need workout advice from pros!

[xxt]

Hi All,

Where do I start? I guess my specs and history would be a good place. (Sorry in advance that this is long and detailed - I appreciate your willingness to read and help). I'm 22 y/o female who weighs about 150 lbs. In High School I weighed about 135 forever and *somehow* P) gained 15 pounds throughout 4 years. In the grand scheme of things, not too bad but I did get out of shape. I used to get exercise all the time through dance classes and practice and being a waitress. Now dance is over and I have a sedentary job. I am still confident and like my body but I notice my stomach and thighs especially are becoming problem areas :/

SO my eating has fluctuated between healthy and not. My exercising habits have fluctuated between running 3x's/week and not exercising at all. As per eating, I feel I am in a good place now. I am very health-conscious and have been a vegetarian for about a month. I try to get in whole grains, a lot of fruits, vegetables (not as much as I should but working on it), almonds and protein. I haven't lost any weight since becoming veg*n (figured I would esp. because I haven't a french fry since, a former staple in my diet ) and then it hit me, DUH I haven't been working out at all! So I joined the YMCA and began to work out. Yesterday I worked out for the first time with the membership and I plan on going tonight and a lot there after! Anyway, I feel it is very hard for me to lose weight. I think I'm right at that place where I'm not quite overweight so it's hard to knock the pounds off. However, I feel the weight I am at is unacceptable and not healthy enough for me. That being said, when I ran 3/x a week (for about an hour and a half, run then walk every other lap on intervals) and ate healthy, I lost about 8 pounds then slowly gained it back So there is hope!

Onto my issue...I feel so clueless on what to do in the gym. I read so many contradictory things everywhere. Do intense cardio first. Weight lift first. Do moderate cardio last. Don't do cardio and weightlifting on the same day. You should do at least 20 minutes of cardio. You should do at least 30 minutes of cardio. You should do at least 1 hour of cardio. You get the picture! Ahhh it's so confusing! I want to lose about 15-20 pounds. Ideally, losing body fat and gaining some light muscle would be great. What I did yesterday was about 30 minutes of weight lifting then 25 minutes on the treadclimber. My heart rate was up to about 160-180 throughout the treadclimber.

So my question to you is what do I need to do at the gym? How often do I need to go? I don't really like the treadmill FYI. I love to run but outdoors. And since I can't find anyone to go with, I gave in and joined a gym because I want CHANGE and can't wait around anymore. Treadclimber is great though. I also do better with general workout routine advice (e.g. do well-rounded weight training, like your upper body one day and lower body another day as opposed to 'do lunge exercise, x exercise, y exercise and z exercise this day and then a exercise, b exercise, and c exercise this day'). I do a lot better with the overall picture, otherwise it gets too complicated and I shut off. On length of time, however and measures of effort (low-cardio vs. intense-cardio), the more details the better. Thanks so much in advance and I greatly appreciate your advice!!

 

[KaraCooks]

Hi there. Sounds like you've got a lot of confusion going on ... and I totally understand why.

The first thing I'd say is that one of the reasons you're getting so much conflicting information is that there's no one single RIGHT way to do this. What's right for you is going to depend on your goals and abilities. So with that in mind, I'll tell you what I've found has worked for me and what I've learned through years of research.

First of all ... diet is crucial. And I don't mean diet as in "go on a" but diet as in "what you eat on a regular basis". I think it's as easy to be an unhealthy veggie (vegetarian, vegan, whatever) as it is to be an unhealthy meat eater. It sounds like you have a fair handle on what you're eating, but possibly it would help you to really track your food. I would suggest signing up with an online service like thedailyplate.com or fitday.com and logging your meals. Both are free (I use the daily plate, but really whatever works better for you) and both will help you see not only how many calories you're eating but how your food balances out between carbs, protein, and healthy fats.

Ideally, at your current weight, and allowing for the fact that you work out a few times a week, you could probably lose weight while eating around 1600 or 1700 calories. Of that, I'd try to make sure that your calories work out to around 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% healthy fats.

Ok, that said, as far as the gym goes: You don't need to work out for hours at a time to lose weight. You just don't. Ideally you would do some form of weight lifting and/or body resistance training to build/maintain muscle. The reason this is important is that when you are eating in a calorie deficit, you WILL lose lean muscle as well as fat. You can minimize the loss of lean muscle by lifting weights. If you lift weights intensely enough, you can lose weight w/out doing any cardio at all.

Many people, myself included, tend to do a combination of weight lifting and cardio. I actually *like* cardio (I know, I'm sick ) and I like that I can burn a few extra calories from it. I also have a goal of wanting to run in a 5k, so I pretty much have to include running in my workouts.

When you lift weights, you need to allow 48 hours for your muscles to heal after you lift. So for most people what that works out to is lifting 2x or 3x a week and alternating with cardio on the off days. Or lifting 3x a week, followed by some cardio the same day, and then taking a day off between.

You don't have to do hours of cardio at a time. If you do a solid routine of full body lifting, followed by 30 mins of cardio (either the same day or alternating days) you should see results.

I like to recommend either the New Rules of Lifting books (there's one general one and one geared specifically towards women) for their workouts, or the Body for Life books for their workouts, or the series I'm currently doing which is the Stronglifts 5x5 beginner strength program (just google it and you'll see the program).

What I do is the Stronglifts on Mondays and Thursdays and my 35 mins of 5k training on alternate days. I take Sundays off.

Ok, good grief. I just wrote a novel. I hope that gets you started and feel free to ask questions!

 

[xxt]

Thanks so much for the helpful advice! I'm going to sign up with thedailyplate.com tomorrow

And I like cardio too As long as it's on the treadclimber and not the eliptical or treadmill. But actually tonight I did the treadclimber for 30 minutes then had a lil more energy so did the treadmill for five...woo!

And I'm going to use your advice about the weight-lifting and cardio. Thanks again!

And no problem, you replied to an essay with an essay