I don't know what to do

Mdamra

I am a 5"3, 108 lbs female. I've posted in some other categories and was told to come here. I eat a low carb diet but am planning on going on a calorie deficit. I have ran 40 miles since June 16th as my cardio (6 days a week, different number of miles each day) and do an at home abs workout. I am
Looking to define my abs and tone all the muscles in my body but I don't know what to do nutritionally or physically. Also I want to begin taking cellucor whey protein, any advice?

TavistockToad

You don't want a calorie deficit if you want to gain weight?

IsaackGMOON

Hey again @Mdamra,

To gain muscle, you need a caloric surplus. It's very very very hard for a female to gain muscle while in a caloric deficit due to decreased levels of testosterone compared to men.

Toning is essentially losing weight which requires a caloric deficit... something which you don't need as your BMI would decrease to levels which are approaching unhealthy.

OP srs just bulk. You don't need protein powder, just get it from real food.

AsISmile

I think you want the recomposition thread in the maintenance sub forum. (This is weight gain.)
If you rather want to gain muscle by lifting heavy and eat in surplus this is the right place.

AliceDark

It seems like the OP is confused about what she wants to do, so she's getting passed around the different sections here. Even if she doesn't end up bulking, this is probably the best forum for her to ask questions and try to figure out a game plan.

OP, what is your goal? "Toning" is a buzzword that is sort of meaningless, so can you please try to describe what you want in another way?

1. If you want to lose weight, you need a calorie deficit. The issue I foresee is that you're already really light. If you don't have a good amount of muscle mass underneath, if you lose weight there's a high likelihood that you'll end up looking flabby (for lack of a better word).
2. If you want to see muscle, you have to have muscle mass in the first place. I'd guess this is your problem -- you can't strip off fat to reveal the muscle underneath if there isn't any muscle there. For this, you need resistance training (lifting). Running isn't really going to help much in terms of your muscularity, although it may help somewhat. You need resistance.
3. If you're a new lifter, or if you're not comfortable with gaining weight and then losing the fat, you want to recomp. This is when you eat at maintenance (and maintain your current weight) while resistance training, in the hopes of gaining little bits of muscle and losing little bits of fat over time. Have you lifted weights before? If not, stop here and do this for 6 months or so. You'll have some lovely newbie muscle gains and will probably see some nice body changes.
4. You could also choose to bulk, which is when you purposefully gain a controlled amount of weight while lifting weights like a beast. If you are a new lifter, this isn't your option.

So...recomp. As mentioned earlier, there's a good recomp thread in the Maintaining Weight section. The highlights are:

1. Find a good beginner lifting program. Look at Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 (if you have gym access) or You Are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning (bodyweight programs, good if you don't have gym access).
2. Find your maintenance calories and eat them.
3. Run if you want -- it's good exercise and it's fun, but make sure you get some resistance training in there!

Mdamra

AliceDark wrote: »

It seems like the OP is confused about what she wants to do, so she's getting passed around the different sections here. Even if she doesn't end up bulking, this is probably the best forum for her to ask questions and try to figure out a game plan.

OP, what is your goal? "Toning" is a buzzword that is sort of meaningless, so can you please try to describe what you want in another way?

1. If you want to lose weight, you need a calorie deficit. The issue I foresee is that you're already really light. If you don't have a good amount of muscle mass underneath, if you lose weight there's a high likelihood that you'll end up looking flabby (for lack of a better word).
2. If you want to see muscle, you have to have muscle mass in the first place. I'd guess this is your problem -- you can't strip off fat to reveal the muscle underneath if there isn't any muscle there. For this, you need resistance training (lifting). Running isn't really going to help much in terms of your muscularity, although it may help somewhat. You need resistance.
3. If you're a new lifter, or if you're not comfortable with gaining weight and then losing the fat, you want to recomp. This is when you eat at maintenance (and maintain your current weight) while resistance training, in the hopes of gaining little bits of muscle and losing little bits of fat over time. Have you lifted weights before? If not, stop here and do this for 6 months or so. You'll have some lovely newbie muscle gains and will probably see some nice body changes.
4. You could also choose to bulk, which is when you purposefully gain a controlled amount of weight while lifting weights like a beast. If you are a new lifter, this isn't your option.

So...recomp. As mentioned earlier, there's a good recomp thread in the Maintaining Weight section. The highlights are:

1. Find a good beginner lifting program. Look at Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 (if you have gym access) or You Are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning (bodyweight programs, good if you don't have gym access).
2. Find your maintenance calories and eat them.
3. Run if you want -- it's good exercise and it's fun, but make sure you get some resistance training in there!

Thank you this helps so much! I have never lifted before so I don't think I should bulk but will look into recomp I think you said