What a pleasure to hear from you! I have had many nice comments but yours is the first to tell me specifically how I might change things on this website to be more helpful. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that!

I absolutely agree that the placement of links and navigation is not good. My site has grown to be quite BIG and I haven’t had the time to keep up the way I would like. I am not telling you this as an excuse but rather to share that I hope to be making improvements in the near future. My life has been overly busy and complicated for a couple of years now but I am hoping things will be getting better soon.

I completely understand not having the money to afford a personal nutritionist or trainer! Like you I cannot afford to hire the kind of help I need to stay on top of things the way I would like.

I have a question for you that might provide you with additional support at no cost. Would it be o.k. for me to send you a personal email directly rather than through this site? I genuinely want you to succeed.

Thanks!

Lori

I have tried to lose weight for years but not enough GOOD food to make me have enough drive to switch. I don’t have money to spend on a nutritionist or a personal trainer, so THANK GOD for your website!!!! It is helping me tremendously! So far I’ve lost 9 lbs in three weeks! I can’t thank you enough for your ideas. The only thing that would be better is, there are soo many links within articles but it would be better if they were organized into drop down menus and renamed very specific titles on the first home page. That way, you would see a list of all 7 day menu ideas, all of the other useful websites that you recommend and how much they cost if anything, all recipes according to breakfast lunch dinner and snacks and how many calories. On the 7 day menu for busy people, I followed it, but not all calories were next to the item, so if I didn’t like coffee for example but wanted to switch it for something else, I would not be able to do so unless I saw the calorie content. Anyways, thank GOD for you and your website! It is sure to help so many like myself lose weight. I was headed towards diabetes for certain. I will let you know how I’m doing in the future and how much I’ve lost. I’ll check in!

It’s always hard to suggest a specific formula for an individual so you may have to try different approaches to see what works best for you.

That you are exercising at least 4 days a week and switching up the exercise you do is good. I am not a physical trainer but my understanding is that our bodies do become used to routines and as such will burn fewer calories doing the same exercise over time. I like that you throw Zumba into the mix from time to time. You also mentioned the weights. I would give weight lifting some serious thought because you can increase your muscle mass somewhat and that will help to slow down the change in basal metabolic rate as you age. The higher your BMR the more calories you burn. With women the additional muscle mass helps tone and firm our bodies and not make us muscle bound.

I like doing yoga routines during which I have to support my body weight rather than lifting external weights. The reason I find this to be so helpful is that I can do yoga anywhere even when traveling and I don’t need special equipment. But you don’t need to do weight lifting more than 2-3 times a week to gain the benefits so that may not be an issue for you.

Something else you might consider doing that helps burn fat faster is to do some kind of interval training.

As for diet, I would say yes do try the 1400 calories with 100-200 extra on the days you exercise. If you are successful in losing weight you may need to reduce that calorie count by a bit when you have lost 10 pounds or so.

What you eat also matters. Whenever possible choose whole foods. Do your best to drastically reduce or eliminate “added” sugars and refined carbohydrates. This should help anyone. But if you find this to be especially helpful it is possible you may do even better on a low carb diet instead of the more well-rounded approach that I share here. A certain percentage of the population will do much better on low carb than high carbohydrate.

I genuinely hope one of these suggestions will help your situation.

Good luck,
Lori

Yes you are correct, I am 38 years old and will turn 39 in the next two months. If I alternate jogging and walking for 5 miles per day and try to do this 5 days a week should I stick with the 1400 calories plus 100-200 on the days I do exercise? Do you recommend for someone like me who has battled with weight loss and now gained 15 pounds after losing it gradually over the last 9 years (but at the same time I never go a week without exercising at least 4 days) to try the 1400 calorie diet and exercise? Do you feel I need to exercise 6 days a week since my body is used to exercising? I greatly appreciate your help and advice.

Chris