New to Exercise

[kristengenell]

I'm new to this site and also new to exercise. I've had 2 babies by c-section, my oldest is 18 months and the other is 5 months old. I didn't exercise before I got pregnant, I really didn't need to. But now I have a flabby belly and a little junk in the trunk, lol. Since I do have 2 babies under the age of 2 I also don't have a lot of time to workout. After reading many reviews I purchased a gazelle and an abroller. I've been using the gazelle everyday for 15-20 minutes for a week now and I've been doing 100-200 crunches on the abroller everyday too. So my workout takes me about 45 minutes including stretching, which is all I really have time for. I like this routine so far and I'm pleased with the results after just one week. I started out at 165 last week and this week I am now 161. So I've lost 4 lbs. I've also lost 1.5 inches off my waist. I've also been trying to intake about 1200 calories a day and using slimfast to replace one meal. So my question is if this is a good enough workout and diet plan to lose about 20 lbs?

 

[evolution]

You can lose weight this way but I would also be concerned about not increasing lean muscle in the body. The more lean muscle you have, the more kcals you burn even when sleeping=a much higher fat burning potential than just cardio alone.

There's always the option of joining a gym with child care or purchasing some dumbbells to start with.

I also think 1200 kcals are too low. I'd up your kcals to 1500 and keep weight loss to two lbs max a week. I'd also look into trying a different protein supplement over slimfast.

 

[jmnewsome]

I agree with Evolution. Your cardio is definitely on track, but you might wanna add in a little resistance/strength training to keep your muscles in check!
I applaud you...I also had to children via c-section and my girls are almost 4 & 2. I was no where near as motivated as you are when they were at your children's ages, so kudos to you. You can totally do it!!!

 

[Steve]

You can lose weight this way but I would also be concerned about not increasing lean muscle in the body. The more lean muscle you have, the more kcals you burn even when sleeping=a much higher fat burning potential than just cardio alone.

There's always the option of joining a gym with child care or purchasing some dumbbells to start with.

I also think 1200 kcals are too low. I'd up your kcals to 1500 and keep weight loss to two lbs max a week. I'd also look into trying a different protein supplement over slimfast.

She is not going to be able to increase muscle mass in a caloric deficit. Also, suppose she was in a surplus calorically speaking, and was adding LBM to her frame; the impact it has on the metabolism is minuscule. How much do you think the metabolism speeds up per lb or muscle gained? The number is not VERY significant, and how many pounds of muscle can a female really put on in one year? At the end of the day, you probably could have cut a couple hundred calories out of the diet and ended with the same result.

Resistance training is important while dieting, not to build muscle, but rather to retain what you have as well as add EPOC into the equation.

To the original poster, 1200 seems low depending on your stats. What made you choose 1200?

Also, I would be willing to bank on the idea that your weight loss and shrinkage came from the nutrition side of things, as well as the calories burned from the cardio. Doing that many crunches is just ridiculous in my opinion. You can't spot reduce fat. By doing crunches like that, you are not magically going to rid yourself of the fat on your midsection, or turn the fat into muscle.

 

[kristengenell]

Thanks for the adivce. Like I said I am new to exercise and I'm also new to dieting. I've read articles about losing weight and how many calories you should intake to lose weight. 1200-1600 calories was recommended in some of the articles. I just settled on 1200 and somedays I don't even reach that. I have never really been a big eater and by they time I'm done chasing babies and changing diapers I don't feel much like eating. I chose the slimfast because its quick and tastes pretty good. As far as the crunches go, I didn't know how many to do. I started doing a 100 day and it was so easy that I thought I would just do a 100 more. I have thought about joining a gym until I found out how much it costs and since I'm a stay at home mom it wouldn't fit well in our budget. I appreciate the comments and the advice. I'm like a child when it comes to all this fitness stuff, I just don't know much about it.

 

[evolution]

Resistance training is important while dieting, not to build muscle, but rather to retain what you have as well as add EPOC into the equation.

This is what I was thinking when I typed that out...just came out wrong.