I'm on the 3rd week of the weight loss plan now, I lost no weight in the second week which was disappointing as I did 150+ mins of exercise and stayed under my calories each day.
My final goal is to weigh 9st and I'm currently 10st12llbs (started at 11st4llbs)
My problem is that I'm not sure on how intense my workouts should be. I love to do squats/lunges/donkey kicks but I'm not sure how much weight I should be adding. I'm afraid of my legs becoming larger rather than slimmer and more toned so I tend to use less weight which ends up feeling slightly ineffective.
I am eating healthIER but honestly not the cleanest, I'll still have things like fish fingers, homemade chips and lots of vegetables instead of a lean meat.
This is all pretty hard to manage as I'm in the middle of my year 2 university exams and I'm trying to make them my first priority for now.
I'm hoping I can figure out an effective workout routine and concentrate on planning my meals once I can spare an hour after my exams finish next week!
This explains a lot about how the forum operates. ☺
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Your exams have to be your priority but try and punctuate your studying with healthy stuff rather than naughties - and exercise will help to clear your head and fill your system with oxygen to help you concentrate when you return to your books - good luck with the exams
As you know muscle weighs more than fat. Maybe instead of focussing on weight loss you should see how many inches (cms) you've lost and how much better your clothes are fitting. Good luck on your exams!
The rule of thumb I was given for your workout weight is this: you need to find a hand weight that you can manage 3 bicep curls and no more - the third one should be a struggle, and you couldn't possibly manage a 4th bicep curl (for me it's 6kg), then your workout weight will be half that weight (so I use a 3kg weight).
Unless you're eating tonnes of protein, your legs won't bulk up. It's a funny thing about girls (sorry if I made a wrong assumption there!) But we don't really develop serious muscles unless we're doing the full blown body builder diet as well. You can workout to your heart's content, don't worry at all.
This is exactly what I needed to hear! I think it's just normal to be second guessing what I'm doing since progress is so slow, but this is what has discouraged me in the past so I'll not worry
Try to do combination exercises, they work a whole lot of muscles in one move. You might not need to heavy a weight for it either. The more muscle you use per rep the more energy each muscle needs to make it work, so you will burn more body fat.
A very good combination exercise is the kettlebell swing, it uses almost every muscle in the body, you can start off at a very light weight and work your way up if you like.. you would need to do about 20 reps per set, maybe start with one set per session but eventually do 3-5 sets.
An example of how good kettlebell swings are for burning body fat, if it was possible to do them for one hour continuous ( don't try it) you could burn up to 1200 calories.
I hope this gives you a bit of an a idea and it can help you out.
in reply to
I'm so glad you've said this! I just tried the kettlebell swings at the gym and found them very effective, although I did keep hitting it off my bum haha!
in reply to
Well go for it but watch where you are hitting it off lol
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Finding a suitable calorie counter website which is adaptable, and going through feels like diet transition phase and side effects.
Too much salt? Not enough water?
Keep Calm and carry on...
Weigh-in TUESDAY 7th March 2017
