A bit of help please?

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ladycappy
ladycappy Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi

I'm newly back to MFP and going to do it right this time.
Bit of background sorry to bore....
Reason for rejoining in short is I did a really short walk to the garage and back and vomitted half way home (so glad it was very late at night :( )

Anyway it scared me somewhat so made an appt with the doc and found my resting heart rate to be between 95-105 and i've got high cholesterol. She sent me for to the hosp for tests and I had the echo thing (best explained as like you had the ultrasound when pregnant but you see your heart not a baby) - to sound childish (i'm 40!) it was wickedly awesome!

So end result is heart is sound, no irregularity or anything showing wrong - resolution I need to move more - I do 2 jobs both on a pc from home and when I say my lifestyle was sedantory it was non existent moving other than to go to the loo when needed!!!

So, time I did something -
I joined our local gym (very quiet yayy) and checked they all had heart monitors etc

Day 1 - managed 5mins on a bike (lev 1) and 2.5mins on a treadmill (i know this is nothing but believe me it felt it)
now
Day 12 - up to 25mins cycle ( up to lev 3) and 17mins on treadmill (up to 2.8kmph) - (again this is low levels still but I'm feeling it)

After all that..
My question is I've read lots and lots (internet is a wonderful/scary thing) and found a calculator that says my working heart rate to lose weight should be between 140-160bpm
So that's how i'm managing my gym workouts, I increase quite quickly up levels/speeds until my heart rate gets to 158ish and then try to stay at that as long as I can until it starts increasing then I go down a level until its back under control and then go up again IF i can.
Eg - Day 12 on the bike - I get on and at 30secs move to level 2 - at 1 min move to level 3 (at 1min my heart rate is between 149-155 already) - managed to aprox 7mins and heart rate started climbing so at 7.30mins i dropped to level 2 and took a couple of mins to get it down to 157 again - at 10mins it was constant at 155 so went back up to level 3 for 2mins but then had to come down again and finished on lev 2 until 22mins then had to come down to level 1 to the end.

Am I doing this right? My thinking is that hopefully, as the days go on, the longer i'll be able to stay at higher levels (and gradually increase them at the same heart rate)

Also I'm not feeling nauseous and no chest pain but am I right to panic when it hits the 165 bpm mark ? My doctor has just said i need to exercise and as long as no pain / nausea i'll be fine but watching those numbers escalate worrys me :(

BTW (quick ego bit) I am SO proud of myself, I know its easy levels and not much time but i'm sticking with it (usually give up after 2days of effort)

Oh sorry food wise MFP has me at 1200 calories and I really struggled to reach this in the first week (constantly deficit of 3-400) but have now added more at lunch - problem i'm finding is that I need to keep the sat fat down without increasing the sugars too much and finding foods, that i like, that are higher in calories but not shooting the sat fat and sugars up i'm not finding easy (fishfingers and lettuce wraps for the win lol - i'm living on them and chicken with veg for dinner)

Wow that was lengthy first post sorry
Thanks anyone who can help

Replies

  • GymPoet
    GymPoet Posts: 107 Member
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    If you want more structure or confidence about what you're doing, you could Google "treadmill interval training" and find some defined workouts, or you could just keep doing what you're doing. Also, I understand that we still burn fat above the target heart rate zone even though glycogen burning kicks in too, it's not a cliff.
  • ladycappy
    ladycappy Posts: 12
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    Hi Gym

    thanks for the reply :)
  • GymPoet
    GymPoet Posts: 107 Member
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    I forgot to say "congratulations, good work!", but I was thinking it.
  • helenrosemay
    helenrosemay Posts: 375 Member
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    Are there trainers at the gym who can tell you all you need to know. I've never been to a gym so don't know much about it, but I'm sure they're experts on all the gym equipment.
  • ladycappy
    ladycappy Posts: 12
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    lol thanks again gym - hi helen ty for reply - there are staff there but they arent in the gym hanging around a lot (it is a very small town so not busy at all), there are usually 3 or 4 of us max in there at 7am and the others are obviously regulars for a long time so tend to get left to it
    I'll have a word next time i'm in as they are very nice there - thanks
  • marydillet
    marydillet Posts: 14
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    Hi, i have a good book called - Good Food Healthy Low-fat feasts. It's a BBC Good Food Book. If you can't get the book google BBC Good Foods Low-fat feasts. Also the meals are not high in calories. Brilliant website. I'm following a lot of the receipes in this book plus 10 mins three times a day on my cross trainer and walking for 15-30 mins. Don't try and do to much to quickly. Good luck. x
  • ladycappy
    ladycappy Posts: 12
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    thanks for all the replies - much appreciated

    Next question, i'm set by MFP to eat 1200 calories but i'm struggling to do this (or eating loads to do so) - I've read lots of threads about good/bad 1200 a day and not meaning to start a debate on that at all - my diary is public and if you look you'll see i'm eating lots (my main goal is to keep the sat fat as low as poss re gallstones/high cholesterol)
    I think my main problem is that I used to eat so much less food and have had to up my intake to get to the 1200 cals (i've read about starvation mode and was likely in that with the amount I ate)

    so question re food is - am I seeming to maintain weight more than losing it due to the fact i'm eating more and once my body gets used to the regularity i'll start to lose?

    Last question is re exercise
    I'm going to the gym 6 days a week and it is VERY low intesity (please take into account i've gone from sitting on a couch all day every day to moving and this doesn't feel low to me though i know the numbers are)
    I'm up to a constant of 25mins on the cycle (level 1 for 5mins/level 2 for 5mins/level 3 for 3mins/level 2 for 2mins/level 3 for 3mins/level 2 for 2mins/level 1 for 5mins) - sweating by 6mins now not the 3 mins it was last week
    and treadmill for 20 mins (1.5kmph for 5mins/2.00 for 5mins/2.5 for 2mins/2.00 for 5mins/1.80 for 2mins/1.5 down to 1.00 over last 1min)

    My heart rate on both machines is now static at between 157-163 (resting heart rate 95 ish)

    For those that know so much more than me and have been doing this a while - Am i doing this right please?

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