Review of Beginner's Weight Loss Routine

SimonTemplar

At the start of December, I was about 15 kgs into the 'overweight' category of the BMI scale. Lifestyle was completely sedentary and diet was pretty rubbish.

I had a few false starts at weight loss over the years but I've finally settled into a consistent routine since the beginning of December. I'm really not following a prescripted program. I just tried a few things and settled on what worked best for me.

So my gym routine at the moment is basically an hour on the treadmill 6 days a week. I work up to 6km and increase the increment to 10 over 20 minutes. Then for the remaining 40 minutes, I do intervals - 1 minute at increment 10 and then 1 minute at increment 5. That's basically it. I tried the bike and crosstrainer but didn't really like them. I much prefer the high increment at a brisk walking pace. Treadmill says I'm burning about 630 calories each time but I'm aware that is a rough estimate.

Diet is oats in the morning, a tuna / veg salad for lunch, and chicken / veg for dinner. If I'm peckish, I have some popcorn.

I've been seeing a steady and consistent drop in weight over the past 6 weeks. I don't think my appearance has changed much though which is a little demoralising, but I'm hoping it is just a matter of time.

I'm aware that 6 days a week is a bit more than the average beginner but I actually really enjoy it. I don't consider it an annoyance even though I work up a big sweat and really push hard during the final 15 minutes or so.

Since the lifestyle change, I'm not too tired or too hungry or lacking energy, so I don't think there are any negative effects but would like some opinions from people more knowledgeable then me on the subject.

I'm also considering adding some weights lifting 3 days a week. Weight loss is absolutely my main concern at the moment, and cardio seems to be working, but I'm getting a little jealous seeing other people's muscles at the gym

Any feedback / advice would be appreciated.

jk23

SimonTemplar wrote: »

At the start of December, I was about 15 kgs into the 'overweight' category of the BMI scale. Lifestyle was completely sedentary and diet was pretty rubbish.

I had a few false starts at weight loss over the years but I've finally settled into a consistent routine since the beginning of December. I'm really not following a prescripted program. I just tried a few things and settled on what worked best for me.

So my gym routine at the moment is basically an hour on the treadmill 6 days a week. I work up to 6km and increase the increment to 10 over 20 minutes. Then for the remaining 40 minutes, I do intervals - 1 minute at increment 10 and then 1 minute at increment 5. That's basically it. I tried the bike and crosstrainer but didn't really like them. I much prefer the high increment at a brisk walking pace.

Diet is oats in the morning, a tuna / veg salad for lunch, and chicken / veg for dinner. If I'm peckish, I have some popcorn.

I've been seeing a steady and consistent drop in weight over the past 6 weeks. I don't think my appearance has changed much though which is a little demoralising, but I'm hoping it is just a matter of time.

I'm aware that 6 days a week is a bit more than the average beginner but I actually really enjoy it. I don't consider it an annoyance even though I work up a big sweat and really push hard during the final 15 minutes or so.

Since the lifestyle change, I'm not too tired or too hungry or lacking energy, so I don't think there are any negative effects but would like some opinions from people more knowledgeable then me on the subject.

I'm also considering adding some weights lifting 3 days a week. Weight loss is absolutely my main concern at the moment, and cardio seems to be working, but I'm getting a little jealous seeing other people's muscles at the gym

Any feedback / advice would be appreciated.

I am not health or fitness expert but I found Hill sprints/walking a very good way to tone up as you have to use more of your muscles and parts of your body especially your core/hips/legs to power up.

Sounds like you are definitely doing everything right OP, hope it works for you

Cake Man

If it's strictly weightloss that is your goal, then it would seem that you should basically keep doing what you are doing. The cardio definitely helps in terms of burning calories and if you're losing weight as you mentioned, it would also seem you have your eating under control. Once you are consuming less calories than your body requires (i.e. in a calorie deficit) you'll continue to lose weight.


However, just to pick up on your last paragraph where you mention about possibly getting into weights - I'd definitely recommend doing so to mix it up a bit. Cardio is great but if it's also a goal of yours to look more defined and you basically just want to look good naked (called "aesthetics"), then doing cardio alone just won't deliver that. You need to do resistance training to develop/build muscle.