How do I improve my body composition?
betterlily01
Posts: 12 Member
Hi,
I am a 23 year old female. I currently weigh 118lbs and am 5' 4.5 or 164 cm. I want to look more lean and strong but I am not sure how to lose weight or if I should just try to gain muscle. I will attach some pictures of me now. I go to the gym a few times a week and do strength training 2-3 times and cardio 2. Help!
I am a 23 year old female. I currently weigh 118lbs and am 5' 4.5 or 164 cm. I want to look more lean and strong but I am not sure how to lose weight or if I should just try to gain muscle. I will attach some pictures of me now. I go to the gym a few times a week and do strength training 2-3 times and cardio 2. Help!
Tagged:
0
Answers
-
Just my two cents.....I'm sure the more experienced lifters will chime in, but I wouldn't lose any weight at this stage, you look quite fit and lean in your photo, can even see traces of abs in your midsection. I would focus on strength training/adding muscle to what you already have. Glad to see that you don't overdo the cardio!
What is your training split?0 -
Ditto to what Lisa said, and what Sollyn said when you posted the same question in this other thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10928950/how-should-i-improve-my-body-composition-w-pics#latest
You are already slim. You already appear to be what many women would call "toned", and have a figure that many women would envy. IMO, simply losing weight wouldn't be an improvement - probably the reverse.
If you'd like to have a more defined, fitness-model-ish appearance, then strength training would be the way to go. There's a thread here where various people discuss how to add muscle without much increasing body weight (though sometimes adding weight is the right answer, as muscle is more dense than body fat, so someone with relatively more muscle will be more attractive and "lean-looking", possibly even physically smaller, at a higher body weight because of that).
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1
That includes some before/after photos here and there from thread participants, to give you some idea of what changes are possible. Be aware, though, that it's a thing that takes persistence and patience: Very worthwhile in many different ways, but it takes time and effort. You're at the perfect age to make that investment, creating a path to better health and appearance for the whole rest of your life.
Loosely, the process is a good progressive strength training program faithfully performed, good overall nutrition (especially but not exclusively adequate protein), eating weight-maintenance calories or a small bit above, and patience.
By the way, for future reference, it's helpful to pick just one place to post a particular question. Most people read most of the topic areas, and it can get confusing if the same question is in multiple areas. Not a worry, I know you're new.
Best wishes for defining and reaching your goals!
0 -
Just my two cents.....I'm sure the more experienced lifters will chime in, but I wouldn't lose any weight at this stage, you look quite fit and lean in your photo, can even see traces of abs in your midsection. I would focus on strength training/adding muscle to what you already have. Glad to see that you don't overdo the cardio!
What is your training split?
I do one day arms/upper body, one day abs/core, one legs, sometimes one day for just back. Then for the cardio days I do a few miles run, ~1hr biking, or 30 minutes HIIT 2x a week. So total about 5 days a week average. I do every other strength and cardio basically. Does that make sense?0 -
Ditto to what Lisa said, and what Sollyn said when you posted the same question in this other thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10928950/how-should-i-improve-my-body-composition-w-pics#latest
You are already slim. You already appear to be what many women would call "toned", and have a figure that many women would envy. IMO, simply losing weight wouldn't be an improvement - probably the reverse.
If you'd like to have a more defined, fitness-model-ish appearance, then strength training would be the way to go. There's a thread here where various people discuss how to add muscle without much increasing body weight (though sometimes adding weight is the right answer, as muscle is more dense than body fat, so someone with relatively more muscle will be more attractive and "lean-looking", possibly even physically smaller, at a higher body weight because of that).
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1
That includes some before/after photos here and there from thread participants, to give you some idea of what changes are possible. Be aware, though, that it's a thing that takes persistence and patience: Very worthwhile in many different ways, but it takes time and effort. You're at the perfect age to make that investment, creating a path to better health and appearance for the whole rest of your life.
Loosely, the process is a good progressive strength training program faithfully performed, good overall nutrition (especially but not exclusively adequate protein), eating weight-maintenance calories or a small bit above, and patience.
By the way, for future reference, it's helpful to pick just one place to post a particular question. Most people read most of the topic areas, and it can get confusing if the same question is in multiple areas. Not a worry, I know you're new.
Best wishes for defining and reaching your goals!
Ah okay thanks for the advice on posting. I guess I would consider myself on the "skinny fat" side of things and would like to have more visible muscle. More strength training to come 1 -
When you lift now, are the last couple of reps truly challenging, but with good form?
I don't mean to be rude when I ask that, and you needn't answer here . . . you're probably fine, but that's a common thing to see at the gym. Some people are ego-lifting, i.e., lifting more than they can lift with good form, so risking injury . . . but on the other side of the coin, some are lifting according to a progression or plan that's not really heavy enough to create best progress for them. In between, there's a sweet spot.0 -
When you lift now, are the last couple of reps truly challenging, but with good form?
I don't mean to be rude when I ask that, and you needn't answer here . . . you're probably fine, but that's a common thing to see at the gym. Some people are ego-lifting, i.e., lifting more than they can lift with good form, so risking injury . . . but on the other side of the coin, some are lifting according to a progression or plan that's not really heavy enough to create best progress for them. In between, there's a sweet spot.
Good advice thanks. Yes, I started lifting about 10 weeks ago, before that I did only body weight or very light weights. Now I go until failure with good form, or until I maybe have 1 or 2 left in the tank if I have gone to failure enough times to know when that is.0 -
betterlily01 wrote: »When you lift now, are the last couple of reps truly challenging, but with good form?
I don't mean to be rude when I ask that, and you needn't answer here . . . you're probably fine, but that's a common thing to see at the gym. Some people are ego-lifting, i.e., lifting more than they can lift with good form, so risking injury . . . but on the other side of the coin, some are lifting according to a progression or plan that's not really heavy enough to create best progress for them. In between, there's a sweet spot.
Good advice thanks. Yes, I started lifting about 10 weeks ago, before that I did only body weight or very light weights. Now I go until failure with good form, or until I maybe have 1 or 2 left in the tank if I have gone to failure enough times to know when that is.
Just a bit left in the tank, good form, not quite failure: Sounds right. Some of the more experienced lifters may come along and give you more detailed advice than I can, which would be great. This is a good thread one of them wrote, in case you haven't already run across similar info:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10920257/how-to-set-up-a-weightlifting-routine#latest0 -
@betterlily01 Speaking as a guy who lifts regularly, I agree with the ladies here, don't lose any weight. You don't look skinny or skinny fat, but if you lose weight, you might.
Since you're already lean, you'll need some energy to build muscle, and you probably aren't going to want to eat more to be in a calorie surplus, what you could do instead is cut back on that cardio a bit while maintaining current calories. This also leads into my point about the lifting, which is that you should do more of it (especially legs, go to twice weekly for that, see more detail below), and cutting some of that cardio will give you more time and energy for it. And it will maybe lead to a very small calorie surplus of a few hundred calories per week, which will help build muscle without gaining fat. You can always bring the cardio back in later as needed.
Specifically, I recommend lower body weights workout twice per week. At once per week you probably aren't getting enough volume, and that's the area where I think you could see most improvement. In general, targeting a body part just once per week is not ideal. Not only are your muscles ready to be worked again 2-4 days later, as you increase training volume in the years to come it will be harder to get that weekly volume in a single workout.
2 RIR (reps in reserve) is perfect for a beginner. You need to go to failure every so often to know where that is, but as a beginner you don't need to go to failure even one time in each workout. Save that for down the line.
Are you getting 10-15 working sets per body part? That should be your goal, with progressive overload, always looking to increase reps and/or weight over time.
For legs, twice per week you could be looking at, in each workout:
Quads: 1 compound (squats based) + 1 isolation
Hams: 1 compound + 1 isolation
Glutes: 1 isolation
That gets you to 12-14 working sets per leg part per week. Aim for 10+ for chest and at least as much for back as you do chest.
Why glutes to seemingly less volume? It already gets a lot of indirect work from compound quads and hams work, especially if you tweak your foot position in certain exercises, e.g. RDL does hams + glutes, db step ups does quads + glutes, etc. Call that 0.5 sets for glutes from quads and hams compounds. Always do compounds first, with some warmup ofc.
Personally, as a guy who doesn't do direct glute work because I don't care, LOL, they always feel like they're getting plenty of work anyway from both leg day and then on my upper day they get indirect work too during free weights bent over rows.2 -
Afterthought, after reading Retro's good post: Partly depending on what exercise modality the HIIT is, it could interfere with recovery (and progress), too. Some intensity in the mix can be good, as long as overall training load stays reasonable, but HIIT is IMO waaay over-hyped and over-rated these days. Two days a week could be a lot, depending on what it is.0
-
Agreed. That's why I was thinking cut one of those days (one of the HIIT, or the hour long run, probably the HIIT now that you mention it) and replace it with a second leg weights day, while keeping calorie intake the same.Afterthought, after reading Retro's good post: Partly depending on what exercise modality the HIIT is, it could interfere with recovery (and progress), too. Some intensity in the mix can be good, as long as overall training load stays reasonable, but HIIT is IMO waaay over-hyped and over-rated these days. Two days a week could be a lot, depending on what it is.1 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
s.Afterthought, after reading Retro's good post: Partly depending on what exercise modality the HIIT is, it could interfere with recovery (and progress), too. Some intensity in the mix can be good, as long as overall training load stays reasonable, but HIIT is IMO waaay over-hyped and over-rated these days. Two days a week could be a lot, depending on what it is.
Agreed. That's why I was thinking cut one of those days (one of the HIIT, or the hour long run, probably the HIIT now that you mention it) and replace it with a second leg weights day, while keeping calorie intake the same.
I'd double down on the "reduce the HIIT" advice if the HIIT is one of those high-rep, relatively low-resistance, fast-paced lifting, bodyweight, or calisthenics kind of workouts. I think those are even more likely to interfere with a progressive lifting program's strength/muscle gain and recovery.
Hard to tell, though: So many things are called HIIT these days. 🤷0 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
s.Afterthought, after reading Retro's good post: Partly depending on what exercise modality the HIIT is, it could interfere with recovery (and progress), too. Some intensity in the mix can be good, as long as overall training load stays reasonable, but HIIT is IMO waaay over-hyped and over-rated these days. Two days a week could be a lot, depending on what it is.
Agreed. That's why I was thinking cut one of those days (one of the HIIT, or the hour long run, probably the HIIT now that you mention it) and replace it with a second leg weights day, while keeping calorie intake the same.
I'd double down on the "reduce the HIIT" advice if the HIIT is one of those high-rep, relatively low-resistance, fast-paced lifting, bodyweight, or calisthenics kind of workouts. I think those are even more likely to interfere with a progressive lifting program's strength/muscle gain and recovery.
Hard to tell, though: So many things are called HIIT these days. 🤷
Its a bunch of different bodyweight/calisthnics I guess? Im not exactly sure, the movements don't repeat over the 30 min. Think jump squats burpee variations etc. Its my favorite day
sad! Maybe I will cut out that and running and just do a bike once a week? I would like to keep some sort of cardio as I enjoy it. 0 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »@betterlily01 Speaking as a guy who lifts regularly, I agree with the ladies here, don't lose any weight. You don't look skinny or skinny fat, but if you lose weight, you might.
Since you're already lean, you'll need some energy to build muscle, and you probably aren't going to want to eat more to be in a calorie surplus, what you could do instead is cut back on that cardio a bit while maintaining current calories. This also leads into my point about the lifting, which is that you should do more of it (especially legs, go to twice weekly for that, see more detail below), and cutting some of that cardio will give you more time and energy for it. And it will maybe lead to a very small calorie surplus of a few hundred calories per week, which will help build muscle without gaining fat. You can always bring the cardio back in later as needed.
Specifically, I recommend lower body weights workout twice per week. At once per week you probably aren't getting enough volume, and that's the area where I think you could see most improvement. In general, targeting a body part just once per week is not ideal. Not only are your muscles ready to be worked again 2-4 days later, as you increase training volume in the years to come it will be harder to get that weekly volume in a single workout.
2 RIR (reps in reserve) is perfect for a beginner. You need to go to failure every so often to know where that is, but as a beginner you don't need to go to failure even one time in each workout. Save that for down the line.
Are you getting 10-15 working sets per body part? That should be your goal, with progressive overload, always looking to increase reps and/or weight over time.
For legs, twice per week you could be looking at, in each workout:
Quads: 1 compound (squats based) + 1 isolation
Hams: 1 compound + 1 isolation
Glutes: 1 isolation
That gets you to 12-14 working sets per leg part per week. Aim for 10+ for chest and at least as much for back as you do chest.
Why glutes to seemingly less volume? It already gets a lot of indirect work from compound quads and hams work, especially if you tweak your foot position in certain exercises, e.g. RDL does hams + glutes, db step ups does quads + glutes, etc. Call that 0.5 sets for glutes from quads and hams compounds. Always do compounds first, with some warmup ofc.
Personally, as a guy who doesn't do direct glute work because I don't care, LOL, they always feel like they're getting plenty of work anyway from both leg day and then on my upper day they get indirect work too during free weights bent over rows.
Thank you! This is a great response. I guess I might be doing too many different exercises each day because I get bored. I do like 10 sometimes 15 different ones each lift haha. I don't feel lean at all! I suppose gaining some more muscle definition would help. I maintain this weight easily without thinking about how much I'm eating so I feel like I could drop if needed, gaining is a little harder. I don't seem to get above 1250 -
Definitely keep some kind of cardio. You may be able to keep some HIIT, but if you go to 3 days of progressive lifting, 2 days of muscle-intensive HIIT like that can be hard to fit in and still have good recovery.
Absolutely you can still do cardio of some type, using common sense about not over-exercising in total load terms, and paying attention to what muscle groups the cardio might most challenge and planning that schedule so it doesn't conflict with recovery from lifting. You'll figure it out.
IME, Retro and I differ a bit about how much and what type of cardio is best, because I believe his goals are more lifting oriented, whereas I'm more committed to a short-endurance cardiovascular sport that also requires decent strength for best performance. I admit I short change the strength side these days in actual practice, because I'm not competing any more, am a hedonist, and don't enjoy lifting.
I'm not going to encourage you or others to follow my personal dumb example, though.
A key difference between you and me is that while we're both female, I'm literally 3 times your age, and not at all appearance motivated. I'd be better off lifting more, and am planning to push that harder this Winter for health's sake. Having been even less smart in my behavior in my youth, I think you're doing an excellent thing getting on track with this stuff at 23. Your future self will one day thank you. Even now, while I'm less thrilled with my 23-year-old self, I'm thanking the 40-something self that finally got it together somewhat fitness-wise.
Best wishes!1 -
Well, yes and no. Yes, my goals are lifting oriented. I'm not against cardio at all. Rather, it relates to something we both agree on, that everyone can only do so much at once. If someone wants to do a lot of lifting and a lot of cardio, particularly high intensity cardio, they will probably burn themselves out. Pick a focus, I say. It doesn't mean do nothing of the other things you like doing.IME, Retro and I differ a bit about how much and what type of cardio is best, because I believe his goals are more lifting oriented, whereas I'm more committed to a short-endurance cardiovascular sport that also requires decent strength for best performance.0 -
Yeah, that's potentially getting into what we call junk volume, i.e. way more volume than we need. It probably takes a lot of time too. And most exercises work a muscle in similar ways, e.g. lats and middle back are hit with horizontal rows (many variants) and vertical rows (pulldowns, pullovers, pullups). Chest is basically press and fly's, again many versions of each but they do similar things."betterlily01 wrote:Thank you! This is a great response. I guess I might be doing too many different exercises each day because I get bored. I do like 10 sometimes 15 different ones each lift haha. I don't feel lean at all! I suppose gaining some more muscle definition would help. I maintain this weight easily without thinking about how much I'm eating so I feel like I could drop if needed, gaining is a little harder. I don't seem to get above 125
Taking my legs workout suggestion, that's two compound exercises say 4 sets each, and three isolation exercises say 3 sets each. The two compounds need a couple of warmup sets. The isolations probably don't, and they can even be done as supersets with each other. That's a ton of time saved compared to what you're doing now, and done twice per week that's the volume you need to see muscle growth. It's best to stick to a few specific exercises for a few months so you can progressively overload week to week. If you jump around all over the place that's much harder to achieve, and it's the progression that leads to growth.
Hopefully core day includes lower back, e.g. reverse hypers or back extensions. Definitely do not skip back volume. It's hugely important for posture and strength. I assume being female you may not want to prioritize chest volume, so if you don't want to do the 10 sets I suggested, that's understandable."betterlily01 wrote:I do one day arms/upper body, one day abs/core, one legs, sometimes one day for just back.
Two leg days I still strongly recommend though. If you do more than 5 mins cardio at the same time as lifting sessions, do it after. There are many ways to do lifting workout splits, e.g. Upper/Lower twice is four days. One upper day could be core focused with a bit of back/chest, the other upper day back focused with a bit of core. For example.
Oh last thing, get your protein up to at least 0.7g per pound, more if you're vegan. Closer to 1g is better, but at least 0.7g.0 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »Two leg days I still strongly recommend though. If you do more than 5 mins cardio at the same time as lifting sessions, do it after. There are many ways to do lifting workout splits, e.g. Upper/Lower twice is four days. One upper day could be core focused with a bit of back/chest, the other upper day back focused with a bit of core. For example.
Oh last thing, get your protein up to at least 0.7g per pound, more if you're vegan. Closer to 1g is better, but at least 0.7g.
Thanks, yeah I do lower back with core already. Not vegan and have solid nutrition knowledge so protein is all good!
0 -
Just wanted to throw in my two cents to say if you love to do something, and it's not harmful to you or others, then DO IT! The best exercise is the one you actually do, and the one you're most likely to do is the one you enjoy. We don't want to completely replace your existing routine; the goal should be to refine and enhance.betterlily01 wrote: »Its a bunch of different bodyweight/calisthnics I guess? Im not exactly sure, the movements don't repeat over the 30 min. Think jump squats burpee variations etc. Its my favorite day sad! Maybe I will cut out that and running and just do a bike once a week? I would like to keep some sort of cardio as I enjoy it.
This does not sound like HIIT to me, more of a boot-camp style of workout from my days in the military. And if this is your favorite day, then keep it! And rather than cutting the running entirely, you can simply cut the time to thirty minutes, or convert it from a timed-run to a distance-run, say a 5k which you can work towards improving your time.
In your other (identical) thread, you talked about wanting to avoid looking chiseled. Let me tell you that look does NOT simply "happen", it takes a LOT of dedication and hard work by people TRYING to make it happen, especially for females.1 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
Well, yes and no. Yes, my goals are lifting oriented. I'm not against cardio at all. Rather, it relates to something we both agree on, that everyone can only do so much at once. If someone wants to do a lot of lifting and a lot of cardio, particularly high intensity cardio, they will probably burn themselves out. Pick a focus, I say. It doesn't mean do nothing of the other things you like doing.IME, Retro and I differ a bit about how much and what type of cardio is best, because I believe his goals are more lifting oriented, whereas I'm more committed to a short-endurance cardiovascular sport that also requires decent strength for best performance.
FWIW, to be clear, I didn't mean my post as any kind of criticism of you. I respect your opinions. You know much more about strength training than I do, besides.
We differ about cardio because we have different personal goals, and we're bound to bring those perspectives into threads even when trying to be neutral. I was just trying to be honest. I'm for sure not encouraging anyone not to lift, or to short-change that effort by overdoing cardio or anything else.
Similarly, the fact that I've personally been lazy about lifting more recently (as well as derailed by some physical issues) is just honesty, not an encouragement to OP to do likewise. Strength exercise is important! No one should do what I'm currently doing, even me. 0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.5K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 430 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions