weight & dieting

Question
QUESTION: I just had a baby 3 months ago and i gained quite a bit of weight with my pregnancy. I am no longer breast feeding and ready to try to lose the weight. I started counting calories and eliminated sweets and soda all together. I started walking between 30-60 minutes a night every night about 17 days ago. I am 5'7 21yrs old and started weighing 239. I am down 10 pounds already! Thats great but I have read some good stuff and bad stuff about losing more than 1-2 pounds a week and I am averaging about 4 or a little more. My question is am I losing fat or muscle mass and water weight? I drnk tons of water to stay hydrated. I want to get down to about 180 or so but I want to ensure I am doing it correctly so it ensures long term results!!! Should I slow down at all? Is this weight loss good? Thank you for your help!!!!!!   jen

ANSWER: Hi Jen,
That's a great question. Usually, I'm all over making sure people don't lose much more than 2 lbs a week. The body simply isn't capable of losing much more than 2 lbs of fat per week. And like you eluded too, we don't want to lose muscle.
However, just starting out (especially after pregnancy and not breast feeding), you might be capable of losing a little more per week, in the initial phase here.
The fact that you cut out soda is a huge start (assuming it wasn't diet soda). How many calories a day are you consuming? And what do you do for a living as that will play a role in the number of calories you want to be consuming.
Good job on the walking too. If I could strongly suggest adding in some type of resistance training into your program. This is a vital part for fat loss, and will help minimize muscle loss, to ensure you keep your metabolism going. Doesn't have to be anything crazy, but just a simple routine to get you going.
If you need further help, or to answer the questions I asked you just email me [email protected]

-Mark

ps- as for the water thing, to make sure that you're properly hydrated when you urinate your urine should be a light light lemonade color, the darker the more dehydrated you are.
typically, you want to aim for 1/2 your body weight in ounces a day, upping it a little more if you're active.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much you have been very helpful but I have just one question about resistance training you mentioned!  What exactly is that?  I live in a very small town where there is no gym, is there something I can do at home?  Thanks again!

Answer
It's just another term for weight training. It can be anything though that provides resistance. Your bodyweight (squats, pushups), or a stability ball (wal-mart sells them or you can order them online), maybe a few pairs of DBs ranging from 5-15 lbs.

Of course actually devising a routine can be a little tricky. In the next month I'll be launching an online training site that will help with this type of stuff.

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