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I'm a 21 year old woman, and I have started getting serious about losing weight.
My diet really isn't bad. I eat my veggies and proteins, and I know how to stop snacking on sweets and junk. The only problem that I had was eating too many carbs, but I stopped that.
I started exercising at the gym down the street. I usually start by stretching at home, then going to the gym to do the elliptical and another leg machine for around 10-15 minutes each. Then I walk on the treadmill between 3.4-3.7 for 40 to 50 minutes. My heart rate varies around 154-165 during this. I try not to go above 170, I did that once. Big mistake. Then, I rest for a while before going to the weights. I do weights (arms, back, rowing, abs, thighs) for about 30 minutes.
The last time I went was on Sunday. I did what I wrote above. I wanted to stay on the treadmill for a full hour, but my left knee was aching. My legs felt like cramping and bending, so I stopped. I would run, but I think my running technique is bad. I get sharp pains in my side when I do, and my legs hurt. Also, I felt kind of dizzy after exercising. I went to the locker room to wash my hands, and I felt lightheaded as I moved from the sink to get some hand towels.
I have never done this before, and would like your advice. Am I doing this properly? Do I need to switch up my exercise routine or diet?
Without knowing how long you've been going to the gym, or what kind of condition you were in before this, it's difficult to be sure, but it sounds to me as if you may be trying to push too hard too soon. Leg cramps are a pretty good sign that you're exercising more than you're in condition to handle.
The best way to think of fitness is that pursuing fitness is a way of life, a lifelong habit. Try whipping yourself into shape for the short term, and you're likely to ease off the exercise at some point and go back to your old habits and lose everything you've gained. If you're going to make the pursuit of fitness a way of life, you have plenty of time to ease into shape gradually. A few weeks or months of difference in the time it takes you to be exercising at a certain level won't make a difference in the course of your whole life.
The key is to ease back until you find a level of exercise that does not cause you the difficulties you've been experiencing, but to be diligent about exercising at this lower level of intensity. You don't want to make the mistake of exercising sporadically and telling yourself it's okay because you're working into shape gradually. Be diligent about exercising regularly at a lower intensity, and then dedicate yourself to gradually increasing your intensity over time.
More details needed....height/weight, exercise history...goals, etc.
Kind of concerning that you are walking and your heart rate was that high. Then again, some people have a naturally high heart rate. A better indicator is perceived exertion...how hard are you breathing, could you carry on a conversation if required?
As for diet: Cutting carbs out of your diet completely isn't the way to go. We've moved past that particular fad diet. One of the best ways to get a handle on your diet to write down everything you eat and figure out the calories you are consuming. Make changes based on that. Regardless, getting rid of junk food and random snacking is a good start!
I'm aroun 4"11-5"1' (I haven't measured myself in a while). I don't really know my exact weight either. At home, I used a digital scale, and it would range from 147-153. At the gym, my friend tried to help me with the manual scale (the one where you push the black bars) and it is always around 152, but I don't know if she was doing it right. My goal is to get to 120 lbs, like I was just five years back.
I have been exercising sporadically since October, but have been really doing it since early February. My heart rate got that high without me really knowing it at first, I had to look at the monitor to see it. I would try to keep it around 150-165 to keep my breathing slow. When I get on the elliptical, it would go from the 130-140s and jump up to that range as well.
My diet really hasn't changed. I still eat carbs, just not as much as I used too. I will try a diet journal. I used an online one before and didn't like it.
I'm aroun 4"11-5"1' (I haven't measured myself in a while). I don't really know my exact weight either. At home, I used a digital scale, and it would range from 147-153. At the gym, my friend tried to help me with the manual scale (the one where you push the black bars) and it is always around 152, but I don't know if she was doing it right. My goal is to get to 120 lbs, like I was just five years back.
I have been exercising sporadically since October, but have been really doing it since early February. My heart rate got that high without me really knowing it at first, I had to look at the monitor to see it. I would try to keep it around 150-165 to keep my breathing slow. When I get on the elliptical, it would go from the 130-140s and jump up to that range as well.
My diet really hasn't changed. I still eat carbs, just not as much as I used too. I will try a diet journal. I used an online one before and didn't like it.
Heart rate is meaningless without context, which brings me back to perceived exertion....just how hard are you working when your HR is at 150-165? Good rule of thumb is that you should still be able to have a conversation with someone. If you can't, slow it down. The goal is to do a workout to burn calories, but be able to hit the gym the next day, the day after, and so on. Blow it out on one day and you won't want to go again the next day.
For the diet journal, its important to do whatever works best for you. Pad of paper, online calculator, iPhone app...whatever. Also important is to know serving size. Its really easy to "cheat" by underestimating how much you eat.
For example, the serving size for a chicken breast is 4oz...about the size of a pack of cards. If you eat a chicken breast that is larger than that, you need to account for it.
From this you should get a good idea if you are consuming too many calories, and where those calories are coming from. Then you can begin to make choices and figure out a diet that works for you. By "work for you" meaning one you'll stick with, after you've gotten to your goal weight. You are going for a life-style changes, not a diet where you lose weight, then go back to the same bad habits.
Do you have health insurance? If so, I think you should get a check up. Given your incredibly slow treadmill speed, I'd have expected you to weigh 200+ in order for your heart rate to be that high. That, plus the dizziness... doesn't pass my sniff test.
Do you have health insurance? If so, I think you should get a check up. Given your incredibly slow treadmill speed, I'd have expected you to weigh 200+ in order for your heart rate to be that high. That, plus the dizziness... doesn't pass my sniff test.
She is pretty short in stature so she may have a very small stride.
I have a short stride length and at 4.0 on a treadmil I'm to the point where it's difficult to keep up if I'm walking. At 4.2 it's a slow jog for me. I am just under 5'4" and my inseam is 27".
3.7 is a pretty quick pace for me to walk so if she's not in decent shape I can see how her heart rate would be around 160 or so.
Heart rate is meaningless without context, which brings me back to perceived exertion....just how hard are you working when your HR is at 150-165? Good rule of thumb is that you should still be able to have a conversation with someone. If you can't, slow it down. The goal is to do a workout to burn calories, but be able to hit the gym the next day, the day after, and so on. Blow it out on one day and you won't want to go again the next day.
Yes, I can have a conversation while working out. Today, I notice that when I make the treadmill elevate (I like it at 10), my heart rate was faster. I brought it back to zero and my rate was around 145. So, maybe it was just that.I start sweating around 150. I wasn't dizzy today, so that must be it. I kept it around 3.0 to 3.7 for 25 minutes. I would have done it longer, but I had to leave early.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OngletNYC
Do you have health insurance? If so, I think you should get a check up. Given your incredibly slow treadmill speed, I'd have expected you to weigh 200+ in order for your heart rate to be that high. That, plus the dizziness... doesn't pass my sniff test.
Quote:
Originally Posted by justthe6ofus
She is pretty short in stature so she may have a very small stride.
I have a short stride length and at 4.0 on a treadmil I'm to the point where it's difficult to keep up if I'm walking. At 4.2 it's a slow jog for me. I am just under 5'4" and my inseam is 27".
3.7 is a pretty quick pace for me to walk so if she's not in decent shape I can see how her heart rate would be around 160 or so.
Yeah, 3.0 is the slowest I can go without tripping. I start "power walking" around 3.5, and slowly jogging at 4.0. I do want to run faster (5.0), but I want to start exercising slowly and build up to that.
I'm aroun 4"11-5"1' (I haven't measured myself in a while). I don't really know my exact weight either. At home, I used a digital scale, and it would range from 147-153. At the gym, my friend tried to help me with the manual scale (the one where you push the black bars) and it is always around 152, but I don't know if she was doing it right. My goal is to get to 120 lbs, like I was just five years back.
I have been exercising sporadically since October, but have been really doing it since early February. My heart rate got that high without me really knowing it at first, I had to look at the monitor to see it. I would try to keep it around 150-165 to keep my breathing slow. When I get on the elliptical, it would go from the 130-140s and jump up to that range as well.
My diet really hasn't changed. I still eat carbs, just not as much as I used too. I will try a diet journal. I used an online one before and didn't like it.
1. Keep a journal of what you eat for a week. This is what I do. Created a Word Document in Google Docs, so I can access if from home or work.
I weight myself each morning, and write it on the calendar.
2. I enter the date in my journal, WED Mar 2.
0600
30 oz green beans
4 oz grilled chicken breast
water
green tea
0900
2 tsp All natural peanut butter
water
1200
1/2 cup brown rice
30 oz green beans
8 oz grilled chicken breast
diet coke
1500
1/4 cup almonds
1 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup blue berries
water
1800 - 1900
1/2 cup brown rice
30 oz mixed veggies
8 oz grilled chicken breast
diet coke / water
My point is knowing when I eat, what I eat, and how much.
Know when I get my snack attack hunger pains--and having healthy alternative food ready.
That Green Beans and Grilled Chicken Breast is from CostCo, frozen.
I got this $25 digital kitchen weight scale and it helped me create baggies of frozen food that I like or don't mind eating. I weight them and put them in the baggies with sprinkle of garlic pepper. Some water in a bowl and microwave for 4 minutes and I have a meal.
The meal also focuses on NO carbs from last meal dinner until noon the next day. This definitely helps the far burn last longer. Green beans is carbs, sure but it has fiber that minimizes the carb grams lower from Dinner to Lunch.
Not that Protein is distributed, and my target is 2 lbs of lean protein each day.
Complex Carbs (brown rice) is eaten at Noon and at dinner. These are slow burning carbs and should provide the carbs the body needs. And when these are depleted, my body should start using my excess body fat. That's the idea as long as I stick to my diet.
The exercise is both cardio and weight. One for body far burning and weight loss. The other is for muscle, strength, and endurance building.
Fat is also needed daily. Go for poly-saturated fats instead. Try to avoid eating Both High Fat and High Carb in a meal. Either go for High Carb and Low Fat; or High Fat and Low Carb. Not just both. The idea is to distribute your daily carb and fat intake in an even spread throughout that day... Well, except the very low carb from Dinner to Lunch during fat burn cycle of your progress / program.
As for Cardio. Start simple.
Thread Mill. 2.0 mph. 15% incline. Do 20 minutes. Increase something each week. 25 minutes. 30 minutes. Then drop to 20 minutes but at 2.5 mph. Eventually, I my goal was to do 4.0 mph at 40 minutes. 4.0 mph is a slight jog for my. Or you can measure progress by the distance instead.
I do not worry about heart rate. If I am out of breath and can not complete my goal for that day, then I'm over exerting myself. Cut the pace in order to meet my goal.
Check next week to see if I find the right pace in meeting my goal. Upon reaching this mini goal, I count it as a Personal Record (PR). Then set a new goal next week. Always aiming for the small PRs. It is quite motivating to see PR's over the months in my journal.
After a while, I switch out of the thread mill and use the elliptical, or cross ramp, or rowing machine for my cardio. Same thing for my weight routine. Get comfortable, increase goals, meet goals, and change routines.
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