Hi all,
I'm new here, so sorry if my post is in the wrong area...

I am a 22 year old female, 5'6'' just graduated college in May and weighed about 135 pounds of pure booze and pizza- I never exercised outside of walking to class.

I hired a personal trainer and started lifting 3 times a week and doing 60 minutes of cardio (usually the cross trainer, I ride my bike too) 7 times a week. I'm hovering around 130 pounds right now, and am definitely noticing I'm more toned, but am still not getting the results that I want.

I would like to be about 120 lbs, and be under 20% body fat. Mostly I'd like to be lean and muscular, but still feminine. I'm currently about a size 6, I'd love to be a fit size 4 or 2.

My trainer says I need to eat no carbs, no sugar, and only lean meat and veggies. I tried this, but always end up gorging on fatty foods and/or thinking of nothing but how hungry I am and what I am craving- being too unhappy to function. So I am basically eating whatever i want, except in smaller amounts and cutting back on carbs and sugar. I drink, but stick to liquor and soda water and the occasional beer. (i'd say an average of 10 drinks a week..still better than in college)

Any advice for me? I'm a pretty frustrated, I figured that once I came home and started eating reasonably and exercising the pounds would just start falling off. Obviously, I was wrong, and I want to work towards my goal.

As a sidebar, I'd like to add that i LOVE playing sports, but its hard for me to find people to do this with. Also, I currently don't have a job and have quite literally all the time in the world to work out (and eat...)

Any help is appreciated- thanks!

-FitChick1

How long have you been training with this trainer? You went from approximately 135 to 130, in what span of time?

Being in the teens in terms of body fat for woman, is real lean. This is a doable goal for you.

Does your trainer have credentials in nutrition? In other words, is the trainer a nutritionist?

Did he/she tell you why no carbohydrates? How many calories is he/she recommending you consume with your personal statistics? I am curious on "why" he/she would put you immediately to no carbohydrates, and "on the surface", do not like it. For reasons, I will explain later, as I learn more about you.


Again, what is your calorie allotment?

Some liquor can can be fairly calorie dense, dependent on what you are consuming, and if you are eating at your calorie deficit specification, and then add in (without making room) the liquor, you "could-be" erasing your calorie deficit. While a "trivial amount" (and my definition of it) of alcohol, isn't going to ruin your fat loss efforts (if CONTROLLED)--this can be a serious problem; alcohol is a "funny" liquid, it can do funny metabolic/biological/physiological things to people when dieting to lose tissue-dependent on what the consumption rate is.

Some do not have any idea of "how small" servings sizes really are, and do not have any idea how many calories they are actually consuming. I could eat reasonable "over" my personal MT-Line (and all healthy foods), and gain fat weight--even when exercising. So eating reasonably, exercising, is not enough.

I will help you determine your calories, and macro nutrients. I have a question, and its rather personal. Around your period, do you gain a lot of water weight and does your weight fluctuate? If so, how long before it normalizes? IMO, (at least with some woman), this is one area that can really mess with them-especially when trying to lose fat issue. And, cause a lot of frustration due to the hormonal changes at his time.

Do you have any known medical conditions? Such as being a diabetic?



Best wishes,

Chillen

What a detailed response, thank you so much for your help!

To answer your questions:
I have been training with this trainer since mid-May, so roughly 7 weeks.

My trainer is not a nutritionist, but rather the "program" put forward by this personal training place suggests this "fat-burning diet". Basically, they say that you need to teach your body to use protein as energy instead of carbs.

As for calorie allotment, I don't set a limit, but I do log everything I eat and all my exercise. I usually end up eating around 1500-2000 calories a day (if I drink). I usually burn about 1000 calories a day, according to the estimates on machines, etc.

As for weight gain during my period, I definitely get bloated starting about a week to a week and a half before, but drop it as soon as I start my period. Up to 5 pounds of fluctuation is definitely normal for me.

The only medical condition I have is asthma and allergies. Controlled by flonase and I just started Singulair, hoping that's going to help me. I also have shin splints and basically cant run more than a half mile without my legs killing to the point where i can't rotate my ankles.

Again, thank you so much for your help!

FitChick,

Chillen asked some great questions and gave you some great stuff to think about. He will definitely be giving you some great info soon.

One of the most enlightening things is looking at caloric breakdown and what exactly that means. There is a lot of good info out there as well as a lot of bad.

I will just use some generalizations regarding your caloric needs. 1500 calories a day is right about where you would need to be to go from your current 130 to a goal of 120 pounds at about 1 pound per week. Exercise will only help that.

Of that, you would want to consume about 95-120g of protein which works out to about 380-480 calories. You want about about 30% of your calories to come from fat so that would be another 500 calories or about 55g of fat. Lastly, the bulk of your calories need to come from carbohydrate. In your case, about 520-620 calories or 130-155g of carbs a day.

Don't worry, the carbohydrate avoidance "fad" was unnecessary and short-lived. Carbs are an essential source of both instant and continuous energy and are needed by the body...just like fat and just like protein. Where the real carb "danger" is created is the shear amount that comes in small sources such as refined sugars (sodas, etc) and starchy foods (pasta, potatoes aka french fries, chips, etc) that are staples of the typical American diet.

It was not the fact that carbs were being consumed in the first place, but rather the sheer amount of calories from the source that were and made up a disproportionate amount of calories consumed by Americans.

That said, there are some times where people (fitness competitors) will limit carb intake severely prior to a competition. On the other hand, people like Michael Phelp's eat a higher amount of carbohydrate (it's in the pot brownies ) prior to a competition. Regular everyday people will have the exact same reaction you do if you strictly inhibit one nutrient -- your body will crave it and you will overindulge.

Beyond that you have some other stuff to watch out for. Namely SATURATED FAT, Sodium, Cholesterol, and Fiber.

Sodium 1500-2400 mg per day. At your age, salt-sensitivity and hypertension are probably not much of an issue, but large amounts of sodium WILL make you retain excess water weight and give you a kind of soft, puffy look.

Saturated Fat not to exceed a MAXIMUM of 10% of total calories. So no more than 150 calories or 16 g per day. Saturated fat is what causes your body to secrete excess cholesterol (a necessity) into your blood stream.

Cholesterol between 200-300 mg per day. This only adds to the amount created by your body.

Fiber 25-35 g per day. Coincidentally, most fiber comes from CARBOHYDRATE rich foods. Fiber helps keep you feeling full, but keeps you empty down below if you catch my meaning. It also helps sweep away bad fats and cholesterol


So back to your basic calorie needs:
1500 per day
380-480 PRO per day (95-120 g)
520-620 CHO per day (130-155 g)
500 FAT per day of which 150 max. is Sat. FAT (55 g Total/16 g SAT.)

Now break it down simply by meals. Using a basic assumption of 3 main meals per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and 2 snacks. If you kept the same nutrient ratio throughout the day you might end up with the 3 main meals being about 375 calories each consisting of about 25-30 grams of Protein, 33-30 grams of Carbs, and about 14 grams of FAT. Then a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack that is each about half those amounts -- think of a snack as filling your gas tank when it's half empty. Throughout the day of course balancing sodium, sat. fat, and fiber.

Realistically though, maintaining the same nutrient throughout the day is damn near impossible, and actually not desirable. I think one of the things that you may find is that the big challenges are what almost everyone struggles with...SATURATED fat, sodium, and then overall nutrient balance that leans heavily towards carbohydrate.

You also need to understand that alcohol is additional calories that could be sabotaging you right now. Ask yourself this: Can I go without beer for 3 months to get the body I want? Or is the beer more important to me?

That said, I'm a big believer in moderation and not restricting yourself from things. Just be sure to factor that consumption in to the overall caloric total.

All that said, generalizations can be helpful but you may find that you need to play with both caloric intake, balance and also burn because EVERYONE is different.

Oh, and don't trust that those machines are dead accurate...those algorithms that come up with those calorie counts are based on some of the same generalizations I reference above. Just yesterday I did treadmill intervals using the same criteria (weight, speed, time, incline) as I did two days before but I was not at my usual gym. Identical workout but the machine said I burned 75 more calories in a 30-minute session. So IOW, one of those machines was off by 20-25%.

One last thing...a few questions about your shin splints.

Are they on the inside or outside of your leg?

When was the last time you got new shoes?

How fast/far are you running or walking?

Charlie Golf,
thanks for all the great info! I have to admit that I'm a little overwhelmed by it all, but I'm trying to sort through it.

As for my shin splints, they are all around my leg. I just got new tennis shoes with hard insoles, and that seems to be helping, however I haven't tried to run further than about a quarter mile in a long time.

So you have been exercising since Mid May 09, and lost 7 pounds of: weight.

Lets say you began in May 15. Today is July 06. May 15 to June 15 is 4 weeks, and June 15 to July 06, is 3 weeks, and this averages to about 1 pound per week weight loss. This is a good rate of loss, and healthy. Sure, 2 pounds per week is better, but everyone "seems" to want more, and more, as time passes. Sometimes more is not better-especially speaking in terms of how the weight is partitioning off.

During this time, I assume you have been consuming some carbohydrates, because you stated:

"So I am basically eating whatever i want, except in smaller amounts and cutting back on carbs and sugar. I drink, but stick to liquor and soda water and the occasional beer. (i'd say an average of 10 drinks a week..still better than in college)"

Which means, (at least to me, at the moment), that its not necessary for you to "severely restrict carbohydrates" (and not least of which, no carbohydrates).

Let this rate of loss, and diet be a learning lesson for you. As time goes by, and BF gets lower, your diet perimeters (macros, calories) will (possibly) be subject to change, but for now, unless your body tells you differently, you can consume carbohydrates, and just restrict your calories. Be sure to keep your protein UP within your calorie allotment.

It seems you can consume carbohydrates, restrict calories appropriately, to induce tissue loss, and "they" are full of Bull-****. Pardon the expression.

In the shortage of carbohydrates (and assuming glucose storage (s) are empty or in a depleted state, etc), and protein and fats up to snuff, you don't have to teach jack-crap, the body will "naturally convert various proteins/fats for energy uses."

But, my point is, why enter this type of diet, when its unnecessary? You were not "screened"---"personally" very well, IMO, and they are/were doing you a disservice, IMO.

Again, in light of your weight loss, and consuming carbohydrates, I would calculate a calorie deficit, and continue. Being on a diet (in your specific situation), ISN'T about suffering continually all the time.

And, IF you would have restricted your carbohydrates to zero consumption, you would have been miserable.......I promise.....(from experience), and would have fallen off fairly quickly.

Fit your diet, that solicits fat loss within your lifestyle, and be happy. Yes, you are going to be hungry at times: You must create some sort of deficit, and this will bring hunger pains, there is no way around this truth. I can give you many ideas on how to combat these.

Just ask.

You should know your calorie approximation for your personal particulars. And, in my opinion, the calorie deficit you are creating. And you set the macros within the allotted calories--and make adjustments.....when or if necessary as you get feedback.

does these machines ask you to put in your personal particulars? If they do not, they are not that accurate. And, if they do, its is an estimation.

I asked this because some woman will go on a diet to lose tissue, and lose weight after a few weeks, and only get confused on why the scale went back up (and even erased they previous weight loss), only to have it go back down to where it was before or see the additional loss afterward.

I am glad you are aware of this.

Understood!


You are welcome, young lady.

This is what the forum is about. we all on this forum are in the fight together, though our goals may be different than one another. We should be a family, and have each others back.

Best regards,

Chillen

I got a body fat evaluation today, here are the results:

Body Weight: 128 lbs
% Bodyfat: 28%
Lean Body mass: 93 lbs
Bodyfat: 35.4 lbs

How do you feel about these results?

Good afternoon, FitChick!

Best regards,

Chillen

unsatisfied, but could have been worse. I in the summer of 2005, when i last trained with this trainer, my stats were:

start 5/19/05:
Body Weight: 120 lbs
% Bodyfat: 30%
LeanBody Mass: 84.4 lbs
Bodyfat: 35.6 lbs

end 8/18/2005:
Body Weight: 121.5 lbs
% Bodyfat: 23%
Lean Body mass: 93.7 lbs
Bodyfat: 27.8 lbs


Obviously, I'd like to be back to the 23% bodyfat, and even lower than that if possible, I'm just frustrated with how little progress I seem to have made...

Let's work on changing this, and talk about you, and get this baby started!


Best wishes,

Chillen

How do I get going?

I will post something 2morrow for you, so we can get this started, been sort of busy this weekend, running grandma to the library, fabric store, dress and pant shopping. LOL, I was trained well.

I had some minor complications in my garden to take care of post a heavy rain (the main garden in my yard, not the patio plants), and I took my wife out to a movie/dinner (just because), got her some flowers, and made her the queen for the night.

I will post 2morrow, hope all is well.

Chillen

If you are concerned about blood cholesterol levels, don't forget to avoid trans-fats from hydrogenated oils, which are worse than saturated fat in terms of blood cholesterol levels.

Trans-fats from hydrogenated oils are most commonly found in processed junk food, margarine, and shortening, which should be avoided anyway. But they may also be found in foods prepared in restaurants for which ingredient labels or nutritional information may not be available.

Hi, so sorry it took me awhile to respond, I've been out of town. It sounds like you are a wonderful son and husband

I'm going to be in Austin, TX from tomorrow until Sunday, and it will be 103 degrees out, so I'm sticking to the gym. Let me know any advice you have for gym workouts, or for workouts when I get back!

Thanks,
FitChick