My workout routine is not working out

[RONIB]

I am 40 years old 5 feet tall I weight 118 lbs. I try to work out from my house 4 to 5 times a week. I have a wide range of work out videos. I try to do 2 or 3 times of free weigts work out about 45 min. I try to do 3 or 4 times of cardio a week. I eat breakfast, wheat toast with a banana and milk or oj. I eat a pria bar between breakfast and lunch. Lunch is usually seafood with lots of veggies and sometimes wheat pasta. I drink 4 bottles of water a day and I started drinking green tea in the mornings. At night its more broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower with seafood. Sometimes at lunch I have a smoothie meal replacement drink. I have been doing this since January. I haven't lost any weight and the fat around my waist and back and around the back of my legs has not gone anywhere. I have The Firms videos, I have a lot of the beach body videos too. I do pilates and yoga. All at home by myself. I have also a total gym.
Please let me know what else I can do to try and loose the fat. I would love to go down to 110 lbs. or 108 lbs. That is my goal. Am I doing something wrong?
Thank you for your great videos. Your videos are real. Not this barbie stuff that is out there that the people working out look so fake and don't even sweat. You let us know too that you are feeling it and that helps for me to say ok she is out of breath too she needs a break too. This is for real. I am so happy to have found your web site.
Thanks a bunch
Health nut ronib

 

[clareMc]

A couple of suggestions.

1) cut out the Pria bar mid-morning. You do not need it. Your diet is great and this mid-morning snack is unnecesssary calories. if you are indeed peckish at this time, sub for a straight, clean apple or orange.

2) it sounds like you now need to start getting really serious about your weight lifting to build up your lean muscle tissue, to help you burn more calories even while at rest.

From your description is sounds ike you are doing total body weight workouts 2 or 3 times per week. They are fine, but they cannot build muscle like a 3 day split workout can.

You should consider investing in the S&H and the Gym Styles workout series. With these you will work each muscle thoroughly for up to 30 mins at a time to the point of fatigue with the heaviest weights you can handle. S&H will help you break through the current weight lifting plateau you are at and will build you some serious muscle. GS can then help you carry on that work.

You can work each muscle group one or twice each week, and you can choose to either do one body part per day, thoroughly, tacking this on after or before your cardio, or you can choose to do 2 or 3 body parts poer day, by doing the entire workout as it is filmed on the VHS or DVD, i.e. GS chest and triceps, or GS Back, shoulders and biceps.

3) something else to consider is how smart is your cardio training? Is it all steady state step cardio? Or are you cross-training with walking, swimming, hiking, running, kickbox, hi-lo in order to stimulate your muscles in a variety of ways?

Make sure that 1 or 2 of your cardio sessions are devoted to interval training, such as with Cathe's Imax workouts, which will not only build up your cardiovascular endurance but help you burn more total calories.

Hope some of this helps,

Clare

 

[RONIB]

Thank you for letting me know all this. I do want to try more of Cathes videos, I wasn't sure what to get. With the information you have supplied me with I will go ahead and buy the new videos. I'm always looking for something new to try out. I am ready to see some results. I do enjoy working out, it is an hour for me. Something I never want to give up.
Again, thank you for the great advice.

healthnut
ronib

 

[Stacy]

Hi, I agree with changing to a split weight workout routine. As far as diet goes...I'd add some protein to your breakfast such as egg whites and maybe in place of the orange juice eat an actual orange. I also agree with getting rid of the Pria bar and substituting maybe an apple or moving the banana from breakfast to your snack instead of the pria bar.

 

[Affirm]

Yes, add some protein to your breakfast. It will keep you satisfied longer and you can eliminate the morning snack. If you like peanut butter, try adding a little peanut butter with your whole wheat toast and banana that will give you protein, whole grain and fruit for breakfast.

 

[Juliebeth]

Hi!

I'm pretty new here but you remind me of me, so wanted to respond.
I am 4'11", turning 45 next month, was once obese but had been maintaining at 112 pounds for about a year before I found Cathe. I did the Firm, and liked it pretty well, but felt I had plateaued and still had too much flab hanging on; not enough muscle.

Well, I bought the Body Blast series and High Step Training and followed the rotation for one month. (Cathe wrote it, it is on the rotations page). I found this series to be a good intro to Cathe's style, and I lost 3 pounds of fat that month. Pretty impressed, I was, because no matter how hard I did anything else, I saw no changes and was almost ready to concede that I couldn't do any better.

Of course I had to have more, so I purchased the Intensity series, and am now down to 107. I have held this weight for about a month. I have gained muscle definition, that just blows my mind, because I was beginning to think it wasn't possible for me.

My diet is close to yours. I eat oats and egg whites for breakfast, usually grilled chicken salads or with steamed vegies for lunch, turkey breast or rarely a small sirloin for supper, with steamed yam chunks or other vegies. Snacks are fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt. If I feel I need a treat, a small "Detour" bar (15 grams of protein!). I don't eat white rice, pasta, bread or potatoes. I split it all up so I eat about 5 times a day. I keep a food journal still, and I do stay within a caloric range. Have you kept a record of your calories? Of course I don't know how much you are eating, but adding it up in my head, it looks pretty low.

I agree with everyone else's comments here. Especially Clare's, about getting serious about heavier weights. (In fact, I am on my way to the order page right now........)

Good Luck to ya.....apologies for my long-windedness!!

Julie

 

[KathyH]

Hi Healthnut! Being that your 40 years old one of the reasons why your weight isn't shifting could be because of perimenopause. Also I would recommend eating oatmeal in the morning in place of the bread & also replacing the Pria bar (this has TONS of sugar) w/either yogurt or cottage cheese. Just some suggestions. Another thing is you might want to do, if your not already, doing much harder cardio such as interval training 1x a week. Just some suggestions. HTH, Kathy

 

[lbeach]

hi Healthnut!

Everyone's suggestions so far are right on the money. Food journalling will be especially helpful. I agree that your calorie level looks very low. You must EAT to lose weight. Its very hard for most people to grasp this point. I never could grasp it, and was eating aroune 1300-1400 calories a day, and my weight was sitting at 125. I upped my calories (by accident mostly) to around 1800-2000 and quickly lost 3 lbs. which i have kept off for over a month. And if i eat reallycleanly, i drop down to 120 without any effort.

So my suggestion it so eat up! and write it all down.

Good luck!

 

[Belean2005]

Oh I am so glad that I found this thread. I am new here too and need some suggestions. I am 41, have recently lost around 20 lbs. by (surprise!) eating 5-6 x a day (just like you guys have written above) and working out 5-6x a week. Feeling wonderful and needing some guidance as to what tapes/DVD's to buy to up these babies. I have PH, ME, PUB, PLB, KPC, & SJP. Usually what I do is:
Mon.: PLB
Tues: Walk/Jog for 60 mins.
Wed.: PUB
Thurs.: Walk/Jog for 60 mins.
Fri.: Unless I am exhausted I will do PH or ME
Sat.: Walk/Jog for 60 mns.

I would love to add to these but there are so many that I end up getting confused--BIG TIME!!! Any suggestions please.........

Thank you very much,
Lynn

 

[KathyH]

Hi Lynn! May I suggest you add into your collection Slow & Heavy DVDs or Gym Style Chest/Triceps, Gym Style Back/Shoulders/Biceps, Gym Style Legs for your heavy weight training. Also I notice your only walking/jogging. May I suggest you also add IMAX2 and any one of the step DVDs. When doing much harder cardio, you'll burn more calories + rev up your metabolism. HTH, Kathy

 

[Belean2005]

I thank you Kathy for responding. Those are the ones that I was thinking of getting but was waiting to see if they were the best choices. So off to ordering I go.

Thanks!
Lynn