Free Health/Fitness Coach

OH I would LOVE some help!!! I dont have much to lose..actually I'm in my weight range as the charts go, but I"M not happy. I have always gone up and down about 15 pounds. Recently, I have not been able to lose weight no matter what I do! I have been on this Ideal Protein diet that has worked great for me in the past and now it is no longer working. My goals are to get toned and lean! Right now I'm 126 at 5'2. So I would love some help with what kinds of foods to eat, carbs dont like me! And a workout plan that includes resistance or weights, along with cardio.

I'd love to help. I just need to take a look at your food diary so i can see what you have been doing and if i could recommend any alterations.

I took a look at your food diary and everything seems to be fine. The only thing I'd have to ask is how much have you been working out recently and what types of workouts have you been doing. Also how tall are you. (just trying to establish a caloric base)

I'm short 5"2 1/2 ...and lately I've been swimming or doing the elliptical. The elliptical I do for like an hour and on interval training...swimming is doing laps around my pool and trying to run inside the pool too.

i really need to learn how to reply to these properly.

Everything looks fine which is strange. For someone your height and activity level a healthy deficit would be at around 1500 calories per day. As far as the type of food your eating, in my experience it really doesn't matter what you eat as long as you hit your caloric goal (keeping in mind that healthy foods tend to be more filling)

If your weeing weight gain the only thing i can think of is that maybe you are underestimating the # of calories that you are in taking. One possible solution could be to invest in a food scale for when you eat at home. And for your workouts try to incorporate some resistance training (Ex: a full body weight workout 3x per week)

Hello there. Figured I'd do this since I recently have a lot more free time on my hands and I figure I might as well spend it helping people.

Little bit about myself. Used to be 295lbs, got down to 160 at my lowest before i started lifting weights and gaining. I have extensive knowledge on damn near everything when it comes to health and fitness and i'm looking to share what ive learned with others.

I have had success with several clients in the past some of which lost up to 100lbs and changed their lives around. So basically i know what I'm doing lol.

Looking to help others in any way i can whether it be through creating diet plans, workout routines, progress monitoring, or health education.

Been doing this here and there as a side job for awhile now and eventually planning on turning it into a business but for now I figured why not do it for free (mainly because i enjoy helping people and i have nothing better to do with my time at the moment :P)

Looking forward to helping out some people if you have any questions or need any help at all email me at Dan.Ross.Fitness@hotmail.com

i can use any advice you would like to give me. i started march 4th and lost 23 pounds by june 24th. since june 24th i have only lost a pound. it seemed i was losing when i was not exercising and eating more. i am really confused on how many calories i should it. i eat mostly meat and veggies. i do have some treats but not like i used too. i started walking about 30 minutes a day 3 weeks ago and that has not helped. i am getting really frustrated. i know i do not like breakfast and i like a big dinner so i save alot of my calories for that but that did not hinder my weight loss in the beginning. thanks in advance for any help you can give me. i turn 43 in 2 weeks. i am about 5" 5' and right now wiegh about 218. i started at 242.

Ok as far as caloric intake i would recommend starting at around 1750 calories per day with a ration of 50%carbs 30%protein and 20% fat. Dont sweat not eating breakfast, if anything that will actually benefit you (do a google search on Lean Gains for more info on why that is). I took a look at your food diary and the only critique i could give is to lover the level of fat in your diet (not that fat is a bad thing but it was a little high and some of the measurements i saw seemed like they might have been underestimated)

For the workout part of it, the best advice i could give would be to look into resistance training. It burns more calories than anything else and will increase your overall metabolic rate. Also increases endorphins and all that good stuff to just make you feel good overall.

i am 5"6 and when i weighed myself 2 weeks ago i weighed 136... this monday i started really committing to dieting and been doing jillian michaels ripped in 30 everyday,l finished week 1 today.. and sometimes even walking/jogging on treadmill at night for more cardio..and was a little discouraged when i stepped on my scale to see that i gained 2 lbs instead of losing???? was wondering if you could help telling me why this might be,

Ok im gonna keep this one simple.

Assuming everything in your food diary is accurate, you have put your body into starvation mode and then some. Basically your body thinks its in a famine state and whatever you put into it is going to become adipose tissue (stored fat).

Its gonna take about a week to reset that. (in which you will most likely gain about 1lb) for the next few days bump your calories up to around 1500 calories then from there eat about 2200 calories a day (which is around maintenance for someone your height and weight). Keep your activity level around the same. This should reset your metabolism.

From there slowly reduce your calories. Start off at 1800 a day, do that for a few weeks until you hit another plateau then drop it down to 1700. However you never want to go below 1500 calories a day especially for an active individual.

Also try for a ration of 50%carbs 30%protein and 20%fat

I definitely need help. I have several issues on which I'm not sure how to tackle.

1) I tore some cartilage in my left wrist, and have been limited to what I can do work out-wise. Suggestions would be appreciated for working out the upper body (I have a PT test in a few weeks, need to be able to pass push ups!)

2) I also have been having a lot of trouble controlling hunger consistently. What works one day may not the next...and tanking up on water doesn't help. I feel bloated AND hungry at the same time. Yuck.

3) I am sure working the rotating hours of day shift/night shift doesn't help, but I have no energy. When I work out, I can expect to yawn excessively during the workout, and then have to go home and take a nap afterwards. I am on an antidepressant and Adderall AND a CPAP to help with fatigue, but it still persists.

Any advice or plans or snippets of wisdom you wish to pass along would be greatly appreciated.

ok lets see

1.) not sure how bad the injury is. look into some wrist support straps. I know some people that use them for increased stability in their wrists when working upper body, it might help but you also might want to consult a doctor for that one.

2.) For hunger suppressing, that is something i struggle with as well. Some people say water, some people swear that drinking a whey protein shake before meals does wonders. What has helped me in the past is a little more extreme. I did a 6 day water fast which trained me to realize when i was actually hungry or just bored. However i do not recommend it for most people. I'd start with the whey shake before meals. Try something like myofusion or syntha 6. those ones are thicker than most and fill you up more. plus they taste AMAZING (not sure about the new myofusion but if its anything like the old one it helped me in the past to control hunger)

3.) this one is a bit tougher. one thing i can recommend is weight training early in the morning first thing when you start your day. I have used this myself as well as seen success with clients for not only helping you have more energy throughout the day but also battling depression. Resistance training increases endorphins and in some cases people who started have actually been able to slowly get off anti depression meds completely. Idk if its just the overall health benefits of it or the results but either way weight training is great for battling depression (this comes from personal experience)

Hey.. so lately I've been really inactive therefore I've really been watching my carbs. All the reading I've done has me a little confused. A lot of people say that it doesn't matter how many carbs you eat to lose weight as long as you're eating at a calorie deficit and others say that quantity of carbs matter. My question is: since I'm not as active as everyone claiming that carbs aren't the enemy, should I worry about how many carbs I'm taking in per day since I'm not active? Or is it just really about calories in vs calories out? Most of my meals contain a source of carbohydrates and it's always difficult to keep it under the recommended 150g that MFP has me at. Most of these carbs do come from fruits and whole wheat breads though.

while it is true that carbs are not a necessary nutrient, they will NOT make you fat. The reason most people gain weight from eating carbs is because they do not keep you full like they other macro nutrients. the body burns them much quicker especially simple sugars and thus people tend to eat more of them to feel full. Its all about a balance of lifestyle and self control.