Well, I wanted to work more on my glutes, as I find the quite lacking and when I am squatting most of the work at least now is felt on my thights. So I am thinking of doing,
glute bridges,
leg press,
hip thrusts,
hip abductor,
on the accessory day.
And I will also add chinups and dips to the end of my regular routine.
In that case, I might actually do a few sets of hip thrusts before your squats to āfindā your glutes. Nothing maximal, just get a feel for flexing them - that will help you finish your squats with glutes vs maybe low back.
Hope itās still going awesome!
Hi, just one quick question, wha do you think will have quicker effect on larger/rounder butt?
Should I work more on weight loss or and heavy lifts?
With where youāre at, I believe you are capable of getting stronger and losing body fat at the same time.
Diet will have the most profound short (and long)-term impact on your physique, but you likely want to be āfitā, not āskinnyā. So build muscle too.
Again, I fully believe you are at a point where you can get stronger/build muscle and lose body fat at the same time.
Agreed - getting leaner is going to make the most drastic visual difference in the shortest amount of time (this is nearly always the case for everyone).
Donāt give up on your lifting, though; it shouldnāt be either/ or.
If you like the program youāre doing, it becomes a little about rep execution. Weāre happy to take a look at squat videos if you want us to help you target the glutes a little more, for instance.
@QuadQueen is an actual professional dietician and is extremely helpful if you have any more detailed nutrition questions.
And, of course, check our upcoming t-ransformation challenge. This is an annual favorite around here where folks that have the courage to post a picture, like yourself, are rewarded with support and accountability as they achieve their goals (a couple finishers receive some sweet supps too).
Thank you for your reply. Yes my goal is indeed to be fit 
Yes I like the program I am doing, so I will continue with it as is now.
For the squats I will take the video on my next training and will post it here.
The challenge looks interesting and I think I will give it a try
Just one quick question: When I try to do dead hangs or chin-ups I always end up with some part of my skin ripped, after few tries, not on the first one, is there something I can do to stop this from happening?
Chalking your hands might help. Putting tape on the bar would probably help
Wear gloves?
If you grab the bar with it entering the palm of your hand it is a stronger grip but the bar can roll a little and bunch up the skin and form calluses. You can try grabbing the bar instead by putting it across your fingers and ātop of handā instead. Grip will not feel as secure but it should prevent some of that rolling against your calluses feeling.
Chalk has helped, but as a 16 year lifting vet and the father of a 7 year old gymnast - youāre still going to tear skin. Itās unavoidable.
In the beginning it hurts. Once the calluses build up, it stops hurting.
Hi @QuadQueen, I just want to ask if you have any tips concerning the nutrition, as Iāve tried the carbs cycling I outlined above 50g/200g, but with it I am not loosing any weight.
For you and your goals I would maybe just start with something like this:
At each of your three main meals:
4 ounces LEAN protein
2-3 cups non-starchy veggies
1-1.5 fats (1 fat = 100 kcals)
At two of the three meals add 1/2 cup serving of cooked starchy carbs (potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats)
Post workout:
3-4 ounces lean protein
1/2 cup cooked starchy carbs
Start with this every day for the next two weeks and report back.
Instead of trying to get all fancy with carb cycling, just keep it simple to establish a baseline. Once we have a baseline and get your weight moving, we can try carb cycling then.
Totally! Iāve found, for me, carb cycling is not going to yield any additional fat loss. It only becomes even minorly beneficial really late in a diet so I could have a full serving of carbs at a meal (vs like a strawberry every meal) or to get through one or two workouts a week that are extra draining (like a leg day).
Edit: and thatās all hypothetical at this point. I havenāt dieted that hard in a long time!
Hi @QuadQueen I want to check with you about my progress. In the past 2 weeks I lost 1.5kg, but I was aiming to 1kg per week so that did not workā¦ To be completely honest I tried my best to follow your advice, but 1 day I did not feel well so I ate less and 2 days I did not have possibility to prep my meals so I am not sure how well I followed on those days, so the problem is probably on my part.
Starting from tomorrow Iāll will be logging my food here daily to minimize the inaccuracies I caused.
My opinion, from someone who do believe in carbs cycling, is that Iām not sure if it is the right approach for you, at this moment.
I understand (or I think that I do) your logic: you want to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (recomping) and you reason that you can have higher carb days when lifting, to gain more muscle and then have lower carb days on non-lifting days to lose fat.
Now, most people (myself included, under most circumstances) will tell you that recomping rarely works, regardless of the eating strategy, unless you are a beginner, regaining lost muscle, on PEDs, or a beginner.
But I want to make a few points:
It has been my experience that women can ārecompā more easily than men. I honestly donāt know why, but Iāve seen recomp being successful in a lot more women than men.
People who carry more body fat (it is not a personal attack) also have a much better chance of being able to recomp. The leaner you are, the less likely it is.
What Iām getting at, is that I personally believe that carbs cycling is not necessary in your case, is unnecessarily complicated and might easily backfire (e.g. by overconsuming carbs on the higher carb days).
I feel that you can get what you want simply by:
Making protein the cornerstone of your diet (you canāt really store protein as fat)
Eating only unprocessed foods, and mostly: animal foods (meat, fish, poultry, shellfish), non-starchy veggies and fruits. As well as protein powder.
Not using āeasy calories foodsā (sauces, drinks with calories)
Eating a food amount that leads to a 0.5 to 0.75% drop in body weight per week (around 0.5 - 0.7kg). Adjust food intake based on progression. If you lose too fast, you might be hurting muscle growth, but if you are losing too slowly you might not be really changing body composition.
Right! I think that it just complexify things, more of the time.
As you mentioned, I think that it is better suited for lean individuals who have been dieting for a while. As a way to reduce the decrease in leptin, but also to be able to have very low carb days to more aggressively stimulate fat loss when itās the hardest to get leaner, and then refilling some glycogen to be able to keep training hard.
It can also offer a psychological benefit when you are sick and tired of eating a bland fat loss diet, which really should only happen when you are dieting to be contest lean, because any other level of fat loss doesnāt require an excessively harsh dieting strategy.
You werenāt too far off from the 1 kg/wk goal. I would definitely suggest staying the course with the recs I gave you since your weight is going down.
Prep doesnāt need to be hard - batch cook your lean proteins (bake or grill a bunch of chicken breasts, fish, lean red meat, etc.), hard boil a dozen eggs and youāre done for the week. Keep easy quick options on hand for both proteins and veggies - canned in water tuna, low fat cottage cheese, low fat plain Greek yogurt, frozen vegetables (just heat up in the microwave, and bags of pre-washed salad greens.
Keep things simple - stick to the basics. Youāre making progress - so keep on trucking!! Iāll follow your log and make suggestions where I can. Just stay the course!!!
