Beginner weight training and questions

Hey!

If you are strength training regularly enough, your body will start to crave more calories in an effort to maintain the developing muscle fibers you are building. From what I know, you need to make sure you are getting an adequate amount of carbs and proteins as fuel sources, which may mean an increase in overall calorie intake. Your body does not burn fat during activity (ie, strength training), but rather burns fat during rest. So during your training, your body will rely on carbohydrates as its energy source.

That all being said (assuming you knew most of that ;p), I would eat a very small meal before strength training of mainly carbs, then down a protein shake afterwards. It is absolutely vital to consume enough protein while strength training as your muscles develop tears from use. The protein will speed up your development. All in all, you will probably be eating a bit more. Not too significant an amount, and maybe not for a while. But once your muscle mass starts to increase, your caloric intake should follow suit.

As far as cardio... That depends on your individual goals. If you're a hardcore cardio girl, maybe tone it down a bit so your body has a chance to repair itself. But I am wiling to bet you're fine sticking to what you're doing in that department

Good luck! And congrats on such a great loss!

My overall goal is to tone up and build more muscle.I know I haven't been logging so much lately, which I will start back up soon. I have started weight training and have been going 5x a week while working out different muscle groups during those 5 days.


With weight training..I am wondering how much i should be eating? more calories then what it says? and how much cardio should i be doing a week? how many mins? how much is too much?

Any tips and answers would be great!

5 times a week sounds like too much, you need to ensure you give your muscles adequate time to recover. 3 times a week mon, wed, fri with 30-40 mins light cardio in between would be more than fine and will probably return better results. Beginners typically do not need to perform a 4/5 day split.

Ensure you are eating enough protein to assist with muscle repair and growth - anything from 1 to 1.5 grams per kg of bodyweight would be fine. Don't undereat protein, it will counteract your hard work. Are you trying to gain muscle, or lose weight?

Eat/take a protein snack 30 mins with a cup off coffee before your workout and eat your biggest meal of the day after your workout - this meal should have the majority of your carbs in it if at all possible.

Do you have a lifting routine yet?