[alexisk907]

To begin - I started my freshman year of college last August and told myself over and over the 'freshman 15' was not going to be a problem for me. Was I ever wrong. Since August I have gained 20 pounds, weighing about 170 right now I would say. I am a 5'7" female, and I want to get down to like about 135 pounds.

Here's the plan:
Run a mile on the treadmill (5.6 mph) at least 5 times a week, along with walking at 3.7 mph until I have been on the treadmill for a total of 45 minutes to an hour total. (I began doing this last week and it was hard at first but I worked my way up).
I usually have a yogurt for breakfast, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I also usually have a bagel with cream cheese along with this (because of class I don't want to sit in class and have my stomach growling for three hours). I have been eating Stoffers Lasagna at work (350 calories, is this a bad choice?) snacking on celery (with lowfat ranch dip) and wheat thins. Drinking pleanty of water. I try to have a salad for dinner or something as healthy as possible.

Any suggestions/ideas for improvement?
What would you expect (for the average person, I know everyone's different), would be the rate that I would be losing weight?


Anything would help I would be so grateful! Thank you so much!

[MassNutrition]

To simply answer this question, I don't think you're eating enough. Enough as in: calories per day, meals per day. And where the heck is your protein? All I see is mostly carbs (with the bagel and lasagna). Bring your carbs down, and certainly add more protein... bring it way WAY up.

Looks like you're afraid of food. DON'T BE. Just be selective with the one's you consume. Also, eating more times per day (5 to 6 small meals per day) will fuel your metabolic furnace. Trust me on this one... your body needs energy to digest. So if your body is constantly digesting food (say every 3 to 4 hours), your natural metabolism will go up.

Two key points here: Carbs make you retain water, and so does sodium. You better check out the sodium count on that frozen lasagna. Again, bring your carbs down, and your protein up. Even incorporate a protein shake within your diet regime, or meal replacement (since you're in school, I KNOW how tough it can be to prepare food, and THEN still have TIME to eat it! Been there, done that... )

Carbs are OK to a certain degree, so if you're going to consume them, make it earlier in the day. Carbs will replenish glycogen in the liver, which inturn gives you energy. But if you eat those carbs at night, your body will have no choice but to store them as fat since there aren't enough hours left in the day to burn them off...

Before I sign off, here are a few great protein sources: Eggs and egg whites, LEAN red meats, chicken (preferably white meat), dairy products (milk, yogurt, cottage cheese), fish (salmon, talapia, sole, etc.), brown beans, nuts, and seeds. Good luck!

[MassNutrition]

Oh, and by the way, the cardio looks good but I would change it up just a little bit. The 45 minutes to an hour looks great! Don't go more than this. But I would increase your running time, and reduce your walking time...

... I did the math on this, and if you're running just one mile at 5.6 mph, then you're done running in less than 11 minutes. You need to run more... you need to burn more calories. Work your way up, and increase your run time to at least 25 to 30 minutes, and then go from there. Be patient, and make it a gradual progression. Good luck!

[Sanjay Persad]

What happened to the good old fashioned running in d hot sun?