[sally]

this target heart rate thing has me really confused.. i dont really find the 220 minus your age to be too accurate..when i run i'm between 185-197 and my target heart rate is like 200 so i should either be dying at that rate or burning all my muscle up and ive heard like a million conflicting views on that by people with lots of experience in the fitness industry so i just kinda really go by how i feel. and obviously its not between that heart rate for 30 mins straight. it's for a few minutes at a time then ill come back down to 177 and go back up etc. and ill only really stop if i cant breathe too well

[PhDGirl]

Originally Posted by sally

this target heart rate thing has me really confused.. i dont really find the 220 minus your age to be too accurate..when i run i'm between 185-197 and my target heart rate is like 200 so i should either be dying at that rate or burning all my muscle up and ive heard like a million conflicting views on that by people with lots of experience in the fitness industry so i just kinda really go by how i feel. and obviously its not between that heart rate for 30 mins straight. it's for a few minutes at a time then ill come back down to 177 and go back up etc. and ill only really stop if i cant breathe too well

220 minus your age is more of a maximum than a target....

[sally]

Originally Posted by PhDGirl

220 minus your age is more of a maximum than a target....

sorry, um, i was talking about target heart rate with somebody while typing..but maximum is a type of target anyway

what i mean is that people keep telling me that i should stay at least 10 beats lower than the maximum or i'm burning up muscle and not really benefitting

so i think that it's probably an underestimation..but then i guess it's for the general population not all of whom exercise regularly.

[sally]

i'm so incredibly sleepy today that it's not even funny. i dotn even think i can bring myself to work out. i think it's because i slept like 11 hrs (not straight..woke up a couple times) after a really long time. just kinda crashed. but now my brain is hella lazy.

im gonna try to get in some strenght at least. oh and i have the keys to my gym now, wootttttt.

[sumayyah]

salaaaaams

so i've been working out semi-religiously for about a year now with no significant wait lose probably because i eat like crap. but now i want to lose weight except i'm not really sure how to change my workout to help that.
I usually do about 45 minutes on the elliptical and about 20-30 mins on the crosstrack machine thing. according to my sister..apparently you dont start burning anything on the elliptical until about 45 minutes into it. is that true? oh and how much better is the treadmill than the eliptical? i hate running on the treadmill but if i burn significantly more calories..maybe i'll give it a try. but it makes me knees hurt.

[iSHi]

Originally Posted by sumayyah

salaaaaams

so i've been working out semi-religiously for about a year now with no significant wait lose probably because i eat like crap. but now i want to lose weight except i'm not really sure how to change my workout to help that.
I usually do about 45 minutes on the elliptical and about 20-30 mins on the crosstrack machine thing. according to my sister..apparently you dont start burning anything on the elliptical until about 45 minutes into it. is that true? oh and how much better is the treadmill than the eliptical? i hate running on the treadmill but if i burn significantly more calories..maybe i'll give it a try. but it makes me knees hurt.

good to have you back.

it's okay if you don't remember me. :stalker:

[sally]

Originally Posted by sumayyah

salaaaaams

so i've been working out semi-religiously for about a year now with no significant wait lose probably because i eat like crap. but now i want to lose weight except i'm not really sure how to change my workout to help that.
I usually do about 45 minutes on the elliptical and about 20-30 mins on the crosstrack machine thing. according to my sister..apparently you dont start burning anything on the elliptical until about 45 minutes into it. is that true? oh and how much better is the treadmill than the eliptical? i hate running on the treadmill but if i burn significantly more calories..maybe i'll give it a try. but it makes me knees hurt.

stuff like this confirms that fat loss does not occur when cardio is the only thing that's done

you need to incorporate light weights into your workouts at least every other day..

there is no difference between the potential effect of calorie burning of ellipticals and treadmills..either way you go, you're burning calories depending on your intensity. it's just that you're using different sets of muscles on each one of them. and variation in work out is really important because you dont want to keep hitting the same muscle groups every day because eventually they build resistance to the movement and it stops working as well for you.

if you normally just do cardio, yes..you dont kick into fat loss mode until 30-45 mins into your work out because until then you just burn off the glycogen stores that are chilling in your body

i've written numerous posts on the benefits of light weight training for women with fat loss goals countless times and how it actually works in your favor like scientifically but they got deleted on the old islamica and im too lazy to dig up the old ones in this thread, but basically, doing weights for an hour might burn less calories than doing cardio for an hour..however, the next 48 hours after weight training result in a lot more total calorie expenditure (because your muscle is trying to heal from being torn apart and sorta eatng the fat around it) and the effects of just plain cardio are very shortlived..your metabolism might stay elevated for a few hours after an hour long cardio workout but eventually it'll come back down

this is not to say cardio isnt something you should stop doing at all..because it really helps your endurance and strenght and heart etc but you need weights to help you lose weight

so if you're willing to incorporate some of that, and trust me, you wont get big at all..it's really impossible to get big unless you train for hours on end and plus women dont have enough testosterone, then feel free to hit me on AIM and i can help you out with what you can do and stuff

oh and i forgot to mention it's really important for women to do weights because it helps with skin elasticity as you get older, prevents your metabolism from slowing down when you get older, and most importantly helps prevent osteoporosis..which is very common. plus a whole crapload of other benefits like being less prone to joint injuries, etc. oh, and apparently pregnancy and labor arent half bad/less prone to become complicated for women who work out regularly

[Sha_]

Sally, how do you know what weight weights (dumbells) you should be using? (In general/if youv'e never used them before)?

[sally]

Originally Posted by Sha_

Sally, how do you know what weight weights (dumbells) you should be using? (In general/if youv'e never used them before).

you should try to get some that are made specifically for women.

i know theyre different in the handle/grip..it's a special kind..for smaller hands...and i havent researched much but i have noticed that weights made for men just really feel a lot different..like the same weight feels heavier or more uncomfortable for some reason..it could really just be a psychological thing..who knows

but anyway you should choose a weight that gets you tired around the 12th rep if you're doing 15..or 9th if you're doing 12 reps

generally it's a good idea to go with 2, 5 and 7 lbs...for various exercises

[sally]

oh and actually, if you're just a beginner, resistance bands or tubes are a great idea to get started with..and a work out ball. resistance tubes/bands are cool because you can pretty much change the resistance on command..if you use more force, you'll make things harder for yourself..and same goes for lesser amount of force, etc.

btw the resistance bands/tubes are pretty much the same thing as weights.

[DramaRani]

Originally Posted by sally

stuff like this confirms that fat loss does not occur when cardio is the only thing that's done

I'm scared of the weights area at my gym.

[sally]

Originally Posted by DramaRani

I'm scared of the weights area at my gym.

maybe you can find a womens only gym?

welcome back to islamica, btw and congrats on graduation!

oh and another advantage of weights i forgot to mention earlier..like i said it takes 30-45 mins of straight up cardio to kick into fat loss mode for real...bc until then it's burning the calories you've eaten or whatever..if you do weights for the first 30 mins, you pretty much use up all those calories..and your muscles get really tired..so by the time you get to cardio after weights, you're in fat loss mode..PLUS your muscles need something to keep them going because theyre so tired and there aren't really any 'free floating' calories left to feed on for it..so it attacks the fat

[Sha_]

Originally Posted by sally

oh and actually, if you're just a beginner, resistance bands or tubes are a great idea to get started with..and a work out ball. resistance tubes/bands are cool because you can pretty much change the resistance on command..if you use more force, you'll make things harder for yourself..and same goes for lesser amount of force, etc.

btw the resistance bands/tubes are pretty much the same thing as weights.

I have resistance tubes on my mini stepper like this:

but I dont tend to use them, they make me confused with all my other movement, like I cant maintain a rhythm, and they seem kinda restrictive and dont allow me to twist my body properly. Plus they seem kinda long, like a have to pull my arm in/back a lot to feel anything.

Do you mean resistance bands more like these:
?
Is that how they are meant to be used? You pull each arm up and in alternatively?

[DramaRani]

Originally Posted by sally

maybe you can find a womens only gym?

welcome back to islamica, btw and congrats on graduation!

oh and another advantage of weights i forgot to mention earlier..like i said it takes 30-45 mins of straight up cardio to kick into fat loss mode for real...bc until then it's burning the calories you've eaten or whatever..if you do weights for the first 30 mins, you pretty much use up all those calories..and your muscles get really tired..so by the time you get to cardio after weights, you're in fat loss mode..PLUS your muscles need something to keep them going because theyre so tired and there aren't really any 'free floating' calories left to feed on for it..so it attacks the fat

I pay $20 for a premier membership at Ballys. The people that work there asked me who I slept with to get such a good price . I can't afford to pay more than $20 right now because I don't have a job The women's gyms a bit pricey for me (right now). I just need to go to the gym during a time where so many people aren't there.


Okay, put whatever you just said in easier to understand terms. What should you do first, what should you do second?