Reached target weight, but still have spare tire.

[dragon_girl]

I have been working out at a gym for 9 months with a personal trainer and have lost 50 pounds. I do weight training 2 times a week for 1 hour and cardio 3 times a week for 45 minutes and my caloric intake is 1500 calories a day. Now that I have reached my target weight of 130 pounds (I am 5' 6"), my trainer wants me to increase my daily caloric intake, cut back on my cardio, and increase the weight training. But I still have a spare tire around my core. Don't I have to continue doing alot of cardio to get rid of this excess fat? I don't see how decreasing cardio and increasing weight training will help get rid of this fat midsection. Any feedback?

 

[CDPotier]

I am a trainer, and, in order to lose weight, I bumped up my cardio to over an hour six days a week. Sometimes I do 90 minutes.

You may not be at the optimum weight for you, and losing a few more pounds might help. Doing more cardi generally helps people lose weight more quickly. Of course, I didn't completely forego the weight training, and I still do it, though not as intensely. I have lost about 15 pounds since Feb, and I have also tightened up my midsection a bit by doing planks and crunche.

What works for me might not work for you. Perhaps, you could see another trainer.

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Dragon girl! Without actually knowing your whole workout history the way your trainer does, it wouldn't be fair for me to question his/her reasons for this suggestion. I'll happily give you some thoughts but your best bet is to confront your trainer with your questions too.

When it comes to cardio though, I personally don't like to see anyone drop below doing it three times per week.

But I do agree that adding a day or two of weight training would be beneficial (split routines of course). The more lean muscle one has, the more overall calories the body will burn all day long (even at rest). Therefore, increasing your weight training, will increase your lean muscle mass.

I'm sure your trainer has taken your body fat measurements. Maybe he/she feels your "spare tire" is just loose skin vs body fat. If this is the case, your trainer may be trying to firm up the loose skin. Too much cardio and not enough weight training can often make one lose weight but then their skin can hang loosely without the weight training to support the efforts.

Just some ideas.

 

[kelley111]

I know for me, my body, including the midsection, have gotten much better with an increase in weight training and dropping my cardio to only 3 days per week for an hour each session. I recently switched my routine up to light weighttraining and cardio 6 days per week. I lost all my great progress that I had seen. I'm now back to the heavier weights, with a split routine, and less cardio again. I can already tell a difference.

 

[debfer]

Cathe- is there a reason that you stated "split routines of course"- because I do 2 weight lifting sessions /week total body (PLB & PUB)and 3 cardio- are splits better than this? deb

 

[dragon_girl]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm meeting with my trainer today to discuss my routine and I'll share with her the comments from this forum. I'll let you know what she said.

dragon_girl

 

[dragon_girl]

It's dragon_girl back with an update. I talked to my trainer and we decided to change a few things that will hopefully boost my body past this spare tire thing. First, I'm changing the order that I'm doing my workout from cardio then weight training to weight training then cardio. Second, I'm going to increase the amount of time spent in the weight room and decrease the amount of time spent on cardio. Third, now that I've reached my target weight, I'm increasing my caloric intake from 1500/day to about 1700/day. My trainer believes that my body might be needing more calories and is storing this extra fat in my midsection because it's in "starvation mode". Also, she mentioned that some of this fat might actually be water retention since I do drink a ton of water. Hopefully this will help. Thank you to everyone's response--especially Cathe!

dragon_girl