Ok, I haven't posted in a loooong time. (In fact, I couldn't remember my acct. info.) I have been gone a while, but for good reasons. Long story short, major life changes happening. In the last 5 months I started substituting excercise for food in the stressful points and have lost 40 lbs. in the last 5 months. I also started dating my long-term best friend of 2 yrs. He lives several states away and now I'll finally get to see him in Feb.!!! SO excited, but extremely nervous! I weigh 189 lbs. and have had 3 kids... he has a 6-pack. No pressure. Of course he doesn't care what I weigh, or the effects that having kids (not to mention 3 of them!) have had on my body, but I do! I eat 6 small-ish meals all day and workout a bit inconsistently (due to a lack of direction, lol). I feel I've hit a plateau and could use some direction in the excersice scheduling department. HELP! I hear some ppl say cardio everyday, and others every other, and I'm so confused. I do full-body work every other day, and cardio is hit-and-miss lately, but was everyday for about the first 4 months. Hearing some insight and experience would be great!

Well, cardio and resistance work do different things. I really suggest using both. Cardio burns immediate calories, and helps you build cardiovascular health and stamina. It can also give you a quick metabolism boost, a shot of endorphins, and suppress hunger. Resistance training, on the other hand, works over the long-term. It burns calories, too, don't get me wrong; but its main benefits come from the creation of new muscle mass, which burns more calories at rest than does fat.

You say you're regular on resistance work, but you don't give much info about your cardio. What are your preferences? Are you a walker, a runner, a swimmer, a biker? Do you do dance, aerobics? Once we know that, people can give you more specific help.

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On a personal note, you are in almost the exact situation I was in three years ago. This time of year, three years ago, I was getting ready to go out and see an old and dear friend who had moved out of state, after we'd re-connected online and discovered a new attraction between us. We're about to celebrate our third anniversary...so I wish you as much luck with yours as I had with mine!

This was a good question, I was confused about cardio and weight training. I didn't know if because I'm so heavy right now, if I should stick with cardio only until some weight comes off, then add weight training? I remember light years ago when I worked out at a gym, a good friend of mine always was upset when he'd see over weight people lifting weights, because he said they needed far more cardio. I have a recumbent bike that is my cardio for now.
Oh well, just curious about the same stuff.
Goodluck on your journey and congrats on the relationship news!

Frequency? I'm going to post some quick info and send you all to read in the exercise and Ladies who lift threads. Read all the stickies and anything else you have time for. It'll make ya smart!

I like Tom Venuto and Bill Phillips and Pamela Peeke and this is what I've gleaned from them ... Cardio can be done everyday, every other ... some is better than none ... regular is better than sporatic ... and some added oomph is best.
Weights? Muscle grows stronger as it heals from use. Therefore a muscle must rest after you've worked it ... I think 48 hours is best.

Everybody has muscles ... why not work to make then healthier even if they are covered in fat? A healthy muscle uses calories even at rest. It all helps with fat burning.

Now go read what the real smart people have to say

Welcome back!

Definitely do the weight training and not just cardio! The "only cardio if you are overweight" concept is pretty outdated. Building muscle will cause you to burn more calories and thus fat while just vegging on the couch... gotta' love that. More muscle mass boosts your metabolism over the long term. In terms of weight lifting... a particular muscle does have to rest about 48 hours to heal. To get around this, weightlifters rotate which muscle groups they work on a given day. You can do chest one day then legs the next day and arms/back the next with no problems. Don't worry about becoming bulky... it is extremely difficult to gain significant amounts of muscle, especially for women. You might want to check out a structured program like Body for Life (Bill Phillips). If you are already in the habit of exercising, it is a really great program that will whip your body into amazing shape. Women who lift are the ones who end up toned and muscular in bikinis at their goal weight rather than just a smaller but still overfat version of themselves. Go check out the Ladies Who Lift forum, as was recommended.

Ok, so the weight loss on my ticker is actually from the last 5 mos... what I've been doing is really watching what I eat (even in the unfortunate addiction to pop, only 1 per day if that). I do cardio everyday except Sun. when I get to be a lazy slug lol (oh, and this is a new thing too). I do resistance training every other day splitting my workouts. Which means, for instance, 20 mins. of cardio followed by 20 mins. of upperbody weight training, followed by stretching in the morning. At night/afternoon I do 20 mins. of cardio and 10 min. of lowerbody weight training, again followed by stretching. I'm sore, but the omg so good kinda sore.

I think I should mention that I get bored with routines QUITE easily, so I do new excercises every once in a while for the same muscle groups. Also, I forgot to mention that my cardio is dancing for the most part, I also enjoy running and walking (now that I'm light enough to handle it better). I put on some club mixes and just let loose. Bellydancing/the Snake is also a favorite of mine.

Well I wish you luck in your relationship. I had a near similar experience kind of. My DH and I worked together for many years, he had known me at my highest weight and then he went off to pursue another career that he didn't enjoy. So then he came back to work for our company but in the process he moved 1600 miles away. Although we had kept in touch when he was off in another career, it was very sparse. When he came back, we became close friends and I had lost 75 lbs or so but he didn't know that. So anyway, we fell in love long distance and coming together was hard but I knew he had known me at my highest weight. Should I mention he is a slim guy? 140 lbs at 5' 11''. So I understand your nervousness but go with it.

I would recommend reading something like Body For Life to get some direction on how to best use weights to your advantage.

lol, funny you should mention that, my guy is a whopping 150 lbs. at 5'11"