Still maintaining at 51, link with pics

californiagirl2012 · June 2012

They published a sucess article with pics and my audio interview with John Barban:

http://www.venusindex.com/fitness-career-at-51/

Next up later this month, my success story in a women's fitness magazine, can't wait!

bluebird321 · June 2012

Great job!

WILSONBA · June 2012

wow is all i have to say!

SerinaK · June 2012

Amazing!

skinnyeascolady · June 2012

awsome

iWaffle · June 2012

Just ridiculous!

Interesting advice about finishing off those last few pounds. I'm not really totally sure how to go about getting that kind of definition. I always stopped before around 220 because that's getting pretty lean for me but I would like to see if I could push it down to 10% body fat this time without sacrificing too much muscle. I guess just keep doing the same thing as usual. Eat right, cardio in the morning, and weights at night. This time I want to do more than just totally remove extra fat. It would be awesome to actually have some better defined muscle groups. Probably not on the level you're at but still something to be proud of.

Did you do anything different to go from lean to having actual defined specific muscles or just keep doing the same thing? Can you eat at maintenance and still stay looking ripped like that for an extended period of time?

xoxo99 · June 2012

Amazing!! Congratulations on your hard work and dedication! It shows!!

californiagirl2012 · June 2012

dbates: The muscle comes from resistance training, the leaning out comes from eating less and fat loss. The leaning out shows your muscles more. I did a little extra leaning out for those pictures, pretty much the same as the fitness models have to do. For maintenance I'm up a few pounds, I don't know exactly how much since I refuse to use the scale anymore. I don't even use the tape measure anymore. My main tools are myfitnesspal, weights, and running shoes (LOL). Okay to answer your question for maintenance... I look exactly like the pictures except less definition in my lower abs and a little thicker in the torso (most of that is water), probably a bit more fat on my behind (which my husband says looks better - he thought I was too lean in real life at the time of the photo shoot). I stay pretty lean but I like how it feels. I should get a DEXA scan done but I'm probably around 11% at the moment. I think I got to around 5% for those pictures, probably not a healthy place for me to live my life. That is really only a difference of less than 10 lbs and most of that is water.

You can take it as low as you want. The key for once you get to 12% BF or lower for a female is to take the diet real slow and it may take a two-three months to lose 2-5 lbs. It is a fine line, you can't eat too little or too much. If you try to diet too fast your body will fight it, urges to binge happen before you lose muscle (for me anyway) so to me those feeling are key to listen to and means I have to bring up the calories slightly. If you eat even slightly higher then you will not lose, but it is a very very slow process compared to the previous fat loss phase. I don't have emotional eating issues. I know girls who have those issues have binge issues at even higher BF levels and that is totally different.

For my short height if I want to lean out again I'd have to hoover around 1000 calories a day. It's still hard to do and I'm slowly doing some days like that right now looking ahead to a possibly photo shoot later this year. A good indication that I'm not losing muscle is my neck circumference is staying constant and I feel healthy and strong in they gym, and I'm not getting fatigued or sick.

iWaffle · June 2012

I did a little extra leaning out for those pictures, pretty much the same as the fitness models have to do.

I was going to say the definition in those pictures was crazy. I didn't know if it was even reasonable to keep that kind of body fat ratio for any length of time. I would suspect not if you intended on building muscle at all. In a funny way I feel relived that it's not a sustainable thing because if it were I might try it out.

The key for once you get to 12% BF or lower for a female is to take the diet real slow and it may take a two-three months to lose 2-5 lbs. It is a fine line, you can't eat too little or too much.

I honestly don't know what my exact BF% is at the moment. I just know my obliques are standing out nicely and the love handles are totally gone, my abs stand out but it's just one solid piece, and I'm starting to get some noticeable vascularity in my arms. I'm guessing it's around 15% but really I'm after a look more than a number so I don't really bother checking. So an off-handed guess (No science here) is that I'll probably need to hit something like 214 to get the look I want. Should I change my goals to .5 a pound a week or just keep it at 1 pound a week? I don't lose exactly 1 pound each and every week but it's pretty close to that now.

If you try to diet too fast your body will fight it, urges to binge happen before you lose muscle (for me anyway) so to me those feeling are key to listen to and means I have to bring up the calories slightly.

I felt that way yesterday at Sams. Went in to buy some more protein powder after work and I was sooooo hungry. I bought a box of protein bars too and had one in the car soon as I got outside. :laugh: There's hungry that a little extra water now and food later will fix, and there's hungry like a monster in my stomach is screaming for food. I can tell the difference between the two pretty well now. It is tempting to eat anything at those times.