Since march to today I have lost just over 50 pounds. Im 21, 5'8-9" and at 207 pounds, the lowest Ive been in 7+ years. In the end, I would like to be 180 or lower if possible. I lost it mostly by watching what I eat and exercising once or twice a week. That is now not enough. I now workout 4+ times a week doing 20-25 minutes on the elliptical and about 25 minutes on weights. My weight has remained hovering around 208 though my body fat percent has dropped down to ~23.5 from 24.5 in the past week ( i check with an omron monitor). My question is what can I do to continue to lose more fat instead of just building muscle? Should I just do cardio and cut out weights or increase on and decrease the other? Thanks in advance for the help.
Need a new approach
- Thread starter jatindj01
- Start date
PLB
Moderator
Congrats on the success so far! You're doing great! Try not to get too hung up on reaching a specific number... As you get closer to your goal weight, it's going to be more important to go by how you look and feel as measures of success. Ask yourself questions like, "Am I happy with how my clothes fit"? or "Am I still losing inches even though my weight isn't going down"? Trying to reach a certain weight at the expense of muscle mass is very counterproductive in terms of health. When was the last time you looked at your daily caloric needs? Don't forget that as you get smaller, your BMR is lower, so you may need to reduce your caloric intake slightly to start seeing more weight loss.
Thanks. Well for the first 3 months or so i was counting calories and stayed at around 1300-1500a day. After i went home from college till now I was unable to count calories but i know i had a lot of bad days but still continued to lose weight. Im back at school now so plan on counting again starting today and keeping it around 1500 again. I am happy with the way my clothes fit, especially since most/all of my clothes from last semester are too big now.
PLB
Moderator
In your case, I would say to just keep working at the cardio and weight training. It might be a good idea to switch things up once in a while though - try different exercises, try some group fitness classes, etc. If you have had a lot of days that you've been near or gone over your weight maintenance level in terms of daily caloric intake, then that could explain why you haven't been losing weight lately. Try sticking to 1500 cals per day for a while, then if you're not losing weight and you still want to, drop your intake 10-15% and see if that does the trick.
Good luck!
Good luck!