Help me set a gym routine to lose fat!

[babymama7]

Ok,...so I am part of the weight loss compt. going on the fat loss forum, and I want to make sure I am giving it my all. ( I wanna lose it ALL...haha!!)

I have not been in the gym for (sadly) almost 2 years, but my body still has some muscle left from years of Army PT and working out in between kids so I know it will respond fairly quickly once I get going. I want to target my
lower half of course, esp my thighs and butt, and my waist ,and upper arms (they used to be very muscular and now are just big).

I love the eliptical machine, it rocks because it makes my fat *ss go bye-bye, but I'm open to other stuff too if it will work better.

What would you suggest would be a reasonable workout routine for me to optimize weightloss?

I have 35 lbs to lose, and I have already got my diet in check. I am not sure yet of my BMI, my dh is going to help me figure that out tonight. Also, I want to lose the fat, AND I want muscle definition, but I don't want to bulk up as I already have size (I'm on the taller side with a medium to large frame, the men in my family average 6'3 and one brother is 6'8 so I'm never going to be *tiny*).

Also, one last thing...don't try and kill me with 2 hours per day in the gym 7 days a week, I am a mom of lots of kids so I'm busy AND I have to have energy to make it through the day too *LOL*

TIA for your suggestions!!

ETA: I also love to do stuff outside the gym, like hike and bike riding and I recently got a pair of roller blades but am not confidant enough on them to really get a good workout without breaking my frekaing neck lol.)

[Vadim Beliaev]

A cutting routine for a woman wouldnt be any different than a similar routine for men.

A standard approach to try would be 5 days a week lifting + 1 hour of cardio.
Do a split so you work different bodyparts on each day.
Mine would be
Day 1 - legs (quads and hamstrings + calves)
Day 2 - chest
Day 3 - back
Day 4 - shoulders
Day 5 - upper arms and forearms

You would want to throw in a day or two of rest in there too, so it would look something like this :
Day 1, Day 2, rest, Day 3, Day 4, rest, Day 5, rest , repeat routine

The exercises would be compounds in 12-15 rep range + 1-2 isolation exercises
For example for legs you would do barbell squats for 4 sets of 12-15 reps (and those reps will have to be challenging!!! Dont do 12 reps with a weight that you could do 30 reps with and call it a day)
Still leg deadlifts for 4 sets of 12 reps
Leg extensions for 4 sets of 15 reps
Leg curls for 4 sets of 15 reps
and lastly calf raises for 4 sets of 15 reps

For cardio its up to you, but i prefer myself and my clients to do 1 hour of moderate intensity cardio (biking, elliptical, treadmill, whatever you prefer), and keep the heart rate with 130-140 beats per minute.
There are advocates of other routines involving cardio for fat loss, but i feel the above worked the best for me and those i have trained.

I hope this was helpful

Of course i cannot stress enough the importance of a properly constructed diet, but thats an entirely another topic

[babymama7]

Originally Posted by Vadim Beliaev

A cutting routine for a woman wouldnt be any different than a similar routine for men.

A standard approach to try would be 5 days a week lifting + 1 hour of cardio.
Do a split so you work different bodyparts on each day.
Mine would be
Day 1 - legs (quads and hamstrings + calves)
Day 2 - chest
Day 3 - back
Day 4 - shoulders
Day 5 - upper arms and forearms

You would want to throw in a day or two of rest in there too, so it would look something like this :
Day 1, Day 2, rest, Day 3, Day 4, rest, Day 5, rest , repeat routine

The exercises would be compounds in 12-15 rep range + 1-2 isolation exercises
For example for legs you would do barbell squats for 4 sets of 12-15 reps (and those reps will have to be challenging!!! Dont do 12 reps with a weight that you could do 30 reps with and call it a day)
Still leg deadlifts for 4 sets of 12 reps
Leg extensions for 4 sets of 15 reps
Leg curls for 4 sets of 15 reps
and lastly calf raises for 4 sets of 15 reps

For cardio its up to you, but i prefer myself and my clients to do 1 hour of moderate intensity cardio (biking, elliptical, treadmill, whatever you prefer), and keep the heart rate with 130-140 beats per minute.
There are advocates of other routines involving cardio for fat loss, but i feel the above worked the best for me and those i have trained.

I hope this was helpful

Of course i cannot stress enough the importance of a properly constructed diet, but thats an entirely another topic

right...ok. So a full hour of cardio? I realize I am not an expert but that seems like alot. But ok, I'll go for it.

As far as weights, I am actually very strong, but like I said I don't want to bulk up...at all. What would be a good starting weight limit? or would that depend on me? Also, can I use machines? I kind of hate free weights they scare the hell out of me LOL.

[Vadim Beliaev]

If youre on a calorie restricted diet as you should be then you shouldnt worry about gaining any new muscle mass.
The routine i outlined will simply help you preserve the LEAN mass you have, which will in turn assist you in fat loss by keeping the metabolism high.
For muscle activation (and therefore instructing your body that the muscle you have is important and it should burn off fat instead) free weights are superior, but if you dont know the proper technique and have no one to show you how to perform those exercises correctly, then you could use machines for the time being.
Just keep the intensity high, and workouts fairly short, which means keeping rest periods between sets short.

[babymama7]

Originally Posted by Vadim Beliaev

If youre on a calorie restricted diet as you should be then you shouldnt worry about gaining any new muscle mass.
The routine i outlined will simply help you preserve the LEAN mass you have, which will in turn assist you in fat loss by keeping the metabolism high.
For muscle activation (and therefore instructing your body that the muscle you have is important and it should burn off fat instead) free weights are superior, but if you dont know the proper technique and have no one to show you how to perform those exercises correctly, then you could use machines for the time being.
Just keep the intensity high, and workouts fairly short, which means keeping rest periods between sets short.

OK great!

Yeah my hubby knows correct form but it may be a week or so before we can schedule gym time together, so I'll do the machines until then.
I def. have my diet in check, I know thats key in losing the fat, and I am working hard on my water intake as well (trying to get at least 120+ ounces per day...)

Thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate it.

[limniade]

That is a lot of cardio. I'd suggest cutting that in half to start--half an hour 3-4x a week, then working your way up. As your cardiovascular condition improves, you can also integrate HIIT sessions into your cardio, which will provide the same fat-burning benefits in only 15-20 minutes.

I've suggested this in another thread, but I highly recommend url=http://www.bodyforlife.com]Body For Life[/url]. The workouts are straightforward, short (45 minutes for weights, 20 for cardio), and it really works. I highly recommend checking out the site, and paging through the book at your local bookstore.

[Vadim Beliaev]

I wouldnt cut the cardio

Instead if it seems too much, start with lower intensity and increase the intensity as your cardiovascular fitness increases.
IMO its a better way.

[blondiebabe68]

Could you do 30 min of cardio before weights and then 30 min after or should it be 1hour all at once?

[BeachReady]

Originally Posted by blondiebabe68

Could you do 30 min of cardio before weights and then 30 min after or should it be 1hour all at once?

yeah, im wonderin about this too, could i do 30 min in the morning and 30 at night?

[babymama7]

Originally Posted by limniade

That is a lot of cardio. I'd suggest cutting that in half to start--half an hour 3-4x a week, then working your way up. As your cardiovascular condition improves, you can also integrate HIIT sessions into your cardio, which will provide the same fat-burning benefits in only 15-20 minutes.

I've suggested this in another thread, but I highly recommend url=http://www.bodyforlife.com]Body For Life[/url]. The workouts are straightforward, short (45 minutes for weights, 20 for cardio), and it really works. I highly recommend checking out the site, and paging through the book at your local bookstore.

Thanks for the info, I'll def check it out


I know I'll have to work my way up to an hour regardless, (since I've been a slacker for the last 18 months *rofl*)
...but again an hour does seem like alot to me, I have to have stamina to chase 7 little kids around all day *LOL* (believe it or not being a mom is HARD work, seriously!)
I don't have the luxury of taking naps, or resting or even sitting down many days , unless you o**** the drive to and from practices/games for my older kids. So, not sure if that fact was factored into the hour long cardio suggestion, but I seriously don't want to kill myself and end up being zapped the rest of the day kwim?

[Vadim Beliaev]

Thats why i suggested moderate cardio to keep your BPM below 140.
It would be best to invest in a cardiometer (sp?), its usually a band that you put on your chest and a little watch that will measure your pulse accurately.
In the beginning (if youre out of shape) you may find that even fast walking will put you at just below 140, its okay, later on as you get more and more fit, you will increase the intensity.
In any case this type of cardio will not leave you tired or dizzy for the rest of the day, its just an hour of moderate work. Thats how its supposed to be. Youre not trying to be a professional runner, youre just looking to burn some extra calories and speed up your metabolism.
As for splitting it, i guess it could work, but i always prefer to get it done early and out of the way - I dont particularly enjoy doing cardio, its just a means to an end (in this case fat loss).

[dunkonu9]

Everyone is different when it comes to working out but I think one thing is for sure diet affects every body type. Get your diet in check and you will have control of your wieght loss.

I know for me lifting pretty heavy and doing HIIT was great for me.

[shiny1]

Well I am definitely not an expert but I will just post my experience...

I know for my body, which is naturally heavier on the bottom, it is definitely more beneficial to include fairly intense cardio with lots of weighted exercises on top of the healthy diet. My body responds very nice to heavy weights alternated with high reps. It usually doesn't matter too much how long my cardio sessions are as long as I feel like I really worked hard and they are at least a half hour to 45 mins.
You mentioned that you want to focus on your lower body - once you work up your stamina you might want to try running up bleacher stairs, especially if you are short on time. They are a great form of cardio and really work the lower body as well as abs and arms too, and you can feel how hard your body's working right away. Oxygen mags usually have good alternatives to working out like this as well. Anyways, I hope that you reach your goals!

[babymama7]

Originally Posted by shiny1

Well I am definitely not an expert but I will just post my experience...

I know for my body, which is naturally heavier on the bottom, it is definitely more beneficial to include fairly intense cardio with lots of weighted exercises on top of the healthy diet. My body responds very nice to heavy weights alternated with high reps. It usually doesn't matter too much how long my cardio sessions are as long as I feel like I really worked hard and they are at least a half hour to 45 mins.
You mentioned that you want to focus on your lower body - once you work up your stamina you might want to try running up bleacher stairs, especially if you are short on time. They are a great form of cardio and really work the lower body as well as abs and arms too, and you can feel how hard your body's working right away. Oxygen mags usually have good alternatives to working out like this as well. Anyways, I hope that you reach your goals!

great! awesome advice, thanks!! hmmmm...bleachers, I'd have to think on that one. I know there is the highschool, but I honeslty have never even seen it (its out in the country kind of). But I'll def give that a shot.

[lotokids]

Originally Posted by babymama7

Ok,...so I am part of the weight loss compt. going on the fat loss forum, and I want to make sure I am giving it my all. ( I wanna lose it ALL...haha!!)

I have not been in the gym for (sadly) almost 2 years, but my body still has some muscle left from years of Army PT and working out in between kids so I know it will respond fairly quickly once I get going. I want to target my
lower half of course, esp my thighs and butt, and my waist ,and upper arms (they used to be very muscular and now are just big).

I love the eliptical machine, it rocks because it makes my fat *ss go bye-bye, but I'm open to other stuff too if it will work better.

What would you suggest would be a reasonable workout routine for me to optimize weightloss?

I have 35 lbs to lose, and I have already got my diet in check. I am not sure yet of my BMI, my dh is going to help me figure that out tonight. Also, I want to lose the fat, AND I want muscle definition, but I don't want to bulk up as I already have size (I'm on the taller side with a medium to large frame, the men in my family average 6'3 and one brother is 6'8 so I'm never going to be *tiny*).

Also, one last thing...don't try and kill me with 2 hours per day in the gym 7 days a week, I am a mom of lots of kids so I'm busy AND I have to have energy to make it through the day too *LOL*

TIA for your suggestions!!

ETA: I also love to do stuff outside the gym, like hike and bike riding and I recently got a pair of roller blades but am not confidant enough on them to really get a good workout without breaking my frekaing neck lol.)

Well, studies have shown that an increase in sexual activity has been proven to aid in weight loss tremendously. Studies have also shown that if you are reading this and your husband is in the next room sleeping because he just happens to be on his midnight shift rotation, he would not be upset if you woke him....it would be for a good cause and he probably would help you in any way he can to do your best in your quest to win the contest.

[babymama7]

Originally Posted by lotokids

Well, studies have shown that an increase in sexual activity has been proven to aid in weight loss tremendously. Studies have also shown that if you are reading this and your husband is in the next room sleeping because he just happens to be on his midnight shift rotation, he would not be upset if you woke him....it would be for a good cause and he probably would help you in any way he can to do your best in your quest to win the contest.

your bad!!!!

[ophelia53]

i'm currently trying to get my bodyfat down and i'm up to 45 minute cardio sessions 5 times a week. i may go swimming or something later in the evening. but i would say the bleacher thing is a great idea, even on the stepper at your gym. it'll really work the hams and the glutes and get your heart rate up. just remember that low impact cardio does best after weight training to make the most of glycogen and held bodyfat.

[lotokids]

Originally Posted by babymama7

your bad!!!!

Yes I am!

[ivoryce]

Originally Posted by lotokids

Well, studies have shown that an increase in sexual activity has been proven to aid in weight loss tremendously. Studies have also shown that if you are reading this and your husband is in the next room sleeping because he just happens to be on his midnight shift rotation, he would not be upset if you woke him....it would be for a good cause and he probably would help you in any way he can to do your best in your quest to win the contest.

ahaha I had a good laugh over that! He is right tho... studies do show that when you and your partner increase your sexual activity, it can aid in weight loss... But for reasons not easily described... I do believe lotokids is absolutely dead on in saying that it's likely your husband won't mind you interrupting his REM with something else I won't give an abbreviation for here!

But seriously, I would try to get yourself into running... I can comfortably run about 5-6k without breaks and am finally starting to see my shape trim down/lean out. I began with high intensity interval training (as someone mentioned HIIT). This method is excellent IMO because anyone at any fitness level can use it and progress with it. Do one min walking, one min running (as fast as you can maintain for one min), and alternate approx. 10 times. You build up your VO2 max and condition yourself to run. While I whole-heartedly agree with weight lifting, I personally feel I've shed fat quickest with running. Another method I've read about recently is a method Charles Glass (world renowned trainer) uses: lower weight/high rep lifting to deplete glycogen, followed by 45minutes moderate intensity (walking on incline) to burn fat (as glycogen reserves are tapped)....

This short post turned into a long one!! Ah well.. Good luck on your goals! ; )

[tse]

I'm not a trainer or anything but my mum had my sister 3 years ago and started doing weights about one year ago. She's seen massive changes in her figure since doing weights four times a week, with each session being followed by 20 mins on the cross trainer. She also does eat about 5 times a day, 4 smaller meals and one slightly larger dinner (we eat together as a family so the meals never going to fit perfect macros)

What we eat (yes tend to eat very similarly) is oats with milk and raisins for breakfast, protein shakes as snacks, sandwich on wholewheat bread/ salad/ egg on toast for lunch then dinner is usually something like tuna salad, quiche, chicken dishes etc - always pretty healthy. We also drink only water/ green tea. Plenty of fruit and veg also (fruit usually mornings only)

Saying that at the weekend - saturday and/or sunday we eat what we want because my dads not working anf brothers not at school we go to restaurants, have a bbq, got to the cinema etc and eat pretty much what we like - no binging though.

Our training routine goes something like this:

Monday: Chest and Triceps (45mins) + cardio (20 mins)
Tuesday: Back and Biceps (45 mins) + cardio (20mins)Rest
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Legs (45mins) + cardio (20mins)
Friday: Shoulders and Abs (45 mins) + cardio (20 mins)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

Hope this helps

EDIT: didnt realise you had diet in check so disregard that part!

[lotokids]

Originally Posted by ivoryce

ahaha I had a good laugh over that! He is right tho... studies do show that when you and your partner increase your sexual activity, it can aid in weight loss... But for reasons not easily described... I do believe lotokids is absolutely dead on in saying that it's likely your husband won't mind you interrupting his REM with something else I won't give an abbreviation for here!

But seriously, I would try to get yourself into running... I can comfortably run about 5-6k without breaks and am finally starting to see my shape trim down/lean out. I began with high intensity interval training (as someone mentioned HIIT). This method is excellent IMO because anyone at any fitness level can use it and progress with it. Do one min walking, one min running (as fast as you can maintain for one min), and alternate approx. 10 times. You build up your VO2 max and condition yourself to run. While I whole-heartedly agree with weight lifting, I personally feel I've shed fat quickest with running. Another method I've read about recently is a method Charles Glass (world renowned trainer) uses: lower weight/high rep lifting to deplete glycogen, followed by 45minutes moderate intensity (walking on incline) to burn fat (as glycogen reserves are tapped)....

This short post turned into a long one!! Ah well.. Good luck on your goals! ; )

You gave me another idea. She can run to the bedroom to wake me...um...or...him up...two birds with one stone. By the way nice ink.

[Twerp]

So you don't think a full body routine would be more beneficial than 5 splits? What metabolic advantage do you get from training upper arms and forearms? I also think that an hour of cardio is a complete waste of time - especially with 7 kids.

I think training with full body splits 3-4 days/week would be far more beneficial to someone hoping to lose fat. What you've outlined is an excellent bodybuilding split, but I just don't see that really suiting the OP here. Also, HIIT is far more effective in terms of fat loss than just steady state cardio, and it takes about 1/3 of the time.

For someone just starting back, I would recommend a strength/fat loss program with HIIT as the main form of cardio. On off days from weights she could take kids for walks or swims or whatever, but an hour at a time is too much time in the gym to do cardio.

Originally Posted by Vadim Beliaev

A cutting routine for a woman wouldnt be any different than a similar routine for men.

A standard approach to try would be 5 days a week lifting + 1 hour of cardio.
Do a split so you work different bodyparts on each day.
Mine would be
Day 1 - legs (quads and hamstrings + calves)
Day 2 - chest
Day 3 - back
Day 4 - shoulders
Day 5 - upper arms and forearms

You would want to throw in a day or two of rest in there too, so it would look something like this :
Day 1, Day 2, rest, Day 3, Day 4, rest, Day 5, rest , repeat routine

The exercises would be compounds in 12-15 rep range + 1-2 isolation exercises
For example for legs you would do barbell squats for 4 sets of 12-15 reps (and those reps will have to be challenging!!! Dont do 12 reps with a weight that you could do 30 reps with and call it a day)
Still leg deadlifts for 4 sets of 12 reps
Leg extensions for 4 sets of 15 reps
Leg curls for 4 sets of 15 reps
and lastly calf raises for 4 sets of 15 reps

For cardio its up to you, but i prefer myself and my clients to do 1 hour of moderate intensity cardio (biking, elliptical, treadmill, whatever you prefer), and keep the heart rate with 130-140 beats per minute.
There are advocates of other routines involving cardio for fat loss, but i feel the above worked the best for me and those i have trained.

I hope this was helpful

Of course i cannot stress enough the importance of a properly constructed diet, but thats an entirely another topic