Ask the Personal Trainer

Joni Hyde is a Certified Personal Trainer and owner of WorkoutsForWomen.com

Weight Loss Around Stomach

Q. I'm 23, 5'4" and I currently weigh about 108 pounds. I walk for several hours on most days (at work), I lift small weights (3 lbs.), and I do lots of strength training exercises every day. I've been keeping this all up for almost a year now, and I've lost a bit of weight. My only problem is that I'm extremely flabby. I don't even look my weight. Is there any way that I can get rid of all of this flab? Am I doing something wrong? Thank you very much!

A. At 5'4" and 108 pounds you are at a good weight. There is such a thing as being skinny and flabby and this sounds like what you are describing. Your walking program is fine, but it sounds like you are lacking in the strength training area. You say you do a lot of strength training exercises, lifting 3 pound weights. I don't know enough about you to tell you what weight you should be lifting, but 3lbs is normally not adequate to overload your muscle enough to create more lean muscle mass, which is what you need.

If you can do more than 20 repetitions of any exercise, then you need to increase the weight. I advise that you do 15 - 20 repetitions of several different strength exercises for your total body several times a week. But here is the key. These workouts must be challenging to your body. If you are performing 20 repetitions and do not feel challenged, you are not really getting any benefits out of your strength training routine. If you challenge your body more with higher weights, you'll start to build lean muscle mass and eliminate the flab.

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