am I doing enough to get lean? weigh: 136 lb.

[hayley1952]

I'm a 22 year old girl who absolutely loves fitness a couple of years ago I started uni and gained 30lb in weight I then decided I needed to lose it all as I was going away for the entire summer I managed to get down to 135lb from 165lb. I would usually not exercise and be as strict with my diet in the winter months and usually gain about 10lb then start again March 1st.


However this year I went away to America and was unhappy with the weight I had gained and started training straight away in September weighing 151lb. I'd never weight trained before and have become addicted to it I have visible muscle on most of my body and now weigh 136lb I'm not quite sure how much of this is actually muscle/fat which is very off putting.


I work out in the gym 6 days per week doing cardio everyday and weight training 4 times per week, I always wear a Polar during my work outs so I know what I've burnt and can add it up on a week to week basis, I also keep a strict food dairy of my calories consumed to ensure everything is in order.


My scales aren't moving at all now I keep increasing my weights which must be building muscle but I'm having a hard time tell-in whether I'm still losing fat or not as the weight on the scales isn't going down I know this isn't an accurate measure I'm doing measurements and the fat I have left on my body just doesn't seem to be shifting either.


I have body analysis scales I don't think the body fat & muscle percentages are correct as they just use a formula so if I lost fat & gained muscle at the same rate the percentages will stay exactly the same. I've ordered some calipers to see if they help to get more reliable measurements.


Here's what the scales say:


Weight: 136.2lb

Fat:17.5%

Water: 60.9%

Muscle: 43.0%


I burn on average each week just over 5000 calories & eat 9,500 - 10,000 calories per week.


My goal is to become leaner and get my body fat to a percentage low enough to see my abs which I think will be around 12%, I'm still going to keep upping my weights as I want to be stronger and fitter also obviously.


am I doing enough? or what am I doing wrong? I did a low carb diet last year it really helped me to lose weight but I hated it, I'm strict when it comes to calories and would like to get much closer to my goal counting calories before swapping to the dreaded low carb diet.


Mathematically the fat should be melting away, I can't seem to see changes anymore am I doing enough? if not what more can I do? any help would be great I feel like I'm working so hard and seeing no results.


I really want that layer of fat gone so I can see my abs & have more defined hips!


cheers


Hayley1952

 

[Tourny]

Originally Posted by hayley1952

I burn on average each week just over 5000 calories & eat 9,500 - 10,000 calories per week.

Giving you a net balance of 5000 over 7 days or about 714 calories a day. given your activity level your body is likely just starved.

you need to raise your calorie count to get things moving again, your choice how you do it.

slowly prevent weight gain but takes months, quickly puts weight on initially but gets your metabolism back to normal quicker.


Oh, and you don't build muscle with a calorie deficit (you'll get some initial gains but you need around 1 to 1.5g protein per pound of lean weight to promote muscle growth after that)


Your body fat goal is extremely lean for a woman (borderline dangerous). Just be careful and keep in touch with your GP if you start getting close to your goal.


Tourny

 

[hayley1952]

I don't want to gain fat, what would be a sensible amount of calories per day if I was to up them?


thanks for the reply.

 

[Tourny]

You can try and estimate it using a BMR calculator and factoring in activity level. plenty of sites around with a quick search.

Up your daily intake by 50-100 calories each week until you start seeing results.


Tourny