Cathe, not losing inches...please help!

[CatieFIT]

Hi Cathe,

Hi Cathe, I'm hoping you can offer me some suggestions. I am 21 years old and absoloutly LOVE working out to your programs. I enjoy step, love lifting weights, and like to add yoga and pilates to supplement your workouts. I was away for a month at the beginning of the summer and since I've been back I've really made an effort to eat clean (could always be better) and workout 6 days a week for approx. 1 hour. I'm happy with my body and my appearance but I know it could be better. I have a fairly athletic build and weigh about 170 lbs at 5'7'' and wear a size 10/12. I'm ok with these stats, I'm told (even at the doctors office) that you would never know I weighed that much, the nurses are always shocked by the number at my yearly appt, but I try not to pay to much attention to the number bc I'm fairly muscular. Anyway, since I've been home, I've been doing a rotation of your workouts and definitely feel like my aerobic capacity is increased, I'm very strong, I feel great, I do look slightly more toned but I CANNOT LOSE INCHES! (I also tend to get bulky in the leg and glute area, have read alot about freestyle rotations on the forums for this. Work legs almost everyday with about 7o% of current weight I can lift which keeps legs toned but reduces muscle size?) I'm not looking for drastic weight loss but I feel like I could go down 1 dress size or two in a healthy way. I will NEVER be a size 2 but I feel like going from a 10/12 to a 6/8 would be a reasonable goal. I'll include a snapshop of my current rotation and would love to know what you suggest, should I do something completely different, start really working on running (i've heard that does alot for losing inches), or something else? I look forward to your response...I'm really at a loss right now as to where I'm going wrong:

Sample Rotation:
M - Cardio (1st 5 int. Imax2), Upper Body (PUB up premix)
T - Cardio (2nd 5 int. Imax2), Lower Body (PLB up premix)
W - Cardio (walk/jog 30 minutes) or Kick Max
Th - Total Body Weights (Muscle Endurance or Muscle Max)
F - Cardio (walk/jog 30 minutes) or Kick Max
Sat - Circuit (HSC, Body Fusion, Cardio & Weights, or BC)
Sun - off (or 30 minutes light yoga, stretch, pilates)

Thanks so much, and I look forward to your input, I'm ready to start seeing real results!

Catie

 

[kathryn]

Not Cathe here (in case you didn't notice, LOL!), but on first glance at your rotation, I have a couple of suggestions that might help break your plateau without drastically changing your workout schedule.

First, increase your 30-minute cardio sessions to 45 minutes.
Second, on days where you do both cardio and weights, try splitting them into two sessions: cardio in the morning, and weights in the afternoon. This will give your body a boost two times during the day.

You say you eat clean, but how often do you eat? Breaking your daily calorie consumption into 5-6 mini meals (no more than 500 calories per meal) keeps your metabolism more stable and gives you the amount of energy you need for the next few hours to come, without giving you too much energy (calories) which can be more easily stored rather than burned. A good time to eat is right after a workout, especially a weight workout, whenn your body needs the nutrients to repair.

Another thought: how do you feel on the rotation you are doing? Sometimes, people hit plateus because they are actually overtraining. I you have any of the symptoms of overtraining (fatigue, lack of desire to work out, frequent colds because of a compromisd immune system, general aches and pains, etc.) then try adding a second day off mid-week. This extra recovery can help you bump up the intensity of your workouts without overtraining--by giving you time to recover. Also, it's good to have a "recovery" week every so often (I'd say every 4-6 weeks) where your workouts are lighter, and you might focus on stretching, yoga and functional fitness with more intermediate-level workouts. Then when you come back to the more intense workouts, you can take things up a notch and get better results. That works for me quite well.

 

[CatieFIT]

Kathryn,

Thanks for your reply! My thoughts on what I may need to do to kick up my workouts a notch are very much along the same lines as the suggestions you have made. I do think I absolulty need to increase my cardio time (always a challenge to find the extra time but I'll try!). I'm considering starting a light running program maybe 2x a week to start out with. I really dislike running but maybe that's because I've tried to jump right into it and end up feeling burnt out really fast. I'll really focus on working up to jogging continuously and start with walking (thinking about downloading a cardio coach program for some motivation). I do LOVE step but I find it builds my legs ALOT, so perhaps a combo of both...

I also like the idea of weights one part of the day and cardio another. This actually sounds like it would fit with my schedule. Tomorrow I have work at both my jobs with enough time in between to fit in either weights or cardio, then again something tomorrow evening...I may give this approach a try this week and see how I feel. Also, think I'm doing ok on the diet thing, but I'm always monitoring that. This summer I have tried the 5 - 6 smaller meals but I guess I just need to make sure I'm not consuming TOO many calories that way. It's annoying, but maybe I'll try a food journal for a week again and evaluate how I'm doing. Again, thanks for your time and suggestions, it's greatly appreciated, I LOVE coming to these forums.

Catie