Sport Help! how many calories do I REALLY need?

[Angelkae]

what would be the point...it's still going to be inaccurate.

True.

Almost every muscle has an antagonist....i.e. chest/back, quad/ham ....if you work one muscle more and the antagonist less, then eventually you're going to get a strength imbalance...some muscles get tighter, some get weaker...any kind of imbalance is going to lead to injury and/or compensation somewhere in your movement pattern.

This will really show how much I don't know... lol. I thought that I had chosen exercises for most of the antagonist muscles, and that would keep it in balance.

bb chest press and bb bent-over rows, chest/back

tricep/bicep superset (hammer curls, oh tricep extensions),

bb squats and 45-degree hyperextensions, quads/hams

hip abductor/hip adductor machines.....

No, I'm not blonde. lol

 

[wild]

True.

This will really show how much I don't know... lol. I thought that I had chosen exercises for most of the antagonist muscles, and that would keep it in balance.

bb chest press and bb bent-over rows, chest/back

tricep/bicep superset (hammer curls, oh tricep extensions),

bb squats and 45-degree hyperextensions, quads/hams

hip abductor/hip adductor machines.....

No, I'm not blonde. lol

I was speaking mainly to your leg exercises. I wouldn't really consider hypers an effective hip dominant exercise.

And ab/add machines are TERRIBLE...get off those. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, etc...it'll hit everything you need to hit.

EDIT....you're also not working shoulders and lats. And it could be argued that shoulders don't need direct work but then I'd ask why you're training arms directly.

 

[Angelkae]

I was speaking mainly to your leg exercises. I wouldn't really consider hypers an effective hip dominant exercise.

And ab/add machines are TERRIBLE...get off those. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, etc...it'll hit everything you need to hit.

EDIT....you're also not working shoulders and lats. And it could be argued that shoulders don't need direct work but then I'd ask why you're training arms directly.

What should I do instead of hypers, then? Any advice? said they were good for hams, that's why I chose them.

So, doing the ab/add machines is a bit redundant, since I'm already doing squats and lunges? I've tried 90-pound SLDL's but was unsure on my form so I didn't include them when trying to come up with a new routine.

I am working shoulders, with a . You're right about lats, though, I was doing the for my back and didn't really think about the lats.

What do you mean by 'training arms directly'?

 

[Trainer Lynn]

Originally Posted by wild
I'd like to know what you think is good about that program

She's doing the same exercises 3 times a week w/o any variety of reps, half the exercises are completely useless, and there's an imbalance of work on specific muscles which I'm sure you know will lead to injury.

As an educated trainer...do you honestly believe this girl is 17% bodyfat? Maybe she should post up her pictures so we can evaluate. I am sure she did get a 17% reading....but I am also sure that if it was taken by bioelectric impedance that it's way off, and even if it was done by calipers it's more than likely, still way off.

Perhaps we should also ask for clarification....Angelkae, how was your bodyfat determined? Bioelectric Impedance (hand-held device) or by calipers...and if by calipers, was it an actual 7-site or just a 3-site reading?

I completely disagree w/ the pyramiding, and given that it appears Angelkae is slightly new to weight training, I think she made a good choice doing a full body routine...it just needs to be put together better.

BTW, Angelkae, there is a great full body program in the training sticky's on my site, if you want to check it out while you're there. Many girls have had a lot of success w/ the program

Wild...

I didn't say anything was good about her program. I was just curious as to what you thought since you made a comment about it and then did not elaborate.

The full body routine is a fine choice. Pyramiding is fine as well. She said that she had been working out for 2-3 months already and lifted heavier weights than most of her friends.

Yes, I am an educated trainer and I also doubted that she was at 17% body fat. Hence my comment that if she was at 17% body fat losing fat would not be her focus.

Just wanted to clarify. I was not attacking you

 

[calcium]

Wild...

I didn't say anything was good about her program. I was just curious as to what you thought since you made a comment about it and then did not elaborate.

The full body routine is a fine choice. Pyramiding is fine as well. She said that she had been working out for 2-3 months already and lifted heavier weights than most of her friends.

Yes, I am an educated trainer and I also doubted that she was at 17% body fat. Hence my comment that if she was at 17% body fat losing fat would not be her focus.

Just wanted to clarify. I was not attacking you

Wow, she's more than 17% body fat? I know a girl at work who claims to be 15 percent body fat but she's not very toned, just thin, not super skinny though. So if she's not even 15% body fat what does that make me whose machine told me that I'm 21%?! I guess those little machines you hold in your hand are really crappy then :/

~Nicole

 

[AkaVanessa]

Okay, so I have been gradually lowering my calorie intake. This week my plan was to get about 1300 calories a day. Over the past 2 days, I ate a bit extra (and also started calculating on fitday.com which seems to over-estimate)... but anyway, these past two days, I've gotten a bit over 1400 calories and I feel a lot better than I was before. So the question is, how can I accurately estimate my caloric needs? I used this which told me that my BMR is 1395.8. So does that mean that I have been eating to little? Is that why I feel so much better today? Should I slightly increase my caloric intake? Should I be getting at least my BMR worth of calories? Help, please!

BMR refers to Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the number of calories you would burn if you were in a coma. Meaning you never moved, ever.

You need WAY more than that. A good rule of thumb for maintainance is to multiply your body weight in pounds by 15. That would be to maintain.

To lose, multiply by 12 or 13.

That should be quite a bit more than 1300.

By the way, it can damage your metabolism to eat below BMR. It's not a good idea.

Good luck!

Vanessa

 

[Rosana]

Hello,

I'm new on this forum. Can you please supply the link to your body program? I visited and Kris looks great after just a little over 3 months. I'd love to reach that goal. I'd like to gain muscle, but not too much; she looks very toned and athletic. I may need advice on my workout routine as well, but more on that later.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wild]

Hello,

I'm new on this forum. Can you please supply the link to your body program? I visited and Kris looks great after just a little over 3 months. I'd love to reach that goal. I'd like to gain muscle, but not too much; she looks very toned and athletic. I may need advice on my workout routine as well, but more on that later.

Thanks in advance.

You have to register to see it though

 

[Cynic]

So should I go back and demand an accurate assessment? lol... wait, I don't wanna get kicked out of my gym... lol.

Angelkae, are you going into figure competition? If not, then calipers are fine. For the everyday person, you want to see a trend of reduction.

 

[Cynic]

You're right about lats, though, I was doing the for my back and didn't really think about the lats.

You may want to get on a pull-up assist machine. If you workout at home, look at a pull-up bar and use a chair or rubber tubing/mini-bands to assist.

What do you mean by 'training arms directly'?

Isolation exercises are often called 'direct' work. DB/BB curls/extensions, leg curls/extentions, etc. Anything that isolates a particular muscle by using single joint flexion.

It's also direct when you do something specific in body-part split fashion: leg day, arm day, chest day, etc.

You want your regimen to be no less than 80% compound (two more more joints of flexion) movements.

 

[Cynic]

You said something about an imbalance of work in a previous post... could you elaborate?

In addition to what Wild said, imbalance can also come in the form of too much work to one group and not enough to the antagonist.

Example: I also post on MH and I've seen guys doing six exercises of a horizontal push pattern and only one or two of pull. That will result in the shoulders rounding forward, creating a neanderthal appearance from the palms facing to the rear (another guy posted his pic and it looked sad).

I don't know what Wild's design ideology is, but I've learned to design mine around movement patterns and their atypical, pure exercise form:

Upper body horizontal push (bench press)
Upper body horizontal pull (Bent over row)
Upper body vertical push (shoulder press)
Upper body vertical pull (pull-up)
Quad dominant (squat)
Hip Dominant (deadlift)

All these exercises have variants you can explore: Bent-over row has pronated and supinated, dumbbell and barbell, etc. Bench has flat, incline, decline, wide grip, narrow grip, french, dumbbell and barbell, etc.

After this, you'll want to add calf work so you don't have thunger thighs on dinky calves (however, women have trouble gaining mass without the use of steroids), and some direct ab work to strengthen the core.

The ab work should work at least two planes of movement, like twisting crunch or woodchopper.

I find that designing around this ideology, I can swap exercises out with other variants with ease.

However, I have certain pairings: pull-ups with supinated rows, chin-ups with pronated rows and use the same grip width for both row and bench.

NOTE: Unless you're fixing an imbalance, you should maintain the same set/rep scheme across the board: move to move, but you want to vary set/reps for different days. Also, you should be doing unilateral work (lunges, single arm shoulder presses, etc) every other workout. Since I do a 4-day push/pull split, this is a simple matter. This is why I'm such a fan of 4-day splits, they work so well with all lifting ideologies.

P.S.: I saw your workout and it was terrible. I'm sure Wild helped you out immensely. You were definately over doing it and spending far too much time in the gym and wasting effort on exercises with little impact.