Needing to lose only a few pounds

[recruitmom]

This appears to be a new site and appears to be one that is very much needed. I'm the mother of a young lady trying desperately to reach her weight goal. She's only 6 - 8 pounds away and these have proven to be the hardest to lose.

She needs to lose the few pounds and then she needs to begin preparing to enter boot camp, but doesn't want to do the push ups and situps because this creates muscle, weighing more than fat. So she's only been dieting, and taking the advise of recruiters to lose weight fast, but being a girl sometimes a typical day of fluid retention puts her out of her goal, so it's a constant up and down struggle.

Seems unfair, to hold them back for this, since as you know as soon as they enter boot camp and become involved in the daily routine the weight of a few extra pounds will take care of itself. Now if she were 20 pounds or more over that would be a different story.

Difficult becoming frustrated because she wants to go so badly and begin her career goals and serve her country.

Suggestions welcomed.

Thanks

[catie11]

She should be doing her push ups and sit ups. It does cause here to gain muscle but, when she goes to get weighed, if it is only muscle causing her to be overweight and not fat they will be able to tell by doing whats called taping. They will measure around certain areas of her body to see if it is infact muscle. When I first came back from basic. I was overweight, because I gained a lot of muscle. They had to tape me. Since the weight gain was found to be muscle and not fat I passed. I have since lost muscle mass and have been a good weight now for a while (not that losing muscle mass is a good thing).

SPC Kinnick

[AbnMtn]

A good combination of cardio and strength exercises should take care of the 6-8 lbs. The cardio will burn the stored fats and the push ups and sit ups will tone up her body.

She may have reached a plateau and that may be why her body is not responding to exercise. You can encourage her to either do a bit more or increase the intensity (increase the speed at which she's doing the exercises and decrease the running times). Sometimes the body needs a little shock to get the metabolism going. Just keep the encouragement coming.

Currently, I run 5 times a week with one of my applicants to help him lose weight (probably spend an average of 8 hours when all is said and done). It's really hard to find the time to do this and you have to sacrifice the time you spend with other applicants, so this may not be possible for the recruiter in your area.