to excersise or not to excersise?
 

Hi ive been on atkins for six weeks and lost 18 pounds with no excersise . i am loosing an average now of 2-3 pounds a week will excersise speed this up? and what kind of excersise is best to loose body fat? i h :confused: ave alot of mucsle under a layer of flab.

You may be young enough to get away without exercising, but eventually, you will need to exercise to maintain health, mobility, and muscle mass. Find something you like to do and do it regularly -- walk, ride a bike, swim, mow the lawn. Believe me, you will never regret getting into the habit of moving your bod.

Cindy

The last time I did atkins I lost 21 pounds in the first month, doing absolutly no exercise.. Then after the first month, my weight loss stopped and the inches stopped.. AT THE TIME I got frustrated not understanding why and gave up completly..
Im sure now it was because I wasnt exercising.. or it at least contributed to it.

So I now plan on working out 5-6 days a week..

Yes, exercise will speed up fat loss. You're doing pretty well already, but you will keep your metabolic rate up if you exercise as well as doing good things for your heart etc. Metabolic rate can slow down when we diet, whatever sort of dieting we do, (though low fat, low calorie diets are worse in this respect) and that can slow down your rate of loss eventually. It's like your body susses that times are hard and its not being fed a lot, so it slows down the rate at which you burn food to conserve it - not what we're after!

IMHO a mixture of cardio and weights is the best - whatever cardio you like 3-5 times a week and some weights 2-3 times maybe, or if not the gym, at least sit ups, step ups and push ups.
The cardio is what's good for your heart and helps raise your metabolism.
The resistance stuff builds muscle, which also helps raise your metabolism.

You may actually slow the weight loss a bit since the muscle you will be building will weigh more than the fat you are losing. But - you will speed up the process of becoming thinner - always a good thing!

Good luck with finding a program you enjoy,
Jay :wave:

Thanks guys for all your help and support! :D I going to get back into my pilaties and biking!

Try Curves as well - it really helps the reshaping process :thup:

Vikki

Definately exercise! Even if you don't do anything else, strength training will make all the difference!



L

it definitely couldn't hurt, if anything, you'll just burn more fat, which would get u to ur goal quicker, that's always a plus :D

if you've never lifted weight before, i'd suggest trying the cardio machine until you feel comfortable in the gym, then try some light lifting with light weights, the key is ease into it....

HTH :D

Thanks for your response! I actually used to go to the gym every day before atkins. I did 40 min cardio (20 bike- 20 treadmill) and 10 min stretching and 1 round on weights. I guess I could go back to that but I never know High reps low weight or high weight low reps. I a a girl and don't want to bulk up?

Thanks in advance to any one who helps me . :wave:

Curves is way to expensive in my small town! there's even talk of them shutting the doors. The membership fee is like 250. CAD The gym is great for me a free membership through work! I could do circut training there if i wanted to. :D

flangee, low weight/high rep is to lean out, toning,and muscle endurance while high weight/low rep is to increase strength and size..... :D

forget about bulking up - if you are a woman you don't have the testosterone needed to bulk up - just go and lift and get strong.

the people you see in the magazines that are "bulky" are working out very hard, long hours, have very little body fat (and may be supplementing their hormones) - in otherwords, they work very long and very hard to get that way. your gym workouts won't make you like that.

here is a site with good info on women and lifting:
Krista's site

How long should you do the cardio stuff like say riding a bike for it to count appropriatly. Also how do you know you are giving it enough intensity? Also, how long of and what type of walking would constitute a cardio workout? My stationary bike has the arms that move back and forth would that be the same as like lifting weights?

I have been doing Atkins since 5/27 and shamefully have only exercised on my bike once. I would really like to get into some kind of schedule of what I should be doing but really don't know what I should be doing. Like if I have a really active day at work does that count as exercise? If I walk around the building at lunch which takes about 10 minutes - does that count towards my exercise or is it a waste because it's not like a 1/2 hour or something. HELP! Confused!!

Tammy

Any physical activity will burn calories ....walking around the building, cleaning the house, etc. If you are interested in losing weight faster, you will need to burn more calories than you take in. A good route to take is aerobic activity which means something that gets your heart rate up. Exercise to the point of a challenge (this does not mean clutching your heart and falling to the floor), back down again.

If you want to build muscle (which will add weight but give you a more efficient calorie burning body) you should lift weights. Not sure the handles on your bike, count, however you can add wrist weights while you bike to give yourself some resistance.

Thanks so much for the info. I really need to get my butt in gear and work out at least 3 times a week.



How long should you keep your heart up - 20/30/45 minutes??

Thanks!
Tammy

I would warm up for 5-10 minutes, actual cardio for 20 to start. You may want to increase this as time goes on. Don't forget to stretch - before and after!

Do you have an activity in mind?