Curves workout AND Wii fit

Hi everyone,

I am new to exercising and joined a curves gym about a month ago.  It's a 30 minute workout of strength training and cardio, which I am enjoying and also find that I can push myself a little more now than when I joined, so I think it's working!

I had my first 'measure and weigh' today and although I lost weight and size it didn't seem very much - 3Lbs in weight in a month ;-( and 3 1/2 inches all over -so I was dissapointed.  I go to curves everyday mon to fri and have the weekend off. 

Today I started to up my routine by doing 30 minutes on the Wii fit, jogging, boxing and hula-hoop. 

My question is.... am i doing enough to make a difference? 

I'm getting married in October and want to look my best! I am 5ft 6in and weigh in at 183 LBS my BMi says I'm obese.. and I so HATE that fact..

Any suggestions, help, ideas and all comments ..........very much appreciated

Sorry for the waffle.....I'll shut up now and wait to hear your thoughts...

Thanks

MA

Your doing pretty good so far. You did just up your excercise. wait another month and see your results. What is your daily calorie intake? that way we can see what your deficit may be. also a good investment would be a Heart Rate Monitor (I recommend Polar).  That way you can calculate your calories burned. Keep you deficit between 500-700 a day. If you wanted to lose quick try and go for 700 that way your total burn for the week is 3500 which is required to lose 1 lb per week. You can burn 400 at the gym and eat 300 under your daily burn each day. For Example say your your daily burn is 2000, you would eat 1600-1700 cals which will leave you with 300 cals burned and then add another 400 cals burned from excercise,it will bring your Daily burn up to 2400, that will give you your deficit of 700 for the day. Weekends keep it at a deficit of 300-500.

I love the wii fit by the way. If you keep using it consistantly you will start seeing improvements. Also for at home Wii cardio I recommend Dance Dance Revolution.

edit: Its safe to lose up to 2 lbs per month. But that requires you to be very strict and have to burn 700 cals 7 days a week. You can get burned out from this very easily so be care full.

3 1/2 inches?  How can you be disapointed with that?

Be patient with yourself!  You are doing just great.

Thanks for your advice and comments.  I am eating about 1200 calories a day mon to fri then around 1000 on weekends.  The curves gym burns about 400 a day.

The calculator here (Burn meter) says total estimated 2780 and then underneath it it just says 1506.  I'm not really sure what the two numbers mean but I read it that if I eat 1506 I maintain and anything under I loose?  not sure so have stuck around the 1200 a day as that gives me 300 per day deficit? 

The trainer at curves told me to eat more protein as I mainly eat fruit and veg with very little meat, so am also going to up my intake of fish and chicken and reduce some veg/fruit intake.

Madamq, thanks I'll try and be patient... sometimes I get so frustrated that it seems so little, but your are right I will try and be patient.

Original Post by melarco:

Thanks for your advice and comments.  I am eating about 1200 calories a day mon to fri then around 1000 on weekends.  The curves gym burns about 400 a day.

The calculator here (Burn meter) says total estimated 2780 and then underneath it it just says 1506.  I'm not really sure what the two numbers mean but I read it that if I eat 1506 I maintain and anything under I loose?  not sure so have stuck around the 1200 a day as that gives me 300 per day deficit? 

The trainer at curves told me to eat more protein as I mainly eat fruit and veg with very little meat, so am also going to up my intake of fish and chicken and reduce some veg/fruit intake.

Madamq, thanks I'll try and be patient... sometimes I get so frustrated that it seems so little, but your are right I will try and be patient.

 RED FLAG... you're not eating enough. 1200 cals is the bare minimum a women should eat in a day for your body to function. The 2780 number means you burn that many calories in a day... if you eat that amount of cals, you will maintain (though it seems a little high to me...) If you stuck to around 1500 cals on workout days, you should still see weight loss.

As for the protein, DO NOT sub protein for fruits & veg! Eat them together! Aim for 2 servings of protein & at least 5 servings of fruits & veg per day.

Being patient is the most important thing. it's not going to just fly off you all at once.

Also, at 5'6" and 183 lbs, your BMI would indicated that you're only "overweight", not obese so you can breathe a little sigh of relief!

Circuit training is great if you are self-disciplined and really push yourself.  Are you at Curves + or just Curves?  If you are at Curves be careful not to over estimate how many calories you are burning.  Check your heart rate often to make sure you are getting a good workout. 

you really need to be eating at least 1500 cals. 2000 cals is the standard burn rate. If you eat 2000 cals and you burn 2000 cals a day you will maintain. up your cals to 1500 dont be afraid to eat lots of fruits, veggies, protein, whole grain carbs such as multi grain bread, pasta and brown rice.

On weekends when your not working out. eat at least 1300 calories. 1000 cals is not good your starving yourself.

hey, I'm 5'6" and on oct 5 '08 I weighed 180. It's now march 20 and I weigh in at 149. I am one of the laziest people on earth when it comes to exercising so I did most of this through watching what I eat. I upped my fiber to about 40 grams a day average and lowered my calories to 1200 a day. Keep in mind that I don't exercise very much.

My husband just bought the wii fit and it ROCKS! So far everything I've done on it has brought sore muscles the next day so I would say it works.