Am I Being Realistic?
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re: bulking - a woman with very low LBM might want to start bulking at 25-27% bf, but since most of you are higher than that and using protein and resistance training to retain muscle mass, you probably won't need to start there. Somewhere between 17-22 would be appropriate. If you ever want to get to 17 or below. Some women get lean easier than others. I think everyone CAN do it but not everyone will find that its worth the level of finnicky calorie management (and carb cycling, ugh) needed to get to very low body fat numbers.0
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re: bulking - a woman with very low LBM might want to start bulking at 25-27% bf, but since most of you are higher than that and using protein and resistance training to retain muscle mass, you probably won't need to start there. Somewhere between 17-22 would be appropriate. If you ever want to get to 17 or below. Some women get lean easier than others. I think everyone CAN do it but not everyone will find that its worth the level of finnicky calorie management (and carb cycling, ugh) needed to get to very low body fat numbers.
tameko, I
your answers! Thank you! Deficit for a while it is.
You rock!!!!!0 -
re: bulking - a woman with very low LBM might want to start bulking at 25-27% bf, but since most of you are higher than that and using protein and resistance training to retain muscle mass, you probably won't need to start there. Somewhere between 17-22 would be appropriate. If you ever want to get to 17 or below. Some women get lean easier than others. I think everyone CAN do it but not everyone will find that its worth the level of finnicky calorie management (and carb cycling, ugh) needed to get to very low body fat numbers.
tameko, I your answers! Thank you! Deficit for a while it is.
You rock!!!!!
ditto on all accounts0 -
just want to add that Lyle McDonald, who I absolutely adore says that women should cycle between 19 and 27% bf.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html
Going lower then 19% is hard to maintain (if you compete you may want to go lower, down to 17%)
basically if you are less then 19% bf your body will try to maintain fat at expense of muscle, so you will be losing very slow and/or losing quite big amount of muscle while losing fat (keep in mind that big amount is very relative here, we are talking 2% bf and that is 2-3 lbs).
If you are more then 27%bf hormones make it easier tu put on fat, so fat to muscle ratio you will gain on your bulk will not be as good.
He recommends cutting until you are 19-24% bf, bulking until you are 24-27% bf.
So if you prefer to be more curvy you can chose to cut until 24 and bulk up to 27%,
I started my bulk when I was 22% but I totally freaked out once I was up to 24.5%, I felt really really fat (despite being over 30%bf year ago...) so now I'm planing to cut until I'm 17-19% (depends on measuring method) and bulk up to I'm 20-22% bf. Then repeat.0 -
Oh, hey, the age thing is interesting. I've tried twice to lose weight in the last three years (aged 27 &30), expecting it to drop off like it did when I was 23. It's really, really not happening (and y'all may have seen me *****ing about it recently) despite doing it "right" this time, instead of doing no exercise & eating 1000-1200 cal/day like I did then
Maybe my metabolism has aged, as well as being screwed from years of anti-depressants, stress & VLCD...
could be metabolism, could be your NEAT. We often don't relise how much we move as kids. Kids never stand still, even at school you are sitting on your bum, but every 45 minutes or so you need to change a class, so you walk and walk and walk
I wasn't a kid at 23, and nor was I active - I had a desk job like I do now
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