Ask me anything about fat/weight loss....

fithannafit

I'm 17 years old, 5'4" and currently about 151 lbs, giving me around a 1540 calorie BMR. If I NET at my BMR every day do you think that would be healthy and allow me to lose fat?
I ask it this way because on my rest days I do very little activity where as my workout days can range anywhere from 300 calories burned to 1300 (depending on how far I run) and I wouldn't be able to set an amount of calories to eat each day because my calorie burns vary so much.

Btw thank you so much for sharing all your great info!

belladonnablue

....

Hopefully that's enough background. Here are my questions!:

1. My workout regimen consists of four days of REALLY high-intensity circuit training for 30 minutes, high intensity cardio for 30 minutes on one day, and then two "rest" days where I do really low-impact stuff like yoga, bellydance, or ballet (dancing is one of my hobbies.)

Does the circuit training gives me enough strength training, since it's not exactly "lifting heavy"? I HAVE noticed significant strength gains in the past few weeks -- my upper body is stronger, my lunges and squats are going deeper and holding longer, and my formerly too-heavy toddler is getting lighter.

2. I currently am at the correct ratio for an hourglass figure (I'm just a "fat" hourglass) and I'd like to keep that. My understanding, though, is that overdoing it on exercises working the abs can create that square torso look that pilates instructors have and that I really don't want to develop. What's the best way to avoid getting the square look and keep the narrow waist definition?

3. How accurate have you found MFP's calorie counts? I cook from home most of the time and rely on MFP's estimates on the nutritional content of my recipes.

4. I'm a recovering soda addict, and while I've made a LOT of progress, I still have a soda a few times a week. I always record it and I'm staying within my calories. I'm aiming to quit entirely by the end of the year. Am I going to totally sabotage any progress I might make if I don't cut it out right away? With all the noise about high-fructose corn syrup, I'm half believing that I can workout all the time, eat well, and yet a soda a week will make me gain ten pounds. :P

5. Sometimes I have to do my workouts while my toddler's awake. Most of the time, I can push through it with her only being a little irritated at not having my undivided attention, but sometimes she gets into something, gets hungry, or needs comfort in the middle of my workout. I worry that these little interruptions are really cutting into the effectiveness of my workouts, but obviously I'm not going to ignore my daughter if she really needs me. Am I worrying overmuch, or am I really better off restarting the whole program until I can do it from start-to-finish with no interruptions?

I am so sorry for the wall of text. Thank you for holding still.

1. How much strength do you want? Circuits are efficient for gaining strength but there are more effective ways if you just want STRENGTH strength.

2. Best way to not get the square look is by doing excercises that work your hourglass like squats, lunges, and lateral raises.

3. Pretty decently active unless you're trying to get shredded. Then I'd personally manipulate a few things.

4. Sugar isn't the killer killer, but I would ween off of it asap.

5. Just get and stay active. If you have an interruption, that's fine. Just make sure you're progressively overloading yourself.

You're awesome. Thank you!

I'm not trying to get ripped or anything. I just want to build up enough lean muscle to ramp up my metabolism more to help drop excess body fat and to reduce overall... eh... floppiness.

Seems like doing circuits should be sufficient to get me there if I keep making it a little harder on myself as I go. Yay!

I do lots of those exercises already, but I'll toss in a few more lateral raises and really focus on doing my squats and lunges well. Thank you tons for providing so much guidance to me and everybody in this thread!

ChasingSweatandTears

I'm on page 8.... Finishing later

Angie2016

Did you ever get response on your running question? I have the same problem.

Angie2016

Mon 05/07/12 05:57 AM

Hey Thanks for doing this!

I've got a running question - I'm trying to increase my running distance from 5k onward, but I seem to be capping out (lungs are okay, it's my legs!) just past the 5k mark...Is this a question of not enough protien, or just a matter of giving myself more time for my legs to catch up to my lungs?


did you ever respond to this question? I have the same problem. I have been doing research but there are many different reasons why my legs hurt after I run.

anoroc751

Mon 05/07/12 05:57 AM

Hey Thanks for doing this!

I've got a running question - I'm trying to increase my running distance from 5k onward, but I seem to be capping out (lungs are okay, it's my legs!) just past the 5k mark...Is this a question of not enough protien, or just a matter of giving myself more time for my legs to catch up to my lungs?


did you ever respond to this question? I have the same problem. I have been doing research but there are many different reasons why my legs hurt after I run.

I am pretty sure he did answer this. Sounds familiar.

joy31021

bump

Jme2012

great info here thanks!

santini1975

Need a good ab workout... They are just starting to emerge (YAY ME!)
I have a month til my vacation and I need to step it up quick!

Believeth64

BUMP

suziecue66

I wanted to ask your opinion on this muscle building programme that I have as a new thread:

Muscle Building Program:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/felicia-romero-muscle-building-program.html

Cutting program:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/felicia-romero-cutting-program.html

Would you start with the muscle building program or the cutting program if you had a lot of fat to lose? For instance, 40 pounds to lose? The answer I got was muscle building program first. But I imagine you would also have to be losing fat at the same time. When I do a lot of leg exercises they tend to really bulk from past experience but it probably means that I wasn't losing the fat while building muscle. The above program lists 1300 calories, Felicia is 112 pounds and 5ft 3". I am 5ft 2".

Do you personally know of a good strength training program for women to do, i.e. have a link?

Mommagoose4

bump!

TheOfficialEpic

Keep the questions coming, guys. Training clients and then myself the rest of the night but I will be back answering everyone's questions tomorrow morning. Hope everyone's having a rockin' day. Train hard and live shredded.

jessamynwest

I'm newish here, have a BMR of 1351 and a TDEE of 1859. Get to the gym or out biking/running a few times a week. Only looking to lose about 10-15 pounds. MFP has me on a 1200 cal/day routine and I've been sticking to it, eating back most of my exercise calories and it's been fine. However 1200 cal/day at my age/weight basically puts me on .75 lbs/week which seems sort of slow motion. However any day I eat less than 1200 calories, even 1150, I get a warning about possibly going into "starvation mode" which, of course, concerns me.

My question is: should I just keep up on the slow and steady thing I've got going here and be patient, or is it okay to drop down to 1100 calories a day to increase my deficit if I'm eating healthy [I've got a good mix of carbs/fats/proteins] and otherwise taking care of myself?

Obviously I don't want my metabolism to totally slow up, but it seems like at my height/weight [5' 3"/140/43 years old] there's no way to get more than .75 lb/week weight loss without the starvation warnings. Thanks for all the good info in this thread already today.

megamom3kck

Thanks for posting so many answers. I am a newbie here and already feel like I've gotten more questions answered here than I ever did before.

Thanks!!!

MacguyverMommy

Any tips for controlling appetite and impulse eating?
I want to start taking a supplement. I am consistant with my exercise, but I over eat 70% of the time... not good!

I AM willing to take supplements. I already take B vitamins, Biotin and a Pre-natal multi (not trying ot get pregnant though).
THANK YOU!!!

scythswife

bump

lisaelainee

How do I find out how much I should eat everyday?
and how much more should I eat if I burn 1000 calories in the day (MFP exercise log so not precise... )

secretgirl4611

Ok, one more ? I just started the Intense Cardio workout Insanity. Today was day 17.. and I can do it no problem I mean Its hard yea but I get it done.. Also, I started running again today. So is it ok to run for 30min. early in the morning around 7am. then do my Insanity workout around 10am.. then go for another 30min run in the evening around 6pm? Or is that considered "over working myself"?

while eating 1200+ calories per day. I kno Im working up to eating more its just I'm low on foods in my home right now.
so im doin what I can..

gigishiree

hi im 164lbs and 5'8 w a goal weight of abt 145. ive been on here a month and lost 4 pounds total. TTH i do 40 minutes of hiit w a bootcamp trainer. Fri n Sun i lift for abt an hour n do 30 minutes of cardio either sprinting intervals or the ellipical.

My question is will lifting heavy make my thighs even (gasp) bigger?! ive always heard lift heavy.....but my bf says that will make me bigger- that the muscle will make the fat bulge out more. am i doing enough cardio to lose fat n counteract this? should i lift moderate weights at high reps on the legs like the bf suggests? should i not lift at all til im at goal weight?

lastly how does my diary look? tdee, bmrs n such just confuse the heck out of me

thanks so much!

ps im going to say wat every woman is thinking : 'DAMN!'

captawesome

Bump for some reading later

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

Is it possible to lose fat & gain muscle at the same time? Also is it OK to eat on a deficit during weight lifting days & on a surplus on off-days? I'm having problem with this one.

scheeri

bump

tiffany4756

Hi....do u have a copy of a good 1200 calorie meal plan to follow?

sonny0306

I'm on keto but my weight hasn't moved (up or down) for the past 3 days - despite increased cardio (treadmill).
Any idea what's happening and what I should be doing?

tiffany4756

Hi..I'm just getting started, do you have a copy of your 1200 calorie plan?

babygurl48

Bump to finish reading later.

graysmom2005

I am a 32 year old 5ft6 in woman. I'm around 154 pounds. I'm also a group exercise instructor so overtraining probably pertains to me. My question is, I've been trying to lose 5-10 lbs for over 2 years and even after teaching 10 classes a week nothing really budges. I bought a BodyMedia FIT and my TDEE is around 2900 on average. Some days 2800, some over 3000. I haven't gone any higher than 2200 as a max really for a long time in fear of regaining weight. As a woman would taking 500 calories off a 2900/3100 day (23-2500 calories) be too much for me to eat? Is this what is stopping me losing weight? Would 2500 be too much food or could not eating that amount be what's keeping me from dropping? Thanks!

That does sound like a bit much. Try 1,800 spot on for a week and then message me with your results. That will tell me everything I need to know. Either your metabolism has just stalled out, or you've just been way overestimating for too long. I'm thinking the latter. That can be changed easy enough. A stalled metabolism is no big deal either. Only take usually 2-4 days to reset it.

Just so I'm clear. If I burn 3000 a day and eat 1800...that would give me a daily deficit of 1200 calories. Is that deficit way too low? Thanks!!!

TheOfficialEpic

I do Taebo ripped extreme its 30 MIN of cardio and 30 MIN of cardio weight training. I use 3 pound weights. I am loosing about 2 pounds a week. I fear that I'm going to hit a plateao u soon or just build mmuscle and have a harder time loosing weight. Should I mix things up? Add more weight? I have four different dvds by him and am rotating them and just add a stationary bike to my workout routine. What do you think?

Gimme yer stats first. How many calories a day are you consuming? What's your current height and weight? Most only plateau because 1) They did something drastic, and now their body is freaked. 2) They are already at an extremely low bodyfat percentage,and their body is freaked. Or 3) They have been at the same caloric level for too long and the body has readjusted to it.

Other than that I would definitely need your stats to give you a better answer.

TheOfficialEpic

Fat loss question: I'm 5'7" with 23-24% bf at about 147-149 lbs. I lift weights 4-6x's a week fairly heavy. I added muscle and now I'm ready to cut. Eventually get down to around 19% bf. Is there truth behind eating more to burn fat? I'm having a hard time figuring out how much I should be eating to effectively burn fat but not deprive myself.

There is definitely truth to eating more to burn fat, you just have to know when and how to use it. Bumping calories to spike a metabolism is wonderful. Refeed are good. An occasional cheatmeal is good. Constantly eating more than you're burning is bad. That is the science of weight gain. You can shuttle more excess calories to building muscle if its a slight caloric surplus, but you will add SOME amount of body fat regardless. And if you bump them up substantially, you're going to add a lot of bodyfat. Back to your question, definitely truth behind it....but you have to know what you're doing with it. If you're not losing, then you're obviously doing it wrong. Hope this helps

Welp then I'm doing it wrong! I'm currently stuck. I'm considering shooting for 1600-1800 cals a day. I burn anywhere from 300-600 cals a workout--depending what I do. Should I do some zig-zagging?

For you, I would personally recommend trying 1500 flat for two weeks, maybe even 1400, and then reevaluate. If you don't lose in that time, it is probably time for a reset. A reset simply meaning taking a couple days of eating slightly above what you're burning. This will give the mind AND the body some time off. Dieting can be stressful, and stress will DEFINITELY make you hold on to fat. After those two days, drop the calories to 250 under maintenance for the first week. At the end of that first week, check your scale and major measurements. Readjust calories lower as necessary. Every other week give yourself a one day refeed taking the calories a little over into a surplus for the day, and then go back to your deficit the next day. Hope this helps