Varying my fitness regime to gain maximize results by christmas. HERE'S THE SCOOP..........?

Question

In the past 6 weeks I've lost about a stone, I'm 5"9 and used to weigh 14.2 stone which is about 199 pounds, now about weight about 186 pounds.

work out 5 times a week, eat very healthily for a student, I vary upper body weights to lower body weights each time, and do 40minutes on the x-trainer, 25minutes on the bike and about 15minutes on the treadmill depending on how I'm feeling as I'm trying to build up my endurance for running.

I also swim once a week for about an hour after the gym and am wondering if I changed my regime to swimming twice a week and working out 4 times a week instead would help me get in better shape by switching up my routine?

I've read different thing about how swimming doesn't help you loose weight as much as people think but instead tones the body, so am a little confused.

I'm aiming to be 176 pounds by Christmas, a loss of 10 pounds in 10 weeks is definitely doable, but am wondering if my body will hit a brick wall in terms of weight loss from not switching up my workouts.

What do people recommend?

Answer 1

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Swimming is more of a toner, however the more toned you are, the more your muscles will eat the fat. Sounds like you are doing well. I would switch up the routien in a few weeks though.

Answer 2

See the Times today for an interesting article - its basic premise is that exercising does not cause you to lose weight and is based on new studies:


http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_…

I suspect that these studies are not based on the most effective excercise for losing weight. My view based on experience is that the most effective way of losing fat is a combination of weight training and intensive interval training.

Weight training builds up your muscle mass and causes some loss of fat but more importantly the greater muscle mass and increasing metabolism means that when you exercise aerobically you lose more fat and this fat loss continues for a longer period after the exercise.

Intense interval training will lose you more fat than any amount of steady state training. Examples would be a hill program on an excercise bike where you are using your largest muscle group, your legs, and pushing yourself to your limit on the toughest 'hills'.

Alternativly a tough callisthenics circuit within a timed limit.

Exercising as above even three times a week for 20 minutes should cause you to lose fat faster than far longer periods of steady state excercising. You are right swimming is not a particulary effective exercise for losing weight.

Source(s):

Many years experience of different forms of excercising and research.

Answer 3

I can't im or email u so i'm gonna have to be blunt
Well clearly by your description you have at least a basic grasp on fitness from looking at the info you have given me I would say lose the treadmill and go out a decent run. If a half marathon is your aim conditioning within running would probably be best as on the treadmill you are not getting the full picture of running a half marathon as you will find you can do alot more on a treadmill than real life
5 times a week is a fair amount to be training a week but make sure you have at least one rest day two would be better but make sure these are spread throughout the week also do your circuit session/swimming a separate day from your running as this will drain your energy for your training session and leads to build up of lactic acid and cramp
It's cardio you need for half marathon so ditch any heavy weights you might be using and use small dumbells and in front of a mirror practice your running motion for around. You will be surprised how much proper technique helps your running and you will use less energy whilst running and will go faster
Personally I don't particularly use bikes or cross trainer as I don't find them overly effective but they will definitely increase cardio levels
Swimming is a great exercises it will release the tensions in your body and is non weight bearing so it give your muscles and joints a rest and it again raises cardio levels, people probably mean that although swimming burns weight it adds muscular tone to your body so really the excess weight is transferred into muscle
A fair breakdown in my opinion would be
Monday Weights/circuit
tuesday Running 5 miles you could break it down into a mile 2 mins rest mile etc but this rest means runs should be a higher intensity
wednesday Rest light day soft mile jog if you want
thursday run 10 miles gradual pace time against a clock when you shave a minute or two off add another mile this will get increasingly harder to do so you actually end up training over the 13 miles half marathon but adjust distance accordingly if this is to much
friday rest
saturday light circuit weights
sunday constant hill runs for an hour fast run up jog back down do not slow down the run to make it a jogging pace all round time your jog so you are just getting your breath back at the end of the jog and stick to it if you have no hill plot out a long stretch of road and do it there

Try and mix up your sessions though go new routes for your long runs each month and make sure you increse pace distance and speed over time or you will get into a comfort zone where you will not become any fitter
its a shame I couldn't message you though cause this is vague at best as it's not really tailored round you
but I hope it helps you at least a little

Source(s):

Sorry I can't im you