Tuesday, July 11
workout
Wednesday, July 12
workout
Thursday, July 13
workout
Ditched the scheduled “push” day and did a bit from the “whole body explosive work” day from the Hard Body Training for Women program
Circuit (4 rounds)
3a) DB Laterals (20’s) x8
3b) Box Jump x10
3c) Overhead Ball throw/Push action (20lb ball) x10
3d) Broad Jump x10
3e) Ball Slam (20lb ball) x10
Circuit (4 rounds)
4a) Row 250m
4b) Push Ups x10
II’d like to get some feedback in regards to how much I should be eating. I’m going tag a few of you that like my posts sometimes. But, anyone else please chime in!
@littlesleeper @BOTSLAYER @planetcybertron @Frank_C @lil.greggy @stronkfak @MarkKO @duketheslaya
I read this today:
https://biotest.t-nation.com/articles/massive-eating-part-1?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article
Obviously, I’m not trying to bulk at this point. Yes, I do want to build muscle. But, I need to lose fat first. I don’t know what my BF% is. But, based on pictures, I’d guess about 25%. Most of the excess fat is in the belly. I did also stretch out the skin in that area (as well as other areas) from 2 gigantic pregnancies. So, I know what contributes a little to looking flabby. But, there’s still fat there so…
I’m 5’8" and about 166’ish lbs right now. (haven’t weighed in a couple of weeks). 2 years ago, I got down to 153lbs and my belly finally looked flat and I felt like I looked fit. However, I got that way from pretty much unintentionally starving myself. (personal drama and wasn’t eating much at all) I really don’t care how much I weigh. But, I’d like to lose this belly again.
Using the calculations in the above article, my maintenance calories came to 3243. Which seems pretty high. (curious if any of you do the calculations from this same article, does it estimate your maintenance fairly closely?)
When I’m logging calories and trying to keep myself in check, I usually try to keep calories around 1800 or less. So, this article makes me wonder if I under eat for the most part. I do have days from time to time where I totally blow it and over eat or dip into the nut butters right before bed. So, I’ve always attributed my yo-yo’ing weight and trouble losing fat to that. But, maybe if I were eating a bit more, I’d be less likely to do those things? Anyway, I appreciate any input here! Thanks!!
Hey Jamie, I appreciate the tag.
This could be from under-eating for long enough that your metabolism has slowed. There are lots of articles/studies showing that upping cals can help people break through fat loss plateaus. This is sometimes done through overeating windows, or upping cals slowly over an extended period of time. My knowledge in the metabolism department is very limited so this is where I’ll use my “Call a Friend” lifeline: @robstein !
I’ll first disclaim that I’m no expert, so this is purely from what I’ve read/understand and what has worked for me.
I think calculators are a good place to start, but you really just have to learn about yourself. I would think with the consistency of your workouts and the healthy food you eat (90%+ of the time) at only 1800cals, you SHOULD be leaner than what you have explained.
Any calorie calculator I’ve used has overcalculated my calories. Usually their recommended “maintenance” intake is my bulking calorie level.
What has pretty much worked for me is 15 x BW is bulking cals, 10-12 x BW is cutting cals and when I’m maintaining I just fluctuate somewhere in the middle or above and below (think 5/2 diet, or pulse fasting, etc).
Also, I’m not sure what type of job you have but I found it significantly easier to drop a little extra dough just consciously being more active outside the weight room. Minimizing my lazy time, going for more walks, going to the washroom on a different floor at the other end of my building at work, etc.
I’m not one for cardio, and really didn’t do a whole lot of it when I dieted down. I eliminated booze, cut out my pre-bed snacks (not necessary for everyone, but when my pre-bed snack is typically 600cals of binge eating…it was necessary), and upped my training frequency. I also can’t shed weight very easily when taking in too many carbs. Keeping carbs <150g, protein close to 1g/lb of BW and fill the rest with fats seemed to work well for me.
I hope some of this helps get an idea of what I did. Rob or the others will be more qualified to shed light on the more advanced inner working of the body like metabolism, insulin sensitivity, etc.
@littlesleeper thanks for the tag!
@jamie1888 - regarding finding your maintenance and figuring out daily cals for your goal. (disclaimer, these methods are just what I find works for me and my clients, not discounting other methods.)
I’d recommend finding an accurate TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) to calculate your maintenance, this is the amount of energy you expend total, which factors in your BMR, plus lifestyle, including exercising, how active you are during the day, etc. If you google TDEE calculator, you should find one on IIFYM which is very accurate in my opinion. It’s the calculator I use whenever I get a new client to start their plan, and what I’ve used on myself in the past and it’s usually very accurate. Keep in mind it’ll take rigid consistency every day on your part to see how accurate it really is. Enter the required info, and see what comes up.
Let’s say for example it estimates your TDEE as 2100, it’ll also give you a recommended macro breakdown. Typically protein is 1g per pound of bodyweight, fats are 25-30% of your total calories (I like to recommend 30% for females) and the rest is filled with carbs. That’s just typical, not necessarily “best” depending on your goals.
So, if you’re looking to slowly put on some size, you’d start with a small surplus, maybe 10%, so eating 2310 cals a day. If you want to cut, you can do anywhere from 10-20%. You follow your plan for a couple of weeks, see what happens in the mirror and on the scale, and adjust accordingly.
While I’m not discounting the formula and methods in the article, IMO 3243 cals for a 166lb female seems pretty high.
The best nutrition plan/diet is the one you can stick to and enjoy. If you want to lose weight, but fall victim to peanut butters and such, then plan a couple of servings of peanut butter in your day. One female client of mine had a similar issue with the nut butters, so I planned in three separate servings of peanut butter in her day, one measured TBSP at a time, which helped eliminate the need for excess, and she’s had a lot of success.
If you’re trying to lose weight, ultimately you’ll be hungry sometimes and want foods that won’t help you reach your goals, and that’s something you’ll have to deal with and push through, if you want your goal bad enough. One evening of peanut butter binging can easily undo a week’s worth of progress. So, if you want to get down to 153ish or just diet until you have conditioning that is acceptable to you, I’d recommend constructing a plan that meets the needs of your caloric intake and macros, make sure it contains foods that you like and that will make you feel like you’re not deprived of anything. If you’re not sure or don’t feel confident enough to do it on your own, hiring a coach you feel has the ability to help you meet your goals is always a good option as well.
I hope this helps, please feel free to tag me anytime 
Everything has been covered way better than I could have done. I don’t think there’s anything I can add, but thanks for tagging me.
My daily calories was over 4300 on the conservative side with that article. That guy lost me when he said he was an athlete with 5% body fat. I call B. S. Olympic sprinters aren’t even 5%; it’s unhealthy.
The other thing about tracking calories is that we all might do it differently. I eat 3600 calories each day but for all I know it could be 4000 or 3200. The important thing is that I do everything consistently. If I need to lose some fluff then I cut my calories. Again, I might not cut it by the amount that I think I am, but I’m cutting so it has the desired effect.
Pick a baseline and adjust accordingly. If you’re stuck then make sure you stay disciplined and aren’t sabotaging yourself with cheat meals/snacks. If you’re being disciplined then try something new like increasing your calories to get the furnace going again.
Pretty much what every body else said about diet and calculators.
3200-3500 is about my maintenance at 210 lbs so I think that is pretty high too 
Probably, but that is the challenge of a cut. Find/save some foods you can have in those instances. A piece of chicken, a protein shake, a diet soda or just save a big meal for later in the day when cravings come.
As for the adding muscle, just keep lifting heavy stuff while focusing on strength and that will sort itself out. Too much is put into bulking and cutting. Your body can and will do both at the same time when proper stimulus is added.
Thank you @robstein @littlesleeper @MarkKO @Frank_C
Taking Rob’s suggestion, I used the IIFYM calculators:
TDEE is 2367
Using 20% (aggressive), that puts me at 1894 calories
Macros 33%P 32%F 36%C
156P 67F 171C
Now this is where I freak out @robstein : 171g carbs
In the back of my head I hear “cut carbs”, “eat less than 100g of carbs” " @littlesleeper is a male and needs to be under 150g of carbs to cut", etc. etc.
So, I’ll try and toss out what I think I know. (obviously that’s not working for me)
this:
and this:
I know that I do fall victim to depriving myself, feeling cheated and then going hog-wild to make up for it. So, I need to allow for foods that I like and just log everything. I also have a constant battle in my head (fear foods) and avoid foods because of the carb content. I can’t remember the last time I allowed myself a bowl of pasta. I’ll skip a banana just because it’s a higher sugar fruit. I’ll even forgo Plasma or Mag-10 sometimes because I think I’m doing myself good by ditching those carbs. 
EDIT TO ADD:
Now I’m wondering if eating too low carb is what causes me to battle staying awake in the afternoons. I work in an office all day, seated at my desk. (but, my desk raises up & down so that I can work standing up) I do stand for a good part of the day. But, when I’m sitting, I literally FIGHT to keep my eyes open on a lot of days here at work. And if I go home and sit down (which doesn’t really happen often with young kids) But, when I do, I sometimes nod off sitting up while looking at my phone. I chalked this up to not getting enough sleep. I usually get about 6 hours. So, maybe the combo of both the sleep and the low carbs are playing a role here? 
I cut perfectly well on 250-300 g of carbs…
See, I guess the only way I will know what works for me is by testing it out.
Thanks! This gives me hope!
I understand the initial knee jerk reaction, however, the EAT less carbs dogma is largely misunderstood IMO, and comes into play more when trying to lose very stubborn body fat, or you have significant insulin sensitivity issues (like medically diagnosed.) Excess carbs don’t cause fat/weight gain, excess calories do. I firmly believe the TYPES of carbs you eat can help you towards your goals, I like to play it safe and eat slow healthy carbs all day, like Ezekiel bread or cereal, Dave’s Killer Breads, apples and peaches, organic rolled oats, etc., pre workout is Finibars and post workout anything goes carb wise. Rice (white or brown) potatoes, whatever. I guarantee you if you’re eating at maintenance at 171g carbs and the rest of the numbers line up, you’ll feel great, will have excellent workouts and recovery and also will NOT feel deprived.
@littlesleeper might eat less than 150g carbs but that’s his choice and what works for him now. Personally I ate at LEAST 200g carbs every day during my prep until the last 4 weeks and was able to get down to 9% body fat with that many carbs and I was 150lbs and am 5’4". Currently eating 350g carbs daily at 159lbs and maintaining, and I weigh less and am shorter than @littlesleeper. During the end of my prep, carbs were very low but that was necessary to go from very lean to stage lean.
My last female client I prepped for competition had 150g on her medium days up to the end, and she went on stage at 123lbs at 5’6. So really, ultimately total cals in and out are top priority. As long as you’re keeping quality carbs in, 170g should be just fine and I bet you’ll feel great.
Okay it’s taken me literally about an hour and some mins. to figure out what to type so here goes:
Mostly what everyone has said is spot on.
But I’m going to just give you some personal experience and maybe it can help, by no means am I an expert, but maybe some things of what I said can help.
Firstly I’m more of an advocate of biofeedback, because while tracking is good and developing an outline with certain calculators help, Most times my body will tell me what’s up, and what it needs if I listen closely enough.
When I first started out weight training I pretty much recomped the entire time. I didn’t really do anything fancy, and I kid you not all I ate day in and day out for just under a year was: sweet potatoes, jasmine rice, 70/30 lean meat, frozen veggies, apples, and oranges. If I was hungry I’d just mix and match stuff and eat. After a while I was eating a crap ton of those basic foods, as the weights got heavier and got better at training more efficiently. I also would swim and do Circuits on the off days, so my body had no choice but to whip itself into gear. I’m not saying recomping is just an absolute MUST, but give it a try and see what you can do. Mark did a bang up job recomping, and his total at his last meek currently is wonderful. You never know how much you’ll surprise yourself and it most def. is not impossible. I think I just have the advantage of youth on my side so there’s that, because on any given day usually if I’m asked what I weight and I say guess, I always get something in the 150-165lb range, and people look at me stupid when I say I weigh about 40lbs heavier than that.
But this is just a suggestion so do what makes you comfortable.
In doing so though you may have to play around with the type of training you do. I’m not saying just dive head first into heavy strength training only, or vice Versa with cardio, or BB type training, but see what happens and see what you can do with certain things. I understand your diet effects your training and many people say, but I do think they intertwine with eachother and while there are certain aspects of diet that effect training, I do think there are certain training aspects that also effect your diet, and how, when, and what you eat, etc.
On another note resting is a big thing I’ve noticed as well with overall psysique. Me personally I sleep a heck of a lot so I’m able to recover rather quickly from damn near anything. But do take into account if you’re getting enough sleep and the like.
I’d also say up your work capacity, which ties into what i was explaining earlier. Nothing extreme of course, and within your limits. It could be doing progressively heavier lifts, doing certain movements for more reps, walking longer, running faster, pushing/pulling harder or more intensely, etc. I may begin to sound redundant so forgive me.
Also do try to not get so bummed out if you do gain strength and gain a bit of fat in the future. Fat gain and muscle gains are like best friends and they usually accompany eachother, but the power lies is managing one over the other. When I first understood it, it came out sounding like a conundrum to me, because I understood it as, gain some fat to lose more fat. But I get it now. On the flip side if you do wish to just cut down, do as everyone else has suggested and keep it slow and controlled. Expect a bit of muscle loss, by so your best to mitigate it as much as possible with things other people have mentioned here.
I’m not sure if you’ve hit menopause yet (PLEASE forgive me, I am not calling you old, don’t get mad at me), but for the majority of women who deal with their cycles there’s a bit of things you can use to your advantage as well. I won’t bore you with a bunch of things I’ve read and what I’ve done, but in general, the follicular phase should be focused around strength/progression, the luteal phase is the time when focusing on a bit of fat loss should be important, and ovulation and the actual menstruation could be used as a deload, because that’s the most vulnerable time for women when it comes to training. I know some women who can train whilst bleeding, but those who experience fatigue like myself are better off doing circuits or lighter weights if they can if cramping isn’t that debilitating. If this doesn’t apply to you, by all means ignore that chunk of what I said. Most older women who have already hit menopause can skip the ovulation aspects because your hormones aren’t that wishy washy anymore pertaining to producing an egg, nor are they that aggressive when it comes time for mentruation to start.
Other than that that’s pretty much it, uhm…I’m by no means an expert once again, but it’s just stuff I’ve experienced and things I’ve read upon, etc.
I came in late but really appreciate the tag.Honestly I’m the least qualified of all the people to give any type of eating advice and I think they covered it perfectly, so I really don’t have anything to say
Haha, don’t worry too much Jamie. I definitely don’t NEED to be under 150g carbs, but for me, limiting my carb intake is SOOOO much easier than limiting my fat intake.
Whole eggs, ground beef and peanut butter make up a lot of my daily calories so I would really need to change my diet completely if I were to lower fat/up carbs.
Removing a piece of bread from breakfast, or having less rice with dinner seems a heck of a lot easier to do than moving to egg whites and chicken breast for multiple meals.
Is it optimal? No probably not, I could likely perform better in the gym if my carbs were higher. But this method is what works best for me, and I can adhere to it much more consistently.
I’m not a carbo-phobe, I just love me some fat. 
While for me it’s the opposite.
Way late but am going to weigh in with my experience. Diabetes runs in my family and so I assume I am insulin resistant. I try to mitigate this by avoiding carbs except around my workouts, and by intermittent fasting. For me, 16/8 works best, but sometimes I go 5/2 as well.
The idea is to limit insulin response to a shorter window, which, as I understand it, increases your insulin sensitivity.
Most of the other posters here are way more knowledgeable than I regarding this stuff, and the whole TDEE and macro conversation has been spot on with my understanding.
I’m a freak about weighing myself, testing my body fat, and keeping a spreadsheet, and it really doesn’t help me. I’ve been living and travelling in a motorhome for the last three weeks without measuring anything - food or bodyweight - and I’m pretty sure I am down about five to ten pounds, so maybe I was paying too close attention to those numbers and not just eating when I was hungry.
Anyway, you have to find what works for you, and to me, the advice above has been really good.
I appreciate you taking the time to write out this response. I’ve received a lot of great information from everyone here. And I really had no idea that the Cycle could make a such a difference in things. Very interesting indeed! 
I do love the fats too!
But, I don’t know if it’s because that’s just what I’m used to because I’'ve been so carb-phobic for so long. Except for when it comes to sweets. Because apparently I have ZERO problem overindulging in sweets! 
I got some great feedback and really appreciate everyone’s input. 
I’m going to start measuring and logging EVERYTHING (including veggies which I haven’t been doing at all) and try sticking to the calories / macro goals that I’ve set and see what happens.
Friday, July 14
Saturday, July 15
Sunday, July 16
Monday, July 17
Food
Pre workout: MyBar Salted Caramel Peanut Crunch bar
Post workout: 30g milk chocolate Combat Powder & 1 scoop Biotest Superfood (intended to eat a grapefuit but forgot about it.)
Meal: chicken & cauliflower crock-pot enchilada casserole
Snack: 1 tbl You Fresh Naturals Sugar Cookie Muscle Butter, 1 tbl sf jelly, 1 slice Alvarado St. Bakery sprouted Flax bread
Meal: grilled Wild Coho Salmon, artichoke, mixed green salad, grilled grapefruit, raw red peppers
Snack: 1 sugar cone and 1 serving Enlightened Frozen Hot Chocolate Ice Cream & 8g PB M&M’s
Meal: 30g Chocolate Metabolic Drive, 2oz unsweetened almond milk, 1/4c puffed rice cereal, 1tbl Cocoa Bar chocolate coconut butter
Goals: 1894 cals 166c 63f 166p
Actual 1746 cals 143c 58f 174p
Notes for the day:
Allowing some carbs and allowing some treats in the day 100% felt awesome and that I wasn’t depriving myself. I wanted to graze on more crap, especially those PB M&M’s. But, knowing that I was going to have to log it and report it here, made it an easy choice to NOT do that.
