Trying to lose weight

[SunandMoon]

Alright, I've asked on another forum about this and saw some results, however I need/want to lose more.. I need to drop about 30 pounds. But there are limitations; I cannot drive, I don't really have a gym close to the house, nor do I have much money at all at the moment. So this needs to be a home weight loss thing, if possible.

 

So far I've been doing some working out; Push-ups and Birdogs. Need to add some form of cardio, I believe. I've dropped soda, I do my best not to eat late at night nor snack too much.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Exit]

Utilize your legs, home to some of the largest muscles on your body and a great fat burning furnace. So in addition to your pushups, do squats, just bodyweight if that's all you have. Not sure exactly what "not much money" equates to but you can get cheap bars and weights and other things for a reasonable amount of money, you don't need a 200 dollar gym setup. But even without weights you can use jugs of water or whatever else to improvise some extra weight if you want it. Sticking with body weight is fine just make sure you are doing enough repetitions to have an intense workout. Look into other movements like lunges etc.

 

There are so many different opinions on cardio, ranging from don't do any, to it's actually bad for you, to doing it 7 days a week. One thing to realize is that there is a cardiovascular aspect to the movements that you are already doing. If you make a circuit out of your pushups and squats and just keep alternating between those two (or add even more movements to the circuit) and not allowing yourself much rest time in between, you'll see how hard you start breathing and how fast your heart will be beating, that's cardio just as much as anything else. Plus it's not as boring as standing on a single piece of equipment for however long. I guess I'm somewhat in the "no cardio at all" camp and just focus on resistance training. If you really want to do cardio then the next belief that is becoming popular these days is to do high intensity interval training rather than static cardio where you go at one boring pace for a really long time. Interval training means doing something like running as fast as you can for 30 seconds, resting for 30 seconds, on and off for a set period like 20 minutes. This is supposed to keep your metabolism revved up for a longer period of time after the workout as opposed to traditional cardio.

 

Try to get more specific with your diet when you feel ready. Beginning steps like quitting soda and not snacking are a great start. Now zero in on the types of food you are eating. I really think a simple way to do it rather than worrying about counting calories or carbs is just to try to leave the grocery store with nothing frozen, in a box, or a can. I just did this myself today actually, walked out of the store with 3 bags of produce, one thing of pork ribs and one thing of chicken breast. If this sounds too strict for you then just stick to common sense, you know sugar isn't going to help you lose 30lbs, or a big bowl of macaroni or anything like that. Recently in the news there has been yet another new study going around where they compared low fat to low carb and low glycemic (carb control). I think they said low carb burned 300 more calories in a certain time frame than low fat, and low glycemic burned 150 more than low fat, but that for most people, low glycemic is probably easier to stick to.

 

Get plenty of quality rest. The body hates the stress of not getting enough sleep, plus now you have physical activity that you need to recover from.

 

I could probably afford to lose around 30 too so you're not alone.

 

Don't be scared to put your focus on resistance and strength training because so many of the people who are grinding themselves into the ground doing hours and hours of cardio are the ones who complain that they've been going to gym for years and not seeing the results they want.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Exit

[SunandMoon]

Utilize your legs, home to some of the largest muscles on your body and a great fat burning furnace. So in addition to your pushups, do squats, just bodyweight if that's all you have. Not sure exactly what "not much money" equates to but you can get cheap bars and weights and other things for a reasonable amount of money, you don't need a 200 dollar gym setup. But even without weights you can use jugs of water or whatever else to improvise some extra weight if you want it. Sticking with body weight is fine just make sure you are doing enough repetitions to have an intense workout. Look into other movements like lunges etc.

 

There are so many different opinions on cardio, ranging from don't do any, to it's actually bad for you, to doing it 7 days a week. One thing to realize is that there is a cardiovascular aspect to the movements that you are already doing. If you make a circuit out of your pushups and squats and just keep alternating between those two (or add even more movements to the circuit) and not allowing yourself much rest time in between, you'll see how hard you start breathing and how fast your heart will be beating, that's cardio just as much as anything else. Plus it's not as boring as standing on a single piece of equipment for however long. I guess I'm somewhat in the "no cardio at all" camp and just focus on resistance training. If you really want to do cardio then the next belief that is becoming popular these days is to do high intensity interval training rather than static cardio where you go at one boring pace for a really long time. Interval training means doing something like running as fast as you can for 30 seconds, resting for 30 seconds, on and off for a set period like 20 minutes. This is supposed to keep your metabolism revved up for a longer period of time after the workout as opposed to traditional cardio.

 

Try to get more specific with your diet when you feel ready. Beginning steps like quitting soda and not snacking are a great start. Now zero in on the types of food you are eating. I really think a simple way to do it rather than worrying about counting calories or carbs is just to try to leave the grocery store with nothing frozen, in a box, or a can. I just did this myself today actually, walked out of the store with 3 bags of produce, one thing of pork ribs and one thing of chicken breast. If this sounds too strict for you then just stick to common sense, you know sugar isn't going to help you lose 30lbs, or a big bowl of macaroni or anything like that. Recently in the news there has been yet another new study going around where they compared low fat to low carb and low glycemic (carb control). I think they said low carb burned 300 more calories in a certain time frame than low fat, and low glycemic burned 150 more than low fat, but that for most people, low glycemic is probably easier to stick to.

 

Get plenty of quality rest. The body hates the stress of not getting enough sleep, plus now you have physical activity that you need to recover from.

 

I could probably afford to lose around 30 too so you're not alone.

 

Don't be scared to put your focus on resistance and strength training because so many of the people who are grinding themselves into the ground doing hours and hours of cardio are the ones who complain that they've been going to gym for years and not seeing the results they want.

 

What I meant by not much money, is that I haven't had a job in roughly 3 years. So you can just imagine. Though, knowing this old house there may be dumbells around here somewhere, may just be 5lbs or so, however.

 

Squats, okay, I'll add this to my repertoire. Not gonna cut Birddogs, I'll just put less of an emphasis upon them. I'm still on the fence about cardio, we'll see if I can/want to work it in.

 

I do my best to stay away from sugar, and substitute for fruit with its all-natural sweetners. But I don't do that every time.

 

The rest thing is a problem, I rarely have the energy to workout. I usually sleep 7-8 hours and still wake up drained.

 

Recently I've been doing anywhere between 50-75 push-ups and 20-30 Birddogs a day. Been meaning to bump that up again.

[writergal]

What I meant by not much money, is that I haven't had a job in roughly 3 years. So you can just imagine. Though, knowing this old house there may be dumbells around here somewhere, may just be 5lbs or so, however.

 

Squats, okay, I'll add this to my repertoire. Not gonna cut Birddogs, I'll just put less of an emphasis upon them. I'm still on the fence about cardio, we'll see if I can/want to work it in.

 

I do my best to stay away from sugar, and substitute for fruit with its all-natural sweetners. But I don't do that every time.

 

The rest thing is a problem, I rarely have the energy to workout. I usually sleep 7-8 hours and still wake up drained.

 

Recently I've been doing anywhere between 50-75 push-ups and 20-30 Birddogs a day. Been meaning to bump that up again.

 

10 Ways You CAN Exercise At Home without Any Equipment | FitWatch

 

Hey there SaM. I think walking is a great way to lose weight because you can start at a slow pace and gradually increase it as you feel better. Plus since you're out of work you can always check out cardio workout DVDs from your local library too. That way you have an at-home workout you can use for a few weeks and then just renew it or check out another work out DVD like yoga or aerobics or whatever. Granted if its too hot to walk outside you can always go to your local mall and walk laps around it. That's a pretty common site these days in malls.

[SunandMoon]

10 Ways You CAN Exercise At Home without Any Equipment | FitWatch

 

Hey there SaM. I think walking is a great way to lose weight because you can start at a slow pace and gradually increase it as you feel better. Plus since you're out of work you can always check out cardio workout DVDs from your local library too. That way you have an at-home workout you can use for a few weeks and then just renew it or check out another work out DVD like yoga or aerobics or whatever. Granted if its too hot to walk outside you can always go to your local mall and walk laps around it. That's a pretty common site these days in malls.

 

Hi! Ah, thanks for the link. Library and mall......I live in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town is like, 15 miles away. It is a bit hot to go walking but that just means I'd work up a better sweat. And I certainly have enough room on the property here to do so.

 

I did try the squats and they really are an amazing workout. I can feel it thoughout - will certainly continue with those.

[FitChick]

Youtube has all sorts of workouts and there at exercise channels online that show videos. You will be spoilt for choice.

[SunandMoon]

Youtube has all sorts of workouts and there at exercise channels online that show videos. You will be spoilt for choice.

 

I also have limited internet, but I'll look into that when on wifi.

---

 

Holy crap those squats make your legs burn the next day, guess that's a good thing.

 

And did go walking....through the woods. Really enjoyed it, actually, and took a bunch of pictures while I was at it.

 

Thanks for the advice y'all!

[TLY22]

Home exercise is great and easy - you can use pretty much anything. Bench-tops, tables, chairs, lounge; endless options.

 

Also. You can smash out exercise as much as you want, but it won't do anything if your diet doesn't change. Cut out salt, soda and artificial sugars. Don't cut carbs, just cut whites. Brown rice, brown bread, brown pasta - all amazing for you! So nothing white. Eat natural peanut butter at least once a day; people have the common misconception that peanut butter is bad because it's fatty, but peanut butter is packed with essential fats. Fruits, veges obviously. Lean meats = chicken, fish, turkey. Invest in a grill if you don't already have one. Grills are amazing. NEVER skip breakfast! And don't stop snacking, just snack on good things. You should be having 5-6 meals a day (Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack). snack on things like yoghurt, nuts, fruit, etc.

 

As for execise, start every day with a five minute plank followed by seven minutes of skipping. A great way to wake your muscles and heart up.

[ON MY OWN]

I would also like to recommend...The Biggest Loser books are great...one had in there a routine using yourself and 5 lb dumbells....we would do a set of push ups, a set of crunches, chair lifts (not entirely sure name of that one) where you sit on ground, reach arms behind you and lift your body weight, can be done on a stable couch or anything stable that is the proper height. A set of jumping jacks and do different curls with the weights in between. You start out with like one set of 10 each or whatever you are able to do and add a 2nd one like 3 to 5 days later and increase to 3 sets of everything per day. It was a fabulous workout and with proper diet I noticed quick results. I was very strict with it though. Another thing I liked was the variety to do it in any order I wanted.

[Forever Silent]

intense home workout - YouTube

 

Look at what some of those people do in there homes and try it. I gurantee you will enjoy the results.

 

 

Also diet wise, since you lack money at the moment. Cheap vegetables such as celery, carrots, and lettuce are always good carlories to consume. Also cut out the sugars and the starches. Any processed bread you have in the houshold will need thrown away.

 

If you eliminate the 'bad carbs' introduce 'good carbs', get your fats and protiens, and do some intense home workouts, I think you will drop that weight in about 6 months. However there is a caveat, if you go back to your previous lifestlye, you will quickly pick back up those pounds.

[RiverRunning]

Work-out videos are posted on SparkPeople (you can make a free account there). You can also just type in random things on Youtube: I found a half hour hip hop dance video on there. You can jump-rope without a rope (must making the motions with your hands and arms).

 

Look up "Walk away the Pounds" or "Walk at Home" videos with Leslie Sansone. People have those all over Youtube. Great, low-impact exercise. Her videos are good for a wide range of stuff too - she has slower-paced ones for beginners but also has some real sweat-pumpers.

 

Search for "SparkPeople Coach Nicole" on Youtube too. You'll find some of her DVD work-outs on there. They're generally 10 - 20 minutes.

 

I realize this is probably a long way off for you, but maybe one day you can get into kettlebells. I paid $80 for mine...adjustable from 5 - 20 pounds. I've seen some that are $20 - $30 that are 10 - 15 pounds, though. Good for building muscle and it's great cardio too.

 

Really, just go to Youtube and type in 'dance workout' or anything like that. You'll get plenty of variety. No equipment needed, generally. Search for yoga, pilates, etc.

 

At MOST, for most of the work-outs I've seen, you might need dumbbells. I think I paid about $5 apiece for my 5-pounders, about $10 apiece for 10 pounders, etc.