Another Damsel in Distress

J

Jmo

0
I need a workout routine, and I know someone out there has a suggestion for me...

Here are my vitals: Female, age 22, 5'7, 165 lbs (don't laugh, I know its gross) I'm just having trouble losing weight after I had a baby, and would like to get down to 130, but would be of a slightly sweeter disposition if I could just reach 145.

I can use a fully loaded gym and/or roller blades to work out, and here are my strengths/weaknesses: I'm great at running, I have a short attention span, I hate swimming, I get bored REALLY easily, I know nothing about weight training, I eat too much (healthy stuff, just too much of it)

So, have at it ladies and gentlemen-rip me apart, build me up, whatever it takes to make me lose weight!
 
First of all, what are you eating, exactly? How many calories do you think you're getting a day?

You really should start weight training. Do you have the money to get a personal trainer for a few sessions to get you started? To begin with I would do three days a week of weight training for 30 minutes or so a day and follow it up with about 20-30 minutes of cardio. On the days that you're not lifting I would increase the cardio a bit and maybe do some intervals.

That's my two cents :)

~teresa
 
With the stats you have given you need 2000 calories to keep yourself at the weight you are now. 1 pound of weight=3500 calories. So being you need 2000 calories to maintain you weight a day, take in 1500 calories to lose weight. DON'T GO BELOW THAT. Most people think Oh well i will just speed it along by only eating 1100 calories. You do that and you put yourself in starvation mode, and keep all that fat in storage your wanting to lose.
Now i know you say you eat healthy, but listing what you eat would help us to make better suggestions on your diet. I thought i was eating pretty good when i came here, but i wasn't. It took me a few months to get it right i wont lie, its hard. But now that i have its 2nd nature and not an issue at all.

Eat 5-6 meals a day. One protien (lean), one carb (good carbs) for each of those meals. Get lots of water, as much as you can take in. Do at least 3(no more than 5) ays a week cardio and 2 days a week strength training. Now the training is important cause it will get those muscles working to burn that fat while you are just sitting resting.

Now you say you get bored easy, so do I. So i invested a little money in some home equiptment that i can use for cardio and training while listening to music, or watching a movie. Got it cheap, got it small. I find that being busy so much its best for me right now to have everything i need at home.

So post that diet and lets see what we can help you with.
 
Okay, here's what I ate today: Slim fast, banana, hummus, cheese, and dinner is going to be chicken with onions, peppers and some pasta, but I don't eat much pasta. I've had a few glasses of water, a prenatal vitamin, about five jelly beans, and I'm working on a diet coke.

I think I've solved the boredom thing. I download books onto an ipod and listen to audio books while I run.

About the personal trainer thing, I'm not really sure. My gym is actually an airforce base gym, and I don't know if they offer that kind of service. I'll look into it though.
 
Yeah you need to eat more and get more protien in your diet.

Before you tackle anything, get your diet to where it needs to be. You can run and run and run but with the wrong stuff in your body its not going to do any good. So if you are really serious about making a change in your weight, know that its going to take some time and that you need to allow some room for error as it takes time and totally trying to shock yourself into health food and eating right is the main reason why most people give up. So do what you can, where you can until you really start WANTING to do even more because you will feel the good effects of all of it.

1. Organization-To me it is the most important start to working out. Number 1 answer to not doing what you should be doing is "I don't have the time". There is always time if you want to make time. When i started out doing this i was working 14 hour days, 5 days a week at a bar, doing an online buisness and trying to date. So i had to bust my ass to figure out places and spots to work out and get the needed food for my body. But i moved things around and made it work.

2. Cooking- is going to have to become your new best friend. Most people can't grasp this concept cause of the "time" it takes to do so. So you set one day a week for shopping. And i mean shopping. That final talley is going to sting kind of shopping for food. Then the next day you have what i call "bulk cooking day". This is where you set aside a good few hours to just cook. Cook all that meat, cut up all those veggies, basically go crazy in that kitchen to where when you are done all you have to do for the rest of the week is pop something into the microwave to heat up or pull it right out of the fridge. The way i look at it is if you just do it that one day, packing a little lunch bag the next day saves more time then stopping at mcdonalds or plunking quaters in a vending machine. Not to mention it tastes better and is better for you. Also try some things out, get creative. One of my favorite things to eat Banana almond wheat pancakes with whey protien. Its so so good, high in protien, low in fat, good carbs. I buy tastless whey protien to put in meals i am cooking for that added kick.

3. Diet guideline-Now this is just something to help get the imagination going.
Meal 1-Plain Oatmeal (shake some cinnimon on there)W/fruit protien smoothie (get some frozen fruit of your choice, throw in a scoop of whey powder)
Meal 2-Turkey sandwhich on Whole Wheat with lettuce,tomato and yes mayo. Now if you can try and get fresh non processed turkey, it taste better anyway but can cost a little more.
Meal 3-96% Lean ground beef Hamburger on whole wheat bun with fat free cheese
Meal 4-Low fat natural Peanut Butter with celery and rasians
Meal 5-Grilled Chicken (get the lowest fat chicken you can, i persoanlly use orgainc with all my meats) salad (no dressing but add some spice to that chicken and give yourself a side of fat free cottage cheese for veggies)
Meal 6-Low fat/carb protien shake like ADVANT EDGE (in any grocery store) and some carrot sticks

Lot of food isn't it. Now look at what you are eating and look at what i am eating. I have to force myself to eat at the end of the day cause of all the food i have had, but i have to make sure i get all my needed nutirents. And with these meals i still only hit around 1400 calories. Amazing isn't it. So take a look and figure out what you can do happily and then we will work on that workout.
 
So much food!

Are you sure? That seems like a whole lot of food! And it seems like a whole lot of carbs. I can try to scrutinize my diet, but the one you suggested seems like too many carbs to me.

The "time" thing isn't a problem for me. I'm a stay at home mom/student. I have all the time in the world. I cook dinner every night. I go to the grocery EVERY DAY. Yes, I am a dork.

Like I said, I can scrutinize my diet, and I'll try to keep better track and make better decisions, but the meal plan I gave you was my typical "watch what I'm eating diet" Not my regular diet. I'm fat now because my diet was out of control before. I used to be in cross country and track and swimming, so my caloric intake used to be like 2500-3000 calories a day, and I stayed thin. Then after I had a baby and continued eating like a cow, without running the 9 miles a day-well, you do the math. So, now I'm on my way back to being thin. I wish I had a cross-country team to entertain me on the way!
 
Carbs aren't your enemy if they are good carbs. Now granted if you want to just have a hamburger with no bun, but throw in some green beans and some asparagus by all means. But every meal you need to get in a One carb, one protein. Now the way i do it i get all my strachy carbs (sweet potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat bread, oatmeal...in the beginning of the day) Then at night i do fiberous carbs (basically veggies). If you are going to be running and working out you need that energy. Now the days i don't work out i sometimes back off a little like instead of a egg white omlette with cheese and two pieces of light whole wheat bread i only have one piece kind of thing cause i don't need as much energy. Again its a guideline but i have eaten pretty much like this for the past few months and am down 13 pounds and trust me its really hard to lose weight at the level i am at being so close to desired weight.

You need those 1500 calories regardless of what you do in a day. You need those carbs regardless what you do, trust me. But do notice the little detail like 96% lean meat, non processed chicken or turkey, plain oatmeal...these little things make a big differnce. If i got a hamburger at a fast food joint it would take up 3 whole meals if not more. Its all about how you tailor the food to your needs, which is WHY you can eat so much of it and why the cooking is so important.
 
JMO,
I am an aerobics instructor on an AFB. Depending on which one you're at (if it's a larger base) they probably have personal training services...you just have to ask.

Theleip is right about the food intake. Her example day is right on. Try it for awhile...I bet you'll like it!

~teresa
 
Alright, I'll give it a try. Here's a sample diet that I would actually eat:

Breakfast: eggs with cheese, one piece of *whole wheat* toast
Snack: Banana
Lunch: Turkey Lunch meat with cream cheese & carrots
Snack: Smoked Almonds
Dinner: Roast with potatoes carrots and celery

What do you think? Would that be alright?

And I'll definately ask about the personal trainer, because its a big AFB, they might have them.
 
Looks good

That's a good start, but maybe you should add the other piece of whole wheat bread to your lunch. Just a suggestion. :)
 
While its a good start, a banana isn't a whole meal. Neither is smoked almonds. Look at it like this...You at this weight right now can have 1500 calories a day, even 1400 wouldnt be horrible but really no less than that seriously it will do you worse. Divide 1500 by 5 and you get 300. So every meal you need to get 300 calories. A large banana at most is 120. Having a 120 snack for one meal and then a 500 calories meal the next doesn't boost your metabolism as well as it would if you gave a certain amount to break down every three hours. Add that with your workouts and it will start to burn off pretty fast. Get it out of your head that eating less is losing fat. Eating right is losing fat.
 
Wow ~ our stats are very similar! I'm also trying to lose the baby weight and nursing isn't doing it as quickly as I'd have hoped. :) I'm just starting up with our AFB gym but I'm not a runner. I did walk for an hour today, though.

What are you doing for weight training?
 
All this nutrition talk is good stuff! I just wanted to post the 5 tips to fat loss on this thread for anyone else reading it.

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 lots of water :)


3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 24-48 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. You can head over for more strength training information, pics, routines, etc.


All of the above things combined will result in fat loss. Good luck to you all!
 
amychell said:
Wow ~ our stats are very similar! I'm also trying to lose the baby weight and nursing isn't doing it as quickly as I'd have hoped. :) I'm just starting up with our AFB gym but I'm not a runner. I did walk for an hour today, though.

What are you doing for weight training?
Click to expand...

I don't do any weight training, because I don't know what ones to do. I mean, occassionally I'll go in there and play around, but I don't do much, because I'm afraid I'll hurt myself.
 
theleip said:
While its a good start, a banana isn't a whole meal. Neither is smoked almonds. Look at it like this...You at this weight right now can have 1500 calories a day, even 1400 wouldnt be horrible but really no less than that seriously it will do you worse. Divide 1500 by 5 and you get 300. So every meal you need to get 300 calories. A large banana at most is 120. Having a 120 snack for one meal and then a 500 calories meal the next doesn't boost your metabolism as well as it would if you gave a certain amount to break down every three hours. Add that with your workouts and it will start to burn off pretty fast. Get it out of your head that eating less is losing fat. Eating right is losing fat.
Click to expand...

I'm still working on that part, theleip. I'm not good at organized meals yet, except for dinner, which is way more than three hundred calories.
 
JMO,

Start with weight training, but start with low weights and focus on your form. It will take a bit of time to really figure out how to move with each exercise. It isn't hard, but start with low weights and really focus on form.

This also provides you with a nice base of weight training experience. So that when you feel comfortable, you can move to a higher weight without fear. You'll know you feel comfortable. If you want some more pointers, head over
 
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