PrintHave a question about your routine or anything fitness-related? Send it Raphael’s way at askraphael@ediets.com.
Hi Raphael,
My name is Cindy. I am 5 feet tall and now weigh 165lbs. When I started on my weight-loss journey, I think I weighed about 178lbs; my scale is not accurate. My question is, what am I doing wrong?
I work out 3-5 days a week. I do 30-35 minutes of circuit and 20-25 minutes of circuit where I should be burning 350 calories. I also do the elliptical stair climber where I burn 200-300 calories, together bringing me to an hour or so of workout a day.
I do this at least three times a week but never do two days of circuit in a row. If I do circuit one day, the next day I’m doing elliptical and strength training.
Why am I not losing substantial weight? I’ve been doing this for four months now and still can’t see any substantial weight loss. What am I doing wrong? Help… – Cindy
Cindy,
The big red flag in my eyes is nutrition. You didn’t mention anything about your food intake. I don’t know how many calories you’re consuming, how many times per day you eat, what you’re eating, etc. This is the area that is so vital yet so few people mention it in their questions to me. Your workouts look good, but I would need to review your workouts, calorie intake and height (which you provided) to best analyze your situation.
I recommend that you journal all of your meals for one week. Write down the foods, amounts and total calories. Then see what the amount averages every day. You may be surprised at the end result because journaling tends to pinpoint where we’re going wrong.
After one week of journaling, determine whether you’re straying from your nutrition program more often then you realize. If you find this to be the case, then decrease the foods you aren’t gaining any benefit from (high-sugar, high-carb and high-fat foods).
However, if your journal shows that your meals are very healthy and on track, then decrease calories by 300 for seven consecutive days. Do not cheat on your diet during the seven days. So if you’re currently taking in 1700 calories per day, then reduce to 1400. But again, it’s very important that it be for seven consecutive days in order to establish a baseline.
If you see a loss of approximately 1-2 pounds, then you know you’re on the right track. If you do not see a loss, then it’s quite possible you may need to experiment by actually decreasing a bit more — assuming it does not place your calories lower than 1200.
At your height and activity level, I can’t imagine you’d need more than 1500-1600 calories for steady fat loss. However, in order to achieve a steady 1-2 pounds of fat loss per week, you may need to go lower than that. Losing more than 2 pounds per week will strip valuable muscle tissue so that’s why I recommend that range.
According to your 4-month time frame and approximate starting weight, you’ve lost .8 pounds per week, which isn’t all that bad, but I know you can accelerate this.
If the nutrition part of your program is difficult to figure out, then please consider joining eDiets. Our delicious meals plans and support from registered dietitians will get you losing quite steadily.
Wishing you great success, Cindy!
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