Last 9lbs

[natejay]

Hey guys, posting for my sister...she's too scared to post this on her own or something, but she's sitting here telling me what to type...so please don't think I'm being a jerk or something

Alrighty....she is 5ft 2in and has gone from 158lbs to 124, her goal being 115, but she's hit a wall and can't drop below 124.

Diet:
Mon-Fri
- Breakfast - 1 bowl Special K with Strawberries with two pieces of fruit
- Lunch - 1 Cup of Yogurt and a rice cake and maybe a piece of fruit
- Dinner - Whatever the family is having (small portions, we eat healthy, never have any greasy food or anything like that) and she usually has another piece of fruit or two.
Sat-Sun
- Breakfast - 1 bowl Special K with Strawberries with two pieces of fruit
- Lunch - Usually a salad with grilled chicken on top again, maybe a piece of fruit
- Dinner - Whatever the family is having (small portions, we eat healthy, never have any greasy food or anything like that) and she usually has another piece of fruit or two.

Workout
Mon/Wed/Fri
- Interval Biking 2 minutes on (80% MHR) and 1 minute off (completely off, no peddling/moving/anything). 5 two minute sessions.
- 8 Ball exercises (she does a routine from women's health)
Tue/Thu/Sat
- Bodybuilding.com - Angela Mraz - The Complete Dumbbell Workout! - Does the intermediate Routine
- Pilates - does a Mari Winsor DVD with an elastic band (it's actually kinda hard, ha....)
Sun
- Relax/gentle 2 mile run.

Personally I think she eats too much fruit...she seriously eats like 6 servings a day...I don't know if that has anything to do with anything....but seems like "too much" to me...ha.

Also, I thinking maybe she needs to eat 5 times during the day...because really she doesn't eat a whole lot...definitely under the "maintenance calories" yet she's not losing anything...so I was thinking maybe her metabolism has slowed down...so to keep that up...she should eat more frequently...if that makes any sense.

She doesn't want to take any pills, just naturally....and she's been doing a really great job (34lbs in about a year) and 9 lbs from goal...so if you all have any advice...she'd be very greatful...thanks a lot.

 

[hardyb]

1) She is not eating NEARLY enough protein or food in general! I would be surprised if she was eating 1000 calories a day. Her daily maintenance intake is just over 2000 calories (apprx.), so safely she should at least be eating 500. Plus, she NEEDs more protein. I agree, 4-6 meals a day should be incorporated. That keeps your body fed and keeps you from going into starvation mode (which actually ends up storing more fat than burning).
2) High Intensity Interval exercise should NOT have a complete stop in it, or you just end up undoing what you did. Gotta keep it moving, even if it's at a slow speed... the point is to keep your heart rate up. Also, once you start getting a bit better about this, start increasing the times you do it. Rather than five 2-min sessions, try going 6, 7, or 8 times. Progressive overload.
3) Too much fruit can be bad for you too. It's very sugary and can inhibit fat burn.
4) You gotta rest one day a week. Your body will crash otherwise. You need at least one day off a week - pick one day and don't do ANYTHING exercise related.

 

[tjl]

Agree that there does not seem to be a lot of food that she is taking in. I.e. she may not be eating enough food. Try putting the food into fitday or something to figure out how many calories it is. Also, check the protein intake.

Her interval bicycling adds up to a mere 10 minutes of 80% MHR (top of aerobic range). The amount of time is not enough for endurance training, and the intensity is not high enough to be effective HIIT (which should have low aerobic intensity active rest instead of inactive rest between the high intensity anaerobic intervals). In terms of calories burned, 10 minutes of bicycling is not much.

One other thing to consider: check whether a goal defined purely in terms of weight is appropriate. If she gains muscle from lifting the dumbbells, she could be heavier than she looks because muscle is dense (and more muscle is generally desirable). Goals that incorporate body fat percentage or some proxy like waist size may work better in avoiding being confounded by (desirable) muscle growth.

Note that 124 pounds is already within the "healthy" weight range as defined by BMI (BMI = 22.70, versus "healthy" range of 19 to 25). Her stated goal of 115 pounds corresponds to a BMI of 21.05. But BMI does not tell the whole story, since a person within the "healthy" BMI range may have a high body fat percentage ("skinny fat" -- less muscle and may be functionally limited by being weak; remedy for this is usually to concentrate on building muscle, or "bulking"), while some people may have higher than "healthy" BMI but due to increase muscle (and thus be healthy and not subject to the risks of obesity that someone is heavy with body fat would be).