tanglewood7x

Hello all, this is a great forum with loads of good advice and friendly people so I’m hoping you can help me out also. I’ll apologize before I start if this post is too long & boring but I wanted to put as much info as poss in so here goes

I’m 32 female, 5’4.5”, aprox 10 stone, medium build, I think reasonably muscular as I’v been doing weights & cardio for a year now, not fat but not thin either – my problem/s are - firstly I still have no idea what I am doing/should be doing weight wise, I have had so much different advice from people, magazines, the net etc I don’t know whether I’m coming or going! Same with nutritional advice.

18 months ago I weighed 11.5 stone and decided I didn’t want to get any fatter so I started eating a bit better & joined the gym. I lost over a stone without really trying, brilliant! I then started getting more serious about training (not for any sport in particular) I loved feeling fitter & I had so much energy, I was never tired. This became a problem as my sleeping was getting worse & worse so I started doing more to try & tire myself out so I could sleep, it didn’t work. I became super fit but my weight never dropped much below 9 & ¾ stone and I still had belly fat & love handles so it became a bit of an obsession to get rid of them, I ate pretty healthily 95% of the time – did an hour of tough cardio pretty much every day and also an hour of pretty tough weights every day as well as loads of walking, working as a gardener, bit of gig rowing etc. I went on like this for 4/5 months then suddenly I crashed & burned. I had serious dead legs/cramps, pins & needles, I couldn’t sleep, I thought about food, carbs, protein, calories etc. pretty much every waking moment, not nice at all. Eventually after many blood tests etc which came back ok apart from certain mineral & vitamin deficiencies I eventually got diagnosed with overtraining & not eating enough to keep up with my levels of activity! So after 5 months of cutting back, i.e I’ll do weights 3 or 4 times a week now and never 2 days in a row, I still do cardio but don’t spend 45 min a day on the cross trainer, I do a circuit class, yoga, swiss ball & try to swim once a week. I’ve been strict with my diet to the point that I’ve become food obsessed & not because I’m hungry due to starving myself. I think I’ve just got so p**sd of that I put so much effort into my training & diet and still never got rid of my belly fat or love handles & just watch as friends sit and eat crap, do very little exercise & yet they don’t have a problem. Aaargh!!
Now after 3 weeks of despair and binge eating on any kind of junk I can get my hands on I’m weighing over 10 stone again and am panicking, I don’t want to be fat & unhealthy. I want to get back into training again but am in serious need of help with my workout & food plan. I would love to have someone to train with but can’t find anyone locally, also I would be happy to spend a bit of money on a trainer but in deepest cornwall they seem to be thin on the ground. I'm going to start having the maximuscle promax diet protein shakes a couple of times a day & try to plan my meals in advance but I’m really struggling with this eating thing at the moment.
Weight wise this is what I do, chest press 3 or 4 sets of 12 reps, 42kg - shoulder press 3 sets of 12 reps, 25 kg - seated row 3 or 4 sets of 12, 42kg - lat pull down 3 or 4 sets of 12, 42kg, - pectoral fly 3 set 12, 33kg - rear fly 3 sets 12, 28/33kg -
[font=Times New Roman]Bicep curl 3 sets of 12, 25kg - triceps 3 sets of 12, 20kg - leg curls 4 sets 12/15 38kg, squats using smithy machine, wide legs 3 sets of 12, 20kg & narrow legs the same. This is basically what I do between 2 & 4 times a week but usually at least 3 as well as doing lighter free weights in circuits and swiss ball classes etc. I also do a lot of different ab work 3 times a week. I’ve increased the weights I do over the last 6 months but I don’t want to get huge muscles, I’m more interested in lean defined muscle than bulging biceps.[/FONT
Sorry I’ve gone on for so long and probably sent you to sleep but I really want to get it right and not make myself ill again.
[font=Times New Roman]Thank you so much [/FONT
Angie

tanglewood7x

me again - hmmm just looking a my essay & I have no idea why its in capitals with all the strange (font = times new roman stuff?? maybe my computer go so bored it decided to add a few bits of its own to liven it up eh, ha ha ha

ah24

Firstly, well done on the progress

Now...you say you don't know what you should be doing weight wise - I presume you mean what weight you should be? The answer to that - whatever weight you feel comfortable when you look in the mirror at.

In my opinion the best thing you can do is work with someone, get someone to look at you, take your stats and develop a diet for you - as well as a training routine.

Quick question with the weights though, how long have you been pushing these weights for? Do you still find it challenging? Do you ever/have you ever variated it?

ewokbowes

Welcome:wave:. OK imo it looks like your still doing qiute alot of training during the week, give yourself time off and like you said don't let it take over your life. Maybe do a 3 way split on your weight training (mon, wed, fri) and do your cardio on your days off WT (tue, thur) or vice versa cardio 3 times a week and WT twice a week or maybe 2 days of each and a day off in the middle and have your weekends off completly. As for your diet post up what a typical days diet is for you, that way it will be easier for people to comment.

__________________
Never be the grey man

tanglewood7x

Ello Thanx for the replies.

I have increased the weights to he current level over the last 8 months, I find the weights quite tough as in by the time I've got to the 8/10th rep I have o push myself to get to 12. I'm being told loadsa different suff by guys in my gym - some say I should be doing more reps i.e 25 but wih lighter weights, others say only do 8 reps wih heavier weighs as this builds strength rather than size. I do try and vary what I do but do end up going back to same old stuff as I get so confused wih all the diferent advice. Thats what I meant by not sure about weights not how much I weigh

I won't bore you with what I was eating before but now I am planning my food in advance including promax diet protien shakes as I'v never used this before so maybe I wasn't getting enough protien. I'm also going to cut back on my carb intake as this seems to be the major thing in losing fat but I'm trying to find out how much is enough. I came accross this on the net and thought it sounded pretty interesting - don't know what you guys think about it? http://boards.muscleandfitness.com/i...ST;f=3;t=48706

I would love to train with someone else and also have been looking for a personal trainer but can't find one locally - I've spoken to a couple but wasn't convinced they would give me what I wanted as they seemed a bit vague & didn't have much experience either.

Ange:lift:

ah24

With the weight training - you have it spot on. Don't go high reps low weight....heavy-ish weights and medium reps stimulates metabolism and EPOC (Excessive Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) way more than lower intensity weights sessions....so you'll still be oxidising fat after the workout.

Yeah depending on how much your protein intake was you may experience better results with a higher protein count....stay away from MaxiMuscle though - much better brands on the market.

Carbs are an individual thing to be honest....no one size fits all...

Can't help you out on PT or training partner front but if your ever stopping in Crawley (around Gatwick airport) drop me a PM and we'll sort something out at the gym I work at.

tanglewood7x

Cheers for that, much apreciated and next time I'm down that way (mum used to live at Redhill but move to Dorking a year ago) I'll take you up on it
I'm gonna keep looking for a PT as there must be some out there somewhere - did you read the stuff from the Charles Poliquin seminar? sounded interesting to me but then I'm pretty new to all this stuff so I'd love to hear other people opinions on it. I thought all the stuff about the fish oils etc and rotating them every 10 days made sense but god knows where you get all this stuff from - good job I've just got the internet me thinks :crazy: What would you reccomend instead of the maximuscle promax stuff? seems to be so much of it on the market and I'm trying to learn more about it all but it all takes time?

cheers

tanglewood7x

Hello again - ok so after doing much research
(i've literally spent the last week on the the net for 6 hours a day)
I think I'v come up with a plan for loosing my stuborn fat but hopefully maintaining
the muscle I'v got.
After reading much about the low carb/atkins type diet I'v decided to give it a try.
I plan on doing at least 2 weeks on very low carb or maybe longer untill I've dropped
most of the fat. should I do 2 weeks then have a cheat meal to trick my body
or just keep up with the very low carb? I've been doing it a week and feel pretty much ok.
I'm not doing anywhere as much cardio, I walk everyday and do a couple of circuit classes + a spinning
class. I'm pushing weights for 60/90 min 3 or 4 times a week
I've worked out that to cut my calories enough to loose weight but not so low I lose muscle
I need around 1700 a day. If I eat 5 times a day to keep my metabolism up thats around
340 cal per meal.
I'm around 65 kgs at the moment so I'm thinking I need 1.5g protein = 98g a day
does this sound right to you?
I've read on here that to acheive ketosis I need to be eating a lot more fat (good fats)
than prot & keep carbs to 20g a day. So I'v worked out that I need to be eating
70% fat / 25% protein / 5% carb.
so each meal would consist of 20g protein, 28g of fat & 4g carbs. do you think this is
a good ratio for what I'm trying to acheive? this seems like a lot of fat but you guys all
keep saying fat is good. I'v been eating fish, (tuna, mackrel,kippers,salmon, sardines) eggs
nuts, cheese,tofu, mushrooms, brocoli, salad, lots of oils like olive, hemp, sesami, red canola,
almond, avocado just to get a mix as I'm having a 10/20ml a day or I'm finding I'm getting
too much protein & not enough fat, I've read that too much protein will affect ketosis so
its really important to get the fat/prot ratio right. I'v had a fair bit of cornish clotted
cream too :-) yum yum.
I'm not sure how much weight I need to lose as I'm more concerned with how I look than
how much I weigh - be fantastic to be able to see my abbs as I've worked really hard on
them.
Also I'm seriously thinking about the ephedrine/caffine stack don't know if the asprin
is really needed? was going to start out on 15g Ephedrine & 200g caffine 2 or 3 times
a day and see how I feel. am a bit worried about it but I'm pretty healthy, I've got
low blood presure - my resting heartrate is 40 - don't smoke etc, so figure it can't
hurt to try. Are these doses ok?
once I've dropped the fat or most of it I plan on increasing the carbs gradually but
sticking to the low carb way of eating as after much reading it makes alot of sense to me.
Also I take the following supliments
Spirulina powder 3g up to 3 x a day (as its full of great stuff & a good protein)
Vit c 1000mg tabs 1 or 2 a day (to make up for lack of fruit at moment)
super EFA fish oil 1000mg 2 or 3 a day (depending on how much oily fish I eat)
Calcium with vit D 600mg 1 a day (as I've read its important in a high prot diet)
B100 vit b complex 100mg 1 a day (i didnt used to get enough b vits in my diet)
Siberian gingseng 600mg 1 or 2 a day (because its sposed to be really good for you)
milk thistle 175mg 3 a day (its great for helping your kidneys cope)
CLA 500mg 2 tabs 2 or 3 times a day (don't know much about CLA but its reccomended)
Rhodiola rosea 350mg 1 a day (reccomended as a great cortisol regulator)

Any opinions on any of the above would be most welcome as I really am interested in other
peoples thought & experiences - all of my friends say I'm mad and take way to many supliments
and that I think about all this too much. I dunno, I just want to get it right so I can
train properly. Anyway after reading so much info on here I'm utterly amazed at how
much thought/work goes into your nutrition and ho much you guys know!! gobsmacked aint the
word.
Any how thanks soo much again for taking the time to read another one of my essays.
ange