Help Requested: Losing Weight, Yay! Now onto the next step...

[RachelShrinks]

So, I've lost 17.5 pounds since New Year's Day. Yay me, right? (I think yay me, anyway :P.) I've done it through mostly food reconfiguring (I went from 2500 cal/day to 1300-1600 and went whole food) and a major step up in aerobic exercise (I workout/run about an hour a day now). Functionally, my deficit is about 1000 cals/day, and CICO is mostly working for me, allowing for the trauma weight as my poor sainted muscles learn to deal with all the exercise :D. That's finally dropping off now, I think, as I've lost a bunch of weight in the last week or so that I'd been holding on to for the week before that.

Anyway, I'm a 45yo 5'5" woman, currently weighing 175.5 pounds. I want to lose another 25 pounds and get down to about 150, but I have a whole lot of saggy going on here (I also had twins while fat, so yeah... SKIN), and I'm not getting any younger, so I figured now was the time to get working on weights and toning. I know it won't all go away, but some of it has to, right?

My plan is to continue doing what I'm doing food-wise, but bump my protein intake to about 85-100 grams/day (currently about 65), and work my way up to a schedule of:

Monday: Weightlifting/bodyweight work + 30 mins moderate aerobic

Tuesday: 30-60 mins HIIT on the treadmill/bike/elliptical/whatever suits my fancy

Wednesday: Weightlifting/bodyweight work + 30 mins moderate aerobic

Thursday: 30-60 mins HIIT on the treadmill/bike/elliptical/whatever suits my fancy

Friday: Weightlifting/bodyweight work + 30 mins moderate aerobic

Saturday and Sunday: light aerobics and recovery

I'd love some ideas from those of you who've lost a lot and had to reshape your bods. From this point on, I've decided the number on the scale is going to be less important to me. I should get my smart scale today so I can start charting lean muscle and body fat tomorrow, and I'll focus more on that than on whether I'm losing numbers. 

Does the schedule above seem reasonable/safe/not crazy to y'all? Do you think it'll do what I want it to do—allow me to lose the rest of this weight without looking like a shar pei dog?

Note, I'm posting it here for accountability, but also so that I can get people to point out the flaws in my plan :), so point out away! Thanks in advance!

[Anniesusie]

Yes, yay you!! I think it sounds reasonable, if you have time for 7 day a week workouts and I would definitely up your protein. Especially working out that much and are feeling hungry. As for sagging skin, I'm pretty sure that toning and building muscle helps (and sure couldn't hurt!). From what my skin is telling me...well... I shouldn't have gained that in the first place. You'll see what your body will do. It's a never ending search for me. I haven't resorted to a surgeon yet.

[alyste]

Building muscle is a good way to fill out loose skin, but doing it at a caloric deficit is tricky. It's not impossible, and getting enough protein is a good idea regardless, but you will likely see more visible and satisfying results by maintaining your deficit to your "goal" weight and then eating at a small surplus (+250 calories is a good starting point) to build muscle from there. If you've been losing weight for a long time it can be scary to eat more than you are burning, but you are in control here. Just keep an eye on things and back down your intake if your weight is increasing too rapidly (if I remember correctly about 1 pound of muscle a month is about the most you can expect).

Strength training during both phases (the initial deficit and the later surplus) is a great idea both for fitness and aesthetics but you may find it difficult to improve on your strength training during the deficit phase. Depending on how motivated you are by physical progress, this can be a little demoralizing but it is totally normal.

Also, getting enough sleep is vital for building muscle, so make sure to prioritize that was well 🙂

[A_Lurker]

@RachelShrinks- I do somewhere between light and medium cardio every day.  Basically I do my steps.  I do think an occasional recovery day isn't a bad thing.  I lift weights 3 days a week (W/F/Su) and during weight loss mode what it will help you do is maintain lean mass.  Since I bought the body fat scale I've actually managed to bring my lean mass up by ~ 4lbs.  It was higher, but for various reasons I backed off the heavy lifting and it's now trending down so I'm working on (if nothing else) letting it flatten out.  Most women have a hard enough time building muscle so I'd like to minimize that loss.

In the past I've managed to work up to around a 250lb 1-rep max on deadlifts, but you don't keep doing it, you lose strength so I'm working my way back as I continue to lose weight.  Bodyweight exercises may help you maintain that lean mass, however, as your weight lessens, I'm not so sure about that.  What kind of equipment do you have access to, if I may ask?

[RachelShrinks]

Thanks all for the great advice. So... maybe it's too early to look for Rachel the Buff in the mirror, but not too early to start lifting weights regardless, huh? 

@A_Lurker: I have access to a full gym in my building, and I'd planned to start there a few days a week, as per my obsessive little schedule at the top :). I did a FitStar bodyweight video yesterday and discovered (much to no one's surprise) that while my legs are machines, my arms are old and rusted. I'll be working on that.

Thanks so much, everyone! I'm planning to lower my deficit to -750 once I get to 170, so that should give me a little energy to build that muscle better. It's so funny that I read just a few weeks ago about how, when you start exercising hard after a long time of not exercising at all, you can spend a few weeks not losing, since your body is full of inflammation (and therefore fluid weight), but then, one day, your body will recover enough for the inflammation to go down and you'll slough off all the water at once. And I've suddenly lost 2.5 pounds in the last three days! 😮

Off to walk. Gotta get those steps in, lest my challenge buddies pass me up!

[Dominique]

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@RachelShrinks wrote:

Tuesday: 30-60 mins HIIT on the treadmill/bike/elliptical/whatever suits my fancy

Thursday: 30-60 mins HIIT on the treadmill/bike/elliptical/whatever suits my fancy

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@RachelShrinks: just a remark on the above: HIIT is supposed to include all-out bouts of whatever intense cardio exercise you chose to do. Even with periods of recovery in-between these, 60 minutes would be very tough and would require you to be extremely fit. Even 30 minutes of HIIT challenging. 

[RachelShrinks]

@Dominique: Thanks! I was hoping to eventually work up to those longer sessions. I am currently using the https://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/regimen, and am doing 2x4s right now (10 min warm-up, 4 mins all-out [pass out is more like! :)], 3 mins light work, 4 all-out, 10 min cool down). It works out to 31 mins all told—so, not really 30 straight minutes of HIIT, just a workout that HAS HIIT in it. I also do my own that are easier, 5 mins warm-up, 2 hard, 3 light, repeat thrice, 5 cool down. I am trying to get to the CERG 4x4, but dude... that is HARD. By the end of the 2x4, I'm ready to fall down! 

[A_Lurker]

@RachelShrinks- that's an interesting regimen.  I was always given the impression that HIIT was more like under 60 seconds of 100% effort, followed by roughly double that of cool down.  However, I think you'll find many different definitions.  I used to do some around my old pool (it was a nice oval which worked perfectly).  I know when I was doing that I would go over my theoretical max heart rate.  I may try and do bodyweight stuff the next time I attempt them.  My physical fitness is not there yet.

[RachelShrinks]

@A_Lurker: Yeah, CERG's plan is specifically for increasing cardiovascular health, so I don't know if it qualifies as straight HIIT, but it sure do kick my butt. 🙂 I've always had very good cardiovascular health, I thought (even at 60+ pounds overweight a decade ago, I had a resting heart rate of 60 and a BP of about 115/70), but it seems perhaps my perception was wrong. DUDE!