Well- I am now officially out of lurker status…I am excited and terrified all at the same time. I decided to post a call-out to all of our powerful women: HELP!!!
I’ve been lifting for a little over a year. I started out at a max weight of gulp 236 lbs…well at least that’s what my last Dr. visit had said. I’m now in the upper 160s. I say this because I have been terrified to weigh after the blasted holiday season! I should be so far ahead of this weight- but as usual, I’ve had ups and downs.
The reason for this lengthy post if that I am trying to break through my plateau and finish loosing the rest of this darn weight. MY short term goal is for my friend’s wedding in March. I’ve got about 4-6 weeks to loose as much weight as I can. Actually, one of the other bridesmaids has gained weight and now needs my dress to wear- so I really need to loose one dress size so that I can wear her dress. I’m pretty happy with my diet:
Breakfast- 6oz. protein shake + 1 medium celery stalk W/2 tbsp. Pnt Btr.
Mid-morning- 6oz. protein shake + 1oz walnuts
Lunch- 6oz. grilled chicken + 1 cup asparagus or green beans
Mid-Afternoon- 6oz. protein shake + 1 oz. walnuts
Dinner- 6oz. grilled chicken + 1 cup asparagus or green beans
Evening “snack”- 2 oz. turkey lunch meat
This comes to 1267 calories, 36g carbs, and 174g protein
This works for me because the shakes are very convenient! My workout needs a workout… I think I am going to decrease the number of reps I do and increase the number of sets. I haven’t really gotten any stronger in a while and I think that (plus some drop-sets) will help me to build muscles (with which to burn fat!!!)
As you can tell…I’m not so much concerned with the numbers on the scale… I’m concerned with the inches on the measurer. Any suggestions to get out of a rut? I’ll get on the scale and track the numbers to post. I don’t have anyone training me- so I figured you ladies are the best source of encouragement that a girl could get!
Hey Forgiven welcome.
I would say you already have done great. Now the holidays are over I think there is a lot of us ready to hit it hard again. Glad you found us. The most important thing is to read as much as you can and ask questions.
Diana
Forgiven, are you saying that your weight loss has stopped, or at least slowed significantly?
I’m by no means a diet expert, but 1200 calories sounds awfully low. How are you feeling? Tired? Hungry all the time?
The cals just stuck out to me. I know that I have trouble functioning when my cals are that low. They may be a variable that needs to be tweaked a bit.
It sounds like you’ve done great so far. Congrats!
MikiB- alright…this makes me hang my head in shame but here are the basics… I usually end up doing 3 sets of 8 on most exercises…of course my last set usually ends up being 6 or 7 lol!
Incline Bench: 85lbs X 8
Flat Bench: 105lbs X 8
Incline DB Press: 35lbs DBs
(and I do 100 push ups for chest as well)
I can’t do a pull up or a chin up… that’s one of my goals. I’m up to 100lbs on my pull downs and can move myself about an inch when I try the real thing…
Rack pulls: 325lbs X 8
My back routine sucks…I need to fix this…
Seated DB curls: 25lb DB
Bar Curls: I think is around 60lbs X 8
Skull Crushers: 60 X 8
Declined DB tricep extensions: 15lbs DBs
Cable tricep extensions: 30lbs + the “sled”
Cable curls: 40lbs + “sled”
Squats: 205lbs X 3-5 reps (I do reps of 7-5-3-5-7) Yes… I go below 90
Leg extensions: 155lbs (with a 2 sec. hold)
Leg Curls: 65-70lbs (with a 2 sec.)
Bulgarian Split-squats: 12lb DBs (this at then end of the workout…i’m not THAT much of a chesse-ball!)
Wow…that was long! I also do shoulders…but it’s nothing horrible or outstanding! Just reading what I wrote displays HUGE holes in my routines… sorry this was long…
On the pull ups…Do you have access to bands? I’m working on doing a body weight pull up and have found that I like doing real pullups with band assistance rather than pulldowns.
You’ve got some pretty good lifts there. Great work. Now about those pull-ups/chin-ups.
Buy 2 - 10’lengths of 3/8 bungee cord. In Canada it costs about 79 cents a foot. Tie the ends to the chinning bar and stand in the middle. You vary the assistance by how many cords you use. The neat thing is that you get less assistance as you get near the top. All variations of chin-ups and pull-ups are good, so do them all. It’ll take about 500 assisted ones until you can do 1 unassisted one. The next 500 will get you to about 3 unassisted. 3 times a week is good.
wow thanks guys! I’m on my lunch break- and am realizing that 6oz. of grilled chicken + 1 cup of asparagus…is a lot!
I’m going to go look up articles about my caloric intake. Actually this is higher for me! I was bad!! “cleaning up my diet” this past week found me at about 800 calories a day… yeah…I know that my diet is the key so I really want to nail it!
I will definitely see if I can get some bands to try assisted pull-ups. I didn’t know I could just buy some…I thought it was some special equipment (yes…I’m a noob and a home-gymer) Sounds difficult and painful… I think I might like it lol!
You won’t be able to build much strength or muscle on a calorie restriction. You will make more progress if you choose one goal and attack it - fat loss or muscle/strength gain.
Give us more of an overview of your diet and progress over the past few months.
Jilly is right, either focus on losing fat, or focus on building muscle. You can do both simultaneously, but it will take longer and it sounds like you are on a bit of a deadline. Plus that will determine the type of set/rep scheme you want to use.
Diet… your sub 40grams of carbs all come from the nuts and asparagus, don’t they? Do you ever vary your diet or have refeeds or carb ups?
This article: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1757741&cr=dietAndNutrition may make you rethink your low-carb approach. Don’t get me wrong, I think that cutting out things like white bread, rice, and higher glycemic carbs is great. You just need to think about whether you may be slowing your progress by eliminating them all together.
Varying your caloric intake on weight days vs. cardio days, as well as varying your carb intake, will help you continue to progress at the same rate.
i haven’t disappeared! My sister was in the hospital so I’ve been busy. Needless to say my diet wasn’t great yesterday or this morning- but it’s lunch and I’m back in the swing of things.
Jilly- I have put thought into what you said. I think I’m going to approach everything from a fat-loss mind-set. After the wedding (in March) I can really focus on building muscle. I do think that body-weight exercise could do me some good…they’re where I struggle (b/c of my weight…duh!) I actually have a chart with details and a track of my BMI…i’ll see if I can upload it.
Sic- I loved the article- thank you for pointing it out to me. I don’t read about cheating on diets b/c in my mind I thought that cheating was just a lack of integrity. I’ll try to find some variations for my diet and post what I come up with (suggestions are always loved) The one thing that irks me is that I workout around 7pm. I know that after I workout legs…that would be a great time to enjoy some rice or bread- but it’s so late at night.
Thanks for all the tips…I’ll post what I come up with soon!!
Stop worrying about eating and time of day. I know women who go to bed hungry because “you just can’t eat at night! It’ll all turn to fat!”
Seriously, your body does not shut down over night. It’s working away 24/7.
Remember that the two or so hour period immediately after lifting is the most optimal time to consume carbs. At that point your body does not convert and store them, it uses them as fuel like we wish it would at all other times.
You may not want to dig into a pizza, but a tasty whey shake with yogurt and fruit would not be a bad thing at night.
Flash in the pan? I think not! I have been away- had a rough start to the month emotionally, which wrecked havoc on the diet. BUT I am determined. I may not look like Wonderwoman- but I feel like it.
I have been fluctuating with the diet (in a good way) I’ve had some fruit and cottage cheese here and there. Oh- and I’ve have a sandwich (on wheat bread of course) on occasion too. I never knew fruit could taste sooo good after a 3 mile walk! I did nix the celery and opted for straight up PB- I don’t like celery…I now know this.
Of course- lifting hasn’t been quite as heavy… my muscles reach exhaustion earlier due to the lack of carbs and calories that they’re normally used to. However- I have been experimenting with TUT- it’s working great in my arm workout and I did some variations with chest today. I’ve also added in a lot of drop sets ( I am now in love with running the rack- it causes pain like nothing else!)
Biggest thing is legs…not sure what to do there. I am really scared to go heavier b/c I’m starting to squat almost double my partner’s weight- I don’t trust here THAT much for a spot. I don’t want to do Pillars of Strength again…b/c I’m not crazy enough to do it twice and b/c I don’t want to focus on legs. I’ll look into this. Other than that- I’ve been getting cardio! yay me!
I need to weigh- it’s a barrier that I need to break through. However- I already notice my size 14 dress pants don’t squeeze like they used to! Crazy as it is- cheating can help my diet…(when planned lol) I promise I will make myself weigh and compare it with where I was… you guys are great!
I loved Pillars of Strength! First leg program that made me dizzy and cry for it to be over. Holy lactic acid buildup!
Can you set pins or bars in a squat rack or power rack so that you can drop the weight and just sit down if you get stuck? There’s no shame in being safe. If you always back squat you could try front squatting or upping your single leg squat.
I’m really glad you’ve noticed that planned cheating can help your diet. Friday night homemade pizza really perks me up and gives me some good carbs to look forward to at the end of a hard week.
