I just joined on Tuesday and am planning on hopefully going either 4-5 days a week....Whats the best thing to do to lose weight?? I've been doing either 30-45 mins on the treadmill and like 10-15 mins on the bike and some reps on the ab machine and obliques machine.
Is this a good workout regime? If not what else should I be doing?
I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff and need some help bad!!
TIA Kim
mbm750
Posted:
Member since
Re: I finally joined a gym now I need your help!!!
Depending on who you talk to, you'll hear a lot of different things and I don't know what's the best, but one constant seems to be combining cardio with weights. So, whatever you do, add some lifting, or squatting, or lunging, crunches, etc - muscle building exercises or actual weights.
Two things I've heard about cardio that I can't verify as a scientific matter but which have been true for me... 1. Takes about 20 minutes to get your body to start burning fat - so you should do cardio for longer periods of time - like 45-50 minutes instead of 30, and you shouldn't switch from machine to machine because every switch gives you a break, and your heart rate will drop during that. 2. Your body gets used to your workout eventually, and you'll plateau. When you reach this point, don't get discouraged - just switch it up and get on a new machine that uses a slightly different group of muscles and that should get you back on track.
Good luck!!!
Anniegrl
Posted:
Member since
Re: I finally joined a gym now I need your help!!!
Posted by mbm750
Depending on who you talk to, you'll hear a lot of different things and I don't know what's the best, but one constant seems to be combining cardio with weights. So, whatever you do, add some lifting, or squatting, or lunging, crunches, etc - muscle building exercises or actual weights.
Two things I've heard about cardio that I can't verify as a scientific matter but which have been true for me... 1. Takes about 20 minutes to get your body to start burning fat - so you should do cardio for longer periods of time - like 45-50 minutes instead of 30, and you shouldn't switch from machine to machine because every switch gives you a break, and your heart rate will drop during that. 2. Your body gets used to your workout eventually, and you'll plateau. When you reach this point, don't get discouraged - just switch it up and get on a new machine that uses a slightly different group of muscles and that should get you back on track.
Good luck!!!
All good points, and mostly what I was going to say.
Doing only cardio will get you only so far; adding weights into your workout will help you lose weight much faster (not to mention you'll look way better!) The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns. The type of cardio that you want to do to lose weight the fastest is interval training. Ex. walk on the treadmill for one minute, run (jog, whatever) for 3 minutes. Alternate back and forth between walking and running, and using the incline too. Making your body constantly adapt will make it burn more calories.
Most importantly, you MUST eat a healthy diet, and you MUST eat the proper number of calories (it can be a little tricky figuring out how much to eat, but I would use 1500 as a beginning point and adjust if you need to). Do not eat less than 1200 calories a day, and do not skip meals because you don't feel hungry. Drink a lot of water, stay away from sugar, and eat lean proteins and complex carbs.
