I am trying to lose five pounds. My diet is low-fat and not the problem -- my workout is. Three days a week, I run for 30 minutes and walk for 15 (on the treadmill at 6.3 and 4.0). I also use a couple of machines on these days (one for shoulders, one for abs, one for hips) and one day a week, I go for a 30-minute bike ride. What should I do to my workout to help me lose the weight? I've been doing this for months and notice no changes in appearance.

Thanks,

Stefany

Stefany, your question is an excellent one because so many people are in the same boat. When we seem to be doing all the right things -- eating healthy and working out -- and we still have five or 10 pounds to lose. It's frustrating.

I know I keep proselytizing for people to embrace saner goals for their weight and physiques. Usually, I encourage people to have their percentage of body fat calculated, so that they can develop a reasonable weight goal. But I also know how it feels to be heavy. Even though I'm more muscular than when I was younger, I want to lose weight and be leaner too.

You can do some self-assessment of your current program 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 program: mode, frequency, duration and intensity.

Let's look at each principle to see how your program meets the requirements and how we can modify what you're doing now to help you lose five pounds:

Mode: This is the type of exercise. 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 nature (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.

Frequency: Exercise has to be regular for someone to get the benefits of working out. 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 or three times per week with at least a day's rest before working a particular muscle group again.

Duration: How long you perform the exercise. Right now, you have three 45-minute sessions of aerobic exercise (the running and walking) and one 30-minute session (cycling). I wouldn't increase the run/walk time. In fact, if you need more time in the gym to add weight exercises, you can cut the run/walk by 10-15 minutes a couple of days. In order to increase the frequency of your cardiovascular workouts, add a day or two more of cycling. I would also increase the duration of your bike ride(s). You work at a lower level while cycling than you do running, so you can stay out longer and burn up more calories doing so. I bet you can pedal nonstop for an hour right now.

Intensity: How hard you're doing whatever it is you do for exercise. How fast is the pace, or how much resistance are you using? Usually, the harder something is, the shorter the amount of time is we can perform it. Since you may need to cut your treadmill time at the gym, try to go faster. You'll work harder and burn more calories in the circumscribed time period. That will help boost your fitness level also. On the other hand, since you want to increase the duration of your bike rides, you should just maintain your current pace or slow down if you need to so you can stay out longer and have more total calorie burning time.

Adding additional strength-training exercises will increase the total amount of work your muscle must perform. Your muscle will respond by getting stronger, and you'll become leaner. You'll also burn more calories at rest with more lean mass on your frame.

So play around with what you're doing; you're already on the right track. Those five pounds don't stand a chance!

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