I am hoping you all can help me to design an exercise and eating plan that will actually work for me. When I was in my 20s' I lost weight after having my son and went from 33% body fat to 17% with just circuit training 3x a week and a low fat diet. However, I will be 40 in 5 months, and I am really struggling to lose any weight at all! I eat healthy foods and weight train at least 3x week. I wasn't doing well with the cardio, but now I am doing that as well, and am STILL GAINING weight. I know part of my problem is drinking alcohol on the weekends, which I need to cut out, but any advice on the best combination of cardio, weights, and diet to maximize results? Also, I have a smith machine and inc/dec bench at home and also belong to a gym...any tips on the best way to split up weight training (3 full body or 2 upper/2 lower)?
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- Thread starter mumblz72
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Hey mumblz, welcome to the forum!
Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're currently doing for exercise each week? Just a few more details like sets, reps, what exercises you're doing, and what cardio (time, type, & intensity) you're doing? Also, how long have you been doing this 'routine'?
Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're currently doing for exercise each week? Just a few more details like sets, reps, what exercises you're doing, and what cardio (time, type, & intensity) you're doing? Also, how long have you been doing this 'routine'?
For the past couple months I have been doing a full body upper workout with 2-3 exercises per body part, 3 sets of 8-12 and a full body lower body workout with same setup each once a week two of the three days Fri Sat Sun. That's my gym workout. I work out at home on days I have to work, usually doing a full body with only one exercise per body part, 2 sets of 12-15. I try to do this twice a week; sometimes it's only once or I break it up and do one additional partial body work out. I take my dog for a 10-15 min fast walk/run 5 days a week and I recently started using the treadmill again after stopping for a few weeks. I do 90 second intervals of walking at a 4% incline at 3.3 mph and jogging at no incline 5 mph. Is that what you needed to know?
Hey mumblz,
Yes, that gives me a better idea of where you're coming from. If you're wanting to lose weight, I would recommend that you switch to doing full body workouts, rather than split workouts. The reason being that you want to maximize overall caloric expenditure as often as possible by challenging many muscle groups in a workout, not just a few. Down the road, if you have lost weight and want to switch to split workouts, then that's OK, but generally for beginners or for weight loss, I would suggest full-body workouts.
When you're doing your treadmill cardio, how many minutes do you go for in total?
Just to put it into perspective, the guideline for just maintaining your current health status is to aim for 150 mins of cardio per week, split up over mutliple days. For weight loss, people typically need to aim closer to 250-300 mins of cardio per week, split up over multiple days, in order to expend enough calories to see weight reduction. Of course, this is in combination with proper diet.
Yes, that gives me a better idea of where you're coming from. If you're wanting to lose weight, I would recommend that you switch to doing full body workouts, rather than split workouts. The reason being that you want to maximize overall caloric expenditure as often as possible by challenging many muscle groups in a workout, not just a few. Down the road, if you have lost weight and want to switch to split workouts, then that's OK, but generally for beginners or for weight loss, I would suggest full-body workouts.
When you're doing your treadmill cardio, how many minutes do you go for in total?
Just to put it into perspective, the guideline for just maintaining your current health status is to aim for 150 mins of cardio per week, split up over mutliple days. For weight loss, people typically need to aim closer to 250-300 mins of cardio per week, split up over multiple days, in order to expend enough calories to see weight reduction. Of course, this is in combination with proper diet.
I usually only do 20 minutes of cardio after about an hour of strength training, and I use my 10-15 minutes of dog-walking as my warm-up. So I guess I am only getting about half the cardio I need. When I was young, I did circuit training and 15 min on a stairmaster and the weight just melted away. Aging sucks...lol! Thanks for your advice. One more question: you say "proper diet". What exactly does that mean?
It also depends on what type of cardio you're doing... If you typically do low-moderate intensity at a constant pace, you'll want to aim for 250-300 mins per week. If you're able to do higher intensity workouts (interval training, HIIT, etc.) you're workouts tend to be shorter - max 30 mins each - but you don't want to do high-intensity everyday. So it ends up being a combination of low-moderate intensity workouts most days and high intensity 1-3 days per week.
"Proper" diet has a different meaning for everyone, depending on your goals. Some basic rules that everyone who is trying to lose weight can follow are things like:
1. MODEST calorie restriction (not extreme restriction as many people tend to do)
2. Avoid processed foods as much as possible (refined flour, sugary foods, salty foods)
3. Eat lean protein sources more often (turkey, chicken, fish, egg whites, low fat dairy products)
4. Eat 'fatty' sources of protein less often (red meat, pork, whole eggs, regular fat dairy products)
5. Eat more veggies and more fruit
6. Don't drink your calories - drink only water (no sodas! not even diet!), limit caffeine, and limit alcohol (alcohol alone has almost as many calories per gram as fat)
7. Eat breakfast!
8. Try to eat at least 3 meals a day, spaced at somewhat regular intervals. Some people prefer to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all of your protein needs to come from animal sources - meat, eggs, and dairy. I encourage people to get some of their protein each day from plant sources which do not contain cholesterol and tend to be much lower in the 'bad' fats. Plant sources of protein has the added benefit of having fiber, which helps to keep you full for longer and clear out the digestive system, keeping it healthy. Some examples would be beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, but many fruits and veggies also contain some protein.
Something that the dieticians that I've worked with recommend is the food plate method, which I find is a much easier method that calorie counting:
USDA Food Pyramid is Out, Food Plate is In
Hope this helps a bit!
Hope that helps a bit!
"Proper" diet has a different meaning for everyone, depending on your goals. Some basic rules that everyone who is trying to lose weight can follow are things like:
1. MODEST calorie restriction (not extreme restriction as many people tend to do)
2. Avoid processed foods as much as possible (refined flour, sugary foods, salty foods)
3. Eat lean protein sources more often (turkey, chicken, fish, egg whites, low fat dairy products)
4. Eat 'fatty' sources of protein less often (red meat, pork, whole eggs, regular fat dairy products)
5. Eat more veggies and more fruit
6. Don't drink your calories - drink only water (no sodas! not even diet!), limit caffeine, and limit alcohol (alcohol alone has almost as many calories per gram as fat)
7. Eat breakfast!
8. Try to eat at least 3 meals a day, spaced at somewhat regular intervals. Some people prefer to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all of your protein needs to come from animal sources - meat, eggs, and dairy. I encourage people to get some of their protein each day from plant sources which do not contain cholesterol and tend to be much lower in the 'bad' fats. Plant sources of protein has the added benefit of having fiber, which helps to keep you full for longer and clear out the digestive system, keeping it healthy. Some examples would be beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, but many fruits and veggies also contain some protein.
Something that the dieticians that I've worked with recommend is the food plate method, which I find is a much easier method that calorie counting:
USDA Food Pyramid is Out, Food Plate is In
Hope this helps a bit!
Hope that helps a bit!
