Vegan short ladies weight lifting

alechua

I'm 5'3 female and has been vegan for almost 2 years now. I've been doing stronglifts for almost 3 months now. I weigh 125lbs. I used to be a cardio junkie but I can't loose my belly pooch esp. in the lower belly so I finally give strength training a shot. I can't seem to stop my cardio obsession since I love to eat. I tried quitting cardio for a month and just did stronglifts but I felt my clothes getting tighter. But now, I decided to start focusing on lifting and do yoga on rest days. My current lifting weights that I can't seem to increase anymore

Squat: 90lbs
Bench press: 50lbs
Deadlift: 120lbs
Overhead press: 40lbs
barbell row: 50lbs

My thighs are getting bigger but my stomach doesn't seem to change at all, I also have back fat I can't get rid off.

My current diet is vegan food mostly sweet potato, potatoes, bananas, dates, beans, greens and other vegetables, peanut butter, but mostly whole foods. Hardly faux meat and processed food.

Any suggestions or advice what changes I need whether to my weight lifting routine or diet? Thank you in advance!

janejellyroll

How many grams of protein are you getting per day?

DaddieCat

janejellyroll wrote: »

How many grams of protein are you getting per day?

This would have been my first question as well. Although I'd add in a question about current calorie targets and whether or not food is being weighed or just estimated.

alechua

Based on my set goal in MFP 68g of protein per day, I really wouldn't want to obsessively track until the smallest detail because I had bad past experience of being obsessive. And so I'm not weighing and just estimating, since I'm trying to intuitively eat. But recently went back logging but based on estimation and not weighing the food and trying to stay under if not exactly the calorie goal for that day. Any advice or suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

DaddieCat

It's been my experience that people tend to over or under estimate by as much as 40% so it's tough when you are just estimating like that. But you might try some of the methods listed at any of the places listed below. They are all very similar.

http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/simple-tricks-estimate-serving-size

http://lifehacker.com/5880630/use-your-hand-to-estimate-your-portions

http://www.eatrightontario.ca/getmedia/255dbbe6-23cd-4adf-9aba-f18310f09e3d/Handy-Servings-Guide-English-for-web-FINAL-October-2015.aspx

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide-infographic

Edited because words are hard.

alechua

Just wondering how do you guys resist if we say that you follow the suggested measurement to be accurate as much as possible to your daily target caloric goal and still find yourself hungry or still wanting to eat? Thanks!

DaddieCat

I space out my food in smaller meals. I'm running a cut right now so my intake is considerably lower than normal. To counteract this, I eat smaller meals throughout the day... usually 200 or so calories each meal and then eat the remainder of what calories are remaining to me late in the evening when I find it most satisfying.

alechua

Thanks for the links and advice! I actually find it difficult to eat smaller meals since I tend to not able to stop when I don't feel full... else I'll have a bad cravings that leads to somewhat binge at the end of the day mostly on high calorie food like nut butters...