Question for those who are between 200-230lbs.

jenniferinfl

I walk, lots and lots of walking on a hilly trail near my home. The incline burns brutal amounts of calories, it's pure torture. lol But, that's how you know it's working.. My butt and legs are crying by the time I finish my 3 miles. Then, sometimes I do it again the same day. I also am doing couch to 5 k, but I have realized I need to do that separate from my long walks to be able to do the speed. I'm about 212 right now and started at 224.8 about a month ago.

I use Endomondo on my phone as it motivates me to keep going and try to beat my previous times.

This week I'm hoping to add strength training in the form of free weights. I'm going to keep it simple with squats, bicep curls, deadlifts, military presses and bench presses. Eventually I'll add more variety.

AndreaGrace29

I started at about 225. I keep my calories between 1400 to 1600 and also take Zumba Classes (one hour each) 2 to 3 times a week. In the 7 months I've been consistant with this, I lost 25 lbs. I didnt start drinking the 8cups of water a day until recently, and I can see thats going to make a big difference too.

BohemianCoast

I started at 239 and now am at 205 so I'm just in your zone. I started, from the very beginning (before I even started logging my food) with 30 minutes cardio a day; either brisk walking or Wii games. That was late June. I'm a big fan of Dance Dance Revolution so I did quite a bit of that. I then mixed in some badminton with my family as well. I carried on with cardio 6-7 days a week, and I started some strength training; mostly bodyweight stuff like counter/ stair pressups, seated tricep dips, bodyweight squats. I try to do strength work three times a week. Starting in September I moved onto a C25k variant called Ease into 5k on my iPhone; I did that right up till the end (I did every other day rather than three days a week, so it was a tiny bit quicker). I run very very slowly though but now I've finished that I do one long run a week, one tempo run, and one 'easy' run that's supposed to have a few fartleks in it but I'm rubbish at them. I can now run 4 miles with a couple of brief walking breaks. Still slow but getting quicker. I also play badminton at a couple of beginners' clubs, and I do the odd Zumba class (or Wii Zumba). I still plan for 6 - 7 days a week but one or two of those are normally just walking. Weekly total is currently around 600 minutes which is a bit more than my 180 minute goal.

Oh yes and I'm only 5ft 1 so 205 is still *really heavy*. In my dreams I imagine what it would be like to bring all this cardio-vascular power to bear on a 130 pound body. Tee hee.

I'm currently eating back about half my exercise calories, though I don't sweat if it's a few more and I always eat if I'm hungry.

GaPeachRealtor

I started in Sept at 263 and now 239.9. I spin 2x a week and elliptical for an 1.5 hours on off days.. I work out 5x a week... Will start strength training Jan 1st so I'm thinking 30 min of that and 1 hour cardio is sufficient.

199.9 here I come!!!!!!!!

KaeNight

I'm about 5'2" and started out at 215 pounds. For the first little while I was more interested in diet and vitamins than exercise because I honestly had no energy whatsoever. Once that was sorted out though, I went for the elliptical. I did this partially because I had one at home, but primarily to build stamina so I would have an easier time with other things later. Unfortunately, due to an old injury I can't do any kind of strenuous exercise. Thus, when I get on the elliptical, I stay at a comfortable walking speed and always stop when anything starts to hurt. My knee bothered me initially, but adding a banana and a cliff bar to my diet for a couple days sorted that out quickly (potassium is good for the joints). Lately I've also been adding more resistance to the routine. Since I can't up the speed, when the exercise starts feeling too easy I'll increase the amount of strength needed to keep on instead. It's not as effective as weight lifting of course, but I think it does help with initial muscle building.

My future plans are weights, yoga, and dancing. I enjoy heavy lifting a lot because I like the feeling of power that comes with it. Really, I just need to go out and buy some good weights in order to start that. Yoga is something I'd like to do to increase my flexibility and, again, I need to find a class or video for the go ahead. That will then allow me to learn dancing, which will easily be a ton of work. Tons of fun though! I may also look up some of the exercises mentioned previously in this post since I haven't heard of them. I may even try a few of them if they look interesting. Personally, I see no point in doing any exercises you can't enjoy. You're much more likely to give up halfway or build a bunch of stress if you force yourself to do something hateful every day.

AESprouse

Thank you everyone for your responses. You have all been a great help. I forgot to add that I am 5'1 and currently 220, started in August at 240. That loss has been 90% watching my calories so I was looking to start exercising also.

Cristynic02

I'm a 28 year old female at 5'6. I started my diet and exercise the second week of October at 260 and now I am down to 239. I started doing the elliptical but found after about 20 min I was so tired and didn't burn a lot of calories so I started walking on the treadmill. I currently do the treadmill about 5 days a week at the full 65 minutes. As I slowly started increasing my speed and incline I am now at 3.1 mph and an incline of 6. After the 65 minutes I do about 3.30 miles and burn around 700-710 calories. I am hoping I can keep this up cause I still got about 100 pounds to loose. Even though this is depressing to me I have been reading everyone's success and I am a little more positive.

meshashesha2012

i'm 5'5 and 203 but started at as 224.

my main workout is weight lifting. i do that 3 days a week and it's a mix of strong lifts, crossfit, and olympic lifts). i also do HIIT via sprints or on the versaclimber which mimics climbing. when i want low impact impact. other cardio i sprinkle in is swimming, running, rowing and stairmaster.

i'll soon be adding in rock climbing if i can ever get up early enough on a saturday to take this beginner's class :laugh:

halleymw

I am 6 ft, started at 272 now down to 226. I started with the elliptical 20 mintues daily, and machine weights. Gradually upped my elliptical until I was doing 60 minutes, 6 days a week, and switched over to stronglifts 5x5, now switching over to starting strenggth 3x 5 as I am not progressing well with the 5x5. Doing weights 3 times a week. Added 2 days of HIIT on the elliptical, 8 rounds followed by 10 minutes of regular for a total of 30 minutes on my hiit days. . I have been doing about 2200 cal a day, a little less than what mfp calls for Hoping to get down to 200 pounds.
Mike

kadams0026

Hello,

I am 5'6 and when I started I was 272. I am now 239. I have been walking and taking the stairs. LOTS of stairs. There are no elevators where i live and everything I need to do is on the 3rd floor and up. I walk everywhere because I have no car. These are the 2 main forms of exercise that I do. I plan on starting with weight training as soon as I can figure out what times the campus gym is open to everyone. Good luck with your weight loss goals.