Cathe, Your Opinion on Fat Burning/Definition/Intensity

Annabelle2

Annabelle2

Cathlete
I have not been able to achieve the results I am seeking on my own so I contacted a local personal trainer/nutritionist. I live in a remote rural area far from a good sized city and there is only one personal trainer/nutrionist in my area. She informed me that she had no room in her schedule for another client, and visited with me on the phone for a minute. She is a body builder and was also Ms. Texas (body building) in 1993. She is in her 40s as I am. She told me I was wasting my time with interval training and that I needed to stay in my zone on cardio at least 3 days a week but we did not talk long enough for her to really know anything about me. I am a bit disappointed since it took me quite a while to decide to seek professional help to achieve my goals. I did some research and found that there are many opinions on the subject of cardio and what is best. I originally chose to go for calorie burn since I LOVE high intensity cardio. I am curious about your opinion. I have played around with my diet and thought that might be the answer, I eat pretty clean and have just adjusted my calorie intake. My bf is 26% *sigh* right now and my goal is about 16 - 18% and good muscle definition. I work hard and change my routine up about every 4 to 6 weeks. I am not requesting any nutritional information I just don't know what to try next. Any advice you could give me would be appreciated.
 
RE: Cathe, Your Opinion on Fat Burning/Definition/Inten...

Hi Kathy, It's Kelley. Remember me, we met in San Antonio a couple of years back. I've recently lowered my cardio to only 2-3 days a week and upped my weight work to 4-5 days a week, and I'm having excellent results. I have changed my diet a bit, eating more healthy, but the changes started as soon as I stopped doing cardio almost daily and started with heavier weights. I've noticed the biggest change in my lower abs, hips, butt, and thighs.
 
Hi Anabelle! I'm sorry to hear of your disappointing experience with the person you contacted.

SUre, I can try to help you out but I need to know a few things first. What exact cardio are you doing right now and how long per session and how many times per week? Are you doing any weight training? If so, what is your routine like (ie: total body or splits...heavy or light or combo of both...) or what DVD's are you doing?
 
Kelley - Yes I remember! That is wonderful thank you so much for replying! We had a good time that day - I never thought of taking my cardio down!!

Cathe - Thank you for your reply also! For the past 3 weeks I have been working two body parts per day every day using the Pyramids and 45 minutes to an hour of cardio. I do 2 Imaxes a week, and 3 or 4 kickbox and/or step workouts a week. I like to work hard and enjoy intense cardio. This week I started using the Gym Styles and 45 minutes to an hour of cardio a day for 6 days a week. I try to do mostly endurance workouts for my legs as they are a difficult area for me - I am short and gain muscle easily there oh, and I am an hour glass. One of my previos rotations was:
S - Altar of the Heart (Yoga)
M - PUB Back and Chest, Imax 1, Abs
T - PUB Bis and Tris, KPC
W - PLB Legs and Step Blast
T - PUB Back and Chest, Turbo Jam Cardio Party Mix 2 (dancy kickbox cardio with an intense blast)
F - PUB Bis and Tris, Step Blast
S - Legs and Glutes, Imax 2 using a jump rope for intervals

My plan is to use the Gym Styles for the next 3 weeks with the same cardio pattern as above and then I took some of your plan for the woman who wanted to lose 30 lbs and added that on for a 12 week shape up program like this:

Next 2 Weeks:
Power Hour and Muscle Endurance each twice in the week and 6 days of cardio 45 minues to an hour alternating step, kickbox, jump rope, Hi Lo.

Next 2 weeks
Two weeks of circuits for 6 days with 2 Imaxes spaced throughout each of the 2 weeks (Circuit Max, Boot Camp, Body Max, Cardio and Weights, Legs and Glutes, Step, Jump, and Pump, Terminator, etc)

Next 2 Weeks
Supersets twice in each week plus CTX Series in its entirety - CTX in the AM and Supersets in the PM.

I feel a little silly because I am nervous! One of my favorite celebrities is "talking" to me and I can't seem to make my words flow and I have too many!!! LOL and I am 48 years old, it is my desire to lower my body fat and get some definition in my lower body - I thought my diet would be the key here not my cardio???? Thank you for answering!

I am really serious about achieving my goals before I reach 50 I am not afraid to work hard to get there, actually - I would just like to know how to get there!
 
Hi Kathy (Cathe and Kelly),

Very thought provoking question/thread. Same boat here with body fat % and commitment to change it. Understand clean eating but have less experience in designing effective workout plan.

I do know that I am bottom heavy (being 5'2") and that cardio is key, but I also get great results from UB workouts whereas lower body weighted w/o's tend to be bulking and somehow counter-intuitive to the goal.

Looking keenly to Cathe's response to your scenario.

X
 
Hi girls. I am in the same boat as all of you, especially X. I am 5'2 and tend to bulk as well in my lower body if I lift, but my upper body is no problem.

I am looking forward to Cathe's recommendation as well. I am sure we will all benefit from it :)
 
Kathy,

Obviously not Cathe here, but thought I'd chime in. In looking at your schedule it seems like a lot of exercise. My question to you would be how much are you eating calorie wise???? You'd need an awful lot of food to fuel all of those workouts. If you aren't eating enough your body could be in what's called a sort of starvation mode. It's scared to let go of anything for fear that it won't get enough to live off of. Does that make any sense :D ?

Secondly, if one of your goals is to gain muscle then you could potentially be hindering yourself with all of that cardio, and especially so if you aren't eating enough. If this is how you've structured your workouts for a while then my suggestion would be to change it up and do maybe 4 days of weights and 3 of cardio and see what that kind of rotation brings you.

The only way to figure out what your body responds to is to try different things. It sounds like you may be in a bit of a plateau wherein your body kind of "knows" what's coming so it may not be as challenged as you think it is, and again depending on how much you're eating you could be dealing with the starvation mode issue.

Deni
 
Kathy...Deni again...heehee,

I reread your posts from above and I just wanted to add...in regards to the trainer speaking of 3 cardio days in your "zone" I take this to mean that she suggests you do lower intensity cardio more frequently as being in the "aerobic" zone you are burning more fat. It's always been my impression that you shouldn't do too much high intensity in one week. I saw above that you had 4 high intensity interval programs during that one week span...that's quite a bit...I'd be passed out slobbering on the floor immobil from all of that :eek: :7 :eek: :7 !!

Another question I have is when you say you are going to do Power Hour and Muscle Endurance twice in the week are you saying that you are going to do each of them twice equaling 4 times, or each one once equaling 2 times??? The reason I ask is because if you were doing each of those twice in a week I'm not sure how you'd be able to space them out to allow your muscles any recovery time...which is a very important part of the process. But I could be totally misunderstanding what you were trying to convey there.

Sorry for all of the rambling...I'm bored and decided to come to the boards :D :D .

Deni
 
Hi Deni,

I think I eat a lot but I don't burn a lot of calories because of my size so. Power Hour and Muscle Endurance I will do each one once in the week. The lower part of the plan is not my usual routine. I wasn't seeing any progress so a couple of months ago I began to increase my cardo 6 times a week. I used to do 3 but was only maintaining - I do not want to cut my calories so to get my deficit up to lose pounds I chose more cardio. Thank you for replying!
 
Gotcha ;) ;) !! Sounds good!! I hope you have success with everything. I'm also in a major trial and error phase of trying to figure out what my body responds to, and being the type that really likes immediate gratification I'm struggling with the "waiting game" :D :D . I've got the Slow and Heavy series coming up next month so we'll see how that works for me. Keep up the good work!!

Deni
 
Hi Kathy!

You sound like a classic "endomorph." Endomorphs have a difficult time shedding bf but are able to put muscle on easily. That sounds like you! It could be that your eating too many carbs. I wouldn't know this b/c of not viewing your food journal but from your bf% this could very well be the key. Don't think either that if your eating "clean" you can't gain weight that's a falacy (sp?). If your taking in too many cals, then you'll gain. You need to determine first just how many cals your to take in to support this regimen. I would try upping the protein & lowering your carbs to moderate keeping your fat as close as you can to 20%. I know its a pain but your going to need to track everything you eat & drink. Try it for one week & see what results you get. Just a suggestion until you hear back from Cathe. HTH, Kathy:)
 
>bumping for a second try.....

Since Cathe's already answered, she probably won't be back to this thread. If you are looking for other people's input, I suggest you post your question in the "Open Discussion" forum.
 
>>bumping for a second try.....
>
>Since Cathe's already answered, she probably won't be back to
>this thread. If you are looking for other people's input, I
>suggest you post your question in the "Open Discussion"
>forum.


It's clear to me that in Cathe's reply she asked some questions for clarification so she could respond more in depth. I don't see any problem with bumping this up to grab Cathe's attention again.
 
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