If you’ve ever thought, “Can I lose 55 pounds in 10 weeks?” and “How do I pare down a pear shape?” wonder no more. The following advice is just for you. By Mike Mauney
As you can imagine, I receive e-mails daily with all types of questions on how to exercise along with comments on my articles. I find it very fulfilling to know that I am making a positive difference in people lives in the area of exercising and physical fitness. For this article, I want to share with you two very popular types of questions I receive and how I respond:
Q:Mike, I currently weight 190 lbs., 5'4", and would like to tone up and look great for my pageant which is in 10 weeks. What can I do? Oh, I would also like for my competition weight for the pageant to be around 135 lbs.!
A: You can make a difference to your body in 10 weeks, but realistically you will not lose down to 135 lbs. in only 10 weeks. On the average, most women will lose two to three pounds a week safely. So if you follow a strict nutrition plan, complete some form of cardio training each day, you should be able to safely weigh around 165 to 170 lbs.
The two most important areas of training for the next 10 weeks will be a combination of cardio and nutrition. For cardio, I would suggest working your way up to one hour of cardio six days a week. Remember, you cannot start off at one hour, so you must first ascertain how much you can do safely. Keep a record each day and add one to two minutes per day until you reach your goal of one hour a day. I suggest wearing a portable heart monitor at all times to ensure you are keeping your heart rate between 60 to 65 percent. As your body adapts to this program, you can then increase your heart rate to between 70 to 75 percent. Once you are able to complete one full hour of cardio without any breaks, you will then be burning somewhere in the range of 500 calories a day.
For nutrition, I would suggest cutting back 500 calories per day. Replace fried foods with baked, broiled, or grilled. Replace red meats with white meat such as chicken, turkey, and fish. Finally, replace all candies, cakes, cookies, pie, and ice cream with fruits, vegetables, and fat-free yogurt. If you must have a sweet, then try a thin slice of angel food cake or a couple of animal crackers.
Remember: 3,500 calories weighs 1 pound, so if you burn 500 calories a day for seven days you should lose one pound. Then if you cut back 500 calories a day for seven days you should lose another pound which, combined with cardio, will help you lose 2 lbs. per week.
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