Cathe or educated crowd, I need help!!!

[kelley111]

I turned 40 last November and since then I've gained 9 pounds. Yikes!!!I've never really had to watch what I eat and I know that is my biggest problem and I'm working on it. But besides the weight gain, I am getting really flabby (hate that word) through the mid section. I bought a new pair of shorts at the beginning of summer. I tried them on this morning and they're entirely too tight on me. I have not gained anymore weight, so I must be losing muscle big time. What is the best action to take for this? I had mainly been doing Firm workouts with a few Cathe workouts throw in.

Starting last week, I decided to switch things up a bit. Here is what I'm doing. I'm emphasizing weight training with light cardio such as walking.

Sunday - Pyramid Upper Body
Monday - Pyramid Lower Body/Light 30 min cardio
Tuesday - Harder cardio
Wednesday - Pyramid Upper Body/Light 30 min cardio
Thursday - Pyramid Lower Body/Light 30 min cardio
Friday - Harder cardio

I am open for any suggestions. I want my muscle tone back.

 

[clareMc]

Kelley:

it looks pretty good to me. Perhaps try cardio on upper body lifting days, becaise if you really gun it with the heavy weights on legs days, it may leave you too tired for cardio. So I might switch the 30 min cardio on Monday for Sunday.

Secondly, what sort of hard cardio are you doing? If you can make one or both of these sessions interval training in style, you will max out the calorie burn and whip your metabolism into shape that much quicker, and take your cardiovascular endurance to the very next level! Then the light cardio days could be walking, and that would make a nicely rounded program.

Perhaps aim for two hard cardio-interval days, one moderate intensity (say cardio kicks or Rythmic step) and then two lighter cardio walking days. Your body will enjoy the variety of intensities and keep humming as a fat burning machine, which is what is needed to get that 9 pounds round the midddle off.

Good luck with your program, i think you are on the right track

Clare

 

[kelley111]

Thank you so much Clare. I'm definitely going to use your advice. I need all the help I can get. I have Imax 2 and I'll use that on my non-weight days. And I'll switch around my walking days as you recommended and add in moderate intensity cardio also.

Thank you again.