Hello Ladies! Im a Nationally Ranked bikini competitor and personal trainer! Ive put my body thru EVERYTHING (diet/training) -wise ; that you can think of! And if you are on the treadmill more then 1 hour a day and still arent losing weight or leaning down, you need to fix your diet, NOT do MORE cardio!--I have had SEVERAL trainers that have had me on 2 to-- NO JOKEl; 3 HOURS of RUNNING! It has lead me to severe injury and metobolic damage.... Once your body begins to expect 2-3 hours a day of cardio, anything less wont do anything for you -- the 2-3 hours will make you EXHAUSTED and generally your body will adapt, even if it is interval/sprint style and you will plateau...where do you go from there? 4-5 hours of cardio? NO! I am very sad to see trainers still destroying competitors like myself, which I fell victim to, by these long cardio sessions. The best way to continue to lean down when you see your body not responding to an hour of cardio is to alter your diet, AND/OR take a week or TWO off cardio completely-- YUP believe it or not, it will respark your metabolism to respond to the cardio again. Dont become a slave to the treadmill, there are other ways to lean down and burn that fat =)
ELLE FOXX DELALLO
SNS SPONSORED ATHLETE
Hey Elle!!!
Beautiful Elle! Vanessa here, I am also a nationally ranked competitor and have seen you at shows in the past. Love the blonde hair on you. Anyhow, This year I competed in four shows! Two out of state qualifier shows and two national shows. Not to mention in the split of those, I decided to try my luck in another division which I had to re-qualify for nationals in order to compete there, but it was very demanding on my body and mixed in with a lot going on in my personal life, I knew I'd be regretting the hardship once my season was over. The first coach I had this year helped me get to Team U and had me on a super low caloric intake diet and three one hour sessions split up a day. I lost about 14 pounds in the two weeks, but was so freaking tired! I was only working from home until the fall when I took up another full time job and beginning to prep from physique crossing over to bodybuilding. Although I was doing maximum of about 30-45 minutes of cardio a day, I was lifting a lot more rigorously and was hungry more because I was on my feet working in a busy kitchen (im a chef) for 9-10 shifts and then from there to the gym, and home again just so totally pooped I could barely finish cardio! I eventually had to make a sacrifice...unfortunately in life we sometimes choose our passions over our priorities, and for the very reason of our high potential to turn pro at that next show!!!
I finished 8th place at Nationals, which out of the three national shows I've ever competed in was my best placing. Although I was proud of myself, I also hated myself for pushing it sooo hard, too hard this year and over stressing my body and consequently my heart too! I ended up in the hospital with pericarditis and metabolic damage due to stress and overexertion, they put me on medication that caused me to gain weight at a point where I was already back to my off season weight! ugh! Miserable and all sorts of yucky feeling I took a lot of time off, but with my body type I have to exercise or I will just get fat....so I did! Get fat that is! ugh! JUst started back exercising this last two weeks and although the weight is slowly coming off, it's been hard to get back on my diet because I fear going too extreme with it and not needing to. I plan on competing later in the year next year so I will have plenty of time to heal and get back in the swing of things once my life settles. But I sure did learn a lot this year!!!
It's really sad to see so many competitors not bounce back from metabolic damage, and even women who are competitors struggling with their weight because they are uneducated on the straight facts! Hopefully reading my story will help others.
