Need to loose 20 lbs, and I want to do it the right way

I'm 28 and am 5'6'' and I weigh 155 lbs I have been working out pretty consistantly for several months I run or use the eleptical machine for 20-30 mins 3-4 times a week, and lift weights. what can I do to loose 20 lbs and slim down my waist line?  I eat pretty healthy, i stopped eating bread for fear that I have an  intolerance a few months ago, and eat mostly unprocessed foods, and still haven't lost any weight. ANYONE HELP PLEASE!!??

[Dr Vinod]

Intense and proper cardio is the solution to decrease your overal weight and girth coupled with proper diet.
Go to a dietician/trainer and prepare a diet chart predominant in proteins, minerals, vitamins, high fibre carbohydrate and sufficient fat without choleseterol of 500 cals less than the normal required for your age and height.
Cardio for 1 hr lo lose 500 cals, 6 times a week would help you reduce the required weight in 3-4 months time. The discipline in which you do this is very important as you should not eat fried food and sweets/sundaes/icecreams etc in common, take care!

[cjpietrz]

Hi there :)

I am a personal trainer at a well-known gym.  I have a B.S. in Wellness, Health Promotion, and Injury Prevention, and a Minor in Exercise Science.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why you may not be losing weight.  But, I have a few recommendations for you that will most likely help (by no means is this an exhaustive list, but it should at least get you going in the right direction)!  

First of all, it sounds to me like you may need to increase the duration of your cardio.  The American College for Sports Medicine's (ACSM) guidelines for cardiovascular exercise 3--5 days/wk for 30-60 minutes duration at a moderate heart rate (meaning you should feel like you're working hard, but not like you're going to die).

For resistance training exercise, ACSM's guidelines are 2--3 days/wk incorporating all major muscle groups at least 1x per week, and not working the same major muscle group 2 days in a row (except for abs/lower back).  That said, you should make sure you're exercising correctly.  Believe it or not, there is a right way (and many wrong ways) to set up your exercise routine.  

Here are a couple of questions for you:

What exercises are you currently doing?  
And in what order?
How many sets/reps are you doing of each exercise?

I would also recommend seeing a registered dietician to ensure that you are eating a balanced diet that is the correct amount of calories for you to reach your goals.  In the meantime, though, mypyramid.gov has a great meal tracker worksheet that you can use.  Go to mypyramid.gov then click on "my pyramid plan" on the left of the screen.  You will have to put in your age, weight, height, etc and the site will come up with a meal plan for you that should be pretty close to your daily required intake (it also ensures that your diet is balanced between food groups).  I find that food journaling often helps clients.  Studies have shown that people who don't keep a food journal often overestimate their caloric intake by about 50%.

Keep me posted, hope this helps!!!

P.S. one more thing comes to mind.  If you take any medications, I would do some research on them.  I know from personal experience, I was on a medication that my doctor swore to me would not make me gain weight, yet I put on almost 30 pounds within a year of being on the drug!  Suffice to say, I no longer take that medication!  I can't stress this enough, though, never never stop taking a medication without the supervision of your doctor (which I'm sure you know, but just to be safe, figured I'd say it).

[crystalwolf]

Thanks Dr. Vinod, and bionicman, I appreciate the input I will most definatley take your advise to heart, I started running for 40+ min 4 -5 times a week and am very optimistic for the near future, I also have been lifting weights, and doing some strength training. Is it ok that I lift weights, run for 20min, then do more strength training, then run for another 20 min. Or is breaking it up like that bad? Also I take more of the interval training approach to my cardio, I run really hard for about 1-2 min, then I walk for about a min, then run again. Is this benificial or not?

[cjpietrz]

Various agencies agree that breaking up cardio (in your case into a circut routine with strength training in between) can be just as beneficial as doing the same amount of cardio straight through.

Interval training can be very beneficial as well.  Working at a heart rate above your anaerobic threshold (AT) will help it to increase, which means you will be burning fat (as opposed to carbs) at wider variety of heart rates.  Also, working out at heart rates below your AT will help increase the amount of calories you burn from at these heart rates.  

Sounds like you have a pretty good routine going!  

Keep up the good work :)