Macros? Calories in? Body building .... am I eating enough?

Lipsmahoney

Need solid advice please !
One year of weight loss - 90 lbs in less than 12 months. (130 lbs since my heaviest) through clean eating, cardio and weight resistance. I am shifting to bodybuilder mode to look like a beast and be show ready, but will never step on a stage.
Currently:
47 y/o female 5'4" 176 lbs eating very clean in approximation of 1850 cal, 140 g carbs, 230g protein and 40g fat. Spread through 6 meals a day with post lift protein and protein at every male no carbs after 8pm.
30 min full incline treadmill 4k/hr fasted cardio every day
55 min lift every day (rest every 10 days) dumbells, machine, split, full body , superset, pyramid, drop set etc
HIIT bootcamp 2x week in addition to the above.
....and go !!!

not_a_runner

Are you trying to bulk? Recomp? (Recomp is probably your best bet, if not cutting a bit more fat. Your body weight still seems a little high for your height. So I don't think you'd be in a good place to bulk right now. Just speculation without knowing bf% though...)

There's really no way for us to tell you if that's enough calories for your body. The best way to determine that is to log your food and track your weight trend. Adjust calories/macros accordingly.

I would suggest you drop the protein though, 1 gram per pound of lean body mass is a good rule of thumb. Put those calories towards more carbs to better fuel your workouts/recovery.
(ETA- Pre and post workout carbs are also usually emphasised, not just protein. And there's nothing wrong with carbs after 8 pm. Many people find late night carbs actually help them sleep better.)

I don't really understand how you're describing your workout routine. You lift 10 days in a row? And you mentioned full body? Yikes.. I would look into an established, progressive lifting plan. 10 days without a day off (depending on your split, but even then..) would be pretty intense. I'm doing a bodypart split it at most do 3 days on/1 off and get pretty beat up at the frequency.

quiksylver296

TresaAswegan wrote: »

Are you trying to bulk? Recomp? (Recomp is probably your best bet, if not cutting a bit more fat. Your body weight still seems a little high for your height. So I don't think you'd be in a good place to bulk right now. Just speculation without knowing bf% though...)

There's really no way for us to tell you if that's enough calories for your body. The best way to determine that is to log your food and track your weight trend. Adjust calories/macros accordingly.

I would suggest you drop the protein though, 1 gram per pound of lean body mass is a good rule of thumb. Put those calories towards more carbs to better fuel your workouts/recovery.
(ETA- Pre and post workout carbs are also usually emphasized, not just protein. And there's nothing wrong with carbs after 8 pm. Many people find late night carbs actually help them sleep better.)

I don't really understand how you're describing your workout routine. You lift 10 days in a row? And you mentioned full body? Yikes.. I would look into an established, progressive lifting plan. 10 days without a day off (depending on your split, but even then..) would be pretty intense. I'm doing a body part split it at most do 3 days on/1 off and get pretty beat up at the frequency.

All of this. Check out proven progressive lifting programs. I like Layne Norton's PH3.

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

Lipsmahoney

bf% is 19 and I do have a bit more to lose

yup for the last year it has been full body and in 12 months I can count on one hand my rest days. It is only in the last month that I even take the 1 every 10 days off and then I still do cardio. rarely do I do a cheat meal either.

My year was also 70g carbs and 250 g protein for about 80% of the year before I realized hypoglycemia and some adrenal fatigue.
Crazy I know

TR0berts

Way too much protein, IMO. Since you weigh 176 lb, I'd recommend somewhere around 140, maybe as much as 176. And 140 may be more than you need. And I'd suggest upping fat some, as 40 g is a touch on the low side for a 176 lb person. Try ~50 g. The rest can be whatever, including carbs.

And I also don't understand what your lifting/exercise programming is (or is supposed to be). It seems like waaay too much.

Lipsmahoney

I literally workout 2+ to 3 hours a day

TR0berts

19% BF for a female? If accurate, then you really don't have that much more to lose. How did you determine that?

Lipsmahoney

TR0berts wrote: »

19% BF for a female? If accurate, then you really don't have that much more to lose. How did you determine that?

Tanita body comp analyzer periodically to track progress. I stopped losing about 6 weeks ago

not_a_runner

I understand you're saying that's what you've been doing, we're just saying it's probably not *optimal* for your goals.

5'4'' 176 lbs and 19% bf, would put you at 140+ lbs of lean mass, which is quite high already...

Lipsmahoney

TresaAswegan wrote: »

I understand you're saying that's what you've been doing, we're just saying it's probably not *optimal* for your goals.

5'4'' 176 lbs and 19% bf, would put you at 140+ lbs of lean mass, which is quite high already...

That is what the read out says. My issue is I have loose skin and would rather bulk with muscle and like what I see better than go for surgery.

Lipsmahoney

I am willing to make changes to get what I want and this is a sort of crossroad for me to switch from constantly wanting weight loss to bulking. Pretty rough on the mental state being huge all my life and yo- yo dieting lol

not_a_runner

Lipsmahoney wrote: »

I am willing to make changes to get what I want and this is a sort of crossroad for me to switch from constantly wanting weight loss to bulking. Pretty rough on the mental state being huge all my life and yo- yo dieting lol

Understandable!
I think recomp would be your best option right now, and looking into some different programming.

There are some good threads about recomp on here. You could shift some fat while building some muscle, and you won't have to go through the added stress yet of gaining weight/bulking. Basically eat at maintenance and have patience.

The issue with doing full body every day is that your muscle get no chance to recover, and growth happens during rest, not during workouts.

Lipsmahoney

This past week I have been playing with split training, but still every day with a plan to do full body today as a change. I will for sure look at the programming and advice you are giving. I want this more than I can say - patience with myself is not really my strong suit lol

Rusty740

I've noticed a couple of things.

You are working out too many times per week. If you want to build muscle, you lift heavy and build muscle during rest. Look up the sticky above for a program you feel would fit your goals. Aim for 3 - 4 days per week at 45 mins to 1:15 hours each workout. Any more or less is not as effective. You'll be very tired by the end and not be able to put as much in those last exercises.

Your body fat is not accurate (I bet it's 5% lower than actual), body analyzers are notoriously inaccurate for determining actual body fat %. Don't throw it out though, is it useful for determining whether you are gaining or losing body fat and the rate at which this is happening.

If you want to make sure the program you pick is effective you will need to record it and progressively overload it. This could be in terms of more sets, more reps, higher weights, or shorter rest times.

Here's a trick to make sure your sets are effective. Lift until you think you've got 0 to 3 more reps in you and stop.
Say you are aiming for 8 reps. If you're doing it right, you should have enough weight on the bar so that you could fail at 8 or go to 11 reps, but no more. Failure means you start losing your form. This will make sure you are lifting greater than 60% of your maximum. Approximately 60% of your maximum is the minimum amount of weight that you need to stimulate muscle growth.

You can figure out your 1 rep maximum by increasing the weight on the bar (start light) and figure out what weight you need so you fail at about 8 reps. Look for an online 1 rep max calculator and use that.

When you do high weights (80-90% of your maximum) do less reps (less is about 4-6 reps), you may not get sore, but as long as you keep slowly increasing the weight on the bar, you will get stronger, but not necessarily bigger. In general, soreness is a useful tool to figure out if your workout is effective though, but it comes into play for higher reps usually.

A variety of rep ranges is beneficial so vary them every once in a while.

When you do medium weights (75% of your maximum), do a medium amount of reps (medium is 6-12 ish)

When you do light weights (60-75% of your maximum), do lots of reps (12 - 20 is lots).

If you're doing more than 20 reps, the weight is too light and you'll just end up looking like a marathoner

dalerst

Nice reading and lots of information I will be taking a lot of this advice in to my training programme.

Lipsmahoney

I am seriously grateful for all the info and few PM's worth of help. I see I have work to do getting myself into a new routine/program