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57 and not losing a pound

I have been working out for 4 months. I eat a low carb high protein diet. I weight 149 pounds and am 5'61/2". I am so discouraged as I see no change. All of my clothes fit the same. I do 20 minutes of cardio and wt train with a circuit type atmosphere while keeping my cardio up during my wt training. I had a hysterectomy at 51, do I need my hormones checked? My job is very physical and I easily walk > 8000 steps and 6 flights.
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16426782 tn?1447843358
Hey! At 57 you should eat healthy and fit, don't worry about loosing weight. Slow and steady weight loss is a better option. Get your hormones checked and eat complete nutrition diet.
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Avatar universal
You may very well need your hormones checked, but there would be other symptoms than just weight issues.  Could be the thyroid, but again, you don't have other symptoms of it.  But it never hurts to get a regular physical.  But 4 months may not  enough time for you.  It might take longer.  Your diet might not be the right one for you -- there may be foods you're eating regularly you don't metabolize well or don't digest well that are gumming up the works rather than easing the works.  As Gym states, weight training makes a body have a better shape but doesn't necessarily make it lighter or thinner -- muscles replace fat but they do take up space.  I certainly gained weight when I started lifting weights -- most of my life before that was spent playing sports or running that were mostly cardio, but weight lifting made me a bit broader.  You can avoid that by focusing your weight training on areas you want to focus it on rather than on areas where you are naturally larger anyway, not that it will make you healthier but it might give you more the look you seem to be most concerned with.  Health and looks aren't the same thing -- having big muscles don't make a person healthier, but some like the way it looks.  Doing mostly cardio will make you thinner, but again, not necessarily healthier, but muscles are hungry beasts that demand to be be fed.  Look at pro athletes -- linemen in football have huge muscles because they need to be large; wide receivers don't want huge muscles because they need to be more agile and be better able to twist and turn quickly and run quickly.  So they do different types of exercises to emphasize what they want their bodies to be able to do.  And there's also genetics -- to a certain extent we are going to look like what our families look like shape-wise.  Diet is a very individual thing -- a high protein diet may work for some but not for others -- too much protein leads to kidney problems, a common problem among bodybuilders.  A balanced diet is healthiest and is what is found in the clusters of longest-lived people, who also don't do programmed exercise much but move a lot in their natural lives.  Without knowing what you're eating, it's hard to say if it's the right thing, and without knowing how you react to specific foods, it's hard to know how you're reacting to that.  Experimenting tells you that, and that takes time.  General principles are out there, but know that the high protein low carb diets that are popular now are fad diets without long-term experience to judge them by.  I think they make sense for a lot of people logically, but where has logic ever determined actual experience when it comes to body shape?  I think if you keep working at it and changing up things to see if you get better results you will in the end get to where you want to get.
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Avatar universal
The proteins that shorten and lengthen your muscles inside each muscle cell increases, resulting in an increase in muscle size and weight. The enzymes needed to convert the food you eat into energy for resistance training increase. Your muscle cells are also able to store more energy from the foods you eat. Though your fat cells are shrinking, the increase in lean muscle tissue weight is off-setting the weight you lost from fat.

Blood volume increases between 12 and 20 percent after three to six cardio sessions, according to the authors of the book “Exercise Physiology, Energy, Nutrition & Human Performance.” The size and the number of mitochondria or energy-producing organelles in your skeletal muscle cells increase, adding to your lean muscle weight-gain. Aerobic exercise generates an increase in the capillaries surrounding each muscle cell, especially those muscles highly engaged in your activity.

You should keep a food journal! It helps in aiding your weight-loss efforts. You may actually be consuming more calories than you think if you do not weigh and measure your foods and write everything down. Creating a meal plan every night for the following day enables you to assess the number of calories you eat, Making sure you consume at least 250 fewer calories per day compared to what you would normally eat. If you want to see a significant weight loss of 2 pounds per week, especially after the first six weeks of your plan, you should be consuming 500 calories less than what you would normally eat and exercising nearly 90 minutes a day to burn another 500 calories.

Keeping track of how often, duration, intensity and type of exercises you do helps you make adjustments to your routine, helping to get a quicker weight loss. You may think you are exercising every day for an hour, but in fact you may only be working out four days per week. Of each hour, you may be stretching for 15 or 20 minutes which does not burn as many calories as one hour of walking and running. Fine tuning your exercise program maximizes your time in the gym or on the treadmill so you can burn plenty of calories and see the results as a downward drift toward a smaller number on the scale.
I don't know if you like stretching before you do an exercise. I don't stretch
I use a light weight to warm the muscle being worked on. (between 30-40 reps) then I use the weight intended. ( the warm up burns calories as the stretching doesn't.)

The Peak 8 routine it will quickly raise your heart rate 8 times for very short bursts, with a cooling
down period in between. Ideally you’ll be sprinting or cycling full throttle for 30 seconds with a 90
second cool down in between each outburst.
This is the fastest way to lose fat and build muscle in the body. Peak 8 actually stimulates the growth
hormone in the body. I encourage you to visit Dr Mercola’s site to learn more about Peak 8 fitness
because I personally feel that it is one of the best ways to exercise, especially considering the speed at
which you can lose fat and build muscle.
I highly recommend you read this article and watch the videos on the page. It will give you all the
information you need to know about Peak 8 – Flood Your Body With This “Youth Hormone” In Just 20
Minutes.
What you eat after Peak 8 training does matter
It’s recommended that you do not eat sugar or carbohydrate for 2 hours after the Peak 8 exercise
because these foods can impact the release of the growth hormone in the body. The links are
https://youtu.be/XLKML9EL4As?list=PL9FxWnfq1Oyo9pHHUPHeQne4iqoZ4zTN_
https://youtu.be/zy7j9FRiJpg
https://youtu.be/BT5hRYXmxSE?list=PL9FxWnfq1Oyo9pHHUPHeQne4iqoZ4zTN_
Figure your heart rate by this formula
The Karvonen Formula is a mathematical formula that helps you determine your target heart rate zone.
The formula involves using your maximum heart rate (MHR) minus your age to come up with a target
heart rate range (which is a percentage of your MHR). Staying within this range will help you work
most effectively during your cardio workouts.
First thing in the morning before you get out of bed have a clock with a second hand and check your
resting heart rate then figure your rate by the Karvonen Formula
The following link will help you figure your heart rate by the Karvonen Formula.
http://www.briancalkins.com/HeartRate.htm
You burn 30 percent more fat from doing cardio after a weights session as opposed to cardio on its own
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