would like some help and advice please :)

[melohh]

so i already started talking about this in the introduction thread, but i decided to make a new one so it wouldn't get lost in there.

i am 5'2 and about 130 lbs. I already have a pretty good diet and i do a lot of cardio but i am not seeing the results i want. i also want to tone up a bit.

i was wondering how i should portion my meals and when i should be eating them, weight training advice, anything that will help me lose some weight. my target goal is 120 lbs. is this realistic?

i already started speaking to sassy69 about this..

Sounds like you're off to a good start! First, you can't "spot reduce" so dont' spend thousands of hours training abs & arms. Another thing is that "how you look" is a balance between bodyfat and muscle mass - I'm guessing probably don't have "fat arms" as much as you don't have a lot of lean muscle mass on your arms. And the ab thing - the final and ultimate truth is that abs are made in the kitchen. The ab muscle group is there, but you're probably carrying a higher concentration of bodyfat there (and this isn't unique to you - but rather is more an effect of estrogen in general).

Can you list out what is your typical day's meal plan so we have an idea of what you are eating? Many people say "I eat clean" or "I eat good" but that doesn't really tell me much about what you are REALLY eating. If youc an list like:

Meal 1: 8 am
1/2 c oatmeal
1 whole egg + 2 egg whties

Meal 2: 11 am
2 scoops protein mix + water


etc

And then if you put that into a food counts program like www.fitday.com (http://www.fitday.com), that will tell you the total calories and macronutrient breakdown (%, grams of fat, protein, carbs) you're eating. There's no "right" or "wrong" diet, but rather just small tweaks to optimize what you are doing.

If you want you can start your own thread so the discussino doesn't get lost in the Introduce yourself thread.

^ the thing is i don't have a specific meal time. i'm pretty busy and it is hard to eat well all the time. Sometimes i won't be hungry all the time either. i'm very inconsistent.

thanks in advance. sorry for the long thread! just want to give you an idea about what i'm doing. :)

[sassy69]

If you can give us a sample mealplan - doesn't have to be the same thing every day - just so we have an idea of what you are eating & how much. "I eat pretty good" can mean many things. Also How much cardio and what sort of training do you do?

Like I said in the other thread - its usually just some minor tweaks that will get you the resutls you want - but its hard to make minor tweaks w/o knowing the details.

[melohh]

for breakfast i'll have either an omlet with fat free cheddar cheese, or scrambled eggs.. sometimes i'll throw in some cashews with it.
for a snack i'll eat cashews or all natural peanut butter (but its usually a TON of cashews and a TON of peanut butter)
tuna
i also drink the myoplex protein drinks
for dinner i'l have a chicken wrap with onions and red peppers, a tuna melt, fish like a grouper filet on a wrap, sushi.


also sometimes i will only eat one or two big meals during the day because i feel that is enough for me.

[ironwarrior22]

It's always a good idea to eat 5-6 meals a day and it's very important to both never miss and to never skip a meal the body can run optimally when you don't miss meals and you will burn more fat. If you are happy with your food intake I would suggest upping your cardio, not sure what you are doing now, but, I would start with an hour first thing in the morning moderate intensity with heartbeat around 120/min using whatever machine you like. Check your weight on the same day each week first thing in the morning with no clothes on to judge if you are losing weight if not up the cardio 10-20 min to something like two 40 min sessions. I would also suggest doing some weight training a few days a week.

[sassy69]

And how much cardio are you doing? You said "lots" - that can mean "too much". And how much / how often / what sort of resistance training are you doing?

[melohh]

i do a mile on the treadmill or eliptical almost 7 days a week. it's only about 20-25 min. on the bike i do 2 miles.

[ironwarrior22]

i do a mile on the treadmill or eliptical almost 7 days a week. it's only about 20-25 min. on the bike i do 2 miles.

I would suggest at least 30 min minimum per cardio session and preferably 45-60 min and eventually working your way up to two 60 min sessions per day. For me, two 60 min sessions makes the weight come off like nothing.

[s2h]

for breakfast i'll have either an omlet with fat free cheddar cheese, or scrambled eggs.. sometimes i'll throw in some cashews with it.
for a snack i'll eat cashews or all natural peanut butter (but its usually a TON of cashews and a TON of peanut butter)
tuna
i also drink the myoplex protein drinks
for dinner i'l have a chicken wrap with onions and red peppers, a tuna melt, fish like a grouper filet on a wrap, sushi.


also sometimes i will only eat one or two big meals during the day because i feel that is enough for me.need to get your nutrition in order ie the TON of peanut butter.5-6 meals a day as suggested above is neccesary to to keep your metabolism going.I find many people(alot are females) tend to eat to little,do to much cardio and not enough wieght training.

[s2h]

And how much cardio are you doing? You said "lots" - that can mean "too much". And how much / how often / what sort of resistance training are you doing?Hey Sassy how you been?

[tammyp]

please give a details sample diet of food that is WEIGHT AND MEASURED. and i can bet its the nut butter and nuts that are holding you back. if you are eating a TON..that could easily be another 900 cals a day.

are you weight training?

[Wendy]

please give a details sample diet of food that is WEIGHT AND MEASURED. and i can bet its the nut butter and nuts that are holding you back. if you are eating a TON..that could easily be another 900 cals a day.

are you weight training?


That's what gets me every time! I can't include them in my cutting diet at all because I tend to "overindulge" in them to put it mildly! I stick to EFA capsules because so far I haven't binged on them! :)

[melohh]

Every day I do a different muscle group. I just lift what feels right for me. Not really sure the proper weight or reps I should be doing.

[melohh]

What are EFA capsules?

[tammyp]

why not look in some training logs here for workout programs? you should be lifting enough to fail at no more than 12 to 15 reps on upper body. legs you can go higher rep and higher volume.

[Wendy]

What are EFA capsules?

Essential Fatty Acids. (fish oil caps, evening primrose etc) I tend to get off track when I add fats into my diet in the form of peanut butter, nuts, oils, etc so I find taking my fats in capsule form is the safest bet to keep me on my diet and ensure I am getting some good fats in my diet.

[melohh]

Oh yeah, I take fish oil caps every morning. I'm also running T3 now then going to take clen.

[Suzanne]

For weigt loss i would suggest reading Bosy For Life you can learn a lot

i do not feel to lose 10lbs anyone needs to do more than 30 min cardio. I went from 180 to 120 never doing more than 30 min except as a once in awhile thing. I also never ate less than about 1800 cals

you dont need to eat super strict to loss weight you can eat fruits ww bread ww pasta potaroes etc

to know if you are lifting right. Are you pushing yourself? Your body will not resond if just going through motion with lite weight

what you need to be most careful of is over cardio and undereating

[sassy69]

Oh yeah, I take fish oil caps every morning. I'm also running T3 now then going to take clen.


OK.. let's step back here. Stuff you can't get over the counter isn't stuff to just pop like Flintstones vitamins. How much t3 are you taking? Its a thyroid hormone, not a "weight loss pill" and same w/ Clen. I'd suggest not getting into either until you get your diet & training straight. Especially the diet, because as already called out, that's probably all over the place. When you throw in things to manipulate your metabolism while your mealplan is giving different signals, (i.e. high fat diet with w/ thyroid medication and a shitload of cardio = wtf are you doing to me???) so you don't really get any results you want. Keep it simple. Start w/ your diet & training first because these are the things that are your tools for MAINTENANCE. Any drugs you throw in are not something you will continue to use forever so you can't rely on them to get you where you want and then keep you there. Another caveat about T3 is that it encourages metabolization of EVERYTHING - fat AND muscle. You want to get "toned" - toned really means a good balance of more muscle & less fat. If you burn up both, you just end up skinnyfat.

I'm not trying to give you shit, but rather put things into perspective -"fitness" is about a consistent program that allows your body to respond in an optimal way. Its not about taking this or that fat loss pill. You said you don't eat a consistent diet because you have a busy day - I'm sure you're as busy as the rest of us, but if you are serious enough to start popping controlled prescription drugs to 'lose weight", then you should be serious enough to spend a little time on the consistency and content of your diet. So I'm strongly encouraging you to spend a little time coming up w/ a way to prepare your food and carry it with you and make time to eat when you should. I carry 5 meals w/ me every day to work, I leave the house at 7:30 am and I get home after 9 pm. I make sure I"m not w/o food so I don't have to rely on going to get fast food, etc.

The nuts are a great mobile food, but as noted, they are very high calorie so you need to keep their use under control. Most food counts programs list 1 oz of almonds as 22 almonds. This is about a small handful. A load of PB or nuts will start to get out of hand and personally I find it all bogs me down too much.

Suzanne is giving a great recommendation w/ the BODY FOR LIFE book. It isn't a strict meal plan but rather a structure w/ some recommended foods within the structured plan, along w/ a fairly easy schedule of lifting & cardio where neither is overkill.

[Suzanne]

Oh yeah, I take fish oil caps every morning. I'm also running T3 now then going to take clen.

t3 is great way to fuck up your thyroid and get fat after you stop using and sometimes to have permanent thyroid damage

there is no need to take drugs to lose 10lbs!!!

eat right
train right

all this shit people do eating too low cals, doing too much cardio, drugs, people who want the weight off too fast is why 95% of people fail and most gain it all back plus more!

[sassy69]

t3 is great way to fuck up your thyroid and get fat after you stop using and sometimes to have permanent thyroid damage

there is no need to take drugs to lose 10lbs!!!

eat right
train right

all this shit people do eating too low cals, doing too much cardio, drugs, people who want the weight off too fast is why 95% of people fail and most gain it all back plus more!


This is a bit broad and dramatic on the thyroid medication, but the point is that you're self-medicating w/ something that is a foundation of your body's metabolic processes. You want a specific effect, but you can't choose to ignore the other effects. T3 isn't a "Fat loss supplement" - it is a metabolic modifier and will 'eat' both fat & muscle indiscriminantly. Women, especially, are always so focused on "gotta lose fat" and "I don't care about muscle because I don't want to loook like a guy" but they want to be "toned". Toned is nothing but this 'look' that is the final result of how the combination of bodyfat and lean muscle mass looks on you - i.e your body composition. Like I mentioned above - if you have no problem losing both fat and muscle, then you get a great skinnyfat look. PRobably not what you were looking for.

You can make the amount of fat you have , look better if you increase your muscle mass. The increase in muscle mass will help promote more efficient fat burning so overall you're enabling your body to function more efficiently.

Back to the point of the t3 - especially since you are new to this and sort of taking the wide brush stroke approach, its ajust a better approach to not look to pills for your goals, when you really need to get the foundation stuff in place & working first. I hate to see anyone get the idea that "Just take this or that" and it will get you your results when you can literally spend years fiddling w/ finetuning your diet & training to get the results you want. IMO it sets the expectation that this or that will fix whatever is not optimized in your diet & training and that just really isn't true. You end up wasting time & money running around looking for the magic pill when its still your diet &training that aren't set up right. And then, if your excuses is "I don't have time", then you're just not being realistic. Your body is a perfect biomechanical machine that is designed to run efficiently, especially at your age, but you have fuel it correctly & use it correctly to get the results you want and then to maintain them. Pills and such are just part of a cycle that isn't a maintenance state. Once you come off, if your diet & training don't already support your goals, you just rebound. And all of this hopes that some other adverse side effect doesnt' result from self-medication.

[Suzanne]

T3 can screw up your thyroid permanently

sure it eats muscle too but that isn't it's worst affect you can gain muscle back

but you can't always fix the damage to a down regulated thyroid, females endocrine systems are extremely sensitive and t3 is one of the worst things a female can take

[sassy69]

T3 can screw up your thyroid permanently

sure it eats muscle too but that isn't it's worst affect you can gain muscle back

but you can't always fix the damage to a down regulated thyroid, females endocrine systems are extremely sensitive and t3 is one of the worst things a female can take


I think we're talking about degrees and of course, individual body chemistry, but to keep things in perspective, ibuprofen can screw things up pretty good too. Which goes back to the whole issue of self-medicating w/o understanding the full effect of what you are plannign to use.

[melohh]

thanks a lot guys for all the advice. i now have a clearer understanding of everything.