Fitness advice

[emmafrancis]

Hi everyone!

New to r/petitefitness (and fitness in general ) and thought I’d get some advice from ladies who have been doing this for a while!

I’m 27F, 5’2.5 and in March I weighed 212 lbs. I suffer from depression and April was the lowest I’ve ever experienced without actually feeling depressed, but it did stop me from feeling hungry, thus losing a lot of weight.

May 2 I weighed 198 lbs and decided to keep it up, but by eating better and exercising. I’m now down to 191 pounds and I’m super excited.

What I’d like advice on is how you lovely ladies have gained muscle (I don’t want a lot, but I would like to tackle the loose skin) and toned your body. I took a week off from exercising because I strained my thigh, but will be back at it this week.

I don’t really track my calories (do you recommend an easy to use and free app?), but I am eating at a calorie deficit (not sure by how much but I know I am) and drinking a lot more water. The exercises I normally do are like strength training, e.g. sit ups, wall sit, lunges, etc, just about 30 minutes 5-6x a week. I do add weights when I can. I have two kids so I’m limited on time for workouts.

Any and all information would be super helpful and thank you for reading this!

 

[australiandownunder]

@emmafrancis There are a few calorie tracking apps my favorite is Lose It! Sounds like the exercises you’re doing are good but it also doesn’t hurt to do low impact exercise like walking. Trying to get 8-10k steps a day is super beneficial especially for weight loss.

 

[austinrnewton]

@emmafrancis Toning, I assume you mean that your muscles are more prominent. You do this by losing body fat while maintaining muscle mass. This means your body fat percentage will be lower.

Building muscle requires sufficient protein (1.6g/kgbw if bulking or at maintenance, or 2.2g/kgbw or more if you are cutting) and hypertrophy training.

It is possible to lose bodyfat and build muscle at the same time, although it is difficult for most people to do with some exceptions. Being a new lifter, you should be in a good spot to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Just keep doing what you're doing.