For the last 35 lbs of my weight loss I have been using the body bugg and it has been working pretty good. I have been having ~2 lbs loss each week. I know my workout routine has started to become well routine and I am also at that 3-4 month period which for me is one of those times where I start to say in my head, oh once won't hurt (skip the gym, eat out at junk place, treat myself to a milkshake). To counter that, I hired a personal trainer. I also wanted to get in the 250's by my b-day (which is now 2 wks away).

We have only met 3 x over 1.5 wks, so yes very new. However, the trainer is having me eat more and we are barely doing any cardio (3 sets of 5-10 mins in a 1 hr workout). I do know that muscle burns more than fat so getting more lean muscle is good. Based on calculations of body fat (from scales), my current lean muscle weight is higher than my goal weight. Tomorrow, I am getting hydrostatically tested for body fat. Then I will know how accurate my scales are.

Without the cardio, the body bugg is not showing as much calorie burn and because of the way the body bugg works, it typically has more error when doing resistance training. However, my weight loss from last week (entered/measured information compared to results) showed accurate on my calorie burn.

I know I should just relax and let things take its course. I just am tempted to do another 30 min cardio only session in the evenings or something. I hired the trainer to keep me from plateauing and I am affraid that the opposite is occuring. When I bring this up with my partner, she just tells me to quit stressing about it. I just needed a place to vent it out. Thanks.

BTW, I have a slow burner body style.

you could always talk to your trainer about doing cardio on your own time. I doubt they would mind you adding a little additional exercise.

I think your assessment of the situation is correct. More cardio is what you want if you want to burn calories from fat. I was told by a body builder/trainer that if he was looking at the choice of adding more cardio vs adding more weight training, and his goal was to lose fat, then he'd choose to do cardio at least twice a day.

You might consider HIIT. Talk to your trainer about it.

Georgia

Well, I'm not sure what a body bug is. But if you are working out in your target heart range for at least 30 minutes 3x a week--then you are doing "enough" cardio to exercise your heart and burn enough calories to help your weight loss efforts. Your trainer is simply taking a fairly minimal approach--nothing wrong with that.

I would talk to your trainer and ask him or her more about the rationale behind his or her approach. If I were you, I'd like to know if there's more to read and/or research.

However, if you feel the need for more cardio--then do it. There's nothing wrong with that. Discuss it with your trainer and then go ahead. Why would he/she care? It's in no way "bad" for you. If he or she does have a problem with it, then fire him or her and get another trainer.

I think hiring a trainer to help yourself is an excellent way to keep yourself motivated. It's really important to get good instruction on your form when weight lifting so that's really good.

Three sets of cardio (which will also help keep your heart rate up during other exercises, I believe) of 5-10 mins would be 15 to 30 minutes in an hour workout. That doesn't seem totally unreasonable, especially since you can do cardio on the days you don't train.

My personal thinking (and I've never had a trainer but this is what I would use one for) is that, I would want to pay the trainer to help me work my body in challenging, proper ways I could not do on my own. Help work several muscles at once.

If you're concerned, throw more cardio in a day or two when you're not seeing your trainer. Or, if it's really important to you, you are the client and have every right to ask for more cardio. But I agree with Alana about asking about for the rationale -- you may find you like the answer and choose to stick with this approach.

I do a 30-minute weight training session 2x per week with a personal trainer ... very intense training to muscle failure. Then, additionally I do AT LEAST 30 minutes per day of cardio. I could not personally do cardio and weight training in the same session as I am so depleted from the weight training.

I wear a GoWear Fit and it doesn't record the weight training as intense as my cardio and perhaps it's not from a MET standpoint. But weight training drains me much more (but I like it -- especially when it's done LOL).

Anyway ... I second the motion to get in more cardio. It can't hurt as far as I can tell. My trainer wants me to get within my target heart rate for at least 30 minutes a day, but if I go longer he's good with that.

I wear a GoWearFit and when I noticed my calorie burn for the day going down, I started adding an extra cardio session in the evenings. It's worked wonders..and I'm still losing on average 2lbs a week.

It's funny some of you mentioned the MET's not registering very high for strength training. My ST sessions always show MET's from 6 to 9 and I have a great calorie burn, although not as much as cardio but at the end of the day, the more muscle you have the more calories overall you will burn..

Have you spoken to your trainer? I mean, has he or she explicitly stated that they expect you to do no more cardio than you're doing in your sessions together? I wonder if they just assume that you're doing cardio on your own on the days you're not working together. It doesn't seem like they'd advise you *not* to do more, as long as you're not overtraining, which it certainly doesn't seem like you are.

I vote for more cardio as well... but on top of the weight training. Talk to the trainer about it first. The muscle will do you good in the long run, but you also need to burn calories now for a consistent weight drop and at 250 losing 2lb a week is going to be really motivating to keep you on track more so then small losses. You likely will lose some lean body mass as you lose weight but also remember that that lean mass isn't just muscle. (We lose blood volume etc too)

It was my understanding that most experts these days say 60 mins of cardio 6x a week for weight loss and 30mins 3 times for weight maintenance.

The weight training will be a big help though in keeping up the metabolism, so including it now is a good idea.

I, too, bought some sessions with a trainer, and the trainer wanted me to eat more as well. What I learned from my sessions was, it pays to do what the trainer says.

If you get to the end of your sessions and you have gained weight, that is the time to say, "We need to adjust this." In the meantime, as your partner has suggested, don't stress about it! Why hire a trainer just to ignore their input?

Jay

Thanks for the ear and advice. I don't think I am going to give her to the end but I will give her until the end of next week which will be the 1/2 way point of our sessions. If my loss is <4 lbs over 3 wks, I'm going to add more cardio to my days and let her know.

The advantage of having a trainer say you can/need to eat more .. during the summer is nice, cuz now I'm back to eating 1/2 cup of frozen yogurt several times a week.

3 sessions in 1.5 weeks with a trainer - you are so lucky!

I see my trainer 1 time a week - at $20 a pop plus gym fees that's all I can do - but trust me I'd love to see him everyday - but not in the gym

Anyhow -

Here is my schedule - I recently deleted one lift day due to the fact I want more endurance and weight lose.

Monday - trainer 20min killer cardio and 40 min "I want to kill my trainer" lifting
Tuesday - yoga + 20 min cardio
Wednesday - 20 min cardio and 40 min lift
Thursday - 50 min cardio
Friday - 50 cardio
Saturday - Swim

How much are you paying for your trainer?

I paid 550 for 10 sessions plus a 10 session punch card at my gym so the trainer could train me there.

I really wanted to do 1x wk so I could get 10 wks from her but she really wanted to go 2x wk, so we compromised to 2-4 wks of 2x a week and the rest 1x wk.

I went looking for a trainer to A) check my form and B) help me create variety in my work out routines.

I actually envisioned meeting more like every other week at which point she'd give me a new routine to do over the 2 wks. We'd quickly go through those to make sure I knew what she had listed, then we'd do other things for the rest of the hour. We might get there, we might not. I really need and excel in a structured environment. I know my body will get used to anything I throw at it after a bit of time, so I'm looking for someone to give me structured randomness.

I've kinda liked having someone at the gym with me. And I do feel the difference with her routines..... and the But... I miss the treadmill (well comparatively)