I am female, 5’7″ and weigh 152 lb. I have 20.9% body fat and am very muscular. I go walking around my neighborhood about three to four times per week and walk at a moderate pace for about 3.5 miles pushing a stroller with a 27 lb toddler in it. Seven days per week I do high intensity interval training (intermediate 1:00 min split,) a thirty minute vinyasa yoga session (harder than it sounds, I’m covered in sweat by the end of it,) and twenty to thirty minutes of fairly intense weight training (two days on, one day active rest with 30 min of extra cardio.) I am trying to lose fat and build some heavy muscle so basically for the past four months I have gained about five pounds but all my clothes are super loose and I can tell I’m much smaller. I’ve been checking my body fat percentage and it’s gone down considerably from over 26% back in November. I eat moderately low carb, lots of veggies at every meal, one protein shake, a protein bar, and I added up what I normally eat each day (bodybuilders tend to eat the exact same thing every day) and I eat just under or around 1800 calories, about 15% from carbohydrates and the rest half and half protein (~120g) and fat (no trans fats and little saturated fat.)
My question is for bodybuilders and athletes who have experience with this sort of thing. I spend a little over 14 hours per week training, 10 if you don’t count my morning walks with my son. I’m wondering if my calorie count is enough, or should I be eating more than 1800 calories to ensure I don’t lose muscle mass while losing fat?
I would really appreciate serious answers and if you don’t like female bodybuilding, please refrain from posting rude comments.
Considering I have lost quite a bit of fat, I’m sure 1800 calories is not too much especially with 10+ hours of training per week. Even Olympic athletes don’t train more than 14 hours per week on average without risk of overtraining. Furthermore, HIIT training burns far more calories and raises my BMR more than low intensity training which I had been doing for three months and didn’t start losing quite as much fat as when I started HIIT training. Just because I’m a female, don’t assume that I can barely eat more than the average BMR of an inactive couch potato.
I am 28 years old
Eat healthy and balanced meals. First let me just tell you that skipping meals or not eating much doesn’t make you loose weight. You want to loose weight in a moderate fashion so that your body doesn’t gain all the weight back as soon as you begin to eat normally. Drink lots of water; Eat every 2-2. 5 hours, small meals, 5-7 times A day. Reduce your caloric intake to 1,200-1,300 calories a day and your total fat grams to less than 35 grams. I’m Vegetarian and I barely work out and I’m super thin; what you should do is WALK. . . it is better than running b/c it makes your ankles weak over time. If you do run, jog on the treadmill with no incline. Try the bike too. A thin person is this way because it is 90% of what we eat and 10% workout/exercise. Choose as well if you want to work out more, or eat less if you want or a combo. But remember to choose Which one will work for you and if you do decide to not workout then view the links I will provide to eat the necessary requirements the body needs. Anyway, With cardio, the belly is burning fat b/c you are sweating all over-Not a lot of people know that walking burns fat around the mid section. If you’re into sit ups, you should try AT LEAST to do 3 sets of 10 on a mat. If you’re not familiar with sit ups, just ask personal trainers at a gym one day-you can just walk in and ask them-they wouldn’t hesitate to answer. ALSO IMPORTANT: Do not use incline o. k. with bike, treadmill, etc. ok? -because your thighs will get bigger. If you already have bigger thigh Muscles they will continue to maintain the “bigness” and or increase in size. But hey, if you want to burn fat And GAIN A LITTLE MUSCLE TOO then try a little resistance!! Cardio also burns the extra little fat that is covering muscles so yay for cardio! Tapes of Cardio Burning or fat burning could work in your case too Or Buy a treadmill or bike so that this will always be available for you to do. . . join a gym if u want too.
Being a person that eats meat or dairy once in a while is the best to try right now for you. Or at least cut down on red meat. Red meat are foods that take so long to digest which would make you weigh more on scale than you should. I’m not trying to promote becoming a vegetarian, but giving this a try could help with swifter weight loss. Drinking lots of tea like white, chamomile, and green will help too.
Having a high protein diet is good in loosing fat, and keeping lean muscles, because usually the more protein is in a food-the less calories from fat and bad fat (trans fat and saturated fat). . I eat lots of beans (Lima, Pinto, kidney, black, navy- RAW; never in can(but that is just my choice-if you wanted canned its NO PROBLEM). No sugar applesauce is great too and a great snack-find it in jar form or mini cases. Try Quinoa or flaxseeds or something nutty texture like Oatmeal, old fashioned rolled oat too, you can find Quinoa in your grain, beans, or nut aisles. You can sprinkle these foods on all veggies and salads. I also eat lots of salad with tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and carrots! Eat salad with no dressing too or dressing that has 50 calories per 2 tablespoons. Try Bear Naked products-particularly what I only eat of this product are 2 of the many which are Bear Naked’s Fit, Vanilla Almond Crunch and Bear Naked’s Fit Triple Berry Crunch. The entire kosher aisle has many products to munch on like Matzos that go up to 150 calories per cracker. I like the 100-110 calories per cracker. Try Edamame (soy beans) too! – Tons of protein! (Veggie section even though it’s a bean loll)-get the non gmo kind. Dairy, hnmm well cheese-I’d suggest you go for yogurt over cheese and id cut back off the cheese for awhile because of the high saturated fat which is fat that is difficult for the body to break down thus causing unnecessary places for fat to sit on body because it doesn’t know how to appropriately break it down. Try a yogurt called “Fage 0″ or “Chobani” yogurt. ALL vegetables are fun and easy to cook-broccoli, asparagus, yams, pumpkin, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower-and you can do whatever you want with it (boil, steam, roast, stir fry, baked. . . etc. ) Try having all of your meals with colors of vegetables. For example, if you make grilled chicken then make sure there are tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and or carrots on that plate! Oh hey, when you are buying bread or wheat, if the label doesn’t say 100% whole wheat then chances are that it is not whole wheat. Make sure you get the 100% whole wheat ones (it will say “WHOLE” wheat as its first ingredient) on foods and carbohydrates aka grains. There is also absolutely no sugar in Matzos btw (sugar if not burned turns into fat). I bake Matzos for about 2 minutes and then break them up into squares so it looks like chips! Oh, did I mention they are extremely delicious!? Miso soups and brown rice are great too and cut back or limit your refined foods. Hope this helps and email me anytime.
You probably think you’re burning more calories than you really are. Your maintenance burn rate should be about 2300-2600 calories per day though it’s difficult to know given your rough description of your activity level. If my calculation is correct, your should be losing at about 1-2 pounds of fat per week and, as long as you eat a proper diet, you’re probably not in jeopardy of burning muscle. If you just started your diet, you may be losing more weight than 1-2 pounds per week. However, much of it will be water expelled from fat cells.
You really need to quantify your activity level more. Here’s how to do that.
To calculate burn rates for hundreds of activities go here —-> http://www. caloriesperhour. com/index_burn. php and click on “Activity Calculator”. Then put the proper information in the boxes which apply to your activity. Next look up the activity or the closest to it with the search box or the alphabetic listing, click the “Calculate” button, and read your calorie expenditure in red.
Example: For a 130 pound person walking up stairs, the burn rate is 472 calories per hour.
Total all of your activities and add them to your daily burn without exercise and then you’ll have a good idea of what your total burn rate is. You can calculate your daily burn rate on the same website by using the BMR/RMR link. Then subtract 20% from that and that’s the mimimum noumber of calories you should consume per day to avoid catabolizing muscle.
You should also lose the supplements. Eat food.
The most popular protein supplements are no more than milk with the nutrition extracted leaving the whey which is then sold for several times the amount you would pay for dehydrated milk. The result is you get less nutrition and spend more money. How does that make sense? Some manufacturers add junk food ingredients for taste while others add worthless technical sounding chemicals to impress the credulous buyer. None of these things work better than food because, if they did, the huge and powerful pharmaceutical companies would take the market away from the scammers, most of whom don’t even put their corporate names on their websites.
Here is what the US National Institute of Health warns about supplements. “Always check with your health care provider before taking a supplement, especially when combining or substituting them with other foods or medicine. ”
Ref: http://ods. od. nih. gov/Health_Information…
Also, check out these fitness facts. I think you’ll understand why being “covered in sweat” doesn’t mean much in regard to fat loss.
• If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you have to lose fat eventually. There are no exceptions to this fact.
• There are only two nonsurgical things you can do to sculpt your body and they are (1) add or lose fat and (2) add or lose muscle. Muscle can only be lost naturally through atrophy.
• A pound of fat will yield about 3500 calories (Kcal) of energy.
• An average person must run or walk about 5 miles (8 km) every day to burn one pound of fat per week BUT THEIR DIET MUST ALLOW IT.
• An average person must run or walk about 350 miles (563 km) to burn 10 pounds BUT THEIR DIET MUST ALLOW IT. If they walk 350 miles (13. 4 marathons) at 3mph it will take them 117 hours or about three full 40 hour work weeks to burn 10 pounds of fat.
• If an average person consumes 500 calories per day less than they burn, they will lose about a pound a week with no extra time or physical effort required.
•Running does not burn any more fat than walking as long as the distance remains the same.
• It does not matter if a person runs or walks a given distance…they will burn the same number of calories. Calories are energy and energy expenditure is not time dependent. How fast a person runs has nothing to do with how many calories they burn. Only the distance determines the calories burned.
• There is no exercise which will remove fat from a particular place on the body. Your body (genetics) determines where you lose fat, not you nor your diet nor your exercise. Spot fat removal by diet or exercise is a myth which is why people spend so much money on liposuction.
• It is not necessary to do “cardio” to burn fat. Cardio is aerobic exercise while maintaining a heart rate of 80% of max or more which is used to maintain cardio-vascular fitness. You can burn fat in your sleep.
• Most of the calories you consume will be spent just keeping your body temperature at 98. 6F.
• It doesn’t matter how hard or how long you exercise, you will not lose any fat if you eat too much. You can always eat more calories than you can burn. When it comes to burning fat, diet always trumps exercise.
• There are no supplements which will make your body burn fat. Only you can do that with diet control.
Good luck and good health!!
♠
1800 calories is too much for you. 120grams of protein is too low for you.
For you, I’d recommend a Palumbo type diet: 1500 calories. 650 calories from protein + 650 calories from fats + 200 calories from carbs.
The protein + fat will maintain your muscle and the low carbs will force your body to use the stored fat as energy all day and night.
If you eat in this palumbo style diet you should probably replace your HIIT cardio with low intensity cardio.
EDIT:
LOL
it IS too much. Your calories are based on what you weigh TODAY. not what you use to weigh before the fat loss.
I was suggesting LOW INTENSITY for the type of dieting I was suggesting. That’s where your lack of knowledge shines. LOW intensity utilizes FAT for to fuel it. HIGH intensity utilizes GLUCOSE (carbs) to fuel it. Being that i was suggesting a LOW CARB diet it wouldn’t be wise to implement cardio which uses CARBS as fuel. IF you aren’t going to be eating many carbs your body will use convert some muscle into glucose. Google gluconeogenesis smarty pants.
anyhow, do as you want
Studies have shown that some people can gain fat stores even on a semi starvation diet of 1000 calories a day – if it’s composition is high carb, low fat. So obviously, calories aren’t the key to fat loss.
1800 calories a day is not enough for an adult female & especially for a body builder. Most females need at least 2000 calories a day – you’ll need much more for exercise & body building.
You say you are doing 1800 calories
15% carbs — 270 calories – 68g carbs
43% protein – 774 calories- 194g protein
42% fat ——- 756 calories – 84g fat
=================
100% – - – 1800 calories
It’s my contention that low calories force the body to convert protein to a very inefficient source of glucose – so if you need 2400 calories a day but only provide 1800 – that gives you a deficit of 600 calories a day which converts dietary protein to glucose (774 protein = 450 calories of glucose = total fuel calories of 1476). This would force the body to catabolize it’s own lean tissues for nutrition & shut down the fat burning capacity of the metabolism.
When you lower carbs, you have to increase fat consumption to provide the body with fuel calories, protein should never be used as a long term primary fuel source. Lowering carbs is the best way to trim fat stores & build muscle. The lower the carbs the more the fat stores are accessed *IF* you provide the body with enough fuel calories (fat calories). Dietary fat has to be at least 65% of calories to trigger a ketogenic state.
Saturated fats are a good source of sustained energy. Virgin coconut oil is the only fat that can be used for quick energy (like a carb) without the insulin response.
There has never been one iota of scientific evidence to show that saturated fats have any health hazard but lots of scientific evidence to show the health benefits.
I highly recommend low carb way of eating for optimal health. It takes 3-6 weeks for the body to become fully fat adapted to perform athletically but the body does convert *if* carb cycling is not used. Athletes studied said their performance was effected the first week or so but recovered to full athletic ability within a few weeks.
For bodybuilders, low carb creates lean tissues even without working out, working out should create even more muscle mass. When insulin dominates the blood stream, testosterone & human growth hormone (HGH) aren’t produced, which are both anabolic hormones & contribute to muscle growth. Excess protein is converted to glucose *unless* dietary fat levels are greater than 80% of dietary calories, then I believe that excess protein is forced to create lean tissues (just as excess carbohydrates are forced to create fat tissues).
Marathon athletes aren’t restricted to glycogen stores. Athletes in glycolysis (using glucose for fuel) have to “carb load” to fill glycogen stores but athletes in ketosis (using fat for fuel) don’t have these restrictions. A normal weighted person has enough fat stores to run for more than 200 hours – glycogen stores only last a few hours before being depleted & the athlete “hits the wall”
from the article below -
Numerous current studies show that dieters who follow high-protein low-carb strategies–even plans with higher fat intake–lose more fat and maintain or gain more muscle mass than dieters who rely on higher carb diets.
Yes, you read that right–many dieters actually gained muscle mass without working out, simply by eating a high-protein diet. This is due to several factors. First, amino acids from protein drive muscle growth. When you consume a high-protein meal, amino acids from the protein travel to muscle cells and actually initiate the processes that cause muscle growth.
http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0KFY/is_4_23/ai_n13790123/?tag=content;col1
Carb cycling programs never allow the body to become fully fat adapted, which I believe takes 3-6 weeks. The metabolism just shuts down & awaits a return to glycolysis.
This study referenced:
http://www. nutritionandmetabolism. com/content/1/1/2
show that the body (even for athletes) become fat adapted *with time* & allow unimpaired endurance performance despite nutritional ketosis.
There are to date no studies that carefully examine the optimum length of this keto-adaptation period, but it is clearly longer than one week and likely well advanced within 3–4 weeks. The process does not appear to happen any faster in highly trained athletes than in overweight or untrained individuals. This adaptation process also appears to require consistent adherence to carbohydrate restriction, as people who intermittently consume carbohydrates while attempting a ketogenic diet report subjectively reduced exercise tolerance. “
To figure this you need to add the total calories required for your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Physical Activity (PA), and Specific Dynamic Action (SDA)
BMR is the amount of calories needed to maintain every day bodily functions like respiration, heartbeat, digestion, temperature, etc. In other words, if you sat around and did nothing, your BMR calories are what you need to maintain your energy balance (weight). I can give you this, however, I need to know your age so that I can find your BMR constant on my chart.
PA really should consist of a 3 day diary accounting for every minute (1440) of every day. I can use what you gave me, however, understand that the calories derived will not be totally accurate. I am going to fill in your gaps with leisure activities. This basically tells you how many calories you use during the day during activities, consequently these calories need to be replaced. This adds to the total daily caloric intake.
SDA is the amount of calories used during the processing (anabolism and catabolism) of your food. To figure this you need to figure your BMR and PA, then multiply by 10%. On average 10% of your caloric intake is used up processing them.
I am not a body builder, however, I am in the field of Exercise Science/Physiology. I am just beginning, however, this is basic math and I have the charts and formulas to help you. I just need to know your age. You can edit your question and provide additional details, if you want to.
EDIT: 2880 calories to maintain your energy balance (weight). How I got this:
Based on your height and weight, you have a surface area of 1. 83m^2. Based on your sex and age, you have a BMR constant of 35 cal/m^2/hr. That BMR constant means that you burn or use 35 calories per m^2 of surface area per hour. Your BMR is 1537. 2 calories. That is what you need to eat to maintain a couch potato life without gaining weight. You get more than that because you are not a potato.
When I figured your PA I had to do some guess work about what you did when you weren’t working it out. I gave you 120 minutes of moderate activity (walking w/ your son and yoga). I gave you another 30 minutes of moderate activity for your additional cardio after weight training (assumed you jog). I gave you 30 minutes of heavy activity (weight training). I gave you 30 minutes of severe activity (high intensity interval training — I guessed on the length of time). I gave you 750 minutes of very light activity (basically, the other hours that you are up and not sleeping). I gave you 480 minutes of sleep. I subtracted the calories for the days you walked with your son to give me a calorie total for a day you did not do this. I then added that number to two day totals of the previously explained and divided by 3 to give me a 3 day average. I came up with 1081 calories that you use up during the day. If you run during your additional cardio, then that number will increase and in turn increase your total caloric needs. Energy expenditures — running (. 11 – severe), weight lifting (. 07 – heavy), walking fast, jogging, carrying a load (. 025 – moderate), sitting, standing, driving, typing, walking slowly, computer work (. 01 – very light), sleeping (0. 0). You weigh @ 69kg.
When you add your BMR and PA you get, 2618. This makes your SDA 261. 8. You now add that back to your BMR and PA totals because, if you remember, these are the calories used during digestion and they need to be replaced. This gives your total caloric allowance to maintain your energy balance — 2880.
This is more than likely why you have dropped in your body composition. You have not been getting enough calories to maintain your energy balance.
NOTE: This may not be exact because of the fact that I had to guess on your PA. Your BMR is accurate based on the info you provided. This number should be in the ballpark, give or take a couple of hundred calories. To get an exact number, you need to keep a very detailed PA diary/journal. You can contact me through email if need be. Hope this helped you.
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