Beginner Who Needs Advice

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’m a 16 year old female. Weighing in currently at 129.4 and I’m currently working at gym thats only resistance training. I would like to cut down to atleast 110 definetely by summer, but I was hoping by Febuary.

I know to some this seems unhealthy and probably too short of a time - but if anyone has advice on anything I can do, it’d be greatly appreciated. I was thinking about if maybe supplements would do any good or anything you can think of that might get me more out of my workouts. It’s a circuit of aerobics and machines and everyday there is a diff. schedule you follow to a clock that tells you when to switch.

I run for 20 after and do about 500 crunches. I would like to build A LOT more muscle in my legs and butt - that’s my main target. As well as abs and arms. Again, if anyone could give me any advice or help with this, I’d love it. Thanks
-Madison

2

Well…im in the same boat as you when it comes to bein a teen…im 17. Everytime i mention taking a supplement these guys go crazy on me. You really dont wanna fuck yourself up with ephedrine or anything like that.

If you wanna lose that much weight that fast…the only advise i can give you is to eat realllllyyyyy clean. Eat mostly protein…and if you are gonna eat some carbs…eat complex carbs like wheat bread or brown rice. Greens are always good…i eat green beans alot.

And you should definately run everyday 30 mins a day. You will lose weight as long as you spend more calories than you take in. Eat 6 smaller meals a day instead of 3 large ones…that stimulates youe metabolism more.

Your metabolism follows the food you eat…so not eating all day could actually slow it down. Im not saying you’ll cut that much weight…but i promise you if you really stick to it, and dont cheat…you’ll def see some good results. IF anything you’ll feel good about yourself for settin out to do something and sticking to it. Good luck.

3

The equation to lose weight is simple, and is to take in less calories than you expend. Yes, you knew that all ready didn’t you? However, very few diets encourage you to do this in a balanced way, or adress lifestyle issues. Firstly, it is not advisable to try to lose that much weight in such a short time, to achieve such weightloss you would more or less have to starve yourself, causing your metabolism to slow, and ultimately, you to regain the weight in the long run. Also it is likely that most of the weight loss would just turn out to be water.

I think it is important that you should set achievable goals, as, unless you are very short, you cannot be that overweight at 129.4 to begin with. Even at a pound a week it would only take you one third of the year to reach your goal, with plenty of time left until the Summer. So your first step should be to calculate your maintainence calories, which you can do at the Changing Shape website, or another online calculator.

Just for good measure I entered your details and your current maintenence calorie requirements are 2400. Now for a sustainable diet I would reccomend consuming about 350 calories below this.

So what should you eat?
An example meal plan:

Breakfast
1 Bowl Of Oats + Skimmed Milk
1 Apple
2 Egg Whites
1 Pint Water

Lunch
2 Wholemeal pitta breads filled with homous and green salad.

  • A Fruit From Apple, Pear, Banana, Orange, e.t.c.
    1 Pint Water

Afternoon Snack
A carrot, + 8OZ (1/2 pint) milk

Dinner
3/4 of a cup chicken breat boiled + 1/3 cup brown rice, + 1/3 cup green beans + 1/3 cup sweetcorn. 1 Pint Water

Before bed:
1/2 a protein bar, prefferably made with whey or cassein protein, non of those crap soy ones. 1/2 Pint Water

This would give you approximately 2100 calories.

This sort of diet would let you lose weight yet be healthy at the same time. It is just a sample, you don’t have to follow it, but could adapt it along the same lines.

The reason for the high amounts of fibre in the diet, through the oats, bread, and brown rice is because fibre reduces insulin levels, and insulin is what turns charbohydrates into fat.

Exercise, it is crucial that you take regualar exercise, ideally more than 3 hours a week of moderate activity. Exersise boosts the metabolism, and therefore your bodies ability to process calories. 3 hours of resistence training as you are doing now, in full body 3x1hour splits, or 4x 45 minutes is fine.

Finally, good luck, and remember not to touch alcohol while on your diet.

Best of wishes,
Alstan.

4

I do see that you posted here before in this thread:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=632238

Did you read what they had to say? It was great advice. And I agree with everyone who said you didn’t look like you need to lose weight. There are a lot of girls who would kill for your body. (And a lot of boys too.)

All you really need to do is make sure you have a clean diet, which means simply eating the right foods and avoiding the junk. And even that does not have to be 100% perfect.

Lean meats, fruits and vegetables. Avoid junk food. Keep grains down, with a preference for grainy breads and oatmeal.

Eating protein with every meal is a good idea. Eating enough protein will have a surprising effect on your body. You do not need to be hungry to lose weight. In fact you may not need to decrease a single calorie to lose unwanted fat. Just eating a healthy diet and exercising properly most often is enough. You could probably increase the calories, especially on the protein side.

Oh yeah, do not focus on the weight. Focus on the mirror instead. The scale is a very limited tool, unless combined with body fat measurements.

Weight lifting is very important, and don?t be afraid to lift like the boys. Girls do not need to lift frilly weights to get in shape. They can do deadlifts, squats, bench press, and anything else.

When you post that you do 500 crunches, I immediately think you need to add weight. I assume you are trying to lose weight from your waist with that exercise. The fact is that all fat needs to be processed through the same organ before it is used. So your body actually does not care where they fat comes from. Waist exercises will not reduce your waist.

I do like that you are interested in weight training. You may want to try free weights instead of the machines. It will hit more muscle groups when lifting. Machines isolate muscle groups, which is not always bad, but generally it is best to hit more muscle groups with free weights.

fako is correct about us going crazy about young people using supplements. There is a serious reason for that.

Vitamins, minerals, food, are all fine. As you are still growing supplements could have more potential effects on the young then older people. You still have body changes going on that could be affected by taking the wrong thing.

Also before you take anything, make sure you understand what you are taking any why first. Understanding this stuff will make future use of supplements more effective.

Another reason is that you have so much going for you right now, maximized response to exercise due to youth, and there is a real good chance you are new, or fairly new to exercise, or new to correct exercise, and as such your body will respond sooner then most adults will. Many supplements right now may provide little if any benefit, and some will be counterproductive.

We are here to answer any questions you might have, so ask away.

5

Good question and especially important for younger females since we live in a image society. To be brutally honest with you and to echo a lot of things you will find on this site here goes.

  1. You must realize that you are young therefore your body is growing changing much more rapidly then a person in there 20’s or 30’s.

  2. You honestly need a new gym. forget Curves, or whatever gym you are at now. If that is their idea of a workout, leave for a gym that has free weights, aerobics, treadmill, bikes, machines etc.

  3. Forget the scale! This cannot be stressed enough, trust me as a guy and as someone who has worked out with his fiance for a while, the scale doesnt matter. I’m not sure of your height but think of this most fitness competitors weigh the same as you if not more. Use the mirror or measurements, Use bodyfat percentages, etc. If you think that weight matters much to guys or girls think of what most people say when describing someone example, guys watching a girl walk by “wow that girl is hot” not “wow that girl is 115lbs”. I could go on and on here.

  4. Great that you have come to this site, You will find the BEST training information here. Read, study, apply. Ask the informed girls and women on this site. doubtless they have gone through your experiences and can relate better then a guy can.

  5. Remember that there are always ways to lose the weight you want, pills, extreme excercise, sit in a sauna for a day, whatever, but is it healthy? not really.

You are a young woman who like many others im sure asks this question at your age, hell there are people much older that ask the same question. Your advantage is that you asked it here and will now receive tonnes of real helpful information.

This is a real site with real people who take time to help others expecting nothing in return except that you try, commit, bust your ass, and never give up. The women on here have all made great improvements, not by taking pills or any other means except hard work. Welcome to this site, you have the greateast resource at your fingertips to changing your body into anything you want.

6

[quote]Bert wrote:
Good question and especially important for younger females since we live in a image society. To be brutally honest with you and to echo a lot of things you will find on this site here goes.

  1. You must realize that you are young therefore your body is growing changing much more rapidly then a person in there 20’s or 30’s.

  2. You honestly need a new gym. forget Curves, or whatever gym you are at now. If that is their idea of a workout, leave for a gym that has free weights, aerobics, treadmill, bikes, machines etc.

  3. Forget the scale! This cannot be stressed enough, trust me as a guy and as someone who has worked out with his fiance for a while, the scale doesnt matter. I’m not sure of your height but think of this most fitness competitors weigh the same as you if not more. Use the mirror or measurements, Use bodyfat percentages, etc. If you think that weight matters much to guys or girls think of what most people say when describing someone example, guys watching a girl walk by “wow that girl is hot” not “wow that girl is 115lbs”. I could go on and on here.

  4. Great that you have come to this site, You will find the BEST training information here. Read, study, apply. Ask the informed girls and women on this site. doubtless they have gone through your experiences and can relate better then a guy can.

  5. Remember that there are always ways to lose the weight you want, pills, extreme excercise, sit in a sauna for a day, whatever, but is it healthy? not really.

You are a young woman who like many others im sure asks this question at your age, hell there are people much older that ask the same question. Your advantage is that you asked it here and will now receive tonnes of real helpful information.

This is a real site with real people who take time to help others expecting nothing in return except that you try, commit, bust your ass, and never give up. The women on here have all made great improvements, not by taking pills or any other means except hard work. Welcome to this site, you have the greateast resource at your fingertips to changing your body into anything you want. [/quote]

Agreed m8, and i kinda take back some of the stuff I said, but only because she doesn’t need to lose any weight at all now I’ve seen that pick. I didn’t realise about the other thread.

7

Ok, I’m hardly one to give advice on the topic (I’m uber skinny naturally) but I’m a teen so I guess I can shove in my 2 pence…

Please god not another 500 crunches woman…It’s good to see a woman with grit though. And yeah ditch the scale is a marvellous idea. I’m weird for a boy in that any fat I keep is on my lower body as opposed to upper. As such, I’d recommend a workout diet of heavy squats and lunges. Seriously, you’ll fit into smaller clothes at a higher weight…

That is a normal effect of starting weights. Just eat a bit cleaner and you’ll look great. Don’t worry about the scale or the bogus mass indicator.

Oh and try the vacuum if you’re worried about your tummy…it helps reduce it (no I’m not joking)

8

10X3 for Fat Loss by Chad Waterbury.

9

[quote]ah_dut wrote:
Ok, I’m hardly one to give advice on the topic (I’m uber skinny naturally) but I’m a teen so I guess I can shove in my 2 pence…

Please god not another 500 crunches woman…It’s good to see a woman with grit though. And yeah ditch the scale is a marvellous idea. I’m weird for a boy in that any fat I keep is on my lower body as opposed to upper. As such, I’d recommend a workout diet of heavy squats and lunges. Seriously, you’ll fit into smaller clothes at a higher weight…

That is a normal effect of starting weights. Just eat a bit cleaner and you’ll look great. Don’t worry about the scale or the bogus mass indicator.

Oh and try the vacuum if you’re worried about your tummy…it helps reduce it (no I’m not joking)[/quote]

Does that make any sense, or am i missing it?

10

[quote]ah_dut wrote:

Oh and try the vacuum if you’re worried about your tummy…it helps reduce it (no I’m not joking)[/quote]

The tummy vacuum, stomach vacuum, or vacuum pose, as I have heard them referred to is in fact a good exercise. But no it will not suddenly and magically cause you to lose fat in your waist. Another attempt at spot reduction.

If spot reduction were possible then all teenage boys would have one arm skinnier then the other by quite a bit.

11

From you picture I don?t think you need to lose weight, maybe substitute fat with muscle in the lower half of your body.

However, none of us can say without some pictures that actually show your body.

Yes, that would lead to some comments in the general “I?d hit it” direction but maybe to some useful advice too.

If you do not want to do that, start a thread in the T-vixen forum and ask the women there if you could send them some pictures and to give you advice.

12

Madi,

You look fine. There’s no need to loose weight. You’re 16, you’re body is still developing. Now is NOT the time to deprive it of the hard-needed nutrients.

You could build some muscle I guess. This means you should use the weights and eat properly.

You say you’re a VERY picky eater. I fear the worst.

Could you please post here what you eat on an average day?

Try to get 6 healthy meals a day, mostly carbs and protein early in the day, protein and fat later in the day.

13

[quote]rainjack wrote:
10X3 for Fat Loss by Chad Waterbury. [/quote]

Fantabulous advice.

You specifically said you want to build muscle in the butt and legs, an admirable goal that should be compulsory for any woman. Towards that end you need squats, deadlifts and romanian deadlifts with useful loading schemes. A la Chad Waterbury, you need widely fluctuating sets and reps for growth.

Good luck.

P.S. I think I’m going to go listen to “Let me ride that donkey” by 69 Boyz.

14

So let see. Last May you weight 128.5lb and wanted to get down to 110 lb for the summer. Now it’s Jan. and you weigh 129.5 lb and still with the same goal of getting down to 110 “by the summer” (guys know what that means).

Did you take any of the advice that was given you last spring? So, now you want new and different advice? You’ll probably get the same adice this time.

TNT

15

[quote]TNT-CDN wrote:
So let see. Last May you weight 128.5lb and wanted to get down to 110 lb for the summer. Now it’s Jan. and you weigh 129.5 lb and still with the same goal of getting down to 110 “by the summer” (guys know what that means).

Did you take any of the advice that was given you last spring? So, now you want new and different advice? You’ll probably get the same adice this time.

TNT[/quote]

Exactly!

If this were a guy he would have been royally–ROYALLY flamed by one and all.
You asked this exact same question, except you were .8 of a lb lighter then, 8 months ago. Have you experimented with any of that advice? Have you made any effort to lose weight? Have you made any effort to improve your workout?

Just the fact you write your weight down to the (.) of a lb says you’re obsessive about the scale.

It’s quite simple. You don’t really need to lose weight from what I see–you may need to lose fat. This is accomplished by refining your diet and appropriate exercise.

You’ve been given the info. It’s your choice wether to implement it or not

16

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hi, i’m new here and i’m a seventeen year old female. i see that you want to lose alot of weight fairly fast and well it’s really important to remember that if you lose that much weight you will most likely lose your period and that’s really bad. the most important thing to do is make sure that your getting all the essential vitamins and minerals into your body so that even if your eating less or eating really restrivtavely such as not eating as much fruits or vegetables such as carrots because they’re mostly sugar, you’re still getting those vitamins into your body.

i would also consider eating small meals many times a day or in other words snacking. what i do is in the morning i have about 2 cups of oatmeal with a teaspoon of brownsugar and milk and then a few hours later i eat either another complex card such as a small bag of whole wheat cereal or some sausages or something. then for lunch i usually have some sort of larger portion of protein so it’s usefull when i work out which is about 4 hours later. then about 2 hours before my work out i usually eat either a large portion of vegetables or some fruit so that my energy levels go up. and then after my workout i usually have dinner which consists of some sort of protein then i eat some vegetables then maybe some carbs.

when you eat lots it keeps your metabolism high. the earlier you eat breakfast the more calories you’ll burn during the day because your metabolism works faster earlier. you could also consider doing some sort or cardio workout in the mornings befor you eat breakfast to burn some of the calories you gained the night befor. and then do a weight training workout later on in the day to build muscle which will also burn fat. and
DON"T WORRY!! girls DON’T get as big as guys when they build muscle because we don’t have enough testosterone (if you didn’t know that) anyways the stumptuous site can give you information on womens body building. it can give you a program to work with and it’s very inspiring
and make sure you take your vitamins and drink plenty of water and yeah it sounds like you need a new gym

with this program i’ve made for myself went from 140-130 in about 5 months and i’ve been consistantly holding 130 for quite a while.

17

Water Lily, you’re a pretty smart little flower. I hope some of your young wisdom helps, where the old wisdom has failed.

Her 1st post and already she sounds like a T-Vixen.

TNT