Any meso/apples with 5-10 to lose?

August

August

Cathlete
Hiya,

I was just curious if any of you are in the same boat with me...and if you are, what are you guys doing for a rotation, and what have you found to work/not work?

I've been the same size (5'2", 110 pds) for over twenty years...which ain't a bad thing, certainly, but I'd sure love to kick 5 to the curb. I've been trying various things for about a year and a half, and it seems that whether I do a strength or an endurance rotation, whether I measure my calories or eyeball, whether I eat clean or cheat, my body reorganizes itself to maintain what it's been used to. It's very thoughtful of my body :* but I mean, come on now.

How about you guys?
 
Hi August-yes I have a similiar boat that I'm in except it's a little dinghy and it's sinking fast (tee, hee)- anyways I'm 5 ft. (barely) and I weigh 108-110 lbs. (so your doing better than me) and I've been doing cathe for the last year and the firm before that. You've probably seen me whining on these boards in the past about the last 10 lbs. that I have to lose- for the last month I've been doing the pyramids exclusively 4x week (2 upper/2 lower) and 2 high intensity cardio and 2 steady state cardio per week and it may be making a difference (I think I'll know in another month) I eat clean about 80-90% of the time. I can't get away from these boards cuz I'm waiting to read the post where someone writes- "I did it- I lost the last 10 lbs. & heres how I did it..." I get alot of info. from these boards & appreciate everyones input-think there are more of us out there?? If I don't see a difference in 1 more month of pyramids I am going to try the gym styles--deb
 
Hi, Deb,

Oh, thank gawd you came to post. :) I have searched the threads so many times, for sure I've read yours but I was on such the mission, I was probably ignoring the names ;) I don't remember any whining, only "nope, this one doesn't have my answer. On to the next one." :*

You must...MUST post next month to tell me if your boat took sail :D . I'm just starting a new rotation myself (it's posted under rotations) and am hoping it will trick my 5 into running away. In short, I'm going to try alternating one week of various kinds of cardio one day and then a circuit the next, and then one week of one body part per day plus a short daily cardio. I'll keep you updated if something magical happens. :)

In the meantime, I hope more of us will swim up and put in their 2 cents.

And yes, this forum really does give you good, honest advice about just about anything you can think of. It's great.
 
Hey August -another thing I think I am going to try is to wear a weighted vest (to up the resistance) and in the future if nothins happening I'll try to get real technical with my diet and switch that up every week- I'll let you know whats happening or whats not happening but if we havn't "talked" for awhile put another post up of e-amil me--deb
 
Me, me, me!! Fellow apple reporting for duty!!

I too would love to lose around 5-7 more pounds. I'm fairly happy with myself now, so if I never lost again, I'd be fine with it, but truth be told, I'd really love to shave off more body fat (particularly around the middle--I could probably be at 5% body fat and all of my fat would still be in this area!!).

I don't really have much advice to offer, sorry. I just wanted to let you know that there are others in the same boat. What DID help me lose a lot of weight (30 pounds) was joining Weight Watchers and joining Team in Training. I trained to walk my first half-marathon a year and a half ago, and ended up staying on to train to run one last year--since then, I've run another half-marathon and am about to run 2 more in the next 3 weeks! Running really leaned me out and did a lot to shrink my waist. Don't get me wrong, it's still where my body fat likes to concentrate, but it did make a big difference.

As far as strength, I focused primarily on functional and endurance-based training for the last few years, but I wouldn't say it's worked better than heavy weight training. In fact, I'm doing a heavy weight training rotation right now to build some strength and definition--and to shock my system. Hopefully when I go back to endurance-based training after that, I'll have a good base to build from and will see some good results.

I don't know if I'll ever get to "the grand goal," but I figure as long as I continue to inch closer to it, it should be better than moving further away, right?

Jennifer
 
Hi there JenniferMaria- I would agree with you-I have to keep motivating myself by telling myself that I know what happens when I don't workout-so the only option is to keep working out (no other options for me)- I think I'm losing "real" slow but I'll take that over gaining back real fast--deb
 
Hey, sister Apples! :)

Jennifer - Hello and nice to meet you. You're running marathons?! Holy moly! That must feel awesome. I've never tried running (one, because I'm an indoors kinda gal, and two, because my indoors are too small for a treadmill kinda indoors :* ). I've read lots of comments how running slenders you down. How great that you're doing that. And congratulations on losing 30 pounds. That's fantastic.

Deb - Hi, again. I've been reading up on your posts LOL. Still no whining found whatsoever! I noticed that you mentioned you were going to try out BFFM? Or am I confused? I also bought the ebook (actually, maybe around the same time you did) and tried it out for a while. I had fun doing it and planning it out and stuff, but my Tanita and its body fat reading drove me completely nuts...up, down, up, down, up, up, down, down. I mean, all the calculations and weighing out for my food but with no real difference...heck, I can do that without measuring all my food! And so I'm not, but I'm eating very clean nevertheless and still following the general BFFM plan. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing about the weighted vest (for squats and stuff, right?) and also if you plan to tweak your diet in some way. Find our miracle! LOL.

Oh, and Jennifer, I went from mostly strength training for the last year or so, and then switched to endurance training for the last 5 weeks. I felt a noticeable change in the shape of my entire body (mostly my arms) when I was strength training heavy,...but quite frankly for me, didn't see any particular difference while endurance training (and in fact have felt slightly softer in general). Tell us how your endurance training goes after having shocked your system with the strength. I'm hoping to do the same, just opposite, and return to strength training from this month. Rah rah! :D LOL.

Here's some fairly useless info I've just run across about what kind of training the body needs at certain ages. Of course this is extremely generically speaking for the obvious reasons. Not to mention it came off of Oprah's homepage LOL. Anyway, being that I'm in my late 30s, it's got me thinking about circuit training and HIIT.

Let's keep each other posted! :D

The 20s
Rx: 30 minutes of weight training followed by 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week, plus 45 to 60 minutes of straight cardio 3x a week. One day of rest.

The 30s
Rx: One hour of circuit training (cardio and resistance) 4x a week, plus at least one day of cardio for 45 to 60 minutes at a high intensity. Take one day off.

The 40s
Rx: One hour of weight training 3 days a week if you do your whole body at once (4 days for half an hour if you split it up), plus 45 minutes of cardio 5 days a week (it's more than in the 20s and 30s but with less impact and intensity). Take one day off.
 
Hi August- I considered buying the BFFM book but after doing the research I was not excited about the calculations-I'm just trying to be smart about my "diet" (I hate that word)-it boils down to commen sense but my weakness is CHOCOLATE-I have to have it every day!I havn't bought the vest yet-I keep buying cathe workouts-somebody stop me!-talk to you soon--deb
 
August, I only read your first post, so maybe you added more to this, but can I just say that I don't think that losing weight should be your goal? Okay, there, I said it. Losing body fat, maybe. Gaining muscle, probably. But losing weight? Is that really what you meant to say?

Sorry for any negativity here. I'm having a bad day and probably shouldn't be posting at all. But there you go.
-Nancy
 
Me too. Even at my smallest of 135 lbs. (I'm 5'8"), I had a 30" waist. Now, I'm at 162 and would love to get to 140 again (ok, I guess that's more than 10 pounds), but I'm not sure I can with the increased muscle mass. Besides, I wore a size 10-12 at 135 and I'm still in a 12 w/the large waist. I am more looking forward to seeing the muscle definition under the layer of fat.:D

I am sorry I have no advice to offer. I only wish I knew what worked. For me, eating is the problem. I just do way too much of it. Even with Cathe workouts 6 days a week, I still eat too much to show a loss. I finally dusted off my own weight watchers stuff after seeing that 162 on the scale! I'm now counting points again. It worked for me last time (after DS was born, I went from 202 to 150!), so hopefully, it works again.
 
Deb - Oh, I hear you on both the chocolate and the Cathe workouts LOL. I got them both under control - I've weaned myself off chocolate and now eat organic peanut butter every day (and some chocolate every now and then)...and as for the Cathe workouts, I recently bought nearly all of the ones I didn't have so I no longer need to obsess about that! I don't use the word "diet" either - what a lame word and concept. Hate diets. Bleck.

Nancy - No problem to point out my poor choice of wording for someone else who might stroll along not knowing the difference between my saying I want to lose 5 pounds versus 5 pounds of fat. Yes, I do mean 5 pounds of fat. I certainly want to keep all my hard-earned muscle! And just to be clear, by no means do I believe I am overweight at 5'2" and 110 pounds. By my calculations, in order to get to my goal body fat percentage, I would want to lose approximately 5 pounds of fat. No negativity taken whatsoever, and I hope you have a great day! P.S. That green M&M guy licking the coffee is pretty funny.

Muffin Top - Hiya, I've never had a child so I only know about how difficult it is to get weight off post-birth through hearing about it through my friends. Wow, it doesn't sound like you had too much of a hard time though after your DS! That's awesome! I'm sure once you put what you put in before, that you'll progress in the same positive direction. Plus, it sounds like you have a lot of lean muscle in the pounds about which you are talking - think how much that will work to your advantage this time around. Let's route for each other so we can each see a little more of that muscle in us...and a little less gum on the tum!
 
August: I'll definitely be looking to see what kind of difference I see during the heavy weight rotation... I wouldn't mind sticking to a rotation like that primarily (with a few endurance workouts thrown in here and there to shake things up), except I've found that Cathe's heavy weight workouts tend to be those three-DVD split workouts, which are hard for me to fit into my week and STILL get to do the other stuff I want to do. I aim for cardio 3x/week, yoga 1x a week, and 1 rest day a week. I have no more than 1 hour (if I'm doing a 70 min workout, I do begrudgingly get up a few minutes earlier to fit it all in) a day, so I can only do one workout per day. I also prefer to work out once in a day (as opposed to doing a workout in the morning, and then doing another workout at night)--the only time I fit in two workouts in a day is when I'm doing TnT, since we have our weekly track workouts in the evening, and I can do a weight workout in the morning.

Anyway, my point is, during my TnT off-season, it works out best when I do stength training 2x a week (so I have the other 6 days to devote to cardio and yoga, respectively). Cathe's other workouts are mostly endurance from what I understand (except maybe MM, although I've seen others refer to that as mostly endurance as well), so by default, I would have to concentrate more on endurance during my off-season months.

My TnT season is winding down now. I have about 3 weeks left before I go into the off-season, so I'll switch to the 2x/week strength training at that time and hopefully (if I've seen good results from the heavy weight rotation) I can maintain the strength/definition gains I've made...

Jennifer
 
Heya,

I know, it's been hard to be able to throw in all the various workouts I want to do. The only other heavy weight total body workout seems to be MIS, and you'd have to begrudgingly get up for the 72 minutes it has :D . Did you say that you're not into doing one body part a day? This month I'm going to be trying that out for the first time - one body part plus some cardio. In the past I've always preferred doing "cardio day" and "lifting day" but I thought I'd give it a try. Enjoy the rest of your TnT and talk to you later!
 
It's not that I don't enjoy the split workouts (I do :)), but with my schedule and not having 100% predictability, I prefer the total body workouts so that I know that if I don't get a chance to do a second weight workout that week, I've worked all of my muscles at least once that week. Otherwise, I may have just worked upper body or lower body, and then I don't feel balanced.

A little anal, I know :).

Jennifer
 
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