[prof41]

Hey Toby

Congrats on the impressive results you achieved. It’s always inspiring to hear about someone taking control of their health and making the changes necessary.

I’m by no means an expert on weight training and there are some very knowledgeable people around this forum who will be able to provide technical answers to your questions, but I will give you some input based on my experience.

A few years back, I also lost close to 100lbs mostly by diet, cardio exercise and some weight lifting. Here a few points I learned.

• Once I reached maintenance level weight wise, (and maybe before that) cardio & diet alone did not help me lose further fat.
• Weight training as helped me ‘’shape’’ my body.
• I have to now concentrate more on macros in my nutrition than counting calories meaning (for me) I need to eat enough protein rather than worry just about calories in, calories out.
• I can’t rely on a scale to measure my progress anymore.

I’m realizing that the type of program you chose is very important. Lifting weights just for the sake of lifting weights does not always achieve results. (Think low weights, high repetitions, and body parts programs)

For me this portion of really making my body strong and brining the BF% down below the ‘’recommended’’ average percentage, is perhaps harder that anything I’ve done previously. It requires much more determination and patience.

I’ll let someone else recommend a training program, but I am doing New Rules of Lifting for Women and although it’s one of the hardest program’s I’ve ever done, I am seeing results and am mastering exercises I never did before, squats, dead lifts and others. I truly believe I need a program like this to help me achieve the results I’m looking for.

I hope this helps you a bit and can at least steer you in the right direction.

Annie