LEANING OUT, ADVICE

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  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
    1) You haven't given anything enough time. How long have you been trying to cut? You need 5 months or about, I'm guessing.
    2) not enough protein. Minimum 110 daily, not just workout days. You can eat more on workout days
    3) not enough carbs. You'd only really need to drop the carbs to lose those last couple pounds of water weight, even presuming you're interested in competition and not just doing this because you want a photo on instagram.
    4) you still have too high body fat to consider a bulk, and it would be counter to your goals.
    5) 1500-1700 calories a day. I'd say 1580 minimum on non-workout days.
    6) you don't need to up cardio, but you can do either LISS or HIIT once or twice a week
    7) drop one of your lifting days and give yourself more time to rest post-lifts.
  • madisonamanda
    madisonamanda Posts: 78 Member
    Alright, y'all have talked me into it. I'm going to give the IIFYM recommended levels for the next four weeks and see if there's a change.
  • Showcase_Brodown
    Showcase_Brodown Posts: 919 Member
    "Leaning out" is just another way of phrasing "losing fat."

    Give yourself plenty of time to allow for slow changes. The first thing you want is a small or moderate calorie deficit (nothing extreme), along with plenty of protein intake, along with resistance training. This is the standard recipe for losing fat without losing much muscle in the process (also called a cut).

    Then when you get down to a lower fat percentage and are ready to build muscle, go on a bulk. Then back to a cut. Then back to a bulk. Or maintain weight and "recomposition."
  • Michifan
    Michifan Posts: 95 Member
    I'd cut back the weight pump, increase the cardio and monitor your heart rate to keep it at a lower rate. Do some endurance training which is longer, not faster. When I was super serious back in the day, I would have weeks where I went off my pump and just focused on endurance, massively cutting back weight but working with a spotter to muscle exhaustion at higher reps and 10 miles or more of running. I was all about my look, not setting gym records and it worked.
  • 2013sk
    2013sk Posts: 1,318 Member
    Why are you scared of carbs????

    Carbs fuel you for them powerful workouts - Just pick good ones : )
  • veganxpizza
    veganxpizza Posts: 40 Member
    you will definitely lean out for slowing your pace (say on the treadmill) and running for 35-45 minutes as opposed to 20.
  • veganxpizza
    veganxpizza Posts: 40 Member
    and definitely, you need to up your carbs, just make sure they're complex and not refined. You should try what I do -
    1400-1600 cals per day
    180 g carbs
    45 g fat
    80-100 g protein
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    If you want to cut/get lean, you really want to look into heavy lifting. As long as you're eating in a deficit (or even maintenance) you won't gain bulk. You aren't going to accidentally turn into she-hulk. It just doesn't happen :wink:

    Look into a program like Starting Strength, or Strong Curves. They will walk you through the how-to's of heavy lifting. There is also a group here for women lifting, and for people doing Starting Strength.
  • MagnumBurrito
    MagnumBurrito Posts: 1,070 Member
    Alright, y'all have talked me into it. I'm going to give the IIFYM recommended levels for the next four weeks and see if there's a change.

    Good choice. You're working out too much to be only eating 1400 calories. I didn't read all the comments but simple macros are 1 gram of protein / lb of lean mass (minimum), .4 grams of fat / lb of BW (minimum). Use the rest of the calories for carbs. And get 25+ grams of fiber. I bet you can still cut at 1800-1900 calories.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    If you want to cut/get lean, you really want to look into heavy lifting. As long as you're eating in a deficit (or even maintenance) you won't gain bulk. You aren't going to accidentally turn into she-hulk. It just doesn't happen :wink:

    Look into a program like Starting Strength, or Strong Curves. They will walk you through the how-to's of heavy lifting. There is also a group here for women lifting, and for people doing Starting Strength.

    ^^Yep.

    Your cardio is fine, if you're looking into IIFYM you'll be set there (as long as your logging is on), so you should look into a progressive "heavy" lifting/resistance program as an addition as your next step.

    When you're in a deficit you lose water, muscle and fat. By adding in a progressive heavy program you're going to be working to maintain that muscle mass, so you lose mainly fat and water. This is extremely efficient for lowering BF% since you're maintaining that muscle and mostly losing fat. It is also the most efficient for gaining better muscle definition. Same principle. You're stripping the fat off of the muscle that you're maintaining.

    You don't have a lot, if any, weight to lose so you should be near maintenance and be performing a recomp in order to "lean out".

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