From obese to ripped enough to compete for females?

kaylapacheco50

Anyone ever have suceess from getting over a huge plateau? Enough to where you went from being overweight or obese to ripped? I'm a divorced single mom of 2, I work full time. I lost my pregnancy weight by eating 1000 calories a day and not eating past 8pm, and walking or jogging 3-4 a day. Only problem is I lost all my curves. I gained some back and tried weight training at the gym, which I fell in love with and made my body feel and look amazing. It only lasted a short while though because my schedule changed and I couldnt get to the gym anymore, so I tried working out at home. Did ok for a bit but then my body freaked out, I turned 30 and gained 40lbs over a year, and I cannot for the life of me get it off. It's like the mother of all plateaus. I would love to get to a point of being fit enough to compete, but not sure what I'm doing wrong. My schedule changes again in a couple weeks and I can get back to the gym, but I don't know how to change my diet or what to do at the gym it's been so long. Has anyone had success getting past a huge plateau like this and losing a huge chunk of weight? And going on to compete? If so, how and what did you do? I'm completely lost as I feel like I worked so hard before and my body is fighting back more than ever. I'm 5'1, 186lbs, huge amount of body fat but muscle underneath.

dbanks80

You've been on a plateau for a year?????

Are you logging ALL your food/drinks? Are you measuring ALL your food/drinks? If not you probably have been eating at maintenance for a year.

jgnatca

K, that took me a minute to figure out. You are a female wanting to compete in a body competition against other females.

If indeed you've managed to keep that muscle that you built you can go on a "cut".

Did you log and track all your food for the past year? Minimum is 1,200 calories a day for a woman.

To lose forty pounds give yourself ten months. Keep up on your lifting throughout to reduce muscle loss.

middlehaitch

What kind of competing are you looking at doing?
This would affect the amount of weight you would want to lose, and maybe the training programme you would follow.

For now, put your stats into MFP to lose 1-1.5 a week.

Log accurately using a digital food scale set to grams for everything but liquids (use cups/spoons for those).

Get between .8-1g protein, 3.4-6g fat per lbs of ideal body weight (for your height 110lbs) and fill in the rest with carbs.

Continue lifting but don't be surprised if progress is slow, you are still retaining more existing muscle than if you didn't lift.

Use a proven weight training programme for the best results.

Eat back your exercise calories, adjust up or down after 6 weeks if your logging is accurate and your weight loss is not as expected.

Cheers, h.
ETA if you don't have a PT, or are not following an established programme, you may want to choose one of these.

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

middlehaitch

Sorry in my post above I miss typed

'Get between .8-1g protein, 3.4-6g fat per lbs of ideal body weight (for your height 110lbs) and fill in the rest with carbs'

It should read '(for your height 120lbs)'

NB: That is mid range of a normal BMI for your height and a reasonable weight to use if you don't know your gaol or lbm.

Cheers, h.

not_a_runner

You didn't mention what kind of competition you are considering- (bikini? figure? women's physique?), but for most women it takes a lot of time dedicated to muscle gain to achieve that kind of physique. Unless you are extremely well muscled already, you'll likely need to cut and bulk, and cut again, and maybe do that several times over, depending on what look you're going for. It's very unlikely that a person can just lose all the weight in one shot and be ready for comp. Getting stage lean is NOT easy.
I've seen a handful of people go from overweight to competing. The ones with the most success are the ones who put in the proper time to prepare. A friend of mine did a bikini show before she was ready and it didn't go well as she was not prepared. The next year she improved, and the following year she looked her best yet.
I would focus on getting a good grasp on your workout schedule and body composition before you get too caught up with competition. Lose the weight and see where you're at. Spend some time building more muscle, and then cut again. Get consistent with your diet and training.
I am close to your current stats with a decent muscle base from several years of consistent training, being realistic with myself I would expect it to take a few years before I would feel like my physique was 'ready'. (I prefer the figure/physique look) I know for myself, the extra BF makes it appear that I have a lot more muscle than I actually do. I have also struggled with my weight and dieting, so I know I need to get a handle on that before I would consider competing.
Hopefully this didn't come across as rude or doubtful, these are just things I consider as I am in a similar position. I most likely will never actually compete, but I do hope to improve my body comp in the next few years, and see how lean I can get. (I've always wondered if I could have abs lol)

fitoverfortymom

I'm just popping in here to say I'm super glad that OP is a woman and that she wants to "compete against other females" rather than a man who wants to "compete for the favor of females."

Good luck on reaching your goals, OP. Compete for women all you want!