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Hi Guys,

I'm a 25 year old female, I am 165 cm tall and i weigh 70 kg; I've been struggling with weight since my childhood, I've never been "slim" . the worst is my belly, thighs and hips. I occasionally tried to excercise and/ or diet but lost motivation when I didn't see immediate results.

6 months ago I started to do TaeBo three times a week, it made me feel better but I didn't lose weight, I stopped doing TaeBo when I "discovered" Body Combat. I fell in love with BC, I do it because I like it and not because I have to and went straight to an hour daily (instead on 3/ week).

I want so desperately to lose weight, I am considering two hours a day instead of just one but will it work? And I sometimes feel a pain in my knees and elbows after the workout so I am not sure adding an hour daily is the right thing to do. I want to be slim for once in my life; I am 25 and will never be 25 again...

I know that the key words are "eat healthy and exercise" but define healthy?! and exercise can range from Yoga to BC (or is there more? I kindda need someone to tell me if you eat this much a day and do that much exercise a day you will lose x kg in say 6 months!

ANY help you provide would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

The fat lady 

P.S. I’m an Engineer and my job requires that I sit on my b*** from 8 to 16 then I have to study (sitting on the same b*** ) for another 2 or 3 hours daily, what I mean is I’m not a very active person and I can’t do anything to change that fact! (it is my job, my career).

And I apologize for any grammatical mistakes; English is not my native language.

 

Hi!

I've been doing BC since november '08 (about a year), and I have lost more than 30 kilos... (~124 --> 93) Just be a little careful with your diet (not too strict, anyway), and not only will you lose weight, but also will get a much better physical condition.

I try to attend one BC class a day from monday to friday, although some days (exceptionally) I can attend two. And... I work from 9 to 18, so... I can tell you I know what I'm talking about.

Good luck!!!

 PS: Sorry for my English, it's not my mother tongue ;)

Hi,

I'm also an engineer and I practice BodyCombat 2 or 3 times a week.

And sure you will lose weight, around 500 calories each hour.

The more fat burner is somehow, RPM classes (peak is 950 calories)

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Another BP, BA, BC, BJ and RPM freak Fitness Show in Paris : 09/19-20/2009 http://animoto.com/play/0lmvNUk7jNu5XyBwnOiAIA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgv4bVJheBE On twitter : Tiger75Paris

Diet is the key to weight loss, so that's something you'll have to pay attention to. Also you should have at least one workout-free day every week to give your muscles a chance to rest and repair themselves. Other than that, I'm a bit worried that doing two BC classes a day is going to make you bored of it pretty quickly. Why not try another class to balance it out? I'd at least recommend some weight training to make sure that when you do lose weight, it's not just muscle. I'd also recommend having more variety in your workout schedule.

Rockahina:

I kindda need someone to tell me if you eat this much a day and do that much exercise a day you will lose x kg in say 6 months!

That's impossible to say. Weight loss depends on so many factors, and every person is different.

Almost forgot - about the knee/elbow thing... You should probably check up with your instructor and ask them about it to make sure you're not doing anything wrong. Do you only experience pain right after the class or at other times, as well? Are there certain movements that trigger the pain?

Good luck with your goal!

Rockahina:

I kindda need someone to tell me if you eat this much a day and do that much exercise a day you will lose x kg in say 6 months!

There are some websites that can help with that.

In them you can track the food you eat (calories in) and the exercise you do (calories out).

I've found the following one for help to track this: http://411fit.com/

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Scott :: http://zone3.net.nz/

JaVinci, you told me exactly what I needed to hear  THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You make it sound so easy and doable! And exercising for a second hour only when you feel like doing it is great…JaVinci ROCKS!

Congratulations for your achievement and again, thank you!

Hi Tiger75, Wow!! 950?? That’s almost a thousand calories / hour!!! I keep hearing that RPM is the best in losing weight, I’m not a big fan of cycling but I will sure give it a try (I would do ANYTHING to burn that much calories per hour!!), maybe a mix of BC and RPM could give a quicker results !  Thanks for the advice!

Yeah, you should really try it.

I was like you before, doubting about cycling indoor but it's fun with the music that gives motivation

 

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Another BP, BA, BC, BJ and RPM freak Fitness Show in Paris : 09/19-20/2009 http://animoto.com/play/0lmvNUk7jNu5XyBwnOiAIA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgv4bVJheBE On twitter : Tiger75Paris

Thanks a lot for your nice reply

And yes, it sounds simple and doable because it's been for me. About 5 years ago I lost 20 kilos or so, just by counting calories... Bad mistake. I got bored and I got that 20 kilos back (and some more)

But with this kind of exercise everything changes... I'm not going to lie to you, I still do count calories, but I'm just not so obsessed with it. The best of this program, in my opinion, is that you don't get bored of it easily (choreography changes every 3 months, so...), and I particularly like martial arts, so for me it's a kind of a escapeway to stress.

I hope you really enjoy doing BC as much as I do and you reach your goal. Just have patience, be perseverant and go for it!!!

 GOOD LUCK!!!

 

Sofja, I used to think we can lose weight while eating what we want as long as we exercise... (because my weight was stable, I wasn’t gaining weight without the exercise..so with the same food and exercise I thought I should be able to lose weight.. Einstein's mass-energy law?!! ) I recently discovered we DON’T !! and you are confirming it to me.. Dieting will sure be a challenge to me!

A workout-free day sounds great! I can do that! About weights training, I use wrist weights during the BC workout (in case 0.5 kg for each hand is considered as weight!!) And you are right, I used to do some movements in a wrong way (like the squat) now I corrected the mistakes, the pain is not as bad as it used to be specially since I started to use support for the knees and elbows, but it’s still there, it is not chronic I feel it occasionally and not immediately after the workout. For the knees it worsens when I workout for two hours in a row and for the elbows I feel it whenever I use the wrist weights but I still use them anyway!

Thank you very very much for your reply! It really helped in clarifying things for me . I now know that i should watch what I eat instead of adding an extra hour of workout! wish me luck!

If you do two hours (or ten!) of Combat a day but still eat more than you're burning, no amount of exercise will have you lose weight. Diet truly is 90% of the equation, that's where you need to really scrutinise. The other issue might be that you'll injure yourself exercising too much.

Weight loss truly is just math. (Perhaps being an engineer you'll like that ) Calories in must be < Calories out. You can think about it like this:

Your base metabolic rate (how many calories it takes your body just to exist - even if you don't move all day. You can find a number calculators online that will help you estimate this based on a number of factors.)
+
An amount of calories that covers the basics of what you do in a day (walking to and from the car, sitting up)
-
Calories you burn in exercise
=
Calories you must EAT LESS THAN to lose weight.

Which means ... you need to figure out your minimum caloric intake for a day (what you need to survive and for fuel!), what you're burning additionally on top of that, and try to eat say, 300-500 calories less than that per day. Burning 1lb is approximately 3500cal. So if you can balance so that you're burning 3500 calories more than you're eating in a week, you should lose approximately 1lb each week. (It'll range ... perhaps 0.5-2lb/week.) 

I did a quick calculation for you. Your BMR is approximately 1500 calories/day. Now keep in mind that's literally to survive. Let's say you aim to eat 1600-1700 calories a day, but you want to ensure a 500 calorie deficit per day. So if the minimum you'll ever eat on a day is, say, 1600 calories, and you then burn 600 calories at the gym, you could actually have a 100 calories extra in food since you want to have a -500 calorie deficit. 

You also need to figure out the calorie content of everything you eat by keeping a food journal. And accurately figure out how many calories you burn in exercise. I'd recommend a calorie-counting heart rate monitor for that. It's still an estimate but it's a better one than, say, an online tool.

My recommendation? If you're serious about this, join a group like Weight Watchers. They have a program that has simplified calorie counting, they guide you on what the right food intake is for you and allow you to take into account exercise you are doing, and because you cook your own food and put it together, it actually teaches you healthy eating. They advise what foods you should be eating etc (i.e. don't fill your day's worth of food with absolute crap - instead eat nutritious foods.) Plus you have a whole support system and people to ask questions to. Between that, and your time at the gym, it will pay off.

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Free the body. The mind will follow.

If you only do one type of excersize your body will get used to it and won't change. You have to do several differnet types of excersize to achieve weight loss and become healthier. If you did a mix of 3 or 4 classes lets say, Combat, RPM, Step, and Pump, you would work your muscles differently and this will cause them to work harder and burn more calories resulting in more weight loss. When it comes to dieting here is what I have found fill your plate with anything GREEN, no red meat instead eat fish, chicken, and turkey. Limit pasta, rice, and bread as these can be fattening. Do not eat egg yolks, and most importantly don't eat sweets everyday. Maybe once a week have a small piece of cake or a small scoup of ice cream to not deprive your self. Eat five meals a day. A big breakfast, a small snack, a medium lunch, a small snack, and a small dinner. Make sure to eat LOTS OF VEGETABLES, FRUITS, AND DRINK LOTS OF WATER! If you drink a glass of water before each meal you will feel full faster and won't eat as much. This is advice given to me by my doctor. I think this is a realistic way to lose weight. Probably the best advice I can give you though is to not give yoru self a deadline, weight loss is a lifelong process, becuase once its off you have to keep it off!

You should consider consulting a nutritionist/dietician and a personal trainer as they will provide you with the necessary information and strategies that is specific to you and your body.

The general formula for weight loss is:

Energy IN < Energy OUT

So any given day, you should aim to burn more energy through exercise than you consume (eat).  But consult the above first to confirm what is right for you.

Good luck.

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"With great power comes great responsibility" Spiderman

Hi Michela002, first of all I want to thank you for taking time to write this detailed reply.

 I did the math, the approximate results are:

• BMR: 1512 calories per day

• Min. typical daily activities (without BC): 720 calories per day

• Total calories burned (without BC): 2232 per day

Assuming that I burn 600 cal per BC session, this means that right now I eat MORE than 2832 cal/ day. The results were …. Shocking?!! 2832 calories are approximately equivalent to 37 green apples!!! OMG!! I couldn’t believe the results so I tried keeping a food journal as you suggested and it more or less confirmed the results.

I don’t eat big quantities, but apparently I tend to eat the wrong kinds of food (the tasty ones )!! I’m gonna try the simplest thing; I will eat half of what I eat daily and if I occasionally break the rule I would do an extra hour (add an hour to RPM to my daily BC hour).

You are an angel Michela  thank you and I will keep you posted on my success (or lack of it!) 

As a combat instructor, I am thrilled to hear that you love BC!  Between practices new releases and learning old ones to keep my class fresh, I probably do BC just about everyday, but not full tilt.  Doing it twice a day is really hard on your body, and you are young.  You don't want to ruin your knees, elbows, etc. at 25 and suffer later on in life when you can't be active because of it.  On top of that, please don't use wrist weights while doing combat.  When you add the weights, you are taking away from the movement.  Body Combat is about powering through your moves and technique.  When you add weights, it throws technique out the window and sets you up for injury.  Instead, focus on the punch, elbow, kick, etc. with lots of energy and power.  Think like a fighter and picture your target in front of you.  That should give you motivation to really add strength and power to your movements. 

My body has really transformed since teaching combat and I am so much stronger and leaner.  My size hasn't really changed, but my shape definitely has!  I am also a cyclist and take other classes as well (Attack, RPM, Pump) which certainly helped change my shape too.  I agree with the others that a variety of classes is also a good way to keep your body guessing and from getting bored.

Don't worry so much about how much weight you lose, but how much better you feel and how your clothes will start to fit differently.  Diet is definitely important, but if you eat the right things and just try to cut out the sugar and empty carbs, you will be well on your way to a leaner you.  Keep up the fight!

Chris