What exercises can I use without losing too much weight?

Question

I have a very high metabolism, and I used to have a problem staying at a normal weight. People used to ask me if I was anorexic. I would eat as much as I wanted, and LOSE weight. After a year and a half of not working out, and over eating, I finally gained 20 lbs. So now that I am at a weight I like, I want to start working off the belly I also gained from not being able to workout. But it seems like every time I start, I lose 5 lbs automatically. I can stand to lose 5 or so lbs., but I'm afraid I will lose too much if I continue. Please don't tell me I should feel lucky, I don't. I finally feel healthy and happy at my weight now, but I also want to get my body back in shape. What can I do?

Answer 1

wow your story sounds like me... my friends always would ask me if i was anorexic... and i would eat until i was full, and never gain a pound... i finally started to gain weight...

i do yoga and pilates when i don't want to loose too much weight... and do crunches and side crunches... there great for your abs and obliques

Answer 2

My ideas? Try to do 200 minutes of cardio a week. Remember fat does not turn into muscle, so you need to lose your fat while putting on muscle. Work hard, but don't over 60 minutes at a time. Do planks and other abs exercises on alternate days.

On training days, do 5-10 minutes of cardio to warm up, then do your weight training. Do 30 to 60 minutes more of cardio, then go home.

The best time to eat is just after your workout within an hour when your metabolism is raging. For your muscles, incorporate some isolated soy protein or whey protein. Whey is more potent but the soy tastes better!

Don't look at your scale as the be all and end all, but get a measuring tape to check your progress, and that will show more tangible results.

Read magazines like Shape, Womens Fitness, Fitness, etc to get tips and to stay motivated.

Good luck and stick at it. This plan has lost me 20 lbs in 12 weeks so far, just go for it!

Answer 3

you need to consult a nutritionist. i would say your daily calorie intake would be at about 5200 calories a day. you may lose weight at first, but just up your calories. invest in high calorie protein shakes, around 1800-2200 calories, per shake, and drink one for breakfast and eat breakfast also. eat more nuts and heart healthy proteins. and when you start exercising, balance your workout with both cardio and weight lifting. i have a friend who is tall and work outs. he's very toned, but he has to eat around 5500 calories a day just to maintain his weight. you can do the same also if you put some effort into it.

Answer 4

The discussion below is my Blog for September 10. In your situation, it still applies but you may want to emphasize an increase in protein calories and be more generous on your percentage of fat calories...

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

Aloha

Answer 5

well, i dont have a perfect answer to that but if u make an appoitment with ur doctor he/she might be able to help u. one thing i can think of is just eating fruits 4 now and maybe do some pushups or somthing once a week.

hope i helped! if not email me by clicking on my
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Answer 6

yoga is a great form of exercise to keep you fit without losing alot and giving you leaner muscle mass. read tips on yoga routines on this site

Answer 7

Yu can wlk or run. You will actually gain weight because you will be gaining muscle weight.

Answer 8

Swimming is about the best all around exercise

Answer 9

Walking fast.