and now, a fitness question

[leah]

so i finally have a membership at a gym that i truly enjoy. as such, i have thrown myself back into a fitness routine that i feel i am actually going to stick to:

sundays: i take a cardio fusion class (intense step aerobics with hand weights, weighted poles, and stability balls--pretty much a combo of LOTS of stuff)

mondays: 20 minutes cardio (generally on a treadmill or elliptical) coupled with an hour-long Pilates class (either mat or stability ball)

tuesday: 50 minutes cardio (treadmill or elliptical) coupled with the weight machines

wednesday: see monday

thursday: see tuesday

already i'm starting to notice a difference in my body--besides having more energy (and an increased sex drive, to the dismay of my poor bf hehe), clothes are starting to fit differently and that's exciting.

my concern is this: i can tell that my top half is getting smaller and more trim, but i feel as if my bottom half is a little bit more bulky. i know they say that it's not possible to target a specific area for fat loss... but is there any way to try?? i'm really excited about this workout routine and am having a lot of fun belonging to a gym i truly enjoy... but it's a little discouraging to not see full results. my legs are still really chubby and i know that there is a lot of solid muscle under there (which is why i'm not playing the numbers game with my scale) but there's still some good ol' fat-girl pudge over top of that.

help?

[Tikker]

nope

it's like you can't take tylenol to stop the pain in 1 hand, and leave it in the other (not that you would, but it's an example)

[leah]

i know... i'm not really expecting a magical quick-fix or anything silly like that, maybe just a suggestion or two of how to step up the fat burning in general... because once i run out of fat to lose on the top half, it'll have no choice but to come off of the bottom hehe

[Tae-Bo]

i'd keep your workouts the same while tweaking your diet a lil, the last bit of fat after big weight loss is a pain in the ass and the best things i've done to lose it was to change up my diet and eat really really clean for awhile

after i lost it tho it became pretty easy to maintain while not being super strict on diet

workout is good tho, keep doing it steady and just do like minor diet tweaks and you should lose it in no time

[leah]

hehe you wouldn't think diet changes would be so hard... :P i wish i was one of those people who doesn't like chocolate or ice cream or sweet things.

[Tikker]

all you have to really remember is metabolism > caloric intake and you'll win

[Reynaldo]

cutting out sugars where possible and drinking water are 2 small things that work wonders quickly.

[Darcler]

For women, we lose fat starting from top to bottom, which blows. Arms, shoulders, chest, then stomach then legs and butt.
Do what Duck says, eat very clean and it will coem off quicker.
Clean meaning, nothing processed, nothing out of a box. Eat wheat instead of white, fresh produce when you can, though frozen is ok sometimes.

[Tikker]

I've heard that giving blowjobs (lots of them) is really good for weight loss in women

[Jay]

<---work out partner

[Jazendar]

Yogurt, Bananas, Cottage Cheese (try to eat one a day), stuff like this will keep your body in check. You can also dedicate another day to treadmil or some form of leg workouts. Go workout in sweatpants, sweatshirt, and a beanie. This will make you sweat more and lose the weight quicker. Do your leg workouts close together. Squats take a little bit more downtime, but, you want to keep your adrenaline up, and the sweat flowing. You'll need to drink lots, and i mean lots of water, and eat healthy during this. Or you'll go home and feel sick to your stomache. Protein shakes can help, but have carbs that could decrease your weightloss slower.

[Tikker]

Yogurt, Bananas, Cottage Cheese (try to eat one a day), stuff like this will keep your body in check. You can also dedicate another day to treadmil or some form of leg workouts. Go workout in sweatpants, sweatshirt, and a beanie. This will make you sweat more and lose the weight quicker. Do your leg workouts close together. Squats take a little bit more downtime, but, you want to keep your adrenaline up, and the sweat flowing. You'll need to drink lots, and i mean lots of water, and eat healthy during this. Or you'll go home and feel sick to your stomache. Protein shakes can help, but have carbs that could decrease your weightloss slower.

erm, that makes no sense

sweating aka losing water weight is retarded

especially if your next sentence is to replace all of that said water, jeje

that's not a way to lose weight long term
it's a good fix if you're trying to lose 10-15 lbs for tomorrow (and plan to gain that weight back the day after)

[Darcler]

Leah, I'll find a good weight loss site for women. I know of a girl who used this site and she looks fabulous. It has a sort of support forum to keep you on track for diet, and all different kinds of fitness levels and goals.

I want to say she used buffmother.com or something and paired it with another site that gave good food plan ideas, but I'll go search around and find what she used.

[Tikker]

meh, it's relatively simple

fresh fruit and veggies at least twice a day

lean meats for supper

stop eating chips, chocolate, deep fried shit

and do exactly the exercises you listed and you'll drop all the weight you want

[araby]

I've heard that giving blowjobs (lots of them) is really good for weight loss in women

There is truth to this. Leah you are doing the right things and as far as food goes, I eat ice cream almost every day and *drenched* with hershey's bar in a jar-just make sure you eat less of everything you eat.

going back to blowjobs-we have a core, and it's responsible for everything else our bodies feel, do, look and behave-with our heads, necks, arms, shoulders, wrists, knees and toes. The core is your abdominals, which house your reproductive system-and it's from that place you can strengthen your abs (lower/upper) back, sides which in turn offer better posture, leg strength and less lower back soreness, and a great sex life.

basically you have to be able to find it and build on it. you build on it with your breathing, feeling all of the support coming only from that inner place-and when you find it and use it, it looks like you're floating on your feet. Your arms, hands, chest, neck, hips, inner thighs, calves, toes are all working but most of the work is in the core. since I figured this out...I feel better and feel as though I look better than I ever did, even at 21-22. I was overweight, my posture was wrong and I didn't even know I had a core. anyway, pm if you would like more detail in how this relates to blow jobs.

[araby]

Now you have another reason not to eat chips!
It's proven that potato chips are the WORST food for your teeth because of the crunching. but it's not the crunching, it's the force of the crunching that makes them bad for your teeth-you have to use a lot of force at first, and then you don't and basically your just slamming your teeth together over and over in order to masticate the texture-the other reason why they're bad for your teeth. It dissolves in such a way that it literally gets absorbed by your leaking fillings and open margins-which were more thank likely caused by you banging on your teeth (which flex every time you bite.) Basically, don't eat potato chips.

[Diekan]

Just be sure you change your diet in a way that you like and are willing to keep for pretty much ever.

It's easy to cut out all the sugar of your diet for a few weeks to lose weight... but if you know you're going to start eating it again once you've reached your goal - you're just going to put it back on eventually.

THAT's where people go wrong. Once you've changed your diet, you can't go back.

The key to losing weight is eating less calories than your buring and exercising.

Cutting out all the sugar is like the Atkins diet... you change your diet for a relatively short period of time... lose the weight and just put it right back on when you start eating "normal" again.

I personally don't eat a lot of sugar, just don't care for it... but it is bad.

I would suggest not completely cutting it out, if you enjoy it. Just cut back on it. If you're drinking 3 cokes a day, cut it back to 1. Eat the way you know you're going to eat in the future... just train yourself to eat less of it and you'll be fine.

[leah]

thanks everyone--you're pretty much reaffirming the stuff that i have been doing, and that's exactly what i needed.

dieken--for the record, when i went off the atkins diet i only gained back about 7 of my 95+ pounds lost... so not EVERYone puts it back on. :P but i realize that i am atypical, and i feel that of late i've really started to understand what's good for me to eat and what's not, and i think the healthier way that i'm eating now is definitely somethat that i can (and will) stick with.

ashly--i've been doing pilates for a while now... are there any other core-strengthening things you recommend? i <3 pilates btw hehe