Starting last June, I started dealing with my body seriously. I am 66 years old (65 at the time) and 6’1" tall. At the time I weighed 290 pounds, and my fat percentage was over 38%. At the time, I was doing cardio at the gym maybe twice a week, and eating pretty much whatever I wanted.
I started with a personal trainer twice a week, cardio by myself 3 times a week, and weights by myself once a week. Two days off from the gym (one day a week I do both weights and cardio by myself). I am writing down all my food, and have put myself on a 1000-calorie per day deficit (which, in simplest terms, should account for 2 pounds a week, but it doesn’t in real life). I want to take the long view, so I have given myself 2 years to lose 100 pounds. So far, I am slightly ahead of schedule on that front. My other goal is to increase my general strength by “a lot” (this is harder to set a goal for) so that as an older person I will be able to continue to live a vigorous life for many years.
Since then I have lost about 25 pounds, and my percentage of fat is about 35%. (Disturbingly to me that means that I have apparently lost some muscle mass in addition to losing fat.) I feel much better; my legs and back and core muscles are stronger; my chest and shoulders and arms are also stronger but not as much.
Sometimes I think I should concentrate more now on losing fat, thereby making the body work a little easier later, while maintaining the muscle gains I have done so far, and then work on increasing strength and power later. Or I can just keep doing what I am doing, pumping up the body work and the cardio work while cutting back further on calories, especially carbs. (You would think I could discuss this with my personal trainer, but I don’t have confidence in that approach.)
If any of you have gone through anything like this, or are professionals in this field, I would love to hear what you have to say about how I should proceed from here, with special attention to the age issue, in case that matters.
I’m 57 and work out three times a week re cardio and weights. You are losing weight and getting more fit and that’s all you should be aiming for at this point. Because you are being successful and seeing results you are hugely emotionally and intellectually invested in the smallest details of this process (I’ve been there) and small differences in fat ratio are looming very large in our mind when they are actually very minor parts of the overall process. Stop worrying about the fat ratios they will jump around as you lose and unless you are being weighed in a water tank resistance based fat ratio measurement devices have large amounts of error.
The thing you DO need to focus on is making your weight loss and exercise sustainable re satisfying healthy meals and changing long term habits. You should be working on this 100 times more than worrying about shifting fat ratios. If you continue to exercise and diet change will come and you will look great.
If you are losing muscle as well as fat, then you can up your weight-lifting. Look into some Metabolic Conditioning/HIIT training. You’ll get more bang for your buck and find you get lean and fit much faster.
Thanks for the suggestions. I don’t think I’m ready for HIIT or metabolic conditioning yet, but I’ll keep that in mind, maybe after I lose another 25 pounds or so. I don’t know if any of the trainers at my gym have certification in those things, but I can find out.
astro, your words contain wisdom. I am mostly a little worried because my personal training sessions are about to run out and I can’t afford any more until the spring. Therefore, I’m obsessing possibly unnecessarily.
Don’t count it out just yet - all of the workout are scalable, so they are challenging for everyone. The gym I go to has everyone from the super-fit to the
“just barely made it out of my car” and by the end of the hour, we are feeling the workout. I can send you some example workouts via PM if you want?
I’ve been working out pretty steadily for going on seven years now, and there are HIIT classes that wear me out. It doesn’t get easier, you get stronger. Once you can do a weight easily, it’s time to up it.
Most gyms will let you work at your own pace (although I’ve heard TRX is not for beginners.) I don’t know if you are a gym member, but the On Demand section of most cable and satellite providers has a Fitness category, where you can work out in the comfort of your living room.
I too came from a couch potato background, and after spending 4-6 days at the gym for three years I still would get winded quickly doing anything cardio. I finally finished a couch-to-5k program this spring, and I do three miles three days a week now. I’m not breaking any land-speed records, but I’m amazed at how much it has improved my stamina. I do an hour-long bootcamp class once a week (during which we do a lot of laps running), and I’m finally able to keep up with my younger and fitter classmates.