zimmermk - Member

zimmermk

Joined November 2011

Posts

Following

Followers

Weight History

Start Weight

185.0 lb

Lost so far: 0 lb

Current Weight

185.0 lb
Performance: gaining 0.9 lb a week

Goal Weight

140.0 lb

Still to go: 45.0 lb

I am 25 years old and am looking to get myself fit and healthy. I am using the atkins diet along with exercise to drop 40 lbs. At 181 I'm the largest I've been and am tired of being there. I am fortunate that my weight carries in places (ie. hips and butt!) that I never truly look my weight but I still know it's there and the scale doesn't lie! Before using this site I have made some goals to start with the fitness side of things and get myself into shape. I managed to run a 5K and run pretty regularly.

Update:
I don't want to remove my original bio because it reminds me of the changes I've made in my life in a pretty short period of time. I have gotten down to a pretty steady 155 now. It seems to be where my new balance weight is. So at this point I am focusing my goals in a fitness direction. If any more weight comes off that's great but I am happy with where I am. So now my story changes to making time to workout and add the muscle tone to replace where all that fat used to be!

So my continued goals using this site to help me out include:

Decrease my size:
Size 10 - Done 11/22/2011
Size 8 - Yippee! 2/15/2012

Run up to a half marathon:
5K - Done 10/29/2011
8K - Done 3/11/2012
10K
Half Marathon

Lose 40 lbs:
176 - Made it!
171 - Woohoo!
166 - Got it!
161 - Smash!
156 - Yippee!
151
146
141

zimmermk's Weight History

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zimmermk's Latest Member Challenges

Drop a dress size+ for Christmas

status:	Completed
ended:	25 Dec 11
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zimmermk's Latest Posts

This is why I started strength training with HEAVY weights as a female
If we're trying to start up this kind of weight lifting routine from a lighter lifting program what weight would you recommend starting with? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make it through the whole this using 20lbs at this point!

posted 01 Dec 2011, 13:27

Help me design my weekly fitness routine
When you start a weight training program the biggest problem is over doing it. Too much weight, too many reps and over stressing your muscles. You want them to get to fatigue but you should still be able to move the next day. Also, rotate your muscle workouts so you're using the muscles that you aren't using as much in your kickboxing. This is where doing isolation exercises may work better for you than exercises that work large muscle groups. This site http://exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html is awesome for showing exercises to target a specific muscle or muscle group as well as showing you proper technique. I'd highly recommend reading through it before you start a weight training program if you aren't familiar with it.

posted 01 Dec 2011, 11:08

Love Handles (every womans favorite) jk
It seems like that article is talking more about visceral fat which is what lies deep in your body and around organs. It's the most dangerous kind of fat to have. The muffin top fat though is best lost through the resistance (muscle toning) and cardio workout. The article even talks about the differences. It also notes that the resistance training is important to make sure you're not losing muscle mass as well as fat especially as you get older.

posted 16 Nov 2011, 13:53

Love Handles (every womans favorite) jk
Cardio is the fastest way to burn calories in general. But if you start your work out with 30 minutes of cardio, your body will use up it's glycogen stores in its muscles first before it begins burning fat. This is a big reason why people encourage a weight training program with cardio. If you lift weights for 20 minutes before cardio and work through sets until muscles are at fatigue you will have used up those glycogen stores. Moving right into cardio after this will put your body at a fat burning state right away. Another way of getting these results is through intervals. Doing short bursts of high intensity cardio will use up those glycogen stores much more quickly. So if you only have 30 minutes to work out go for the intervals. 2 minutes of jogging with 30 seconds of sprinting in between.

A low carb diet works essentially the same way just 24 hours a day. After a few days on a low carb diet your body switches to ketosis which is using fat for energy instead of glycogen. This is because you don't have much glycogen in your system. (Note low-carb does not mean NO carb and definitely not low-calorie!) If you add exercise on top of this you are getting a head start on the fat burning. Doing a low-carb diet though you have to make sure you are eating enough protein when exercising as well to prevent muscle fatigue and to allow your muscles to rebuild and recover.

posted 16 Nov 2011, 12:07

Jillian workout... or other DVD?
Any exercise is better than no exercise. To get the best results 30 min 3 times a week is recommended. With the business of our lives though it's not always possible. Even if you can't always fit the video in try to fit in any movement you can!

posted 10 Nov 2011, 13:13

zimmermk has submitted 5 posts