Two hours of workout - no weight loss

P

pebblelake

Member
Cathe, I workout a minimum of two hours cardio (split) 5 days and teach 2 muscle conditioning classes a week (40 mins each), and yet, I am still a huge girl. I have been unable to lose weight in over a year, and need to lose at least 60 pounds (trust me). My heartbeat and resting heartrate is strong, and doctors are always surprised at how fit I am, but my weight is a disappointment. Over 10 years ago I lost an initial 60 pounds, but that's only halfway. I've been a lacto-veggie, and not even fried foods or sweets, for over ten years now. Any suggestions? x(
 
Hi, Pebblelake and welcome to this forum. I'm not Cathe, but here are a couple of things to consider. Has your doctor checked your thyroid? Have you considered food journaling and paying for one or two sessions with a sports nutrionist? Also, have you measured your calorie expenditure in your classes? If you keep a very accurate record of your eating and calorie expenditure, then a professional sports nutritionist should be able to help you, provided you aren't in need of thyroid medication.
Also, sometimes we get used to the same routine and our body needs a change in order to help us keep going all out. I wonder if you can change up your fitness routine?
Just some thoughts and best wishes to you!!!!
Amy
 
I'm an exercise physiologist and what I can offer are some ideas which may or may not pertain to you, Pebblelake...

1. Are you using products that contain aspartame, neotame, high fructose corn syrup, MSG (and other ingredients the corporations use to ID MSG), natural flavorings, Splenda (sucralose), soy, corn oil?

http://www.dorway.com/bmartini.html

2. Is your caloric intake greater than your output?

3. Do you eat after 6pm?

4. When you eat, do you favor carbs/fats?

5. Do you drink AT LEAST 8 glasses of purified water DAILY? Trinity mineral water is one of the finest.

http://www.watercure.com/

6.Are you OVER exercising?

7.Consider having a hormonal panel done thru a compound pharmacist. If your cortisol is high and your thyroid hormones imbalanced, little you do will prevail against the fat.

8.Do you eat more processed foods (packaged, canned, frozen) than food directly from nature? Foods from Nature (fruits, veggies, grains, meats, have what's termed the "Phi Principle"...too lengthy to get into here, but when you eat processed foods, this Phi principle is fractionated/destroyed). This confuses the body's innate mechanism to help it digest/absorb nutrients.

9. Are you receiving at least 1 hour of natural sunlight DAILY?

10. Are you abstaining from all solid food 1 day per week?

Write us back...
 
Hi Pebblelake,

I agree with Amy check your diet as that is the first and most important, and if that isn't the problem check your intensity of your workout, no matter what intensity if you stay there too long, you go down in the ability to burn fat calories. Also if it's too intense for your body, you will be burning the calories your body currently has, but won't be burning any fat. That has to do with the fact the more intense your routine is the less percentage of fat calories are in your over all burned calories during the workout. And there are people who have bodies that can easily be push past the area where it burns fat, and do super high intensity so all it does is burn the calories that you ate today, rather then the fat supply. If you think you might be one, the easiest way to combat this, is to drop the intensity of you aerobics for a few days(about a week), see how that feels, as well as notice any change in measurements and weight and then try some intervals along with the lower intensity and see if you can break that plateau. Good luck and I hope you achieve all your fitness goals.

If you belong to a gym, see if they have Vo2 peak/max test and a fat comsumption test. The fat consumption test will tell you excatly where your heart rate needs to be to burn the most fat during your workouts. The V02 will help with knowing how many calories you can burn, or whatever intensity you want to do.

Kit
 
I hear this a lot, and it's a bit of an urban myth. There is really no magical fat burning zone. Yes, at a lower intensity you burn more fat per calorie than carbohydrates, but the reality is that the fat and the carbohydrate are all coming from the same pot. You really need to concentrate on calories burned. And the calorie burned differential is very marked at low intensity vs. high intensity - think of walking vs running - in a 1/2 hour walk you might burn 120 calories, a 1/2 hour run maybe 300. Your high intensity workouts are not affecting your ability to lose weight. There's several interesting articles on this - one of my favorites is - http://exercise.about.com/cs/cardioworkouts/l/aa022601a.htm

I'd suggest like the others that you keep track of your calories and make sure you're eating ENOUGH to support your exercise. Eating too little is as bad as eating too much. Make sure you're getting enough protein and good quality carbs (you need both, but quality certainly counts). Keeping track will also let you know if you're eating too much. I'm assuming that if you lost 60 pounds, you know how to eat right. But you do need to have at least 1200 calories a day - more, for as active as you are. I use www.fitday.com - it's a pain to start, but once you get things loaded, it's a great tool. Good luck!
 
Hi Pebblelake and welcome :)
Just wanted to echo getting your doc to check some labwork. I recently had a physical and whined to my MD that no one works harder with fewer results than I do. Sure my eating isn't perfect but sheesh!
She reviewed my labwork from a few yrs. ago and one of the thyroid tests was still normal but towards the high end. We rechecked it and it had tripled in those 2 yrs! Started meds 2 wks. ago and am down 5 lbs. already, doing nothing different from before. How's that for weird??
Good luck,
Valerie
:)
 
Thanks so much for all the great suggestions and pointers... doing this for ten years, you tend to get into a certain routine and habit. I don't eat anything that nature hasn't made (strict veggie) other than including milk and yogurt into my diet, and no fried or processed foods, and this is why it's so annoying.

I just got a full physical and all checked out, including thyroids which two siblings suffer from and are on meds (and obese).

I appreciate everyone's responses and will go through these links when time permits.

I love this forum and look forward to reading and learning!
:D
 
Hi- I had the same problem when I turned 35, nothing worked for me...the scale just kept creeping up on me. I started dating a guy who just happened to be a personal trainer and he told me set the weights aside for about a month and do intense (as intense as my fitness level would allow ofcourse) cardio workouts 5-6 times a week.

I was skeptical, but figured all else failed, so I tried it...and the fat melted off. My muscle tone stayed intact because it was only for a month...then he added light weights with a lot of reps, almost aerobic in nature (like Cathe's muscle endurance workouts). I still do cardio at least five times a week, (work to burn 500 calories per session). I started slow and worked my way to a 7 1/2 min mile running, work Cathe's cardio in 2-3 times a week and ofcourse her muscle endurance workouts. Heavy weights just add weight to me :-(

Hope this helps...
 
It could be possible that you are not eating enough. I don't exercise anywhere near the amount that you do and I have to consume 2,000 calories some days, based on what I have burned, in order to continue to see weight loss. I would suggest you read Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. It's a great read and I feel that you may learn a few things from it. Also there is a program that I use called DietPower (they even have a free 60 full-version trial). It takes time to enter everything in (as far as the nutritional information for every type of food that you consume each day) but it is worth it and when I use it faithfully, I always see a loss each week. But even if you don't check out those two things, I would say to maybe eat more food. It's got to be hard to consume enough calories, though, because you are a vegetarian. Anyhow, I hope you find a solution to your problem.
 
Hi Work Out Queen,

This may be a duplicate e-mail from me.

Re: Intense cardio training for one month and your weight loss.
How much weight did you lose? I seem to be very resistant to fat loss. I lost 13 lbs since February 2005. I do cardio 5 t0 6 times per week and strength train with Cathe workouts but I am really stuck and not losing anything. I have another 15 lbs of fat to lose.

thanks,

Cindy
 
Hi Cindy- I am not sure what your email means, was this another email that was posted...sorry but I am slow. :7

Anway, you're welcome (I think), different things work for different people i guess...25 pounds came right off of me and I have been at my goal weight for 5 years now since I shocked my system with only cardio , now you can actually see the muscle that I worked hard to get...haha.

Quick ego boost story, I was at the beach and wore a bikini for the first time in a long time and people could not believe I was 40 years old...AAAAAND a couple of 22 year olds were hitting on me :eek:

Michele
 
It is actually very easy to consume enough calories as a vegetarian. I'm a vegan and I still have to watch what I put in my mouth. This is just my personal experience but I have found that many vegetarians are overweight because they tend to eat a lot of high fat foods like cheese, butter, and high fat milk. You can get protein sources from MANY different places and if you find that you eat a lot of cheese or milk products, you may want to add some light soymilk or light tofu to subsitite once in a while. Also many vegetarians tend to load up on bread so you may want to be careful about that. It may be good for you, but it also may have tons of calories as well(GRANOLA anyone??). I would suggest keeping track of your caloric intake, for you may be over eating on healthy foods.
c.
 
Thanks Maximus, good article and the members in my aerobic-muscle conditioning class say the same, they can barely keep up with the (overweight) fitness instructor. Interestingly, I was in Nassau on business for 2 weeks and had to cut my morning session to 45 minutes from 1.5 hours with no midday 45 minute session. I couldn't walk to the office the 3 miles I do back home, and interestingly, I lost 5 pounds! In fact, that is where I got hooked on Cathe's programs watching them every morning and on weekends (I don't get them in Canada). I'm going to re-work my workouts beginning in mid-August for about 6 weeks and I'll let everyone here know the results.
 
Hi Uber - you are great going through all these points and it's much appreciated. Answers:

No to Number 1, the only sweetener I use is honey in my unsweetened Soy milk

Hmm, Number 2, well, my background is italian and though I'm a veggie, I still eat italian portions, but I am so AR about my nutrition (no butter, no fried foods, 1 tablespoon peanut butter daily, barely any starches this time of year) that overdosing on veggies and beans barely seems fair.

Number 3, yes on most days, but for the most part, NOT past 7 p.m.

Number 4, I don't favour fats other than avocado in my salads once a week, and carbs, once a month for a couple of days will do.

Number 5, not purified, but certainly enough plain water with lemon sqeezed in. I don't drink coffee, only green or herbal tea, and when out, I drink mineral water with pure cranberry juice (not cocktail). No alcohol or cigs either.

Number 6, probably.

Number 7, great idea - I'll look into that.

Number 8, barely - soy cheese is as processed as I get about once a week.

Number 9, oh I try... I love being outdoors.

Number 10, hmmm, never thought of that... may give it a shot.

Thanks!
 
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