Loosing weight and getting toned.

JoeyRamos

New member
Hey guys I'm new to this forum.? I'm really inspired by all the weight loss stories on here. Especially Sparks.

I'm 19 years and I'm about 60 pounds over weight. I've already lost about 15 pounds in the past four months. I currently weigh 210. I want to take it to the next step and loose 25 more pounds. But I want to do it the right way. I don't want to loose muscle mass. The first 15 pounds i lost was just from hiking and running. So can anyone give me some tips on how I should set up my work out routine. Should I add strength training and Cardio. Also do you think i'll get saggy skin if I loose 60 pounds

Thanks : ) Hope to here from you guys.
 
You're still pretty young, so the sagging thing may not be a huge issue.

I'm not the best person to explain it, but you need to lift heavy enough weights to get your body to maintain it's muscle mass. I think it has something to do with the adaptation process. Protein synthesis vs degradation.

Interval training is generally recommended for efficient cardio, rather than steady state. But strictly speaking, cardio isn't necessary for weight loss (it is advisable for heart health, though).

I recommend doing some searching around here (particularly Steve's posts) and online for more information. But basically, heavy weights are good, cardio is good but not necessary, oh, and nutrition will be key, too.
 
On strength training, here's a good explanation (taken from someone's response to me) on how to think about repetitions:

Amy, 12 reps is in the middle of the "bodybuilding" range and is far from low reps, your trainer seems to have been sucked into the toning myth.

by training with heavy weights at low reps you build strength through improved nerve response where as in the mass building range the strength gains come more from hypertrophy.

do you have someone who can show you good form on the key free weight exercises (squat, deadlift) ? leg curls and leg extensions are a generally poor choice.

the basic guideline is as follows regardless of whether your male or female

1 rep max is the maximum weight you can lift for a singe rep

Max Strength and power with small size gains for an advanced lifter
2-6 reps for 1-6 sets at 85-95% of 1 rep max

Max Strength and power with small size gains for an intermediate lifter
4-8 reps for 2-3 sets at 70-85% of 1 rep max

Max size Gains moderate strength gains
8-15 reps for 1-5 sets at 60-70% of 1 rep max

Muscular Endurance
15+ reps for 2-3 sets at 50-75% of 1 rep max

As for what kind of exercises to do, she recommended this site for form, and I discovered they have a template for working out weights: Workout Creation Instructions (as to which ones you should do, I'll defer- hopefully she or someone else who knows what they're talking about will come along and offer better advice)
 
My humble advise would be to do less cardio and more power workouts and lose weight very very slowly if you do not want to lose muscle at that point.
Even though you are still young and you can get the muscle back easily after you've lost weight, more muscle means better metabolism so easier weight loss :)
Where you're standing it's a win-win with strength workouts I think!
 
Hey, thanks for your kind words!

I'm no expert but what I did, was I went to L.A fitness gym (I don't recmomend it, at least the ones where I live. I've had stuff stolen from that gym, and the other one was just as bad. People leave weights everywhere...stuff is missing. anyway..)

Signed up, they wouldn't give me a workout plan unless I signed up for their personal training. Eventually I convinced them that I felt this was ridiculous, a basic workout plan, nothing more, or else I'd just not sign up for their gym. Well, one of the guys didn't mind and gave me a workout plan. I'm not sure how good it was, looking back I don't think it was ideal. It did use some machines, some free weights, it had squats in them, no deadlift though. It's better to rely on free weights, from what I've learned.

Basically it was a 5 x a week workout plan, one major muscle gruop a day. Like chest, back, shoulders, etc. I think it's better though to give your body a rest in between to restore the muscle better. Also I bought a bicycle and did alot of cardio to aid the weight loss. I'd ride to the gym and back and get my cardio on the way there and back. I lifted pretty heavy, and made sure I got enough protein (1 gram protein/1 lb body weight). I also watched my diet.
 
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