Exercise routine question...please help

[Firia]

Hello everyone

I have been working on losing weight and toning up. The exercise plan that I have been on has been just a little too much for me, I am always tired after my workout. I have decided to change my workout and needed some advice from anyone who could help.

First off, here is some basic information about me and my fitness levels and goals.
I am a 29 year old (will be 30 on the 28th of November) mother of a 4 year old. I am a stay at home mom, so have plenty of time for working out. I am 5 ft 6in with a medium-large build. My current weight is 171 and my long term goal is 140 lbs. I have lost 50 pounds in the last year so used to weigh around 220.

For the last 2-3 months I have been using the treadmill for walking. I am up to 3-4 mph on the treadmill (I am a walker, not jogger) About 2 weeks ago I added strength training to my workout. Here is what I have been doing:

5 min warm-up
about 10 min stretch
Upper Body (Mon, Wed, and Fri) strength training, Lower body- (Tue, Thur, and Sat) strength training.
45-60 minutes on treadmill (3-4mph alternating speeds on treadmill)

As you can tell, I have been doing cardio and strength training everyday 6 days a week. My problem is that after my workout I am completely wiped out. All I want to do is lay around and sleep. I figure it's because of strength training every day. What I need advice on is what type of routine should I be doing that won't wipe me out so much. I have an idea, but really need some advice. Here is what I think I might start doing.

5-min warm-up
10 or so min stretching
Full Body strength training (about an hour or so) Mon, Wed, and Fri.
30-60 Minutes on treadmill (30 minutes on Mon, Wed, Fri, and 60 minutes on Tue, Thur, and Sat)
10 min cool down and stretch

Does this sound reasonable? Should I keep the cardio in on my Strength training days or should I just cut it out on those days? If I keep the cardio in should I only do a comfortable pace like 3mph for 30 min, or should I do 10 min at 3mph, 10 at 3.5ish mph, 10 3mph? Or just concentrate on doing a very good strength training?
I am looking to lose 30 or more pounds and of course I would like to lose it as fast as I can safely. I also want to get a nice tone body as well. I am hoping to be in really good shape by summer.
Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks soo much in advance for any help/advice you can give me

 

[takniteasy]

What is your diet like? Remember that you need to fuel your body for working out like you put fuel in a car for it to run. Could you post a typical day?

 

[Firia]

My daily diet

My eating habits are pretty bad. I have a tendency to not eat until around 3 PM, usually after my workout and that is usually a Ham sandwhich on wheat bread with only mustard and water to drink, or I will eat a can of Tuna fish drained right out of the can.

I then will have dinner around 5 or 6 PM which is whatever I make for me and my family. Sphegetti with garlic bread and a salad ( I usually use lemon juice for dressing), or,
Pork chops (cooked in olive oil) 1-2 chops depending on size with sauteed onions and mushrooms, instant mashed potatoes with gravy, and some type of veggie, and sometimes a salad.

Stuff like that. ( Dinners are usually pretty well rounded)
I will sometimes have pop (coke, Dr. Pepper) but usually just water to drink with all my meals.

I Eat alot of Sunflower seeds as snacks. (I love them in the shells salted)

I do have a tendency to snack later at night, not junkfood, but a sandwich or something like that.

I know thats one of my biggest problems, not eating enough at the right times. I just am not really hungry during the day. I have been trying to make an effort to eat something about an hour before working out, it just doesn't always happen. I also know I need to eat my fruit ( but am not a huge fan of fruit prefer veggies). And I need to stop eating at night before bed. For some reason I am always hungry right before I go to bed.

Hope this helps.

 

[takniteasy]

Someone will chime in here soon I'm sure but it looks to me that you need to eat more. More small meals throughout the day like this:

7:00 a.m. breakfast
9-10:00 a.m. snack
12:00-1:00 lunch
3:00 snack
5-6:00 dinner
9:00 bedtime snack

This is only an example. YOu should adjust your times according to your schedule. Try to have a small snack ~hour before your workout and then post workout to replenish your body's fuel. This may help with your energy levels.

As for your training, you may want to incoporate some interval training perhaps 2x a week and moderate cardio 2x week. You could be overtraining (at least that is what I see) and that would contribute to you feeling "wiped out" after your workouts along with the diet.

 

[fitnessgirl25]

from what I can see:
1) DIET.....needs alot of work, why are you skipping breakfast?? definately not enough meals and you need to work on making better food chocies. I would put most of your time and effort into laying out a nutritional plan that your going to be able to stick with. You are definately not eating enough to fuel your body for the amount of exercise you are doing.
2) Way to much cardio. And your always doing the same type of cardio. Your body is very use to walking on the treadmill at this point. Do some cross training( use elliptical,stepper, bike) add interval work, start walking on an inlcine, take an aerobics class.
3) keep up the strength training, personally I would cut cardio on these days.

*** I cant emphasize enough, having a clean diet is MOST IMPORTANT*****

good luck!!!!!!

 

[Sassy69]

I'll add some comments.

1) Diet. I can't tell you how important it is to losing bodyfat. If you don't even eat until you train at 3 in the afternoon, and you train as well, obviously your body is starved. That's why you have no energy. You used what little your body had to work with. Also because you aren't giving yourself any fuel over the course of the day your metabolism has probably set itself so it holds on to everything it can (i.e. fat) because it is being starved. You can manipulate your metabolism so that you do start getting hungry at specific times of day. Start eating small meals with the right foods in them. Dont' even worry about fruit. Its fructose (= sugar). Veggies will be better use of your calories. Don't skimp on the protein. You need protein to build muscle. If you starve yourself, you will lose fat, but you will also lose muscle. At the end of that you don't look lean, you look skinny. Like skin hanging on bones skinny. Try to clean up the junk food at night.

2) Cardio. Don't be afraid of cardio. Some people don't need cardio if they are training, some do. I do. Cardio & diet are the main things that help me drop fat. I can train until the cows come home & build muscle but I only see a drop in bodyfat when I do cardio at least 3-4 x/week. I would suggest switching up the cardio that you do if you are getting bored with the treadmill and you've been doing the same cardio regimen for a long time. Try a different machine or switch to some interval training for a while. Instead of a walking pace for 40 min, try 20 min of sprint/walk intervals on the treadmill 3x/week.

3) Lifting - you are training the same body parts every other day. They probably need a break. Change your training schedule from "upper body" & "lower body" on alternate days to 2 muscle groups per day, not repeating a muscle group more than once per week. (E.g. back & biceps, cardio, chest & triceps, legs, etc)

Three things go into fitness: Diet, training, recovery. You need all three.

 

[Firia]

Thank You

First I really want to thank all of you for your great replies

I kind of figured alot of my problem was my diet. I never have been a big eater, the reason I gained so much weight was because I was a big drinker. I have been sober for over a year so that helped with a lot of the 50 pounds I have lost so far. Another big problem I had was laziness. I am a stay at home mom, so I would find myself sitting on my butt for most of the day. Add drinking beer daily to the mix and pounds came pouring on.

Now that I don't drink, and actually work out, I have been losing weight, slowly but surely. I am going to make a conscience effort to eat more frequently healthy foods that will hopefully add energy that I have been lacking. I am thinking that some kind of protien shakes or smoothies might be a possible way to go for some of my earlier meals since I think it would be easier to sip that than force myself to eat. If anyone has any good recipes for those please let me know. I figure that may help kick my coffee addiction as well.

After alot of reading I think I have come up with a plan that will work well for me , at least till I am in better shape. Tell me what you think of this:

Mon= Cardio 30-60 min, Upper-body strength training, warm-up and stretch
Tue= Cardio 30-60 min, Abs, warm-up and stretch
Wed= Cardio 30-60 min, Lower-Body strength training, warm-up and stretch
Thur= Cardio 60 min, warm-up and stretch
Fri= Full-Body strength training, warm-up and stretch
Sat= Cardio 60 min, warm-up and stretch
Sun= Rest

I think that untill I lose the 30+ pounds I need to lose I should keep the cardio in . Once I lose that, then I will drop some of the cardio and concentrate more on muscle building. I have heard that doing strength training before cardio is the best way to go, so I am doing that. I will try this plan for a couple of weeks, and if it doesn't seem to work well, I will try this Interval training.

Also, one more question, what exactly is a "clean" diet? Is there a website or another post in these boards that explain clean diet? Thanks so much for any help

 

[velvett]

Well, first off congradulations on your achievement so far!

I can't really add to the great advice already given by takniteasy, Fitnessgirl & Sassy but to answer your question about clean diet it's really about choices and making the effort to pick good cources of fat, protein and carbs.

For example good fats - fish oil, flax seed oil (and I like it hemp oil), the omegas.

Good carbs - green veggies, yams, oatmeal

Protein - when you choose your flesh just keep in mind the fat content and compare it to where your good fat sources are coming from.

Easy rule of thumb - if it came out of a box - don't eat it. (Oatmeal is/can be an exception - and for some people cream of wheat)

If it's white - try and avoid it.

Dairy - you'll always get a mixed opinion about this - cottage cheese and yogurt can be good choices for some people and for others not.

Nuts - some people use them as a forms of protein and fat.

The thing about food and diet is that you should experiement with your own body to see how it runs best.

Wake and eat something - left over chicken, eges, oatmeal - east something. Some people prefer to do their cardio first thing and then eat their first meal. Try both and see what works for you.

Take baby steps.

Start with 3-4 stuctured meals throughout the day and the try for 4-5 meals and these are small meals - like snacks - so your metabolism it always running.

How that helps.

 

[takniteasy]

I wanted to add, that as you continue to weight train, you will be adding lean mass. Dont become discouraged if your weight loss seems to plateau. The muscle weighs more than the fat however takes up much less room. Also, sometimes too much cardio is catabolic. It could hinder your efforts at fat loss. In this case I believe the less is better theory.