Case Study 3:  Ms. Kate “Can Do”

•Issues:

Below average cardiovascular endurance

Below average muscular endurance

Poor diet and lifestyle choices

Increased body weight

Modest excess body fat

•Observations:

Kate is a 20-something female that was classically lean, but starting to develop some excess belly fat.  Kate did not have the personal motivation to do resistance training on her own and when she was a member of a gym, she focused only on cardiovascular exercises.  Kate also did not eat nearly as often as she should have and chose to “party” more often than she should be for someone looking to maintain or lose weight.  This lifestyle had put an extra 10-15 pounds on Kate’s normally tall and lean frame causing her to look a bit frumpy.    The nutritionally challenging issue with Kate is that she chose to eat a meat free diet.  Not a true ovo-lacto vegetarian but more like one that also ate fish.   Since I had worked with numerous true vegetarians in the past, this was an easy case to work with.

•Plan:

Improve cardio fitness and accelerate weight loss using aerobic cardiovascular exercise

Improve muscular weakness using strength training.  Use of small free weights, medicine ball, body weight exercise, rubber resistance tubing and a Swiss ball.

Full nutrition analysis and meal planning to account for her diet specifications

•Results:

In 3 months in working with Kate, she adhered to her new diet and exercise plan .  Here are the stats:

Cardio:  Increase from .5 mile run to 3 mile run non-stop.  Stairs from 3 minutes to 15 minutes non-stop

Strength:  total body strength and muscular endurance increased significantly

Body fat/ weight:  Kate become more visibly lean and exceeded her goal weight. 

Nutrition:  Kate learned how to make many nutritious meals on her own sparked just by some sample meal ideas from me.  Her diet consistency and meal compliance was near perfect. 

•Summary:  Kate was a shining example of consistency and adherence to my plan.  She started to see results very fast.  Weekend after weekend passed and I heard less and less reports of drinking and partying.  This became a wake up call for Kate as well.  Kate would run in her neighborhood on her own before we worked out together so she got the best workout possible.  Kate developed great physical strength and stamina.  Her initial exercise capacity was probably below average for her age group and when our sessions finished; she was at a much higher level.    Kate looked like she worked out and felt the benefits as well.  From a nutritional standpoint, the custom menu plan I gave Kate served as a hard and fast daily guide.  Kate really learned how to adapt some of the dinner meals to add more variety to her meal plan while remaining within her daily calorie guidelines.  All from the numerous conversations we had between sets regarding nutrition.