What is a reosonable amount of time to expect to see fat loss? I have been doing weight training 30-40 min, 3 days a week and cardio in my target heart range 30-120 min 3 days a week. I get enough protien and I eat good but I have not lost a ounce of fat in a month. I have increased reps from 10 per set to 15 per set for 2 sets and I work all my muscle groups arms, shoulders, back, abs, core, butt, and legs. I started jogging instead of walking. I make sure I eat enough of mostly good foods veggies, fruit, whole grains. I eat a little junk sweetened cereal and pop tarts but I don't over do it. I have gained two pounds of muscle in the last month but the fat refuses to come off. It seems to me that after I doubled my cardio and have been putting in extra effort on my weight training I would see some fat loss. All this is after I have been doing weight training and cardio (but less of it) for the last 4 months and have only lost 3lbs in total and 1/2 lb of that was muscle. Can someone explain to me how this is? Arn't you supposed to lose weight if you go from sedentary to very active. I am burning more calories than I am eating for sure so why is this basic rule of dieting not working for me? :confused: Please help me, why is all my effort in vain?

Well your training plan seems to be your problem if your diet is on point like you say. When you say your target heart-rate zone I will asume you mean what the machine, or some trainer told you would be the ideal zone to "burn" fat. This notion of heart-rate zones for fat loss(while true to some degree) just does not stack up against high intensity training. To "burn" fat, forget about spending hours doing leisurely cardio and kick your training into gear with intensity. Read up on HIIT and follow it.

Changing your rep range from 10 to 15 is also a mistake. Muscle burns fat. Doing 15 reps does not build muscle. Even doing 10 reps is a stretch. Reduce your rep range down to 6-8, and once you are comforatable with that, try dropping down to 4-6. This is the ideal rep range to build muscle which ultimately leads to a leaner stronger physique. Also do not train the same muscles every workout, even if you are only doing it every other day. Split your muscle groups up into three days and train them hard and heavy once a week. The amount of intensity you can generate in your workouts (cardio and weights) week in and week out will determine your results from your training. It is completely up to you!

I have been jogging and that is well pretty intense to me since I have been use to walking. I will check out HIIT. I also am doing so many reps because I read that is the way to build slow twitch muscle fibers and that they burn more fat. I have actually gained 4 lbs since I first posted this thread and my computer program says that it is mostly muscle but also 1/2 lb of fat. This is since I started the higher reps of course. It still seems to me that building so much extra muscle (6 lbs this month alone) I should be loseing some fat. I mean isn't that what excercise does? How if I am eating good and doing excercise of any kind am I still gaining fat? I've got to be honest I feel like a diet freak or something, ya know like maybe I am just not supposed to see my abs again. It has been 5 months in all and all I've lost is one pound of fat and I am putting alot of effort in this. It kind've peeves me off that I read about people losing 20 lbs in 2 months and right now I weigh 1 lb more than when I started.