:hug: One, I've worked up to this. ;) My baseline of activity is spinning M/W/F and lifting T/TH. Because it is so routine for me now, my body has gotten quite used to it. It's not hard at all. Therein lies the problem. So the other stuff is kind of like I'm just starting out. I have a really solid cardio base already so honestly, this is hard, but it isn't impossible. And I'm not super woman. ;) I've just built up to this.

Two, you can do this without a gym. :D Well, not this exactly, but why would you want to? You need to start wherever YOU are. I did it at home before joining a gym. The only thing I NEED the gym for is my Spin class. Even at the gym I use almost entirely free weights. For cardio, I started out by running around and around my ping pong table. :D I ran a mile, according to Wii Fit. I also took advantage of snow and ran up and down our backyard hill in the snow. That was the hardest workout I have ever done! You can run up and down stairs. I used to do High Intensity Interval Training at home by jogging around the ping pong table for 60 seconds and then running as fast as I could up and down the stairs 30 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. The. Best. Workout. hands down.

Without a gym, you just have to be a little more creative.

Well I have a personal trainer and she is wonderful no doubt. I go to her once a week. She herself lost 175lbs so she is a real inspiration. She always encourages me. I just now am coming out of a pretty harsh 6-7 months of pretty bad depression. She was very kind to me through it all because I had NO ambition to hardly get out of bed none the less go to her!!!! But I made that once a week commitment no matter what...always was glad I went even though I gained weight during my depression.

Now I feel better than life, now just want my weight to COME OFF for Gods sake UGH UGH UGH UGH it's enough for me already!

You have inspired me. My trainer goes to spinning classes maybe I will ask her tomorrow what it will take for me to join in with her!! They can't be that expensive I wouldn't think anyway!

I do this in an actual bootcamp located around my house (which I missed this morning) and it feels great to work your hardest and then take a much-deserved break. I'm totally in! Our plans change from day to day, so I can't post exactly what we're doing but I can tell you it's intense.

That would be awesome! I'd love to see what you do!

you've just described my body also. Seriously, all I have to do is visualize a bowl of ice cream and I gain and extra chin. I don't know what it is. If i eat out of the normal 1500 in any capacity, I will see it on the scale.

I'm in, but my idea of bootcamp is a lot less rigorous than yours, I think ;)

MWF I'll increase my time on the bike to 45 minutes of moderately to hard riding (my knee is bugging me, so this may be subject to adjustment with a lighter load if need be)

T/Thur will be three miles walks with WATP videos. I'll add in strength training in place of the videos in a few more weeks, I think.

Eating, same as normal plan except with a focus on more protein and less carbohydrates. I am not as balanced on that as I want to be.


Let's go ladies! Yay!

Is it bothering you BECAUSE of the bike? If so, you may try raising your seat. I couldn't believe what a difference that makes. I have to have mine so high when I ride outside it's hard to get on! :yikes:

Ugh. I thought I was the only one. I've just come off of two weeks with my cals below 1200 although I was only doing 50 minutes of cardio daily.

I thought I'd jump start the old pump, but nada-- in fact, in the second week bounced UP-- couldn't possibly be a "real gain" but it was definitely real discouraging.

I went off track over the holidays and ate 1600-1900 every day.

Back on the super low-cal plan today and I was STARVING ALL DAY.

I'm not going to join in the boot camp, as I know I don't have enough hours in the day, but I'll join in DAILY EXERCISE and TIGHT CONTROL.

Gosh, I've been doing some reading on metabolic slowdown in people who do a lot of cardio while restricting calories severely. Maybe some of you folks would like to do a search on it and see what you find...

Jay

I eat 1,000 calories a day and run 3 miles six days a week.
My weight is dropping just as it was when I ate more- but I feel better.
For some bodies more calories cause weird sluggish feelings.
Every body is different.

Edited to add: Sorry I jumped into this thread, I just get upset when people suggest that
lower calories and cardio will somehow destroy your body.

kaala you said it yourself though, every body is different.

it's not to say that isn't true for some people.

Just because you don't like an idea doesn't mean it isn't true. And conversely, just because you do like an idea doesn't mean it is true.

You have to check out the studies that are available. And even after that, you have to decide whether those studies apply to you. They may not!

I'm just saying that in my opinion, and speaking just for myself, given a choice between eating 1500 calories/day and eating 1000 calories/day, with the same amount of exercise, and losing weight on either one of them--why would you not want to eat 1500 calories? :dunno:

And if there is some danger that your metabolism will shift in such a way that you may have to eat 1000 calories a day the rest of your life to maintain your weight, why would you not take a different approach?

I see even in this thread people saying they ate really low calories for a month or two while exercising but they actually gained weight. Well, what is that telling you about low calories and high exercise?

Everyone is free to do what they want, of course! But it's always good to be informed. Do some research--and I mean the serious kind, not the "articles" on some sales-oriented site, and not the opinions of non-expert posters on these forums--even mine!

Off my soap box now. :soap:

Jay

I want to address calories for a minute. ;) I was going to quote the above several posts, but I'll just jump in this way.

I guess I consider myself my own experiment, as we all do. I try something and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I was gaining/maintaining at 1200 calories. So I dropped them. That seemed logical. Now I'm just maintaining. And I'm tired. I'm back to needing a vitamin for energy.

So I decided to change the way I eat and increase the calories back to 1200. I do very well on 1200 even with intense exercise and I do not deprive myself to the point of feeling ill. If I feel ill, I eat. Changing the way I eat means the timing of it, which tends to make a significant difference for me. Instead of working out on an empty stomach, I eat first. Then I eat breakfast after my workout. I figure this starts up my metabolism. Additionally, I am front loading my calories, so I am eating more in the mornings and afternoons and less for dinner, cutting myself off around 6:00.

Anyway...

Yesterday went well, except I didn't get to swim. I think swimming is going to be a pipe dream. :rolleyes: As if I can get away from home. LOL! But I did walk on the treadmill at an incline of 10 :carrot: while watching some shows. So I did what I said I was going to do.

How did yesterday go for all of you?

ETA: Getting up at 4:40 AM is not easy!!! This challenge can't end soon enough!

I agree, I tend to switch things up and see what works.

I'm trying to ignore the scale right now because it's TOM. :( I accidently threw away my birth control and didn't get a refill until it snuck up on me. augh. (If I"m not taking bc TOM comes. it's more like time of whenever it feels like it though, as I have pcos and am not regular in the least. I run my packs together now though so I only get TOM 4 times a year if all goes as it should. Sometimes it doesn't.)

Anyhow, today was great, I was hurty, but I had therapy and I decided to walk. (about a 25 min walk...in the rain.) because I feel like by the time I get to the bus stop I'm halfway there so....might as well go the full way. so it was a 50 min walk there and back.

Later I'm gonna do some upper body stuff cuz my legs and butt are DYING from the kinect your shape nivea workout I did the other day. Oh man, the pain... lol.

Hopefully by wed I can do lower body again. heh. I think the walking even though sore helped though. I try not to let the soreness stop me entirely. I just back off a little and still do stuff in that area. Sometimes apparently, walking is all I can handle. ha.

I did good on food and water. :)

My exercise is not as "bootcamp" as some of yours but it seems like alot to me. :) Two days down and it is going well. I think with a couple more days and I will be back in the groove.

Back to the calorie discussion, I have to eat 1200 to lose. That is as low as I am willing to go for any length of time so when my weight levels out, I will be at goal.