Ladies, Please Help!

I am a 24 year old female, 5"4’ and about 185lb. I have just started working out and have been reading some of the different diets in the back issues of T-mag trying to put together a diet plan. I am wondering what kind of diets the rest of the women in the forum use. How many calories, how many times per day you eat, what you eat in a typical day. Particularily Savannah, Karma, and anyone else who has lost a significant amount of weight. Also, roughly how much you lost/lose per month. Thanks.

Diet and routine is not according to gender, but according to “need”. Also, what Savannah et al have experienced with their diet and routines may be quite different than you. Why? The fact that you are a individual and will, more than likely, need something “a tad” different. I can understand you wanting to gauge what you need to do by what others have done. However, in the end, you’ll realize that what is BEST for YOU is exactly that: YOUR needs. Start by beginning a food journal (if you haven’t done so yet). Find out what your current BF% is, so that you can correctly gauge composition changes. Remember to also log in your activities so that you can also know what your caloric expenditures were. Yeah, may seem like alot of work - but worth it in the end. You’ll gain invaluable knowledge about how YOUR body works.

I hope you have also read Dawg School: Beginner Blast Off Program. If not, it is a must read. What would be really helpful, if you're looking for help here in the forum, is to let us know what you are doing now in terms of workout and if your routine needs any "tweaking". I hope this helps.

My wife actually went to see an exercise nutritionist (what ever that is). She has lost 75 lbs over the year and is now totally ripped. If you can afford it it my be a good option.

While I can tell you what’s worked for me, it may have any range of effect on you. Patricia is totally on the money with the food/expenditure log and finding what works for YOUR particular body. You also have to understand something of the physiology and psychology behind why you are at where you’re at and overcome that.
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In my case, I was very fit and active, had a toxic pregnancy and a huge weight gain (along with muscle atrophy from bedrest - body comp got WAY wacked) and then went into severe clinical depression for 4 years where the only movement I did was from the bed to the couch and back. My diet consisted of nothing but packaged, processed foods (think Hamburger Helper, Mac-n-Cheese) and I slept about 12 hours a day. I got to a breaking point with this situation, left the causitive domestic arrangement and began doing water aerobics 2x weekly, then 3x, then adding stationary bike, then a “butts & guts” class. Simply MOVING my body again was an amazing thing. Just doing this mildly energetic schedule dropped about 40# in 4 months and THAT was motivation to hit the weights again. Good God, I love that burn! As far as diet during this time, I had no interest in returning to the broiled chicken breasts and dry baked potatoes I used to eat so I just did the “healthy” thing - lots of fresh/steamed veggies, healthy portions of meat, smaller portions of carbs. I didn’t want to spend the time/energy on designing a diet (I have a thing though - I HATE the word DIET) and sticking to it.
Now that I’m breaking back in to working out after having taken a few years off (sporadically), I’m doing more research about the “nutritional aspect” {not DIET :wink: } and have a fair idea what works for my body. While this is nowhere near scientific, it seems to work. If anyone has suggestions, I’m more than interested in hearing them. I don’t really “count” or keep track of anything but try to keep a certain ratio to my diet. I know that my body responds well to a high protien/low carb diet so I eat about 130g of protien a day, and whatever carbs I eat will be roughly 75/25 mix of simple/complex, 2tbsp of flax and whatever other fats are involved in a relatively “clean” meal. I usually have poached egg whites and some meat for breakfast, snack of lowfat yogurt mixed with dry curd mid-morning, lunch (usually left-overs), a powerbar-type thing mid-afternoon and then dinner. I take Spirosome twice a day (great for energy) and am sure to have some type of protien after workouts, usually either the poached egg whites (breakfast) or a can of tuna (in water) with dijon mustard on a piece of toast ([30gP/2gF/9gCC] if I work out at night). I drink a boatload of water too. Dinners usually consist of a good size portion of meat (cooked appropriately), salad or steamed veggies, small portion of bread/pasta. I won’t eat a meal this size after 5pm though. And since I have been known to enjoy a beverage now and then, when I do the day after/before is stricter, calorically speaking. :wink: Now, I know this is not by any means a strict, formulated, researched and nutritionalist approved “DIET” but it’s relatively clean and healthy and easy to maintain. I think the main thing for you to focus on right now is to A) Move your body - anything will be beneficial right now to increase your general conditioning; and B) Know what you eat - log it ALL, eat clean and balanced meals. A lot of people will get sidetracked with which particular diet or which particular exercise program to follow and they spend so much time trying to research all that out that the lose the time/motivation to actually DO IT. Just MOVE and EAT CLEAN and keep track of it all…do this for 8 weeks, logging how you feel (emotionally, physically, mentally) and what progress you make. Then we can all talk about tweaking it to be more effective for you.

Everyone is right about finding what works for you!

My fiance does great on a T-Dawg-type high-protein, low-carb diet. I tried it and felt like absolute garbage – and I didn’t lose any fat!

I have tried tons of diets over the years, mostly for health (not fat-loss) reasons. When I finally needed to lose some fat last year, I was intrigued by the results some people get on low-carb diets. But the low-carb thing did NOT work for me.

However, after trying different things, I find that John Berardi is right on the money. Read everything he has written on T-Mag. In particular:

  1. Don’t eat high-fat, high-glycemic-index foods together in the same meal. Sadly, these are the yummiest foods. I saw my bodyfat basically double once I discovered Krispy Kremes. I make the world’s best pancakes, but I had to give them up.
  2. WHAT you eat matters. It’s not just about fat, carbs, protein, and calorie counts. Cottage cheese and fresh fruit is way better than “protein” bars with the equivalent protein and carbs. I know people who eat practically nothing but bars all day long and then a dinner. They do NOT do well. Period.
  3. Exercise more. Berardi’s recent prescriptions are on target, I think. I personally don’t seem to benefit from much cardio, so I do mostly high-intensity stuff.
    My boyfriend benefits from cardio, and blows up when he eats carbs. I am pretty much the opposite, so I think perhaps I am more insulin sensitive than he is (again, Berardi has educated us about this). However, I might have to tweak my own program soon, because I am going on the Pill for the first time, and it reduces insulin sensitivity. Bummer! But I’m about to get married, and the other contraceptive methods are NOT appealing to me. So I may try some of Berardi’s suggestions for improving insulin sensitivity and hope it can counteract the hormones in the Pill. I may have to start doing cardio.

I slashed my bodyfat in half (it was not super-high to begin with, but had really climbed in 4 years of grad school). Here’s what I learned, in addition to the above:

  1. Eat in the MORNING. I get up early, work out, have a post-workout Surge. One hour later, I have a carb+protein meal, such as cottage cheese and fruit, or Grow and applesauce. (Conditioned by years of breakfast cereal as a kid, I like something sweet in the morning. Fruit is the way to go.) I also take fiber with that meal. Then I have another meal about 1 1/2 hours later. Then, 1-2 hours later, another. So I’m eating FREQUENTLY in the morning. This has turned out to be crucial. I get up at 6:30 and have had 4 meals by noon or 1 pm. This really revs my metabolism and gives me great energy and workout recovery. It also really affects what I eat in the evening; if I didn’t eat much in the morning, I tend to have horrible carb+fat cravings at night. Eating well in the morning makes it easy to eat well all day. I then go 3 hours or so betweem meals for the rest of the day. I shoot for 6 meals, sometimes getting 5 or 7.
    When I was eating 6 meals but having only 1 before noon, I didn’t lose ANY fat!

2) Be patient. Nothing seemed to happen for 3 or 4 weeks to my bodyfat levels. This seems wrong; most people lose a bunch at the beginning. My fat loss wasn't slow and steady. After consistent weeks with my diet and exercise, my bodyfat % took a sudden nosedive. It was as if my body resisted the change, but then gave in to a big metabolic change.

  1. I measure my weight and bodyfat % every week at the same time. I find this information is critical to stay motivated and make changes to my program when necessary. I bought an inexpensive caliper from a website (Fitness Wholesale) that had been recommended by the legendary Dan Duchaine back in the Muscle Media glory days.

  2. I do like Biotest supplements. I don’t know what happened to MD6, but I liked it. T2-pro seems good, better than the old T2 for me. But the real winner is Methoxy-7. Awesome! I love the stuff. I feel great when I’m on it, and I can just FEEL my metabolism roar into gear like it was when I was younger! My hair and nails grow faster.

  3. Healthy fats are crucial. I notice all kinds of great changes when I eat plenty of salmon and take fish oil.

  4. I also take a potent multivitamin. I think women often do not get enough B vitamins. I use Dr. Whitaker’s Forward Plus, which is pretty carefully developed and formulated. While fairly expensive, if you put together equivalent amounts of all the supps, you’ll spend a heck of a lot more, and have to open a zillion bottles instead of one little packet. He includes some fish oil (not as much as Berardi recommends, but a start), digestive enzymes, high doses of B vitamins based on research, natural vitamin E. . .etc. It’s a great formula, and even with a healthy diet I have noticed a difference.

  5. You have to be consistent with your diet. But I allow myself some CONTROLLED cheating. I couldn’t live without chocolate, so I will have one or two Lindt dark chocolate truffles a day. It hasn’t seemed to hurt my fat loss. I also eat yummy fattening foods about once a week. I think I would go crazy if I felt I could never have those pancakes, or my berry cobbler, or Krispy Kremes, or a Starbucks frappucino (tons of sugar!), or Roy’s chocolate souffle, or even pasta with some delicious fatty sauce – not to mention Haagen Daz! I guess I have a sweet tooth! I indulge it about once a week. It keeps me sane.

On the other hand, my fiance can’t do that. He doesn’t do the moderation thing well; he’s either very, very good, or very, very horrid. I can have one cup of Haagen-Daz and that’s it, I’m satisfied. He will eat the one cup and then go to the grocery store for another pint or TWO and down it at one sitting. So he basically has to be good all the time! To each his own.

Calories. I started my fat-loss program with about 1500 calories over 6 meals. If I ever ate LESS than that (usually from skipping meals), my fat loss ground to a HALT. This is so important. Even though I KNOW what calorie restriction and skipping meals does to your metabolism, I would think, Well, I’m eating even less today so I should really lose. WRONG! I probably lost the best at around 1800-2000 calories per day. This will VARY with the individual. But don’t kill your metabolism by skipping meals or eating fewer calories!

Oh, one other thing about exercise. I had started listed weights 8 years ago for the purpose of GAINING weight (and it worked). I lifted regularly and intensely (bodybuilding style, not just flapping 5 pound weights around) for 4 years. Then I moved across the country for grad school and kind of didn’t exercise for several years (which is when I doubled my bodyfat). So I am a fairly experienced lifter. When I tried the Body Comp workouts, I didn’t get good results. I noticed my muscle mass stayed the same or even decreased slightly doing that style workout. I went back to a higher-intensity bodybuilding workout, and the fat started coming off. Focusing on the goal of ADDING muscle brought me more fat loss than directly trying to lose fat! (And I did add muscle too.) This will vary for different people – but don’t be afraid to ditch the magic fat-loss plan if it isn’t working for you. The get-big plans work for me. On the other hand, give a program a fair shot. I made the change after 4-6 weeks, after I saw my lean muscle mass go down. By then, I knew it wasn’t working for me.

You have plenty of time, so be patient. You are doing the right things, and you are coming to the right place for information! Congratulations on pursuing your goals in such an intelligent way!

Well, as the other posted have stated, it’s a very individual thing. My situation was somewhat similiar to Karma’s, my weight gain was due to a protracted illness and the depression following. I was not involved in sports or fitness much prior to that but I was a dancer (ballet, and belly dancing), so I can really relate to the horror of being in great shape and then not. I never worked out other than dancing so the gym was truly a horrifying prospect for me. While I have only been working out seriously,for three months, but it took me two years to get there, I joined the gym a year and a half ago!
I also don’t use a specific “diet”, as I associate that with something temporary. The changes I have made in terms of how I eat and exercise I consider to be life style/behavior changes. I do keep separate food and workout logs. I find that 1400-1800 cal per day is both comfortable and effective for me. I don’t do cheat meals/days which I feel would be counter productive, and for the most part when if I keep my diet clean and balanced I do not have cravings. On the occasions that I do eat crap, I still write it down, calculate the carbs, protein, fat, and just make sure I don’t exceed my total calories for the day. I also keep track of how I feel after I eat garbage, then the next time I feel a binge coming on, I go back and re-read then do 50 crunches and 50 pushups, and drink a big glass of water. It sounds stupid but it usually works for me, and if not then I just enjoy the hell out of my binge and move on. I generally keep my carbs under 100 grams, 5 meals per day, which consist of two protein shakes, two protein/carb meals, and one protein/fat meal. I try to make sure my protein comes from at least three different sources every day. Lately, I have been doing my protein/carbs meals ealier in the day but I am still trying different things and tweaking. For the most part, if you are trying to loose weight, total calories per day is ultimately what is important. Oh, and I plan my meals out a few days in advance, which I find to be very helpful.

As far as training, I do three days of lifting per week, mostly following a high intensity type workout, but throwing in some days of heavier, more traditional body building type routines. I don’t enjoy doing the high intensity stuff, so the heavier lifting days are sort of my reward as I really love those type of workouts. In addition, I do 3-5 days of cardio, some shorter cardio workouts with high intensity intervals, and some longer more moderate workouts.
Anyway, I don’t know if that is what you are looking for but hope it helps. Good Luck!