Any exercise routine is only as good as the length of time it takes for your body to get used to it. This expiration is approximately 1-2 months from your start date. However, it takes approximately 2-3 months for most women to see results from an exercise program.
In order to see significant permanent weight loss of 25 pounds or more, you need a combination of diet and exercise for a long period of time. But to lose 5-10 pounds of vanity weight it is something that can be done with exercise alone over a 1-2 month period.
This post is a discussion of how to create your own exercise routine to lose 5-10 pounds of vanity weight.
Losing Vanity Weight for the Ruler Body Shape
I initially started this post using a hypothetical person as an example to walk us through the steps. Five hundred words into it, I realized that I am going on a vacation in September where I plan to do some snorkeling (did I ever mention that I cannot swim?). With the reality of a swim suit just around the corner, I need to start getting my body ready for a swimsuit now.
Since I only want to lose about 5 pounds over the next two months without changes to my diet, planning my workouts are extremely important if I want lose the vanity weight. Vanity pounds are very difficult to get rid of and often stored in a location that we hate. As a ruler body shape, it is concentrated mostly in my stomach area.
As a ruler, the only way I can get rid of the excess weight in my stomach area is to lose weight overall. There is no such thing as spot reduction around the abs for a ruler body shape. Working your ab muscles with weights actually ends up making your waist look thicker. For the hourglass body shape or the pear body shape, their waistline is more forgiving. They can get away with trying to spot reduction on their abs.
Steps to Creating Your Exercise Routine
Step 1: Evaluate your current fitness level, your workout personality, and your goal.
Prior to creating your exercise routine, you need to figure out where you are at, what type of physical activity are you drawn to, and where you want to be.
I always keep track of my workouts on my planner. Flipping through the pages, I average 4 hours of exercise at home plus another 3 hours of walking at work each week. I am drawn to steady state cardio like walking (which is good for weight maintenance, but I do not push myself with intervals to actually challenge my body). I feel like I need to push myself to include strength training because I normally do not pick up dumbbells when there are other options. My goal is to lose 5 pounds by the time I go on vacation in September.
Step 2: Figure out how much time you can realistically devote to your exercise routine (finding the right frequency).
The type of exercises you include in your exercise routine is going to depend on how much time you have each day or each week you can devote to exercising. There is no point in setting up a plan that requires you to spend 60-90 minutes a day exercising when you can only realistically fit in 30 minutes.
However, please note that the general recommendation for someone trying to lose weight with exercise is 60-90 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week. I take this to mean 4-5 days per week.
I don’t want to spend more than 4 hours exercising at home each week, preferably no more than 45 minutes at a time. Over the years, I realized that when I exercise for more than a 45 minute stretch, I tend to eat more and immediately after exercising. I believe it has to do with the depletion of glucose in my bloodstream.
I prefer to exercise during the weekdays because the daily work structure helps keep me on track. My weekends are filled with social activities that are not planned until the last minute, so I cannot count on working out on the weekends.
Since I already exercise for 4 hours a week without seeing a difference, this means I need to change my exercise or add more intensity. I will discuss the intensity component later in the post. If you cannot fit in the 60-90 minutes of daily moderate exercise as recommended, then the key is finding the right intensity for the length of time you can devote to exercising.
To recap, I can exercise for 4 hours a week during the weekdays for a maximum of 45 minutes per session. Are you following along and coming up with the frequency you can exercise each week?
This post is getting too long. Come back later for Part 2 of How to Create an Exercise Routine.
Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.
Photo by: asithi.
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