Q: I am 40 years old and 5.8 feet tall. My weight is 78 kg for the last 5 years. As per my BMI I am obese. I run about 5 km at a speed of about 9-10 km/hr on the treadmill twice a week, once a week I do the cross trainer or cycle and about twice a week I do weight training for about an hour. My waist is 33 inches and my chest is 41 inches but my weight does not seem to come down. When I cut down my diet, my weight comes down to 75 kg but doesn’t budge from there. I want to loose 3-4 kg more. I have been regularly exercising for the last 25 years. Please suggest.

A:You have not indicated whether you are male or female. This does make a difference as we age. Although middle age brings about a slowdown in metabolism, many other changes accompany female ageing patterns that cannot be explained by mere formulae.

If you have been following the same exercise routine for the last 25 years, your body will get accustomed to the regimen and eventually not respond. You can shake the body out of this by regularly changing your exercise routine. So, for one month you follow one routine, another month change it drastically. Also including interval training in your cardio workouts, help in giving that extra boost.

And although BMI, BMR and numbers on the scales are very fair indicators of your health, they should be looked at in its entirety and in relation to your age. Along with that, keeping a tab on the other numbers like your resting heart rate, recovery rate, your total lipid profile, your body composition (fat to lean ratio) and your waist measurements (not more than 40" for men and 37" for women), waist-to-hip ratio and your BP also helps to keep your goal realistic.