fitness gurus pt. II

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my wife is having a hard time losing weight. She feels she's plateauing. She likes using our Wiifit to do her nifty stepping routine for about half an hour. She gets pretty winded but I feel that's cardio and she's not going to lose much weight doing that. I think in order to lose more weight, she should step it up a little (pun intended) and get some weights like the kind you can strap to your ankles and hold in your hands. That way, she's both strength training and doing cardio at the same time. I think she should do some cardio at first, get her heart rate up and the strap on the weights and go to it.

What to you guys think?

I think it would really work get her out of the rut she's it and she'll start shedding some pounds not to mention get rid of some of the excess fat under her arms.

The thing that has worked best for me, is a combination of aerobic & weight training. When I was losing weight (right now, I'm maintaining - but I lost 50 pounds), I did aerobic activity every day (an hour of walking, or a half-hour to 45 minutes on the elliptical) and every other day, I added 40 minutes of weights (usually with a bit less aerobic).

Weights really increase your metabolism - causing you to burn more calories, even on off days.

The key for me, was to exercise to the point of exhaustion - so that I'm completely wiped out. The best way I've found to do this with weights, is to lift slowly, through a full range of motion. It doesn't take much weight to reach a limit at 15 reps per muscle group.

Now I'm at a point where I have to be sure to eat a snack after weight training, or I will continue to lose weight.

If she likes doing Wii Fit, she might like The Biggest Loser game for the Wii. I just got it myself the other day and it's really great so far. You put in your details and goals and it sets up an exercise schedule for you (that you can easily change around if it doesn't work for you). There are beginner up to expert modes and all sorts in between so you can pick exactly what you want. I've found the routines themselves usually last 30-40 minutes including a warm up and cool down, and it shows you on screen how to do everything. One thing I like more about it than Wii Fit is that you don't have to stop after every exercise and go through the menus to choose another one, it just flows smoothly from one to the next, only pausing occasionally to tell you to switch wii remote hands or to get on/off the balance board. So you really get your heart rate up and keep it up for the whole time. Although the option is still there to pick individual exercises as you go, or you can pick a bunch at the start and make a custom routine for what you want to do.

On light mode and beginner difficulty doing a 30-40 minute routine 6 out of 7 days, I lost 2 pounds in the first week.

for me I find that cardio is enough to get me to lose weight but my workouts generally last 60+mins. If she doesn't have time to do more cardio then increasing intensity is really the only way to do it.

weights are a good idea. my advice to anyone who wants to do weights is that you include some form of squat (back squat, front squat, dumbbell squat or, if you're really ambitious, overhead squats, the absolute best squat), deadlifts are great, she should do lots of core work because it'll help her posture and core strength is important to any sport so improving that will help whatever else she's doing for fitness.

the only thing about squats and deadlifts is that she needs to have someone show her how to do them properly. They're great exercises, they work a lot of different muscles and the more muscles you work the more your metabolism picks up, but if you don't have proper form you can hurt yourself. I once hurt my back doing cleans and it took one and a half to 2 months to heal. It wasn't a bad injury, I could still row, do squats and other exercises, I just couldn't do cleans and my back would get sore at the end of the day (2 practices a day and a manual labour job don't help recovery)The other good thing about those exercises is that they work your legs, the strongest muscles in your body. Leg workouts not only burn the most calories during the workout because you're doing more work, they also boost your metabolism more because they're so much bigger and there's so much more to repair.

She needs cardio. She only needs weights as a basic resistance. I would not overdo it, especially if she is over weight.

The main thing is calculate the calorie intake, and calculate how much work you have to do to burn that off. The problem is that people with a weight problem can't just start running full throttle.

Yes she may be plateauing but she will plateau faster if she tries to do something she is not fit enough to do. It is rarer people who have a lot of fat but also stamina. If she is weaseing at wii exercises she is not in that category.

good point, I was thinking about it more from my point of view. If I want I can go out and run for an hour but not everyone can. You're correct about diet, that's the most important part of any weight loss program.

As for weights you're right she shouldn't overdo them but they can certainly help, especially in the early stages when she doesn't have much strength. Increasing leg strength will help you with cardio, it might not help you lose weight as much but it'll help you do more cardio or do it at a higher intensity. once or twice a week would be sufficient, the rest of her time should be spent doing cardio.

Another thing about weights that is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on what your goals are, is that they add muscle. Having more muscle burns more calories (something along the lines of 100Cal per day per pound of muscle), but it will also make her bigger. You see lots of women trying to flatten their tummies by doing lots of situps and core work but what they don't realize is that they're going to add muscle which will make their tummy bigger, just more defined. That's really only something you need to worry about once she gets thin, if you even care.