Exercise Newbie

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Hi! My name is Lorilei. I'm 25 years old from NJ. I've never been happy with my weight even before my son. I'm 4'11" and used to be 100lbs. I was what you called skinny fat. I had flab all over. After my son was born I gradually gained weight. I'm now 127lbs.

I've lost confidence in myself. I hate having my picture taken. I don't even like to go out much because picking out something to wear is too much stress. Thank goodness I wear scrubs to work!

Anyway, I'm determined to lose the extra pounds and tone up. I would love some advice, words of encouragement and company.

I'm currently on day 6 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I've read that it worked for a lot of people. Hopefully it works for me too! As for diet, not really doing any major changes, but I may eventually. I'm Filipino and I can't live without white rice, but I'm trying to cut down. Haha.

Replies

  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    Well, if you're trying to lose weight-diet is really key. You can exercise all you want, but if you're not in a calorie deficit, you won't lose weight. "Toning up" is just losing fat to reveal some muscle, and doing some sort of resistance training to maintain muscle as you lose fat. I'm not too familiar with Jillian Michael's but I believe it's mostly cardio.
  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
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    Arditarose pretty much nailed it...

    Again, if you're trying to lose fat you will have to change your diet. No way around that without doing tons of cardio every day to put yourself in a calorie deficit. The only thing absolutely required to lose fat is a calorie deficit. No exercise needed at all. Of course you should exercise, for the reasons arditarose stated.
  • kttktlv
    kttktlv Posts: 9 Member
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    I agreed with the people above, I did the app for a few months and it did work specially with cutting down on calories and healthy eating and I lost some weight I unfortunately stop using the app and went back to my old ways and gain the weight back. So I totally would suggest doing work outs and watch what your eating not just one . There has to be a balance .
  • esorielirol
    esorielirol Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks for the advice guys! I'm definitely keeping that in mind. I'll definitely make use of the calorie counter on this app.

    I do have a question though. When I log what I ate and the exercise I did, it increases the amount of calories I'm allowed to eat. I shouldn't eat those "extra" calories, right?

    For example, if I'm supposed to eat 1200kcal and I ate 1000kcal already but exercised and burned 200 calories, it automatically changes and says that I have 400kcal left to consume.

    But I shouldn't eat that extra 200 right?

    Not sure if that made any sense. lol
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    Thanks for the advice guys! I'm definitely keeping that in mind. I'll definitely make use of the calorie counter on this app.

    I do have a question though. When I log what I ate and the exercise I did, it increases the amount of calories I'm allowed to eat. I shouldn't eat those "extra" calories, right?

    For example, if I'm supposed to eat 1200kcal and I ate 1000kcal already but exercised and burned 200 calories, it automatically changes and says that I have 400kcal left to consume.

    But I shouldn't eat that extra 200 right?

    Not sure if that made any sense. lol

    You should. There are different calorie counting methods and MFP uses the NEAT method, in which it gives you a calorie goal that does not include exercise so you can eat those calories back. But, you should be mindful that it does overestimate calories burned so many people choose to eat 50-75% back instead of all.
  • esorielirol
    esorielirol Posts: 5 Member
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    that makes sense. Thanks so much!