Hello everyone!

I'm new here. I've just reached my highest weight ever and am ready to lose it! That and I need to look somewhat decent in a swimsuit by Feb.

I've starting going to the gym everyday at 5:30 am and doing 30 minutes of cardio. Treadmill. Mostly walking a bit of jogging. I heard that running is the best way to lose weight. I've never been a runner, so I'm trying.

What else should I be doing? I want to lose 20 lbs by Feb., or at least 3 sizes.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Well exercise is great. Try to mix up your workouts with some cardio and some weight training. Hitting all the major muscles will help to tone and strengthen those muscles (Making the swimsuit look better) and will also help burn more calories per day on their own.

Also look at estabilishing a realistic diet. Exercise combined with some good diets can yeild about 1lb a week. You'd loose about 8lbs in 8 weeks and thats more realistic than 20lbs.

I'm guessing your a woman based on how you wrote what you wrote, and i'd say 1800 calories is probably the least you want to eat a day.

Check out fitday.com (its free) and start putting in what you eat each day. It will help track what your eating calorie and nutrient wise. From there shoot for that 1800 calorie per day. Anything less than 1500 will put you into starvation mode and you'll end up causing more issues than you want to know.

If you did weights/cardio/weights/cardio/weights for the week you'll find you do a few things well. 1st Strengthing/toning/burning calories with working out. 2nd Cardio helps get the blood to those muscles you used, and helps to recover them quicker. So your doing a 1-2 knockout on a good workout schedule.

Focus on the core muscles vs trying to 'target' small ones (like arms).

Do things like Pushups, pull ups, squats, lunges, crunches (on a ball is good or declined). These core exercises will work a large variety of muscles and help build an over base, core and upper body

Good luck and keep us updated on your progress

Thanks, Shawn!

I had never heard of FitDay. That is very convenient to count calories!

Yes, I am female.

I will try the weights/cardio/weights/cardio/weights routine starting next week. I don't really know how to work the weights machines, but I can definitely do the pushups/squats/lunges/crunches. I'll have to get over my self-consciousness at the gym.

8 lbs? Hopefully I'll lose some sizes though.

Thanks for the advice!

Sizes are a tuff one. Being a guy i care about inches. Maybe a few of the women here can help on how sizes work for them

I'll be honest though if you did a 5 day work out like this in 8 weeks i'm pretty sure you'd be shocked at how much better everything would look.

Take a picture now, another in a month and then your 3rd one in Feburary.

Compare the difference and i think you'll be suprised

Intend on keeping a reasonable goal and a permanent lifestyle.
Short term goals are good, but should serve as benchmarks that will eventually lead to a permanent healthy life.

1 to 2 pounds a week is healthy, doable, accessable goal. More than that and you risk starvation, crashing, and a likelihood to not meet any goal.

Track what you eat and what you burn throughout the day. Maintain the right caloric deficit and you'll be on the road to your two sizes.

8 pounds is probably 1, maybe 2 sizes.