Thread: Kate's exercise diary

Well, I have thought about posting this for ages, but didn't know where to put it. Maintenance diary? Weight loss diary? Exercise and fitness?

Well, whatever. Hopefully someone will find it useful! My reason for starting a diary: I've recently moved, and I've gone from teaching around 13 classes per week to zero. Since those were almost the exact circumstances that led me to gain weight in the first place (except I wasn't an instructor then, just a participant) I think it's something that bears monitoring.

If you don't know me, I have maintained my weight loss for over two years now, and actually lost a bit more during that time too. I haven't found it difficult; exercise makes it very very easy indeed. However, I am lazy by nature, and by making myself accountable on here, I am more likely to bother my backside to pick up that barbell

So a little bit of background about me. I used to live in a big city, and I cycled everywhere. I also went to the gym every lunchtime as the building I worked in had a gym for employees on the ground floor (with classes and everything).

I moved to a smaller city, and at the same time I started working from home. This meant I did not have to cycle several miles per day, nor did I have free access to a gym. I started going to the local gym, but in order to be back home in time for the start of the working day I had to be at the gym at 7am. I did keep it up for a while but it was hard work, especially since we're night owls. Eventually I stopped going. I also finally got round to passing my driving test, which put a stop to all that healthy cycling.

I gained weight fairly slowly, so to begin with I didn't really notice, and it happened slowly enough that I just let it creep on and never did anything about it. It wasn't until I hit the 18 stone mark that I decided enough was enough (I did actually have a bit of a shock when I hit 17 stone, and tried to do something about it then, but I didn't really try very hard and another stone went on before I really cared enough to change). At that point I worked out that I had been eating around 100 too many calories per day. It was quite sad to realise that if I'd just kicked the Starbucks habit I'd never have gained a single pound (I love me some caramel macchiato).

Anyway, it's not really sad. I wouldn't change anything - I have perspective now that I would never have gained if I'd never been overweight. I don't take my size and fitness for granted. I love exercise even more than I already did, although that may be to do with the fact that I get paid to do it

If you don't know me, I have maintained my weight loss for over two years now, and actually lost a bit more during that time too. I haven't found it difficult; exercise makes it very very easy indeed. However, I am lazy by nature, and by making myself accountable on here, I am more likely to bother my backside to pick up that barbell

Hi Kate,

Congratulations on maintaining your weight loss over two years!!!

Anyway, it's not really sad. I wouldn't change anything - I have perspective now that I would never have gained if I'd never been overweight. I don't take my size and fitness for granted. I love exercise even more than I already did, although that may be to do with the fact that I get paid to do it

Thanks for the inspirational post!!!

Love Mini xxx

Aw thanks Mini, that's so nice of you to say.

Hi Kate - how did you lose the weight? Im seriously struggling at the moment - I lost 2 stone last year on weight watchers and I put 1 stone back on over christmas! Im finding it really hard to get back to and I know I have to stop now before im back to where I started! For fat burning is it best to do a mix of Cardio and weights - I have 6 stone to lose.

Thanks

Ax

Hi Andi, I lost 4 1/2 stone with the Cambridge Diet and the rest through healthy eating and exercise.

It's definitely best to do a combination of both resistance exercise and cardio. Cardio burns calories and boosts your metabolism in the short term. Resistance exercise builds (or maintains) muscle, which boosts your metabolism in the long term and will ultimately make it easier to maintain your weight once you reach goal. And don't forget all the many health benefits of both: increased bone density, improved fitness and strength, resistance to disease, lower stress, better sleep, more energy, lower blood pressure...I could go on

The trick is finding exercise that you enjoy. I love group exercise classes, so that's most of what I do. I'm trying to run more (I'm hoping to do the Great North Run in October - just waiting to find out whether I've been successful in the ballot), but I really don't like running, so it feels like a chore, whereas stuff like dancing is just pure fun and I don't need a fire lit under me to do it

Hi Kate,

Thanks for starting this. I have just recently started exercising after losing 4 stones with cambridge (still another stone or so to go) and am loving it so far.

I lost 4 stones in 3 months from June 07 to Sept 07, then gave up SS due to hairloss. Then I faffed with WW for a month or so, gaining and losing the same 10lb or so. Then got back onto SS in Jan but just cant stick to it.

So, Ive joined a gym and had a programme worked out for me and have been 5 times in the last 7 days. Im loosely following the CD 1000 plan, although I have been starving hungry the past couple of days and wondering if my cals need to be higher?? Im burning off about 400 cals during my workout according to the machines.

Well done on maintaining your loss for 2 years. Im hoping that exercise is the answer for me too. Im not desperate to shift the last stone in a hurry, but I do want to tone up this flab that Ive been left with after shedding 4 stones.

How heavy are you now if you dont mind me asking and roughly how many calories do you eat to maintain your weight?

Hi wannalose8stone

Well, last things first - I'm around 12 stone 10 (BMI 27ish) and I eat around 2000-2500 calories per day to maintain, or 1700-2000 if I am trying to lose weight. I'd like to eventually end up somewhere around 11 stone but I'm in no hurry (I'm currently working on muscle gain, which sorta precludes any kind of weight loss for the time being )

Right, enough about me, let's talk about you. I can't really say whether you need more calories (although from the sound of it, quite probably!) without knowing more about your exercise routine. Did the trainer who put your programme together know how many calories you were on and take that into account? How long is your session? What kind of balance of cardio/resistance? What intensity? Are you aiming to progress i.e. increase your weights every couple of sessions, increase your speed/intensity on the cardio machines? What is the goal of your programme?

Well done with your loss, by the way - that's fab! I bet you feel fantastic.

Hi Kate

Lovely to meet you

2 years maintaining that's great

Thanks so much for posting it gives us newbee maintainers hope!

I'm looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on food and exercise. I am a bit lazy where exercise is concerned but have started going swimming more regularly, can't find it in me to get the enthusiasm together to go to the gym.

Hope you have a great weekend

Tracey
x

Fabulous Kate.

Great big well done to you

Cheers chaps!

Yesterday, I did an hour of Body Pump, and so far this morning I've done an hour of Body Balance (not actually gone to classes, I've just done them at home). I'm not sore enough today to feel I actually pushed myself hard enough yesterday, so time to up my weights on most tracks!

If you aren't familiar with Body Pump, here's how it goes. You have a barbell and can vary your weights from track to track. There are ten tracks, each around 5-6 minutes in length. It starts with a warmup, where you use lightish weights and do a bit of everything, then the format goes like this:

Track 2 - squats
Track 3 - chest
Track 4 - back
Track 5 - triceps
Track 6 - biceps
Track 7 - lunges
Track 8 - shoulders
Track 9 - abs
Track 10 - cooldown

All to cheesy loud music. Much fun.

Body Balance is a mixture of yoga, tai chi and Pilates and goes like this:

Track 1 - Tai Chi warmup
Track 2 - Sun Salutations
Track 3 - Standing Strength
Track 4 - Balance
Track 5 - Hip openers
Track 6 - Pilates abs
Track 7 - Pilates back
Track 8 - Twists
Track 9 - Hamstrings
Track 10/11 - Relaxation and meditation

Usually, doing Balance the morning after doing Pump, my legs should be killing me during Standing Strength (which is hard work at the best of time), but today - not so much. Time to work harder!

I will probably be doing some kind of cardio later.

Hi Kate

I went to body pump before I lost weight on CD, I actually loved doing that, mainly because the music was great I haven't been for over a year, but may well take that up again.

I can still vividly remember the pain I was in the next day after my first session I sat on the loo and couldn't get back up again

Tracey
x

Originally Posted by Kate

Hi wannalose8stone

Well, last things first - I'm around 12 stone 10 (BMI 27ish) and I eat around 2000-2500 calories per day to maintain, or 1700-2000 if I am trying to lose weight. I'd like to eventually end up somewhere around 11 stone but I'm in no hurry (I'm currently working on muscle gain, which sorta precludes any kind of weight loss for the time being )

Right, enough about me, let's talk about you. I can't really say whether you need more calories (although from the sound of it, quite probably!) without knowing more about your exercise routine. Did the trainer who put your programme together know how many calories you were on and take that into account? How long is your session? What kind of balance of cardio/resistance? What intensity? Are you aiming to progress i.e. increase your weights every couple of sessions, increase your speed/intensity on the cardio machines? What is the goal of your programme?

Well done with your loss, by the way - that's fab! I bet you feel fantastic.

thats reassuring to see you can eat 2000 - 2500 cals and maintain at 12st 10ish which is my BMI 28 target.

My instructor at the gym didnt ask about my diet/calorie intake. I just told him that I am completely unfit and wanted to take it gradually and that my aims are weight loss and toning.

So to start, I do 5 mins on the exercise bike to warm up, then 20 mins x trainer and then 20 mins treadmill. Then followed by some resistance exercises, chest press, shoulder press, squats with weights, trunk curls. The weights are set quite low to start with at 10kg, but Im going to have a review in a couple of weeks.

What Im loving is how quickly I can feel my fitness improving. THe first time I got on the x trainer I thought I was going to die after 10 mins, now the 20 mins is manageable after jsut 5 or 6 visits. Ive already increased the speed on the treadmill as well, and even ran (well, jogged)for 5 of the 20 minutes yesterday! Im hoping that as my fitness improves that Im confident enough to join in with some of the classes as well.

Im really looking forward to reading your diary over the forthcoming weeks and hope to take inspiration from it.

Thanks Kate - I will let you know how I get on.

Ax

I'm about to go and change and do an hour of lifting weights. But before I do I thought it might be a good idea to have a little chat about muscle gain. There are a lot of myths surrounding it and I'd like to dispel some of them.

Myth #1: muscle is heavier than fat.
- Well, no, 1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat. But muscle is more dense than fat - 1lb of muscle is one third the size of 1lb of fat.

Myth #2: if I work out I can turn my fat into muscle.
- No, you can't. Fat and muscle are two different types of tissue and you cannot turn one into the other. You can lose fat, and gain muscle, and if you're really clever you can do both at the same time (this is really difficult, see below), but you can't turn fat into muscle or vice versa. If you stop exercising the muscle will not turn to fat, either. However, it will atrophy and a combination of that and the fact that you are not active and therefore burning fewer calories will probably result in fat gain.

Myth #3: if I stay the same weight at my weekly weigh in, I might have gained muscle.
- Not unless you also did not stick to your diet, and worked REALLY hard. In order to build muscle, you have to have extra calories and extra protein. Also, it takes ages to build muscle. I want to gain a few pounds of muscle. I know what I'm doing, and I'm working hard towards that goal. In a month, if I've gained 1lb of muscle, I'll be over the moon!

Myth #4: I can make my muscles longer/shape my muscles/sculpt my muscles by doing certain exercises
- No. All you can do is grow the muscle. You can't change the shape of it, just the size. The most popular version of this is the myth of 'toning', which usually goes like this: if you want to build muscle, you should lift heavy weights for a short time. If you want to tone and shape, you should lift light weights for a longer time. Sorry, not true. Both of those will result in muscle gain in the long term, but the former will do more to increase strength, and the latter will do more to increase endurance. I'm afraid there's no such thing as 'toning'. If you see a class on the gym timetable that's listed as 'toning' it really means 'conditioning' or 'MSE' (Muscle Strength and Endurance).

Myth #5: I don't want to lift heavy weights or I will end up looking like Arnie.
- Don't worry, you won't - not if you are female. We don't have enough testosterone to build muscle as much or as quickly as men. Women with certain body types can build more quickly than others, but you'd be very lucky to be able to bulk up like that. Let me show you what a woman who lifts heavy weights for a living looks like:




And here endeth today's lesson now I'm off to lift weights, catch you later!