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I am a woman in my late forties who does several sets of various lifts with ten lb. free weights almost daily, along with a recumbent bike set on high resistance for at least 30 minutes and abdominal crunches. Because of this, I have extremely well developed and toned muscles in my arms, legs, and abdomen (as in, rock hard when I flex them and very well defined). I'm 5'6" and currently weigh over 180 lbs. but can still wear some size medium clothing and have never worn anything larger than a size 14. I have never, ever worn anything from the "plus" department.
So my question is, how much of my weight do you think can be attributed to my muscle tone? It depresses me that I weigh this much, and I realize that some of it is excess fat that I need to get rid of, but does muscle mass really make a difference in one's weight? I have always heard that muscle is heavier than fat, but I don't know how much to attribute to each.
People tell me I don't look fat, but I still think my weight is way too high.
I am not sure of what you are asking. I think I know why you ask, but I am not sure it matters. By your numbers you are over-weight. My wife is your height and 54 y.o. she weighs 140/5 and is a size 8. My ex before her was 6'1" and 180lbs. she was not in good shape, but we were in our 30's and she had the height to pull it off. My wife has an insane amount of muscle. A lot of her weight is going to be muscle mass. She benches with her bodyweight, curls with 20/25lb dumbells. Even with that there is only maybe 10/15lbs of bodyweight difference due to muscle over someone less trained. It isn't how much of your weight is muscle that is important unless you lift very heavy like my wife. Since you do not, you need to drop enough weight to get your BMI into an acceptable range. I'm serious. By the numbers you are likely pre-diabetic. If you are African American, you are diabetic. Serious stuff.
The poster who mentioned your diet was correct. I wouldn't wait to get an actual diagnosis of diabetes if I were in your situation. I would start on the assumption that I am and immediately cut my sugar intake in half. I am doing this as we speak. My wife does also. She isn't even close to being diabetic but does not want the calories that come with a sweet tooth. I would replace the missing sugar with Stevia or Xylitol. I would be aiming to be completely sugar free maybe by Christmas? I'm harsh but I'm not mean. I would slash my carb intake. I might not have any carbs at all anymore with dinner. You can knock out hundreds of calories a day this way. That's huge.
The resistance of cardio equipment should be low enough that you can really crank. 90 - 100 rpm. I think yours is set way too high. Higher resistance is not helping you burn anything set that high. Drop it to half of what you have it set on at present. You also have a choice: increase your cardio sessions to 1hr to 1.5hr OR vastly increase the amount of weight that you lift in your strength training sessions. Strength training shouldn't be every day. You shouldn't be able to do it every day. You should need a day to recover and maybe two, between sessions. It goes against all my training as a strength athlete to endorse a program that does not feature progressive resistance (increasing poundage on a regular basis). Using the same set weight every session is not something I know anything about. I am not going to touch it. But I would suggest you check into whether you could be getting more out of the time you spend training.
You asked. I know all this sounds impossible, but your regimen isn't working. You don't have the same metabolism anymore and it really requires a strict diet with no excess calories or a kick ass cardio/strength regimen to build new muscle that does not have insulin resistant mitochondria in it. You absolutely can do it. I urge you to go on a website like bodybuilding dot com and look around for some age and gender appropriate workout programs. Good luck.
I am not sure of what you are asking. I think I know why you ask, but I am not sure it matters. By your numbers you are over-weight. My wife is your height and 54 y.o. she weighs 140/5 and is a size 8. My ex before her was 6'1" and 180lbs. she was not in good shape, but we were in our 30's and she had the height to pull it off. My wife has an insane amount of muscle. A lot of her weight is going to be muscle mass. She benches with her bodyweight, curls with 20/25lb dumbells. Even with that there is only maybe 10/15lbs of bodyweight difference due to muscle over someone less trained. It isn't how much of your weight is muscle that is important unless you lift very heavy like my wife. Since you do not, you need to drop enough weight to get your BMI into an acceptable range. I'm serious. By the numbers you are likely pre-diabetic. If you are African American, you are diabetic. Serious stuff.
The poster who mentioned your diet was correct. I wouldn't wait to get an actual diagnosis of diabetes if I were in your situation. I would start on the assumption that I am and immediately cut my sugar intake in half. I am doing this as we speak. My wife does also. She isn't even close to being diabetic but does not want the calories that come with a sweet tooth. I would replace the missing sugar with Stevia or Xylitol. I would be aiming to be completely sugar free maybe by Christmas? I'm harsh but I'm not mean. I would slash my carb intake. I might not have any carbs at all anymore with dinner. You can knock out hundreds of calories a day this way. That's huge.
The resistance of cardio equipment should be low enough that you can really crank. 90 - 100 rpm. I think yours is set way too high. Higher resistance is not helping you burn anything set that high. Drop it to half of what you have it set on at present. You also have a choice: increase your cardio sessions to 1hr to 1.5hr OR vastly increase the amount of weight that you lift in your strength training sessions. Strength training shouldn't be every day. You shouldn't be able to do it every day. You should need a day to recover and maybe two, between sessions. It goes against all my training as a strength athlete to endorse a program that does not feature progressive resistance (increasing poundage on a regular basis). Using the same set weight every session is not something I know anything about. I am not going to touch it. But I would suggest you check into whether you could be getting more out of the time you spend training.
You asked. I know all this sounds impossible, but your regimen isn't working. You don't have the same metabolism anymore and it really requires a strict diet with no excess calories or a kick ass cardio/strength regimen to build new muscle that does not have insulin resistant mitochondria in it. You absolutely can do it. I urge you to go on a website like bodybuilding dot com and look around for some age and gender appropriate workout programs. Good luck.
H
Some of these are good suggestions, but she doesn't want to do body building; it sounds like she already has plenty of lean muscle mass. She needs to maintain that, but also lose fat. Which the diet recommendations will achieve. I think it's going too far to say she's diabetic; she's just overweight. For extra cradio she can do a fast-walking regime in addition to her gym cardio. Her exercise program already is keeping her blood sugar balanced, unless she's eating a lot of sugar.
By all means, OP, eliminate sugar from your diet. If you need a little treat once/day, use stevia. (Be careful; a little goes a long way.) Also cut starches, and buy some low-card bread (if you eat bread/toast). You can buy 0 net carb bread at Whole Foods in the freezer section. Hopefully, you get a good amount of protein daily to maintain that lean muscle mass; fish, eggs, cheese, lean meat, poultry. Snack on cheese and a few thin apple slices. Or strawberries and a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. Eliminate potatoes, bananas, white rice and white bread. Small amts of brown rice only (experiment with rices, for fun. There's a red rice that I like, for texture and flavor. You can sprinkle it in a salad.)
With a little discipline, it shouldn't take too much effort to lose just 15-20 lbs., that's a realistic goal. Let us know how you do!
Some of these are good suggestions, but she doesn't want to do body building; it sounds like she already has plenty of lean muscle mass. She needs to maintain that, but also lose fat. Which the diet recommendations will achieve. I think it's going too far to say she's diabetic; she's just overweight. For extra cradio she can do a fast-walking regime in addition to her gym cardio. Her exercise program already is keeping her blood sugar balanced, unless she's eating a lot of sugar.
By all means, OP, eliminate sugar from your diet. If you need a little treat once/day, use stevia. (Be careful; a little goes a long way.) Also cut starches, and buy some low-card bread (if you eat bread/toast). You can buy 0 net carb bread at Whole Foods in the freezer section. Hopefully, you get a good amount of protein daily to maintain that lean muscle mass; fish, eggs, cheese, lean meat, poultry. Snack on cheese and a few thin apple slices. Or strawberries and a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. Eliminate potatoes, bananas, white rice and white bread. Small amts of brown rice only (experiment with rices, for fun. There's a red rice that I like, for texture and flavor. You can sprinkle it in a salad.)
With a little discipline, it shouldn't take too much effort to lose just 15-20 lbs., that's a realistic goal. Let us know how you do!
I appreciate you taking the time to give this advice, but this is what holds the obese back. So many steps to incorporate. It seems like an insurmountable change.
It is this SIMPLE: take in less calories and you automatically lose weight. NOTHING can dispute that simple biological fact. You can eat mickey d's and taco bell every day if you want. Will it be internally healthy in the long run? Maybe not. Will you lose weight by tracking the calories? Absolutely. Cardio is only going to burn 100-300 calories for the average person. Not a significant difference. Cut your calories 500-1000 by eating less and watch the dominoes fall into place.
As I understand it, and this is from a doctor, there is a three F formula that they use: Female, Over Forty and Fat = Diabetes. I gave the o.p. benefit of the doubt because she already does way more than the average person Still, she is at risk. She should weigh 135 with all that activity. But she doesn't, so I figured something else must be the culprit. We agree. It is likely sugar and/or carb intake. I don't think more work with weights and cardio hurts. Gets you there faster than focusing on diet alone.
As I understand it, and this is from a doctor, there is a three F formula that they use: Female, Over Forty and Fat = Diabetes. I gave the o.p. benefit of the doubt because she already does way more than the average person Still, she is at risk. She should weigh 135 with all that activity. But she doesn't, so I figured something else must be the culprit. We agree. It is likely sugar and/or carb intake. I don't think more work with weights and cardio hurts. Gets you there faster than focusing on diet alone.
Completely wrong. Lifting/cardio is 10 to 20 percent of the game. Diet (and caloric intake) rules all. It doesn't matter if you run 10 miles a day when you go home and scarf down 2500 and more calories per day.
I am a woman in my late forties who does several sets of various lifts with ten lb. free weights almost daily, along with a recumbent bike set on high resistance for at least 30 minutes and abdominal crunches. Because of this, I have extremely well developed and toned muscles in my arms, legs, and abdomen (as in, rock hard when I flex them and very well defined). I'm 5'6" and currently weigh over 180 lbs. but can still wear some size medium clothing and have never worn anything larger than a size 14. I have never, ever worn anything from the "plus" department.
So my question is, how much of my weight do you think can be attributed to my muscle tone? It depresses me that I weigh this much, and I realize that some of it is excess fat that I need to get rid of, but does muscle mass really make a difference in one's weight? I have always heard that muscle is heavier than fat, but I don't know how much to attribute to each.
People tell me I don't look fat, but I still think my weight is way too high.
Impossible to say without a picture. While muscle definitely weighs more, unless you are as muscular as a pro bodybuilder, it's probably not all muscle is that is making your BMI so high. If you're wearing a size 14, that's big. Not obese kind of big, necessarily, but big. I mean, you are one size from plus. However, the muscle probably means you are not as big as a woman at your weight would be who didn't work out, and it sounds like you are pretty fit. I have a lot of muscle - like, bodybuilder muscle - and it makes my BMI a bit high, but I'm still just into the "normal" range, and I wear a size 6. I've been just over it as well, and I was definitely not fat, but certainly not thin...more like slightly chubby, and a size 8-10. Probably 10 lbs heavier than was healthy, mainly because of a poor diet. Perhaps that's where you are - just a tad too heavy, but not what your weight would suggest.
I would say that your exercise routine might be good, but perhaps your diet isn't so good. You might consider making a change there, if you are eating unhealthy foods (I am not suggesting eating less). But if you eat junk food, or a lot of sweets, or something like that...maybe try cutting down on fat, salt and sugar and replacing with better things.
Some of these are good suggestions, but she doesn't want to do body building; it sounds like she already has plenty of lean muscle mass. She needs to maintain that, but also lose fat. Which the diet recommendations will achieve. I think it's going too far to say she's diabetic; she's just overweight. For extra cradio she can do a fast-walking regime in addition to her gym cardio. Her exercise program already is keeping her blood sugar balanced, unless she's eating a lot of sugar.
By all means, OP, eliminate sugar from your diet. If you need a little treat once/day, use stevia. (Be careful; a little goes a long way.) Also cut starches, and buy some low-card bread (if you eat bread/toast). You can buy 0 net carb bread at Whole Foods in the freezer section. Hopefully, you get a good amount of protein daily to maintain that lean muscle mass; fish, eggs, cheese, lean meat, poultry. Snack on cheese and a few thin apple slices. Or strawberries and a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. Eliminate potatoes, bananas, white rice and white bread. Small amts of brown rice only (experiment with rices, for fun. There's a red rice that I like, for texture and flavor. You can sprinkle it in a salad.)
With a little discipline, it shouldn't take too much effort to lose just 15-20 lbs., that's a realistic goal. Let us know how you do!
Sorry, but that diet idea is ridiculously strict - she's not planning to be in a bodybuilding contest. And no one likes cottage cheese. I lost 20 pounds just by swapping out foods high in salt, sugar and fat for foods that were lower. I eat all the bananas I want, and brown rice (I only worry about the arsenic there), and whole wheat bread (not low carb - nothing is worse than low carb when you exercise a lot; it leaves you exhausted and starving all the time). I would agree that sugar would be the one thing that has to go, if the OP is eating a lot of it.
I don't agree with the blanket statement "eat less". You have to eat right, eat the right stuff, and and at the right times. Since I lift and do cardio 5x a week (I'm not a super crazy fitness person) I eat around 1600 - 1900 calories a day. The worst thing you can do is get hungry because then you tend to eat whatever is in sight which isn't always good for you. There are two websites I have used to help me. Caloriecount.com which has great forums for support to learn and get encouragement from others in the same situation. They also have a nice cameraderie and sometimes a small group set themself up for a challenge (eg. working out 5 days a week for six weeks, etc.) Now I've moved to livestrong.com. Join the "stronger challenge" . You won't be lifting. They have videos you can do at home with no equipment (I modify some exercises as jumping isn't great for my knees). They have meal plans (i modify these as well), that even if you don't follow, you can get the jist of what kinds of things to eat, how much, and when.
Simply cutting calories I think ends up being counterproductive. I believe your metabolism adjusts to less calories, burns less and leads to frustration. Particularly after my 40s. I'm only speaking from my own situation. One thing I've done to try to trick my metabolism is 10 - 15 minutes of intervals with a jump rope, or jumping jacks, running in place (or thru the house - the dog Loves it!) in the morning. You may also want to change your workouts up a bit because your body because more efficient at what you do all the time.
I hope this helps.
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