New goal- a "bodybuilding" style photo for my 40th birthday

amandaeve

I turn 40 in January. I spent the last 6 months working my *kitten* off trying to build muscle and haven’t gained any. So, for the rest of the year, I am redirecting my focus to loosing fat while maintaining muscle. The grand finale/reward/goal at the end will be a professional photograph with fancy lighting and lotion to make me look as buff as humanly possible. I want to have an awesome image of myself before my body starts showing age. What weight/body fat should I go for? I bike 6-10 hours a week and have about 3 hours a week to spend in the gym. I won’t eat more than 120 grams of protein a day. Knowing those limits- what’s a realistic goal?

*bonus- if anyone knows a photographer that could take this sort of photo in the Seattle area, let me know!

musclegood_fatbad

You look amazing already but excited to see the results as well. In reality a good aggressive 6 month goal would look something like this

160 lbs - 140 lbs
30% bf - 24% bf

That would mean you would lose just under 1 lb/wk at a rate of 70% of weight lost as fat. If you stay around 110 g of protein per day you will be fine and hit the gym so you can retain as much muscle as possible.

Best of luck.

amandaeve

That sounds like a reasonable goal. And thank you for the compliment! Time to hit the gym!

middlehaitch

You don't say what you are doing while in the gym. If you weren't/ aren't doing a resistance/lifting programme you may want to think of doing one from the link below.

Love the idea.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Cheers, h.

amandaeve

[quote=

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Cheers, h. [/quote]

This is a great list! I am going to keep tabs on this and refer to it later! I've been doing a push/pull/legs legs routine, nearly exactly to the one on the list. I'd alternate between low reps while trying to increase weight and higher reps and keep weight the same. I didn't like how, during the low rep cycles, I'd lift more weight every week, but didn't feel stronger. For example, I'd increase 10 lbs. on the upright row, but struggle carrying the weight over to where I was lifting!