5"2 girl thinking of weight training? Calorie advice wanted!

annabeladcock

Hello MFP users!

I'm in need of some help and guidance. I'm 18 years old, 5"2, currently weigh 135 pounds and exercise 3 times a week. My goal is not necessarily to lose weight, but to lose inches (I say that because I'm thinking of getting more into weight training). The tactics I've tried don't get me far. I've tried going on 1200cals a day which does give me amazing results - but only for a little while, until I plateau or get sick of it and eat back all the pounds I've lost in junk food!

I have tried calculating my BMR and BMI and TDEE and every calculator that exists! Unfortunately I am a student doing a very time consuming course so I do spend pretty much my whole day sat at my desk studying and combining that with my shortness means that I'm guessing my daily calorie needs aren't that much...

Currently I have had the idea of weight lifting. From what I have gathered - incorporating weight lifting into my exercise regime will not only burn calories, but will also build muscle which can raise my metabolic rate, make me look more toned as well as improve my fitness! But I'm not really sure how to go about it in terms of what exercises to do, what weights, how many reps, and calories to go along side the weight training etc... I currently work out about 3 times a week. I do spin classes, circuits, and at the gym I do some cardio mixed with circuits and weight training.

My measurements are (in inches):
Arms - 11ins
Chest - 36ins
Waist - 28ins
Hips - 38ins
Thighs - 22.5ins
Calfs - 14.5ins.
(The problem areas for me are my stomach and thighs which i hate, and I have always had a large chest and rather large bum, and while I would like to tone these areas I am reasonably happy with them).

Usually I struggle with eating too many carbohydrates and not enough protein, but I am slowly but surely resolving this problem! I eat more protein in foods such as chicken, and I have cut down on "bad" carbs and eat more wholegrain and fruits.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give you all lots of information so maybe you could help me?? I'm off to university in September and would like to have the body I want by the time I'm there!!

Fithealthyforlife

Definitely learn and get into weight training! There are so many different possible approaches depending on your goals and current fitness level.

As far as calories/macros go, why not use MFP's food diary recommendations as a baseline? They are a good starting point. Set your activity level (not to sednetary!) and your height and weight, and work from there!

hamzapowerlifts

I would do full body exercises such as the squat, deadlift, bench press, snatch, clean and jerk, overhead press, etc

Try microloading, its where you start at 50% of your one rep max weight and each week you add 2.5%

50%
52.5%
55%

and so on. If you good microloading programs I am sure you will find something.

annabeladcock

Thankyou my main problem is should I do lots of cardio, lots of weights or both? And also how many calories should I be eating? There is some fat I want to lose... I'm currently on 1300 a day and eat back most of my exercise calories

joan23_us

Hello MFP users!

I'm in need of some help and guidance. I'm 18 years old, 5"2, currently weigh 135 pounds and exercise 3 times a week. My goal is not necessarily to lose weight, but to lose inches (I say that because I'm thinking of getting more into weight training). The tactics I've tried don't get me far. I've tried going on 1200cals a day which does give me amazing results - but only for a little while, until I plateau or get sick of it and eat back all the pounds I've lost in junk food!

I have tried calculating my BMR and BMI and TDEE and every calculator that exists! Unfortunately I am a student doing a very time consuming course so I do spend pretty much my whole day sat at my desk studying and combining that with my shortness means that I'm guessing my daily calorie needs aren't that much...

Currently I have had the idea of weight lifting. From what I have gathered - incorporating weight lifting into my exercise regime will not only burn calories, but will also build muscle which can raise my metabolic rate, make me look more toned as well as improve my fitness! But I'm not really sure how to go about it in terms of what exercises to do, what weights, how many reps, and calories to go along side the weight training etc... I currently work out about 3 times a week. I do spin classes, circuits, and at the gym I do some cardio mixed with circuits and weight training.

My measurements are (in inches):
Arms - 11ins
Chest - 36ins
Waist - 28ins
Hips - 38ins
Thighs - 22.5ins
Calfs - 14.5ins.
(The problem areas for me are my stomach and thighs which i hate, and I have always had a large chest and rather large bum, and while I would like to tone these areas I am reasonably happy with them).

Usually I struggle with eating too many carbohydrates and not enough protein, but I am slowly but surely resolving this problem! I eat more protein in foods such as chicken, and I have cut down on "bad" carbs and eat more wholegrain and fruits.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give you all lots of information so maybe you could help me?? I'm off to university in September and would like to have the body I want by the time I'm there!!

I use this program, if you manipulated your nutrition right i dont see any reason why it wont work

http://www.trueperformancenutrition.com/rob-riches/

as for your intake... 135 lbs x 13 calories = 1755 calories per day split it to 40-40-20 protein, carbs and fats...

try this intake and exercise and log your progress, see how you go in a month, slowly decrease carbs intake when you hit a plateau

slightly increase cardio intensity to further burn more calories, if you are like me, i would rather eat 200 calories worth of food and do cardio to balance it out, than totally avoiding it altogether so i dont have to burn it thru exercise but thats just me....

CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY... balance your calorie intake and calorie expenditure to find that enough deficit to warrant a slow fatloss... 1- 1.5 lbs a week is a decent fatloss... goodluck