She has been taking phentermine and hcg for about 8 weeks now (through medical weightloss doctor)and they have her eating around 600 calories a day. She trains with weights 5-6 times/week and does cardio for 45minutes 2 times per day. I don't know much about female fitness but for the amount of excercise along with phentermine 600 cals seems really low. I suspect her doctor doesn't know what he is doing and need some advice. She did lose weight at first but has seen no difference in last 4 weeks. She eats 600 cals spread over 6 meals. I feel she should raise calories to around 1000 eating clean and stop the drugs for a month or 2. Any thoughts?
1. You don't need phentermine and hcg to achieve fat loss. And using drugs just because a doctor says so without understanding what they are supposed to do is foolish (especially if they are controversial in aiding fat loss - i.e. hcg). I recommend stopping the drugs; she doesn't need them!
2. 600 calories a day is BAD and will be doing her more damage than good (her body will be using its muscle to fuel before the fat), especially if she's training as excessively as that. 600 cal/day is flat out stupid! For fat loss you only need to decrease calories by up to 500 cal/day from maintenance (explained in the link in comment 6).
3. Weights 5-6 times a week and cardio twice a day for 45 minutes is TOO much! Overkill and completely UNneessary.
4. It's not even about "female fitness", since that much exercise on that little calories is not good for anyone, male OR female. And yes, I would advise to leave that "doctor" as soon as possible. 1200 caories a day is the MINIMUM that a female should ever have, and she shouldn't stay on this for very long periods of time, because it decreases metabolism. The reason she's not seeing a difference is because on 600 cal/day your girlfriend's body is likely to have gone into starvation mode, and will be fighting her for everything.
5. Definitely increase her calories to at LEAST 1200 cal/day, and I would honestly recommend much higher, even up to 1800-2200 cal/day (since at her exercise level she's likely to have a maintenance of at LEAST 2500 cal/day).
6. See post #4 at
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/female-fitness/122489-new-forum-need.html for tips on her diet to achieve fat loss. The exercise information will also do her some good.
7. I would also recommend that she stops exercising so excessively. Unless your girlfriend is used to high volume training or was an athlete, then this is far too much for her (and especially if she just started training like this 8 weeks ago when she started using the drugs and diet). She also probably needs a good 1-2 weeks off if she's been training like this for 8 weeks.
8. Another recommendation I would make is to get your girlfriend to see a fitness management consultant or personal trainer who KNOWS their stuff, so that they can create an exercise programme specific for her, and customize a nutrition (note that I did not say "diet" because they are BAD; diet should be a LIFESTYLE nutrition plan) plan for her. Please, go about this in a HEALTHY way; not doing something that's likely to put her body at risk and damage her.
