Hi.

I'm new here, this is my first post. I've been cutting down on carbs drastically over the last few months, just cutting out bread and pasta which I ate a lot of, but I want to get serious about "low-carbing". I've read The Zone book. I'm going to get my hands on an Atkins diet book soon too.

Anyway... my exercise question. I'm not overweight. I'm technically in a healthy weight range - I'm 5'6/7 and I weight 59 kilos, which is I think 125/130 pounds. My gym and diet goals are to rid myself of my body fat which I have a lot of, to tone up basically. Both me and my friend have been going to the gym for the last 3 months, I've been going almost everyday. The strange thing is that we both notice that instead of real improvements, we both see that we are smaller but flabbier... Ugh!

When I had my fitness assessment, the personal trainer said that I was doing everything right, except too many weights. He said I should only do them 3 times a week, or at most every second day. But he said I could do cardio all I wanted. So most days, I did at least an hour of cardio and every second day I did some weights for 1/2 an hour or 40 minutes or so.

I spoke to an acquaintance of mine who is also a personal trainer and he said that I was probably doing too much cardio and I had started to eat at my muscles, which is why my thighs are smaller, but flabbier...

Is that right?

I did lose about 5 or 6 kilos during my gym regimen, but I'm going to have a rest now and try swimming every day instead, just to change it up a little.

Does anyone have any advice? I'm not so much worried about weight, I just want to lose body fat and tone up. Three months of hard work at the gym and I'm flabbier than before!

I also want to get serious about low-carbing, but that's another thread!