WEEK 141 :: What Is The Best 12-Week Fat Loss Transformation Workout For Women?

[the_fake_webmaster]

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* Note: How can I win? Answer all questions in the order that they are asked.

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TOPIC: What Is The Best 12-Week Fat Loss Transformation Workout For Women?

For the week of: 12/17 - 12/29
Monday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut (Mountain Time, US & Canada).

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Twelve weeks is a good time frame to set some short-term fitness goals. And for women it's just enough time to notice a positive transformation that could set the tone for a lifestyle change.

What is the best 12-week fat loss transformation workout for women? Be specific.

How much weightlifting should be included in this fat loss program?

How much cardio should be included in this fat loss program?

How much fat can you expect to lose on this plan?

Who would you recommend this workout program to and why?

* Please make sure your responses are original and not copied from previous topics.

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[greenamethyst]

What is the best 12-week fat loss transformation workout for women? Be specific.

Normally, a person beginning a fat loss transformation needs a simple program. The more complicated it is, the more difficult it will be to follow. Since compliance is crucial to achieve results, if a program is easier to follow, it will be more effective.

Most people will not follow a routine with many complicated exercises, especially if they are starting from a point where they don?t know how to do any. They may be more likely to follow a complicated routine if they have a personal trainer, but not everyone has the budget for a trainer.

It?s also important to avoid overtraining. Overtraining, with excessive fatigue and soreness, may make someone quit too soon. That?s why my sample routine is limited to 3 workouts per week.

You also need simplicity in terms of diet. Further details are below.

How much cardio and weightlifting would be required?

This program would combine cardio and weightlifting in the same workout. If you are working out in a gym it would be as follows: three workouts a week. First, do 15 minutes cardio to begin the workout, on elliptical or treadmill. The cardio will serve as a warm up.

Follow the cardio with a whole body weight workout. Five sets of five should be done for all exercises. The lower body portion would include squats, stiff leg dead lifts, and the leg press. The upper body portion would include the bench press, upright rows, bent over dumbbell rows, and one exercise for triceps, such as the skull crusher, since females may need extra triceps work. An abdominal exercise can be added if desired.

Since you are only doing 5 sets of 5 for each exercise, you should be able to start fairly heavy. Add at least 5 pounds to your weights every two weeks. So, for example, if you begin the bench press at 40, you would end at 65.

You can also add 5 to 10 minutes of cardio after the first six weeks. Do not go beyond 30 minutes.

Again, the set up of this plan emphasizes simplicity. Since it will be fairly easy to learn the basic exercises, and you don?t need to follow a trainer around and listen to explanations, you should be able to go through the workout fairly fast. This fact, combined with the chosen exercises, which use major muscle groups, will trigger more HGH (Human Growth Hormone) release, which will trigger more muscle growth.

You also only are working out or going to the gym three days a week. How can someone get in shape with this frequency of exercise? Easily. We are not talking about training for a competition, necessarily, but simply fat loss and transformation.
The time for rest and recovery will help the results, as long as there is no over eating.


How much fat can you expect to lose on this plan?

The amount of fat you can expect to lose would depend upon your diet. I would recommend eating no more than 100 grams of carbohydrate per day, at least 100 grams of protein, lots of water, and no more than 2000 calories. As long as you follow these rules, you can eat whatever you want.

It is good to make sure and eat enough fruits and vegetables, and have a protein shake after training, but the most important thing is the macros. Again, simplicity. Not everyone has the ability or desire to follow 50 diet rules.

Using myself as an example ? 5? 5? and 130 pounds ? and assuming I am burning 2500 calories per day, I would lose 1 pound of fat per week or 12 pounds total. (I know from past experience that I lose weight at less than 2500 calories.) Hopefully I would also gain muscle, or I would end up way too skinny. Metabolism varies, so some women would have to cut calories lower than 2000. I would not recommend going too low though.

Who would you recommend this workout program to and why?

I would recommend this program to someone who is just getting started or getting back into fitness or someone who is busy and needs a simple fitness plan. It?s actually a basic plan that I recently created for myself. I have been exercising at home, but recently joined a gym. I have an opportunity now to increase weights and do more than I was doing at home, but I know myself, and I know that I need to keep it simple as I progress.


Regards,
"Greenamethyst"

[theone787]

I believe the best way to lose fat over a 12 week time period is to combine a balance of High intensity cardio and high-rep weight training (with some heavy training).

Weeks 1-4 should be solely dedicated to cardiovascular and calisthenics workouts to get the body in high gear.

Examples of high intensity cardio: Interval runs
(sprint 400 meters, jog 100 meters)(Sprint 200m, jog 400m for a distance of 2 miles working your way up from there)

Examples of calisthenics: http://www.expertvillage.com/video-s...listhenics.htm shows many examples of calisthenic exercises (no weights needed, just bodyweight)

(push-ups, crunches, box jumps, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, etc)

Weeks 5-8 should prioritize weight training while continuing cardiovascular training

I would suggest during this phase doing 3 days per week of high rep, low weight training. I would also focus on basic movements (squats, deadlifts, arm curls, clean and press). These exercises performed with lighter weight, higher reps will be sure to get your heart pumping.

One day can be dedicated to heavier weight training with lower reps because benefits are to be had here for women as well. The key for women to remember is that just because you lift heavy weights DOES NOT MEAN YOU WILL GET BULKY. Women have low testosterone levels which means that heavy and light weight training will tone your muscles and burn fat, not make you bulky and huge.

Weeks 9-12 should be dedicated, in my opinion, to a combination of cardio, calisthenics, heavy and light weight training and cross training. By cross training, I mean a game of tennis or a game of fast pace basketball. Don't underestimate the power of cross-training...an hour of tennis or basketball will definitely give you a great cardio workout and work your muscles indirectly as well.

Most importantly is DIET. Without a sound diet, your training is worthless for the most part. For fat loss, one should consume 5-6 small meals per day to get the metabolism going. What most women do not understand is that eating 2 huge meals a day or not eating at all (the starvation diet) is just making your body stubborn and forces it to hold onto its fat reserves because of the lack of food it is getting. In turn, you will not lose fat if you do this. Lastly, supplementation....stick with the basics...a good women's multivitamin, a low-carb, low fat whey protein, high quality fish oil and possibly a thermogenic fat burner to aid in kickstarting your metabolism. Remember, supplements are exactly that...supplements (something that is an addition to your diet). As always, I am a firm believer that a diet cannot be a temporary thing in your life for it to work...it has to be a longterm lifestyle change.

I would recommend this program to any women (or man) wanting to shock their body into new growth and development.

In conclusion, I would say it is hard to tell exactly how much fat one can expect to lose with this program. There are many variables. How strictly are you sticking to your diet? Are you keeping consistent with your workouts? If you continue to be consistent and committed to your goal, you will see great results. My last piece of advice here is my favorite piece of advice...having a great body and good health is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Keep patient and results will come.

Thanks and hope this helps someone.

[rh19]

Listed in attachment.

[smorgan1227]

First and most important I committed to eating 6 small clean meals a day. I believe that the majority of the work is done through eating.

I also feel that gaining muscle is the other part of that equation. However, changing one's diet drastically can cause emotional exhaustion. To keep things simple I did Jamie Eason's Plyometrics workout with a deck of cards once a day for about three weeks. Then I added in running 20 minutes three days a week along with the plyometrics. After about 10 weeks I joined a gym and started lifting weights. I am continually amazed at how effective the plyo card workout really was.

You can expect to lose your over abundance of stored fat. It depends on how much you have to lose. I personally only lost about 10 pounds in 12 weeks, however that translated to about 7% body fat.

I would recommend this program to anyone who has healthy joints and is relatively active. The jump squats, lunges and push-ups can be hard on a person who is not used to physical activity or suffers with knee and joint pain.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/plyo_card_routine.htm

Keeping it simple for the first twelve weeks is important. I also believe that if the diet doesn't change then who cares how hard you work out?

[theone787]

anything goin on with this contest?

[theone787]

bump

[PastaTuna]

Thanks a lot for your "12 week training" post! Good luck!
:-)

[lerona710]

Great stuff, have to check out your newer things on this.