I am now a sophomore in college, and as a result of emotional things during my freshman year I stopped working out and gained fifteen pounds. As an incoming freshman I was obsessive about my weight. I watched every little thing I ate, to the point of near-anorexia. I also worked out a LOT every night. I weighed 112 pounds (I'm 5'5"ish) and looked stunning -- no belly fat, toned arms, only a little thigh fat near the tops of my legs. It was actually kind of painful -- my muscles were so close to the surface that it sometimes hurt to sit down, much less ride my horse and do other things I liked to do. But I was HOT, and I got addicted to the feeling of hard sleek muscle and the look of skinny clothes on the body that I had always hated. Now I'm a bit softer ... I still have muscle under my fat, but there IS a little chicken fat on my biceps and stomach, and on my upper thighs. I've begun watching what I eat, and trying to limit it to fruits and veggies. I am an almost-all-organic vegetarian and don't like fattening stuff (except ice cream, which I rarely eat anyway because of the price), but sometimes I slip and eat (for example) vegetarian sushi, because it doesn't seem like it would hurt me THAT badly ... But then my belly feels awful and I get a little bloated again. It makes me feel bad about my body and I get depressed. I've been working out in the gym too, but it also depresses me because I recall how thin I used to be but am not anymore. I'd like to be 115-120 pounds, not as thin as I was. I only want to lose some of this jiggly chickenfat ... but want to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible! (Doesn't everyone ... ) Any suggestions? Anyone want to force me to stay on track? Thanks!
Not to be discouraging, but don't forget no-one gets to be sixteen forever... That having been said, it's mostly a case of calories in vs calories out - you can eat more if you're prepared to exercise more to compensate. Tone won't happen without exercise anyway, but you don't have to burst a valve in the gym - walking and swimming will do it. Green tea, definitely green tea - and no saturated fat, although it doesn't sound like that will be too much of a problem for you. Most important is being prepared to be happy with yourself at some point. Targets are good, realistic expectations better, finding someone who loves you the way you are best of all And trust me on the green tea.
What is vegitariean sushi? You mean like a cucumber roll? First of all sushi is the least of your worries. You won't become overweight from eating sushi. I don't think the problem is with your diet, unless you are not getting enough protien and eating too many carbs, which is likely since you are vegetarian, so consider that. Aside from your self image and body image (which I can't help you with, but you should get help somewhere) I am just wondering what you are doing at the gym. If all you are doing is cardio, then you won't get very far. It amazes me how many females still spend 2 or more hours at the gym on those stupid stair climbers. You need to find a simple weight training routine. If you don't want to, or you don't know how to use free weights, that is fine, most gyms have machines that will suffice (though free weight training is better in my opinion) I can't give you a program to follow, but it shouldn't be hard to find a basic beginner program out there on the web somewhere. Mainly you will want to focus on larger muscle groups such as chest, back, shoulders, quads, hams and throw in some ab work. Shouldn't be more than an hour, but if you do the right stuff, you could make it a half hour. Don't worry about biceps or triceps or calves right now, they won't help you to lose weight. So, do a strength training program 2 times a week and cardio 2 or 3 times (for 30 minutes to 45, it is not necessary to do a lot of cardio at your weight with your goals). If you can't get to the gym that much then take up a hobby or sport that works in cardio as well as some strength training using your body weight such as rollerblading or mountain biking or something. And it won't be painless, but if it were painless, then it wouldn't help you lose weight. Sorry, but those are the facts. Good luck and keep us updated.
I know it won't be painless -- that was a joke. I used to be quite buff, and I know it comes with a LOT of pain! I'm not by any means naive about diet and exercise -- I used to be extremely neurotic about it all, so I'm practically an expert. I just feel the need to talk to other people who know about it, to keep myself from feeling like a complete loser. I do lift -- in fact I do almost all lifting and no cardio, apart from a little time on the rowing machine to warm up. As far as my eating goes -- yes, I know sushi is the least of my problems. The day I wrote that, I had just ingested cucumber roll and it made me bloated, so I used it as an example. Simply having food (other than fruit or yogurt) in my belly makes me feel fat. Maybe it's a recovering-anorexic thing. I've never been much of a big eater, and I don't get cravings, but at the start of my new diet I would reward good days by allowing some foods I'd been hungry for -- for example, if I consumed less than a thousand calories, I would allow myself a small soft-serve dish (230 calories and surprisingly natural ingredients) from the food court. (Today it was pudding. I felt hideously guilty about it afterwards, though, so both ice cream and pudding are off limits now.) My one remaining vice is coffee smoothies. I will continue to allow myself several a week, on days that I have been especially good. But I won't go overboard, because they are expensive and take up my college meal plan dollars very quickly. I feel quite good about myself after working out for an hour and a half every day this week. I can do a lot of leg presses with a fair amount of weight, and can use a LOT of resistence on the ab machines. Still working on my arms, though -- they hurt pleasantly, but I can't see much of a difference in them. And while I can feel my muscles firming up as we speak, my clothes don't fit much better. I still can't fit into my skinny pants -- if anything, my thighs seem to have gotten fatter. Is it just because the muscle is growing under the fat?
Leg presses can quickly build thigh muscles, especially if you're pushing yourself to load more weight on. Less weight and more reps will burn fat and build tone more effectively. Lots of weight will build big slow-twitch muscles. If you're concerned about your arms not toning up as quickly as you'd like, see if your gym has kettle bells - absolute tone factories! And have you started on the green tea yet? If I'm just preaching to the choir here because you've done all the research, I can switch to 'motivator' - I'm in the army, so I get plenty of this all the time.
LOL, no one is an expert, not even the top in the field, and they know it. That is the very first thing they teach you when you become a personal trainer, you will never know everything. This is because it is always changing from month to month there is new science that reveals something that someone never even thought of before. I mean we aren't doing now, what we were doing even a year ago (that is if you are on the cutting edge, I still see people in the gym doing some stupid stuff). Training is extremely dynamic though, there is no way anyone can know everything, or even come close. As far as your food issues, I don't know how to help you with that, but I will tell you that obsessing and feeling fat just for putting food in your stomach is not going to help you. Nor will rewarding yourself with food. It creates an unhealthy relationship even if you do justify it by saying "I've only had 1000 calories today". See you have to think along the lines of is this going to help my body? What nutrients is this giving me? Is this just empty calories, or am I eating this to make myself happy (or any emotion)? And the guilt is just something you are going to have to work on, maybe with a therapist or something. Depriving yourself temporarily of things such as ice cream and pudding just so you can lose weight isn't going to work. What you need to do is figure out how to make the things that you want fit into your lifestyle. Because eventuall, you are going to want to eat "normally" again, and you will want pudding. As far as your workout, if you are doing little or no cardio, then amp that up sista. The whole point is balance. And cardio is what burns the calories and helps you to lose the fat. And working out an hour and a half every day is overkill. You won't lose weight that way, only momentum and you will feel burnt out and probably get an injury. Be nice to your body and it will be nice to you. Because of your weight and your goals, I don't recommend (in my professional opinion) doing more than 45 minutes of cardio 3 times a week, and a 45 minute weight training session 3 times a week. And still I think that is pushing it. Since you seem to feel comfortable in the gym and you are already using the machines, I suggest trying something different. Something using free weights. I think sometimes the machines hinder people and keep them too far back in their comfort zone, plus you don't utilize all of your muscles nor do you get a full range of motion with them. They are excellent for beginners, but you are not a beginner anymore. In talking about your arms though, I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish. I'm just not a huge fan of isolation exercises (unless you want to be a body builder). I think that doing some push ups and rows and some dips and chin ups will give you a good arm workout without having to do silly bicep curls and tricep extensions (again I don't know what your exact routine consists of). Focusing on the smaller muscles isn't going to help you lose any fat. But I can't tell if it is hypertrophy you are looking for or if you just want to fit into your skinny pants. It is almost a contradiction. As far as fast twitch and slow twitch muscles are concerned, (type I and types IIa, and IIb) you are born with the amount you will always have the rest of your life unless you have muscle surgery. If you don't have as many you can't create them. It all has to do with genetics. However, to clarify, slow twitch muscle fibers are for endurance, not building big muscles, such as running a marathon, these are recruited more in aerobic exercise, not in weight training, because they require more oxygen. When you are lifting light weight, your slow twich muscle fibers will engage first, but when the weight gets too heavy for them, the fast twitch jump in to do the work. It sounds like opposites if you are trying to think of it. In other words if you want strength then you are going to lift heavy weight at low reps, if you want endurance, you will lift lighter weights and higher reps. I'm not 100% sure of what you want, but I think it is to lose weight since you are talking about fitting into skinny pants. So you should be doing low weight, high reps. I hope this helps.
