Strategies for Reducing Body Fat

hottottie11

I decided to ditch the weight loss goal of 135 (I'm 10 to 13 lbs away) and go for reducing body fat and increasing strength instead. I only want to drop one inch of my waist and hips to fit in into a size 6. Does any one have any tips in doing so?. Five weeks ago I had a BF % of 24...I want to be about 18 to 20%. I've increased my calories to a weight loss goal of 1/2 lb per week. I regularly run and strength train. Anything else I should be doing?

Feel free to add me to review my food diary.

morganadk2_deleted

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luv2ash

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

jackier19

Im interested in doing the exact same thing. Right I'm at 20.4 and wanna get to 18%!

cgavin77

bump!

hottottie11

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

kristiek7

I'm definately interested in this too........my situation exactly.

tmaksparkie

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

You are female so unless you take steroids youo would be bulky. Heavy weights is where it is at, my motto lift heavy lift good.

Suedre

That's exactly what I've been doing for the last four weeks and I've been fairly successful at it. I've lost not a single pound, but dropped a full pant size.

I've been eating from the Women's Health Abs Diet. I recently bought the recipie book, but you can get tons of info on it for free from the web. It's basically a well balanced diet with higher protein. If you mix the foods from the ABS DIET POWER list you can come up with some pretty tasty meals that travel easily (I've become one of those people that brings a bag pretty much everywhere. Last week at McDonalds with my kid I had my low sodium turkey, sliced oranges, and a banana.) I eat roughly 1800 - 2200 calories a day and get three full days of strength training, three cardio, and two 3 - 6 miles runs. I would think less activity would mean a few less calories, but same result.

Here's a link to get you started if your interested:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/abs-diet-quickstart-plan

kdiamond

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

Hit the HEAVY weights. Low reps and high weight. Check out "New Rules of Lifting for Women" - a wonderful program for gaining strength and reducing body fat. I lost 2-3% doing this program coupled with Crossfit (something else you may want to look into).

Kudos to you for forgetting the scale - I wish more would do that!! It is such an inaccurate way to measure health and fitness.

hottottie11

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

You are female so unless you take steroids youo would be bulky. Heavy weights is where it is at, my motto lift heavy lift good.

And I know this but its so hard to get myself to do this. My frame support muscle gain. I already have broad shoulders and thick muscular legs.

What does everyone think about yoga? I want to gain some flexibility also

blittle40

You won't get bulky unless you take supplements and lift extremely heavy...you need to switch up the routine..if you've been doing the same routine for more than 6 weeks then your muscles are used to the movements and weights...switch everything up and add weight, you'll start seeing some changes again. Add more cardio or make it more intense for a shorter period of time. You can also switch up the foods you are eating, I know when I reached a plateau, all I changed was what I was eating and what time of day I was eating and that kicked me back into gear again. Feel free to add me. I'll be glad to help anyway I can.

just4peachy

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

You won't get bulky. Body builders work so hard for every tiny gain, you won't have to worry about it happening accidentally. It's nearly impossible for women to bulk even when they want to. Your best bet is to lift heavy; there's a book called The New Rules of Lifting for Women, I *highly* recommend it!

polo571

HIIT training on the treadmill is a great way to burn off the goo. Just like the trainers on biggest loser you have to incorporate speed bursts to get off the fat. Get uncomfortable and push and you will see results.

hottottie11

Thank you everyone!!! I'm going to look up that book. Thanks for the requests also!

hottottie11

Thank you everyone!!! I'm going to look up that book. Thanks for the requests also!

Suedre

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

You are female so unless you take steroids youo would be bulky. Heavy weights is where it is at, my motto lift heavy lift good.

And I know this but its so hard to get myself to do this. My frame support muscle gain. I already have broad shoulders and thick muscular legs.

What does everyone think about yoga? I want to gain some flexibility also

I hear you. There is some genetics at play too. Some women (myself) WILL bulk up a touch. You should see my quads - these suckers stick out a solid three inches from my knee and it's all muscle. My calves and biceps are the same way. The thing is, it looks fine. I'm not going to be a crazy triangle shaped body builder regardless of how much I lift because A. I'm not taking all the suppliments and B. I eat more than lettuce and rice. I like that when I bend my legs you can see bands of muscles and my triceps show shape in the back of my arm (helps hiding with the flabby skin! ) Just try it. If you don't like it, you can back off.


Also - meant to add - I do yoga stretc once a week. I like it alot.

jewelzz

You won't get bulky. Body builders work so hard for every tiny gain, you won't have to worry about it happening accidentally. It's nearly impossible for women to bulk even when they want to. Your best bet is to lift heavy; there's a book called The New Rules of Lifting for Women, I *highly* recommend it!


I find this not to be true for me.I am short and my muscles arent long so for me I actually bulk up alot in my thighd and calves.I really have to watch how much work i do on them

gazbo1986

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

You are female so unless you take steroids youo would be bulky. Heavy weights is where it is at, my motto lift heavy lift good.

And I know this but its so hard to get myself to do this. My frame support muscle gain. I already have broad shoulders and thick muscular legs.

What does everyone think about yoga? I want to gain some flexibility also

you're not going to get "bulky". And I don't know a single guy who doesn't find slightly muscular girls to be sexy as hell.

melaniecheeks

I'm interested in this too, as my bf% is over 30 (according to my electronic scale - though an online calculator based on measurments puts it at 28%)

I've seen great results to my body shape lifting weights, and try to keep pushing myself a bit more each time.

dublvision2

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sunshine79

Like many others have said, go heavy on the weights. I only have 9lbs to lose but I want to lose fat not just 'weight'. My personal trainer has me use really challenging weights with slightly lower reps. Last year when I lost lost of weight (before a medical condition caused me to gain it all back!) I also did HIIT (High intensity interval training) which really helped too

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do it

gogophers

If you do start lifting heavy, a couple of things to keep in mind:

Watch out for injuries. Depending on what you're doing, make sure you have a spotter. Make sure you are doing the exercise properly. Also, try to flex your abs as your doing the exercise. It'll help keep your back from getting injured and will actually help you lift more weight.

Do multi-muscle workouts first. You want to try to do as much weight with each exercise as possible. So, for example, never do triceps before doing bench press. If you do bench press first, it will allow you to actually build up chest strength.

Opposites attract: Make sure that when you are doing your workout you know what part of your body is being worked. Then, figure out the opposing muscle and make sure you work that out too. For example, if you do biceps, make sure you also do triceps. If you do chest, make sure you also do upper back. If you do abs, make sure you also do lower back.

Free weights are better than machines. They allow you to use the rest of your body and your core to make sure the weights are moving in the correct position.

Also, pay attention to the order in which you do things and switch it up if it makes sense. For example, if I'm using a machine for bicep curls (dumbbells or an ez-curl bar are always better, but sometimes they aren't available) I will make sure to do biceps before triceps because with the bicep machine, your triceps are resting on the padding. It can start to hurt if you've already done your tricep exercise. Same is true for quad and hami exercises. Do hami first because the quad receives pressure in that exercise.

jockg

Hiya I'm currently doing a 5x5 program for my weights, its 5 sets of 5 reps with heavy weights. I've had pretty good success with it so far, I really like it because once you can do 5 sets of 5 reps you increase the weight by 2.5Kg / 5Lbs, so you can see results in your mind as well as your body. All the weights are easy to perform, you only need a barbell.

More info here - http://s3.amazonaws.com/StrongLifts/stronglifts-5x5-report.pdf

That file is mainly aimed at guys IMO but there are women that do it too. There's a woman in my gym that does it and I think she looks great. You'd never tell she did weights when shes wearing normal clothes.

After weights I do 2 x 10 minute HIIT cardio sessions like sunshine79

Jillk1023

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BigBoneSista

Muscle burns fat---hit the weights girl.

I do that 4 times a week. But I'm wondering if I should kick up the intensity. I"m not looking to be bulky, but I am looking for tips for women for a lean toned body.

Hit the HEAVY weights. Low reps and high weight. Check out "New Rules of Lifting for Women" - a wonderful program for gaining strength and reducing body fat. I lost 2-3% doing this program coupled with Crossfit (something else you may want to look into).

Kudos to you for forgetting the scale - I wish more would do that!! It is such an inaccurate way to measure health and fitness.

I have to agree with heavy weights.

You want your muscles to max out by the time you get to your last reps each time and make sure your form is correct. Also make sure your reps are slow & steady and squeeze the muscle.

ashley0616

Weighted hula hoop. I work with a gal who added that to her regimen and lost serious inches off her waist!

Make sure every weight training exercise you do, you are tucking your pelvis under and squeezing your abs, even if you are working your arms or legs.

Also, bellies store carbs, so you could look at your diary and see where you could cut a few out. Even one serving a day will make a difference!

Good luck! And congrats on your progress thusfar!

hottottie11

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions! I think I have a game plan. I'm picking up the "New rules of lifting for women" at B&N today after the gym. I will also start some HIIT training! I'm excited :happy:

Do I really have to sacrifice some of my carbs? Nothing refined or processed and everything comes from whole wheat or fruits and veggies? I really don't want to cut them.

freerange

Ever look at an olympic sprinter? Add HIIT sprints to your workout, cut out all refined carbs, and you will do just fine.

RunHardBeStrong

Another testimony here for the book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" and heavy lifting. I promise you won't get bulky, you will lose fat, get toned and be totally sexy!!!!

freerange

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions! I think I have a game plan. I'm picking up the "New rules of lifting for women" at B&N today after the gym. I will also start some HIIT training! I'm excited :happy:

Do I really have to sacrifice some of my carbs? Nothing refined or processed and everything comes from whole wheat or fruits and veggies? I really don't want to cut them.

I should have read this before I posted my first post. Try cutting out all grains for two weeks just to see how it works for you. If you want to keep your carbs at the same level try adding sweet potatoes to make up for the carbs you lose from your whole wheat. Wheat is processed carbs, no matter if it's WW of white.