i am 5'0 and weigh 144 (yikes!)

for the past month i have been going to the gym just about everyday. i start with 35-50 mins of cardio and proceed to lifting for about 30 mins. i switch upper/ lower body every other day. i noticed most people split up there chest/back/arms. should i be doing that?
i have also been watching my food intake. i usually eat a bowl of cereal in the morning. snack on two bananas mid morning. then i eat a sandwich (turkey or tuna) with a diet soda for lunch. its when i get off work that kills me.. i usually snack on something because i am really hungry then eat dinner. i try to stick to chicken but it doesnt always work out that way. sometimes for breakfast i will only eat fruit.. all morning long. i also drink water throughout the day.
can someone please critique my habits??? :D any advice would be great!

Hi! Glad you are taking interest in your health and doing weights as well :)

General consensus is that you want to separate weights and cardio (ideally), or at least do weights first. The reason being that you want to have ample energy to lift as hard as you can and exhaust yourself. Doing cardio first tends to drain your energy and lessen the effectiveness of the weights workout. A number of people would avoid doing cardio at all on weight days, as it may interfere with muscle growth.

As far as the split, there is no perfect way, so if you are seeing results, then keep up what you are doing. It is important not to work the same muscles too soon, so be sure you are getting some rest days in there. I usually go upper/lower/rest and repeat that, but that is just my personal preference. Just be sure you are doing exercises for the major muscle groups and lifting as much weight as you can (i.e., not doing tons of reps with light weights).

As far as diet, I track every last thing I eat and even use a food scale at times to be sure I am not under/overestimating portions. Doing this regularly makes it easy for me to quickly estimate content of foods I eat and keep on track. The fat loss and recipe sections here have a lot of excellent advice on what, when, and how much to eat, so be sure to check those out. If you are binging later in the day, be sure you are having enough small meals and snacks at regular intervals so you don't feel deprived. While exercise is important, your efforts can be diminished if you are eating too much, so be sure to get a handle on how much you are consuming.

Thanks for responding! i have another question about my diet.. like i said before, i am 5'0 145 pounds (give or take a few depending on the day) i was wondering what a healthy amount of daily calorie intake is good for weight loss? my roommate is on this crazy low calorie diet.. she literally only eats like 600 calories a day. (theres no stopping her, i have tried) she also sleeps all day and is ALWAYS cranky.. i know that is not healthy..but what is? i have been trying to eat around 1200. is this to low? its annoying because i know her diet is insane but i am literally watching her weight drop off..while i am here looking the same. thanks for your help!
erica

Thirtysomething gave some great advice there.

As far as caloric intake goes, go read the stickies in the Fat Loss forum - there are links there that will tell you how to calculate how many calories you need to take in per day.

It's home time that kills my diet as well. I try to make sure I get in a good snack in the afternoon before I go home; that way, when I get there, I'm not as inclined to munch. Also, I plan my next day's food the night before and stick to the menu as much as possible. If you know what you're going to eat and when you're going to eat it, it's easier to stay away from eeeeeeeeeevil snackage.

First: I love your handle! That is the best username I've ever seen :tu: !!Second: for the first month I started working out I actually put on about 5#. Once I started kicking up my cardio & cutting back on the chocolate ;) , I started to lose weight slowly. When I started my triathalon training back in January, I weighed about 160. In Feb, I was 165 w/ 29% body fat. Now I currently weigh about 157 and about 21% body fat.
Scale weight can be decieving. I was bummed out at first because I've only lost 3 pounds despite my hard work. On the other hand, I've lost 8% body fat!
Someone on another thread mentioned something about clothing being snug vs. being loose: if your clothing is snug, do something about your diet, if your clothing is loose (but you're not losing weight) you are toning up. The best is when you go to the store and can buy those hot jeans you always wanted!
Just keep working and listening to your body.
:gl: