minirunner

I have been on a quest to lower my body fat percentage and build some muscle. I am less concerned about weight than I am about losing body fat. I have been on a weight lifting program alternating with cardio. When I started out I was lifting HARD 20 min. followed by 30 min. Hard interval cardio. My body fat was dropping well but then I read all these articles about needing an hour of cardio to shed body fat so I upped my workouts. I am lifting 60 minutes a day and then doing 60 mintues high impact cardio the next. Unfortunately my body fat jumped from 20% to nearly 24% while doing this, my diet is exactly the same! I have a very mundane diet: Green smoothie with brown rice protein every morning, snack: half apple and 6 almonds: lunch is either salad with tempeh or tofu, a wrap, or steamed veggies with tempeh or tofu. Dinner is generally the same. I am 4 ft. 11 inches tall and 106 pounds. What is the best to do, I've read so many conflicting articles my head is spinning. Is there some way that by doing so much cardio and weight lifting that could cause a sharp increase in body fat? In fact, I even quit eating desserts and sugar, which I didn't even have to do with my less intense program but I was desperate and that didn't help either. I have been trying to lower my body fat percent back down since January. I would really appreciate some feedback. It has been hard to workout for an hour a day and see absolutely no results, I keep feeling like I want to give up because I've been at this for years trying to lose this body fat, it worked for awhile then I kicked up my workouts and now I'm back where I started and 4 months later, still struggling. Thanks in advance for your kind help.

Thanks for the replies. I am actually suffering from IT band syndrome and recovering from shin splints so I have been biking on a stationary trainer and hour a day or weight lifting instead. I guess I'll keep experiementing with things until I find something that works. Thanks for your helpful replies. My running went so well, my speed continued to increase as well as my miles steadily until my trainer had me continue hard training after my first 10 miler then I became injured. my weight actually went up sharply after I became injured and started lower impact aerobics instead.

I became a vegan several years ago and during that transition I lost fat, gained muscle and looked really good. I am 4 ft. 10 in. tall and at that time weighed 98 lbs. For health reasons I decided to change to a raw vegan diet and the health benefits were amazing! I felt so good on raw I started training for a half marathon. I started in January running 1/2 mile and lifting for 30 minutes. By May I was running 6 miles a day and lifting 45-60 min. In may I started gaining weight and I assumed it was muscle. It was not. I went from a 25 1/2 inch waist to 27 1/2 inch waist. There is a lot of fat that I have to press through now to feel any muscle on my abs. I've gained an inch on my hips and they hang over my pants now. I have heard of this happening to MANY raw women and lately I have started eating some sprouted grain breads, tempeh and other cooked low fat foods to help with the weight gain. My clothes do not fit and I've noticed a lot of extra fat on my body, In fact I've gained nearly 10 lbs this year. Her is a sample of my daily diet. green smoothie- water, mango, banana, hemp protein, spinach Bannana, sprouted oats, raisins, almond milk lunch Big salad, or sprouted grain bread, avocado, tomato, romaine sandwich. Dinner- salad, portobello burgers, couscous. Snacks are generally fruit or a slice of sprouted grain toast. I am trying to figure out my weight problem. Most people tell me to eat less than I am. I tried for three days to only have my green smoothie in the morning without the banana, oats etc.. and I was STARVING!! I am hoping someone here can give me some helpful hints on how to lose weight and gain more muscle. I usually workout 50-75 minutes a day. HELP!