QuestionQUESTION: I am a 23 year old female. I have been active all of my life. I weigh about 128 lbs and i am 5'5. I just want to lose about 8 lbs. I lost about 10 lbs about 2 years ago by just changing the way I ate (mostly veggies and chicken). I have a little more muscle on me now but i have this little pudge on my abdomen and I want to lose it! I have been working out pretty consistently for the past 11 months. I can not seen to get the scale to budge and my clothes to fit better. I feel like i am gaining weight. right now I am doing 40 minutes of cardio (spinning), 6 days a week and 3 days of strength training. I even sometimes do i hr of cardio. I eat pretty well....eggs or shake in the morning....salad and turkey with cheese for lunch (sometime PB with crackers also)...and for dinner, some sort of protein with veggies and a salad....dessert sugar free jello or pudding. I even try to eat every four hours...for instance, i will have the salad with turkey and then 3-4 hours later i will have the crackers with PB or fruit. I know that I need to keep my insulin levels consistent during the day. Don't really snack and if I do i have a a piece of fruit or some pecans. i don't eat junk food and don't really eat bread and things with white flour or sugar. I eat carbs but not too many. I have been doing that workout now for a month and haven't lost a pound!! Not only that but my jeans fit the SAME. I know its not only about the number on the scale, but i am not losing inches either. What could possible be the cause?? I do eat
ANSWER: Great question Marie, and glad to see I don't have to battle with you about not judging progress solely based on the scale.
Here's what I would consider.
Are you doing your cardio/spinning prior to the weight training? If so, that can be a problem when it comes to fat loss.
What are you doing for your weight training? sets/reps, exercises?
Eating frequently is great, I would aim for every 3 hrs ideally. Also, if you eat fruit eat some protein along with it, so the PB (assuming it's natural PB) would be a good choice.
-Mark
www.fitnessxpressu.com
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I am doing my cardio/spinning before i do weight training...is that bad? and if it is, why? as for my weights i am doing arms (biceps and triceps), chest, back, shoulders, lunges....and I do 3 sets with 12 reps...last set i try to get to failure or just really hard.I eat all natural PB and i probably eat around 1200-1300 calories a day and then probably burn about 400-500 calories a day working out. I just can't understand why i am stuck with no inches lost and the same weight. i want to burn the most fat that i can....any ideas on what i need to do?
Thanks Mark
AnswerHi Marie,
If fat loss is the goal then weight training needs to be done first.
Reason being:
cardio = fat and/or carbs being burned
weights = carbs
If you do intense cardio and deplete your carb stores, then do weights, your body's only source for carbs is to break down muscle tissue for energy to convert into glucose (carbs). Thus you will likely lose muscle.
As for your nutrition, with how active you are, I would only eat that little on a day where you don't exercise at all. On your exercise days I would bump it to around 1500 cals/min maybe even slightly higher, but start with around 1500.
If you're under fueling your body it will in turn slow down metabolism as a survival mechanism.
-Mark
