Successful 5 foot women

WildePillar

I'm between 5'2" and 5'3" and eat 2,300 a day. I weigh 102 pounds.

CarobChip108

If you were new to lifting, then it's not out of realm of possibility to gain muscle as well - as newbie gains. For anybody else you were likely losing fat and preserving muscle mass - or at least trying to preserve some muscle mass. Because in deficit, you will lose fat and some muscle mass.
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@biodigit I am definitely a newbie. I am doing the insanity right now, do you think theres no muscle gain at all? I know its a bunch of cardio but theres so much strength training too with body weight I can't imagine there to be no muscle building. At least I feel a lot stronger on my fourth week. I also was reading about your muscles holding onto water in the beginning, especially if you're new to exercising this intense. Let me know your thoughts

yasminara

Oh cool! I'm going to friend everyone on here! 5'2" and struggling! Great to hear what you guys did!

amillenium

I am 5'1" but hit a bit of a plateau lately with some not so healthy splurges and a gym under construction Trying to get back on track though!

bioklutz

I am 5'0", 100ish pounds, 41 years old. I lost about 10 pounds and am now maintaining my weight and working towards recomp. While losing I ate 1600-1700 calories a day. I am currently eating about 2,000 calories a day.

How much people eat is going to vary by how active they are.

zdyb23456

I'm 5' and fluctuate around 115 pounds. I weighed 123 when I started mfp.

I'm maintaining around 2k a day, but I run 30-40 minutes 6 days a week. I log about 15k steps a day so I consider myself fairly active.

I'd like to try and lose another 5 pounds.

rosebette

I'm 5'1.5" and 56, around 120 lbs. I eat around 1200, sometimes more depending on exercise calories. I lost at the beginning, but can't get below 120. I am a bit stocky, though, so while short, I'm not really a petite build.

highlanderthedog

I am 5'1" and 125 lbs. I just started tracking religiously last week and used the scoobys workshop calculator to determine my TDEE. I am a teacher and am constantly on my feet all day long so consider myself active. I also lift weights and do cardio. I am eating 1500 calories a day and hope to see a loss next week. I used to think I had to stick to 1200 -1300 calories to lose weight but I don't want to wreck my metabolism when I hit goal and will have to maintain eating a small amount of food.

biodigit

CarobChip108 wrote: »

If you were new to lifting, then it's not out of realm of possibility to gain muscle as well - as newbie gains. For anybody else you were likely losing fat and preserving muscle mass - or at least trying to preserve some muscle mass. Because in deficit, you will lose fat and some muscle mass.

@biodigit I am definitely a newbie. I am doing the insanity right now, do you think theres no muscle gain at all? I know its a bunch of cardio but theres so much strength training too with body weight I can't imagine there to be no muscle building. At least I feel a lot stronger on my fourth week. I also was reading about your muscles holding onto water in the beginning, especially if you're new to exercising this intense. Let me know your thoughts

@CarobChip108 for sure you're experiencing rapid muscle growth due to new stimulus to muscles that either your body has never encountered before or being stressed/worked on in a very long time. So that's what you're experiencing. Unfortunately your muscles will plateau eventually. One of the most effective ways to stimulate continuous muscle growth is via progressive overload, thru strength training. Your body and muscles will not respond favorably if they're not properly stressed. But in order to stimulate muscle growth you have to eat in surplus. Unfortunately you will grow muscles and fat at the same time, that's just how we're physiologically built

You can lose the fat and try to retain as much muscle mass via eating in deficit and strength training.

And absolutely your body retains water especially while weight training.

CarobChip108

biodigit wrote: »

CarobChip108 wrote: »

@CarobChip108 for sure you're experiencing rapid muscle growth due to new stimulus to muscles that either your body has never encountered before or being stressed/worked on in a very long time. So that's what you're experiencing. Unfortunately your muscles will plateau eventually. One of the most effective ways to stimulate continuous muscle growth is via progressive overload, thru strength training. Your body and muscles will not respond favorably if they're not properly stressed. But in order to stimulate muscle growth you have to eat in surplus. Unfortunately you will grow muscles and fat at the same time, that's just how we're physiologically built

You can lose the fat and try to retain as much muscle mass via eating in deficit and strength training.

And absolutely your body retains water especially while weight training.

Thats definitely true about plateauing, i've been reading about that as well. At least for the first two months I think should be good in that regard. I'm trying to quickly recondition my body, if you will, before I head to India for 4 months since I'll be doing a lot of traveling and I want to have as much energy as possible, so I felt the Insanity could help with that.

Then when I return I think I will start weight/strength training in addition to some cardio.

So what you're saying is to eat a surplus on weight training days and a deficit on other days? Would that help?

Another question, before you start weight training should you try to lose most of the fat you want and kind of get to your goal weight and then start to add muscle?

Sorry if these are super newbie questions haha

clairenicole84

Great post!

Ang108

rugratz2015 wrote: »

biodigit wrote: »

CarobChip108 wrote: »

@rugratz2015 I opted to lose 1 lb a week so it gave me 1500, I'm not very active at work, but I have been doing the Insanity program 5-6 days a week for 3 weeks and have only lost a pound, I have been eating back half or most of my exercise calories so this week I am trying 1300 calories and eating back only half or none and see if that helps. I have heard that the gaining of muscle can cancel out weight loss on the scale but I think I can have lower calories since I am shorter. What do you think?

If you're truly in deficit then generally speaking, you will not gain any weight, including muscles. In order to gain muscles/weight you have to be eating in surplus. It's either water retention or you need to tighten up your logging.

I lost 11 lbs in 3 weeks last year whilst toning up and developing muscle using a personal trainer ...

It's science; a person cannot lose weight and develop muscle at the same time unless it's newbie gains for a small % of the very obese community that is just starting out with exercise for the first time..
What confuses people is that if you lose fat, the muscles that were hiding under the fat start to show, which is really neat and people tend to confuse that with building muscle.
Looking at it from a point of health-fitness and sports medicine there is no " toning up ". People confuse getting stronger and using their muscles more efficiently through lifting with " toning " and every trainer who perpetuates this myth should lose their job.
We either lose fat by eating at a deficit, or we build muscle by eating at a certain surplus and lifting weight. That is why serious weight lifter go through " cutting " and " bulking " cycles. It's just plain science....nothing more. There is no way to lose and gain at the same time, which would have to be the case if you lose weight and gain muscle.