Any personal trainers or gym fanatics about?

zebidee1

I've been dieting since January (with 4 weeks off for a bad patch ) and I'm managing to lose weight but it's slow and steady now, which at any other time would be good but not right now.

I'm off on a special holiday soon and want to know how much more weight it's possible to lose in approximately 3 weeks if I upped my exercise?

I have got a gym membership but never go, I usually go for walks instead and that's about all the exercise I get. I know that crash dieting or extreme exercising is bad for you and I wouldn't normally entertain the idea of anything extreme but I'm getting desperate now and haven't lost as much weight as I would have liked.

I don't care now what I have to do or how much money I have to spend doing it, I just need serious results for a short period. I am fairly (don't want to say by how much ) overweight so really don't fancy joining aerobics classes (and I don't think my knees would cope with that anyway, lol) but I HAVE to shift some more flab.

Help please? What's best to do considering I need quick results. Advise me please? How soon can someone book in for liposuction? :rolleyes:

Toothsmith

I'm not an expert here, but I do go to a gym fairly regularly, and I ride a bike very regularly.

The biggest warning I would give is that a 'serious' short term weight loss would have a 'serious' bounce after it.

If you lost a lot of weight very quickley, you would end up feeling pretty miserable on the holiday, and then it's almost certain that you would put back on more weight than you lost when you got back.

A recommended healthy, sustainable amout of weight loss to aim for is about 2lbs per week.

Even that is nearly half a stone in the time you have.

I wouldn't aim for any more if I were you. The consequences won't be worth it.

zebidee1

Thanks Toothsmith. I understand what you're saying (and I do actually agree with you in theory lol) but I just wondered if I exercised a lot more (whilst still sticking to eating the same calories on my normal diet) then I could lose a lot more, or at least look a bit better if I was more toned and slightly less flabby.

I know what you mean about the bounce thing (been there) but isn't that more likely if the calorie intake is drastically reduced? I'm not really looking to change my diet, slow and steady has been working and I've been losing around 2lbs a week for a while now but I thought by exercising like crazy for 3 weeks (whilst not killing myself) then I could up the loss a bit?

Toothsmith

I know with cycling and running, it is never recommended to up your milage by more than 10% per week without risking injury.

And that is for people who are used to doing a fair bit of exercise.

Up it a bit by all means, but don't go silly! I'm sure you don't want to be limping around on this holiday!

belfastgirl23

I am not gonna comment on how fast you can lose weight since I don't think it is a good idea AT ALL to do this sort of thing, esp coming up to a holiday..though believe me I do know how you feel Even 2lb a week can be tough enough to manage.

On the exercise front though, I have dodgy knees probably not helped by being overweight too. Just to say that I've found cross trainer is very low impact and a reasonably good calorie burner. recumbent bike also doesn't put much pressure on knees. And you can do a fast uphill walk on the treadmill too if your knees will hold up - I'm always worried about the impact of running.

I think you should also think about doing some weights which will help you look more toned even if you haven't lost much weight. I think this can show pretty fast but be sure to get good advice about what to do and how to do it.

It is also worth asking what exercise classes are okay for people with dodgy knees. I've done water aerobics and bums n tums which were both fine tho tough!

But do not stress about the holiday, better to focus on ways to keep your weight down when you're there than on how to lose x amount beforehand.

Congrats on your weightloss so far and hope you have a great time!

Justie

wanting a new body in 3 weeks is unrealistic and anyone who tells you otherwise should be ignored. You can do some things to help you look more toned and there are plenty of people who would tell you to avoid wheat, sugar and refined food generally to avoid bloating. However any major changes can bite you in the bum as you don't know how your body will react and it can add to any rebound when you stop - and you're not going to get huge changes in such a short time. What you can do is to feel better about yourself as you are.

First thing to do is to use that gym membership! Get a programme that is more weights based (properly supervised to avoid injury) than cardio as weights will help you to lose inches if not weight. That's a good long term plan and going hand in hand with the weight loss you've already started will help you to keep going (although don't rely on the scales go with inch loss).

zebidee1

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Just to say that I've found cross trainer is very low impact and a reasonably good calorie burner. recumbent bike also doesn't put much pressure on knees. And you can do a fast uphill walk on the treadmill too if your knees will hold up - I'm always worried about the impact of running.

I think you should also think about doing some weights which will help you look more toned even if you haven't lost much weight. I think this can show pretty fast but be sure to get good advice about what to do and how to do it.

Justie wrote: »

Get a programme that is more weights based (properly supervised to avoid injury) than cardio as weights will help you to lose inches if not weight.

Thanks, that's the kind of advice I was after.

I'm honestly not planning on being really silly about this, I might be getting desperate but I don't have a death wish! My diet is GP supervised and between the 2 of us we've got it down to a fine art now, lol and that means I lose 2lbs comfortably each week. I just thought I could get advice on what kind of exercise would have the most beneficial (i.e. quickest) effects in the time left to me. Although I'm not a gym type normally, I would go every day if need be but I just wasn't sure on what type of exercise to be doing. I have no idea what burns the most calories or what has the most toning effect etc.

I have no doubt at all that I can continue to lose 2 lb each week and that's with me doing very little, so I thought if I really made the effort I could easily up that. Having said that, it's not really what it says on the scales that concerns me, I just need to fit into my holiday clothes that I bought in advance and are still a little tight, so weights might help tone me enough for that.

I was hoping for around 9/10lbs loss as I'm told that between 10 - 14 lbs is a dress size difference. So if I lost 9/10 lbs my clothes would fit perfectly. That's only a pound extra over and above what I normally lose each week for 3 weeks. That doesn't seem that bad to me but it is classed as serious weight loss on some of the sites I've been browsing this morning which is why I said I needed serious results in my first post.

I applaud you all for not telling me I should have started exercising sooner.

Toothsmith

Good luck!!

shoequeen

zebidee1 wrote: »

I applaud you all for not telling me I should have started exercising sooner.

I'm usually a lurker, but this touched me. That's why people come here. No one makes a habit of
(picture unhelpful man, teeth sucking) "I wouldn't start from here..."

Hope you have a fab time.

shoequeen

hi - i know its been a while but remembered this post.

How're you doing Zebidee? I hope your special holiday really was special - whatever shape you went!

About a month ago I bought a twister stepper from argos. There was a top price reebok one and a £30ish one which i went for. It's been brilliant. Its not difficult to do 20 mins a day. I'm keeping a diary so I can see that I'm getting faster (& presumably a little fitter). And while i'm not losing any weight (how annoying is that?) I CAN see the shape of my bum & thighs changing. I sort of wish I'd taken measurements, but that might be a little too obsessive.

Anyway. Quick results. No need to brave the gym (sooo scary).

Recommended!

sparvar

Don't normally plug my website but try https://www.combatfitness.co.uk it's designed for people with no equipment but plenty of motivation!