need some advice on a diet for my fiancee

yoked317

yoked317

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My fiancee currently is 5'7" and 150lbs, she fluctuates in the 150's year round. I think her body is beautiful, tall, athletic, curvy, but she has decided that she would like to lose ten pounds, and me being a muscle head and a bodybuilder, told her i would help her. I know many guys have asked the same question time and time again, i am hoping someone can really help me out though. for a female she gains muscle very quickly, mostly in her shoulders and her legs, i have to ramp down her leg training ever two months or so or her thighs wont be able to fit in her sevens and those things cost too damn much not for her to fit in them. she is 23 and has never dieted before, so i want to get a baseline established first, then start ramping back the cals. as for right now i have told her to write down her top ten favorite foods that she likes to eat daily (not fast food or anything, just what she would like to keep in her diet) and also write down every single thing she eats and when she eats it for one week, so i can see her eating habits a little better. once this is all done I can design a baseline diet for her to get used to eating every couple of hours and let her body get use to it also. I need to know how much protein/cals/carbs per pound she needs to take in. she also does cardio 1hr 4-5 days a week. any help would be great, if you have any questions please ask, i just want to do this right for her. thanks
 
Rosie Chee

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Tips on diet for fat loss

My fiancee currently is 5'7" and 150lbs, she fluctuates in the 150's year round. I think her body is beautiful, tall, athletic, curvy, but she has decided that she would like to lose ten pounds, and me being a muscle head and a bodybuilder, told her i would help her. I know many guys have asked the same question time and time again, i am hoping someone can really help me out though. for a female she gains muscle very quickly, mostly in her shoulders and her legs, i have to ramp down her leg training ever two months or so or her thighs wont be able to fit in her sevens and those things cost too damn much not for her to fit in them. she is 23 and has never dieted before, so i want to get a baseline established first, then start ramping back the cals. as for right now i have told her to write down her top ten favorite foods that she likes to eat daily (not fast food or anything, just what she would like to keep in her diet) and also write down every single thing she eats and when she eats it for one week, so i can see her eating habits a little better. once this is all done I can design a baseline diet for her to get used to eating every couple of hours and let her body get use to it also. I need to know how much protein/cals/carbs per pound she needs to take in. she also does cardio 1hr 4-5 days a week. any help would be great, if you have any questions please ask, i just want to do this right for her. thanks
If she is muscular as you say, then some of that weight is muscle (and muscle weighs MORE than fat), and she may not necessarily have to lose 10lb. And if she gains muscle very quickly, then she obviously eats ENOUGH for the muscle to be gained (which is great stuff!) Just remember that she should be more concerned with her BODY COMPOSITION as opposed to scale weight. If you know what bodyfat (BF) % she is now, then you can look at what she WANTS to be (12-15% BF is LEAN for a female; 25.1% is average for a female, just to give you an idea), and work on losing 0.5% BF a week until she reaches her target.

As for the cardio, it's not really necessary. Get her doing some short, sharp cardio sessions 3-4 times a week of duration no more than 20 minutes, but high intensity, and that will do MORE for fat loss than hours of it. She's also doing resistance training, which is far BETTER for fat loss than any other exercise, IMO. Just make sure that she changes (or a least mixes up) her training regime and schedules every 4-6 weeks, so that her body doesn't adpat and 'plateau' and she keeps making progress (Aaberg, 1999; Baechle, Earle & Wathen, 2000; Heyward, 2006).


As for diet:

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 daily (60g would be best) (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 she's 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 recommend that you make gradual changes over a few weeks (if she doesn't already have good eating patterns and habits), instead of trying to do it ALL at once, as it will make it more manageable and she will be likely to stay with it easier.
 
yoked317

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thank you so much, that really gets me started in the right direction, i have helped quite a few people train for competitions, and i have competed for five years now, so i knew diets, just never trained a female, i hope i can look to you if i stumble across any problems i may need help with.
 
yoked317

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I just remembered that she got her body comp done at the gym a few months ago, she has since lost about 7 pounds , so i am gonna say she is between 22-23%bf
 
Rosie Chee

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thank you so much, that really gets me started in the right direction, i have helped quite a few people train for competitions, and i have competed for five years now, so i knew diets, just never trained a female, i hope i can look to you if i stumble across any problems i may need help with.
All good. Well, honestly I think that the way competitors "diet" is ridiculous by bulking and then extreme or prolonged cutting. Personally, a balanced diet set up right can keep you lean enough all year round so that you don't need to be so extreme...And losing fat is the same for the regular person. Aiming for 0.5% (or 0.5-1kg) loss per week is more likely to keep results off for longer (or better) than losing it drastically (and then most of the rebound you lose comes back as mostly BF), and it also means that you can concentrate on losing JUST BF (and not lose any precious muscle)...Training a female IMO is no different than training a male (except that most females (and males) think that if they train "like guys" they'll end up "looking like guys" or getting "too big"...


I just remembered that she got her body comp done at the gym a few months ago, she has since lost about 7 pounds , so i am gonna say she is between 22-23%bf
Well, that's about average. I would recommend perhaps aiming for 15-18% BF. 18% BF should EASILY be reached within 8-10 weeks of good diet and solid, hard training and adequate recovery. Just depends on what she wants to look like as well, as everyone looks different at the same BF% (i.e. at 15% BF some may think that a female looks too lean or not lean enough; and the leaner she gets the more defined she shall get (and some females do not like seeing muscle (if it's there) or definition). Start off and adjust week by week until she gets the desired results re "look".
 
ozarkaBRAND

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Listen to Guejsn, she knows her sh*t and then some.

Also, take a look into the Paleo Diet. It's great for fat-loss and overall health.
 

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