I'm pretty new to lifting and somewhat to losing weight. I am also a girl just so everyone takes that into consideration lol. Just like everyone else I have tried several diets lol. Some worked, some didn't, but after graduating high school I started to put on more weight. I am 5'5" and 152lbs. I started at 155.5lbs about a month ago when I started working out again. I want to get down to about 135lbs but I am having some trouble. The first couple weeks I didn't lose any weight. It comes off very slowly which is getting me down sometimes. I eat between 1200-1400 cal a day. I work out 5-6 times a week...aiming to burn 500 calories each work out along with lifting weights 3 days a week. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated because I am very serious about losing the weight this time and getting healthier. Thanks!
First, great that you have started training (and even better that you haven't just turned to a fat burner to try and lose the fat)!
Second, as BW said you are NOT eating ENOUGH. If you don't eat enough then your body begins to battle you to hold onto what fat you have because it thinks that you are 'starving' it.
Also, you should be more concerned with your body composition, and losing the FAT as opposed to the WEIGHT. A good place to start would be to get your body composition tested to see where you are at, aim for a specific BF%, and then, at a loss of 0.5% BF per week, use that as a guide to the duration required to get to where you want to.
You can EASILY lose 0.5% BF per week with a good diet and training alone!
Just to help you with your diet a little more:
ROSIE'S DIET TIPS FOR FAT LOSS
1.
First, you need to work out what your 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, you need to make sure that you’re having up to 500 calories LESS than maintenance. Depending on how fast or slow you lose the fat, you can adjust and tweak your 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 day. By throwing all the guidelines I have just mentioned above out of the way and having a day where you eat what you want it helps, and will also help prevent your body from going into starvation mode (where the body battles you to hold onto the fat as much as it can). If you prefer 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, you 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 you’re doing is already done to ensure the maximum results in the timeframe that you 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 you 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 you get enough protein in (You 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, you don’t need a lot (supplements are just a way for companies to make money. You can do everything without them!). And forget about using
fat-burners or thermogenics; they are a waste of time unless you are ALREADY lean and are looking for that ‘extra edge’ to lose the last 1-2% bodyfat (i.e. like a fitness competitor, etc.)
Also, you don't need to look at the amount of calories you are burning DURING a workout, as what you are doing and the intensity you are doing it at will determine total calories for that session. For example, long, slow cardio, you will burn JUST the calories used during that session; but for higher intensity (i.e. intervals, etc.) cardio and resistance training you will continue to burn calories (for up to ~4 hours) AFTER the session has ended.
I usually eat healthy. I have changed my diet a lot. I stick to lots of fruits and vegetables, chicken..things like that. I do use a site to count my calories. As for weight training I use the machines at my gym. Hip abductor and adductor, biceps, triceps, leg press, calf raises, rotary chest press, leg extension, leg curls, crunches, and lat pulldown. I do that three times a week of 3 sets of 12 reps.
Diet sounds ok. You just need to eat more. And don't be afraid to eat carbohydrates, either, as your body NEEDS them (at LEAST 50-100g) in order to effectively lose fat (Burke, 2006)!
As far as training is concerned (as BW said), you need to be focussed on being SPECIFIC. Stick to the compound, multijoint lifts (i.e. power clean squat, deadlift, bench press, pull-ups, bent over row, dips, shoulder press), as they use more than one muscle, and are the most effective for not only building muscle, but also in burning fat, because they are recruiting more of the body to perform the exercise than isolation exercises (these are a waste of time unless you are looking for a pump close to competition, really). I'd recommend sticking to your 3 days a week, and doing Full-Body sessions, doing 1 exercise per body-part per session, with 2-3 sets of 6-15 reps. Start off with 12-15 reps, and then after a few weeks, go to lifting heavier at 8-10 reps, and then 6-8 reps, etc.
You should never spend longer than 45-50 minutes in total lifting (i.e. your session should take that long from the time you walk in to the time you walk out, excluding if you do a warm-up – and this is strictly your own preference); otherwise you become too catabolic and end up losing muscle. You also need to change your weights programme around slightly every 4-6 weeks, just so that your body does not get used to it and stop adapting. This can be as little as changing the order of exercises in a session or the number of sets and/or reps that you do for an exercise (and it only needs to be one exercise changed at a time, small adjustments over the weeks).
Be sure that you ALWAYS use good form for EVERY exercise; otherwise you are putting yourself at risk for injury. All reps should be CONTROLLED and with good form (don’t cheat). It’s not about how MUCH you can lift, but how WELL you lift. You WILL get stronger as you keep at it (although maybe not so much when trying to lose fat, but this depends on the individual).
Make sure that you have a protein shake with some simple sugar (i.e. fruit smoothie with ice and protein powder is great here) as soon as possible after your resistance training, and then a PROPER meal (i.e. including ~50 grams of complex CHO, ~30 grams of protein, fibrous CHO) about 30 minutes after your post-workout shake.
You don't actually need cardio at all, and it's more if you want to keep up your cardiovascular fitness or to burn a little extra calories (which is great if one eats a lot). The most effective way to burn fat through cardio is to do a) Interval training (i.e. efforts), or b) do your cardio at a HIGHER intensity (i.e. just going out and running as fast as you can over a certain distance, instead of 45 minutes at a 60% HRmax). Forget about the ‘Fat Burning Zone’; the harder you work during cardio, the more fat you lose. When I first attempted to lose fat (and I still do this NOW) I did something called ‘Guerrilla Cardio’ (GC): Jog lightly for 4 minutes as a ‘warm-up’; then you do 8 x 20 seconds hard-out-as-fast-as-you-can sprints/efforts, and jog easy for 10 seconds after each one; finishing with a 4 minutes easy jog ‘cool-down’; done 3 times (on days NOT doing resistance training) a week (with a day's rest between sessions).
