I have been working out consistenly more than 1 year now. no results yet. whats wrong?


Question:
I didn't lose any weight. I do cardio 3 to 4 times a week for at least 40 mins and burn about 450 calories each time. I do different kinds of sit up, crunches and leg lifts. I am eating more veggies and other healthy stuff. I do allow myself to eat 3 meals of 1 unhealthy meal and maybe 2 "not so healthy" meal a week (lunch or dinner). I am 30 years old, 5'3" and weight 135 pounds. I used to lift light weights but I was getting bigger so I stopped. I just want to really lose my stomach section. I can see that I am a little toner but I haven't seen any obvious improvement. What should I do? I used to weight about the same before I started working out or eating healthy. I used to eat whatever I want to.

Answers:
Well, first thing is if you've been doing the same workout for a year, your body has fully adapted to it, so it has no reason to make any changes. Second, don't believe the calorie counters on your cardio machines. They have no basis in reality.

All the crunches, sit ups, and leg lifts in the world aren't going to get rid of your stomach. The only way to do that is to follow a comprehensive fitness and nutrition program designed for fat loss. Just because you work an area of your body, that does not mean your body burns the fat in that area. Your body simply does not work that way. If it did, nobody would have a fat face because every time you talk or chew, you are working your jaw muscles.

Now, on top of the fact that your body has adapted to it, long duration, low intensity cardio is a very inefficient way to lose body fat. There is much research that bears this out, but most gym goers don't read research and still believe you need to do endurance training to lose fat. Well, you are the perfect example of how that doesn't work.

High intensity, shorter duration cardio intervals are much more effective. A cardio interval routine would be something like this:
4 minute warmup (using bike, treadmill, elliptical, whatever)
30 seconds at near max intensity (8-9 on a scale of 1 - 10)
60 seconds at moderate intensity (5 on a scale of 1 - 10)
Repeat this 30/60 interval 7 - 8 times.
Do a 4 minute cooldown.

Don't worry about how many calories you burn during your workout. What is light years more important is how many calories you burn the other 23 hours of the day, don't you think? With you low intensity cardio, within 30 minutes of hopping off the treadmill, your metabolism is back where it was before your workout. With high intensity intervals, research shows you can keep your metabolism elevated for an additional 12 - 24 hours. That is much more important than worrying what the display on the machine says.

Also, you do need to do resistance training. If you gain muscle, that is great. Muscle is where your body actually burns fat for energy. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism is, the more calories and fat you burn all day.
Your current routine probably has caused you to lose muscle mass.

As far as nutrition goes, your best bet to put your body in a position to burn fat is to eat frequently throughout the day, at least 5 - 6 times, with smaller portions. You obviously need to make good choices, and drink plenty of water.

There are several good programs out there you could check out, including Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne and Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto. You can check them out at http://www.bestfitnesstools.com... . Also, you could check out The 17-Week Body Transformation Course at http://www.bodytransformationcourse.com... .

Hope that helps,
Dave S.
Owner, Perfect Fit Personal Training Studio
http://www.thetruthaboutdiets.com...
Your portion sizes may be too big. Follow the portion size information on the nutrition facts labels of food. If you're still not getting any results, you may want to use a diet pill that boosts your metabolism. Stress could also be an issue so try taking some time to relax when you get the chance.
On the contrary, you are getting results...

You are getting more healthy and toned...

Exactly what your current program is designed to do.

The question is?

What do you want your results to be?

That is an easier question for me to answer...
maybe your gaining muscle weight (muscle weighs 3x more than fat) so u probably lost all the fat but now have muscles u should try just pilates they help u lose weight not gain muscle
sounds like you are maintaining.fiber drinks will (I promise) help you lose belly fat and weight loss occurs only if you are burning more calories than your eating. Though you were getting bigger by lifting, it's better because you'll look more toned and not flabby. Also the bigger your shoulders (top half) is, the smaller your stomach, hips look...
Its all in the math. You can exercise all you want, but you won't lose weight unless you take in less fuel than you use.

40 minutes a few times a week is adequate for cardiovascular health, but isn't all that much in terms of total calorie requirements. At that level, you still need to count calories. You can eat 'healthy', but if you eat more healthy food than you burn..

It is possible to lose weight via exercise alone without paying much attention to calories, but you have to take it to what you would consider extreme levels. Think marathon training, 100+ mile bike rides, that sort of thing.

-----
Note to Dave: LSD is by far the best fat burning method, if you understand the word "Long". 40 minutes is not long. I think most endurance athletes would consider long as something approaching, or exceeding (with refueling of course) glycogen depletion. For me, this is around 2.5 hours on a bike, a bit less running.

If you are time-limited to an hour or less, then yes, you're better off going for maximum calorie burn in the time allowed with some form of tempo or interval workout.
I'm sure you burned some fat, but added an equal amount of muscle. You should be more trim, even if you weigh the same.

450 calories in 40 minutes is a lot for anyone but the very athletic. Most machines make estimates, but without having your body weight and height, and other factors, it is a standard number for an average weight person. In this country, at 135, you are below average weight, so the calories you are estimating are probably too high.

How do you feel and how do you look compared to a year ago ?

For that belly, sometimes the only thing to flatten it down, is pulling it in and holding it in a lot. Muscles run across it, and they stay tight, or stretch. If we never tighten them, they just stretch over time and our waists just get bigger. Holding it tight will force the muscles to gradually shorten, and tighten, giving you that flatter tummy.

Cut back on those unhealthy meals. Think of it as a slow poison. When is a little ok ? Never, really. No doubt they provide enough fat on a weekly basis for you to not see the results you want. You might be surprised just how many calories can be in some things.

Eating whatever you want can be very bad news for your arteries. I did that too, since I am slim. Well, turns out I was the fittest looking 53 year old to have an emergency triple bypass and be possibly near death at one hospital. Some nurses came by just to say they wanted to see "the miracle man". That is how the hospital referred to me.
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