Workout and Fitness Advice!!! (long post)

Hi everyone,


I am in desperate need of advice about my workout. First off, I have been working out for about 3 years regularly. However, when I get busy with school, my workout slips. At any rate, I was fairly fit in high school. I only got sort of sedentary in college.

But, in grad school, I have "tried" to get in better shape. At any rate, I have never been the classical small frame girl. In fact, I am a large-frame 5'2 person that weighs 247 pounds. I don't exactly look as if I weigh that much. However, I want to lose pounds, but instead my body tones and drops inches. I never lose mass amounts of pounds. That's not necessarily a problem. But, I tend to put on weight easily and would like to lose it as well as inches...

With all that said, this is my current workout regimen. I am a walker and tend to prefer it to running (don't want to damage joints)

I workout for at least 45 minutes-1 hour a day (2x/day). I walk in an interval range from 3.0-4.5(slight jog). That ends up being around 2.2-3 miles (varies).

I also do about 15 minutes of ab work and 10-15 minutes of stretching.

For the days that I workout twice, I will go to the park and walk 2-3 times around the trail, which is approximately 3.3 miles.

As i tend to build muscle VERY quickly, I do weights 2-3 times a week. But, I wanted to lose some weight to show the muscle that I alreay have and not build anymore.

I have now just added a pilates class twice a week, which am hoping will kick up my routine.

So, any suggestions? I do a lot of activity and I want it to be reflected in my body. Not for vanity sake, but because it helps inspire me.


peace
tryin2Bfit

[Fudomyo]

It sounds like you have a good workout scheme going.

Weight loss appears to be mostly an issue of insulin control. Which just means you have to eat the right things. What's your diet look like?

Fudo

[Lee J B]

No matter what people say , or how much they do it all reverts back to diet , you can do as much as you want in the gym ... but without the diet you aint going nowhere. Also it helps to keep track of yourself .. i know it sounds stupid but if you do this it helps to kick you everytime you see that you have lost weight and gained muscle , think of it as a journey.

My suggestion -- Get that diet going

Welcome to the board, tryin2Bfit. A little advice for you: Take a piece of paper and pencil and write down everything you eat and drink in a normal day. Do this for three days and you will see where you can make changes in your diet to help you lose the excess weight.

Also, if you gain muscle easily, try not to get discouraged about the scale not moving. It is possible that you will lose fat while gaining muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat so that could account for the scale not moving. Given enough time the muscle growth will slow and you will notice the fat loss. Best advice you could have right now is to stop getting on the scale and use body fat measurements instead.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!!!

I did a tally of my diet yesterday and noticed that although I was eating healthy, I was way under on calories. I have approximately 900 calories before dinner.

Here was my breakfast:

breakfast: black beans (1/2 cup) with white rice (1/2 cup)

snack: grapefruit w/ a little sugar
string cheese

lunch: sweet potatoe, spinach

snack: string cheese

dinner: boca burger on wheat

snack: boca chick patty on wheat breat


I had about 96 oz of water yesterday.

I only added the boca burger because I noticed my calories and my protein was way low.

I know this isn't the nutrition board, but what does everyone eat on a typical day?

ONce again, thanks for the advice!!!

[Fudomyo]

Looks pretty good. You could add some fibrous veggies, and strangely enough a tad of fat. Helps slow digestion, and keeps you burning fat all the time. Less bread.

Like this.
Garden salad (oil and vinigar dressing is perfect)
Boca burger on half a wheat / multi grain bun
1/2 cup veggies (anything but carrots and corn) lima, green beens, stir fry mix

Always eat protein, carbs, and some fat with each meal. Don't go nutty eating protein one meal because you forgot earlier.

All my suggestions are to keep your insulin down. Insulin stores nutrients, and keeps you from burning fat. The double whammy.

Hope that helps.
Fudo

[sammo33]

sounds like your doing pretty much everything right.Although at a body weight of 247 lbs. i'd say your protien intake is quite low,i do agree with the post that possibly some fibrous veggies would be beneficial and some added fat. but i would also lower my starchy carbs almost to zero and at the same time supplement with some mct oil, slow at first as mct's kind of upset the stomach.
but as time goes on you could gradually increase to probably 5-6 tablespoons/day wich gives you an extra 600+ calories/day which will fuel workouts and life while letting you burn bodyfat all the while.

[Fudomyo]

mct's ??

Medium Chain Triglycerides. They were developed by a parent (believe or not) whose child was have some sort of trouble with digesting fats and was going to die from it. Here is a link (of course!) on it and its relationship to sports: MCT's