After a several month hiatus from serious gym time, I'm back. I'm also frustrated as all get out, and am not getting answers to my dilemna from either my super-fit friends/relatives or the web.

I'm hoping that the fitness gurus who populate this board will be able to assist.

After four weeks of hard work (with a four day break for an out-of-town funeral), I see literally no improvement. No weight loss, a little increased definition, NO reduction in body fat (according to the Tanita in my bathroom) which, as a result of this period of couch potato-hood, is just about over the top.
I've been down this road before, but I've never been able to figure out why my body responds this way.
Usually, after several months of butt busting, my body fat does decrease, but I remain at the weight at which I was when I began working out AND, what's worse, I never seem to acquire really good muscle definition.
If I don't bust butt, well, it all goes to my butt, if you know what I mean.

As an experiment, I've decided to change my program. In the past, I typically lifted every other day for five days in a row, with attendant cardio; then I took the weekend off. Since I've been back, I've switched to a four-day cycle of lifting and cardio. Here's how I've been doing it:
Day 1: 75 - 90 minutes intense cardio, working between 65% and 80% max heart rate.
Day 2: 60 minutes weight lifting (concentrating on arms/shoulders/chest/light abs) and 40 minutes of intense cardio.
Day 3: 60 minutes weight lifting (concentrating on legs/back/abs) and 40 minutes intense cardio
Day 4: 75 - 90 minutes intense cardio
Day 5: Rest

Currently, I'm following a general low carb, Atkin's guided, diet. I'm consuming about 1600 calories per day, about 50-70 grams of high quality carbs - mostly vegs, with some fruit, tofu, yogurt, and whole grains thrown in, and drinking about 3 liters of water. (That 1600 calories is based upon research done with calorie calculators on the web.)

I'm the world's worst morning person, so I typically go to the gym in the afternoon. Which my husband claims is the problem. Others just look at me with pity and murmur, "getting old". (NOT!) Others attribute it to not working hard enough.


So, here's the $64,000 question: WHY am I not seeing any improvement????

I gave up long ago on Angela Bassett arms (and she's two years older than me!!!), but I WOULD like my pants and skirts to fit well.
Doubt bathing suits will never happen, either....

Hi PCS,

I'm relatively new to the site, but before I moved to KY (and gained way to much weight) 4 yrs ago, I was a trainer in Dallas for 10 years. It sounds like you are not consuming enough calories. Your basal metabolic rate (which is the amount of calories your body needs just to survive...breath, heart beat, brain function, etc) is just a smudge over 1600. When you consume only that amount and then exercise very intensely like you are doing, your body will resist weight loss.

Please understand that because I have not met you and have not fully evaluated your situation, anything that I suggest is based on the information that you provided in your post. It does sound like you are not eating enough calories. It sounds very strange to say that considering all the "popular knowledge" about calories in / calories out theories, but the way low carb eating works with the body does not follow the "accepted science". You can find out lots of interesting ideas that have been posted in the Media watch section.

Look into this and if you have any questions, you can do searches on basal metabolic rate calculators to get more accurate information. Good luck on your journey!

Oh! I forgot to post this in the last post... If you are following the Atkins plan, your carbohydrates are way too high for an induction level. You may want to try backing off on your carbs and adding in more good fat & protein to your diet to make up those extra calories.

I am NOT a fitness guru by any stretch of the imagination, pcsqueen. But I've been working with a trainer over the last 6 weeks or so, and I've asked her similar questions, so maybe this will help.

I was doing a lot of cardio, just like you, but my trainer suggested I cut it back to maybe 3 sessions a week of moderate effort. She believes that cardio is good, but that it shouldn't be done so much that it exhausts the body, because the weight training is far more important. So instead of your intense sessions, how about 30-40 minutes 3 times a week of brisk walking or slow jogging (my trainer suggests a speed of about 4.5-4.8 mph).

Then you can lift 3 times a week, alternating as you do among major muscle groups. My trainer has me do abs at every session, although some people think that abs should be treated like any other group and fully rested before exercising again.

If I can't get to the gym to lift or run, I do Pilates from a tape. It's relaxing, it tones the muscles, and it teaches good form.

As for seeing results, my trainer, who is a small, youngish woman, told me that it was a solid YEAR before she saw major improvements in herself. She says that certain body types see results faster than others. Apparently women who carry weight around their hips have a slower time of it than women who carry it around the middle. I'm in that latter group. I have lost a couple of inches around my hips and half an inch from my waist--but I actually have GAINED weight back since beginning to lift, which I think isn't unusual. This certainly isn't a great improvement for 6 weeks of sweat. But I take it on faith that improvement will come.

About the eating, I agree that you may be taking in too many carbs. But you do need carbs for the lifting. Finding the right amount might be just trial and error.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Hey, MsSammy -

I'm not doing classic Atkins. Induction almost killed me; I could barely get out of bed, much less to the gym. Plus, I spent three weeks throwing major PVCs, not something I want to do ever again.
So, I decided to, essentially, return to the way of eating I was following a few years ago after I read Atkins Anti-Aging book. Essentially, if it's white, I skip it - no pasta, beer, rice, sugar, chocolate, etc, etc, etc. Also, if I can't pronounce it, I don't eat it, so not frankenfoods.
Instead, lots of protien and vegs, some fruit and whole grains. The food in our diet is not bad; we're both foodies and understand nutrition pretty well. Cripes, I can't remember the last time I ate either fast or processed food. (I'm a true food snob.)
Okay, so Atkins disciples may be furious with me, but I feel a helluva lot better. AND NO PVC's!!

About four years ago, when living in North Carolina, I hired a personal trainer for a few sessions as a birthday gift to myself. He looked over my day-to-day eating habits and was pretty satisfied. His only suggestion was to cut the fat out completely. Well, I'm willing to sacrifice, but also know that I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, so I may as well enjoy olive oil while I can!

That calorie concept is interesting and something that I've heard before - and flies in the face of what's being published on tens and tens of websites.

Along with the other good advice about calories, I have found that I have to lift A LOT of weight to see results. When I first started, I had a real bias against weight lifting and I didn't know my own strength. I thought that 8 pound dumbells would do the trick. Well I was the dumbell, because it has taken 20 pound dumbells and 75 - 80 pound squats to see some good results. I also onlyl use free weights and no machines. I found that my body could lift much more than mind thought I was capable of - it took some time and experimenting. If you have access to a trainer, look for one who will really push you. I also notice that you said you were eating 'Atkins' guided, with veggies and tofu. Are you a vegetarian? I was for almost five years, and only started eating meat at the end of September. For me along with the heavier weights, it has made a huge difference in terms of results, strength and stamina.

I agree with MsSammy and Rose. I think that calorie intake is way low ... especially for the activity level you are showing. If you are not taking in enough calories, the body will adjust its processess to make sure that it survives, no matter how much activity you are doing.

The real trick is finding that fine line of caloric intake and activity that will trick your body. Lots of trial and error.

If you need those carbs, why not try putting them in your post workout meal? I have found that it really helps my recovery and I don't feel like such a zombie.

I think Trainerdan hit it good. There is a lot of trial and eror to find what's right for your body, and your caloric intake may be too low. I have a few suggestions on your situation (and going by just what I see you have posted):

1) Your personal trainer that you hired as a BD gift said to cut out all fat. PLEASE do no do this. I have no idea where these guys end up being personal trainers. It's not necessarily dietary fat that makes us fat. It's the combination of high carbs and high fat that make us fat. Think about it. In a normal state, for the most part, our body prefers carbohydrates (glucose) as fuel above anything else. When all of your carbs do not get used, then they get stored as well as everything else. Now, when you are restricting carbohydrate intake, a ton of things happen. Primarily, your brain thinks you are starving when low on carbs...it then tries to trap fat rather than burn it. We are talking about 100,000 years of evolution here. The leaner you get, the more the body wants to be fat. It basically goes into survival mode. But, please do not cut out all the fat. If you were to raise the calories a couple hundred to let's say 1800/day and still kept eating about 50-75 grams of carbs (which could be barely enough to skirt ketosis), then your % of carbs is at about 10-15% of total intake. If this is the case, I would still only put protein at about 1g/1lb of body weight and leave the rest for fat. Trust me, on restricted carb diets, this is a good thing. I would still take in olive oil, flaxseed oil, fish oils, omega-3's, etc...these are the "good" fats that your body needs (EFAs).

2) As far as the intensity in cardio, use your heartrate as a guide, and I don't mean the ones on the machine. Take your pulse yourself. On another post here, there's a whole shpeel about intensities and fat burning and such. That you will have to play around with. Low intensity will burn fat as fuel, but high intensity will burn more fat overall. As far as the frequency, if your lifting is only 2 days a week, I would split like a Mon, Thurs with possibly cardio in between (since you probably like to take the weekends off). This gives the body a little more time to rest in between weight bearing exercises, especially since both days you are working the shoulder girdle (i.e. chest day 1, back day 2). I would go to at least 3 days of lifting or possibly 4. The weights are far more important than cardio. Trust me. I think it's already been mentioned too.

Let us know what changes you are going to make and I will put more thought into it for you.

Sporto

A quick note: it could also have to do with your type of trianing. Your training should always dierctly correlate to your diet and your goals. They all have to be N'Sync (no pun intended). LOL. Along with being female (and having the type of personal trainer telling you to cut ALL fat), you are probably subject to a lot of the female weightlifting myths that are floating around the industry. Let us know what your training is.

Also, cutting fruit from your diet could also help. I could go into a lot of detail, but the type of carbohydrates in most fruits get stored as bodyfat the quickest. Meaning, if you don't use it right away --> to the BF stores it goes!

Sporto

Thanks millions for the feedback, all of you.

Sporto, I, too, wonder about some of the "experts" and "trainers" out there. While I'm certainly not and expert, either, I do have a functioning brain - and some of what they spout seems odd, at best - dangerous, at worst. But, then again, they have to support themselves with either living clients or a big book deal.
Caveat emptor again raises its ugly head.

Honestly, while I'm not delighted with the conclusion, I think RoseTattoo's trainer is right on the money regarding female body realignment. And it makes sense, given what we know about the reason behind healthy women's fat distribution. (Don't know about you, but when I do lose it, my fat ALWAYS departs my upper body first.)

One of the reason I was getting into such frequent, intense cardio was to improve not only my exoskeletal muscles, but also the ones that comprise my heart and lungs. I find that, after a few weeks of hard cardio, my overall capacity for work improves enormously. (Okay, that's one thing I have going for me! )
Additionally, I've had slight problems with minor, exercise-induced bronchospasm (asthma) since I was a kid. Believe it or not, the harder I work on my cardio, the better I feel.

I do use a cardiac monitor - I have a Polar. Not the highest end model, but it does the trick.

In the past, I lifted five days per week, alternating "upper" and "lower" body; but, recently, having been reading alot about alternative theories, especially "super-slow" and necessary muscle recovery time. I thought that I'd space out my lifting a bit more and see what happened. Perhaps not the brightest idea I've ever had.
Additionally, I've been mixing up my workout to a much greater extent. One arm day I'll try to lift as heavily as I can safely lift, doing few reps. Next, I'll do many reps of light weights. Hopefully, that'll fight off the boredom, too.

I might add, that I don't go to a big, fancy gym. My place is on a small military installation; it's small, cramped, and not the most popular place in the world. (This ain't Fort Bragg!)
Usually, I'm alone and don't want to do anything that would get me in trouble. I've seen WAY too many stupid gym tricks in my time.

I think that I'll try to increase my caloric intake by a couple of hundred calories of lean protien. Frankly, after my Atkins Induction Episode, if I never see a hard boiled egg again, it will be too doggone soon.
There's always tuna fish....
I have no great fear of good fats. My fat of choice when cooking is extra-virgin olive oil.
We eat fish about twice per week, and usually it's the oily variety. Chicken is about twice per week. Lean pork and beef about once each. We're definitely carnivores.
Actually, my one of our favorite dinners is a spinach salad with leftover, grilled bonless chicken breasts, one small sliced apple, walnuts, a sprinkle of blue cheese, oilve oil and vinegar.

Again, thanks for the advice.
What I've really got to do is quit complaining and remember what I have. Although I may not be fully satisfied with it in its current state, my body IS whole and healthy. Got a lot to be thankful for just with that.