40yr old overweight nursing starting school, looking for some workout adivce

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Aug 12, 2011

What it all boils down to is simple: calories. You want to lose weight? Burn more calories than you take in. No gimmicks, that's the secret. The hard part is making a plan and following it.

Where things get complex is deciding how you are going to achieve your weight loss. You can choose to simply eat a little less and move around a little more. Keep the calorie balance negative every day and you'll lose weight. You can choose to add muscle mass. That has the effect of increasing your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which increases your calorie expenditure all day, every day. The downside is that by doing this, you may actually increase your weight initially.

There are a LOT of on-line calculators for what your daily calorie needs are. Those are just estimates of your daily needs based on the typical person. They'll be reasonably accurate, but not exactly so. To determine your exact BMR, you'll have to spend some $$$ for testing. There's really no need to do that at this time. Search for a calculator, use it to estimate your BMR/Daily Calorie needs, and eat about 500 calories LESS than that.

Walking? Great idea! Walk briskly for about 30 minutes per day, when you can handle that, pick 2-3 days per week and walk for 45 min. Increase that to an hour. As you start feeling comfortable, start doing some interval training with short jogs of a minute or two. Increase that until you're able to jog a mile or so without trouble. Continue your meal plan. You'll notice within a couple weeks that your clothes feel looser. Don't step on the scale yet... you may be heavier. That's OK. It's a short-term gain that'll reverse itself. Go by fit for a couple months.

Any good, balanced diet that's perhaps a little "heavy" on the proteins will do just fine. Why? If you're eating complete proteins and in a sufficient amount, your body will use that protein to build or preserve your muscle tissue as it starts looking for fuel sources. That's going to be primarily fats.

This stuff works. The Biggest Loser's secret? Calorie balance... I guarantee that if you're burning 12,000 calories per day and you only eat 5,000, you'll lose about 2 pounds of fat per day. Is that extreme? Yes. Most people don't have the time available in the day to burn that many calories. So, look to burning between 500 and 1,000 calories than you eat (no matter what that number is) and you'll burn between 1 and 2 pounds of fat per week. Every week. Over the course of a year, that's about 50-100 pounds of weight loss, primarily fat loss.

Yes you will plateau. It happens. When it does, keep going. Change things up a little routine wise for a week or two, but keep going!

CCL RN, RN · Aug 12, 2011

That will help. I lost about 65 pounds my last semester of nursing school. I had tried the gym memberships and everything before and I no longer had the funds so that was out. Weight watchers and other expensive programs were out.
I did it by doing the things they tell you to do. Eat good food (veggies fruits lean meats) and not so much of it. No pop or sugary drinks - WATER. And a lot of it. No fast food, and no eating late at night (after 8pm). My shopping habits changed considerably. Bread, cereal, milk, cheese, and salty snacks were out and whole fruits and veggies were in. I basically added a ton more raw foods to my diet and got rid of fast food. Could care less if its organic. No more mochas at coffee shops - water and tea instead. Prepare lunch at home and bring it to school.
For exercise, it was mostly walking. I would walk out my door and walk at a brisk pace for 30 minutes, then turn around and walk back. As I got in better shape, I walked farther and farther away from home. This started in the dead of winter - I got back from thanksgiving dinner and trudged through snow for an hour that night. I used the school's treadmills during open gym.
I lifted some weights in my basement and did yoga. But my main exercise was walking and my main lifestyle change was my diet. I basically cut my calories and exercised as much as I could.
I also got a ton of support from my classmates when the weight began falling off. I've lost 70 so far and have about 40 to go! Its actually harder for me to lose weight now after leaving school because of the great habits I was into.
Good luck! You can do it.

Good for you!!!

hopeful_2013 · Aug 12, 2011

Good hard-core cardio like jogging or the elliptical will not only help you lose weight but, it will help you release the stress from school.

FlyingScot, RN · Aug 13, 2011

You'll never lose weight just doing cardio...it's a myth. You have to have strength training in the mix for sustained calorie burning. The larger the muscles you use the better. Most people make the mistake of focusing on their upper body but it's your lower body that will kick things into high gear. Simple lower body exercise...monster walks. Otherwise known as walking lunges. Trust me, they're killers. When they get easy, add weights. If your really serious aim for 3 hours of cardio and 2 hours of strength training per week. But again, no amount of exercising is going to work if you can't control what you put in your mouth. An easy way to do it is eat your meals on small plates. Half the plate should be veggies/fruit. A little more than a quarter should be a high-quality protein source and the remainder mono-unsaturated fats. If you can't tolerate veggies without something on them use real butter but remember to count it in your "fat" portion of the plate. It's not a diet...it's just making good choices. No white flour foods, minimal sugar, limited saturated fats. Also, do not starve yourself. I eat every 4 hours, Breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, snack (if I'm hungry). Repeat after me...pies/cookies/chips/cake are not snacks!

Preemie 2 RN, ASN, RN · Aug 13, 2011

Oh what a great thread with TONS of advice!! :) You all inspire me. I too have about 80 lbs to lose and I really want to do it before I start nursing school in August 2012. My dream is to be able to buy MEDIUM (or smaller) nursing scrubs for school. I have a year to do it.

I feel like I've tried and failed so many times though. After a week of eating healthy and exercising I give up. I need the motivation to keep going, it's harder than it sounds though!

Trenia · Aug 13, 2011

You'll never lose weight just doing cardio...it's a myth. You have to have strength training in the mix for sustained calorie burning. The larger the muscles you use the better. Most people make the mistake of focusing on their upper body but it's your lower body that will kick things into high gear. Simple lower body exercise...monster walks. Otherwise known as walking lunges. Trust me, they're killers. When they get easy, add weights. If your really serious aim for 3 hours of cardio and 2 hours of strength training per week. But again, no amount of exercising is going to work if you can't control what you put in your mouth. An easy way to do it is eat your meals on small plates. Half the plate should be veggies/fruit. A little more than a quarter should be a high-quality protein source and the remainder mono-unsaturated fats. If you can't tolerate veggies without something on them use real butter but remember to count it in your "fat" portion of the plate. It's not a diet...it's just making good choices. No white flour foods, minimal sugar, limited saturated fats. Also, do not starve yourself. I eat every 4 hours, Breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, snack (if I'm hungry). Repeat after me...pies/cookies/chips/cake are not snacks!

At 270 lbs you can lose weight with just cardio. Hell, you can lose weight with just cutting 500 calories out of your required daily intake.

CCL RN, RN · Aug 13, 2011

You'll never lose weight just doing cardio...it's a myth.

Beg to differ my friend. I lost all my extra weight with just walking on a treadmill. No strength training, minimal dieting (just portion control, better choices, etc). But I lost all mt extra weight with walking alone.

FlyingScot, RN · Aug 13, 2011

Beg to differ my friend. I lost all my extra weight with just walking on a treadmill. No strength training, minimal dieting (just portion control, better choices, etc). But I lost all mt extra weight with walking alone.

But it's not all about the numbers. You can be within weight range and still not be considered "fit" if your fat to muscle ratios are off. The problem is we focus too much on what the scale says. Sure you can lower the numbers but if you're still >25% body fat what have you actually accomplished? BTW, I'm all for not dieting and completely agree that portion control is the way to go.

hopeful_2013 · Aug 13, 2011

Beg to differ my friend. I lost all my extra weight with just walking on a treadmill. No strength training, minimal dieting (just portion control, better choices, etc). But I lost all mt extra weight with walking alone.

Congratulations on your weight loss! :yeah:

Trenia · Aug 13, 2011

But it's not all about the numbers. You can be within weight range and still not be considered "fit" if your fat to muscle ratios are off. The problem is we focus too much on what the scale says. Sure you can lower the numbers but if you're still >25% body fat what have you actually accomplished? BTW, I'm all for not dieting and completely agree that portion control is the way to go.

Walking, and other forms of cardio, does build muscle. Especially if someone previously lived a sedentary lifestyle before getting into shape. Also, it is extremely possible to get under 25% bf from cardio alone. Strength training is important because gains will burn fat more quickly, but a healthy weight and bf% can be reached without it. I'm going to go lift right now :rolleyes:

FlyingScot, RN · Aug 13, 2011

Walking, and other forms of cardio, does build muscle. Especially if someone previously lived a sedentary lifestyle before getting into shape. Also, it is extremely possible to get under 25% bf from cardio alone. Strength training is important because gains will burn fat more quickly, but a healthy weight and bf% can be reached without it. I'm going to go lift right now

I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this which I'm happy to do as long as it doesn't become...disagreeable. At any rate, I do want you to know that I'm not pulling this info out of my orifice. I have a trainer who is degreed in both exercise physiology (masters) and nutrition. What I have posted is the current fitness guidelines for normal people. There are 5 components to fitness (cardiovascular, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body comp). Just losing weight shouldn't be the end goal. All you are doing is lowering numbers which of course is a good thing but not really the important thing. You can be of normal weight and not be physically fit so again the question is what do you gain by that? Strength training isn't important simply because it burns fat. Strength training is important because it builds strength, endurance, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness while reducing that fat. The muscle gains you make doing only cardio are marginal...an improvement of course, but nothing to write home about. BTW, just so there's no confusion, when I speak of strength training I'm not talking about ridiculous bodybuilder type work outs with the goal of achieving huge muscle mass. Even my 72 year old mother has benefited from doing simple weight exercises so I know a previously sedentary person would as well.

WKredz5 · Aug 13, 2011

Yeah man I see you have a lot of replies already but the best thing you can do is push your self. If you feel like walking is just giving you a little soreness, that's not enough. PUSH your body, swimming is THE best way to lose weight, but I'm not talking ***** swimming, I'm saying SWIMMING. You're a smart guy, you just need to get motivated and stay that way. Getting a membership to a gym ( Planet Fitness is only 20$ a month ) And making a few friends there would help you A LOT. Just stay motivated, and make sure your diet is in check. You can use websites such as http://www.fitday.com to keep track of your calories... look up harrison benedict formula on google as well.

all the best player