The Dreaded Bikini! How much weight left do I need to lose to look good?

Stefani said:
Thank you so much for your response! I truly appreciate your suggestions :) I will try my best to follow your advice, but I realize that it might be some time before I am able to get out of the current thought process that is making me suffer.

I hope that you will continue to follow my posts and support me. I need all of the help I can get! Again, thank you so much for getting back to me; it means a lot.
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Glad I could be of some help. And yes, it does take a little time to break the
identification we have with our automatic thought process in our heads.

There are a million self-help techniques that are suggested, but from my
experience they are all a waste of time, mostly because they are focused
on manipulating the mind, and this only works in the short term, just like
low-calorie diets or fasting for weight loss...lol

There is only one effective way to free yourself from this insanity and from
this unecessary suffering that this inner dialogue causes and here it is:

...do everything in your power to live in the present moment, the here
and now whenever you can, and this can be accomplished when you
realize that this moment where you are right now is all there ever was, is now,
and ever will be.

I do realize that this is not as easy as it sounds, and it did take me a while
to start living in the present moment, but still it must be done if you want
to actually live your life, instead of simply being hypnotized by your mind,
and the automatic thinking process that it produces without any help from
the real you.

Just take easy, small, and simple steps and build momentum slowly, focus
on your breathing, focus on how your body is working every moment without
you doing anything about it, be aware of your automatic thoughts by simply
observing them without any judgement.

Do not judge your thinking process, yourself, other people, circumstances,
simply learn to "observe" everything around you and inside of you, and little
by little you will become aware of this "presence" that is doing this observing,
and this is when you will discover the real you that is ever present and
eternal, and you will start to live in the present moment, and use the
past and future only when it is necessary, while the rest of the time you
will live in the present.

Good luck to you, and maybe you should start a diary and post there on a
regular basis, this will be very effective and plus there are many people there
that can help and support you, including me, because this is where I mostly
check out other people's posts in this forum.
 
First, you look great right now and you will turn heads at the beach. No one is truly happy with their bodies, due to human nature and societies obsession with the perfect (most likely airbrushed) bodies. Believe me when I say that you have a great body and should be proud of your progress.

With that said, if it is your goal to lose those extra stubborn pounds (for whatever reason you may have), then you need to push your body to the extreme. As long as you are eating five or six times a day and the right stuff, then the focus should be on your workout.

Try high intensity cardio, such as sprints. This will rev up your metabolism like you would not believe, because it mixes anaerobic with aerobic exercise. It is great for shedding those last stubborn pounds. Also, weight lift at higher intensity. Do sets of 8-12 (it should be a struggle to get that last one) reps, resting no more than 60 seconds in between. You heart rate will stay in the fat burning zone and your body will become lean and toned.

Keep up the good work. I did not see your before pictures, but if you weighed 250lbs then you have done more than most people would have dreamed. Very well done.
 
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BigBenny said:
First, you look great right now and you will turn heads at the beach. No one is truly happy with their bodies, due to human nature and societies obsession with the perfect (most likely airbrushed) bodies. Believe me when I say that you have a great body and should be proud of your progress.

With that said, if it is your goal to lose those extra stubborn pounds (for whatever reason you may have), then you need to push your body to the extreme. As long as you are eating five or six times a day and the right stuff, then the focus should be on your workout.

Try high intensity cardio, such as sprints. This will rev up your metabolism like you would not believe, because it mixes anaerobic with aerobic exercise. It is great for shedding those last stubborn pounds. Also, weight lift at higher intensity. Do sets of 8-12 (it should be a struggle to get that last one) reps, resting no more than 60 seconds in between. You heart rate will stay in the fat burning zone and your body will become lean and toned.

Keep up the good work. I did not see your before pictures, but if you weighed 250lbs then you have done more than most people would have dreamed. Very well done.
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I am proud of the progress I've made. I'm healthy now, but I'm still not where I would like to be. I still disgust myself every time I look in the mirror and I don't want this to happen anymore; I just want to be happy.

Right now I'm doing interval sets on the treadmill for my cardio. Would sprinting give me better results? I am sprinting during my intervals and then returning to an 8 minute mile pace to recover, but should I just sprint the whole time?

Also, as for weight lifting I do 20-25 reps, with the last few being a real struggle. I then do about 4 sets of these reps. Would 8-12 at an even higher weight yeild better results? I'm really struggling with the current weight I'm lifting, so I'm not sure how much more I could lift.

Thank you for supporting me; I really appreciate it :) I physically got rid of all of the old pictures of myself, which would be why you haven't seen any before pics. They were too painful for me to keep. I realize I've come a long way, but I really just want to have an awesome body, not just an average one.
 
No intervals. It keeps your body guessing and creates a bigger increase in your body's oxygen consumption post excercise, which means that your metabolism stays up longer and higher even after exercise. Solid state cardio is a joke because your body will addapt and then not get the same benefit. With intervals you can got 1 min sprints, 45 sec sprints, 2 min sprints etc and keep mixing it up every 4 weeks. Trust me

For weight lifting you need to be doing more compund movements that incorporate many muscle groups i.e squats, bench press, bent over row vs isolating excercises such as tricep push down. Keep your reps right around 8 to 10 and do supersets.

I think you may have a pretty good manual in your hands, just give it a go for 4 weeks ;)
 
jdyahoo said:
No intervals. It keeps your body guessing and creates a bigger increase in your body's oxygen consumption post excercise, which means that your metabolism stays up longer and higher even after exercise. Solid state cardio is a joke because your body will addapt and then not get the same benefit. With intervals you can got 1 min sprints, 45 sec sprints, 2 min sprints etc and keep mixing it up every 4 weeks. Trust me

For weight lifting you need to be doing more compund movements that incorporate many muscle groups i.e squats, bench press, bent over row vs isolating excercises such as tricep push down. Keep your reps right around 8 to 10 and do supersets.

I think you may have a pretty good manual in your hands, just give it a go for 4 weeks ;)
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lol I do! I just need to start incorporating all the good stuff in the manual :) Thanks again for giving it to me! I started incorporating some more compound movements into my routine, like box squats and bench press. You don't think I'll get too muscular with just 8-10 supersets? lol I just don't want to look like a man! Thanks for the continued support. You're awesome ;)
 
Stefani said:
You don't think I'll get too muscular with just 8-10 supersets? lol I just don't want to look like a man! Thanks for the continued support. You're awesome ;)
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You will not get "too muscular" or "look like a man" doing 8-10 reps with a heavier weight. You'll get much more out of your workout if you're using heavier weights so definitely do that! :)

Don't worry about getting "huge" or "bulky". It's pretty much impossible for women to do that like a man can because they lack testosterone mainly. So starting pumping some iron! That "toned" look will arrive sooner if you're really stressing the muscles....20-25 reps of a lighter weight doesn't have the same effect. More stress equals a greater response by your muscles to adapt and get stronger! :)
 
aravind82 said:
You will not get "too muscular" or "look like a man" doing 8-10 reps with a heavier weight. You'll get much more out of your workout if you're using heavier weights so definitely do that! :)

Don't worry about getting "huge" or "bulky". It's pretty much impossible for women to do that like a man can because they lack testosterone mainly. So starting pumping some iron! That "toned" look will arrive sooner if you're really stressing the muscles....20-25 reps of a lighter weight doesn't have the same effect. More stress equals a greater response by your muscles to adapt and get stronger! :)
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Thanks! I'll make sure to adjust my work out routine accordingly! I sent you a message by the way; I don't know if you got it. I'm sorry I accidentally deleted your last message! I really didn't mean to! If you could send it again that would be great, but I don't know if you kept it.

I appreciate your advice!
 
Stefani said:
I sent you a message by the way; I don't know if you got it. I'm sorry I accidentally deleted your last message! I really didn't mean to! If you could send it again that would be great, but I don't know if you kept it.

I appreciate your advice!
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Yea I did get your message. I kinda forgot what all I said the other day so it's no big deal now. :)
 
AMAZING. your pictures give me hope that my body will eventually tone up..I hope!

Did you have any issues with like stretchmarks and extra skin? Also did you have any issues with your boobs firming up? I went from a 38 D to a 34 C..and I sometimes I can wear a B. I don't mind having smaller boobs because it will eventually be proprotionate..I just wish they would firm up..I just wondered if anyone else that had lost alot of weight had the same issues.

Thanks..and again AMAZING results..you should be SO proud..you are gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! And quite honestly Id prefer to have your body over that model girl..I think she is too skinny and all the "imperfections" are airbrushed out anyway!
 
You look great!!
And congrats on your weight loss, you must be sooo damn proud :D
how did you lose the weight? Food-wise and exercise-wise? I want to lose 20 pounds, but its just been so difficult. *sigh
if you also have any tips, please share!! :) keep rockin it girl!
 
Think I can speak fr most of the guys on here --- your hot right now ... you really dont need to lose any more weight for anyone else ..... if you want to lose more for yourself than that is absolutely fine - but dont think you have to.

If guys are not approaching you its probably becuase they are intimidated - I probably would assume you are already taken and not bother...great job on your loss
 
I would like you to tell me how much left I need to lose in order to look good at the beach this summer. Also, it would be really helpful if anyone told me how to lose the rest of my weight.
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You're joking, right? You already look great in a bikini! I could stare at those pics all day! umm.... uh... I mean... good work keep it up! :)

Seriously though, it doesn't matter what I or anyone else thinks. You have to be happy with yourself. Its ok to be self-critical and recognize the room for improvement, but its another thing to be overly critical. I would say the pic of your "goal figure" that you posted is baing way overcritical and setting up some unrealistic expectations. That figure does not look like a healthy goal anyone should be striving for. Anyways, if I had to choose between her and you, I'd choose you! Just sayin...

I've heard its tough to keep going once you get close to your goal weight, although I've never been there myself. Basically, from what I've always understood, most peoples bodies aren't designed to go below 15% fat or so, so you've really got to focus on the things that burn fat and build/maintain muscle, from what I understand. I've heard good things about HIIT and heavy weight lifting. High intensity interval training is said to be a better fat burner than regular cardio because the effects continue post workout. But its not for everyone, and its not something you can do every day. Heavy weight lifting doesn't mean body building, it means doing more full body exercises that work muscle groups rather than individual muscles, in weights that you can do 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps. You won't build much if any muscle mass unless you're gaining weight, but while you lose, you're body realizes it needs to keep that muscle and instead burns more fat, or so I understand. There are some good stickies around that give much more information than I have given here.

Another option you might consider is to switch to maintenance mode for a few months. It should be an easy thing to do because, well, you're not going to be trying to lose weight your whole life, but when you get to your goal, you're not just going to stop doing everything and go back to how you were before, were you? You need to do maintenance the rest of your life. So that doesn't mean eat whatever you want and stop working out, that means upping your calories to maintenance level, and maybe scaling back your workout routine to something you could see yourself doing the rest of your life. For a 160 active woman, you should be able to eat 2400 calories a day to maintain your current weight. If you've been aggressively trying to lose weight, your body may have adjusted to a low calorie intake, so your body may not be burning as much as it should be, making it harder to lose weight even though you think you're on a deficit. Going to maintenance is sort of like hitting the reset button. After a couple months, your body readjusts to a higher calorie intake, so its a little easier to lose when you cut your calories and try to lose again.

You might also consider picking a new cardio exercise. (Not to say that cardio is the be-all end-all of weight loss - in fact, I have a theory that cardio exercise contibutes very little to my weight loss, if you consider 2 important things that A) the number on the machine isn't really the extra calories you're burning because you need to consider that your body would burn some ammount of calories during that time whether you're exercising or not, and B) If you're more tired after working out and don't move as much afterwards (even subconscious things like bouncing your leg) then your body isn't burning as much the rest of the day as it would have had you not worked out, thus negating the calories you thought you burned. Whereas, the reason HIIT is said to work better is that for a time after your workout, even while you rest your body is still burning calories at a rate higher than when you're normally resting, and its those calories burnt that contributes more to weight loss. But I Disgress, I continue to do cardio anyways because it makes me feel good, like I'm acomplishing something, and keeps me motivated to watch what I'm eating (I don't want to ruin my workout by eating junk food)). But At one point my body seemed to be getting used to running, where I felt like I needed at least 5 miles to even get a workout it. Switching to sprinting or intervals might have been good for me then, or even something completely different like biking. Something that felt hard for a reasonable workout time like 35 minutes. Lately, I've been using an excercise bike as my cardio, but its a little more controlled than running. When it gets easy, I can up the resistance for the same amount of time, where as when running gets easy, its hard to just "run harder" and easier to "run longer", at least until time constraints kick in.

As a final though, you should feel good about what you've acomplished, and not be ashamed at all to flaunt that body around the beach in a bikini. At the same time, be glad that you still feel like you have to lose, because that means you are still motivated to continue. Complacency is the worst that can happen, when you feel like you've made it and you don't need to work hard anymore, its all too easy to see your progress disappear, and possibly then some. I've seen it happen to myself too many times.

Congrats on your acomplishments, and good luck the rest of the way!
 
You are gorgeous. You look so radiant and beautiful.

If I had your body I would be hitting the beach NOW! If I look anywhere near that good at 160lb I'll be thrilled!
 
You are on fire like your hair color :] Keep up the amazing job beautiful but dont lose to much weight your amazingly beautiful to begin with. ( Not even being nice just the truth )
 
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