Please help new on weight loss journey!

C

Clara45

New member
Hey everyone,
I’m new here and thought I would give this forum a try :)
I started my journey back in February and I motivated more than ever to get to my goal.
I weigh 165, my height is 5 ft 1, I’m 22 and female and my goal weight is 130. I don’t know what my body fat percentage is but I do know it’s definitely way way higher then any percentage of muscle that I have. I know my goal is to go down to 130 but it really also mainly is to decrease my body fat percentage (I have a lot surrounding my abdomen area, arms, thighs a little and glutes)
The only medical condition I have is thalassemia, but thankfully it doesn’t effect my health. The only thing about it is that I can get low iron from time to time and as a result high intensity workouts like running, I’ll get short of breath easy. Will this affect my goal and me trying to reach it?
I started to strength train 3 times a week. For two days I’ll do a leg work out 3 sets of 15 (lunges, leg press, leg extensions, inner and our hip abduction machine) and once a week I will workout my arms 3 sets of 15 ( tricep rope, lat pull down, seated cable row, bicep curls). Before I warm up 15 mins on the elliptical moderate intensity.
My food intake is a bit crazy I have a sweet tooth and try my best not to indulge but I find it challenging
I’ll eat a half of a banana before workout with water and then after work out for breakfast I’ll have whole wheat toast with peanut butter with an apple and then for lunch I’ll have a lentil or quinoa salad and then for supper I’ll have whole wheat rice with a meat stew or something.
The thing is I don’t count calories and I haven’t noticed weight loss results since I started, (only some muscle in my arm and thugs a little) and I don’t like weighing myself because I start to obsess over it.

I’m still a newbie at the gym and I don’t know any other workout but the one above as I don’t know what I should target or whether or not I should increase cardio (whether or not it needs to be high intensity to effectively lose weight)

As for food I don’t know if I should count my calories? As I’m not sure if I’m exceeding it or not.
And any idea how long it could take to lose the fat/weight. Particularly my abdomen fat I have been trying for years

Bottom line is I would really appreciate it if someone helped me out together a solid food and workout plan (or anything online that could help) for a beginner (it can be at the gym or home workout doesn’t matter).

Thank you!
 
Hey Clara45! Welcome to the forum!

I actually think you are off to a really good start! Even though you haven't noticed weight loss on the scale, have you noticed anything about how your body feels? Or how your clothes fit? Strength training is awesome for having positive effects on body composition, as in increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat.

There is really no way to say how long changes in body weight will take, and I will never tell you that there is a "quick fix" for that. The best thing you can do is maintain the healthy changes you've made over the long term. If you are unsure about your caloric intake, journalling your daily food intake can be really useful. Many members of the forum have started diaries in the diary section. It's a good place to get some feedback! There are also nutrient databases where you can look up calories and nutritional content of food. I use nutrientdata.self.com or myfitnesspal sometimes. Or read the nutrient labels. Don't worry about doing it all at once, but just writing down what you eat, even without being super accurate, can be really helpful.

That's great that you're noticing your body becoming more muscular! I would suggest maybe starting to try slowly increasing the amount of weight that you use for each exercise, and decrease the number of repetitions. Maybe start with going to 3 sets of 12. And I see no reason that you couldn't add some more time onto your warm up, maybe add an extra 10 or 15 mins onto your warm up. Maybe consider doing some intervals on the elliptical? If you don't know what I mean by that, just let me know!

Are you doing any activity outside of the 3 days per week at the gym?
 
a comment on your sugar intake. when i finally realized all the products that have sugar or worse, added sugar, i was stunned. before i got smarter often i would exceed the maximum recommended intake (about 35gms i think) by 10am. now i hold any sugar to 6-8 gm/day. i don't drink fruit juice or milk anymore, now i drink black coffee, iced tea and of course, water. i don't eat yogurt or granola anymore, ...now i'll have bacon and eggs. realize that anything marked "low fat" means high sugar.

if you do not know there is a huge difference in how your body treats the three different macronutrients, learn the difference.

good luck.
 
PLB said:
Hey Clara45! Welcome to the forum!

I actually think you are off to a really good start! Even though you haven't noticed weight loss on the scale, have you noticed anything about how your body feels? Or how your clothes fit? Strength training is awesome for having positive effects on body composition, as in increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat.

There is really no way to say how long changes in body weight will take, and I will never tell you that there is a "quick fix" for that. The best thing you can do is maintain the healthy changes you've made over the long term. If you are unsure about your caloric intake, journalling your daily food intake can be really useful. Many members of the forum have started diaries in the diary section. It's a good place to get some feedback! There are also nutrient databases where you can look up calories and nutritional content of food. I use nutrientdata.self.com or myfitnesspal sometimes. Or read the nutrient labels. Don't worry about doing it all at once, but just writing down what you eat, even without being super accurate, can be really helpful.

That's great that you're noticing your body becoming more muscular! I would suggest maybe starting to try slowly increasing the amount of weight that you use for each exercise, and decrease the number of repetitions. Maybe start with going to 3 sets of 12. And I see no reason that you couldn't add some more time onto your warm up, maybe add an extra 10 or 15 mins onto your warm up. Maybe consider doing some intervals on the elliptical? If you don't know what I mean by that, just let me know!

Are you doing any activity outside of the 3 days per week at the gym?
Click to expand...

Thank you for being really helpful, I haven’t really noticed a difference in my clothing!! I’m actually not that active outside the gym do you suggest I should? Also if you don’t mind can you please explain the intervals on the elliptical?!?!!
 
The more activity you can build into your days, the better off your health and weight maintenance will be in the long run. But I don't usually suggest making too many changes at once... it can be overwhelming and much more difficult to stick with in the long run. You want these changes to be long term habits. So yes, I do suggest being more active on more days - but add in more activity when you can manage it. For example, you are doing 3 days per week right now and have been for a while, so maybe try either adding in another gym day, or go for a walk, hike, swim... whatever it is that you think you might enjoy doing. And it doesn't have to be by yourself. Maybe you have someone that would go on a weekly walk with you or something?

As for the intervals on the elliptical, all that really means is that after your warm up, try increasing the intensity for a short certain period of time, then decreasing the intensity as an "active rest." This just basically means lowering the intensity so you can catch your breath. Then repeat a few times. It sounds like you'd just have to be careful about the intensity, based on the health concern you mentioned above.

Here is an example:

5-10 min warm up

60 seconds (increased intensity)
60 seconds (active rest)
repeat the above 5 times

5-10 min cool down

You can vary the length of the intervals and choose to do more or less, the above is just one example.
 
I also meant to post a link to the diary section, so here it is:

https://weight-loss.fitness.com/forums/weight-loss-diary.9/
 
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