Here is a copy of a great question I just got and my answer to it. Hope is helpful to someone!

I got your website from Heidi, your sister-in-law, I think, and I just looked at it. I have some questions for you and was hoping that you may have some ideas for me. I excercise lots but KNOW that my eating habits are a problem. I love my food! Anyway, I do not want to lose weight perse, but I would like to lose my body fat. I have the typical fatty pockets that I hate, mostly on my thighs, and now that I have hit the prime age of 33, I also have the donut, not bad, but not something that I am used to. You know, just softer around the edges now!! Just so you are aware, I do excercise at the gym prob 3-4 times a week, but closer to 3. I do an hour of cardio as well as about 45 minutes of weight training. I have been doing it for a long time and have learned to mix it up and what excercises to do. Not that I am perfect, but more of my concern is with my eating. I have ZERO self control when it comes to that. Anyway, I was just wondering if you could throw some pointers my way. If we need to meet that is fine with me, and if there is a fee, that works too. We all have to work! Well, thanks for the time, I hope this makes sense. Thanks a ton and can't wait to hear from you.

You could exercise 7 days a week and be very, very strong and have a great aerobic capacity, but if you are carrying extra body fat, that is what you will see. The only way to get rid of body fat is to consume less calories than you burn. That can be done by exercising more than you do, eating less, or a combination of the two.

You could certainly add another 1-3 days of exercise to your routine. If you are doing weight training on the three days you already exercise, add three days of doing 30-60 minutes of intervals (short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by a period of recovery). This could include sprinting, jumping rope or running stairs (at home or at the gym). Each day of added exercise could be up to another 500 calories per session (if you work out hard for an hour). Another three sessions a week would be another 1,500 calories burned.

Here's the hard part...the more we exercise, the hungrier we get. I've worked with many clients who increased exercise but didn't lose any weight or maybe even gained weight. We tend to overestimate how many calories we burn in a workout session and underestimate how many calories we consume, so it's easy to justify more food and treats when we are working out more often or harder.

Journaling is a must if you want to lose weight. I've tried every way to work around it with clients because it is time consuming, but there is no other way to track what you have eaten and at what calorie mark you lose weight or body fat.

I encourage you to begin journaling exactly what you eat each day for a week. Make sure you measure what you eat so you can get an accurate reading. The website calorieking.com is a great resource and is very user friendly. Use the website to determine the number of calories you consume each day for 7 days and then, feel free to e-mail me the entire thing. I will take a look at your calorie count and the food that you are eating and from there, I will be able to make some suggestions.

A couple of things to remember...

--If we are dehydrated, we will feel hungry. Make sure you are drinking plenty of liquids. Try to drink a cup of water 15 minutes before each meal and drink between bites as well.

--Eat until you are no longer hungry, not until you are full.

--Get used to not having that full feeling. It's really not good on your system to be completely full, and once you get used to feeling not hungry instead of full, you will realize that you have more energy throughout the day!

--Get rid of anything with high-fructose corn syrup, food coloring (especially red dye) and try to eat as few processed foods as possible. These products are taxing on your system and can give you false hunger signals and lead to fatigue.

--Use only dairy products and meats with no added hormones...you don't have to go organic and there are lots of options available that are still affordable.

--Try to get in 10 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. These foods will fill you up and give your body essential vitamins and minerals.

I am happy to give you some advice online. If you would like to meet in person, let me know, and I can give you my hourly rate and we can discuss a time to meet. It may be worth your while to schedule a session or two to mix up your workout.

Good luck.

Hope to hear from you in a week!