Jo, congrats on finishing the school year. I love those moments when school is over that I get to just focus on being mom. I'll be working summer school this year, that will be in August

Hahaha, as if. I don't finish until December. I just have 2 weeks of no work. And by no work, I mean exam revision :grumble:

When then Jo, enjoy the break. I forgot the Aus does Jan to Dec.

My workout was really a four hour cleaning marathon. No gym. I will eat dinner, shower, paint my toes and read my book.

Okay here's half my report promise: After my two week fitness camp I lost three inches off my hips and low waist (below my belly button) and 2 pounds! I had a good 4 mile run yesterday. Last night ate a little high and drank some. Today i did plan on lifting but life got in the way. Sometime this week I will to try to post a progress pic. I hope to lift tomorrow night while DD is at marital arts. Well see.
This last week I missed my activity level by 65 minutes since I didn't work out today.....

In between his study & work, my work and the kid's school & extracurricular stuff, there's not a lot of time left to just chill-out.

^^ Ain't that the truth! Today - first day of my week 'off' - I have gardened and cleaned.... and am no where near done. Gah. Actually exhausted after all that and my workout - today was my 3 x 10 reps on hypertrophy 3 and man it was hard. I am noticing an increase in strength though, hurrah!

Have plenty more on my to-do list, but I think I might just have an early night.

I'm off to Melbourne next week - my sister lives there. I am taking my eldest to visit and we are going to the good food & wine show - free samples all day - awesomeness hahaha.

Re: 1450 cals..... this does not seem a lot. But you do need to consider the overall activity level IMO. If NROL is in conjunction with a sedentary job, it might not be too far off the mark. Really, it's all about trying things and seeing what works.

I'm also 5'5", but I'm approx. 120lbs, trying to increase strength with as-lean-as-possible weight gain. Currently I'm at 1950 cals per day and have only gained 1-2lbs in almost 3 months while I try to work out my calorie balance. I work out 5-6 times per week, half cardio, half lifting.

I had that too this past Friday!! And then a few hours later it was followed by TOM!!! Yuck!!
Feeling a bit better this morning....I hope you are too!! Hoping to lift today. I will repeat last week's workout.

Hello - I had a good workout yesterday then I got food poisoning. I have been under cals ever since- not recommended for weight loss.
Hope everyone has a good weekend

Wow rocky, 3 inches in 2 weeks? That's amazing! My lower belly is taking forever to budge

I'm 2/3 this past week. Met and surpassed my protein goal of 110g , drank all my water, but totally forgot that my new third goal was no sweets. A coworker brought me sweet potato pudding and it was after I ate it that I remembered my goal :grumble:. Anyway it was yummy :blushing: .

Ok ladies, I'm about to ramble, please bear with me. So basically I've been looking at photos of women at different bf % and figure I'd like to be about 24%. To do that, I've determined that I'd have to lose 13 more lbs, assuming that I continue to lose fat and lean in the ratio I currently am. What's the problem? Well I just don't have enough muscle to look good at that weight. Right now I'm about 29%+ and my boobs and butt have shrunk considerably (and yes those are important to me and they weren't big to start with).

Based on all I've read, I'm thinking I will have to suffer through looking flat and go ahead and drop the weight which should take about 3 1/2 months under optimal conditions. Then start a small clean bulk until I'm back up to 27% and start cutting again. Rinse and repeat until I'm satisfied with my look, which for me means a semi-flat tummy and a nice firm round butt. BUT I'm getting married in December (did i tell you all that?) and don't want to look like a stick in my wedding dress.

OR I could just do a body recomp. This of course sounds the best in theory, but the problem is it's a really slow method. One person I found online who did it took 2 YEARS to achieve sufficient muscle. I just don't want to have to be doing something for that long. PLUS I'm planning to try for baby # 2 next year. But can I survive months and months of looking emaciated? I really don't know. So confused right now.

Sorry again for all the rambling, kinda just going through all this in my head to make a decision.

Sunshine, to put things in a little bit more perspective re calories etc, I'm 4'9, weigh 89pds and try to eat at least 1600-1700cal a day to maintain. At least... some days I'm under, some days I'm waaaay over :drinker: I aim for 1g/pd of protein, but exceed that fairly easily - the only good thing about being small lol

My losing weight calories were about the 1400-1500 mark.

With the book, they were roughly my calories given, maybe the book was a little more... seriously why couldn't I be just a couple of inches taller?? :grumble:

In the end, I picked a number, did that for a couple of weeks and redid the same process over a couple of months until I found a nice little range that seemed to work

Something must be working because I've put on a little weight (only about 2pd-ish allowing for fluctuations), but I still happily and comfortably fit in my skinny jeans and my tummy isn't too bad. I want more muscle and I want it now dammit! :bigsmile: :laugh: (please note 2pd/1kg-ish looks and feels a lot different for vertically-challenged folk LOL)

wow sounds like you've had some great results and are able to eat quite a bit for your size!

i've been playing with the cals - but as you can see from my post above, i am really lacking good direction on this because i can't get past the 20 lb of fat. i'm continuing with the program for the time being.

i hear you on the flat tummy!!! i have an island of fat (thanks to my 2 daughters!) that hasn't budged since February.

Don't forget your challenge scores this week, ladies! This is the last week!

I'm 1/3 this week. I didn't even try to hit my macros- just didn't care. I still averaged 140 grams a day, but my % was way off (only like 27%). Cals were the same- I just ate too much.
I nailed my 3 lifting sessions though!

Wow rocky, 3 inches in 2 weeks? That's amazing! My lower belly is taking forever to budge

I'm 2/3 this past week. Met and surpassed my protein goal of 110g , drank all my water, but totally forgot that my new third goal was no sweets. A coworker brought me sweet potato pudding and it was after I ate it that I remembered my goal :grumble:. Anyway it was yummy :blushing: .

Ok ladies, I'm about to ramble, please bear with me. So basically I've been looking at photos of women at different bf % and figure I'd like to be about 24%. To do that, I've determined that I'd have to lose 13 more lbs, assuming that I continue to lose fat and lean in the ratio I currently am. What's the problem? Well I just don't have enough muscle to look good at that weight. Right now I'm about 29%+ and my boobs and butt have shrunk considerably (and yes those are important to me and they weren't big to start with).

Based on all I've read, I'm thinking I will have to suffer through looking flat and go ahead and drop the weight which should take about 3 1/2 months under optimal conditions. Then start a small clean bulk until I'm back up to 27% and start cutting again. Rinse and repeat until I'm satisfied with my look, which for me means a semi-flat tummy and a nice firm round butt. BUT I'm getting married in December (did i tell you all that?) and don't want to look like a stick in my wedding dress.

OR I could just do a body recomp. This of course sounds the best in theory, but the problem is it's a really slow method. One person I found online who did it took 2 YEARS to achieve sufficient muscle. I just don't want to have to be doing something for that long. PLUS I'm planning to try for baby # 2 next year. But can I survive months and months of looking emaciated? I really don't know. So confused right now.

Sorry again for all the rambling, kinda just going through all this in my head to make a decision.

I'm in the same boat- my BF% is very similar and my "goal" is 22%. However, the bewbs are really shrinking and my ribs barely have any fat on them (to the point that the hubs keeps commenting on it). Thighs and lower belly are still there. I know I won't have the muscle to look like I want to at 22%, but I'm too impatient for a recomp. My plan is to continue cutting until I get to 22% (probably Fall) and then do a slow bulk over the Winter. Then cut again in the Spring.
However, I also think that if I lose these last 10lbs slowly, I may be surprised at what muscle is left when I get to 22%. So I'm just going to have to see what happens when I get there.
If you do it right, you might have time to be bulking and putting some muscle and fat back on by the time your wedding gets here?

Pudding, your workout schedule looks good to me. Just be aware that true HIIT affects your muscles very similar to the way lifting does. You may find doing it on non-lifting days will affect your recovery. But it may not. Just something to consider.

Rocky, those are awesome results!

Everyone else, keep lifting!

I found out I can get a DEXA for $100 at a nearby radiology clinic. I'm thinking of doing it to give me a better idea of where I'm at and what my goals should be.
In the NSV department, I was trying on some clothes at a store yesterday and caught a glimpse of my butt in the mirror and thought,"Is that my rear?!". It's looking smooth, firm and lifted. So in spite of lack of scale progress, changes ARE happening in the mirror!