Community » Get Advice » Diet and Nutrition » Doing all the right things and not seeing results.

I KNOW how frusterating it can be to workout like a maniac, restrict your calories and not see the scale move. And I'm guessing your hubby IS losing b/c it is soooo much easier for men (more frusteration!!).

I highly recommend Rachel Cosgrove's new book to you - The Female Body Breakthrough....the nutrition info in that book has helped me ENORMOUSLY, and I think you'll find a lot of helpful info in there too about strength training and cardio.

I suspect to lose you need to eat MORE calories and more times a day and maybe change up what you're eating, run LESS (I know this sounds so counter-intuitive but the body adapts so quickly to steady state cardio that over time you end up burning fewer and fewer calories with it), strength train more and harder (if you're training hard there's NO way you'll be able to run 3-6 miles ea day so that will take care of that prob! ), and add in some metabolic cardio interval-style training a couple days a week in place of your runs. Late 20's to early 30's is when metabolism starts changing, slowing down and the things that worked in the past to kick start weight loss don't work any more (and I am right there with you). You'll have to work harder to get your metabolism up to where you want it to be, but once you do you'll be golden.

Hang in there and good luck on your journey.

Interval walk/run will help some - but what will help the most is more strength training - I do three full-body sessions a week, I've experimented a lot over the past 10+ years with lifting daily, 2-5x week, body splits vs full-body and I'm definitely seeing the best results ever w/ three full-body days a week with at least 1 day of rest in between. You do need at least 1 total rest day (you could walk leisurely but nothing intense) - lifting days really should only have cardio for warm up or cool down, not long sessions. Off days you could use for runs, interval cardio, interval metabolic cardio (this is my fav, what I'm doing now and it is working working working!!), your Jillian Michael's DVD, or a cardio/yoga/pilates class. If you're not used to serious strength training though you probably need to just start with 2-3 days training/week and you'll need all the other days to recover for probably the first week or two. If you're interested in trying out strength training, I just created a 6-week introductory strength training program today - you can search for plans under my user name and you'll find it.

Those would be my ideal recommendations, but most bang for the least amount of effort/change - do run/walk intervals instead of straight runs (hill intervals even better), rest completely at least 1 day, and eat 6 times a day - every 2-3 hours at least 1 protein and 1 fruit or vegetable at each meal. If you are eating 3x/day now - start by going to 4, then 5, then 6 if that is easier. Each time you eat your metabolism goes up - you can train your body this way to keep your metabolism up all day and eventually it will adapt your base metabolic rate up....so you can eat more calories but just by eating you'll be burning more and you can still end up with a net decrease in calories at the end of the day.

That sounds like a great workout! If you aren't doing hard strength training I think 3 days of intense cardio sessions is fine.

Do you have any weights at home? You can do a lot with a few dumbells and/or kettle bells, a stability ball and a resistance band or two.