numerous days in a row together. I will often do a low day on purpose if my hunger levels are low or to offset a splurge but I try to never do two or more days in a row.

Anyway, you will see a lot of people throwing the term starvation mode around. This is actually your body's metabolism slowing down as the body always seeks equilibrium and, if you cut calories too low, it will slow down the metabolic rate making it harder to lose weight as your body will need less calories to function. I just think the term starvation mode is a bad name for what is happening. The people that keep cutting calories lower and lower while losing are usually just slowing their metabolism down. And, also, losing LBM (lean body mass) as well. LBM includes muscle but also other tissues. In extreme cases, it can even effect the heart and other vital organs. Yeah, they might get to their goal weight quicker but at a horrendous loss. Exercise, especially lifting heavy, will maintain some of that LBM but diet and nutrition is crucial.

It took me awhile to get it into my hard head that I should eat exercise calories back. Once I did, I started losing scale weight better but, also, my exercise program seemed to be more effective because I was losing inches like crazy. But, after awhile, even that stalled out until I got it into my thick skull that eating at 1200+exercise calories was still too low for my body. I have raised my calories to just above my BMR (rounded up to 1400) and am losing better again (both inches and scale weight). I plan to gradually up it again once my body becomes used to 1400+Exercise cals. Why? Because I want to retain LBM and my energy levels and I want to get to my goal weight and be able to eat fairly liberally to maintain my weight instead of eating like a bird for the rest of my life. So, to me, the slow weight loss (although my inches are going down faster than the scale would indicate) is worth repairing my metabolism and not having to eat minimally the rest of my life to stay slimmer.

As far as the exercise, I have been doing the c25k program. I'm on week 2 day 2 now. I've been repeating each one twice because I feel I am struggling with the running part. I then follow that by 20 minutes on the eliptical. I alternate rest/higher speed/ rest/ higher speed for the 20 minutes. I then do my strength training of legs/abs or upper body/ abs. I don't know if this is working for me yet (today I tried the bike, but to be honest I hated it. I like the elliptical the most!). I am trying to work out 6 days a week, because I need to keep the momentum. I worry that if I only go 2-3 days per week, I will lose my motivation and get in a rut. I do enjoy waking up and going though, makes me feel a lot better!

Thanks again for the help!

I think most people would tell you that you should do the weights first. If you do the cardio first, you really can't go all-out on the weights as you have reduced your glycogen levels and other chemicals in the body which power the muscles. Again, my thick head sometimes takes awhile to "get it". When I was first lifting, I mixed it up like you are and did lighter weights, more reps. I saw some progress but not a lot. I finally decided to try lifting heavy. On days I do that, I do a 10 minute warm-up on one of the cardio machines (usually the dreaded stairmaster) and then do my heavy weights with lower reps. (And, remember, heavy just means heavy for you). After I'm done, if I have any oomph left, I'll then do some HIIT on one or more of the machines (elliptical, treadmill, bike, rowing machine). Sometimes I'll do 5 minutes on one and then move to the other. If I've really lifted hard, 5-10 minutes is about all I have energy for. I just do this to tap myself out.

When I really want to do a good cardio workout, I do it on days I don't lift. To make this work for you, you might want to just lift your whole body on the days you lift, and then take 2-3 days off from lifting heavy, doing cardio on those days.

Just something to consider. I think the most important thing with exercise is doing things you enjoy. I am now totally sold on the concept of doing high weights/low reps as my body is changing so much quicker this way as I'm losing inches in the waist, hips, thighs, and butt much quicker doing it this way. And I love feeling stronger all the time. So I enjoy it, so I do it. That's one of the reasons why I mix up my other exercises so much, because I get bored doing the same things over and over and need to mix it up to keep from getting bored. (Plus, I'm all about working your body differently all the time as I think it's healthier by hitting different muscle groups in different ways and lessening the chance of getting injured by chronically using muscles, joints and ligaments the same way all the time, but that's for another discussion.)

But if your current routine is what you prefer, it's best to do it that way even if most exercise experts will tell you it's not the most efficient use of your time. The most important thing about exercise is finding something you will do on a regular basis because you enjoy it.

Last tip: ignore the scale for awhile. I took me 2-3 weeks before I even dropped 1# and I was super-confused about it but my pants were getting looser. If you're exercising, the scale really doesn't tell the whole story. A few months back I went down a pant size. Well, sure I had lost more weight so that makes sense, right? Then a couple weeks later I started lifting heavy. In about 5-6 weeks, I went down another pant size but had only lost one more pound on the scale. While, sure, I still want to see it go down more, it's the least important measure of success to me. I focus on the inches and the increase in fitness levels. So, imho, your best focus is on completing C25k and increasing your weights and any other fitness goal you want to target. The inches will follow and so will the scale.

Oh, and remember with caloric intake, you may have to continue to tweak for awhile. If you go about a month and don't see any drop in the scale, you might want to start playing with the macro-nutrients (protein/fat/carbs).

Hope this helps a bit. I'm not really an expert. Simply passing along what works for me and the wisdom of others. Best wishes.

dburdi02

I'm scared of free weights! I'm scared because I don't want to injure myself and have a setback. I'm also a person that is an over analyzer (can you tell by my posts?) and a person that has an extreme worrying complex. I also have very low self confidence and berate myself heavily on a daily basis.

As far as intensity, I'm extremely out of shape. When i do the C25k, I look like a cherry tomato and my clothes are soaked in sweat. Are you saying that the extra walking, elliptical, biking that I do is not really helping any? I read last night and am going to quit doing c35k everyday. I'll just do it 3 days per week and do the elliptical the other 2-3.


You are right to be a little afraid, most are at first. Kudos to you for doing your research! Finding someone to show you proper form is most important. A few tips: Keep your back and hips straight and aligned, when squatting or lunging keep your knees behind your toes. I too am from a small town so I completely understand. Be aware, not everybody at the gym is doing things right either, I am awarded giggle sessions regularly at the gym watching some "experienced" lifters; with so much information available out there some peoples' interpretations can be amusing.

I wouldn't go as far as saying the extra cardio you're doing isn't helping, however I strongly agree with the post below mine from funkycamper in regards to the lifting/cardio. I don't have enough energy to put full effort into my lifting if I do cardio first; most of my patients have indicated the same. I notice decrease in their lifting form if I have them do cardio first which is bad news as bad form can increase risk of injury (which we are repairing), and sacrifice results. My workouts are similar to funkycamper's...on lifting days I do a 5-10 minute warm up on whatever machine looks good that day, then move on to weights and finish with 20 or so minutes of cardio (some days I have enough energy left for 30 minutes, sometimes 15). I choose to work one/two body parts per session due to what is called burn out or over training which is what funkycamper describes as being "totally zonked", this is very common and happens quickly when you are just starting out. Recovery is VERY important for our body so I prefer to space out lifting by doing arms and abs to my max followed by a shorter cardio session say Monday, then do longer or really intense (for you) cardio Tuesday, if I'm feeling ok Wednesday warm up with cardio and do legs followed by 15-20 min of cardio. Depending on my schedule which has me doing 10 hour days, I may take a day or two off then do abs and cardio at my next session and just keep repeating. I CONSTANTLY switch up my routine almost never doing the exact same exercise for any body part twice in a row. If you take anything away from this post remember this; DO NOT GO TO THE GYM WITHOUT A PLAN!! Write down what exercises to do before you go so you don't waste time trying to figure out what you want to do, this can give you a chance to look up exercises, look for proper form, and you can keep a log or exercise journal for future reference when planning exercises, or you can just throw it away and start over every time.

Some people really like DVD's and get great results, I can't get into them. It comes down to figuring out how your body responds, what you feel the best doing, and how much time you have during the week. Make as much time as you can, getting in three days per week whatever days they may be is better than one or none!

justagirl2013

Funky- Wow! Thank you for this post! Very educational.

I am definitely going to switch to lifting weights. I know when I am lifting now, I get extremely tired after one set. It's frustrating, but I keep at it.

So if I read your post right, I need to eat minimal of 1970/3 calories per day?

I was reading about heavy lifting earlier, and it sounds interesting, and fits what I have in mind for my body in the future. At this point, ideally I think it would be nice to lose some weight and then concentrate on that, but maybe I should just "jump" right in and start doing heavy lifting...

I feel I have to read over this a couple times, to fully grasp



dburdi02- I always thought I was doing squats correctly, butI just read your post and had to try one. Surprise, I'm not! My knees are coming in front of my toes. I made an effort to keep behind my toes, and wow. Definite improvement there!

I've decided to do lifting first, and then cardio, as I want to have that energy to build up my muscles. I want to burn fat too, but I want to build muscle. I don't want to be skinny with no definition. I don't want to be a body builder either (which I know is not easily obtained as a woman unless drugs/etc are involved)

I think I experienced muscle burn out today in my legs. I did a lot of hard cardio yesterday 103 minutes, and had complete failure today. I pushed for 10 minutes on the elliptical and then gave up. I was crying because I was just in so much pain. I understand there is pain and there is soreness, this was definite pain. I will see how tomorrow evening goes, hopefully better.

I have so much to learn, and I really thank both of you for being such a great help to me. I hope you truly understand my appreciation of your responses.

On another note, I'm peeved about my eating today... I think I did really good yesterday (need to consume more veggies for sure!), and I just need to mimic that for a while. I do need to make some changes regarding a few things (no more condensed milk for coffee, no more apricot preserves with my cottage cheese...) but today just sucked in general. I cooked some chicken thighs and they were utterly disgusting to me. So instead of eating a healthy dinner, I ended up eating a bowl of cereal <sigh>. I hate MFP sometimes though. I hate that today it told me I'd be 205lbs in 5 weeks, but yesterday I'd be 198. That's a huge difference, and I can really see my mistakes today (cereal, corn flake candy--only 1 piece but counted as 2 b/c I wasn't sure of the nutritional info--, mounds bar, ugh). It's so hard to not beat yourself up, and I want to succeed so bad.

On to tomorrow!!!!

funkycamper

Glad to help and sounds like you're on the right track.

Personally, what is working best for me is to establish my BMR (under the Tools section) and then eating most of my exercise calories. That might be a good place for you to start. If you lose too quickly, you will want to up your calories a bit. However, don't let slow losing make you think you need to drop your calorie level. At least not for awhile. Give it a good month before your reassess. Some people do lower after awhile to get the results they want but some of us find great results if we actually raise our calorie level a bit. Yeah, it sounds counter-intuitive, doesn't it? It can take some experimenting to find what works best for you so I hesitate to tell you an exact answer. I happen to think that learning more about how my body works by experimenting with it is one of the interesting things about this journey.

Just remember that the more you restrict and the quicker you lose, the more muscle you will lose and that's a bad thing for your metabolism, your fitness level, and can make you end up skinny-fat (thin but no muscle tone). It's far harder to build it back up later when you've actually lost muscle than to retain the muscle you already have.

There are many knowledgeable people on these forums (and elsewhere on the web) who would argue that you should never do heavy weight training sessions and cardio on the same day. Their reasoning makes sense to me and I'm starting to question whether I should end my weight training session with the short interval (HIIT) I'm now doing. What they're saying is if you've lifted heavy enough to near failure, you shouldn't have enough gas in the tank left to do any serious cardio of any kind, including intervals or steady-state. Just like you wouldn't have enough gas to do a good weight training session if you've spent some of your fuel by doing cardio before the weight training.

After I'm done weight-training, my arms are definitely jello but my legs have just a bit of gas left. So I'm thinking about adding in a couple more weight exercises for my legs and skipping the short HIIT afterwards. And then I'll just do my cardio on non-lifting days.

I would also recommend any of the following books to get you started on your weight training. New Rules of Weight Lifting (there are various ones, I got the one specifically for women) or Rachel Cosgrove's The Female Body Breakthrough (I got that one, too, and also love it) or Starting Strength (haven't got this one but have heard very good things about it). Those are ones I see highly recommended here the most often. There is also a forum here under "Groups" dedicated to the New Rules of Weight Lifting. That's a great place to get more of your weight training questions answered.

Oh, and I would start heavy lifting now. As you lose weight, even slowly, there is always going to be a bit of muscle loss. It's unavoidable. However, lifting heavy will retain more of that muscle. It also has a far greater after-burn than any other type of exercise. Studies show that your body continues to burn more calories for quite a few hours after you're done lifting heavy. A part of that calorie burn is due to the energy put into repairing the muscles. While eating in a deficit, you will not be building any new muscles but you will be activating and strengthening the muscles you already have which will seem like you're building muscles. And nothing will help your body become a calorie-burning machine better than lifting heavy, imho. At least that's what I seem to be experiencing.

As the muscles get stronger, they will get more dense and cause you to lose inches even if you don't see a loss on the scale. The tape measure and the fit of your clothes are the best gauge of this.

Oh, when lifting, especially when you're just starting out, part of the muscle repair process is water retention in the muscles. It's temporary but, especially at first, you might actually feel like you're gaining inches. And that water retention could show up on the scale making you think you've gained. Don't let either of these things get to you and derail you. It's temporary and then, after a couple of weeks, you should start seeing some real progress in tightening of muscles and some inches being lost.

Anyway, I'm not an expert. Most of what I've learned, I've learned on these forums by reading the advice of others. It can take awhile to separate the good advice from the bad and, unfortunately, there's a lot of people throwing out bad advice here, too. But you ask great questions and sound like someone who can figure out who to listen to and who to ignore.

Good luck!