to think BMIs are ridiculous?!

[HairTodayBlondeTomorrow]

I'm 5 foot 4 and after my kids ended up at 13st 9lbs,

I'm now down to 12 stone.

When I got married I was 11 stone and was in a size 12 dress and I think I looked lovely.

I'd like to get back to 11 stone. but according to the NHS at 11 stone and still be in the 'overweight' catagory.

Infact at 10 stone 7 i would be classes as over weight?

Surely it can be healthy to pus that on people?

I mean if i was 10 stone 5lbs i would be jussssst out of the overweight category.

And to be directly in the middle of the healthy range I need to be 9 stone?!

Have I just been over weight too long to remember what healthy is or does anyone else feel BMI is unrealistic?

But what else am I meant to do? Seriously? I eat porridge, meat, fish, veg, small amounts of fruit and dairy. I burn between 400-800 calories at the gym. My doctor tells me I'm overweight and to try some gentle walking and totally ignores the fact I'm hammering my body despite having chronic sciatica. I can't physically do any more on top of working 40hrs a week and looking after a horse

"totally ignores the fact I'm hammering my body despite having chronic sciatica."

if you're doing the kind of exercise that is making you sick and causing you pain then you might be relasing lots of stress hormones which make your body hold onto fat!

might be worth reading "Clean and Lean" - he's a personal trainer but has actually advised some clients to go to the gym LESS as they were stressing their bodies which was preventing them from loosing weight, he explains how exercise doesn't have to cause pain and stress to work and how to do exercise that works WITH your body?

worth a try?

Bright if you've lost 10cm off your waist and you've been exercising at such a strong level of intensity then that probably does mean you've lost a load of the very dangerous fat around your internal organs which will have big benefits for your longterm health regardless of whether you are a Top Shop size 10 or an M&S size 12. Go you!

I'm currently trying to drop two waist inches with the help of the dreaded Jillian Michaels, (mostly because if I don't I'm going to have to buy more clothes) and could do with some of your determination.

"releasing!"

Even Jillian Michaels herself says that SHE only goes to the gym a few times a week

Master your Metabolism by GM is good but heavy going, Clean and Lean is the same principles but you can read it over a couple of nights

Yeah I know I'm high in cortisol (?) as explained by the trainer at the gym. Basically I have a job which goes "adrenaline rush, slump, adrenaline rush" all day. They explained there wasn't much I could do about that except making sure I get enough rest/sleep
My sciatica only started about 5 months ago, am waiting for referral from gp. If its really bad I avoid spinning and go for a sports massage to help.
Mainly the circuits make me feel sick when it's constant if that makes sense, so 50sec on 10sec off is worse than 30/30
If my back hurts, I stop or alter the exercise I'm doing, actually having a day off today as its pretty sore from working out on Thursday

When I say 4-6hrs a week I should say that includes gym and riding. I count riding as its at a pretty high level, and I am out of breath and sweaty after an hour. So probably 3-4hrs in the gym and 1-2hrs riding is how it breaks down

what about yoga/pilates/bodybalance/dance for a while instead of circuits

• will help with work stress and its still exercise?

Do you ever take exercise breaks? like 3 weeks on 1 week off?

body fat measurements put me around 19% (that's measured with callipers plus other measurements)

i'd say i do a moderate amount of exercise but depends where you're sitting. My colleagues would say i did loads but their comparison point is none.

i do build muscle quite easily

Brighthair, had to come back to this because I'm concerned about you! My advice - which you're free to ignore, of course:-

Lose the trainer. S/he is letting you work yourself close to a point of collapse, which is irresponsible and doesn't inspire confidence in their techniques.

Weights: Should be meditative. Go slowly. Breathe OUT on the tension and in on the relax. Ensure your back is straight, shoulders relaxed, tummy in. Look forwards, never down. Read the bumph on the machine to see exactly which muscles it works; focus your thoughts on them as you work. You should be able to feel what these muscles are doing. Never get out of breath on the weights. Never let your movements be uncontrolled ('swings' worry me for this reason, you could injure yourself.)

Unless you want to bulk up, choose a weight about 70% of what you can manage and do more repetitions. Instead of up-weighting, increase repetitions - don't scale up until you're doing 25 of the current ones with ease and perfect technique :)

I mean if your work is very adrenaliney then adrenaliney exercise mightened by the best to balance it?

it is for me but I find circuits and spinning wierdly relaxing (zone out) - My DH on the other hand finds that sort of intense exercise just sickening and stressful and yoga is a much better destressing exercise for him (yoga mostly irritates me unless its 15mins on a dvd - whole class of it winds me up which isn't really the point )

but anyway, my point is if you are more like my OH then me, then a change in exercise TYPE might be better?

Sadly I am committed to my bootcamp - I've signed up, it's not cheap and it's 3 times a week hence why I am carrying on but altering exercise. Um exercise breaks, yeah I had one 2 weeks ago due to work shifts I couldn't go
I need to look at yoga/Pilates, used to do a class but it clashes with bootcamp. Also a bit scared I think because of my back?
Just looking at class timetable now, and all the yoga/Pilates/combined stuff clashes - argh!

garlicbutter - honestly I am fine, the trainers are great, I have worked up from feeling sick after 15 minutes to an hour
It's because I push myself so much and she does tell me to relax. My weights are watched and I get corrected for technique. Usually work with 5-6kg weights. Kettle bell swings I replace with squats with weights if my back is bad

Cheriefroufrou - it keeps changing your name to cheerful pigeon!! Yeah yoga bores me I know what you mean about the spinning zone. After a day at work I feel more like using a punch bag to relax if that makes sense?
I liked a combined yogalates class which was pretty fast but it's only on once a week now

Pilates is good for your back. This 'bootcamp' isn't.

I didn't mean yoga AS WELL as the high adrenaline/sickening exercise, meant instead of it for a while

but okay you've paid for boot camp.. but listen to your body above your teacher, not it DOESN'T have to hurt (to the extent of a badly sprained shoulder in my experience of bootcamp) for you to benefit

There you go Tyler...you do fall into (or are borderline) athlete category with that body fat %, so you are the "rugby player" exception to the bmi rule

xpost :)

Yes I definitely stop now when it hurts. I did an exercise, only one rep and it hurt so I stopped and asked to switch and she gave me another exercise instead. I carry on if my arms hurt/get tired or my legs because that's just unfitness but I am very protective now over my back

yeah that's why I prefer body balance, it has yoga bits in it but its not a whole tedious hour of it! also the yoga DVDs with the 15 min options

I don't think we have body balance..
There is total tone but that is similar things to bootcamp. Total aqua? Might be more relaxing?! Sweat and tone. No idea what that is. Oh line dancing?

I have a BMI of 23 but still a 31" waist at 5'7.

I have a small build, very small wrists, but biggish boobs (I'm 38-31-34, totally weird proportions)

I want to get another stone off, and ideally a couple of inches round the middle.

We are meant to have some fat though, just not the carb-caused fatty build ups round our organs!