Skinny fat!

Swim. Laps. Aim to keep going for an hour to start and don't stop between laps. Set a goal for yourself to stop for no more than a minute every 6-10 laps if you're totally new to it. It's a slow burn and builds natural muscle all over yet because once you get up to being able to do 2-3km in that time you'll be doing endurance it's not a very effective calorie burner compared to muscle gain.

Sued0nim wrote: »

ChampagneBurst wrote: »

Swim. Laps. Aim to keep going for an hour to start and don't stop between laps. Set a goal for yourself to stop for no more than a minute every 6-10 laps if you're totally new to it. It's a slow burn and builds natural muscle all over yet because once you get up to being able to do 2-3km in that time you'll be doing endurance it's not a very effective calorie burner compared to muscle gain.

145lbs at 5'10 and looking to build muscle and you think the answer is an endurance cardio.

Love swimming
Love swimmers bodies

However she needs a progressive resistance programme

OP do this

samanthaluangphixay wrote: »

Eat at maintenance calories and do a progressive lifting program such as Strong Curves, Stronglifts 5x5, or Starting Strength.

As long as you get enough protein, the macro distribution is up to you.

Swimming is one of the best forms of resistance exercise in terms of cardio that is available. Certainly good for muscle toning, and muscle can be built.

I'll second the above.. calculate your TDEE and slowly work yourself up to that amount of calories. Probably around 1800-2000 without exercise, possibly slightly more. Keep up exercise, your body will use the extra calories to start trading more fat for muscle. Adjust your protein levels to likely .8g/lb of lean body mass. You may need to calculate your body fat % to figure your lean mass, but there are many ways to do it. Otherwise you can simply start at .6 or .7g/lb of current body weight. That'll be close. Expect fluctuations in weight up to 5 lbs so don't panic when that happens, especially at first. It'll equalize. Another thing that helped me was using an app like Happy Scale which gives you trends rather than freaking you out about an overnight 4 lb gain from a high sodium meal the day before. As you build muscle you can figure a little weight gain, but it's going to be slow, maybe .5lb a month or less in re-composition unless you do a bulk. As far as weight training, at the very least do body weight training if you don't want to lift heavy. I see tons of people insist that lifting heavy is the only way to go, and while I don't necessarily disagree if you can or want to go that route, not everyone wants to be a weight lifter. They simply want to build an aesthetic amount of muscle on their body. Body weight training can do that, it might just be a little slower.

Just going to quote what I wrote in your other thread.

psuLemon wrote: »

Op, here is what I would do. I would start with calories around 1600; after 3-4 weeks if you are still losing, add another 200 calories. Do not eat back exercise calories. I would put macros around 120g of protein, 100g of carbs and 80g of fat (with 20 to 30g of fiber) - 30% protein, 25% carbs, 45% fats. If you eat a little more protein and less fats, that is fine. If you don't track calories, that is find, mainly aim for proteins and fats and try to minimize carbs, except for low sugar carbs.

I would follow a program like StrongCurves or New Rules of Lifting for Women: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1. They are well designed programs that will start you from the very beginner and give you experience. And the biggest thing is, track you workouts and continue to increase volume (weight x reps x sets). If you are getting stronger, you have a better chance of gaining muscle. And being a noob to weight training, you definitely have some opportunity.

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

Sued0nim wrote: »

ChampagneBurst wrote: »

Swim. Laps. Aim to keep going for an hour to start and don't stop between laps. Set a goal for yourself to stop for no more than a minute every 6-10 laps if you're totally new to it. It's a slow burn and builds natural muscle all over yet because once you get up to being able to do 2-3km in that time you'll be doing endurance it's not a very effective calorie burner compared to muscle gain.

145lbs at 5'10 and looking to build muscle and you think the answer is an endurance cardio.

Love swimming
Love swimmers bodies

However she needs a progressive resistance programme

OP do this

samanthaluangphixay wrote: »

Eat at maintenance calories and do a progressive lifting program such as Strong Curves, Stronglifts 5x5, or Starting Strength.

As long as you get enough protein, the macro distribution is up to you.

Swimming is one of the best forms of resistance exercise in terms of cardio that is available. Certainly good for muscle toning, and muscle can be built.

It is also more difficult to continue and provide progressive overload. You will either have to keep adding laps or significantly improving lap times. At some point, it becomes difficult (from time or stamina) to continue that. We well designed lifting routine will accelerate that and is more efficient at providing progressive overload. Efficacy should be considered when evaluating your options.

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

Sued0nim wrote: »

ChampagneBurst wrote: »

Swim. Laps. Aim to keep going for an hour to start and don't stop between laps. Set a goal for yourself to stop for no more than a minute every 6-10 laps if you're totally new to it. It's a slow burn and builds natural muscle all over yet because once you get up to being able to do 2-3km in that time you'll be doing endurance it's not a very effective calorie burner compared to muscle gain.

145lbs at 5'10 and looking to build muscle and you think the answer is an endurance cardio.

Love swimming
Love swimmers bodies

However she needs a progressive resistance programme

OP do this

samanthaluangphixay wrote: »

Eat at maintenance calories and do a progressive lifting program such as Strong Curves, Stronglifts 5x5, or Starting Strength.

As long as you get enough protein, the macro distribution is up to you.

Swimming is one of the best forms of resistance exercise in terms of cardio that is available. Certainly good for muscle toning, and muscle can be built.

You won't build appreciable amounts of muscle from swimming alone.

We don't know the OP's goal/desire in terms of how much "appreciable amount". I'm certainly an advocate of weight lifting. However, Champagne's post correctly pointed out that water is a great resistance training tool. Lots of folks have built up their bodies via swimming and nutrition without using any weights to achieve the "look". And lots have used the pool as well as weights outside of the pool to reach the "look".

https://caloriebee.com/workout-routines/Swimming-and-Building-Muscle

To point out, the article states:

"Although I'm advocating swimming as one of the best activities for muscle growth, it's not enough. You still have to lift weights, or else you'll never put on the muscle you want."

Swimming is good for muscle endurance, but if your goal is to look at creating new muscle, while seeing offsetting fat gains, than lifting is more optimal and will provide a better foundation to accomplish that goal.

sfaust2196 wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

Just going to quote what I wrote in your other thread.

psuLemon wrote: »

Op, here is what I would do. I would start with calories around 1600; after 3-4 weeks if you are still losing, add another 200 calories. Do not eat back exercise calories. I would put macros around 120g of protein, 100g of carbs and 80g of fat (with 20 to 30g of fiber) - 30% protein, 25% carbs, 45% fats. If you eat a little more protein and less fats, that is fine. If you don't track calories, that is find, mainly aim for proteins and fats and try to minimize carbs, except for low sugar carbs.

I would follow a program like StrongCurves or New Rules of Lifting for Women: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1. They are well designed programs that will start you from the very beginner and give you experience. And the biggest thing is, track you workouts and continue to increase volume (weight x reps x sets). If you are getting stronger, you have a better chance of gaining muscle. And being a noob to weight training, you definitely have some opportunity.

Thanks for the advice! Looks good but isn't that a huge amount of fat?

Dietary fat in and of itself does not make you fat. As long as you are consuming it while in a calorie deficit, you will still lose fat.

I eat much more fat than that per day and I am still losing, as I am in a calorie deficit.