Advice for my better half

Toplink

I follow this forum from a distance and there seems to be alot of decent advice on it.

My partner took up jogging last March and over the last 6 months has pretty much done 5 miles a day, maybe 2/3 times a week. In this time she has also monitored her diet (and mine) pretty closely.

She was about 2 stone over weight when she started out and she has lost a stone of this but she cant seem to ship the other stone! She is getting pretty frustrated with this. Her legs are toned from the jogging and there is very little fat there but across her tummy she is still carry alot of weight.

I think her diet is the main issue here, to be honest I dont think she was eating half enough in the early part of the her training (Mar - June) and her metabolism has slowed as a result. I often heard her complaining of lack of energy which would tie in with this.

Anyway, she asked me to look for some advice.

Her stats:

Sex: Female
Age: 34
Height: 5 foot 3
Weight: 10 stone / pear shaped body
Diet: this changes alot! and prob where she needs most advice

Breakfast: Bowl of special K with flax
10 am : Oat Cakes
Lunch 1pm : 2 slices of weight watcher bread with ham, tomato coleslaw.
Dinner 8pm: Chicken Breast, Loads of Broccolli & Cauliflower, Onions & Mushrooms.
Tea Break 9m: Cup of tea & Milky Way

Red Cortina

From my own experience of trying to drop some poundage it all seems to come down to calories in vs calories out. Therefore the advice that I would give is to watch the calories. Count up what exactly you are eating and also figure out how many calories exactly you need for maintance and how many you need if you want to lose weight. 3 things though:
1. As you lose weight, your maintance calorie requirement goes down along with the amount of calories to be consumed per day on a deficit. So your partner's maintance calories at 2 stone overweight is gonna be more than at 1 stone over weight.
2. Dan John reckons your body adapts to the exercise that you do after about 6 weeks of doing the same kind of exercise, therefore you need to keep on changing things up.
3. Finally, when you are running a calorie deficit, the food that you eat should give you as great a nutrional bang for your buck as possible. So stuff like milky ways etc are not really the best possible way to use up your alotted calories for the day.

fakearms123

I'm not an expert but you should get your other half to change it up a bit, I find jogging very boring sometimes and thats even if I have my ipod with me.

I find cycling tackles my core a bit better, if she finds she has a lot of weight around her waist and her legs are toned then maybe a full body workout might help, don't be afraid to pick up a few weights. Sometimes I dont understand why women are afraid to come into the weights room and pick up a few weights and do a few lunges and dumbbell squats, etc, for fear of getting too muscle which lets be honest will not happen to women because of low levels testosterone. Anyway my other half is currently doing Jessica Alba's workout for Into the Blue film, consist of lunges with dumbbells, dips, reverse flyes, lateral raises, squats, on the bike and threadmill, reverse crunches, plank, etc all good stuff, check online somewhere for the actual workout. I just don't think jogging is enough to be honest.

In terms of diet id say get rid of the milky way bar, maybe have a low fat yogurt or fruit as a snack, the main focus to lose weight is burn more calories than you take in.

Again im not an expert just a bit of advice. Take it or leave it.

EDIT: Here is the workout my girlfriend is doing

Jessica Alba’s Workout Routine:

–> This is a sample 40 minute home workout that Jessica used to quickly lose her pregnancy weight and get back into excellent shape.


–> Alba starts with 10 minutes of cardio work, jogging lightly for the first 2 minutes, followed by running 6 minutes hard and then jogging the last 2 minutes.

–> Next, Jessica rocks a weight training circuit. She performs 3 sets of 20 repetitions using 3-lb dumbbells, for the following exercises:

1) Lateral shoulder raises

2) Reverse flys

3) Alternating forward lunges combo’d with bicep curls

–> After this brief strength training circuit, Alba heads back to the treadmill for more interval cardio. This time, she completes a 5 minute session consisting of 30 seconds of light jogging, alternating with 30 seconds of sprinting.

–> After this, Jessica hits up more weight training, again performing 3 sets of 30 repetitions using 3-lb dumbbells, for the following exercises:

1) Chest presses

2) Squats combo’d with shoulder presses

3) Tricep dips

–> After this, Alba hops back on the treadmill for another 5 minute cardio session, using the same 30 seconds of jogging, alternating with 30 seconds of sprinting.

–> Now it’s time for core work. Alba completes just 1 round of 20 repetitions for the following exercises:

1) Bicycle crunches

2) Reverse crunches

3) Plank hold x 30 seconds

rocky

Jessica Alba... performs 3 sets of 20 repetitions using 3-lb dumbbells

She must be uber toned!

Not too muscley either !

Daragh86

Not an expert by any means but have been around the mill with fitness and weight issues.

The body needs to be constantly shocked. Change up training patterns and times quite often, every 1 - 2 weeks. If the body gets used to the same thing it learns to react to this, but if you change it up and shock the system it hasn't got the defences in place to counteract this.

Saying this though diet is the main consideration and at the same time don't concentrate on it too much. Obviously for recovery heaps of protein in after training will help with a speedy recovery. I'd suggest heap the cards in 1 - 2 hours before training. Water is one of the best training aids going, lash it in 2 - 3 hours before training, don't leave it until a half hour or less before or it'll be useless. And obviously after training heap the water in.

If you look after everything around the training then the training should look after itself and you should see results coming.

Parsley

Daragh86 wrote: »

Not an expert by any means but have been around the mill with fitness and weight issues.

The body needs to be constantly shocked. Change up training patterns and times quite often, every 1 - 2 weeks. If the body gets used to the same thing it learns to react to this, but if you change it up and shock the system it hasn't got the defences in place to counteract this.

i really don't know what to say to this, that other thread has worn me out...

Will Heffernan

Toplink wrote: »

I follow this forum from a distance and there seems to be alot of decent advice on it.

My partner took up jogging last March and over the last 6 months has pretty much done 5 miles a day, maybe 2/3 times a week. In this time she has also monitored her diet (and mine) pretty closely.

She was about 2 stone over weight when she started out and she has lost a stone of this but she cant seem to ship the other stone! She is getting pretty frustrated with this. Her legs are toned from the jogging and there is very little fat there but across her tummy she is still carry alot of weight.

I think her diet is the main issue here, to be honest I dont think she was eating half enough in the early part of the her training (Mar - June) and her metabolism has slowed as a result. I often heard her complaining of lack of energy which would tie in with this.

Anyway, she asked me to look for some advice.

Her stats:

Sex: Female
Age: 34
Height: 5 foot 3
Weight: 10 stone / pear shaped body
Diet: this changes alot! and prob where she needs most advice

Breakfast: Bowl of special K with flax
10 am : Oat Cakes
Lunch 1pm : 2 slices of weight watcher bread with ham, tomato coleslaw.
Dinner 8pm: Chicken Breast, Loads of Broccolli & Cauliflower, Onions & Mushrooms.
Tea Break 9m: Cup of tea & Milky Way

I'm going to start running some sort of support group for the poorly informed and disillusioned.

1. Sounds like she's on the right track...in that she's been exercising consistently and continuously for 6 months....that's way better than 95% of the posters and readers here I'd guess....so that's awesome.

2. You have given us a 'basic day' I can only assume...because if she was eating that everyday she'd go crazy.

Breakfast: Bowl of special K with flax (it'd be good to add a little protein here)
10 am : Oat Cakes
Lunch 1pm : 2 slices of weight watcher bread with ham, tomato coleslaw. (will assume this is some protein with some filling)
Dinner 8pm: Chicken Breast, Loads of Broccolli & Cauliflower, Onions & Mushrooms. (protein with vegetables)
Tea Break 9m: Cup of tea & Milky Way (was this supposed to go in earlier in the day? Or is this 9pm?)

The diet isn't all bad...some protein, some carbs and some healthy fats...that pretty much gets the job done.#

Without knowin the quantities it's hard to guestimate her calorie intake...but it doesn't look to be much to me..just looking at it. If she is 'feeling' lethargic and 'feels' like she is lacking in energy...I'd say she is probably right.

Not sure what you are saying about her body composition but she sounds a lot like me.....everyone has a body fat predisposition...women tend to lose it from the top down in general....the last place to go is around the hips and arse generally where as with dudes it's generally the gut. So perhaps she has just got to the stage where she is looking at losing 'the last bit' which also tends to be the most stubborn and the fat that the body is most resistant to losing.

I think it's a matter of better diet and continuing on with or even adding to her training program to get to her goals....not much help but I'd be careful about taking some of the advice you are given here on board.

Your partner has exercised and dieted consitently for 6 months and lost a stone...you are seeking advice from people who in some cases have notgotten close to that....so encourage her instead and tell her to keep up the good work.

Patdusty2010

Toplink wrote: »

I follow this forum from a distance and there seems to be alot of decent advice on it.

My partner took up jogging last March and over the last 6 months has pretty much done 5 miles a day, maybe 2/3 times a week. In this time she has also monitored her diet (and mine) pretty closely.

She was about 2 stone over weight when she started out and she has lost a stone of this but she cant seem to ship the other stone! She is getting pretty frustrated with this. Her legs are toned from the jogging and there is very little fat there but across her tummy she is still carry alot of weight.

I think her diet is the main issue here, to be honest I dont think she was eating half enough in the early part of the her training (Mar - June) and her metabolism has slowed as a result. I often heard her complaining of lack of energy which would tie in with this.

Anyway, she asked me to look for some advice.

Her stats:

Sex: Female
Age: 34
Height: 5 foot 3
Weight: 10 stone / pear shaped body
Diet: this changes alot! and prob where she needs most advice

Breakfast: Bowl of special K with flax
10 am : Oat Cakes
Lunch 1pm : 2 slices of weight watcher bread with ham, tomato coleslaw.
Dinner 8pm: Chicken Breast, Loads of Broccolli & Cauliflower, Onions & Mushrooms.
Tea Break 9m: Cup of tea & Milky Way

Hi Toplink,

Your partner needs to do some Interval training to lose this extra stone. She could try doing Intervals on the bike,sprinting(or running at a faster pace rather than jogging), or rower Intervals. She could also do skipping and/or circuit training. All of these exercises are great for losing the weight, it will take her a great deal of time if she just keeps on jogging....

I am not an expert on diet. I try to eat clean however I do eat chocolate and drink the odd weekend so best I don't comment on this!

All I can say is try and get her started on Interval training. I started doing it 4 times a week along with Marathon training and my fat % is 12 the last time I got in measured with calipers in the gym.

Dusty

Toplink

Thanks for your advice folks, much appreciated.