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2006/01/13, 11:07 AM
Hello everyone. My name is Danielle, and I'm currently trying to lose weight. I currently weigh 236.8 and my first goal is to weigh 180.0. I'm standing at about 5'3. I've been riding a stationary bike 5-6 days a week for 30min a day. I plan on adding 5 minutes every week. Last week I aimed at eatgin 1904 calories, which was fine because I really don't eat a lot, it's the quality of the food that I eat. But for the past 3 weeks I have been eating healthy. Anyway my question to you all is am I doing enough? If not what can I do to burn/lose fat? Am I eating enough calories? Should I do more than just ride the stationary bike? Any and all advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Oh and I do use resistance bands 3 times a week.
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2006/01/13, 11:58 AM
Scorpio....first off you have to be honest with yourself. Eating 2000 calories you wouldn't be at 236. My guess is you were eating around 3000 calories daily even with an average metabolic rate(calories are calories...healthy or not, bottom line is your total caloric daily intake...however nutritious variety are obviously better for you for many reasons). The best thing you could do is carry a journal with you for a week and write down every single thing you put in your mouth...including sugarless gum....absolutely everything....(although people tend to eat less while doing this....nevertheless it's helpful)....dressing, marinades, liquid calories, everything is to be accounted for...you'll soon realize that often even healthy things like apple juice add up.....
Your next objective is to eat small frequent meals....Eat 5-8 if u can do it...3 main meals+2-5 smaller snacks....which should all add up to your total caloric intake goal of 1900 calories...also try to take slighly less calories before sleep...and no carbs at all 2-3 hours before sleep...(instead try eating cottage cheese, yogurt, nuts, etc)....
Can you mix up your stationary bike with other forms of cardio? running for example burns more calories....as does swimming.....try to slowly increase either distance, pace, or time....30-60 min per session 3-4 days a week is plenty
Finally try to do full body weight training 3 times a week....resistance bands are not the optimal methods to weight train...I would instead focus on free weights....however you can still make use of them...try doing 'big' exerices like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, push ups, etc...at first with bodyweight, if you can do more than 15 reps...start using bands or maybe light dumbells? and keep increasing the weight when u can do more than 15 reps...
also aim to drink gallon of water daily.....carry a bottle of water with you at all times....people often confuse hunger and thirst....and tend to eat when they are only thirsty...
Also check out nutrition and fitness resources at the top for many other tips...
good luck
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2006/01/13, 12:00 PM
riding a bike is great, but rather than increase the time, I'd increase the intensity instead. Try doing some intervals, i.e. really fast for 2 min., regular pace for 2min. If you can add a different cardio routine that would be good as well (running, skipping, ellip etc) The resistance bands are great to, but again intensity is important, it should be tough! You may want to try some freewieghts instead. Aim for cardio 3X/wk and resistance training 3X/week. There are some great exercise programs on this site..check them out. There is also tons of info on good nutrition.
Good luck and welcome to FT.
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Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
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2006/01/13, 12:02 PM
Listen to Menace...he has great advice...we must have posted at the same time(if I new he had posted I wouldn't have bothered, knowing he'd cover all the bases:)
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2006/01/13, 12:20 PM
Thanks for the advice I will surely use it. I've got the journal and meals down pat right now. I'll add some aerobics so I'll do bikeing one day and aerobics the next. Is that good? As soon as my husband returns from deployment this weekend I'm gonna get the free weights.
I'm guessing that my 1900 calorie intake isn't too low since you didn't comment on it, so I guess I'm all set. Hopefully I can post some results soon.
Once again thank you.
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