Hey folks,
I am finally getting my wife motivated to try and start training but want to make sure I set her up for success. She is hard to get motivated and even harder to keep that way when there is a lack of results. She has trained hard in the past with little to no results and therefore given up. She is 35 years old about 190lbs and has battled insulin resistance her entire adult life. Her goal is to lose about 50 pounds and put on some muscle during the process. My plan now is for her to go on a very low carb/high protein diet combined with weight training 5 days a week. Three days of a kettle bell circuit program combined with 2 days of a traditional weight training program utilizing heavier compound lifts. Have any of y’all been in or helped train anyone in a similar condition with positive results? How does my current approach sound? I am flying blind here, just trying to do what makes sense to me. Thanks for any help.
Just my personal experience, so take it for what it’s worth. My blood sugar only seems to get high with actual sugar (duh) or grains. Eating a six inch subway is just as bad, or worse than two cookies. Rice doesn’t seem to bother it AT ALL, and potatoes are fine in moderation. I say this because it will likely be very difficult to keep her motivated on very low carbs while training five days per week. That sounds miserable. In my experience, I do well eating “enough” carbs but just avoiding the grains. I guess the workout plan sounds good, but has she ever tried Crossfit? I know, I know there are all kinds of reasons NOT to do Crossfit in this site, but it suits my wife very well. She gets the metabolic conditioning that she loves, and she does actual squats on a pretty regular basis. Women seem to really benefit from the group aspect of it as well. Her crossfit buddies really encourage each other and keep each other accountable without being naggy. Depending on your wife’s current fitness and aptitude with lifting try finding a box that has some sort of introductory class before she just jumps in with both feet. My wife’s box calls this the “on-ramp” class and it seems to keep new people from killing themselves and getting discouraged.
Exercise won’t have any impact unless her diet is in check, which is probably why she failed at her previous attempt to lose the weight. There are differing opinions on the low carb/high protein diet. I personally think high protein is not necessary for women trying to lose weight. Women only need I believe it is 40mg of protein. Cut out simple carbs for sure, but keep your complex carbs. She needs to track how many calories she is actually consuming. When I fist started losing weight I was way off on how much I thought I was actually eating. Don’t guesstimate. Get a food scale. Try the workout program and see if it works for her. You can always adjust if needed. I do HIIT runs on the treadmill for cardio and weight lifting combined with body weight exercises at home. I have successfully lost 82 pounds and am still going for another 28 pounds. I started out slow with just changing my diet and walking. Then I started running. Finally adding in weight lifting as I progressed and was able to do more. I was able to stick with it because I didn’t just jump right in to the complex stuff. So keep the diet in check and adjust the workout as needed.
Fix her diet
My wife’s a type one diabetic
Saying she’s insulin resistant is like saying I’m tired so I must be sleep resistant.
If she’s type 2 then fix her diet and keep up on meds and slowly introduce her to excerise and weight training. Don’t jump all in the first day till you know how her body will deal with her glucose levels. Nothing is scarier for my wife and I than when her glucose levels suddenly drop at the gym she carries emergency Apple juice whenever we go, but she’s pretty anal a lot checking her glucose levels. She has an inslulin pump. Again she’s a type one diabetic has been since age 6.
I’d suggest reading up on fixing her diet and get off on a low carb diet if it’s just insulin resistantance
Thanks for the replies folks, looks like we are on the right track getting her diet in check will be the hard part. I thought about the cross fit thing but it would be tough for her because I am a shift worker and we have 2 small kids which leaves her with no spare time a lot of evenings. Thanks again