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How to lose five pounds
I am trying to lose five pounds. My diet is low-fat and healthy, but my workout is the problem. Three days a week, I run for 30 minutes and walk for 15 minutes on the treadmill. I also use a couple of exercise machines on these days (one for shoulders, one for abs, one for hips) and one day a week, I do 30 minutes of cycling. How can I change my workout to help me lose the weight? I've been doing this for months and see no results.
You can do some self-assessment of your current programme and tweak it to help you get closer to your goals. Examine the components of your current routine based on the basic principles for planning an exercise programme: mode, frequency, duration and intensity.
Let's look at each principle to see how your programme meets the requirements and how we can modify what you're doing now to help you lose those five pounds:
Mode: The type of exercise you're doing. One of the two main categories is cardiovascular or aerobic training, which strengthens the heart and lungs and also burns more calories because of the continuous duration of the activity. The other main category is resistance, or strength training, which is usually in the form of weight training or calisthenics. You've already got three types of aerobic exercise (cycling, running and walking) as well as strength work, so you're solid in this category. Well done.
Frequency: How often you're exercising. Exercise has to be regular for you to reap the benefits. You're doing four days of aerobic exercise and about three days of strength training. We generally recommend three to five days of cardiovascular exercise per week. To give yourself more calorie-burning opportunities, I would add one or two more days of aerobic exercise to your routine.
I guess you use the treadmill at the gym and use the machines there. Two or three days a week of strength training is fine, but you aren't working enough muscle groups. You should be doing exercises for your legs, back, chest and arms in addition to the exercises you do now. And you should train each muscle group or body part two to three times per week with at least a day's rest before reworking a particular muscle group.
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