E-Mail from a friend

Here is an email I got today from one of my friends:

"Carrie,
When you were dieting and watching what you ate what did you eat throughout the day? (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack)
What was your normal workouts? (45 min. cardio, 45 min. weight training 5 days a week?)

(Name withheld--he he)"

A lot of friend requests I get come with a "do you have any tips?" message, so I thought I'd share my response here with you all.

"Ha! I'm still watching what I eat. I have a horrible food addiction and I will almost always go overboard if I don't watch. I count calories. I use MyFitnessPal.com. I can't tell you exactly what I did, because I have learned SO much. I've been on this fitness journey for over a year now and I have a totally different mindset about fitness and nutrition than what I did when I started. I will tell you some of what I learned, and then I will tell you what I do now.

1. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't matter at all when you eat. As long as you are eating less calories than your burn, you will lose weight. No one can reasonably dispute this. It's the plain and simple truth. No need to over-complicate things by following some strict regimen or outdated nutrition myths. You can go all day and not eat, and then eat a huge dinner and dessert and still lose weight (again, as long as the total calories you consume are less than the total calories you burn.). It also doesn't matter what you eat, if you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight...shocking, I know. (Ever hear of the man that went on the twinkie diet?) This means that you don't actually need to exercise, just eat less. Of course, exercise helps speed things up a little and allows you to be able to eat more.....

So, I count calories. I weigh my food or measure it out. It takes time, but I have been doing it for a while, so it's not that big of deal anymore. I track my food with MyFitnessPal.com.

2. The better your diet and exercise program, the better your results. It can go the other way too. If you are exercising too much and/or eating too little, you can damage your metabolism or cause your body to hold on to everything it's got, halting your weight loss and making you feel like hell. You have to find out the right amount of calories that your body needs to balance this out. Also, a calorie deficit without adequate protein intake and strength training can cause you to lose lean body mass as well as fat (think--muscle, organs, connective tissues...).

3. Strength training (not little 5 pound weights--HEAVY--as in, as heavy as you can, in good form, for 6-8 reps) is very important...You don't want to lose your muscle--this is what keeps your resting metabolism up--aka able to eat more and not gain...

4. Women cannot get big and bulky by lifting heavy weights. You'd have to be eating massive amounts of food, or taking hormones or steroids to get big, bulky man muscles. You lift while cutting calories and you lose the fat, revealing your beautiful, defined, lean muscles.

5. Read this whole article: http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

6. It takes time. Especially if you do things right and not get too impatient or be too hard on yourself.

Here is what I do:

I figure out how many calories I burn in a day. I either eat less than or equal to that. (For fat loss, eat about 20-30% less, depends on the person.)

I count calories and track my protein, fat, and carb intake.

I lift heavy weights 3 times a week. Each session is about 40-50 minutes long. I have 2 workouts that I alternate:

Workout A:
Deadlift-- I am up to 130/135 pounds
Bench press-- I am up to 75 pounds
Split squat --I use 25 pound dumbbells
Dumbbell Curls-- 15-20 pound dumbbells
Bench dips
Prone jackknife

Workout B:
Squat-- I am up to 110 pounds
Standing military press-- I am up to 50 pounds
Dumbbell row-- 25 pound dumbbell
Reverse lunge from box-- 25 pound dumbbells
Push up
Swiss ball crunch
I do 3 sets of 6-8 reps. 3 sets of 10 on ab exercises and push-ups.

I workout M-W-F. So I do Mon-A, Wed-B, Fri-A and the next week I do Mon-B, Wed-A, Fri-B.

I rarely do cardio/running. Maybe once a week. More often if I want to eat more.

I recommend the book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler. That is a great place to start. I have my own lifting routine now, but that book got me started. And I definitely recommend tracking calories. MyFitenssPal is a great website for doing this as well an awesome community of members.

There is SO much more I could tell you. If you want me to help you out, let me know!

Carrie"