More muscle to lose fat?

C

Cbelle

Cathlete
Hi everyone....I sporadically post here, mostly with my frustrations with not losing weight. This morning I worked at the gym and it was fairly dead so I had some time to think. Some quick statistics on me 5'5, 140-145lbs, 18% BF, 33 yrs old. I've been obsessed for the last few years with getting down to 130lbs and 15%BF. Nothing has worked, I've tried WW, BFL, upping the calories (people said I didnt eat enough cals)but I gained, lowering the calories (1000-1200)but I only got to the bottom of my range (140lbs) and no change in the BF. I've tried more cardio, less cardio. Nothing budges it.

So my latest thought as of this morning, is that first of all I need to throw out the scale. Secondly, I'm wondering if I need to get very serious aboutmy weightlifting and concentrate on building more muscle which (hopefully?) will burn the excess fat on my body. I have been lifting consistently for many years but in the past year or so I've been a tad wimpy on my poundage. I was thinking I would do the PS series and lift HEAVY and MIS once a week plus add 3-4 days of 30 min cardio (CTX) and one 60 min cardio.

Does this theory have any merit?
 
Yes.
Why not go for Slow and Heavy? It has a way of really taking the momentum out of the movement and therefore making every second of your workout count! Do not be fooled by lack of soreness after. My advice is to try this series 2 times around, and then go to MIS once a week and Power Hour once a week.

In other words, instead of going real heavy with Pure Strength, I'd go right to S&H and your poundage will determine itself. You will get right on a perfect weight for you (otherwise it will feel either way too easy or impossible.) Then after 2 weeks of this once each (or 20 days, if you can't finish each series in exactly a week) going straight to endurance work such as Power Hour will be a way you can see improvements in fitness. When you get more fit it increases fat burning options for you.

What does everybody else think?

I have nothing against S&H but I find the rep speeds are intermediate between endurance and strength. I prefer S&H for real muscle building. And S&H is so convenient, using mostly dumbbells. Each series showcases different exercises though. I really like that and I use them both for that mostly. Good luck.
-Connie
 
Get that Body Rx book. Just read almost the whole book today and it sounds very much like what you are interested in. Hey, if one thing isn't working, might as well switch to something else, right?? Give it a try...
 
I have BodyRx.....havent read it in a while but as I recall it seemed very complicated and ALOT of eating. I will reread it tomorrow.

I've been thinking about S & H...I don't currently have it but that can always be fixed. Hmmmmm....something else to think about tomorrow.

Thanks guys!
 
Some suggestions: Try kicking up your cardio, but make it low intensity, and do a lot of it, five days a week, and maybe 6 if you can swing it.

At the gym, so you use the weight machines or free weights? I find that if I use the weight machines I tend to go heavier. DON'T do PS & MIS in one week...just stick to PS, or the weight machines.

Don't go too low on your calories, but do keep careful track. I don't believe in weighing yourself everyday, but it's good to weigh yourself at least once a month. Too often it's easy to ignore weight gains, and before your know it, you've packed on an extra 15 lbs.

How much time per day do you have for exercise? This is very important if any of us are going to make suggestions for you. We don't want you to devote all your free time to working out!
 
Guys I'm doing BodyRX, don't let it fool you, its not really complicated, its just clean eating at the highest nutritional level. Once you get the hang of it, you'll love it. I'm in week 6 of Cycle 1, I used S&H during this period for my workouts to increase strength and OH my results!!!! I'm very happy!

I'm looking forward to Cycle 2 and 3, I plan on switching to PS and MIS during this time for my workouts, concentrating on body sculpting and fat burning. I hope to get the new Muscular Endurance to go along w/this too. Love that variety!!!
 
I have lots of time for exercise, basically all day long. I use CAthe tapes exclusively for my weights at home. I have PS, MIS and PH andlast nite I ordered the S & H. As for lower intensity cardio, thats almost exclusively what I've always done. Lately my most common form of exercise has been walking at about 4.5 mph. I teach spinning twice a week as well. While at work today (I work the front desk at the gym too) I'll reread BodyRx and see if that will work for me.
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-15-02 AT 10:30PM (Est)[/font][p]Honeybunch, can I ask you for a suggestion?

I still have a little bit of cruddy fat sitting on my lower abs. I've lost all the weight I need to lose and my upper abs are defined but I just can't seem to get rid of that last little bit.

I do 2x week heavy lifting on upper body and BTR and Cathe floorwork for lower body 4 x week. I do interval training on the treadmill every other day for 45 minutes (alternating 5 mph and 4 incline with 10 mph and 8 incline - that's tough!) My eating could be a little cleaner and I'm back on track there after slacking off a bit this summer. What else can I do? I refuse to have liposuction. I've never even had a blood test much less been in a hospital for surgery!
 
WOW Cbelle!!!

Can we trade lives??? Your schedule is SO COOL!! I worked in a gym for 7 years. Great motivator and learned alot about this kind of stuff!!
 
Ohmy god! My schedule is COOL? Its crazy! The gym I teach/work at is about 20 mins away, over a toll bridge, that I drive most days twice back and forth. I'm now working 40 hrs combined between 3 different gyms for classes, the front desk at one gym and personal training. I don't have a single day off until the next holiday (Thanksgiving)...I work 7 days a week unless the gym is closed. Well, my husband has occasionally nagged me about getting a "real" job so I guess now I do. Not my fault I'll never earn "real" money too. On the other hand, my money is paying for any vacations I want to take and in the spring I'm going on a Meditterranean cruise with my sister! Gotta love that! I intend to have a massage every day!
 
Sorry, I just noticed this post.

I'll be a broken record and urge you to clean up your diet. If you don't have a stability ball, get one. You can do all kinds of neat stuff with one, and you can just use the exercises that come with the ball. Nothing fancy-schmancy.

You may want to try race walking because if you use your arms properly, you can get a great ab workout from it. Also Taebo type workouts.

For what it's worth.
 
Hey thanks for everyone's posts. My current plan is to start a S & H rotation (tapes come today!!!!) with 3 cardio days. I'm also going to try eating a little more protein similar to the BFL train of thought. and quit worrying about calories per se. I'm not sure what rotation I will do after 3 wks of S & H....possibly PS? I've researched throroughly thru the rotation lists and havent found any good ideas. Also curious about the new tapes coming out of course. I don't have BodyMax either and heard its pretty good too. Hmmmm....so many tapes, so little time.

BTW, I plan on doing a CTX cardio one day a week, a spinning class another time, and then 60 mins of racewalking. I just picked that up about 3 wks ago and really enjoy it. Its easily as hard as running without the impact. And I TOTALLY feel it in my abs which surprised me!
 
Cbelle!!!

You said you had basically all day to work out!! THAT is the part I liked!!!!:):)

You can keep the rest!!:)
 
Oh! The all day part....well thats the joy of kids in all day school (Yippee!!!) and obsession with exercise. Finally got my S & H tapes and starting today! I was hoping to do one yesterday (they came while I was at work) but at 8pm Ijust don't have the energy and motivation to lift weights. So yesterday was a big wash. Did absolutely nothing but I did eat correctly until 11:45pm when I woke up and ate a slimfast granola bar (those things are GOOD!)
 
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