Thread: Can anyone help me with what exercise i need to do?

Hi everyone,
my first post so be gentle with me!

I'd like some exercise advice if poss?
Basically i'm off on holiday in 6 weeks and have left the diet and exercise to the last minute (again ) i'm not following a particular diet plan, just trying to cut down portion sizes, stop the crisps and choccie etc and cut back on my carb intake.

I'm just wondering about the amount of exercise i should be doing to speed up the weight loss and tone up a bit.

I have a cross trainer, 2 kg hand weights, a wii with most of the fitness games and quite a few dvd's (leslie sansome walk series, 30 day shred, and a few others)

I was thinking a 45 minute fast walk, 30-60 mins on the cross trainer (i'm upto 26 minutes on level one at the mo-what should i aim for?) and then 30 day shred, 4 or 5 times a week?and don't want to waste 6 weeks by not doing enough.

Any ideas?

I don't really know how much exercise i need to do in order to help lose weight

Thanks guys x

Hi there. I assume you mean you want to do a 45 min fast walk, 30 mins cross trainer & 30 day shred ALL on the same day? I also hope you have the determination and strength to be able to put up with it, cos if i did the same thing each day, i'd deffo get bored lol. If that is what you want, then I hope your diet reflects that. By that I mean, you should have a high protein intake, low carbs but high complex carbs, good fats, high fibre etc. Basically, you should have enough calories, not too low, and not too high. If you go too low, and you're doing all that exercise then you end up losing muscle mass. You need to keep that muscle as the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and the more calories you burn. Losing alot of weight very quickly also means you end up having loose skin which is not pretty at all.

I'd say, if you want to go for it, go for it, but don't do too much, and always make sure you're having enough water, enough protein for your muscles to repair themselves, and enough calories altogether.

Sorry, im not much of a pro, but i have learnt quite a lot of useful facts since i started a year ago.

PS. If i were you, i'd maybe have my timetable like this:

Monday: 30 mins cross trainer and 30 day shred
Tuesday: 45mins fast walking and 15 mins weight exercises with the 2kg dumbbells
Wednesday: Rest day
Thursday: 30 mins cross trainer and 30 day shred
Friday: 30 mins cross trainer and 30 day shred
Saturday: 45 mins fast walking and 15 mins weight exercises with the 2kg dumbbells
Sunday: Rest day

Or something like that. I'd include the weights to help tone up.

EDIT: Oh and also maybe get a heart rate monitor and see roughly how many calories you're burning per session and base any extra activities on that. So say on monday your HRM indicated you burned about 500 - 700 calories, then you don't really need to do any extra stuff. But if you were aiming to burn more, then you could maybe add in an extra exercise. Again, don't do too much.

You can also base your food intake on this e.g. if you're aiming to lose 2lbs per week, then you need a 7000 calorie deficiency per week. So if you take in all your exercise cals burned and work out how much calories you need to reduce from that total and then divide it by 7 to get a days worth. Sorry this sounds complicated. Basically, a 2lbs loss per week = 7000 calorie deficiency per week. So let's say on the days you exercised, you burned 500 calories per session, so thats 500 x 5 (if you only want to exercise 5 days) and that's 2500 calories burned per week, so that's 4500 calories left. 4500 calories divided by 7 days = 642, so that's 642 calorie deficiency from your BMR per day and that all equates to 2lbs loss per week. It all depends on what you're going for.

If i've confused you further, then im very sorry.

No, not confused me at all-you've been a big help, thankyou x