Q&A for: 28-Jun-08
2699. Q:
I'm female, weigh 135 pounds and 5'2. I have lots of flab and fat all over my body, and have been trying to lose weight. I have been working out for about half an hour at the gym for twice every week for the past month, and still see no visible results. What can I do?
A:
It's difficult to say why exactly you haven't seen any progress since you didn't go into much detail about your program, but let me give you some ideas...
First, at 5 foot 2 inches and 135 pounds, you are actually not overweight! Although you may not have the ideal physique you'd like your weight is perfectly healthy and you can't have that much extra fat on you. What that means is that getting in even better shape will NOT be a cakewalk! The better shape you are in already, the harder you have to work to improve! If you were say, 180 pounds, then even the slightest improvements to your diet or lifestyle would give immediate results. But you are already in perfectly good shape, so improving further will take a good program and following it diligently for a while.
Which brings me to the next point -- one month and 8-10 30-minute workouts is almost nothing as far as your body is concerned. Think of it this way -- if you had 8 or 10 extra large meals over the course of one month would it make you overweight? No, of course not. Similarly, expecting dramatic results from just 8 or 10 workouts is not realistic.
Another point is how good are your workouts? Jogging on a treadmill for 30 minutes at 6 miles an hour, for example, will burn you a whopping 300 calories. 10 of these workouts in themselves will barely be enough to burn just 1 pound of fat. And if your diet happens to be subpar during that time, almost all benefits of those workouts will disappear. Not all workouts are created equal. If you read articles on my website you will learn the huge benefits of heavy whole-body weight training for losing fat -- something most women are unfortunately afraid of for all the wrong reasons. Please read my Fat Loss and Weight Training? articles if you haven't already.
Finally, even the best workouts will only bring you limited results if your diet is poor. Please read my Diet article to learn how to eat healthy for fat loss.
Hope that starts to answer your question why you haven't seen any results and also puts you on your way to more effective diet and training for fat loss.
2700. Q:
On mon weds n fri ima do crunches sit ups n shrugs 1 set 2 failure n tues thurs n sat ima do push ups curls 1 set to failure is that ok? Im new 2 weight lifting so idk ...wouldn't my work outs b 2 quick will I c results
A:
If your goals are like most people's -- to lose extra fat and build some muscle tone -- then your current workouts are not very good. First of all, by only doing crunches, shrugs, curls and pushups you ignore most of your muscles -- legs and back are by far your two largest muscle groups and have the most potential for burning fat and building muscle and you don't exercise them at all. Doing just one set per exercise and only 8 or so total sets per week is also most likely too little.
Start by reading my Weight Training article and start improving your program (or you can just select any of the many programs linked in the article). Furthermore, if you are serious about either losing fat or building muscle you will reach your goals many times faster if you eat accordingly! What and how much you eat will affect your fat and muscle content AT LEAST as much as your training program. To start learning about eating right, please read my Nutrition article.
2701. Q:
my weight is 113 kg i do sport from 7 month i loose jiust 3 kilo but my clothes is be more than why i play 2 hour scwach and body building who i can loose weight an d i have prob in inciline bench
A:
I wish you told me your age and height, but I assume you are a teenage guy who is still growing... If that is the case, then losing 3 kilos in 7 months may well be very good progress for you! If you are still growing you do NOT want to lose weight too quickly because it may stunt your growth. Slow steady pace is almost always best for weight loss. More importantly than the number of kilos lost is the fact that most likely you are losing fat and building muscle at the same time -- exactly what you want! So your weight may not be changing much, but your body fat percentage is going down and you are getting much healthier.
Second point about weight loss is that it depends on diet as much as it does on your physical activity. You shouldn't eat little, but you should eat healthy. Read my Nutrition article to learn what foods you should and shouldn't be eating. Again, don't focus on how much you eat -- focus on WHAT you eat.
And as far as your incline bench press, please post back with your current weight lifting program and what weights you've been lifting for how long. Or you can take a look at my Strength program -- it's designed to improve strength in 3 basic lifts: squat, deadlift, and bench press. If you'd like you can ignore the squat and deadlift part of the program and simply follow it with incline bench press. While on this program make sure to limit all your other chest/shoulder/tricep training to always be fresh for this program. If you are not sure how to implement this program, just post back here and ask. Good luck!
2703. Q:
I'm 25 female 5'4 inch , 143 pounds but my body fat percent is 35 ..what can i do to decrease it.
A:
Please start by reading my Fat Loss article and follow the instructions found there -- it'll instruct you in the basics of fat loss, ask you to read two other articles on nutrition and training and finally set you up with a custom fat loss program for yourself.
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