Exercise and losing weight...what to do and what not to do?

[Summerdressgirl]

Hello all

I have a question, I have been going to the gym a lot and I do the treadmill for 1 hour , Elliptical machine 1/2 hour, ab crunch machine 50 crunches, the thigh machine 20 reps on that one and then the there is this ab twister machine..can't really recall the name but you put yourself in your knees and twis your body to either right or left with weights on the machine while your shoulders stay straight on..anyways I stay in the gym 2 hours a day 6 days a week..I take sunday to rest my body.

Anyways I workout...my question is should I only for now work on losing the weight and not build muscle? I have been reading online and I don't quite understand the whole muscle/fat thing.

What is it that I should do first? what I am trying to do is of course lose the weight thru my whole body..I understand you can't spot a body part, just lose weight everywhere.

What I want is :

A) lose all my weight.
B) tight stomach
c) smaller thighs, small waist
D) my butt I want it not as wide (lol) I want it big but fit! haha Think J.Lo!!! of course I don't live in denial-land here but I just wanted you to get an idea of what I am talking about lol.

E) boobs, smaller and that fat under my arms that sort of becomes part of the boobs needs to go.

F)My body shape is considered "hour glass" I will like to keep that big and tone on top, bottom and slim and tight in the mid section.

G) my arms flabs..I don't have a lot but it is lose. the way my arm looks is skinny, skinny, skinny until you reach the shoulder then it widens..I want that smaller

So while I still have all this weight to lose what I should do more and which exercises should I stay away from for now?

I Know this is long but I don't want to screw it up!

Thanks!

[ziggy]

Re: Exercise and losing weight...what to do and what not to do?

the Elliptical machine is alot harder than the tread mil right? i would completely cut the tread mil out cause 1/2 hour of the Elliptical is plenty
to keep your metabolism up

then you can do exercises that will get the goals you want like arm exercises to help tone your arms

heres what happend to me iv been on atkins for about 5-6 years now but anyways for the first 2-3 years i just walked alot cause its my delivery job and i did nothing els but i did lose 100 pounds and got to 230 pounds however that was it i couldn't improve anymore and i still looked like crap

then i started going to the gym and after a few years i have lost another 50 pounds of fat and gained 60 pounds of muscle and now i look good

so cause of the gym and lifting weights and working all the muscles on my body and not just light cardio i have total'd about 150 pounds fat loss and 60 pounds muscle gain

so trade that hour of the tead mil in for other exercises like squats on the smith machine and exercises that will tone your body also make sure you know how to do the exercises properly and make sure during each week or two that you have exercised every muscle on your body so your whole body gets toned

[liv]

Re: Exercise and losing weight...what to do and what not to do?

You're a lady. We do not bulk up as easily as men so I would not worry that much about muscle. The muscle you will get will give you a great tone.

My only concern would be burn out. You are doing a lot. So give yourself a break.
And make sure that you give your muscles recovery time.

And mix things up after awile. The body is smart it gets used to things so in terms of lifting - do different machines or lift some free weights. Do a class if your gym offerrs them

In terms of cardio - mix it up by doing some intervals. so you exercise shorter time but harder when you do it.

It will happen for you. You are already doing great.

[Carne!]

Re: Exercise and losing weight...what to do and what not to do?

I am not too sure about losing ALL your weight, but there is nothing like heavy weights, done to failure to tighten you up. And unless you're popping back 'roids, don't worry about bulking up. It is physically impossible for 99% of the female population to get "ripped".

What you WILL do is raise your basal metabolism and look much smaller. My sig has more info on what I do. PM me if you want to know my routine and weight load.

[canucme]

Re: Exercise and losing weight...what to do and what not to do?

i have been weight training for 19 years. i am 36 now and started when i was 17. over the last 5 years i put on over 100 pounds and continued with the weight training. earlier this year i decided i wanted to lose this extra weight once and for all. i have been a member at my current gym for 5 years now and have become very friendly with a couple of the trainers there. they told me that in order to shed the weight there is no better cardio exercise than running. even walking on the treadmill is fine but they stressed to me to make sure you weren't holding on to handles. so i started out doing intervals 2 weeks ago. i would jog for a few and then walk a couple and repeat that for an hour. my goal was to get 26.2 miles in 6 days. so now i am able to jog 4 12 minute miles. my plan this week is to bust off 4 miles a day monday through friday and then saturday do a 6 miler. i have not gone on the scale and don't plan to until april 22. that will be a full month on atkins. i just don't want to take any chance of being discouraged by that nasty thing! i figured what's the worst that could happen... i cut out fast food and junk and increase my cardio for a month.

by the way i was still doing some weight training after starting atkins and felt really week. i could bench press 365 a month ago and a couple weeks ago i was struggling with 315. i don't care though. i am going to shed off about 50 pounds with cardio and then gradually work back into weight training.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Exercise and losing weight...what to do and what not to do?

welcome
first off instead of thinking about losing all your weight rethink it as losing all your excess body fat.

folk who obsess with the scales need to not workout because they will be adding lean body mass which will show on the sclaes as pounds while they are shedding body fat pounds. That is why many trainers will say shed the fat then work on building your muscles. BUT if you think about it why take twice as long to create the healthy smaller you that you desire.

If you continue to work your Atkins both the eating and the exercise as you are currently doing you will become smaller and healtheir even if the scales don't reward your efforts as you think they should.

get out your tape measure and measure your neck chest bust waist hips thighs calves wrists and biceps. then every 2 weeks remeasure and what your body shrink as you shed your body fat and add lean tissue. Don't worry about the scales and how little they are moving as you see those inches moving you will know you are doing what you want to do.

One thing you need to remember is as you get smaller and in better shape you will need to up your intensity on your machines and lifts inorder to get the same cal burns you did the week before. you can use your heart rate to let you know if you need to increase and when since the training effect will allow you to do that same workout at a slower heart rate for your cardio stuff.

I walked doing HIIT and did ther BFL lifting to morph my body and even though the sclaes say I'm overweight my body fat says I'm fine holding right at 15% plus or minus .5%