Need some help with fat loss/training
Cockney365
Posts: 52 Member
Hello all,
Apologies if this is the same old post people keep reading. I'll give you a quick background before I ask for some advice!
SW: 242lbs (17st 4lb) in 2010
did WW, got down to 172lbs (12st 4lb) and cardiox3 per week, really hitting the treadmill/XT hard
Gave that up, went back up
New SW: 200lbs (14st 4lb) January 1st 2013
CW: 179lbs (12st 11lbs)
Height: 5'7"
Age: 32
BF%: Estimated at 35% ----> would like to drop to 20%
Started off with cardio plus machine weights, moved to machine weight, free weights and cardio, then SL5x5, now I'm just lost! It's not that I don't want to be stronger, it's that I want to look better (being stronger is a welcome benefit but not my main aim, if that makes sense).
So, my last workout looked like this:
5 minute warm up
deads 55 x 5 x 5
squats 30 x 5 x 5 (I reckon I could squat more but I can't get a heavier barbell above my head!)
bench 17.5 x 5 x 10
rows 30 x 5 x 5
superset of kettlebell swings (the ones where you squat and throw your hips forwards) and squat jumps onto a soft squishy box (KB 12kg) 10 swings followed by 10 jumps, 4 times
superset of donkey kickbacks (8 each leg)/girly pressups(8)/plank (count of 12) 4 times
crunches, sit ups with 5kg ball/sit up with lateral twists with 5kg ball until death
finished with 20 minutes on the XT (short of time)
a typical daily diet is:
Breakfast: 2 eggs
1 veggie sausage
2 handfuls of curly kale
4 mushrooms
1 slice wholemeal bread
Lunch: 1 mission deli WnW wrap
6 slices of turkey/ham/chicken
50g low fat cottage cheese
50g rocket salad
Dinner: Tinned tuna in spring water
100g frozen mixed vegetables
3 spring onions
1 mission deli WnW wrap or 150 bulghur wheat, depending on how late I eat dinner
Snacks: 100g low fat greek yog + 75g summer fruits
two apples
1 x Velvet Crunch crisps
1 x satsuma or tangerine (they are all the same!)
80g grapes
some sort of Special K/Go Ahead snack bar (normally around 90cals)
Lots of water, the odd no added sugar high juice
That comes in at about 1750 calories, based on the scooby etc calculations for TDEE. I also play netball once or twice a week and go to body pump and tabata a few times a week (depending on other commitments).
I think that's all the info really. I just need to know if I am doing the right sort of 'programme'. I want my bum back (it's starting to blend into my leg), I want to be able to do man press ups one day, and a pull up/chin up, and I want to decrease my body fat to around 20%. I also want my mid section to look nice ie smaller and tighter (wobbly tummy, inner thighs). Not too fussed about a six pack as such, just want to be more compact. I want this all yesterday! Anyway is there anything I am doing wrong, or missing? I am not losing weight but understand that's not the be all and end all. I am also not losing any inches. I know it's a slow process but if anyone has any input onto what I can change, add or take away I'd be really grateful!
Apologies if this is the same old post people keep reading. I'll give you a quick background before I ask for some advice!
SW: 242lbs (17st 4lb) in 2010
did WW, got down to 172lbs (12st 4lb) and cardiox3 per week, really hitting the treadmill/XT hard
Gave that up, went back up
New SW: 200lbs (14st 4lb) January 1st 2013
CW: 179lbs (12st 11lbs)
Height: 5'7"
Age: 32
BF%: Estimated at 35% ----> would like to drop to 20%
Started off with cardio plus machine weights, moved to machine weight, free weights and cardio, then SL5x5, now I'm just lost! It's not that I don't want to be stronger, it's that I want to look better (being stronger is a welcome benefit but not my main aim, if that makes sense).
So, my last workout looked like this:
5 minute warm up
deads 55 x 5 x 5
squats 30 x 5 x 5 (I reckon I could squat more but I can't get a heavier barbell above my head!)
bench 17.5 x 5 x 10
rows 30 x 5 x 5
superset of kettlebell swings (the ones where you squat and throw your hips forwards) and squat jumps onto a soft squishy box (KB 12kg) 10 swings followed by 10 jumps, 4 times
superset of donkey kickbacks (8 each leg)/girly pressups(8)/plank (count of 12) 4 times
crunches, sit ups with 5kg ball/sit up with lateral twists with 5kg ball until death
finished with 20 minutes on the XT (short of time)
a typical daily diet is:
Breakfast: 2 eggs
1 veggie sausage
2 handfuls of curly kale
4 mushrooms
1 slice wholemeal bread
Lunch: 1 mission deli WnW wrap
6 slices of turkey/ham/chicken
50g low fat cottage cheese
50g rocket salad
Dinner: Tinned tuna in spring water
100g frozen mixed vegetables
3 spring onions
1 mission deli WnW wrap or 150 bulghur wheat, depending on how late I eat dinner
Snacks: 100g low fat greek yog + 75g summer fruits
two apples
1 x Velvet Crunch crisps
1 x satsuma or tangerine (they are all the same!)
80g grapes
some sort of Special K/Go Ahead snack bar (normally around 90cals)
Lots of water, the odd no added sugar high juice
That comes in at about 1750 calories, based on the scooby etc calculations for TDEE. I also play netball once or twice a week and go to body pump and tabata a few times a week (depending on other commitments).
I think that's all the info really. I just need to know if I am doing the right sort of 'programme'. I want my bum back (it's starting to blend into my leg), I want to be able to do man press ups one day, and a pull up/chin up, and I want to decrease my body fat to around 20%. I also want my mid section to look nice ie smaller and tighter (wobbly tummy, inner thighs). Not too fussed about a six pack as such, just want to be more compact. I want this all yesterday! Anyway is there anything I am doing wrong, or missing? I am not losing weight but understand that's not the be all and end all. I am also not losing any inches. I know it's a slow process but if anyone has any input onto what I can change, add or take away I'd be really grateful!
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Replies
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Oh and my C/F/P is set to 45/20/350
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This is tough - What the key has been for me is that you can use the numbers you get for calories in / out as guides, but you have to tweak them to see how your body responds. For me, my TDEE is around 1800 supposedly. IIFYM.com suggested I eat around 1500 calories to lose. I did that for a couple months and lost about five pounds, barely doing cardio. Had a bad couple of weeks - travelled, got sick, etc. and then after that the scale / measurements were NOT moving. I took a look at my cals and realized I was eating more than I thought at some points (used some miscalculated items in the MFP database) So I cut my cals to 1300. I did this realizing that my calorie counting isn't fool proof - and I'm more giving myself a little room for a margin of error between 1500 and 1300. I gotta say, I had a ****ty night last night, got in a car accident and I had eaten well. Even my dinner afterwards was on track. But I decided I wanted a drink. I figured it would be way over but when I logged it I was at maintenence. haha.
So I don't have answers for you other than if what you're doing isn't working play around with your formula just a little til you find a happy place.
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OK so I ran my numbers again on IIFYM and it still came up with 2184 calories (based on this weeks weight, I have had a bad week eating everything in sight and even some stuff I couldn't see!). It dropped to 1747 calories (20% cut) which is around what I am eating now, it suggested I eat 83g carbs, 186g protein and 74g of fat. All of which seem a bit out of kilter. I struggle to get enough protein as it is at the moment (I don't really eat red meat and I also don't like peanut butter) and the carbs seem quite low. Does this sound right to you? I know I can get on the whole protein shake thing but I'll have to wait to get paid before I go down that road.
Thanks for your response by the way, I appreciate the advice 0 -
That seems way off. haha. Really low on carbs and way high on protein. You only *need* .7 grams of protein per *lean* pound of body mass (or estimated amount of muscle) to maintain muscle mass. More than that can be helpful, but you shouldn't be losing muscle while losing weight if you eat that. There are some calculators here and there that will estimate your LBM for you but I don't remember any off hand. The calorie number doesn't sound bad, but the macros sound a little whacked out. As far as getting protein though, do you like cottage cheese? chicken? eggs? sausage? yogurt? I do get around 20 grams of protein almost every day from a quest bar, but I rarely do shakes because I don't like drinking them when it's cold out - and I live in Connecticut so it's just warming up now. :P I average around 100g of protein a day. However on my current 40/30/30 split I have around 150 carbs... so I would run it again.0
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Thanks for your reply. I went to a different website (although I can't remember which) and ran the numbers again. This is going to sound ridiculous but I'm not sure what I did to change it, but I altered it so it came out 45% carbs, 35% protein and 20% fat, which is much more manageable! I'm still doing the same workout at the moment so will stick with it for a while and see what happens. I'm not too bothered about my weight (I would still love to be a nice even 12st though!) but as long as I keep shrinking and discovering some muscle under the body fat, I don't mind. Need to find my bum though, that is disappearing faster than the rest of me (disappointed!)0
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It was Scooby's website, of course!0
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although OP 184 g protein seems excessively high, I think 0.7 g per LBM is the bare minimum. Most sites suggest 1 g / LBM and some site suggest even more while losing weight and lifting at the same time. Check out Scooby or IIFyM or bodybuilding.com at any lifting sites.That seems way off. haha. Really low on carbs and way high on protein. You only *need* .7 grams of protein per *lean* pound of body mass (or estimated amount of muscle) to maintain muscle mass. More than that can be helpful, but you shouldn't be losing muscle while losing weight if you eat that. There are some calculators here and there that will estimate your LBM for you but I don't remember any off hand. The calorie number doesn't sound bad, but the macros sound a little whacked out. As far as getting protein though, do you like cottage cheese? chicken? eggs? sausage? yogurt? I do get around 20 grams of protein almost every day from a quest bar, but I rarely do shakes because I don't like drinking them when it's cold out - and I live in Connecticut so it's just warming up now. :P I average around 100g of protein a day. However on my current 40/30/30 split I have around 150 carbs... so I would run it again.
As far as carb and fat goes, that somewhat depends on personal preference .however there is also a minimum amount of fat your body requires to function. There is some debate around of the actual level, but the common numbers are 0.35 lb / total body weight or 0.5 g / LBM. The highest I read is 0.5 g / total body weight.
I have a 1750 calorie limit a day and my LBM is around 120 and total weight is 204 lb. Hence for me the recommended is 120 g protein, which is 480 calories. Depending on the standard I use, the minimum fat is quite large range. The lowest calculation suggests 60 g / day = 540 calories, while the highest calculation suggests 102 g / day= 918 calories.
This can leave me as high as 180 g carbs if I do the lowest suggested 60 g fat. Or it may only give me 88 g carbs if I use the highest fat intake.
In the past few months I have been playing around my carb / fat level keeping my protein close to 120 g . I found that for me the higher fat recommendation works the best for satiety / hunger level. I tend to binge / slip or always hungry on the higher carb/ lower fat version . Also I experienced sugar high / crash cycles on that carb level. Or you can say large fluctuation in energy levels during the day. Plus it is easier and more enjoyable to eat protein that comes with some fat.
Anyway I decided to go with the higher fat level and only 88 g carb target and I do not experience lack of energy at all. 0 -
Unfortunately, many of those websites and self proclaimed experts got their calculations wrong..because of the conversion of the metric system. You don't need a gram of protein per lb of weight.
http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/0 -
Unfortunately, many of those websites and self proclaimed experts got their calculations wrong..because of the conversion of the metric system. You don't need a gram of protein per lb of weight.
http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
^That
Another good article on the topic: http://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding/the-problem-with-protein.html0 -
Even this suggest 0.82 g / LBM vs the 1 g / LBM. Although this matters a lot when we are talking about 200lb + LBM bodybuildrs , but makes minimal difference for an average women. I agree with you that an average male bodybuilder way over consumes protein , but that is not the case for average women who do a bit of lifting. I am bigger than average and muscular than average , although not as much as somebody who is heavy lifting for years.Unfortunately, many of those websites and self proclaimed experts got their calculations wrong..because of the conversion of the metric system. You don't need a gram of protein per lb of weight.
http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
Anyway my LBM is 120 lb based on Dexa scan in this February. So this argument comes down to 120 g vs 100g, which is not a whole lot. For smaller women this may only comes down to a 15g difference or less.
Most women do not even know they exact LBM and may easily under or , overtarget with this much just simply because the lack of reliable information anyway.
Generally women tend to under consume protein. I read a lot of comment on MFP when women barely make 60 G protein a day, this I especially true for the larger women who are targeting 1.5 or 2 lb loss per week..
Also women go through all kinds of other life stages that increase their protein requirement such as pregnancy and breastfeeding. I had a Dexa scan in 2012 January and I got pregnant 3 months later in April. My child born in 2012 December and I breastfeed her bit over a year until 2014 February,. At that point I had another Dexa scan, and I lost over 5 lb of muscle! I was eating well over 100g protein every day and probably close to the 120 g per day. Few year prior to this with my son I lost 12 lb muscle with the pregnancy + plus extended breastfeeding . At that time I was consuming lower protein, but I have to admit I was not logging at that time so I have no info on exactly how much protein I was eating during that time period.
Nevertheless eating 20 g extra protein not hard, and it may or may not be beneficial , but we do not know for sure. In any case the extra 20 g is not as high to cause medical problem, so why not eat that extra 20g as an insurance agains muscle loss?0
