Cara Kempf is a certified personal trainer with the Fitness Zone in Carmel and a group fitness instructor with NIFS in downtown Indianapolis. She can be contacted at fitnessblog@theindychannel.com.

"How often should you weight train per week to sculpt and lose fat? I never know how to organize the weight training -- focus on legs two days a week, arms two days a week? What is a good routine and how many different exercises should you do in one session of weight training?"

There are so many different ways to set up your weight training throughout the week. If your schedule is hectic, you can train with weights every day, for 15 or 20 minutes, working a different major muscle group each time. If you have a little more time -- say 30 minutes per day -- work a few different muscle groups a few times per week. If you have one hour two times per week to get in your weight training, you can either lift upper body one day and lower body the other, or half and half.

I change my workouts from week to week so I don't get bored, and to keep my body guessing at all times, but here is a general sample of my weekly workout:

Monday: Back, Biceps, Abs
Tuesday: Pilates (Total Body) on a Reformer Machine -- this pretty much touches every muscle in the body, but with only one, maybe two sets, so my muscles aren't being overtrained.
Wednesday: Shoulders
Thursday: Legs, Abs, Lower Back
Friday: Chest, Triceps, Abs
Saturday: Pilates Mat Class, which really focuses on my core muscles.

*Cardio and stretching every day, minimum 60 minutes.

Usually my weight training lasts only 30 to 45 minutes. Also, I train legs only once a week, for two reasons: one is that my legs tend to bulk up quickly, so I don't need to train them more than that, and the other is that I do so much cardio that they are worked in different ways every day. However, you have to find what works for you -- some people need to train legs more than once per week.

I like to do three exercises per muscle group, three sets of 10 to 15 reps. If you are a beginner, you would probably benefit from one set of 10 to 15 reps per muscle group, and then work up from there. Again, you just have to find what works for you!