Am I being realisitic?

A

arianne

0
I've been dieting on and off for about four years until I finally decided to change my way of eating. There was a point in time when I would go to the gym 4-6x a week for atleast an hour, sometimes 2 depending on the classes I took and I slimmed down to 117 lb. I was a size 3! then it all went downhill because I got depressed and it got so bad that i went up two sizes and am currently 135 lb. (its mainly in my stomach by the way, lol).

I've basically cut out all bad carbs, and I'm not a soda drinker so that wasnt an issue. juice has also been cut out. I have a lemonade once in a while. but water is basically it.

I do cardio 3-5x a week, with 1-2 rest days which is usually on saturday & sunday. & some abs exercises like crunches on M W F.

what I wanted to know was, am i being realistic by setting my goal to be 125 lb, 120 lb. at the most by Thanksgiving? :confused:
 
I dont know when thanks giving is, but you should aim for 1-2lbs per week.

take your weight by stepping on the scales every morning before you eat, record all weights for a week and find the average. This is the most accurate way of finding your true weight.

But anyway - Numbers dont mean anything, the mirror is your best scale. Dont change your diet and exericses for the numbers do it for the body.
 
10-15 lbs by Thanksgiving shouldn't be too unrealistic. It's 10 1/2 weeks away, so at 1 lb a week, that would give you 10, or a bit more to get 15 off.

Like ManofKent said though, don't obsess over the actual scale number. Judge by the mirror, how your clothes fit, etc.

Also, I don't see any strength training in what you mentioned. You would have better results slimming down if you cut out a bit of the cardio and replaced it with some strength training.
 
arianne said:
I've been dieting on and off for about four years until I finally decided to change my way of eating. There was a point in time when I would go to the gym 4-6x a week for atleast an hour, sometimes 2 depending on the classes I took and I slimmed down to 117 lb. I was a size 3! then it all went downhill because I got depressed and it got so bad that i went up two sizes and am currently 135 lb. (its mainly in my stomach by the way, lol).

I've basically cut out all bad carbs, and I'm not a soda drinker so that wasnt an issue. juice has also been cut out. I have a lemonade once in a while. but water is basically it.

I do cardio 3-5x a week, with 1-2 rest days which is usually on saturday & sunday. & some abs exercises like crunches on M W F.

what I wanted to know was, am i being realistic by setting my goal to be 125 lb, 120 lb. at the most by Thanksgiving? :confused:
Click to expand...


While your end goal may not be unrealistic, I fear your approach is flawed. It seems like before you were over training, and now your routine doesn't appear to be much better. If you take a healthy well balanced approach you will achieve your goal, but better it will be a lifestyle change you can keep and not a "diet". When we diet this way and hurry our bodies through the process we will get depressed, eventually give in to extreme bad habits again, and put on the weight.

First off cutting out all your carbs isn't the way to go. However being carb smart is. You want to get 5-6 meals a day, have each meal have 1 carb/1 protein intake and also get in good fats. The kind of carbs you should have is complex/simple during the day (oatmeal, sweet potato, fruit) and fiberous at night (veggies). Protein should be lean meats (chicken, turkey) and good fats should come in form of oils or nuts. Arrange like so..

1-carbs/protein
2-cars/protein
3-carbs/protein
4-carbs(veggie)/Protein/Fats
5-carbs(veggie)/Protein/Fats
6-carbs(veggie)/Protein/Fats

Doing this maximizes you fat loss. You should stay at a healthy caloric level. With your size and exercise there is really no need to go below 1500, as you will just have a harder time getting it off. Burn it off, don't starve it off.

As far as your workout, if you are going to do any form of strength training, just doing crunches isn't going to do anything. You can't spot reduce. You can do 1000 crunches and it wont do anything other than make things harder.
Try doing a 3 day full body program, including one exercise for each muscle group while using mostly compound movements(squats, dips, rows) and only 1-2 isolates (crunch, bicep curl).

Doing a routine like this and eating healthy but not starving will bring on more results faster, and you wont be feeling so much like you are actually "dieting" because you aren't, you are merely changing your lifestyle.
 
I also think the approach could be a bit better. I have 5 rules that I follow when trying to lose overall body fat.

1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain one protein and one carb. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking.


2) Drink a cup of water at each meal.


3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 48 hours between strength training the same muscles, and it also means getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Lastly, it means taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.


4) Cardio. This should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions.


5) Strength Training. Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method. If you need more guidance or exercise ideas you can head over


All of the above things combined will result in fat loss. Your goals are realistic, but remember weight is not a good indicator of progress. When I am at my tiniest inch wise... I am at my heaviest weight wise.

Go by how you feel, how your clothes fit and by what others notice about you.
 
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