Reducing body fat but cant afford the gym

mrsberries

Hi

Im roughly a stone overweight, my bmi is 26 and my bodyfat % is 33. Since Christmas Ive dropped 6lbs - I eat a low carb diet and am running 3 times a week (30 mins each session) and doing two yoga sessions. I know weights would be the way to go with reducing my body fat % but cant afford to join the gym at the moment and wouldnt like to work out at home without proper supervision. What I want to know is will running and yoga help me reach a healthy body fat % or is there anything else I can do that wont cost the earth

My wedding is in less than 3 months and would love to look my best for it.

Thanks!

InKonspikuou2

There are lots of bodyweight exercises you can do. Push ups, burpees, squats, jumping jacks, planks, pull ups if you buy a cheap bar, dips between chairs. If you search google you will find a lot of info about it. And youtube can help for instructional videos. Doing full body sessions with some of the above exercises performed in a circuit fashion might be a good way to go.

Something similar to the above combined with the cardio you already do should burn off a fair amount of calories.

But the most important part is the diet. You may think you are eating good but then you find out that you aren't when others have a look at it. You should post up your typical daily diet here. And low carbs isn't great in my books. Even for losing weight i'd stick to 2-3 meals a day with small servings of complex carbs such as wholewheat pasta or brown rice. And/or oats for breakfast. You should be eating lean meats for protein, at least 2 servings of veg to fill you up, some fruit and try keep your fats down to coming from good sources such as fish oils, nuts, etc.

I know counting calories seems like a chore but believe me if you want to notice a difference you need to be strict on yourself. The outcome of dieting will only be as good as the effort you put in. So count up the calories for your current diet or past diet. Whichever one has you at your current weight. Then try work out a diet that will consist of a deficit in calories. Aiming for 300-500 a day between a combination of you diet and exercise should lose a good couple of pounds in 3 months.

mrsberries

Thanks for that.

Ive just reactivated my fitday account so I can keep track of my diet. I input todays food and I seem to be 500 calories under what I need for weight loss but have eaten enough I believe.

Typical day is

breakfast - protein shake with soya milk and splash of milk or scrambled egg with smoked salmon
lunch - spinach leaves, cucumber, meat (ham or turkey), small amount of goats or mozzarella cheese, olives or avocado, tomatoes
snacks - babybel or about 10 cashew nuts or couple of squares of dark choc.
dinner - meat(home made burgers or chicken breast) or fish with creamed spinach and grilled tomatoes

I know there's sat fat there, but Im very happy eating low carb as my stomach reacts badly to grains and spuds. It also hasn't impacted on my energy so would like to continue with it.

InKonspikuou2

I only use those fitday and the likes as a rough guide. Some foods are above or below the calories that i count up based on the packet. So i wouldn't worry too much if you aren't bang on the numbers.

You've lost 6 pounds in a month on a low carb ketogenic diet. And that's not surprising. Usually on low carb diets you lose weight quick in the first few weeks because you are depleting your bodies glycogen levels. In effect dehydrating your body and striping lean muscle. A lot of people think the weight lose is because of the exercise they have been doing. This usually leads to frustration and fatigue which can be counter productive when needing the motivation to exercise. Especially when the main tissue lost has been muscle rather than fat. And then when you come off the low carb diet you end putting back on the lost water weight and become bloated.

I'm sure there's a lot of arguments against the above. And if your current diet is working for you without effects then stick with it. Everything doesn't apply to everyone.

Transform

mrsberries wrote: »

Thanks for that.

Ive just reactivated my fitday account so I can keep track of my diet. I input todays food and I seem to be 500 calories under what I need for weight loss but have eaten enough I believe.

Typical day is

breakfast - protein shake with soya milk and splash of milk or scrambled egg with smoked salmon
lunch - spinach leaves, cucumber, meat (ham or turkey), small amount of goats or mozzarella cheese, olives or avocado, tomatoes
snacks - babybel or about 10 cashew nuts or couple of squares of dark choc.
dinner - meat(home made burgers or chicken breast) or fish with creamed spinach and grilled tomatoes

I know there's sat fat there, but Im very happy eating low carb as my stomach reacts badly to grains and spuds. It also hasn't impacted on my energy so would like to continue with it.

are you doing weights?

mrsberries

InKonspikuou2 wrote: »

I only use those fitday and the likes as a rough guide. Some foods are above or below the calories that i count up based on the packet. So i wouldn't worry too much if you aren't bang on the numbers.

You've lost 6 pounds in a month on a low carb ketogenic diet. And that's not surprising. Usually on low carb diets you lose weight quick in the first few weeks because you are depleting your bodies glycogen levels. In effect dehydrating your body and striping lean muscle. A lot of people think the weight lose is because of the exercise they have been doing. This usually leads to frustration and fatigue which can be counter productive when needing the motivation to exercise. Especially when the main tissue lost has been muscle rather than fat. And then when you come off the low carb diet you end putting back on the lost water weight and become bloated.

I'm sure there's a lot of arguments against the above. And if your current diet is working for you without effects then stick with it. Everything doesn't apply to everyone.

Thanks for that.Ive been low carbing it for about 7/8 months with the odd break, I regained weight when I ate normally around christmas/ holidays. I find it works for me though and dont feel tired on it which I though i would be.

mrsberries

Transform wrote: »

are you doing weights?

Nope. Cant afford the gym...Im doing stuff like the plank and sit ups at my running sessions though( I run with a group), but Im not sure its enough..