amiaow Member

I'm 11mo pp and breastfeeding- need about 3000 to maintain my weight while doing 2x strength sessions @ gym a week. Not trying to lose, but definitely lose under that. It's at least 500 extra on top of my usual TDEE- I'd calculate that first! Breastfeeding is a huge energy drain, as is running around after a growing baby!

I would be hesitant to track calories at all during a pregnancy. Just eat healthy food, eat as much as you need and your baby & body will grow as nature intended :)

I recently bought one too, love it. Use a pressure cooker guide to set the time & pressure. Make sure that the liquid barely covers what's in the pressure cooker if you're cooking a stew or something like that or it will be too runny!

I did it last year and had good results- I have week by week photos on my bodybuilding profile with the same username as here. I wish I'd known then what I know now about diet though, her diet is pretty 'bro' for want of a better word. If I did it again I would also take a deload week between phases and probably ditch the…

Cutting is generally a combination of fat loss and muscle loss. You can minimise the muscle loss by eating enough protein and lifting to stimulate muscle growth. You've mentioned that you can't do much upper body work, but can you still do back/core/lower body? That would assist for certain. I personally calculate my own…

Me too, the more badass friends the better :)

I have a new pair of Harbingers too, they are nice and light and they are pink, can't go wrong :)

As everyone said, they will lift your butt and help you to build great glutes. Squatting below parallel and Bulgarian split squats are tops. They will give you a better looking butt. However, if you want a smaller butt, that really comes down to body fat.

I use an enzymatic washing powder, cold water and no fabric softener- no problems here. You could soak them in napisan or similar before washing them too.

Used to have chronic reflux, how have hardly any. I discovered that gluten is a big one for me so now I eat a low-gluten diet and I can eat onions again since my GI tract calmed down- woohoo! Eating no-processed to low-processed has also made a huge difference- I used to eat 'healthy' but it wasn't really, had a lot of…

It will settle down, I had 4 of those over the years and each time I had it changed my hormones felt a bit skewiff for a few weeks. Just eat what you'd normally eat and track it as usual.

It's really not necessary to do that much exercise- no wonder your period has gone AWOL. Can you cut it in half? 45 mins to one hour per day, 4-5 days a week?

I had Implanon for 11 years and it never affected my ability to gain or lose weight. I'd look to other reasons before you blame Implanon.

You should see large increases in strength, good increases in muscle size (faster for you than for your wife) that will occur over many months and probably some incidental things like better posture. Stronglifts is a good full-body program and because it's all barbell/compounds you get a lot of bang for buck. Losing body…

Drink some calories (drinks, shakes) and increase fat calories (nuts, nut butters, cook in oil, cheeeese!). It's hard to eat 3500 cals of high volume food- I had 3000 cals on a refeed yesterday (400g carbs) and that was one painful food baby!

I have a fairly even fat distribution and hold lower ab fat like a lot of women. My abs came out of hiding after months of strength training and some fat loss. I haven't had a DEXA yet but I assume I'm around 17%BF. If you have more of a pear shaped body, you can see abs at a higher body fat percentange than someone with…

I suspect your new hips are screwing with your scale, which uses an electric current to test your resistance and then converts that to a body fat % based on whatever algorithm it is programmed with (ie they are dodgy). Ignore the scale, go by the mirror! Shifting flabby bits is a matter of losing body fat, so that's your…

I use wide stance too, feels much more natural and have no troubles going to parallel. You might also like to try a front squat- it has a more upright posture than a back squat. You won't be able to lift the same weight but time under tension is what matters for your muscles anyway so they will still get a great workout :)

We just bought a new food scale- it's a 'Salter' brand and my hubby got it from Big W. Very happy with it, works well! http://www.bigw.com.au/home-garden/kitchen/kitchen-scales/bpnBIGW_0000000282838/salter-electronic-kitchen-scale

I have low BF%. To get there from normal body fat/undermuscled starting point, I spent 7 months eating at maintenance or slightly above while lifting heavy to build muscle and during this time I also cut a fair amount of body fat without really trying. When I was happy with the amount of muscle I'd gained I then cut 15-20%…

I don't cheat either, I just eat something if I want to and count it in my macros. If we're going out to dinner I will allow enough cals for a nice big meal. If your mindset is such that you feel restricted you're going to fall off the wagon big time every so often!

I had it for 11 years and never gained weight because of it.

Also, mass gains favour muscle if you are starting from a leaner base. I have no idea what your BF% is but it's something to keep in mind when you're deciding when to start bulking.

Not worth the effort IMO, plus it's nice to have cals on recovery days as well. If you want to gain muscle, just eat 100-200 above maintenance and lift heavy. Gains will come your way. It's easy to spend a few weeks dieting at the end to shed surplus fat and if you bulk slowly you shouldn't have much to shed.

Where are you shopping? There is plenty of 100% wholemeal bread out there in your usual supermarkets. Otherwise, you can try the Laucke bread mixes- they have one called Golden Wholemeal that is really nice.

Currently 3 meals as I am dieting and prefer bigger meals to keep me full. When I'm not dieting I like to add a snack or two!

I'm close to mine too, only a couple of kg to go. I was aiming for a certain BF% (which is low, don't tell me off) and not scale weight. I've lost 9lb in the last six weeks which I am really proud of, tracking everything really does work! :)

I'm 5.11.5", 167lb, athletic figure. Measurements are bust 93cm, waist 74cm, hips 100cm. I wear size M/12 Aussie clothes which I think is the equivalent of a US size 8 and a UK 40.

I'd take your calories back to TDEE for a couple of weeks for a proper diet break which will enable the upregulation of hormones that drop when dieting (leptin, T3, etc). Then drop back to TDEE - 20% and you should start to lose. The other reason people don't lose is because they don't track properly. There are lots of…

Yes it works. My TDEE on the calculator is 2500 and I'm eating 2000-2100 and losing faster than expected for that deficit. I always suspected my TDEE was a little higher than the calculator suggested but work a desk job so I just use the moderate activity multiplier.