can i have some advice please?

M

mesticoprincesa

New member
hi
I'm 18 years old , 5ft 6 inches tall and i weigh 130lbs.
I have a small frame.
although my BMI is around 21, my bodyfat percentage seems too high because i'm really flabby in certain places particuarly my stomach and thighs.
I used to weigh around 115lbs-110lbs but i have gained weight in the past year or two by a poor diet and lack of exercise.
I have decided to take control now.
I have started jogging 6 days a week(usually 40 mins. .but now its summer holidays i get bored so i end up jogging twice a day-or swimming and jogging on the same day- i never feel bad afterwards and infact i always feel good- excerise gives me a real buzz).i also swim for 50 mins three times a week but not every week just when i feel like it.

dietwise i eat lowfat usually around 1400-1600 calories.. i allow myself a treat day once a week which bumps up that day's calories to about 2000 or so.
my question is .. will this be enough to reach my goal weight of 115lbs?
if so how long do you think it will take?
if not what changes do i need to make?


i should also point out that when i started this a few months ago i was 145lbs
thanks in advance :seeya:
 
Last edited:
The first thing that stands out to me is two conflicting viewpoints you have:

1) I want to fix my ratio fat/muscle

2) I want to reach a certain weight

One makes sense, the other does not.
 
Steve said:
The first thing that stands out to me is two conflicting viewpoints you have:

1) I want to fix my ratio fat/muscle

2) I want to reach a certain weight

One makes sense, the other does not.
Click to expand...

i guess i do not fully understand the difference between the two :S
i just thought the more you weigh, the more fat you have?!?

i just want to get slimmer and i don't want to build lots of muscle.
 
mesticoprincesa said:
i guess i do not fully understand the difference between the two :S
i just thought the more you weigh, the more fat you have?!?

i just want to get slimmer and i don't want to build lots of muscle.
Click to expand...

Yea, that's my point.

And I'm not picking on you, promise. Lot's of people, especially women, focus so much on the number on the scale that they "mistake the horizon as the end of the world."

Ya see, weight measures everything... not just fat. It weighs bone, muscle, water, glycogen, bowel matter, hair, connective tissue, etc, etc. It's not an accurate assessment relative to what you're trying to achieve in terms of your body.

What you're looking for is to be lean, right? You'd like to see some nice shape and lines, right?

In order for that to happen, unless you have the genetic proclivity to look great doing pretty much anything (which isn't many of us), you have to be wise and selective in terms of how you exercise and what metrics you pay attention to.

For starters, you're not going to get bulky. That simply doesn't happen. If you see my pictures, I have some decent muscle and I've been lifting heavy weights for over a decade. And I'm a guy! Women don't have the hormonal disposition to fuel huge muscle gains even when conditions are primed for doing so.

To boot, your conditions aren't primed for doing so since you're dieting. Adding lots of muscle requires energy, since building new muscle is a very intensive process, energetically speaking. Calories are energy. Well having lots of calories to spare to fuel muscle growth isn't happening when dieting. In fact, when dieting, your body doesn't have enough energy/calories to maintain the tissue it currently has, hence the loss in weight. Your body isn't going to make matters worse by adding a bunch of metabolically expensive tissue (muscle).

So rid yourself of the idea that you're going to get big muscles.

Getting shapely and lean is entirely a function of losing fat while maintaining muscle. If you simply focused on losing WEIGHT... chances are good that you'll also lose muscle and when that happens, more often than not, the net outcome isn't something most are happy with. They're left looking pretty similar to their previous self. Sure, they weigh less, but they're still soft.

That's why it's imperative that while you're losing fat, you do things that simultaneously promote muscle preservation. This entails lifting weights effectively and sufficiently (which is a topic unto itself) and eating adequate amounts of protein.

So while losing weight and losing fat seem very similar, they're really two very different focuses that lead to very different results. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of people focusing on the former and missing the latter.

Thoughts? Questions?
 
Nope, and I was going to mention something about this too... but I was rushing. If you're completely new to any sort of training and/or if you're carrying quite a bit of fat, chances are good that if you start lifting weights with some structure, you'll realize concurrent fat loss and muscle gain. It will be short lived though... so for the women out there don't start believing that once you start lifting weights you're going to grow muscles like weeds in a garden.

In fact, this is why people typically skip out on doing the things necessary for preserving muscle...

They're so focused on the number on the scale that the idea of possibly seeing it tick up b/c of a minor shift in muscle or intramuscular fluids would traumatize them. They'd feel as if they were failing. They become a mess.

When all along, they're actually more on the right path now to what they really want (to look good) than they were before.

It should also be noted that people carrying a great deal of fat don't have to worry about losing muscle near as much.
 
What Steve said.

I suspect that you don't really need to lose pounds so much as you need to reshape your body. Now in the process of reshaping your body, you might or might not lose weight, but mostly you'll get that in-shape fit look.

Definitely add some weight lifting or body resistance training in there ... it'll make a world of difference.
 
Re

You have to work hard if you want to change the shape of your body. Instead of eating 3 time heavy meals a day, try to have this in 5 smaller meal. Eat one meal every 2 and a half to 3 hours. This will help you in speed up your metabolism.
 
Take it for what it's worth... I'd simply gloss over the above post as if it didn't exist.
 
Steve said:
Yea, that's my point.

And I'm not picking on you, promise. Lot's of people, especially women, focus so much on the number on the scale that they "mistake the horizon as the end of the world."

Ya see, weight measures everything... not just fat. It weighs bone, muscle, water, glycogen, bowel matter, hair, connective tissue, etc, etc. It's not an accurate assessment relative to what you're trying to achieve in terms of your body.

What you're looking for is to be lean, right? You'd like to see some nice shape and lines, right?

In order for that to happen, unless you have the genetic proclivity to look great doing pretty much anything (which isn't many of us), you have to be wise and selective in terms of how you exercise and what metrics you pay attention to.

For starters, you're not going to get bulky. That simply doesn't happen. If you see my pictures, I have some decent muscle and I've been lifting heavy weights for over a decade. And I'm a guy! Women don't have the hormonal disposition to fuel huge muscle gains even when conditions are primed for doing so.

To boot, your conditions aren't primed for doing so since you're dieting. Adding lots of muscle requires energy, since building new muscle is a very intensive process, energetically speaking. Calories are energy. Well having lots of calories to spare to fuel muscle growth isn't happening when dieting. In fact, when dieting, your body doesn't have enough energy/calories to maintain the tissue it currently has, hence the loss in weight. Your body isn't going to make matters worse by adding a bunch of metabolically expensive tissue (muscle).

So rid yourself of the idea that you're going to get big muscles.

Getting shapely and lean is entirely a function of losing fat while maintaining muscle. If you simply focused on losing WEIGHT... chances are good that you'll also lose muscle and when that happens, more often than not, the net outcome isn't something most are happy with. They're left looking pretty similar to their previous self. Sure, they weigh less, but they're still soft.

That's why it's imperative that while you're losing fat, you do things that simultaneously promote muscle preservation. This entails lifting weights effectively and sufficiently (which is a topic unto itself) and eating adequate amounts of protein.

So while losing weight and losing fat seem very similar, they're really two very different focuses that lead to very different results. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of people focusing on the former and missing the latter.

Thoughts? Questions?
Click to expand...

thanks for clearing that up for me =)... i do lots of cardio but i also do toning excerises(squats etc.) with a excerise ball. i also do lots of sit-ups and core excerises because i find it helps my running.
is there anything else i should add in?
 
I'd have to see your program specifically to speak intelligently of it.

But suffice to say it sounds like you're doing a lot of high rep, light work which isn't great as far as muscle preservation goes. Ideally you're hitting a certain threshold of intensity (weight lifted) that's best for keeping muscle.

Essentially you have to give you body a reason to hold onto muscle, and that's by lifting weights at around this threshold.

Toning is a function of fat loss while keeping muscle. You don't really tone a muscle... well you can, but not in the sense that people like to think. A muscle either grows or it doesn't, and that's about that.
 
i also do toning excerises(squats etc.) with a excerise ball.
Click to expand...
Steve is nicer than I am. Or I'm more blunt than he is. Or both. :)

Toning is myth. It's a myth and a lie that's been promoted by bad trainers who are catering to women who go to gyms and say they don't want to lift weights because they don't want to "bulk up".

As Steve said, you're either building/maintaining muscle, or you're not. When you do a gajillion reps of light weights, you're doing nothing for yourself except burning a few calories and maybe building some endurance. But you're not doing the work that will help you lose weight and reshape your body.
 
Me? Nice?

You're good for my image on this forum and I LIKE IT!

:p
 
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