This is going to be drawn out so I'll try and get it all in before I go to work tonight...

Quoting RyderOCZ

I thought I would give a little update as well.

Things are not going anything like I had hoped. Basically I am not going anywhere. Close to 10 weeks of workouts (8 weeks of the more intense ones per discussions in other threads) and I don't think I have dropped an inch anywhere.

I haven't been in your other threads or at least I haven't been paying attention =) I take it you're trying to drop some weight? What do you weigh now and what is your target weight?

The diet was a bit spotty for the first 3 (mostly not eating enough probably, but weekends early on were hard due to some family/social commitments), but I have been extremely hardcore about things for the last 5 weeks (at least I think I have) No soda of any kind, water only except for the milk, etc with cereal or in the protein shakes. Carbohydrates are very low, other than some fruit.

Define spotty? What were you trying to do diet wise?

I have gone from eating 3 times a day to eating 5 times a day and upping the total calories a bit (I think I was not eating enough to get my metabolism going) I am in the 1300 to 1500 range now, but in the last 3 days, I have seen the scale go up, not down

1300-1500 calories is really pretty low. Stall your metabolism and plunge your body into starvation mode low. I'm not saying you can't make it work, but it doesn't look like you have the exercise level to support your metabolism and preserve your muscle with such a restricted calorie intake.

Where are the calories coming from? How much protein are you taking in per day in grams, same for carbohydrates and fat?

The workout is pretty much all on the treadmill with some weights 3 times a week (shoulder is limiting what I can do weight wise, just won't heal) I have 2 different "courses" I use on the treadmill. 1 is an interval style workout with me running 6 times during a 20 minute period, total time is 26 min with warm up/cool down. The second workout is low speed with only 3 x 1 min "runs" in it but the walking is all done with high incline (7% grade). The low speed workout actually nets more total calories burnt (275 for the high speed and 320 for the low speed, according to the treadmill).

Cardio is a good weight loss additive but its not really a means to make weight loss happen by itself. The first and foremost ingredient is having sufficient metabolic tissue to make the weight loss happen. Muscle is your body's primary metabolic tissue, the more of it you have, the more calories you can burn. Its not as simple as calories in versus calories out because your body has safeguards built in over thousands of years of evolution that slow down your metabolism when your dietary intake becomes restricted. Its a safeguard against starvation.

If you're going to restrict your calorie intake, especially to the level you are describing here, your body is going to want to slow your metabolism because historically that drop in caloric intake means you were a starving caveman in search of food. If your metabolism didn't slow, your body would burn itself off and you would starve in no time. Keeping that in mind you have to take additional steps yourself to counteract some of those evolutionary safeguards. Your activity level has to be pretty hardcore in order to keep your calorie expenditure up. You also have to eat extremely carefully, namely taking in massive amounts of protein, in order to preserve the muscle mass that you have. Your body will start to burn your muscle for energy in the absence of suitable fuel it doesn't have now.

Heart rate in both workouts reaches a peak of about 165 and I would say I average about 134 -140 over a 24 minute period.
My max heart rate is 185, with 120 to 158 being the "target" of 65 - 85% of my max.

165 is pretty low in my opinion. There are some that think interval training should be done at set percentages of your MHR. I subscribe to the school of thought that says for the sprinting portion of the interval you should be going balls to the wall. Run as hard as you can for that portion of the interval and if you aren't sucking air hard at the end of it you didn't run as hard as you could have...then you recover...then you do it again.

Another question about the diet, where does fruit fit into a weight loss plan...is it a total no no?
I do not mean fruit with added sugar either. I either buy Fresh or canned in its own juice, not the "heavy" or "light" syrup varieties.
Thanks

Fruit is a healthier source of sugar and carbohydrates than say candy or chips and junkfood. However, its still pretty carb and sugar laden. Its not a no no but I think people focus too much on their sources of carbohydrates and not enough on their sources of protein.