Hey ladies, I have a question for you: My girlfriend is just starting to hit the gym and do cardio to drop some bf. What would you guys suggest as the best diet for a female to drop bf? I am a male bb, so I know what's good for a male, but females don't need the massive amount of protein everyday to build and maintain muscle mass. What are your suggestions? Thanks in advance btw.
Just to help get you started in the right direction, here are some tips for her diet for fat loss. (These are the general guidelines that I give to my clients who are looking to lose BF (and they can be adjusted to suit muscle and strength gain, since the only difference in the two is the AMOUNT of calories that needs to be consumed); otherwise I write them a personalized diet plan (that takes into account personal preferences, allergies, etc.) to meet their needs):
1. First, she needs to work out what her MAINTENANCE calories are (There are various methods and equations that you can use to calculate this; most take into account current body mass, height, and activity level). Then, to lose fat, she needs to make sure that she's having up to 500 calories LESS than maintenance. Depending on how fast or slow she loses the fat, she can adjust and tweak her calorie intake each week.
2. Eat every 2-3 hours after waking. This helps keep the metabolism going throughout the day, as well as keeping insulin levels stable (so, you can see that 3 meals is simply NOT enough, even small portions).
3. EVERY meal should have complex carbohydrates [CHO] (i.e. kumara, rice, oats, etc.), QUALITY LEAN protein (chicken breast, fish, tuna, salmon, lean beef, egg whites, etc.), and FIBROUS CHO (i.e. vegetables, green ones in particular).
4. Drink 4.5 litres of water per day. This will help keep the system clean.
5. It has been proven that TWO servings of DAIRY per day helps lose MORE fat than if one avoids it altogether.
6. Do NOT avoid fat (The only fat she should be avoiding is Saturated fat and Trans fats). You NEED fat in your diet, as fat plays major roles in energy metabolism and other parts of your body (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007). Make sure to have at least 30 grams of GOOD fats (i.e. flaxseeds or flaxseed oil, fish oils, peanut butter, nuts ? especially almonds and walnuts, hempseed oil, olive oil, etc.) per day (i.e. this is ~2 tbsp of flaxseed oil or peanut butter).
7. Don't drink tea or coffee. Try drinking GREEN tea instead; it helps with thermogenesis, and is especially good if you take it one hour before doing cardio first thing in the morning.
8. Don't drink alcohol. Alcohol has NO nutritional value and is full of calories.
9. Minimize adding salt to food. Instead, flavour a meal with herbs and spices (i.e. ginger, cumin, cayenne pepper, curry powder, chilli powder, and garlic all help thermogenesis a bit).
10. The only sugar needed on a regular basis is the NATURAL sugars found in food; these are mostly found in fruit. Too much sugar plays havoc with insulin levels and these should be as stable as possible throughout the day. The best time to be having sugar is straight AFTER a RESISTANCE workout, when the body is trying to replenish muscle glycogen stores (Burke, 2006).
11. Do NOT avoid CHO. You NEED at least 50-100 grams of CHO per day for your body to burn fat effectively. A good guideline is to have at least 1 gram of CHO per kg of body mass per day as a MINIMUM (Burke, 2006).
12. Eat most food as 'natural' as possible. This means fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, grains, etc. Try not to eat too much packaged food, as it is full of extra calories and sugar.
13. Most importantly, remember that it IS OK TO CHEAT every now and then. Actually the body NEEDS cheat meals and days (1-2 a week will get results; I have 3-4 8000 calorie days, and I am only 114 pounds right now!). By throwing all the guidelines I have just mentioned above out of the way and having a day where she eats what she wants, it helps ; and it will also help prevent her body from going into starvation mode (if it does this (someone mentioned in a previous post that hers may already be like this), the body will battle her to hold onto the fat as much as it can; and that's the last thing wanted). If she prefers NOT to ?cheat?, then adding in 1-2 higher CALORIE days (i.e. go up to Maintenance, or even Bulking, or even slightly higher), with the extra calories coming from quality COMPLEX CHO, she should be ok.
Supplements should NOT be a big deal, as most fat loss can be done through simply eating the right food at the right time. And unless everything that she's doing is already done to ensure the maximum results in the timeframe that she want to achieve it in, and then supplementation should not be the focus. However, there ARE a few supplements that I think are important to any regime:
1. A multivitamin. (Although she should be eating as much of a variety of food as possible, in order to meet the RDI/AI of most nutrients from actual food).
2. Creatine monohydrate. Creatine helps the body to recover faster, as well as aiding in increasing strength levels and lean body mass [LBM].
3. Flaxseed/Hempseed/Fish Oil. This is the GOOD fats. Flaxseed or Hempseed oil is great with breakfast or in protein shakes.
4. Protein Powder. This just helps for the in-between meals, or after the gym, and to make sure that she gets enough protein in (She should be having 1-1.5 grams of protein per kg of body mass per day; this is so that muscle loss is prevented, and can even assist in small gains in LBM).
Apart from these 4 'base' supplements, she doesn?t need a lot, especially since sh'es just starting out. And forget about using fat-burners or thermogenics; they are a waste of time unless she's ALREADY lean (say 12-15% BF) and wants that 'extra edge' to lose the last few% bodyfat (i.e. like a fitness competitor, etc.)
I didn't know that. I thought the protein was just to build and maintain muscle. Being a female and all, I assumed she should just diet, do cardio, and not worry about high protein. She doesn't want any muscle, just wants to lose fat. She's not even fat or overweight to begin with, lol, but she seems to think she needs to lose weight. :fool2:
NEVER assume. Females DON'T need to do anything differently than males when it comes to diet and exercise...And if she doesn't want any muscle, why is she going to the gym, then? Unless it's just for cardio...
