Worried - do I excercise enough for my goal?

_Frankie_
_Frankie_ Posts: 36
in Fitness and Exercise
A.) I work a full-time sedentary desk job.
B.) I bike to/from work 5 times a week. 20-25 minute journey each way. According to my polar heart rate monitor, I burn around 175-200 calories a day biking.

My current fitness goals are to work out for around an hour, 4 times a week. My workouts consist of around 40 minutes cardio (running, elliptical, HIIT...) and 20 minutes of strength training. According to my polar, I burn on average around 400-450 calories a session (occasionally I take a long run instead of a gym workout, in which I burn approximately 600).

I also try to practice yoga for a couple hours each week.

I'm 22, 136 pounds and 5' 6". I'm already in the 'healthy' range but trying to lose those last 15-20 vanity pounds.

Replies

  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    "20 minutes of strength training" is quite vague. What exactly are you doing?
  • jugar
    jugar Posts: 10,229 Member
    You're doing great at establishing "get off the chair" time and good habits. I would suggest more strength training and perhaps a bit less cardio. If you get a good intensity going, the strength training gets your heart rate and breathing going but also helps you build more muscle, which helps you burn more calories. I never thought I'd hit my goal weight at my age (I'm 59) but I have become a huge fan of building up strength to reach all kinds of goals. If you can work with a trainer from time to time (I see one once a month to vary my program) it really helps.

    Keep up the good work!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    For the weigh loss, all you need is a calorie deficit; MFP build one in for you. With 15-20 vanity Lbs to lose, you should be going at a rate of 1/2 Lb to 1 Lb per week and no more than that. Any faster and your body will quickly respond by stalling out your metabolism because you just don't have the fat stores to sustain large calorie deficits.

    In RE to your exercise...you should set fitness goals that are independent of your weight loss goals. Personally, if I were you I'd focus in on lifting....lifting is what is going to change your body composition and give you that lean and toned look...cardio doesn't do it and neither does diet alone.

    You should look into New Rules of Lifting for Women or Starting Strength or a program along those lines. These are progressive programs, so your goals are to get stronger and lift more weight...in doing so, you will also lean out and "tone." If you're just willy nilly picking up random weights for 20 minutes, you're probably not accomplishing all that much...you need to focus in on a real program 3x weekly if you're doing a full body, compound routine.

    In RE to cardio, do some aerobic cardio 3x weekly on your non lift days. Make sure it is something that isn't going to interfere with your strength gains because those gains are what is going to be most beneficial to you. My cardio consists of jogging about 3 miles on Mondays and Fridays and HIIT sprints on Wednesdays. I can't do anymore HIIT than that without jacking up my recovery for my lifts. On lifting days, all I do is a nice walk or bike ride...nice mellow pace in the recovery HR zone.

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