How many carbs?

I agree that 1800 cal/day seems like quite a bit for reducing body fat. Try sticking to 1600 cal/day whether your exercise or not. Also, try bumping up your protein intake to ~40%. I'm doing 40/40/20 (protein/carb/fat) and it is working pretty well for fine tuning my body fat %.

Allan

If you're cutting fat then your carbs intake is a little too high, more protein needed. Eat protein for breakfast, not carbs and eat more protein right after your workout too.

I always thought that you couldn't increase muscle and lose fat at the same time. You need to eat at a deficit to lose fat, which is contrary to needing to eat enough calories to fuel your body for strength training? If I'm wrong, I'm sure that someone who does body building will be happy to set me straight! :laugh:

In your lifting make sure you're doing compound lifts: Bench, Squats, Deadlift, Overhead press are really the only exercises you should do the first year or so in weight training, doing anything more than that you run risk of getting injured. Keep things light, do the correct form, try to get 10 to 12 reps in, with 2-3 sets to start, working to 10 sets in a year, make sure you're resting 30-60 sec between sets with a 3-5 min. rest between exercises. NEVER WEIGHT TRAIN LONGER THAN AN HOUR! Weight train 3 days a week; I like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, do aerobic training 3 days a week; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. NEVER TRAIN AEROBICALLY MORE THAN 45 MIN, that is the point where the body starts to experience diminishing returns. I like spin classes, the treadmill, stair-stepper, or sprints the best for aerobic training, (I like sprints best because you're done within about 10 minutes.)

Carbs, protein, and fats. To build muscle you have to get 1 - 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, that is what you have to have as a woman. Many people cannot get enough "clean" protein, so they get protein shakes. If this is what you would like to do, make sure the protein you choose has at least 25g of protein per scoop. Try to keep carbs under 80 grams per meal. No pop, no white bread, no juice, basically nothing white, or processed sugars. Start drinking 1/2 gallon of water a day. Increase that amount 1/4 a gallon every month, until you're between 1-1.5 gallons, don't drink more than this. The dollar store, calorie-free, drink mixes help with water the first little while. Keep fats low enough to where you get < 25% of total calories from fat. Veggies / fruits/nuts you're free to go off on, eat as many as you want.

To lose the most amount of bodyfat and gain the most amount of muscle you need to be eating 5 clean meals, (a protein shake is considered a meal,) 1,800 - 2,400 calories a day.

You won't like this plan at first. But, I promise if you stick with it, you'll lose body fat very quickly.

Work hard, good luck.

The four exercises I listed are what I call the "Core Four," and they are the only thing you do for about the first year. Many strength trainers follow this plan.

If you're weight training 6 days a week, you're doing too much. at most it should be 3 days a week, unless you're past that first year mark that is. 3 days aerobic, 3 days anaerobic is perfect for a beginner.

What exercises do you do? Let me ask that...

Do you know how you lose tummy fat? You train your legs. And no, 1,800 calories is not too many.