Hi, Myesha: Have you heard of the Body for Life Program? I think this might be the program for you, since you already exercise hard and work out with weights. This program consists of the following exercise schedule: Day 1 - 45 minutes of high intensity upper body weight training; Day 2 - 20 minutes of intense interval cardio; Day 3 - 45 minutes of high intensity lower body weight training; Day 4 - cardio again, Day 5 - back to upper body weight training; Day 6 - cardio again; Day 7 - Free Day; and so on. The diet is a 6-meal a day plan: 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 20% fat, with a free, eat-whatever-you-want-day once a week.

You will need to buy the Body for Life book which you can purchase at Amazon.com for $15 or $16. This book outlines the program basics. You can do your workouts either at a gym or at home using free weights.

The Lean and Strong website (see link below) provides great support for people on the Body for Life Program. If you are interested in finding out more about Body for Life, my suggestion would be that you post the same message you did here on the Lean and Strong website and also ask for profiles of women similar to you who are doing Body for Life.

http://www.bodyforlife.com

This program may make sense for you. Good luck. ...Eva

Here is a link that might be useful: Lean and Strong - Support for Body for Life

Hi, Have you ever thought of the possibility that
A. your body has gotten accustomed to the routine you've set up. If this is true then you should try changing you workout here and there, you might see some results.

B. Or, maybe it's not all fat that is making you look big. I used to think the same thing as you because I was weighing 215, I am only 5'6 so I was looking pretty round, but thing is, I was wearing a size 14 around that time, and I could bench press with most of the guys around me. I lost about 60 lbs and realized after I shed that extra fat that there was a pretty good amount of muscle hiding in my body.

Do not stop working out because I am sure those people at work are not as energetic as you or as pumped as you, and even though you have not really lost weight you have probably kept a considerable amount of lbs off of you. So feel good about that.

Try some aerobic exercise before you workout to get some oxygen in your system and the blood flowing through your body and maybe you'll get different results.

Good luck and keep us posted
Nikki

Hi Myesha,

I know just how you feel. Sometimes I feel like there must be something wrong with me. I eat around 1600 calories per day, mostly whole grains, soy milk, salads, and fish and vegies. I jog 3 miles every day(about a 10 min. mile), do weight training for about an hour 3-4 times a week, and ride my bike for 45 minutes the other days. I am 33 years old, 5'9" and I weigh 175. I have been trying to lose 20 pounds since the first of the year and have only lost about 5 pounds. I have decided that I have to cut my calories to 1200-1400 to lose any weight. When I do that I usually can drop a couple pounds in a week. I don't have any other ideas for you, because it sounds like you are doing really well just like me, I think that our bodies have become so efficient with the fuel we give it, it just doesn't need as much maybe. Anyway, good luck to you.

~Julie

Hi, Everyone: The reason I mentioned Body for Life to Myesha is that this program encourages you to build muscle and lose body fat. On this program, you learn to quit worrying about scale weight and to measure % of body fat instead. As women, we are so conditioned to using a scale to determine if we are at a healthy weight. My husband finally threw out our scale (and I mean literally through it out an upstairs window...hope the neighbors didn't see this.).

All of you sound as though you work out really hard and have developed muscle. This is WONDERFUL! I bet your bones are strong, too. You all must know that muscle is heavier than fat. It's possible to lose inches (and clothes sizes) but still show a gain in scale weight due to an increase in muscle.

Sometimes you can reach a plateau in an exercise/diet program because you are not eating enough. With the kind of exercise routines you have, you need to provide fuel to your bodies throughout the day. Eating five or six smaller meals a day is one way to do this.

The Lean and Strong website that I provided the link for above is not affiliated with Body for Life. This is just a group of people trying the Body for Life Program and willing to share their experiences on the program, ups and downs, successes and failures.

You also might want to pick up the June/July 2001 issue of Muscle & Fitness Hers Magazine. On page 66, there is a hardcore 12-week diet and exercise program developed as an effective way to shed bodyfat. It's challenging, not easy, but it works!

Stay strong. ...Eva

Screw that, your a girl and you don't need more muscle. If you weight 190, you enough damn muscle underneath the fat. I'm a guy and am going to be reasonable with you. Don't try to add more muscle, that is just nasty in my opinion but it's up to you.

Personally I think you just need a low calorie diet like the subway diet for about 2 months and a treadmill routine of 2-4 hours a day. Try this for two months with your xenadrine and I promise you, you'll lose atleast 40+ lbs. You'll go from 190 to 150 or less easily, considering most girls are really sexy around 120-140, you'd almost be there.

Weight training is good for small girls, but for girls trying to lose mass, you need some good aerobic exercise and a low calorie diet for at least two months. I promise you if you dedicated yourself to the subway diet and walking 2-4 hours a day, you'd be sexy as hell by new years. At least your body, unless your missing an arm. At least your legs and ass will be tight. :)

Thank you all for your suggestions and encouragement. I think reducing my calories will help (while increasing my aerobics and weight training too.) Just FYI, a typical week includes an hour of step aerobics on tues and thur. On wed and fri it do 30 min of step and 45 min of body sculpting. On Saturdays i walk/run 5 miles, and relax on sun and mon. I am in grad school, so i cannot take out 2-4 hours a day to walk. Sigh. I will check out the website and look into low calorie diet plans too. Wish me luck. Thanks again for your suggestions

Gotta agree with Spock Myesha, I too was working out with weights for a year, eating 1300 to 1500 calories of low fat food and still looked big. I recently read the Escape your shape book and started do lots of aerobics every morning and reduced my weights to 4 pounds. Guess what, the weight is finally coming off. I think I built up so much muscle over the past year all I needed to do was "aero" that fat off. It might work fo you too, good luck to you Myesha!

Hey. I had the same problem well sort of....im about 5'5 and weighed close to 2001lbs. I then started working out at the gym...and since i never worked out there before, i was losing weight. I then hit 1601bs...and cont'd working out...but nothing was happening. I have hit a plateau. Someone suggested entering "The zone", so i tried it recently, and weight started coming....so it wasn't how much cardio/weights i was doing (because i worked out for hours), it was my nutrition. I mean i can't stay in the zone 24hrs a day...it's like impossible, and it does restrict you on alot of things, but u get the good things that your body needs, and you do eat alot at times, and still continue to lose weight.

Ps - the ZOne by Barry Sears

goodluck

Myesha - you may have a problem with sugar. I had the same thing happen to me. I thought I was eating healthy, worked my butt off (unfortunately, not literally) and couldn't lose weight. My problem was I was eating way too much sugar (pasta, bread, potatoes). Go to the library and check out some low carbohydrate books and see if they pertain to you. There are a lot of them out there... Protein Power, Atkins, Carbohydrate Addicts, Sugar Busters, etc. You'll know within the first chapter if it's something that will help you. Everybody is different and low carb is not for everybody, but it's worth the time to investigate.

Good luck. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Samantha

Sounds like your exercise is good, so you may need to concentrate on your nutrition. This website may be helpful:

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/food/food-pyramid/main.htm

I found the best weight loss is to eat only fruits and grains for breakfast/lunch (eat nothing else!) If I stayed hungry, I simply ate another banana, apple, etc until I didn't feel like eating ANYTHING else. Then I ate whatever I wanted for dinner.

It took about a week+ to get used to it, but then my body felt MORE satisfied then when I was pigging out on fast food for breakfast/lunch. This in turn helped me exercise, for some reason it jacked up my energy bigtime (almost like a caffeine rush without the fall) and also reduced what I ate for dinner (which was usually pretty fatty). If you stay with this plan, you will need to buy more clothes because the fatty areas of your body will disappear very quickly!

Make sure you eat proteins and take vitamin/mineral suppliments if you don't eat alot of vegi's and drink lots of water - no soda (even diet). Stay away from weight loss pills!! Go naturally!! 5 million years of evolution can't be wrong... :)

Well I don't know if this will help.. but recently I was told I had High Blood Pressure (Severly High), so in order to regulate me on medication I was told to hold off on the working out until they found something that not only agreed with my body..but that worked. Needless to say I stopped weights.. it was the hardest thing.. but in that short time of regulating my medication.. I was losing weight, I know it was muscle, but let me tell you.. I didn't realize how much extra muscle I had, I could lift with the guys, and be at the gym 24/7, but I received more comments when I stopped about my body, then ever. Now mind you I kept up with brisk walking and jogging.. ect.. but when I started the weights again I went low weight, high reps.. and until I got pregnant, (and gained too much), I never looked or felt better.

Omni,
What kinds of fruits and grains do you eat?? I am looking for new breakfast foods.

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I am taking them all into consideration. I am giving myself 10 weeks to try and get things moving. I will keep you updated as to my progress. Thanks alot!!

Dude, quit weighing yourself, go by how you look.

Seriously, with what you wrote, your probably like a body builder you most likely have a layer of fat that refuses to go, so it seems like your mostly fat. A simple cutting routine will show off your muscles I bet.

Myesha - you might consider having a thyroid test done. You can have these done directly, without a doctor in the U.S. via http://www.healthcheckusa.com.

Another site for information purposes: http://www.thyroid.about.com.

I'm just getting into all this myself because like you, I started exercising about an hour a day 5-6 days a week, including both cardio and weights. Used to be that on this regimen, I'd start dropping weight fast. Not this time around. Turns out one of my thyroid numbers IS below normal range. I'm waiting for the results on a second test, then I'm going to the Dr.

Also there is a "Top Doc" listing on this site, Doctors who are well versed in this area (the exception apparently, not the rule).

Good luck and may we both be slim in 2001! Also thanks for all the other very helpful info posted.

One book I've seen reviewed that looks good is "Thyroid Power." Another I just ran across and will probably get is "Living Well With Hypothyroidism: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You . . . That You Need to Know."

Hey,

I agree with Dr.Spock on cutting weights and doing more cardio. Weight training is great and it DOES increase your metabolism to build muscle, BUT for women it is generally difficult to gain that muscle AND lose the fat on top of it at the same time. This is particularly true for the lower body.

I have made the same mistake and now have an incredibly lean upper body, very slender with nice definition and big legs that FEEL muscular, but don't look it because of hte layer of fat. So I started doing more cardio, NO weight training for lower body and I recently added jumping rope. Check out www.exude.com on the benefits of rope jumping. Also, someone mentioned the book 'Escape Your Shape'...it'a a good book as well as 'Hold it you're exercising wrong' AGain, they emphasize rope jumping.

Hope this helps.

Kristina

Hey Myesha,
Have you ever read about eating 6 small balanced meals a day? I am going to try a new plan called the 6 Week Body Makeover. It was a little pricey, but it is geared toward your body type. I have read all there is to read on loosing weight...I lost 125 lbs myself. I am pregnant and just need a structured plan to loose weight. I have to loose about 40 lbs with in 6 months because I'm a U.S. Marine. Thats all the time they allow to get back into shape.
Basically the plan restricts the use of salt, sugar and processed foods. Also, you need to drink about a gallon of water a day (diet or no diet, everyone should do this to stay properly hydrated).If your really serious about loosing weight, this is a good plan. I have heard a lot of success stories. Plans similar to this are basically what athletes use to whip themselves back into shape.
Hope this helps!!!
Good Luck!!!
Kathy

I'm 5/2 and approx. 200 lbs. I have tried many diets but I am someone who doesn't like vegetables and very little fruit. I have reflux and asthma. I can't excercise because I have an asthma attack within 10 min. of light excercise. I have dropped caffeine, sweets, and all starches at night for the past 4 months and I haven't lost any weight. Does anyone have any diet/excerise program that could work for someone like me?

I read a book by a doctor who suggested to change your exercise routine. He said to do only 2 different exercises for 20 minutes each during the week. He stressed to change to exercises that you currently do not do. Your body is used to doing your exercises but if it does something else, it feels that it has to work extra hard at it because it's not used to it. Also, the diet "The Rotation Diet" is a great jump start into losing weight.

I just read that women burn more calories the two weeks before their periods than any other time. I am trying to drop just a few stubborn pounds and it does seem work if you increase your workouts during that time.