Thread: Help! I have a question

That question is completely relative to much more information. For starters- What is your starting weight? How tall are you? How old are you? What is the breakdown of your workout look like? All of these things greatly impact my guesstimation on how much weight will be lost. I also have a couple concerns as far as your diet goes but we can discuss that after i know your stats

Right, sorry. haha

current weight- 137
height- 5'6
age- 22
work out- mainly cardio; stairmaster, stepmill, elliptical, bike, treadmill (i usually do three machines each time i go, 15-20 min. on each) and then weights vary
but you get the gist of it

and i haven't worked out the details of my meal plan yet, i just know that i won't be consuming a lot of calories. i need to lose weight!

You'll actually lose more weight, faster, if you don't starve yourself. Just keep portions small and eat enough for your body to repair itself after working out.
For an hour of cardio a day, you should probably be at 1500-1800 calories/day if you want to lose weight. But it's only 3 weeks away, so don't expect significant losses.

Oh thank God for you sourpuss. I was just about to say the same thing. Most people have this false presumption that cutting calories/eating less=weight loss. Perhaps initially because your body goes into shock from you not feeding it but soon it adapts and starts storing everything you put in you. I've seen it over and over again where people, even athletes, hit a plateau simply because they aren't fueling their bodies properly. They aren't eating ENOUGH. Personally I am not a huge advocate of "loosing weight". Obviously that is a desired thing but for me, i love to help people get their mindset right of thinking food for fuel, and getting your body HEALTHY. If you are overweight, you will naturally loose weight when your body is having the proper fuel and excersising. As far as your eating schedule goes, i would probably eat at more points during your day. Only 3 meals with nothing between leaves a lot of time for your body to get confused and think it's being starved. My day generally consists of 5 "meals". I use that term loosely because i am not talking about these huge, sitdown dinners at cheesecake factory. (BTW, cheesecake factory is delicious but the DEVIL) My 5 meals consist of 3 main meals. Breakfast (generally 6 egg whites, 8oz low fat cottage cheese,1 cup skim milk) Lunch (Salad w/4oz lettuce, 4oz lean meat, 1 cup fresh vegetables, 2tbsp lite dressing) then Dinner (4oz lean meat, 8oz carbohydrate like a baked potato, 2 cups fresh vegetables, 1oz nofat cheese). Those are my typical 3 meals but then i just have 2 snacks i eat. 1 between breakfast and lunch, and the other between lunch and dinner. Usually they consist of 1 fruit and something like rice cakes or a protein bar. This way my body is constantly being fueled by HEALTHY foods, it never thinks he is starving but i sure burn every ounce of it. This is coupled with my workout routine, which is pretty intensive. It sounds like a lot of work (and a lot of measuring food) but once your body begins to change. You feel the effects of a higher metabolism and a healthy, lean body...you will just want to push harder.

One more thing. Sourpuss was also right about you not seeing huge results. It is only 3 weeks. Especially since you are planning to weight-lift also. For most people who just wanna loose weight as far as NUMBERS go, don't lift very much because your body builds muscle and you tend to not loose much weight. Not many people understand though, that this is perfectly fine because you are building muscle mass and still loosing inches. But for a lot of people it's just about that number on their scale. If you are going to be lifting i would really suggest you get your body fat percentage read. You can either buy a good scale that will (kind of) do this or to be much more accurate have your doctor do it. This will help you see better what results you are getting that may not be reflected in pounds. In the past 12 weeks I have been doing a new intensive workout program and i have only lost about 10lbs..which doesn't seem like much progress. However, i went from 13.6% body fat, down to 6.8%. Trust me you can tell the difference.

At any rate, good luck and don't loose heart when you aren't dropping the pounds like crazy. It's a journey that takes work and patience. Have fun! :-)