Opinions of my initial exercise/training plan

[Holly88]

Hello,

I've tried to come up with a simple weekly plan for my cardio and weights, could I please have some opinions on what I could add in or tweak? Or if I'm doing it all plain wrong?

Background:
21 yr old female, 190lbs, 42% body fat (using scale), just beginning on trying to get fit again aka a newbie and hoping exercise can help me lose fat and retain muscle.

Aiming to eat 1800kcal, although I have only been able to hit 1500kcal these first few days. I'm getting 100g of protein most days.

M: 40 minute walk/jog/run (enough to burn 500kcal on heart monitor)
T: Strength training and stretches
W: 1 hour swimming (600kcal on heart monitor)
T: Strength training and stretches
F: 30-40 minute cycling (500kcal on heart monitor)
S: 40 minute walk/jog/run (enough to burn 500kcal on heart monitor)
S: Strength training and stretches

Strength training consists of:
2 x 15 bicep curls with 3kg dumbbells
2 x 15 bicycle crunches
2 x 40s plank
2 x 15 squats
2 x 12 seated dumbbell shoulder press
2 x 12 (half) press ups

I got most of these exercises suggested to me by the sparkpeople website routine generator so I don't know entirely how effective they will be?! I am aware that I will have to increase sets/reps of those exercises as I go along but I am unsure how often and by how much these changes should be made.

Also, I am toying with whether or not to rest on weekends or to do the extra sessions in italics above?

But basically I'd like to know if -
1) my strength training will do the trick on maintaining muscle whilst restricting my calories
2) my cardio is sufficient given my calorie intake and goal to lose 1-2lbs a week and improve fitness

Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it.

 

[MAR1984]

You're probably going to want at least 1 complete rest day a week where you don't do any structured exercise. You might get by without for a week or 2, but eventually it catches up.

Just starting out, any resistance training will probably be good enough to hold onto muscle mass for a while. What you have to do is make sure you keep upping the weight, keep pushing your body out of its comfort zone to do more. The effectiveness of low weight/high rep stuff drops off as your body gets used to the exercises. Higher weights and lower reps are better for signalling your body to hold onto the muscle, as long as you kep upping the weight. Exercises like squats are great. Bicep curls are kind of a waste of time. You could skip them and do something like bench press, shoulder press, pull ups, or rows - all 4 of them indirectly work your biceps and the rest of your arm, as well as many other muscles. Bicep curls are good for building big biceps, but only if you're eating enough food to gain muscle, and you're not going to build any muscle while in a calorie defecit to lose weight.

As for your cardio, whether its effective for weight loss will depend on how many calories you're eating. You can exercise day and night and gain weight if you're eating too much, or you could be doing more harm than good if you're trying to do too much exercise on too few calories. How did you determine your target for how many calories you want to eat? Have you estimated your maintenance calories? how many lbs do you want to lose per week? Regardless, 40-60 minutes of cardio 3-4 times per week seems like plenty for overall cardiovascular health and weight loss, assuming you pick a good calorie intake.

 

[Holly88]

Thanks so much for the advice. I think I'll keep Saturday free for rest and see how I go.

I think I'll replace the press ups and bicep curls with rows and bench presses. I don't have a bench but I've seen suggestions online to try it with an exercise ball, which I do have.

I picked 1800kcal because I calculated my BMR as somewhere between 2000 and 2100kcal and I had read on this forum that it's best to start on higher calories and see if you can lose 1-2lbs a week and cut back if you can't, rather than start lower. I hope if I start higher I will have more room to cut out calories when I get to a lower weight/hit a plateau.

So long as I carry on losing 1-2 lbs a week, I'll stick at 1800kcal but if it seems like it's not working then I'll probably cut down to 1500-1600kcal and see how it goes.