Hi everyone, I made this thread because the pinned thread about fitness tips seemed too cluttered. Anyways....

My name's Jon and I'm a fitness trainer and currently studying optimum and performance nutrition as well.

I noticed alot of people in that pinned thread above have alot of misconceptions on losing weight and getting fit. I see alot of people talking about crash dieting which is a big no no

First off ladies:

I know most of yall have trouble lifting weights because your afraid to get "bulky". Well the truth is it is really hard for yall to get that look. You must incorporate weight training in your program with a steady diet, as in eating anywhere between 6-8 times a day. To burn off fat you NEED to build muscle. Hence, gaining muscle well also boost your metabolism (which will in return help you burn more calories), strip fat and get lean.

Guys:

Yall need to eat. And I mean EAT You can't get that muscular look if your working with a body type where your skinnier then your little sister We men have a huge amount of testosterone and they have not let release in our manly bodies. etc etc.

Can I promise you the perfect body that you desire? No I can't

Can I promise you with all the essential basic and groundworks to starting a diet and exercise program that can help lay the foundation that can help you achieve your fitness goals? Absolutely

Everybody is different, we have different genetics, different body types. I can go on forever about myths and what's real, what's fake blah blah blah about bodybuilding. And I'm here to help yall as much as I can with the knowledge I possess.

If you have any questions about supplements (diet pills, creatine) I will give you opinions on some products I, myself have personally used or has known someone who has used them.

Why am I doing this. Well recently I suffered a injury while in a raquetball competition and I fractured my ankle. Therefore I can't work and all I can do is sit on my ass most of the time and I want to be productive while I'm in this whackass situation. Plus I think this website and it's members are great and it's a way for me to help contribute to this forum.

Oh wow, I really wanted a fitness trainer in here. yay!
Ok so I'll start off...I have a treadmill at home and 2 dumbbells...the lighest ones available..what do you recommend I do? should i run on the treadmill then use the dumbbells? i usually run/power walk for 10 minutes on the treadmill and do 1 set of 100 on the dumbbell. then i go back and forth 2 more times which comes out to be total of 30 minutes on the mill and 3 sets of 100 of the dumbbells. is this method okay?

Hmm...it seems to me your doing more of a cardio based type exercise. I'm sorry to say, but this method will only get you so far. If your using this method of trying to lose weight, you need to up your difficulty. You need to keep challenging your body so your body won't think the workouts will be easy. You need to keep on surprising your body so that it will work harder to do what you want it to do.

Let me ask you this, are you doing this exercise for maintaining weight or losing weight? If you feel uncomfortable of telling me your height and weight, you can pm me

May I ask where you got your dumbbells...I really wanna get some >.<
Hi Jon I have a question XD I'm trying to build more muscles on my arms since they are tiny I don't know what kind of excercises I should do. I heard about weight lifting but I'm not sure like how many I should start off doing?
I hope my question is not too general. Oh Im a girl trying to gain weight btw (if that helps) >.<
Thanks much ^^ Hope ur ankles will heal soon.

well i just recently started on this exercise..so i figured it would be best to start small instead of challenging myself from the very first ^^ i got the treadmill 2 days ago so i basically started 2 days ago..i am planning on challenging myself on the way..and yes, i am trying to lose weight.
sunmoon: i got them at big 5 =] it was really cheap too, although i don't remember the exact price.

Mmm..that is kind of a broad question. I'm guessing your a really skinny girl and would like to 'tone' up a little bit correct? Well the thing is, woman have a more difficult time building muscle due to very low amount of testosterone women have. To gain muscle, for a girl like you I suggest using weightlifting in moderate sessions. Keep the weights you train with to around where you can do about 16-20 reps. So while doing this many reps with the weight your using your gaining muscle without gaining alot of size, cause to gain size you need to lift heavy and do low amount reps (2-6). Hope this was some help.

Well, that's fine if your just trying to moderately lose weight only. But remember about losing weight, you need to eat to keep your metabolism up. I know you think it's difficult, but to lose weight the HEALTHY way, you need constantly eat small portion meals 6-8 times a day. Remember, you can only lose weight when your burning more calories and fat then your eating Keep that in mind and you'll be fine.

Hi Jon ! thanks for making this thread =) .. i started my diet a week ago.. cutting down the junk and eating healthier and i lost 2 pounds so far =DD so happy... but i want to ask if there are any exercises that help reduce upper body fat around the shoulder and back area... i used to swim a lot so i have really broad shoulders and big/strong arms lol .. so sad since i m a girl. =(

Oooh this is great..I just joined gym yesterday too.

You see for several personal reasons, I quit gym for a while after doing it for 2 years, the result was I gained 7 kgs and now I'm trying to shed 5 kgs off..When I go to the gym, all I do is spend an hour on treadmill and go for body combat classes.

Can you suggest me other cardio activities that are good for burning fats? I'm an Apple shape so I tend to store fats in my stomach..do you have any ways to suggest how to get rid of those? I don't think I'm up to do those crunches and whatnots, can I do it purely from cardio activities?

And is it possible for me to lose 5 kgs in 5 weeks? Or is that just too far fetched and unhealthy?

Do you suggest going to the gym with an empty stomach or after having something?

Can you give me tips to lose calories the fast way?

Gah, so much questions..sorry about that..but it would be splendid if you could answer them all.

You lost two pounds? That's awesome, keep at it Well some shoulder exercises you can do is dumbell shoulder presses which targets your anterior deltoids which is the front part of shoulders, barbell lateral raises which the lateral/side/upper, reverse flies which targets your posterior (small muscle under your shoulder blades) these are some relatively good exercises. As for your upper/mid/lower back area. For a girl like you who have a genetically broad shoulders, stick too a few free weight exersices and stick to mostly cables. Such as cable rows, cable pulldowns, one handed cable rows. If you don't really recongize the name of some of these exercises, I will gladly send you some links that shows pictures and how to do these exercises correctly.


No problem, that's what I'm here for .

5kg in 5 weeks is realistic, but it really also depends on how much you weigh right now, if you don't weigh that much to begin with, your gonna have difficulty losing that much weight in that time, and vice versa

1st. Don't work out on an empty stomach, you must consume eat some slow digesting carbed meal with sufficent amount of protein 45min-1hour before you workout, it gives you enery to BURN.

2nd. Alot of things help to make you lose weight faster. Any supplement or foods that have caffeine for example, spicy food will also boost your metabolism. I can go on this subject, but there's a couple.

3rd. Upper and Middle abs are not as stubborn as the obliques(love handles) and lower abs are. Obliques can be handled with crunches and etc. But lower abs you can do as many crunches as you want but you can't get it to show it like that. Cardio is the only way for your LOWER abs to finally burn off.

4th. Do some aerobic workouts. Your local gym should have tons of them, their always fun and interesting, try them, don't be nervous about all those other people, you'll get used to them. hope this was a help.

i have a question. when i'm speedwalking on my treadmill i like to use dumbbells. but the dumbbells are so light. how heavy should they be?

Well first, how long are you on the treadmill?? Usually, I prefer people walking with dumbells do it as a prework, warmup 10-15min. I honestly don't recommend walking/running with dumbells as your main workout program cause it can get dangerous no matter how light it is, they can unneccessarily cause fatigue and slowly tear down your forearms, biceps and your elbows if you run/walk with dumbells for a long period of time.

I have a question as well.

My thighs are huge. I think it's heriditary, because most of my aunts and my grandmother have the same thing going on, and none of them are overweight.

But moving on, what's the best way to slim down my thighs? I'm on the treadmill 3 times a week for 45 minutes each time, but it doesn't seem to work. I'm also eating right, and I've completley cut junk food out of my diet. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks in advance.

Cardio always help, but to trim your thighs and hips. So here's some leg workouts. Inner thigh workouts, hip abductions, hamstring curls, squats (which btw help curve your booty too ;)Stiff legged deadlifts, etc. Step ups are a good thing also, they are like a cardio+weight training exercise. And while you do these exercises, for you, you should do them in a 'circuit' training type of way. And what I mean by that is, go from one exercise to the other with a short rest time inbetween sets (i.e. 30sec-1min) and go back and forth and do about 3-4 circuits on these, mixed in with your other cardio/aerobic workouts. Hope this was a help

if i pm you pics of myslef cnan you reccomend me soem excercises to do to tone my body up o_o

I need some advice.

Stats
5'5
18 y/o female
Korean
bf % unknown
started at a 36" waist//tight size 32
dec 10th start weight: 198.8 pounds
april 18th weight: 168.6 pounds// size 30

goal: 18% body fat, 120 pounds//size Small w/ 27 bottoms

At first, i started off lifting heavy weights with moderate reps (8-10 reps per set), eating chicken breast, broccoli, and oatmeal roughly 3 times a day, drinking my protein powder with a banana after a workout session. taking fish oil and a multivitamin.

then...i panicked and quit the whole "bodybuilding" lifestyle cause i didnt want to bulk. [[i have a bigger upper body than lower body]]

so now..i've been lost for about 6 weeks. what do i do? how do i get to having a 27 inch waist and weighing 120-130 pounds and looking athletic?

I was thinking of doing a cut diet...but i would like some more information on it.

of course my goal is to lose weight, but want most of that weight to be fat.

i was thinking of doing the chicken breast, broccoli, and oatmeal diet thing again but watching portion control and calorie control. [[severe calorie cut of 750, instead of 500....rounding down to 1700 calories for me to lose weight]]

workout- i'm not sure what to do. should i continue lifting heavy? should i do more cardio (log in longer sessions and more frequent) than lifting heavy?

i need your advice!

Absolutely, also a picture of your 'ideal' body type so I can have an idea of what kind of physique your wishing to acquire.

First off I would like to say you are doing an awesome job and would like to congratulate you for losing all that weight in that time frame. But I'm sorry to say but you've hit a wall. See, during drastic and sudden weight loss program such as yours and with your body frame. You will lose weight quickly at first (like you did) but it get's more and more difficult as you get closer to your 'what you should weigh by your height' status, don't panic, this is common.

I'm glad you know some of your stuff, so therefore my lingo won't be as confusing to you as to some people

1st: your correct, for you height and weight, you need to be consuming about 1500-1600, 150-160g of carbs 140-160g protein per day. (now as you lose weight, adjust according, you need to be consuing about 1pd of protein per body weight)and you need to be spreading these meals to about 6-7 times a day. Your doing good with the fish oil, keep taking your omega-3 and omega-6, multivitamins like you said you are. Here's some different type of foods that might help you in your diet, so you can add variety to your meals. Here's some of my 'personal' favorties

Eggbeaters (liquid egg whites, 1 serving= 60cal, 0gcarbs, 6g protein) you can buy most of these from wal-mart
Jack's link beef jerky (1 serving 80cal, 2gcarbs, 8g protein)
starkish tuna (1 serving 90g cal, 1gcarb, 7-9protein)

that's just a few, you need to incorporate a little variety to your meals. Staying on the same eating cycle can be boring and you can be malnutritioned.

I don't recommend you to get on a cut diet. In all honestly, most people use cut diet when their preparing for a competition, granted, you can use it to lose fat. But as you should already know, cut diet is a means of drastically cutting out your carb intake it and it requires you to stay on a program where you constantly change how you consume for calories on a day by day basis. If you would like more information on it, I would glady telll you, but honestly I don't see you needing to be on a cut diet

2nd: as for workouts, your doing awesome! I'd recommend you doing 5-6 exercises and 4 sets on each bodypart. But instead of lifting heavy, go for the high repitition/lower weights/short rest period workouts.

I.E. for your first set (after warm-ups of course) dumbell curls for 18reps rest 30-45secs, next set for 16 reps, repeat, next set 14 reps, repeat next set 12reps.

I think you should be on a program where you weight train 5 times a week and do cardio 3 times and have an off day once a week. How you do your training split is up to you, but don't train body parts that interfere with one another. (example don't train back and chest on the same day, don't do abs right after you do a leg workouts, etc.) As for you cardio, 1 hr to 1hr 1/2 on your cardio days, remember if you don't challenge yourself and the cardio workout is too easy, your not gonna burn as much calories and fat as you'd like to. If you run all the time and find that boring, trying jump roping(my personal favorite) it melts the fat away Or joining some aerobic classes.

Hope I was some help, keep me informed

hey there, I want to lose weight but I don't know how far I should go to get the right BMI. Err...the other thing is, are there easy ways to lose weight, when I say that I mean not going to the gym.

Like walking, jogging or skipping. Cause I don't have much time >.< LOL.

Sure, you don't have to go to the gym to lose weight You can workout from home as well, pilates and yoga are also great home workouts available to you as well. You need to do cardio (hence anything that raises your heart beat) to lose weight, you can jog, play sports anything active. Remember the key to losing weight is you need to burn more calories and your consuming, that's the main key, any other excess calories you take in and not burned off is stored as fat and you don't want that

Your BMI depends on your height and weight. When you calculate your height and weight and the number you get, that is your BMI. You are underweight if your bmi is below 18%, normal if it's between 18.5-24, and your overweight if it's 25-29 and your obese if it's 30 or over. Here's a simple calculator you can check out. http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm

Hi!
Thank you so so so much for starting this topic!
I have one question..I've been on a diet for about a month now
I consume about 1300 cals daily. I've lost around 6 lbs so far. But suddenly today..i woke up and I've gained 2lbs since yesteday morning..I didnt eat a lot yesterday (1320 cals to be precise). But normally I consume most of my calorie during the day and have a light dinner. But yesterday, I was too busy to have lunch, so I had a heavier dinner (a slice of pizza and salad instead of just salad)..could this be the cause of the gain?
I'm quite freaked out..since I don't think a slice of pizza is a lot of food at all..and if that can make me gain 2lbs..i'm so scared of Yo-yo effect.

Also..about exercise..I used to do cardio around 6 times a week but now that i'm limiting my calorie intake..i'm not sure what I should do at the gym anymore. I've seen some where that if you consume less that 1200 cals..ur body would start slowing down the metabolism which results in a weight gain
so i'm just wondering if i'm taking in 1300 cals and burn around 500 at the gym..will my body start conserving energy?

sorry if my post is confusing!!

lol, it's not confusing at all, don't worry

And your sudden weight gain, do not even sweat about it. Weight fluctuation occurs all the time, if all of always looked on the scale 24/7 then we'd go crazy. It's nothing for you to stress over. I am how ever worried about the amount of calories your consuming, unless your around 4'10-5'0 feet tall and weigh around 100-110 pds then you are not eating enough.

I'm 5'3 1/2 but would I gain weight If I eat more though?
Thanks for such a cute response

No, you can eat about 200-300 more calories then that, so that's like an extra snack haha.

What you need to know is the most important thing: You need burn more calories and fat then you eat.

Throughout the day, your body automatically burns calories but not FAT. You need to burn calories + fat to lose weight. You can watch tv and lose calories, you can read a gossip magazine for 30min and lose calories anybody can lose calories and you'll lose weight no doubt, but not fat. You can eat a little and lose weight if that's what you want, but your not gonna get that 'lean, tone, athletic look. The reason people work out and exercise is to burn all the fat and excess carbs they consume throughtout the day. Any excess calories and fat you consume stores in body as fat cells. You don't want that. Hope this was some help

Hi Nojeel, may I ask your advice? Like a lot of ladies, I had gained weight (after kids.) I used to be 105-110 before. Heaviest was 185. I started doing Taebo and lost weight. I got down to current weight of 140-145. I want to have muscle. and perhaps lose a bit more. I don't want to go back down to 110(too skinny). Any suggestions? I really enjoy the taebo. But would like to do weight/strength training. I workout at home. Would resistance bands be enought to add the muscle I want? Or do I need some heavy dumbells etc? thanks

Resistance bands can only get you so much, as you gain more muscle and get stronger you'll need something to push you even harder. Since you workout at home, taebo is a great cardio/aerobic workout and if it's working for you stick with it. As for weight training, I recommend you join a health club but if that's out of the question you can do some workouts with the furniture you have. You can do push ups, crunches, yoga, pilates all at home. You can use a chair for dips, balance workouts. As for equipment, equipment (i.e buying dumbells, home machines can get costly) I really recommend you going to a gym, there for they have alot of cable machines and free weight exercises you can do without perhaps damaging your home, and it can motivate you.

It's hard to get motivated sometimes when there's a couch staring right you and teasing you.

Do you know of any stretching exercises/tips for a guy to do a split? I can go about 2/3 way down side ways and 4/5 way down vertically. But due to an injury I had on the hamstring while stretching a few months back, I'm afraid to push myself again.

Thanks in advanced.

There's isn't a specific type of what a guy can do and a girl can do. Even guys can do yoga ya know Even fairly better then most women. Your basic stretching exercises will do. Just gradually, steadily and slowly stretch and you'll eventually get there

But anyways, if your still injuried or still feel a slight tenderness still when stretching your hamstring then stop right there. Overstretching can cause unneccsary strain to your muscle.

Is it true personal trainers aren't really suppose to make diet plans/nutrition advice for clients?
Just something I read...

Well that really depends on the qualifications of the personal trainer.

If that personal trainer has knowledge in nutrition then yes, they can give advice and suggestions.

Aesthetically speaking, you see a personal trainer for exercise physiology and/or the field their certified in.

You typically go seek diet and nutrion advice from nutrionists, which is part of the personal training 'tree' as you would call it. Nutrionist are specifically trained and taught in this field only. Hence they can't really give advice to clients about workout regime and vice versa

But luckily, Im in the field of both categories.

I'm a girl, and I want to GAIN weight.
The obvious way is to eat lots right? I've increased the amount of food/calories i eat by a lot and yet people are telling me
I've gotten skinnier? It's really frustrating since I used to be a healthy size.
I weigh 100lbs and i'm 5"1, which seems about right, but I look like I'm about 80-90 lbs.

I also try to incorporate excersice to be on the healthy side. About 2 times a week I do an hour of yoga, if that gives you a bit more info.

Off topic but I just want to say, I love the screen name

Not eat ALOT, but eat a little more frequently then usual. Sounds like to me your either genetically slim by nature (envy of most women) possess a incredible amount of high metabolism which makes you burn calories alot more faster then the average joe. (another envy of most women lol) You also seem to be a 'hardgainer' which means you have a real hard difficulty putting on any weight due to your metabolism and genes you possess.

To gain healthy weight, you must incorporate weight training to your program. Yoga enchanes your flexibility and is training that build muscle without the help of other equipment, which is good but you'll need some help. Weight training will give you some added muscle and a more lean (not skinny) look. I'm guess you to be just a little curvy by the way you sound. Dairy products help a bunch, if your not lactose intolerant.

Don't just eat whatever you see, eat 'slow digesting carbs' during throughout the day and 'fast digesting carbs' after your workouts. You want to gain healthy weight, pack on some muscle, not fat. I'm sure you want to gain weight with healthy food such as skinless chicken breast and fat free milk rather then eating shrimp crackers to gain weight ya know

Hope this helped

First of all, thank you for making this thread. & I hope that your injury heals quickly (I sprained my left knee 5 yrs ago & I know how painful such injuries are) :'(

I'm a girl & I'm aiming to drop 5 kilos in May (Current BMI= 25, yikes). I won't be able to exercise much because this is the busy time of the semester, so will walking for 30 minutes (+ some sit-ups & push-ups) 3 times a week be enough? I'd love to run but my knees always warn me after 1-2 minutes of running, so I guess running & jogiing are not for me
I'm cutting out chocolate, desserts & other junk food.
What can I do to burn a huge amount of calories in 30-40min without running or jumping rope?

Thanks

I'm sorry to say, but it's nearly impossible to burn a huge amount of calories without doing any cardio But you don't have to be running or jumping rope to burn alot of calories, yay!

But really, you burn alot of calories in a short amount of time by increasing your heart rate. And the only way to increase your heart rate is by cardiovascular acitivty. If you have knee problems, may I suggest you pick up swimming? It's great cardio and you burn a huge amount of calories off it too. Eliptical exercises are fairly easily on your knees as well.

Unfortunately, If it was that easy to lose weight. Everybody would have perfect bodies Hope I was some help.

P.S Thank you for your concern on my injury, and I appreciate your support very much. Thank you

I'll stick to walking until I finish my projects >.<
Thanks & no I don't have a knee problem anymore, my knees healed perfectly 2 months after that injury (so hopefully yours would perfectly heal too). It's just that my knees can take any form of vigorous exercises except running/jigging/ jumping.

Thanks again

Hi! Really appreciate u doing this.
well, i have a few questions..i really wanna slim down, esp asap! i've been kinda on this weird deit since end of last year but didnt really accomplish much till recently where i lost bout 10-12 lbs..however, i wanna lose another 10, so was wondering if my method of dieting is okay...
lets see, i usually eat bout 800 cal worth of food each day then work out and lose bout 600 cal or sometimes 1000 cal if i really feel "fat" haha
im 5'9 and weigh bout 123 right now.
i also have another problem..my stomach area is fat and bloated...what should i do? continue crunches? thanks 4 the help!!

omg , seriously, i LOVE your thread , it's nothing like getting advices from the professionals
i've been going to the gym for 4 months now, 2-3 times weekly. I heard if u don't want to build up too much muscle ( as in bulky thign!!), you should do less resistant but faster ( on the bike i mean), is that right? because I'm still doing the same level as 4 months ago, but faster and for longer ( from 15 to comfortable 1 hour now). I can only do bike, i hate running or cross training although i heard they are great for toning lower abs!!, what else can i do?
i do lots of crunches, plank, tone up a bit but my waist doesn't seem to get smaller at all, why (oh why)?!!!
Also, any exercise for shoulders? i have broad shoulders ( blame my dad!), how can i get them looking real tone with that collarbone showing? i find them extremely sexy
sorry for boming you with questions, plz reply!!!

5'9 and 123 is underweight my dear. Your slim. and you want to lose an additional 12 pounds. Wow.

Your going around your day with only 800 calories a day? I honestly have to say your not eating enough and your diet is not really safe. I'm shocked to see that your not fatigued everyday from not getting enough food. Really, you can afford to eat alot more than that. And as for your bloated stomach, it's mostly likely your releasing alot of 'cortisol'.

Cortisol is a stressed enduced hormone that releases when your under alot of stress or in a irritated state. It's a natural part of your body to release cortisol on a daily basis and it can fluctuate during 24 hours. Unless you have tremendously high level of coristol in your body (which I confidently doubt you have) which can lead to obesity. I know what your thinking "I've seen those pills about that reduces your cortisol" Don't take those pills, 9/10 times they do not work! As for the fat part, you can get rid of that by exercising of course.

But seriously, your not eating enough and I don't recommend the diet that your currently on. 800 calories is just not enough.

kay.but say i wanna still lose weight...and eat more? is that possible?
how much should i eat then? i'll continue exercising but im afraid if i start eating i'll gain the pounds back..

Haha, that's quite alright, your not bombing me with questions. I'm glad I can help.

First off, If the resistant level that your currently on is too easy for you, you must increase your difficulty. As we gain muscle and become stronger, our muscle starts to grow acustomed to the weight we work on. It's like your doing 20 pushups everyday. That's great, but if you do 20 pushups everyday and not go up, your gonna look the same and be at the same level you are all the time. Where as if I incresed the rep even by 1 pushup everyday, that means I'm getting stronger, building muscle(which at the same time burns fat = slimmer look), right?

You kinda have the right idea there but your afraid to get bulky. TRUST ME, it is incredibly hard for a women to get that BULKY look. To actually achieve that look, you must already have a huge frame and you must life incredibly heavy to achieve that so don't worry

Cross training is excellent as you heard. I really think you would like the Eliptical machines that your gym should have. (That ski looking thing) Yes, their great for lower abs too, and you can actually burn close to 700-1000calories an hour on that machine depending on your level and speed your going at.

As for your abs to show. You need to ab exercise while also burning the fat off. You can do all the ab exercises you want, but if you don't burn off all the fat that's above it, it's never gonna show, makes sense?

Please look at your diet also, it's gonna be hard to lose weight if you interefere your program and mess it up by having blue bell ice cream for dessert everyday for an example. (not saying you are) But diet is just as important as exercising, the two go hand in hand to achieve results. Hope this helped, good luck

Wow, racquet ball?! O_O I hope you get better! Haha, I know what you mean by feeling like I'm doing nothing. Whenever I don't have homework, I'm just doing noting and I feel like crap. =_=

Okay, I have a question. I'm a girl, and lately, I've been trying to get abs and toned legs. I do a sport every seasn (fall, soccer, winter, track, and spring, lacrosse), and I try to run two miles at least 3 times a week. I do at least 50 crunches a day, and some yoga. But no muscles are forming. T_T I'm pretty healthy (5'6" 125 lbs) and I eat pretty healthy too. Am I doing anything wrong? Any suggestions?

Thanks for making this thread! It's very helpful from all the post I've seen! (:

Of course you can

Remember the most important thing about losing weight is you need to be burning more calories and fat then your consuming. Let's say you boost your calorie intake to around 1300-1400 a day. You know throughout the whole day, we naturally burn calories, whether it's from sitting and watching tv, playing with the dogs. While we are at the gym, that's when we actually start burning the fat. Just make sure your burning off more calories then you eat. So you can stay on the treadmill for like 45min-1hr and then do some weight training program for 30-45min. That's all you need to do. But remember, it's what you eat. Your gonna have alot easier time burning off salads, grilled chicken breasts, fat free cheese, lean meats, vegetables etc. Then you are with a fast food value meal.

i'm having a weight loss plateau
since the middle of february i've been running about 4-5 miles a day and doing lightweight training. i've lost 22.5 pounds.
usually i would drop a pound every few days, but for the past week all i've lost is 0.5 pound. i haven't changed my diet either, i eat about 1000-1100 calories per day; and that's not even on purpose, i just started adding up my calories everyday and i noticed i don't eat *that* much. but i'm never hungry or anything. o_o i try to eat fat free/reduced fat/low fat foods with high fiber, lean meats, and lots of vegetables and fruits.
how do i break out of this?? ;____; i bought some workout DVDs to "shock" my body into a different form of cardio (which is what other people suggested to me), and i am still running and lifting light weights. but it doesn't seem to be doing anything.
should i just keep up with the dvds, running, and lifting, and hopefully the weight will come off as fast as it did before?

i need to lose about 21.5 pounds to get to a normal weight.. i'm still considered overweight by that amount.

Thank you for your concern

The main reason your not gaining muscle is playing sports don't really help you build muscle. You build muscle with strength training (weights) I see your very active which is fantastic. But to actually help you gain muscle, you need adequate amoung of protein in your body to build muscle.

For example, we need calcium to grow right and make our bones strong, right? Well we need amino acids to build muscle, and the way to get amino acids is through protein. (Whey, meats, dairy, soy) Techinically, you need to consume 1g of protein per body weight, (i.e if your 125pds you need to be consuming about 125g of protein) everyday. Incoporate that philosophy with weight training, and you'll be building muscle in no time Any more question, feel free to ask.

wow. thanks 4 all the info! really helps..so i guess me not eating is not a great thing..will go eat later..but have some more questions (really sorry!!) so say i eat about 1200 cal a day...how much exercise should i do? i usually just hop on the treadmill and run till i literally pass out...on the treadmill it says i burn about 800-1000 calories (depending on how much time i have on my hands, but is that realiable?) and how much should i b doing? and i also do crunches..thats all the excercise i know how 2 do..

if u know any other easy (stress the word easy..hehe) i would Love 2 hear bout it!!

and thanks again 4 doing this! u dont know how much it means 2 me!!!!

I think it's 1g of protein per pound of lean muscle mass, but a little extra won't hurt~



If people take advantage of you, you're going to be answering the exact same questions over and over... a lot of these people want to lose weight, but don't want to make any real effort ~_~
I try helping them but for some reason they prefer to believe silly misinformation... one thread I saw someone say that running slower makes your legs skinnier...

Hopefully you can snap them out of their bubbles!


edit: In my opinion, you should write up a FAQ and have the mods sticky it. I was just looking through this thread and seriously, questions like "If I eat more, will I gain weight?" should never be asked. For the most part, your advice is alright though.

Hmm, I guess I'll have to start strength training. T_T This kills. I hate lifting weights.
So dairy, meat, and wheat (?) is primary source of protein? I eat alot of those too... I don't get this. Oh well, weight training here I come...

Thanks for helping and answering my questions! (:

Ah, you've reached a plateau. Well don't worry, let's see if we can get you out of that funk.

And the whole thing about 'shocking' your body is a 50/50 thing in my honest opinion. Why people say you need to 'shock' your body is so that your basically tricking your body. As we get used to the exercises we're doing, our body adjusts to it everyday, hence our body don't work as hard because it kinda 'knows what's coming' you know? People say you need to constantly change the degree of difficulty your workouts are and how you go about to training that muscle, it's basically so you body is always challenged. In my opinion, and one that works for me is I don't need to trick my body, I work out hard everyday and continually challenge myself where I won't need to do that. But for you, it won't hard to try the former. Cause with me I have tried both ways and what works for me can not work you ya know, since we're all different

Try changing your diet, that is a very low amount of food your eating honestly. I hope your not starving, cause when your starving, your body will go in "alert mode". Basically when that happens your body is so malnutritioned your body will start to break down and start eating your muscle fibers for energy. Hence when you work out, your just burning yourself out and not losing weight but just muscle = 'overtraining'

Try toning down your cardio a little bit and emphasize more on your diet. running 5 miles everyday is pretty incredible actually, unless your training for a competition. You really dont' need to be doing THAT much cardio. I would incoporate a little more focus and weight training, cause if you have more muscle, your metabolism increases and thus will help you burn more fat when your do cardio also. Hope this helped, anymore questions feel free to ask.

hellooo.
i was just wondering what kind of cardio i should do
jumproping / running / turbojam workouts ?
and also, is it realistic to lose 20 lbs before june 20th? ahaha.
and ALSOOOO, is it good to work out in the mornings? because i have no time after school (i'm a junior and i have waaay too much work) so i think i'm gonna force myself to wake up earlier to exercise since that's not wasting any time during the day.
thank you!!

hahahah, thanks for you concern. I know what you mean, there's alot of misconceptions and misinformation everywhere. It's perfectly alright though, I want to help, it's not like I can go anywhere at the moment, I have a bigass boot/cast on my leg, so I have alot of free time.

okay
yeah, it's weird, i actually thought i was eating A LOT and maybe that was the problem, but it's really not that much at all o__o unless i'm counting my calories wrong. but i'm pretty much never hungry, except when i get up in the morning. then i go have cereal. XD
when you say change my diet, do you mean eating more calories, but have it be like lean meats and stuff like that? what should i be eating more of and eating less of? i know i eat too many carbs and i'm trying to cut back on that..
thank you for your help!