Intro and Exercise Advice Wanted

[no-face]

Hello! I'm here to supplement my exercise routine. I'm interested in losing weight and getting into shape, but I'd like opinions on if I'm doing enough.

In high school, I was athletic and weighed 150lbs. I'm 28 now, and between hither and yon, I picked up 45lbs. Actually, I've been as high as 220lbs, but presently I'm around 195. I should also mention that I'm 5'9" tall and have a medium frame. My goal at this point is 160lbs, but I have no desire to reach there soon! I want it to come off slowly and surely.

Over a month ago, I started exercising. This included going out for a walk/jog for 30 minutes, alternating it with weight lifting for 30 minutes 5 times a week. I was fairly unfit, so starting out was difficult, but I stuck with it. Depending on my work schedule, sometimes I would miss one day a week, but no more than that.

Lately, my body is starting to feel more able, so I have upped my exercise routine. I will do my walk/jog for at least 50 minutes, usually 4 times a week. I find that I have a harder time to stick with my weight lifting because I'm just not as into it as I am out running. I do know that it is good to do weight lifting, so I am curious to know if I should bite the bullet and keep alternating weight lifting and running.

Yesterday I got a general mileage idea of how far I am running. One loop around is 8/10 of a mile, and I can typically do 5 laps, which ends up being 4 miles. I alternate moderate walking with jogging - typically walking 1/10 of a mile, jogging 1/10 of a mile, and so on. Half the distance I cover is spent jogging and the other walking. Is this a good ratio? I based my distances off of when I knew I was feeling out of breath and lagging when I was jogging. The walking distance is, more or less, the period it takes for me to catch my breath and for my body to prep for the next jogging point.

I was wondering if, on days I do weight lifting if I should also be getting in a run. Some days I actually do this - sometimes I'll start a run and just feel incredibly laggy, so I'll walk for 20 minutes then switch to weight lifting. Also, is it better to run first, then weight lift, or vice versa?

I used to eat a lot, but have cut my portion sizes considerably. Lunch and dinner will often look like this: 1 cup mixed veggies, 2 hard boiled eggs with salt sprinkled on (or other source of protein), and water/tea. Breakfast varies considerably, sometimes homemade muffins, fruit crisp, oatmeal (w/ cream and brown sugar and raisins) - never more than 1/2 - 3/4 cup of any of those. All meals are home made and home grown, so it's not out of a package. The chef is a healthy cook, so whenever a healthy shortcut option is available, she takes it. It's really amazing, actually. I'm eating much less than I used to but I feel very satisfied and full.

So, I have a few questions about this: calorie counting is somewhat difficult with home made food, so I don't know what my current total intake is. I'm wondering if it's possible that I'm not eating enough. I know that I'm supposed to be intaking around 1500 calories. Is it possible to feel satisfied if I'm not getting enough calories? Or am I deluding myself that I'm actually eating more calories than I should be?

Right now, my main concern is that my weight loss was going really well for the first month, but had a sudden weight "jump." I weighed 205lbs starting out, and dropped down to about 193lbs. It was a steady decrease. Then, the other day, I weighed myself and I was back up to 200lbs. I can't think that anything about my routine had changed so much to add 7lbs back on. I weigh myself daily, so I'm just wondering what this weight is. I can't imagine that it's fat, so is it muscle or water weight or...?? I am not trying to lose weight fast. But it was rather disheartening to see the scale tell me that I had put weight on after it just came off. Last night when I weighed myself, I was happy to see the scale tipping closer to 195lbs than 200lbs. Still, it would be nice to get a second opinion.

At this point, I can tell that I have lost *something* (although I'm not sure what) because my clothes are fitting better, especially pants. Pants and shorts that I used to bulge out of actually fit now, sometimes even with a little extra room! People have noticed that I look better too. I really would like to keep this going, so I'm just here to get encouragement and give encouragement.

If you read all of this, thanks for your time! I can be long winded!

 

[MAR1984]

I did read most of your post. You seem very finicky about your workout. There really isn't any "best way" to work out. I do 3-5 days a week, and always the weekends off. I lift weights 3x per week. I do heavy (relative to my strength) free weight lifting and practice progressive overload. I'm doing al I can to hang onto as much muscle as possible when I lose weight. I do some cardio, but its not as much as it used to be. I used to do cardio 5x per week and nothing else. Lost weight, but didn't hold onto muscle.

Really, diet is the most important part of losing weight. Eat less than you need to maintain, then lift weights to hold onto muscle, then cardio for cardiovascular health and a little added calorie defecit boost if you need it.

How did you determine how many calories you need? I ask because a 200lb person should need at least 2000 calories to maintain weight if they're a slug, and up to 3000 calories if they're moderately active. You can cut calories from there to lose weight. every 500 calories cut per day can be a lb lost per week. You can lose up to 1% of your body weight per week safely.

You can feel satisfied and still be eating too few calories. I was, in the past. your stomach (the organ, not your gut) can stetch after getting used to big meals, meaning overtime, you have to keep eating more and more to feel full. The opposite can also happen, if you go a while eating small portions, your stomach can shrink back down and you feel fuller with smaller portions again. If you need some calories and really aren't that hungry, stuff like almonds or peanut butter can get a couple hundred in you with eating relatively little. But that also makes them easy to passively overconsume.

Home cooked meals are a challenge with calories, but can be done. What you have to do is add up all the calories of everything you put in, and weigh the whole dish vs. your portions. For example, if you make a caserole, add the calories of everything in the caserole, then weigh it after its cooked, then weigh how much you ate, and the calories you had from the caserole are (total calories in the caserole) times (weight of your portion) divided by (weight of the entire caserole). If you make your meals the same way every time, then you only have to do it once, and just weigh your portion each time.

Weight fluctuations are normal. If it jumped up fast, its probably most likely water. Muscle grows slowest (think, 0.5lb per week) and thats if you're really trying to grow it. It can only be fat if you know you consumed an extra 3500 calories ABOVE your maintenance level for each lb the scale went up. High sodium meals can cause you to retain water. I've seen swings as much as 10lbs overnight (combination of heavy food in the bowels + water). Your muscle can hold onto extra water after a workout. Lots of reasons for scale fluctuations. Scales are not to be trusted! lol.

 

[no-face]

How did you determine how many calories you need?

First of all, thank you for replying. I've read some of your replies on other threads and think that you offer really good advice.

I determined my calories needed through various sources. We have fitness and nutrition books here (several different ones) and all of them stated that for a person of my height and build, 1500 calories was about right. It was actually slightly less than that. I do know that prior to me watching my portion sizes, I was maintaining my weight of 200lbs. Since I'd like to lose weight, I figured the calorie intake of the weight I'd like to be would be the appropriate one.

By the way, what is progressive overload weight lifting?

And, I didn't know I was being finicky with my workout! lol I honestly don't *think* about it too much when I'm doing it, but I wanted to explain it in detail in case I could be doing something that would be more beneficial. In high school, I trained often for the sports I did, so I'm just recalling how much I did then and am trying to rework it to what I am now.

Oogh, I just did a calorie count of lunch today and it is incredibly low! 201 calories. Sometimes the meals are more fattening than others, but honestly that was a typical day for me (typical of what lunch and dinner look like). I don't see that I would be eating more than 500-600 calories at one meal, unless it's lasagna.

I can and will try to do more calorie counting, but it really is hard because I'm not making the food. If I were, it would be easier to figure out because I could keep track of all the ingredients. But what I can do is keep a chart of often served foods (like veggies) and gauge others by content.

I'm assuming now that I need to increase my intake! Again, I'm here for second opinions.

 

[MAR1984]

By the way, what is progressive overload weight lifting?

I might not do the best job of explaining it. The member here "Steve" is the go to guy for training advice, specifically lifting.

The way I always understood it is, the overload part is, lifting heavy weight relative to your strength, i.e. a weight that you can do 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 reps. And the progressive part means that overtime, you have to do more.

The way I do it, for squats for example, is I do my warmups (bar only maybe 8 reps, 135 5 reps, 165 5 reps, 185 5 reps) then I go into my 3 sets of 5 reps at a constant workout weight. Today will be 3x5 of 205 for squats. Then, next time I do squats, on monday, my 3x5 will be at 210. So I try to go up 5lbs every workout. If I go up in weight and don't quite get it, I repeat the same weight the next time. At some point, I might do whats called a "hard stall", where you just peter out completely. And then when you repeat the next 2 times, you still can't get the weight. Then you might have to lower the weight 10-20lbs and start progressing back up from there - and you usually shoot right back up past the weight you couldn't do. Once I successfully get the 3x5, I add 5lbs the next workout. The progressive overload is, 205 is a heavy weight for my strength that allows me to do 3 sets of 5 reps, and I increase the weight 5lbs every workout.