bmi/calories

Question
QUESTION: Hi Dr Phil
I am 43 years old, weigh 190lbs. 5'6 feet tall. Yes, overweight. I have been on the Body for Life diet since June 30th. I have completed my first 12 week Challenge and am on Challenge 2. I work out 5-6 days a week. I feel I have reached a plateau. I havent lost any weight in 4-5 wks. I havent changed my eating. I eat 6 small meals a day. A protein with a carb. Sunday is my free day but I dont go overboard. I enjoy my large coffee and muffin and have a fun meal at night.  What am I doing wrong? I dont seem to be loosing any more weight. I am now boosting my cardio activity to 30mins a day , every other day is 45mins...and weight training is each day ...30mins for cardio and 30mins for strength training. I figured I need to eat 1450 calories a day , burn 500 a day.  IS that correct? My goal is to be at 150lbs by March 2009. I have already lost 30lbs since June.    Thank you for your time.

ANSWER: Juli-

1450 is very low. I would not venture to go much lower at all.

One thing are you relying only on the scale thats a bad choice if so. Are you still losing size, inches etc. Its very possible you are losing fat and gaining muscle. Muscle is Much more dense the fat and so takes up less space. Think of a pound of feathers vs a pound or bricks. Much the same you can get smaller and stay the same weight or heck even gain weight.

Other things I would look at is your workout. What are you doing?? Its very well could be bad workout choices doing small isolation moves instead of big compounds that burn a lot of energy and have potential to preserve that expensive muscle that makes up your metabolism and shapes your body.

Id look at those and also just the foods in general

It sound like the diets on the right track and could largely be the choice of training a LOT of cardio and limit high intensity work with poor inefficient choices.

In urge you to take a look at our free discussion forum which has a great group of women and men that are very supportive.
www.Teamstaley.com

By the way congrats on the HUGE!!! progress thus far. #1 keep it up dont get discouraged small lil steps make a big difference it just takes time.

Phil

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again and thank you.  
I was doing 20hard minutes of the treadmill tues/thurs and aerobics on saturday. And on Mond/Wed/Friday I would alternate Lower then Upper body. I dont want to be muscular just smaller and firm. SO I wanted to move the aerobic activity to 30mins a day , and only 2 days of strength training and 2 days of 45mins instead of 30mins of cardio. I've been doing the Body for Life diet, but its only good for the 12 week challenge to get your body into the groove so to speak. So I figured I would loose more (I've hit my plateau) and havent lost anything in 4-5wks.  
I will not go above 1500 a day and Sundays are my cheat day. I will have one free meal... and my coffee.. gosh I love my coffee..   Saturdays I stick to my diet just giving my body a break.   Does that sound better? thank you again.

Answer
Its an ok plan. Diet wise looks good make solid choices get your protein, plenty of veggies and fruits in and good fats.

Training wise Id really rather see you base the training on resistance training and not aerobics. Make aerobic what you add on the resistance training is the foundation. What makes guys big ( heavy weights) makes women HOT. You wont wake up to Huge. To get huge would really have to try including the use of illegal drugs. Muscle is going to shape you the way a female is supposed to be and will also burn more fat and give you a higher metabolism.

I would train full body 3 days a week with big compound move then to break your plateau try some fasted morning cardio non panting, Not hard enough you make you breathe hard prob just a nice brisk walk for you. It will do wonders to rip off fat and save lean mass and have energy for resistance training

Cheers
Phil

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