This APPLE wants to change not later, tomorrow or the coming week but NOW! ^^

I

ImDone

0
Current info : 18 years old, 165cm tall, 105kg weight, no underlining health issues and I'm female.
My goal is to get down to 55kg - 65kg in weight in 6 months time. However, I don't want to be a sag ball when I reach my target and want to do it properly. I don't want to look just lean, but defined muscles are desired. So I want to do alot of toning coupled with shedding the pounds in a healthy period of time and I thought 6 months would be realistic. Am I right?

Exercise plan-ish.

I took of this morning on a shopping mission. I hate running, I wouldn't run for a bus even if it meant I'll be late to work or a feast at my favourite restaurant. A substitute for me would be cycling and there for ordered a cycling bike, a real one and a home based cycling bike prior to this post. I thought once I've lost a handsome amount and feel I won't damage my bike or myself , I can take my biking out doors with my dog. I also bought 5lb and 10lb Dumbbell sets. With those I bought 5lb and 10lbs ancle/wrist weights and some puffy mats. Finally, appropiate exercise clothing and few trainers.

Now that I've recovered from my enthusiastic shopping spree, I can't help but feel I've skipped a step. How (safely) and when I'll be using these items...
I am not naive to possible injury and want to avoid it. A source of such info that wasn't garbage would be great or anything you've noticed along your way of becoming fit.

I'm a GO kind of girl and if I put my mind to something I'll see it through with max effort, but I'm not sure if the body thinks that way even if you try to make it. I have never cared about exercising and dieting before last week and never attempted to. My family doctor was my trigger. So, I'd like to make my exercise as intense as possible and let my body adjust. Maybe upto 2 hours a day. 1 hour in the morning and evening. Would you say that a good idea and or not doable? Any reliable links of exercise routines credible in your opinion from experience, I want to know about. Link me please. Would be nice if they included the items I bought.

My diet.


Here is what my last shopping list looked like. I'm hoping it can support my exercise, what do you think? Anything I should change?

Veg : Sprouts, avocados, spinich, tomatos, sweet potato, green & brown lentils. (I plan to change two each week)

Fruit : Orange ,pears, bananas, kiwis, peaches and mangos. (I plan to switch 2 for new veg each week also)

Protein: Canned Sardines in falvoured oil, chicken, prowns & salmon. (fixed because I don't like red meat)

Carbohydrtes: Cereal which contains juicy raisins, roasted hazelnuts, almonds, rolled oats and crispy wheat flakes. No bread/flour/pastries/butter etc.

Drinks : Blue milk and water.


Prepaired In the morning or the day before and only requires heating. Does the time between cooking your food and consuming it affect their nutritional value. Example of what I'd consume daily.

Breakfast: Cereal, milk, cup of water and 1 fruit.
Snack: Water/fruit.
Lunch: Roasted chicken breast & veg with freshly chopped veg. 1 -2 fruit (blended into juice)
Snack: Water/fruit.
Dinner: Prawns and juicey salad and fruit.
Snack: Water.

Saturday lunch can be a junk meal of my choice. Have to share it because of the potion control I have going. Bad idea?


I'd appreciate your advice. Thank you in advance. ^^
 
Hey and welcome to the forum!

It seems that you're off to a pretty enthusiastic start! It looks like you have a good base nutritionally and a good plan to pre-prepare your foods so that they require minimal cooking time throughout your day, which is great. Yes, the time between cooking your food and consuming it does affect the nutritional value, but as long as you eat it within a few days, you are still getting much more nutrition overall than if you opted for fast food or pre-packaged junk.

As for the exercise, the two main sites that I use for exercise instruction are:

Free Exercises, Exercise Instructions, Custom Workout, Personalized Workout, Ab Exercises, Abdominal Exercises, Training Programs

Exercise & Muscle Directory


My recommendation would be to do a full body weight lifting workout (includes body weight exercises) 3 days per week. Include things like squats, lunges, pushups, overhead presses, deadlifts (obviously not with a barbell if you are doing this at home) and dumbell rows. You can also add things like arm curls, tricep presses, planks, and side planks. I think that you're going to find that your weights will be too light in no time, unfortunately. I'm gonna give you some homework here: look around on the 2 sites that I posted above and see if you can come up with a list of exercises that you feel would be realistic for you to start with. At most you would need somewhere between 8-12 exercises to cover the whole body. Post your list here and we can discuss it and talk about sets and reps :)

Just to comment on the amount of weight you are looking to lose... I would recommend trying to aim for no more than an average of 1 kg per week of weight loss. Some weeks you might lose more, and some weeks maybe less or none at all, but losing 40-50 kg in six months might be a bit to fast if you want to avoid 'sagginess.'
 
Thank you for the welcome. ^^

I'm glad I've got my diet sorted! I've just briefly skimmed through the links you've provided and once I have some free time between uni and work, I'll get started and update you.

A loss of 1kg a week sounds realistic enough, would be a great short term motivator, I think, for me. How long would you say is ideal? A year to 18 month? I have no issue with time, I just want to do it the right way or no other way. No going back. Would be nice to have a deadline to strive for.
 
You're welcome.

I usually recommend gradual dietary changes rather than a complete overhaul, so don't be too hard on yourself at first if you don't follow your plan 100% or if you feel overwhelmed. I'm not a big fan of the 'cheat meal' or 'cheat day' terminology, but I'll usually tell people that if they are making the 'healthy' choice 80% of the time, and allowing 20% of wiggle room, they will tend to feel less guilty if they want a treat or something that they've been craving. It's up to you what percentages you feel are realistic (ie. 90%/10%, 75%/25%), but for most people 80/20 is a vast improvement in their overall diet.

In terms of exercises, I think you'll have the most difficulty working the 'pull' muscles at home (pullups, body rows, etc.) so you might need to be creative with that one :)

Good luck, can't wait to hear how it goes!
 
As PLB said, getting down to ~60kg in 6months is probably too fast if you want to do this right. I've always found that, while it's good to have an end goal in mind, it helps to focus on small steps. I've been putting on weight over the last year to accommodate strength gains - it's resulted in me gaining some muscle, and some fat. Now I'm focusing on getting rid of the excess fat I've accumulated. Like most people, my first month was pretty shakey, what with getting used to the changed amount of food going into my body, and how the body responds to changes in diet up front (people either lose a massive amount of weight up front and then weight loss slows down, or they stay about the same weight for the first month, due to issues such as water retention). Now that I'm about 5-6 weeks in, things are starting to stabilise, and from here on in my goals will be simple:

- Eat enough to maintain and possibly improve strength.
- Eat my fruit and veg.
- Do my strength training.
- Generate enough of a calorie deficit to lose 0.5kg/week.

Now, I don't have as much fat to lose as you do, but you may also find that having a goal for each day and a goal for each week will help keep you on track and doing the right things. In my experience, when I aim to gain/lose X amount of weight in, say 1 month, or 3 months, or whatever, I won't achieve it, partially because the time line is too far away for me to feel urgency to act now. Losing 0.5kg/wk and losing 2kg/month are the same end result, but if I focus on losing 0.5kg/wk for 4 weeks straight, I'm more likely to achieve it - if I focus on losing 2kg by the end of the month, I'm less likely to achieve it.

Given your starting point, I agree that 1kg/wk for you is probably a realistic goal for the time being. By the time you get down to about 80-90kg, you'll probably be looking at something more like 0.75kg/wk, and once you get down to about 70kg, you'll probably be looking at about 0.5kg/wk.

I remember reading an article by Lyle McDonald (a very good resource for information regarding body composition) recommending that every now and again you stop trying to lose weight for 2 weeks straight, and just try to maintain weight during that time. It gives the body an opportunity to reset the hormonal changes that occur in a calorie deficit, helping to get your metabolism back up and running, getting rid of some physical stress, and allowing you to continue on with your diet again, more fruitfully than if you didn't have this planned plateau. I'd do it every 12 weeks or so.
 
Well, if you can resist a "junk meal", it's always a good idea to do so, especially since you don't seem to have a very high metabolism at 231 pounds. I'm not the type of person to be a downer, so I wish you luck. My biggest concern for you is that you will give up.

I know you say you won't now, but after you've worked out for 30 minutes, your mind can start to find excuses and reasons to just drop everything, and quit. If you can break past that for a week, then I think you might have a chance at losing some pounds.

Over 120 pounds in 6 months is going to be a big challenge.

To give you some advice, don't think of the workout as the numero uno way of losing your pounds. Your diet is the majority of it. Oh, and don't let people put you down anymore by judging you by your weight. Don't give up just because people still notice it. Don't assume that everybody is going to know that you're working to lose the weight.

I began working out for muscle mass 2 months ago, which is not long for muscle gaining. It takes a long time to become.. "muscular". I still work out almost every day, but I'm still skinny.

Just today, I was talking to a stranger, and he commented on me being skinny. If I told them I worked out, they probably wouldn't have believed me. It takes time, and you can't expect credit for hard work that you haven't completed yet.

Good luck!
 
Hi! I wanted to wish you good luck, I might not be able to offer you a lot of fitness-related advice, but I think you're on the right way and it's great that you have taken on the challenge of improving your health, body and lifestyle.

I think you should aim for something less daunting than 40 kgs in 6 months, this is a huge amount of weight to lose in such a short time and trust me, setting unrealistic goals will make your journey a lot harder and a lot more disappointing. I suggest setting some smaller goals, nothing's going to happen overnight. Set your goals for your caloric intake and calories burned and try to achieve those even if the cardio will probably be unpleasant at first. Just be prepared, it's going to be difficult keeping up with the new diet and the new exercise program. All that matters is not to forget you motivation and keep going at it, regardless of how hard it seems.

Good luck!
 
Hello again. Sorry for the late reply, I was dealing with some heavy revision for exams. Now that's done and dusted I can start a routine with zero distractions. I really appreciate your comments and am taking them seriously. ^^

requiem -
Set your goals for your caloric intake and calories burned
Click to expand...
Sounds daunting...
I was hoping the reduced portions would do the trick as well as high protein/low saturated fat diet I was going for. I really don't want this to become a daily non-stop obsession


AdamX994 - I wish you the best of luck with your goal and as far as being promted to give up by certain people, not something I've ever (If I may say so boldy) let effect me, my personal life or my education. Yes, I might struggle to start with but I'm positive I'll make it to the other end much more healthier and my doctor happier. For me, not for any one else or to impress any set of people. I'm not sure why I am explaining myself but it feels right.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel as though you are projecting your own feelings and "why's" on to me. If you take a step back and re-evaluate why you are doing this, as far as your goal of becoming more muscular is concerned, you will see clearly what I'm trying to say here. As long as you're doing it for you, then you should have no problem with what any other fella says or does to try and deflate your optimism on purpose or otherwise. Low self esteem and or a negative self image can be viewed as a facade obstacle that seems ever so hard to break through when in reality it can't be any more different. Look into this please, I think it would really help you. If I'm wrong then accept my sincere apology and thank you for the advice. ^^

PLBFitness -
I usually recommend gradual dietary changes
Click to expand...
I don't think that would work for me. I tend to eat what's there. So if it's not there, I won't eat it. A lot more simpler I think. However, I will try the '75%/25%' during the 2 weeks break goldfish mentioned. Sounds like a plan to me. If it doesn't work(so far so good) thenI'll try it your way also.^^

Now, here is some exercises I've tried myself tonight and think would be good to start with. They're from the site you linked me to. I'm not sure if I missed anything. Let me know if I have please. Also, do I have to stretch before I do them or just a 10 minute warm up or something?

Link #1
Side Plank for Abs & Lower Back
Full Body Support

Standing Oblique Stretch
Scissor Kicks (Beginner)
Scissor Kicks (Advanced)
Lying Side Leg Raises

I found these two on youtube, I really like them but I'm not sure if they're alright. What you think?
CrossFit Squat
Lunge/ Split- Squat (really like this one, painful)

Push Ups with Elbows Close to Sides (I can't do this one yet...but hoping to work towards)
Push Ups from Knees ( this one I can do, not sure if it helps much)
Plank with Alternating Leg Lift
Floor Dips

Hip Extensions with Straight/bent Knee

Link #2
Plank Shuffle

Cardio
Burpee
Jumping Jack
(some cycling)

Deadlift
Kettlebell Deadlift
Kettlebell Overhead Rear Lunge
Kettlebell Bent-knee Windmill
Kettlebell Windmill

So far, this is some of what I've tried and liked. Seems a little all over the place to me. Is there a structure you'd suggest I should follow?
 
It sounds like you've got good motivation.
If you want some kind of structure to your routine just try and make sure you have some variations of all these lifts included each week.

Vertical Press (eg military press)
Vertical pull (eg chin ups)
Horizontal Press (eg press ups)
Horizontal pull (eg bent over rows)

Lower pull (eg deadlift)
Lower press (eg squat)

If, as it's been mentioned before, you ever find your enthusiasm dips, just watch this
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top