I want to make sure I'm starting off on the right foot.

jesimm77
jesimm77 Posts: 12
edited November 2023 in Getting Started
Hi everyone. I just joined and I want to make sure I'm doing this right, and most importantly, in the most healthy way possible. I am female, 36 yo, 5'4" and currently weigh 126. My problem is that I have a lot of fat (a good 2 inches) around my stomach, and just generally on the flabby side. Not super noticeable to others, but I hate the way my clothes fit, and the weight has been slowly creeping up for about a year. I eat pretty healthy for the most part, and I bike commute about 9 miles a day about 5 days a week. I've never bothered to measure my food, and eat whenever I want and probably snack too much, but usually healthy stuff, (I don't eat GMO or HF Corn Syrup stuff, no politics, just personal choice.) Oh yeah, and I do like some fancy craft beers... Basically, when I set the whole thing up, it gave me 1200 for my daily intake, which I did for a couple of days, and It was ok, I was making sure to eat back my calories from exercise, but it seemed a little on the low side, so I changed my activity level and It gave me 1330, or something like that. I want to get results in a reasonable amount of time, as I'm starting to grow out of my pants, but I don"t want to ruin my metabolism. Suggestions?

Thanks for reading.

Jenni

Replies

  • mirrinias
    mirrinias Posts: 80 Member
    I'm no expert, but at your height and weight, that is a healthy weight. It sounds like you might want to change your body composition more to muscle than fat rather than really lose weight. I would maybe go to a gym and talk to a trainer about strength training as it you already do a lot of cardio.

    Second, I think you have your calories set way too low. At your height and weight, you have maximum about 17 lbs to lose before you are underweight (just based on bmi, of course everyone's body is different so it may be different for you). It is not safe or healthy to set your goal to losing 2 or even 1.5 lbs a week. It might even be best to set your mfp settings to a loss of 0.5 lb. Make sure you are eating back a fair amount of those exercise calories, too; I'm impressed you bike 9 miles a day! Maybe someday I will be able to do that too.

    Disclaimer: this info is mostly what I've gathered from other similar cases browsing the forums.

    TL;DR: look into strength training/changing body composition rather than simply weight loss. Your weight loss goal per week is too high at your current height and weight.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Welcome! :smile:

    It really does sound like you need to tone up rather than drop some weight. For your height, 126 pounds sounds like it's in the healthy range. Because you ride those awesome 9 miles a day to/from work, you need to make sure you are property fueled by eating enough calories.

    Have you thought of adding in some strength training/weights to your routine. Losing weight will not help your belly fat at all, that needs to come from doing some serious workouts.

    Whatever you do, since you are very active, I would set your calories to maintenance and eat at least some portion of your exercise calories back and just work on the strength training.

    Good luck with whatever you decide to do. :smile:
  • jesimm77
    jesimm77 Posts: 12
    Yeah, I definitely ate all the exercise calories back on those days, I probably wouldn't have made it if I didn't, lol. You're both right, I am I'm the normal weight range. I wouldn't mind being more like 120, I like how i feel in general when I'm on the thinner side, but it's just this gut that's bothering me. I really hate going to the gym, Lord knows I've tried, but I just cant handle it, hence the epic commute. (I also do 1 hour of yoga twice a week.) Any at home strength training suggestions? Sit ups? (please don't make me go to the gym, lol)
  • mirrinias
    mirrinias Posts: 80 Member
    Maybe try here: http://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness

    It's got a lot of information for people who want to use their own body weight and don't want to invest in a ton of equipment.
  • jesimm77
    jesimm77 Posts: 12
    OOOOH, thank you :)
  • jesimm77
    jesimm77 Posts: 12
    Another question, I changed my settings so that my goal is 120lbs at a loss of .5lbs/week and now my calorie goal is 1560. (I'm not sure I can eat that much, but I don't really know what I was eating before) Does this seem reasonable? Should I eat less on days that I can't ride for some reason or another? I'm going to look into at home strength training, get a little regimen going...

    Thanks for answering my bonehead questions :smile:
  • albertine58
    albertine58 Posts: 267 Member
    STRENGTH TRAINING! Joining small-group training or bootcamp classes is worth the money, but you can do it at home too. I did small-group bootcamp with a trainer who was a bikini competitor and the results her clients get are out-of-this-world! It's hard to do that on your own.

    1550 sounds like a very good number. If you actually weigh and measure everything you eat on a food scale, 1550 is not a lot but it's a pretty comfortable amount; it allows a glass of wine or healthy dessert here and there! If you have trouble hitting that number for some reason, eat more healthy fats. We all need more avocado, nuts, or almond butter in our diets! Your heart, hair and skin will thank you!
    You should probably eat back all the exercise calories you burn biking too, if you want to build muscle (which you should!).
  • SunnyDuckling
    SunnyDuckling Posts: 204 Member
    Just to be cheeky, what's wrong with your left foot? :wink:

    I can't offer any real advice here, but the title of this thread intrigued me.

    Sorry, carry on...
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Re 'plan' - have a read of this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    Re resistance training, I would look into You are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning.
  • rayonrainbows
    rayonrainbows Posts: 423 Member
    you can youtube some at-home strength-training videos :) i like FitnessBlender.. it's really straight forward and down-to-business, and they come in a lot of different lengths & focuses ~*
  • jesimm77
    jesimm77 Posts: 12
    Thanks you guys!
  • jocelyne2
    jocelyne2 Posts: 271 Member
    No Gym :smile: If u can get a treadmill and a heart rate monitor ..... that combo whipped my *kitten* into shape pretty fast and it kept me accountable ....couldn`t cheat :wink: good luck
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