[happybug]

Exercise-wise I do very little. When I exercise I tend to lose weight slower and sometimes gain instead. Diet is very important in my weight loss. WW works for me, because I don't have to deprive myself. I keep healthy food and snacks in the house, finish off a meal with something sweet if I feel like it, and keep a food diary every day, so that I don't go over my points. I've stopped eating fast food, and shop every few days for fresh fruit and veg.

[ksails]

Originally Posted by kandyrews

Thanks for all your input. Right now, what I'm doing is 35 minutes of walking with different inclines up to 6.0 and then also mixing walking with jogging every 4 minutes. Running is so hard. It's been a long time since I've ran and my knees bother me as well as the muscles in my shins, so I'm trying to ease into it gradually and slowly. I lift light weights with high reps and do a few exercises 2-3 times a week. I keep my calories under 1350 a day. I eat healthy all day, then eat a regular dinner with portion control. I have two cups of coffee in the mornings in which I cut out the sugar. I drink water all day. And I eat clementines and almonds for snacks.

be careful of running with your knees hurting! One of the first things my Dr. told me when i started losing was do not put stress on your knees, if they hurt at all get in the pool and walk, or run. I did water arobics and water running for the first 6 months of my weightloss journey, and it worked great. My knees are strong now, and they never hurt. You can burn good calories wlking slowly with a big incline.. 2 mph at a 15% incline is good to start and do it for 10 mins, or however long you can make yourself, then lower it to 5% for 5 mins.. if you do intervals for an hour you can burn a ton of calories and it is so much easier on your knees. Take care and be careful.

i would seriously advise you not to do light weights with lots of reps. you won't get much benefit from that and you really do open up a world of possibility in the repetitive strain injury department.

for large muscle groups, stick in the 8-12 rep range (where the weight you choose allows you to do absolutely no more than 12 reps) and for smaller groups, 12-15 although even that is pushing it for me - i don't go over 12 reps for anything at all because my joints loosen up way too much.

that's also why i never stretch before a workout - if i do, it grosses everybody at the gym listening to my shoulders and hips clicking and popping with every movement and it's also far too easy to hurt myself. i do 3-5 warmup sets instead (warmup sets are never done to exhaustion).

eg, for my benchpress, my working sets are usually 145 - 155lbs but that's not at all your option (i prefer powerlifting); at 155, i can only do 3 reps and my 1rep max is 175.

so a typical workout *for me* would be:

warmup set #1: just the bar with a smooth, rhythmic, continuous motion until everything feels warm and flushed with blood. could be 10 reps, might take 20.

warmup set #2: just the bar, but this time it's more intense - i power the bar up so it's almost lifting off my hands at the top of the rep, then grip hard and, flexing all muscles possible, bring it down for a count of ten. this will be anywhere from 8 to 10 reps.

warmup set #3: 65lbs - 10 reps

warmup set #4: 95lbs - 8 reps

warmup set #5: 115lbs - 6 reps

then into my 3 working sets.

for smaller muscles, same idea for 1 and 2 but then after that, it's usually only one more step-up before i hit my working weight (you don't get a lot of wiggle room for bicep curls or tricep extensions).

my whole workout has me out of the gym in less than an hour, lots of energy for the rest of the day, and visible results very quickly.

if you're interested, i can send you the link to where i found it.

[kandyrews]

Right now I walk 35 minutes with an incline up to 6.0 and it does show that I burn just as many calories than when I used jogging intervals. I haven't been back on my treadmill in two weeks because I've been sick, but when I was my knees seemed to be better, they didn't bother me as much. I'm not really a water person. But yes, maybe I should stick to walking for a while. As far as lifting heavier weights. I don't belong to a gym. I lift at home and all I have are 3, 5 and 12 pd weights, that's all I can afford right now.