Calling all female lifters.....

I do cardio 30 min a day Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri. I do weight lifiting 30 min on Wed and at least one hour Sat and Sun. I was at 12 cal a day but now I am eating 1400 cal a day plus what I get from the exercise. I am not much for rest days but I do take one about once a month. I am so glad I started the weight lifting at the same time I did the cardio.

I'm currently not allowed to do anything strenuous as I'm recovering from surgery (not exercise related) so I'm just eating for health and maintenance right now

my most recent routine (I change it up frequently)

3 day cycle:

day 1: lower body
day 2: upper body
day 3: rest

I also alternate between bulking and cutting phases. And the exact exercises I do each time varies, although I include all the big compound lifts like bench press, full squats, deadlifts, etc on the relevent day. And I go 5-12 reps to failure on them, i.e. when I can do 12 with good form, I add more weight for the next set or the next day I do that exercise. Apart from for deadlifts as I currently don't have enough weights, but seeing as when I get back into it after surgery it'll take a while before I get back to my previous level, that's not such a big problem right now.

I lift heavy, a mix of squats, deadlifts, bench, OHP etc and Olympic lifts (clean, jerk, snatch). I also do pole dancing for strength and stamina and some HIIT. I usually train 3-5 days a week. My diet looks like this Sun-Fri, On Fri night and Sat night I have a drink, and dessert if I want it.

2 eggs, bacon/smoked salmon and spinach (scrambled, omelette)
Mid morning snack-turkey, nuts,a spoon of almond butter
Lunch is usually a salad made up of...avocado, chicken/tuna/mackerel, sweet potato/eggs and leaves,gherkins and cucumber.
Mid afternoon snack- protein shake, or same as morning.
Dinner is meat, lots of veg, sometimes some sweet potato or rice, for instance, last night was steak, ratatouille and roasted cauliflower.

I've been told I'm a "Cardio Bunny".... but I do lift.

Usually:

Mon - Run 5 miles
Tues - Arms and 20 min cardio
Wed - Legs and abs
Thurs - Arms/shoulders and 20 min cardio
Fri - Run 5 miles
Sat - Circuit training
Sun - Rest day

I eat about 1600-1800 cal a day (net at least 1300) and have my macros set at 40/30/30. I aim for at least 120g protein and under 150g carbs. I also really watch sodium and keep it around 2000mg.

Im pretty much in maintenance mode now. I lost about 20lbs and about 5% BF in the last year (March will be one year).

I am following a plan that is for muscle building and fat loss.

I do 4-5 circuits a week which includes lifting and some plyos. Then I do either HIIT or a tough cardio of my choice.

My ratios are 40% carbs/35% protein/25% fat.

The way we formulate calories is weightX10+300 and then an additional 400 calories on workout days. I am not up to eating that much yet, so the trainer suggests eating half of exercise calories back (200 instead of 400) or slowly upping calories to that amount. I weigh 185 so I should have 2,150 on rest days and 2,550 on work out days. I typically eat 1700 calories on rest days and 2000-2100 on workout days.

The reason I am doing it is because I want to run another half marathon, do another tri and my first full marathon this year. I need to lose about 30 lbs and I feel like this will help me get stronger and lose fat the best.

I ask as I help people diet and bulk up, including women. Asking everyone for their goals will simply confuse. I was trying to be helpful.

Yo Lazarov is my finacee, I'm coaching her for the UKBFF and WBFF this year - I know my stuff, I am trying to be helpful!

I'll take some advise!!

When I started, I did a full body routine 3 days/week + 2 days/week of cardio for the first year.

After that, I moved to an upper body/lower body split since I wanted more time to focus on areas that were lagging behind (for me those were my hamstrings and my shoulder.) For that routine I did lower body 2 days/week and upper body 2 days/week and 2 days of cardio (one day HIIT and one day steady state.) No cardio on lifting days.

No, I've been lifting for almost 3 years and I have just recently moved to a new routine to switch things up since I was getting bored and reaching a plateau. My routine now looks like: Sunday Lower Body Monday Upper Body Tuesday Full Body Cardio/weight lifting circuit Wed Lower Body Thurs Upper body Friday OFF Saturday Cardio. I mainly focus on big compound lifts, but also do some isolation work. I know lots of poeple on this stie are against any type of isolation work, but for me, it really helped me see results in some of my lagging body parts. I still isolation work on my calves, tricpes, shoulders, and hamstrings. Not excessive, but I try to isolated at least 2 of those groups in excercises each week. I would recommend not starting isolation work until you have a solid strength foundation first. It is hard to know what is lagging if you don't have enough muscle to begin with.

I usually take 1 rest day per week, but I have taken 2 in the past and do not feel bad skipping a day if my body is telling me it's too tired.

I typically lift for 45 minutes each session. My cardio is the same amount, or shorter (abotu 20 minutes) if I am doing HIIT.

My macro ratio is about 40/30/30 and for my goals I am eating slightly below my maintenence calories. I have a wedding dress to fit into whcih is why I'm currently on a small cut. I have bulked, maintened, and cut all in the past.

Goals: I'm kind of new (2-3 months) to the "heavy lifting," so I don't really have anything specific in mind as far as being able to squat my body weight or anything like that. Right now, my goal is to just keep progressing. Keep getting stronger. A few specifics are being able to do 10-20 push-ups on my toes (right now, I can do 5-10) and be able to do at least 1 bodyweight pull-up. I can only do assisted pull-ups.

Duration: I lift for 30-minute sessions 3X/week. These are full-body circuits. I'm only able to work-out on my lunch, so this is the most efficient for me.

Rest Days: Saturday and Sunday, but even these days usually involve some kind of activity with my kids, and I plan on doing at least 1 weekend race a month come spring.

Cardio/No Cardio: Yes. 30-minute spin class on Tuesdays and 30-minute run on Thursdays, plus volleyball 2X/week in the winter and softball 1-2X/week in the spring/summer/fall.

Diet: 1800 calories a day (TDEE minus about 20%) of MOSTLY whole foods. I always aim to meet my 35c/30p/35f goals with the priority being on protein and then fat. I'm also a bit new to this way of thinking, so I'm still working on getting it "right." BUT...it's much better than it was a few weeks ago. My frequency is usually 4-5 meals/day: breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and sometimes a bedtime snack if I have the calories left over.

I started lifting a year ago with NROLFW, and I loved it! Right now, I am lifting 3x a week doing heavy compound lifts (squats, rows, deadlifts, and shoulder press). Currently, I'm eating at a deficit as I'm trying to lose body fat, but I eat around 90 grams of protein per day and don't really pay attention to the other stats. I estimate my lean body mass to be around 87# and my body fat percentage to be around 23%. I'm aiming to get down to 19% body fat.

1 day is long run day : 20-22 miles high protein.

Holy crap that's impressive lol.

It depends on the cycles im on.

Bulking-1900 to 2200 calories 130-150 grams protein
M- Legs day- barbell squats, leg press, barbell lunges (or dumbbell if im feelin frisky), calf raises, genie sits, mountain climbers
W-Chest Day- Bench Press, Chest press, Chest flies, Inverted push ups (this is my weakest muscle group, EVER), Bicep Curls
F-Back Day- Deadlifts, Seated rows, Good Mornings, Tricep Push downs



Cutting- 1400-1500 calories 120-130 grams protein
M- Legs day- barbell squats, leg press, barbell lunges (or dumbbell if im feelin frisky), calf raises, genie sits, mountain climbers
W-Chest Day- Bench Press, Chest press, Chest flies, Inverted push ups (this is my weakest muscle group, EVER), Bicep Curls
F-Back Day- Deadlifts, Seated rows, Good Mornings, Tricep Push downs

+ 20 minutes of HIIT after each lifting session

I am rather small right now though. I am 5'3 and 115 pounds (up 6 pounds and 4 weeks into my second bulking phase). I was around 17% body fat when i started and im around 20% now. <-- getting fat as hell over here

Although my lifts are getting significantly better (around 2% every two weeks).

1 day is long run day : 20-22 miles high protein.

Holy crap that's impressive lol.

Thanks

Right now I'm bulking to build more muscle... I eat 6 times a day. 1200-1400 calories.

This does not compute!

I eat very varied number of calories depending on how hungry or fat i feel, ranging from 1100-2500 caories per day. Always high protein.

Neither does this!

Agreed.

How can one build muscle with a deficit in calories?

My exact routine is on my profile.

I do 4-5 days in the gym. 3 days of lifting, 2 days of HIIT or 1 day of HIIT and 1 day of random cardio or walking outside or whatever.

5-6 hours total per week.