+ 1 Trying to help my obese friend, help appreciated
Hi Guys and Girls,
I've taken on a personal challenge in helping a close friend of mine. She is 30 years old, 5' 3", 250+ and has been working out 3-4 times a week for a few months with my help.
I have her on a basic clean diet (nothing extreme) and am supplementing this with a Myoplex and multivitamin a day. No pre-work out metabolism boosters of any kind and drinking 64 ounces of water a day (no soda or Gaterade) to flush out toxins.
I can honestly say she is the most out of shape person I've ever trained. Progress is incredibly slow as I have had to scrap traditional workouts due to either lack of range of motion (fat literally being in the way), flexibility or strength.
Example: Sissy push ups are out of the question due to her large stomach which hits the floor first.
The problem here is that I have to get her fit "enough" to be able to do a basic workout. Right now there is not enough variation in her routine to keep the body making gains due to her restrictions. While cardio + light dumbbells several times a week initially made gains...it seems to have stalled.
My plan is to build muscle and let the new new muscle burn the fat off. But, she has been struggling with the 2.5 - 5 pound dumbbells for months now. Any advice on how to get her strength up???
She is a great person, really wants to get in shape and I'm really committed to helping her reach her goals.
Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance
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As far as diet carb cycling is what's in
http://scoobysworkshop.com/advanced-fat-loss-carb-cycling/
That is just basic. Take weekly weight. Depending on outcome increase or decrease by 250 calories until she is loosing roughly 2 pounds a week. At first it will be more but ideally you want 2 pounds a week.
As far as working out I would recommend using alot of bands. The bands will also help her become more flexible as well. Ideally for cardio be great if access to pool. Also if you can get weights for the pool it always makes it more fun for clients.
No aas
Ask her if she has had any major health issues or last time she had a checkup. Someone that out of shape it's always good to make sure there is no underlying health issue or in general good idea before she begins any major new diet/workout regimen.
Thanks for taking the time bro great advice as always. I'll check out the article thanks for the link. As far as health is concerned her stats are what you would expect with no issues. There has been some minor swelling and soreness of the knees and ankles but of course this can be expected with her level of fitness and weight.
I took the AAS question out of the question and will make diet as my main priority here. I know what the bands are but have never used them before, I think I will talk to a female instructor and get some tips.
Have any thoughts on at what rate (2 lbs per week?) she should lose weight at? as far as what would be best for her body? I was thinking for 50 pounds gone this year as a goal.
I figured a slow steady rate of improvement would be best as the skin will have to adjust back in? What are the limitations of the skin snapping back from being obese? She has asked me but I figure we will cross that bridge when we come to it ya know?
+1 =D
What does the diet look like? Have you evaluated her BMR/BMI? When was the last time you made adjustments to the diet? What's the Protein/Fat/Carb/fiber count? What does her structured routine look like? What about Hammer Strength machines? Cable machines?
Her diet is normal home cooked food with the big meal at meal 2. There are 5 meals total, 3 main meals and 2 snacks which 1 being Myoplex lite and the other being a yogurt or fruit. She was a fast food junkie and I'm trying to just get her used to eating regular food and in a routine. I don't have her on any kind of caloric restriction yet as I was figuring to tackle that later when she made some gains and had better motivation. I haven't made adjustments to her diet at all. I'm not sure what her protein/fat/fiber count is right now. As far as her routine goes it's very basic stuff, I try to mix it up and split the body into upper / lower for 4 times a week. As her coordination and size restricts me from being able to split into body parts workouts. I use body-weight exercises with concentrating on treadmill, bike and elliptical and then some light dumbbell work. I haven't used Hammer or cables yet. Should I?
IMO yes I would introduce her to HS and cables. This will let her learn the movements of the except use first. Then you can start to slowly add resistance and move to more free weights. Nautilus Machines and things of that nature are good as well. With body weight exercises being your main route you could also introduce repetitive function exercises. Kneeling down and things of that nature.
Cardio as stated below stair stepper, elliptical, treadmill and row machine are going to be her friends at the moment. Pay attention to her joints. Make sure she is taking something to keep them healthy and live up. At 5'3 250+ that's a lot of impact on her knees and her other joints.
As far as diet goes I would put her on a "cookie cutter" plan. Just keep tabs of her PFC. She can download "My Fitness Pal" app and keep track of her food. This way you both can see what and how she eats. When she does this I would suggest 5 even meals. As far as macros go she will learn the difference between meals with "volume" and "dense" foods. I would also tell her to get a few healthy food and cookbooks and pick out recipes that appeal to her. Diet is number 1 and if we can get her on that track first them everything else will be a breeze.
Great advice bro thank you for taking the time. I got the app and will give it to her, badass, this is a great idea! I'm so tired of telling her the caloric value of things LOL.
I'm also going to do as stated for the workout, I think that approach will work. I was thinking before that it would be a waste of time to do Hammer, etc at this point but it wouldn't...she would still be learning the movements and gaining coordination and form even without any weight. It will probably help her even more that machines are "fixed", therefore forcing her to stay within and develop the right track.
Why 5 even meals? Whats your thoughts there? sustained energy release and stable blood sugar levels?
+1 =D
AnonIt is going to take painful levels of basic cardio (increasing resistance and duration consistently) to get her to a safe place for more varied workouts. Absolutely no AAS for anyone with stats like that. Would go nearly completely unnoticed, and simply add another unnecessary wrinkle to an already disabled metabolic system. Keep her motivated to work hard, no matter what limitations exist. The intensity is her ally right now, and she needs you there to keep it up! Good luck.
X2 Good advice bro +1. Possibly throw in some resistance band training for strength, flexibility an range of motion.
Good idea on the bands. This will help her learn muscle control and it's also good for her tendions. +2
Resistance bands good idea! +1
Agreed good advice. I know her metabolism isn't working correctly. But I did expect her to get stronger. This doesn't seem to be happening at all. Maybe my approach is wrong and gaining muscle at this point is not going to happen. Should I be just concentrated on getting her cardio fitness up? +1
Stair master, treadmill, rowing machine are her friends. At that weight her legs should have a large amount amount of muscle and using her legs to work out with a good diet will be the quickest way to shed pounds before moving to a well rounded program.
AnonThat's solid advice, bro. +1
Doing treadmill, bike, stretching and elliptical. I would love to get her to the point of stair-master but her knees hit her belly. =( Good advice +1
hunteron20sNo dont add aas to the equation. Cardio and diet is goal #1 hands down ..sounds like her diet isnt hitting plus alot of water intake no gatoraid or any of that ..
Word nigga.
Doing 64 ounces of water a day with no soda or gaterade.