Exercise Grievance

[hararayne]

So here's a little blurb about me. I'm a long-time forum member but haven't been real active with it.

My issue is this. A few years ago I paid about $400 for a personal trainer and saw no results. Meaning I saw no results. Everyone else said I looked more toned, blah blah blah. I weighed 215 lbs or so at the time and as much as I understand the idea that we should strive for health and be happy with "looking" better, I was thoroughly dis-satisfied because I actually gained weight working out. I'm female, 5'7" and being this heavy is quite the irritance. I'm very curvy and the one positive thing I took from the experience is I learned that I'm not supposed to be as tiny as those wieght charts say. I have about 146 lbs of lean muscle and bone. So weighing 146 lbs isn't really in the cards for me.

That said, I've begun a new calorie count regime, and I feel I've been doing very well with it. I started at 216lbs and in 3 weeks I'm down to 211. My goal is 164 lbs. I've begun working out again, but I'm worried that I'll start to gain again. I'm working out now with the mindset of toning up and increasing my cardio for better over-all health. I'm hoping that exercise will also help my skin "snap back" after I get to my goal. My weightloss this time will be much more gradual.

I guess, in my long-winded way, I'm wondering if anyone else experienced this type of set back? How did you overcome it? Thanks!

 

[caddyguy]

I have been through some weight gain ups and downs. I have been very fit with with a trainer and struggled to lose weight with a trainer. It's 80-90% diet. Training really hard makes you tired and hungry. You have to have your food choices prepared before you start. I was doing two-a-days at one point and needed 4,000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I ran 6-8k plus some intervals in the morning and then a 90 minutes hard core workout in the afternoon. That same diet with no exercise would cause me to gain 10lbs/month minimum. An ass kicking exercise session might burn 500-1000 calories max. I'm 6'1" 224 and I'm losing 1lb every 2-3 days working out 6 days a week and eating 1500-1800 calories per day with NO cheating and NO booze.

Be honest with what your eating when you have a trainer. Also trainers tell me all the time how sick they are to see people spending money and coming to the gym lazy and unmotivated. If you don't give it everything you've got on every exercise you're wasting the trainers time and your money. I warm up for 15 minutes before my session and stretch myself after. You can waste 20-25 minutes of an hour session warming up and cooling down. I pay them to kick my butt and I want my hour getting just that.