Hi
I'm an 18 year old male, weighing about 9-9.5 stone, that's trying to get a bit of toning and loss of excess fat that seems to have collected in pockets due to a sedentary (computer orientated) lifestyle recently.
I used to be in good shape but then my exercise (cross country, basketball) and activities stopped dead and now I seem to have a lot of fat in my calves, thighs and behind & a little in my pecs and less in my love handles. I have very slender forearms but toned (from recent pressups) shoulders and upper arms and I've always kept good abs.
So basically I'd like to be losing fat from below the hips (and also find a good exercise for toning pecs)
As I've never conciously thought about exercise or correct eating (being a teenager
and cooking my own meals), I had no idea where to start so I checked the net and found that Cardio HIIT is the best solution - so that's what I do!
On average, at least twice a week (not strictly regimented - but that's okay cause I heard it's bad for your body to get aclimbatised to cardio as it burns calories more steadily and ultimately less?), I go for a 25-30 min run before breakfast with 3/4 min brisk walk to warmup then run quite hard until I need to slow, then reduce to brisk walking pace, then back up to running when I can manage it (no more than 2 mins before I get my breath back). I think for about 15 mins of this regime my heart is beating at the right rate (very hard!) and I feel the benefits psychologically and it also wakes me up (though fat loss is yet to be seen).
I'm just concerned because if someone were to look at my body above the hips, they would describe me as fairly skinny, and below as overweight... this misproportionation of the fat is a worry because I'm told that cardio training can sometimes burn muscle in place of fat... though I'm not sure under which circumstances. As I said I do push myself hard and there isn't going to be any food in my stomach so does my body get a chance to get the fat burning or does it go for muscle as it's more readily available(?) ? I don't want to be losing my abs or biceps!
Is this form of exercise the best for losing the doughy legs and behind? I tried cycling but found (because my legs are quite strong from X-country, I guess), that it didn't really get my heart or lungs going and just tired me quite a lot on 10 mile rides. Still I certainly felt it!
Also, I have recently (partly due to the weather) started eating dinner much earlier at about 3-5pm due to the fact I don't get a chance to burn calories in the evening and figure if I go to bed slightly hungry, my body will burn fat in sleep and then even more when I wake for that cardio session... is this okay? I take a good A-Z vitamin supplement (and also biostrath elixir) and don't really undereat... Although today I ran on an empty stomach (hadn't eaten for nearly 24 hours - the heat suppresses my hunger) and my stomach (or abs?) was aching badly...
I'm sorry this post seems to be very long, but if anyone has the patience to wade through it I'd very, very grateful!
Also if anyone has a good pectoral toning exercise that'd be good (I found an interesting one involving milk jugs at amongst many other, really good weightless exercises)
Oh and finally (even more - sorry!), how about toning the love handle area when what little there is of the fat has come off ? At the moment, on an empty stomach, my abs bulge out a long way, nothing round the sides, then my bulk pecs stick out above - looks odd!
Seriously thanks for making it through this mammoth read and I hope answers to this will hope other people in similar situations so that it's not purely for my benefit!
I'm an 18 year old male, weighing about 9-9.5 stone, that's trying to get a bit of toning and loss of excess fat that seems to have collected in pockets due to a sedentary (computer orientated) lifestyle recently.
I used to be in good shape but then my exercise (cross country, basketball) and activities stopped dead and now I seem to have a lot of fat in my calves, thighs and behind & a little in my pecs and less in my love handles. I have very slender forearms but toned (from recent pressups) shoulders and upper arms and I've always kept good abs.
So basically I'd like to be losing fat from below the hips (and also find a good exercise for toning pecs)
As I've never conciously thought about exercise or correct eating (being a teenager
and cooking my own meals), I had no idea where to start so I checked the net and found that Cardio HIIT is the best solution - so that's what I do! On average, at least twice a week (not strictly regimented - but that's okay cause I heard it's bad for your body to get aclimbatised to cardio as it burns calories more steadily and ultimately less?), I go for a 25-30 min run before breakfast with 3/4 min brisk walk to warmup then run quite hard until I need to slow, then reduce to brisk walking pace, then back up to running when I can manage it (no more than 2 mins before I get my breath back). I think for about 15 mins of this regime my heart is beating at the right rate (very hard!) and I feel the benefits psychologically and it also wakes me up (though fat loss is yet to be seen).
I'm just concerned because if someone were to look at my body above the hips, they would describe me as fairly skinny, and below as overweight... this misproportionation of the fat is a worry because I'm told that cardio training can sometimes burn muscle in place of fat... though I'm not sure under which circumstances. As I said I do push myself hard and there isn't going to be any food in my stomach so does my body get a chance to get the fat burning or does it go for muscle as it's more readily available(?) ? I don't want to be losing my abs or biceps!
Is this form of exercise the best for losing the doughy legs and behind? I tried cycling but found (because my legs are quite strong from X-country, I guess), that it didn't really get my heart or lungs going and just tired me quite a lot on 10 mile rides. Still I certainly felt it!
Also, I have recently (partly due to the weather) started eating dinner much earlier at about 3-5pm due to the fact I don't get a chance to burn calories in the evening and figure if I go to bed slightly hungry, my body will burn fat in sleep and then even more when I wake for that cardio session... is this okay? I take a good A-Z vitamin supplement (and also biostrath elixir) and don't really undereat... Although today I ran on an empty stomach (hadn't eaten for nearly 24 hours - the heat suppresses my hunger) and my stomach (or abs?) was aching badly...
I'm sorry this post seems to be very long, but if anyone has the patience to wade through it I'd very, very grateful!
Also if anyone has a good pectoral toning exercise that'd be good (I found an interesting one involving milk jugs at amongst many other, really good weightless exercises)
Oh and finally (even more - sorry!
), how about toning the love handle area when what little there is of the fat has come off ? At the moment, on an empty stomach, my abs bulge out a long way, nothing round the sides, then my bulk pecs stick out above - looks odd! Seriously thanks for making it through this mammoth read and I hope answers to this will hope other people in similar situations so that it's not purely for my benefit!