Workout Routine??

Cardio, cardio, cardio! Definitely find some cardio routines you feel like you might be able to stick with. Popsugar and SkinnyMs.com both have some good routines for ellipticals, treadmills, and exercise bikes. A combination of cardio and strength exercises will help you gain muscle mass and lose fat, too!

Actually, you don't have to do any exercise to lose weight...I wouldn't recommend it, but exercise is not necessary to lose weight.

Weight loss is all about energy balance...your body requires so much energy (calories) to function and maintain the status quot...when your energy consumption is more than required, you gain weight as excess energy is stored as fat for later use. When you eat less than required your body has to compensate by dipping into energy reserves (i.e. fat stores)

You can do all of the exercise you want but if your energy consumption is not less than required to maintain the status quot you will not lose a single ounce of fat. Just look around the gym...I've seen the same people for years doing hours and hours of cardio and they still look exactly the same...because they over eat.

Exercise does have the added benefit of increasing your body's energy requirements which make it easier to maintain an energy deficit...but it certainly doesn't guarantee one. For example, without exercise I can lose about 1 Lb per week eating around 1800 calories with a maintenance around 2300 calories....but with regular exercise I can eat around 2300 calories and lose that same 1 Lb as before....because my maintenance with regular exercise is around 2800 calories.

Really, though, it's all about diet for weight control; exercise for fitness. I would highly recommend a balanced fitness approach including elements of both cardiovascular work and resistance training.

mmjr89 wrote: »

Hey I'm just starting and wanting to lose about 45 pounds. I can understand how to eat healthy, however the one thing I'm not sure about is what kind of exercises are best to do at the gym to lose weight? Should weights be involved during that first period of trying to lose weight? If so what kind of gym routines are best??

Thanks!!

Go on youtube and look up workouts and just try and do what they do in the videos. . . I used youtube as my personal trainer and still do

What kind of work out are you doing in 3 minutes??? unless you do it 20 times a day?

ahoier wrote: »

to cut weight/fat, cardio is going to be your best friend......be it the elliptical, stepper, or the treadmill.....or a mix of all 3....

also want to incorporate weight lifting......be nosy, watch what other people are doing.....and take mental notes and do similar workouts.....don't go right next to them and do them or anything lol.....that's like borderline creeper status, if you know what I mean lol......but yea.....i tend to not follow any "routine"......i mix up my routines every day at the gym.......to keep the body parts guessing what i'm gonna "attack" next haha.

Weight lifting would actually be better. Push pull legs repeat

abmvb wrote: »

Cardio, cardio, cardio! Definitely find some cardio routines you feel like you might be able to stick with. Popsugar and SkinnyMs.com both have some good routines for ellipticals, treadmills, and exercise bikes. A combination of cardio and strength exercises will help you gain muscle mass and lose fat, too!

Cardio is not needed for any weight/fat loss, though it will improve health and allow you to eat more while losing. I would suggest a program of 3 day full body strength training, with 2-3 days of cardio on non-lifting days (could be swim, jog, walk, etc)

abmvb wrote: »

Cardio, cardio, cardio! Definitely find some cardio routines you feel like you might be able to stick with. Popsugar and SkinnyMs.com both have some good routines for ellipticals, treadmills, and exercise bikes. A combination of cardio and strength exercises will help you gain muscle mass and lose fat, too!

No. Cardio will help you burn a few extra calories, but you cannot "gain muscle mass" on a caloric deficit.

Everyone here is a winner! Or... a portion of a winner!

Four things (Do them all):

1. Monitor your diet; this is huge (90%, as stated)
2. Lift weights: lifting weights will build muscle, thereby increasing your basal metabolic rate. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you burn, even if you're just sitting around and reading MFP blogs. Studies have shown your BMR is temporarily further supercharged even after you're done lifting. Weight lifting is important for increasing bone density so when you fall as a 80 year old you can just pop back up and brush yourself off, rather than need a hip replacement.
3. Cardio... for more than 20 minutes. The first twenty minutes, your body is burning carbohydrates (or, if you're on freakishly low carbs, protein... but if you're doing freakishly low carbs and high intensity workouts, I feel badly for your muscles and kidneys. That's another story.) After 20 min, you burn fat.
4. Find things you like. For example, I do Zumba for cardio so I can pretend I'm just dancing and not flailing around in slow agonizing death. And for weight lifting, I don't particularly care for it, but I care for the candied men that come alongside weight rooms, so I zone out and just enjoy them as I pump iron. As mentioned, New Rules of Weight Lifting is a great book for women... if you don't have elevated testosterone. If your testosterone is elevated (PCOS), watch out for bulking up too much with high weights and low reps [unless this is what you're going for]. Yeahhhh She-Hulk!

Be sure to eat within 30min following your workouts, and ideally, this meal should have protein to help build muscle. If you don't eat, your body will break down muscle (it still needs glucose to function) and then what was the point of the workout?