Gaining weight while exercising

Question
My girlfriend has been excerising the past month for 5 days a week on an elliptical for approximately 20-30 minutes. She is overweight and has high cholesterol. She has become very disgruntled as she has not lost any weight at all and even sometimes gains weight. She has also taken in less calories and fat in an attempt to lose weight (the weight watchers diet). She also says she doesn't look different in the mirror at all.

She feels like everything she does is not working and she is on the verge of giving up.

She claims the only time she ever lost weight was when she was using "Herbalife." I am very concerned about her health and I would rather her not take some sort of dietary supplement.

My questions are:
1) Why is she not losing any weight at all despite a whole month of dieting and exercising?
2) Are supplements such as Herbalife safe?
3) What would you recommend in order for her to lose weight?
4) Is it possible to do all this exercise and not  

Answer
HI Patrick,

Trash all diet pills - if they don't kill ya, if they "succeed", you lose mostly water, and when you stop taking them you gain it all and more.

The notion that 3500 calories = a pound of fat, intake and out going is not at all accurate. Your/her metabolism changes with mood, activity, stress, AND how much you eat - when you suddenly eat a lot less, you metabolism goes down. Inside, you don't know there is plenty of food around, just that all of a sudden it looks like a famine, so you/her start getting great milage our of one raw carrot.

Next item: fat to mucle. She is in action, muscles are forming, muscles are heavy. They may not show under the extra fat.

Now what? Eat more. Get the sense of well being so it seems safe to burn up what's in storage. Eat all the raw fruit, raw or slightly cooked non-starchy vegetables she wants, whenever she wants. Eat quality carbs, and one serving of protien/meat once a day, BUT don't eat carbs and protein at the same time.

Drink lots of plain water, no sodas, no artificial sweetener drinks, that stuff stimulates appetites.
Get rid of refined flour and refined sugar - it can do wonders to cholesterol.

When you eat real food, your appetite can tell you what you need and when you've had enough. Eat as soon as you start to feel hungry, when you can still think about your choice, not when you are starving and bite into the first thing chewable, and eat way too much of it.

I also bet her stress/frustration negative thinking is not helping, but lowering her metabolism. Your thinking is as much of a program as your genes.

More on muscle: you can do wonders with 30 minutes A WEEK of slow motion, non-stop wearing out of your 6 muscle groups, 5 minutes each. Mucsle mass raised metabolism.

Also, Pilates is a good way to sculpt. Yoga also.


More clues at http://www.premiumfuel.com  

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