Question about exercise

[Discolemonade]

My dh and I joined Bally's Total Fitness last Thursday .

My first time on Atkins I lost 70 pounds in NO TIME and I didn't exercise.
Now I need to lose about 35 more pounds and have recently incorporated fitness into my life. We go five days a week. The first few times I couldn't go past 6 minutes on the treadmill at 3.0. I have worked my way up to 15 minutes at 3.2-3.5.
That time and speed usually works me into a good sweat.

My first question is on heart rate. My rate seems to be high to start I don't know, but it's usually at 130 when I just step on the treadmill, and trainer said I need it to be at 150-155. I get to 152 at about 3 minutes into my walking and have seen my HR go up to 170 on the 15 minute walk.. Is having a hr that high bad for me? I then go do my strength training before retiring to the pools and hot tubs.

My second question is more of a frustration. I haven't lost any weight nor inches. I know strength/weight training will add pounds of muscle, and i know it's only been a week, but when can I expect to see some changes? Also I heard that exercise gives you energy...yeah...whens that supposed to happen??

Any insight appreciated.

DiscoLemonade

[jroche5998]

Re: Question about exercise

My first question is on heart rate. My rate seems to be high to start I don't know, but it's usually at 130 when I just step on the treadmill, and trainer said I need it to be at 150-155. I get to 152 at about 3 minutes into my walking and have seen my HR go up to 170 on the 15 minute walk.. Is having a hr that high bad for me? I then go do my strength training before retiring to the pools and hot tubs.

My second question is more of a frustration. I haven't lost any weight nor inches. I know strength/weight training will add pounds of muscle, and i know it's only been a week, but when can I expect to see some changes? Also I heard that exercise gives you energy...yeah...whens that supposed to happen??

Any insight appreciated.

DiscoLemonade

First, congratulations on joining the gym, I wish I had the time.

On to your questions.

1. I'm somewhat of a rookie when it comes to heartrate, but I will share what I do know. The keys to heartrate are your morning resting rate, your max rate, and your recovery ability. From what I understand the lower your morning rate is the better, meaning that when you are at rest your heart is working as little as necessary. If you have good cardio vascular fitness, this contributes to a lower resting rate. The next is max heart rate, this varies so much for people. The rule of thumb is 220 minus your age. But the only real way is to have a stress test administered by a doctor. I know some people who have registered around 200, I've personally hit 192. But my max is technically 183 (220-37), but like I said it's just a rule of thumb. Finally recovery rate. The more efficient your cardio vascular system is (or how "fit" you are) the faster your heart rate will "recover" or drop back into a normal range for you. So getting up there is ok, especially if it drops rapidly.

2. To add pounds of muscle takes a long time. Back from my weightlifting days, I think 10-20 pounds of muscle gain per year is all that is possible without steroids. But keep in mind it's an incremental thing. Every muscle fiber you add is an inefficient energy hog, which will waste calories constantly. So as you add muscle, as little at a time as it is, it slowly makes losing fat an easier thing to do. The energy will come, although sometimes I don't believe it either. But just try to lug around a 50 pound bag of dog food at Walmart for a couple of aisles and you'll wonder how you ever got by before. (I've done it, it's an eye-opener)

I hope this helped a bit.

[Iapetus999]

Re: Question about exercise

The 150-155 is dead on for your age.
I use the "180" method (180-age) which gives me 152.
You could actually use 150 to be safe...try to keep all your workouts under that number. That will promote generating fat-burning muscle. At this stage there is no need to "sprint" or raise your heart rate higher.

After a couple months of this you can look into HIIT (search this site or google) which is intense interval training. If you do that once a week you can maximize fat burning.

[cajunthunder]

Re: Question about exercise

You aren't likely to see immediate results from the exercise, although you will feel better and have more energy. Your body is adjusting to lots of changes and it may take 2-3 weeks to see results of exercising.

Just keep with it and remember, you may have to adjust your diet as your exercising becomes more intense.

[Discolemonade]

Re: Question about exercise

ok, thank you for the insight, and I measured today, I was wrong about the inches lost...lol,, I have lost a bit. thank you for the heart rate information, now I will know where to keep myself.