Few results from using my cardio and weight training?
Question:
I am female, 44 years old, 5’3″, 211lbs. I am doing cardio 1x day 6 days/wk. for a total of 60 min: elliptical 20 min., treadmill for 20 min and recumbent bike 20 min. I do weight resistance training 3x/ wk for 30 each time or a total of 1.5 hr/week.
I eat less than 1200 calories per day and have been doing this for about six weeks now. I do drink a lot of diet soda. My strength and stamina has greatly improved but my clothes do not fit any better and I have only lost 5.5 lbs! What am I doing wrong? Am I eating too little? How many calories should I eat? Or, am I just building muscle under this fat and the weight will fall off eventually?
View Answer Below…
5 Responses to Few results from using my cardio and weight training?
Leave a Reply
Stop drinking diet soda. Drink water, instead. If you need to have flavor, add a squeeze of lemon or lime. While diet soda doesn’t have sugar, the chemicals it contains can cause inflamation and jack up your metabolism. It will also cause cravings. http://healthmad.com/weight-loss/drink-diet-soda-add-weight/
You’re getting too much cardio, not enough resistance training. The fastest way to lose weight is to build muscle. Each pound of lean muscle burns about 40-50 calories per day at a resting metabolic rate. 10 lbs of muscle will burn 400-500 calories. 20 lbs of muscle will burn 800-1000 calories. The fat will melt off and you’ll end up with a lean body.
To build muscle you want to do high intensity resistance training. High intensity does not mean spending hours in a gym getting an intense workout and it doesn’t mean working out really hard so the sweat’s dripping down your face. It means doing roughly 8-10 reps with a level of resistance that challenges you enough so that it takes a significant amount of effort to complete that last rep. Then rest for about 30 seconds and move to the next muscle group. Workout out every major muscle group like this 3x times a week like Mon, Wed, Fri and then rest two days. You do not have to spend hours in a gym to effectively build muscle and you don’t even need weights.
I highly recommend resistance bands. They are considerably cheaper than weights, not to mention portable. If you get the kind with the clips on the end, you can easily customize the resistance level as your body adapts. That will prevent you from plateauing and will keep your muscles challenged.
Here is some more information on where you can get free muscle building workouts. There are new workouts posted Mon-Fri. There are also toning, cardio, pilates, workouts for teens and sports specific workouts. All of it’s free, just sign up for an account. http://resistancetrainingworkout.com/free-workouts/
Your doing the right thing for your workout. If you drink a lot of diet soda, your weight wont come off. You should be drinking 2L at min of water a day. You also might want to up your calories to 1500 a day. Hope that helps
Much of your fat may be burning off, but you’re also building up muscle. Since muscle weighs more than fat, you may be seeing smaller fat reduction because you’re actually more in shape than you used to be. Continue with a cardio-heavy workout, and make sure that your heart rate stays fairly high – probably 140-150 for a woman your age and weight. Your heart rate is the key to losing weight, and if it’s too low you’ll not lose much at all.
You’re building muscle, but your metabolism will change and you will start melting off the fat very soon. You may want to try eating about 6 small meals a day, but keep it up. It will be noticable soon!
I agree with the other answerers in that you are probably changing fat for muscle. This is good news. You may want to have your body fat percentage tested to see where you stand (it’s hard to compare it to where you were before, however). You can inquire at your gym or purchase a body fat scale — they are about $40 at the local department store. They are semi-accurate.
You have lost some weight, which is good. However, I sense you aren’t eating enough. If you are doing as much exercising as you say you are doing, I am guessing you are burning approximately 500 calories a session of cardio. The weights, maybe 150 – 200.
Your food intake barely covers this. So you are stifling your metabolism and causing your body to retain body fat. There’s a fine line between dieting and starving and you are more on the starving side. On days you train, I’d suggest that you boost your calorie intake to 1750. Be sure that you spread your meals out throughout the day and keep your protein levels fairly high. Also, avoid refined sugars.
Also, don’t get too hung up over the scale. The weight loss will happen. I suspect you’ve already seen some gains with your fitness plan.
Also, be sure the intensity of your workouts are strong enough. I’ve seen some people sand bag their way through workouts. Be sure you aren’t one of them. If you don’t need a shower after a workout, you probably aren’t going hard enough to stoke your metabolism.
Again, keep up the good work. I have a feeling positive changes are in the near future for you.
Good luck.