If you were me, what would you do?

[x-Maya-x]

Hey, I'm new on bb.com. I want to lose weight, I'm at 185lbs and I was wondering:
How can I lose fat, not so rapidly but kind of?
I'll explain myself! I really want to lose weight, but at a certain point, I don't see results anymore and that's why I become unmotivated. I don't want to stop working out, and I won't! But who's not discouraged when you don't see anymore changes on his body? I just want to know if someone can tell me some tips on everything that could help me about this! Thanks a lot!!

x-Maya-x

[KyleAaron]

This is general advice only. The women here can give you much more specific advice, and they have more experience of this. But the following is a general programme which has helped me (see journal in sig) and many others.

Firstly, check with your doctor. Almost always they'll tell you it's alright to do these exercises, but sometimes with extra weight there may be other problems like knee and back (especially if you have extra weight upfront) which you'll have to work around. I have to work around a bad lower back, for example.

Assuming you get the all-clear from the quack:-

At your reported weight, which from your questions is due to fat not muscle, I might not even begin with a gym membership. Begin by general physical preparation. You may have already done something like this, since your profile says you've gone from 225 to 186lbs. Or you may just have dieted? Anyway, for what it's worth...


GPP
Mon-Wed-Fri go for a 4 mile walk, try to get it under an hour. Not a run, a walk. This is just general conditioning, remember, we're not trying to turn you into a marathon runner yet. Plus at 186lbs for your 5'2", you'll be putting a lot of strain on knees and back.

Tues-Thurs-Sat do pushups, prone pullups (broomstick between two chairs, lie down, pull yourself up), situps and squats. With those four exercises, find out how many movements you can do. Now halve that number, and do it Tues/Thurs/Sat before breakfast and dinner. Next week, do one more movement in each. The following week, another single movement. When you can do 20 of each, you're ready to join the gym. 30 is better, and 50 best of all, but 20 is the minimum.

Gym
Once you join the gym,

Lift heavy weights three times a week, concentrating on the big five compound exercises (squat, deadlift, row, bench press, overhead press), or at least the big three (squat, row, bench press). Search out info on these exercises.
Do some cardio three times a week.
Eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, some nuts/beans and/or meat/dairy; stop any smoking or junk food or booze. If you find that too hard, have four cheat days a month where you can eat whatever you like; it's better to have six steps forward and two steps back than be standing still.
Have good long sleeps

That's about it. Lifting, cardio, diet and rest are the four legs to your health and fitness table. You need all four to be right for the table to be steady.

The preparation phase I noted above will take you 1-6 months, depending on your natural strength and fitness. The gym phase should get you strong and fit in 3-9 months, again depending on your natural abilities, but more on your dedication to the Four Legs.

Thus on average you can expect to be well on track in a couple of months, and see definite results in 6-12 months. Seems ages, I know. But it took more than a year for you to get where you are now, you can't expect it to be quicker to get where you want to go.

Lastly, you should keep a journal. Note down the exercise you do, how you felt doing it. Note what you eat, too. On the first day of every month, take some pictures of yourself which show your physique. Get a tape measure and measure your bust, waist, hips, thighs and upper arms. Don't worry about weight, the tape measure will give you a better guide - if you build muscle and lose fat, your weight may stay the same or even go up, but your waist, thighs and hips will be smaller, and probably your bust, too.

Between the pictures and the measurements month to month, you'll get a sense of your progress. And with recording your workouts and diet, this helps you stick to it as you get a feeling of accountability. It also lets you look back and see what's worked and what hasn't worked for you.

If you're bold enough, post the journal and pictures here in the journals section. You'll get a lot of support and advice from others.

Best of luck.

[x-Maya-x]

First of all, I'm already member at a gym! Surprise! So, I'll take what you've told me and do it! But I have some other questions...
1. Good long sleeps? How long?
2. My lower abdomen is the part of my body that I hate the most. I can say hate, because I just CAN'T show it. It's like, OVERweight for me and I just don't know if there's something special I can do, except surgery?
3. What can it be my short time losing weight goal?
4. Thanks a lot, it's so appreciated, you can't imagine! :)

[healthierJ]

I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep

V-ups , crunches on the ball, Hanging hip leg raises will all help the lower abs along with the 4 steps Kyle gave you. Just remember you can't spot reduce.

Your short term goal can be whatever you want it to be. Every 5 inches lost and 10 lbs lost I treat myself to a new book ,a ipod gc for new training music etc

Good luck to you. I've been following basically what Kyle told you for 4 months with cardio 2x a week and a few isolation exercises and lost 18 lbs and quite a bit of inches. Before I started lifting heavy I lost 9 lbs in 3 months

[starseller]

I could tell you to do some HIIT, it really helps and eating healthy is good too!

[KyleAaron]

First of all, I'm already member at a gym! Surprise! So, I'll take what you've told me and do it!
So you may not need the GPP (though it never hurts) and can straight to the weights. Just go on how you feel with it.



Good long sleeps? How long?

As long as you can manage! Depends on your lifestyle. Many professional people have poor sleeps, stay up late then have to get up early. I used to sleep just six hours a night, or sleep only two nights out of three. Regular workouts changed that to eight hours a night.

If you have more of a partying lifestyle, or even just a geek who likes to surf the net, you can easily be up till 2 or 3am, if you have to be up before 10am for work or study, you'll be getting poor sleeps. You should try to be well-rested, whether it means less partying or surfing, more afternoon siestas, whatever.


My lower abdomen is the part of my body that I hate the most. I can say hate, because I just CAN'T show it. It's like, OVERweight for me and I just don't know if there's something special I can do, except surgery?
No, there's nothing special you can do. And surgery should be a very last resort. As you lose bodyfat generally, you'll lose it there, too.

As healthierJ said, you can't spot reduce. When you exercise, your body doesn't take fat for energy from the particular spot you exercise, it just takes it from the body overall. Usually the first place you put fat on will be the last place you take fat off. Bummer, I know. That's why my waist still needs work.

Unfortunately, healthierJ is wrong about leg raises helping your lower abdominal strength [don't believe just me, see here (http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Myths.html)]. Leg raises in fact bring in the hip flexors - this is a muscle that runs along the top of your leg, across your hips and into your abdomen. Most people with sedentary jobs - such as students - spend a lot of time sitting down, so in fact the hip flexors will be tight already. Not strong, but tight.

Doing sit-ups brings in the whole rectus abdominus muscle. However, having that part of you being strong won't help in terms of appearance if you're overfat. In terms of appearance, it just helps if you're just a little bit pudgy - brings it in a bit, so the "little bit pudgy" looks "trim" instead. Of course, it's more important that it helps in general health.

So - lose bodyfat, and that section will trim up eventually.


What can it be my short time losing weight goal?
I already said you should throw away your scales and just have tape measurements :)

Whatever you like. A healthy weight loss is not more than a pound a week. Unfortunately, your weight varies by more than a pound day-to-day. Have dinner, go to the toilet, sweat a lot, have a sleepless night, have your period - this makes it jump up or down by 1-3lbs daily. So if you lost that pound, you won't be able to tell over a week or two.

If you insist on weighing yourself, do it not more than monthly, and do it at the same time - when you get up in the morning after going to the toilet. This should knock out that day-to-day variation and show some clear trends.

But don't weigh yourself. Just measure once a month. Because let's face it, you could be (say) 150lbs of muscle, or 150lbs of pudgy. 150lbs is a good target for a year from now, since while you'll lose fat you'll gain some muscle, but 150lbs of what? For example, I did a search here (http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/search.php?searchid=20733171) of all the 5'2" women who are 150-160lbs. All of them have something in them a good man would find beautiful, but all of them have quite different figures, some curvy, some muscular, some pudgy, some lean.

For example, both the following women are 5'2" and 150lbs exactly.

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/img/user_images/growable/2009/06/06/17718892/profilepic/1LrefpG1SLzfMX6JV1NmWQCo4m8O40756p.jpeg
http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/img/user_images/462447/profilepic/135971.jpg

These are both attractive women, both are probably very healthy, but they have very different physiques.

It's better to think of what kind of figure you'd like than to think of a particular poundage.


Thanks a lot, it's so appreciated, you can't imagine! :)
It's my pleasure - our pleasure. I'm going into personal training because, cliched as it sounds, I enjoy seeing people do something they thought they couldn't do, and the confidence they get from that. And people will help you here because they like sharing their joy in their own progress towards their goals, and seeing others do it, too.

[kristinak1025]

First of all, I'm already member at a gym! Surprise! So, I'll take what you've told me and do it! But I have some other questions...
1. Good long sleeps? How long?
2. My lower abdomen is the part of my body that I hate the most. I can say hate, because I just CAN'T show it. It's like, OVERweight for me and I just don't know if there's something special I can do, except surgery?
3. What can it be my short time losing weight goal?
4. Thanks a lot, it's so appreciated, you can't imagine! :)

i was at that about 18 months ago. I started by walking every night and a diet that I made up on the basis of what worked for me. I lost 50 pounds in 6 months and kept it off. Basically you have to do what feels right for you. I walked for 45 minutes 7 days a week. My diet consisted of a gallon of water a day, three cups of decaf green tea (not the kind with lemon just the plain green tea out of the tea bag in hot water) lean meat and 2 egg whites a day for 3 days and then a cheat day. I found that i plateau easily so instead of once a week i did it once every 3 days.

[x-Maya-x]

i was at that about 18 months ago. I started by walking every night and a diet that I made up on the basis of what worked for me. I lost 50 pounds in 6 months and kept it off. Basically you have to do what feels right for you. I walked for 45 minutes 7 days a week. My diet consisted of a gallon of water a day, three cups of decaf green tea (not the kind with lemon just the plain green tea out of the tea bag in hot water) lean meat and 2 egg whites a day for 3 days and then a cheat day. I found that i plateau easily so instead of once a week i did it once every 3 days.

.. Wow! Wish it could do the same for me... It's tempting to try your thing miss!
I already go to the gym, but I'll try this and i'll keep in touch with you. :)

[Emily92]

The best thing to do is actually figure out what your goal is.
What do you want to gain? Who/what do you want to look like?
Do you want to be skinny or do you want to be muscular and fit?
If you walk into the gym with no idea of what your aim is, you're going to be stuck.
Do some research. There are a lot of good threads on this site with lots of tips and advice. There's a lot on this one in fact! If you've never heard of some of the exercises, google/youtube them so you know exactly what you're going to be doing.