Hi there,

I am been lurking for the last few day and was hoping that one of you could possibly help or guide me as you all seem to have such great knowledge on fitness. I have been on LA weight loss now since January 2007 and have managed to lose close to 50lbs. I still have 30 lbs to reach my goal of 145. I do want to start incorporating exercise in my life again, but I do need the time and motivation. When I first started out, I was very loyal and would get up at least 4 days a week to either go on my elliptical or my recumbenent bike, for at least 30 minutes a day, but I have been slacking off big time since my trip to Punta Cana in July. In actual fact I have been the same weight since the day before my trip fluctuating between 172-175lbs. I am tiered of plateauing and I need to get myself together again. With this being said, I do have an elliptical machine, a recumbent bike and a treadmill. Also, I do have dumbbells, exercise ball to work with…can you guys please tell me in order to lose weight what I need to do. Ehat type of regimen would assist me in losing weight and reach my goal. How much cardio, how much weight training,??? And when is the best time. Do I do weights before cardio? Please excuse my ignorance in this matter as I really need direction and help. I would love to go to a gym but money is tight and in all fairness I do have all the equipment to make it work here I just need some guidance and all your support as you all seem like a great group of people. Any help, suggestions would be helpful. Also should I be eating a certain amount of calories, and how many calories to I need to burn? I am 37 years old, 5”4 and weigh 173lbs. Please help! Thank you ever so kindly.

Sara

There is a lot of information available but one thing I'd recommend if you've never done weights is to see a personal trainer. Weights are wonderful but form is very important and if you don't know form then you can injure yourself.

There is also a great sticky on this forum that can help
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28891

I agree on the importance of form. If you can't see a trainer, I'd recommend installing a full-length mirror where ever you are going to be working out, or at least doing a few reps in front of a mirror every once in a while to check form. You can usually find pictures of correct form online, and if you are extra vigilant about making sure you are checking your form in the mirror, they can help a lot. Without a mirror, it is really hard to see how your body is positioned, and that can make a big difference in preventing injury.

Also, ANYTHING you are doing more than what you are doing now will help in weight loss. More cardio, more weight lifting - it will all help. I would base your plan more on what you can do than on trying to do things in a certain order or in certain timeframes/amounts...if you really can't go and do cardio after your weights, like some people recommend, it shouldn't stop you from doing the weights - just do them second. I find it so important to focus more on what works for me and less on what "should" be done.

Amanda is right - anything you do is a plus! It doesn't matter when in the day you exercise - find a time that works for YOU. The so-called experts might say early morning is best, but you know what, I just have trouble getting up early enough to exercise before work, so I do it in the evenings. Can't do both weights and cardio in one session? Fine, do it in 2 or 3, or whatever. The only real "rule" here is that you should let the muscles you work rest for 48 hours between sessions. There are a lot of good tips in the stickies at the top of this forum that will point you to different weight routines.

As for motivation, you've noticed that if you sit around and wait for it, you'll spend a lot of time sitting around. Making a commitment to yourself to exercise, and then making a plan as to when you'll do it works better and longer than waiting until you're motivated. After awhile you'll have an exercise habit/routine, and it will be easier to keep up.

Congratulations on your weight loss. Now go out there and get moving! And come back here and visit with us.

You say you have been "slacking off big time" and are "tired of plateuing." To me, these two statements conflict. In my opinion, plateauing means that you have been given a consistent effort toward a goal and despite this effort, progress has stalled. This does not seem to be the case with you according to the first statement. You are not plateauing, you have been, perhaps, unconciously, maintaining. Doing just enough to keep from gaining weight. This is not a bad thing at all. In fact, sometimes taking a break from the weight loss battle is a very good thing. The best thing is you have found your maintenance level and to resume progress to your goal, you just need to create a caloric defecit from that level. It can come from either reducing your caloric intake, increasing your caloric expenditure, or a little from both.

The fact that you have halted the aerobic exercise routine that you had previously done shows that it was not yet fully ingrained as part of your lifestyle which hints to me that either you really did not enjoy it in the first place or you were bored with it. I believe that's where the key lies. Keeping it fresh and enjoyable.

Have you tried interval training?

When you did your 30 minutes, did you just do 30 minutes at whatever pace came naturally that day or did you record your distance/resistance levels and aimed for progression?

I would suggest doing 2 days of HIIT on your favorite piece of equipment, and then do 1 "personal record" day on each piece of equipment. (3 PR days total) Do your 30 minutes but try for personal record. You could measure by distance or by the machine's theoretical calories burned. Each time you do one of these personal record workouts, it is a contest in which you need to beat your previous best distance/calories burned.

At least for me, When I am just "putting in my 30 minutes of cardio" the clock can seem to go excruciatingly slow and the 30 minutes seems to last forever, but when I am racing the clock, trying to establish a new record distance, that clock seems to speed up on me.

I would take at least one day totally off from cardio, if you want to take two days off that is OK too. If you just want to do a sixth day, I would either do another PR day on one of the machines or just do a day where you get on any machine or multiple machines you feel like and go at whatever pace you feel like for as long as you feel like, whether it is 5 minutes or 2 hours. This is an "anything goes day."

Hopefully, these ideas will help keep things fresh and enjoyable.

As for the resistance training, other than to say, by all means you should be doing it, it is hard to make any recommendation beyond that because all we know is that you have dumbells but don't even know if it is 2 dumbells of equal weight, adjustable dumbells, or a set of dumbells. Knowing exactly what you have, would change the suggestions/ideas dramatically.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. When I said I was slacking off I mean as far as exercising. As for being on LA weight loss I can honestly say that I have been on plan and I am plateauing.With this been said, I am human and obviously I hae had the odd cheat here and there but never have gone on a binge, lets just say my cheat would be to eat regular dressing as oppose to ff dressing...nothing drastic. As far as the dumb bells I have at home, I have different sets of hand weights, 2lbs 5lbs and 10 lbs. So do you all recommend that I do weight training prior to cardio? I am so sorry for asking so many questions. I also noticed mention of Body for Life, are most of you on this program? IF so is it easy to follow for someone like me? I just want to lose this 30 lbs...I do need help.

Thanks again.

If you mean should you do weights before cardio in the same session, the standard answer is yes, though you should warm up with some cardio (5-10 min) to get your muscles warm. If you mean in the general scheme of things, like adding one now and one later, I'm not sure you'll get a definite answer. There are advantages to both, and advocates for either side.

I understood that you only slacked off on the exercise, but when your nutrition stays the same and the exercise decreases the caloric difference shifts. In your case, it seems that your exercise was bringing you into a caloric deficit and without the exercise you have found yourself at a virtual energy balance. Again, this is not a bad thing. In fact, when you resume an exercise routine, you will once again be expending more calories than you are taking in and your "plateau" will be broken.

Anyway, I agree with WaterRat, do the resistance training prior to cardio. The reason is simple. Resistance training relies on glycogen for energy. Cardio primarily uses fat, but also uses glycogen. Doing cardio first would diminish the energy available for your resistance training and would cause you not to be able to give as intense an effort. The more effort you can give, the greater stress you put on the muscle, and hence the greater adaptive response you will get.

Body for Life is an excellent program to get started with (although it is certainly not just for beginners) It is fairly simple and straightforward. What I really like about it for beginners is that it is allows for plenty of recovery time (and most beginners do not recognize the importance of recovery) and it works through a wide range of reps giving the beginner plenty of feedback on what type of reps they enjoy most and their body responds to most.

I'm confident that you will see the scale start moving downward again.