Fitday & Training Help

[rick4423]

Hello Everyone! I've been lurking on the women's forum for three weeks and trying to soak in as much pertinent information I can. I must say, EVERYONE here seems so nice and so helpful! You girls are GREAT!

I need some help for my friend's new program. We started about a week ago and she says she is feeling better than she has ever felt HOWEVER, we need some serious help!
http://fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=carolkorczak
As you can see her caloric intake is waaaaay low... The one day that she almost met her minimum was due to alcohol (she had a slip up). I got her in the gym and we have started with 15mins treadmill and as much as she can do on the elliptical (which isnt much at this point). After about 20mins of cardio we move to stretching and core training (plank poses, leg lifts, etc). She has back issues so I figured core training is more important than weights at the moment. Eventually we will be moving to weights but not just yet. She is not doing any HIIT yet either. Are we doing the right thing by taking these baby steps or should we start with HIIT right off the bat??? AND what foods can we add to up her calories? Also I didnt do the math for goals so any help there would be greatly appreciated also... I just needed a starting point. ANY help, comments and .02 opinions are welcome! We can use all the help we can get!

 

[rick4423]

My apologies, I didn't realize fitday's public URL doesn't include her stats:

30 years old
5'5
163pds
BF% unknown

Target weight is 125 by Jan 1st which seems totally obtainable with the proper help.

Also, she has been drinking LOTS & LOTS of water.

 

[Sassy69]

Hi rick!

Thx for checking us out and congrats to your friend for going after a goal and you for helping her! Lots of helpful stuff here - if she wants - invite her here as well so she maybe feels she can take more ownership of what she's doing. Often its just the whole sense of feeling completely lost and not knowing what to do / how to proceed / what to expect that leaves people feeling helpless. A place to come & ask questions and get some YOU GO GIRL! support can be really good sometimes.

Instead of really commenting much on the fitday thing - 620 cals is probably less than my cat eats per day. (he's a big cat...)

The short answer is a couple of basic guidelines:

- 5-6 small meals / day
- put at least 30 g of protein in each - that can be 4 oz of chicken, 6 oz fish, almonds, protein mix, etc. - that is one way to get more food in there.
- Macro nutrient split: 40% protein / 30% carb / 30% fat -- use that as your guide for "how much" of stuff over the whole day.
- Good fats: almonds, natural PB (the kind w/ no sodium), flax seed oil, olive oil, fish & red meats, whole eggs (not lots but 1-2 won't kill you) Cheese is ok but there are better sources. When I'm dieting I toss all dairy - e.g. milk is a sugar source and there are better fat sources available. Just my own opinion, but on a balanced diet its ok. Again cheese isn't the greatest fat source but in small amounts ok.
- Good carbs: NON PROCESSED. Sweet potatos, brown rice, oatmeal, bananas, small amounts of fruit - fruit is not the greatest carb source as its not a complex carb, but for someone gettign into dieting, fruit is still an excellent source of enzymes that helps to shuttle out the byproducts of dieting. Berries are also good.
- Good proteins: real food! chicken, fish, steak (the lean cuts), turkey, nuts, etc.
- Get her total cals for the day at least 10-12 x her bodyweight. - You gotta eat to lose!

I'd like to suggest she get a copy of Bill Philips' BODY FOR LIFE diet - she doesn't have to follow the diet or buy the EAS products - its more that I like it as a great intro to how metabolism, nutrition, etc work. It helps alot when you see how it all goes together vs. trying to put together catch lines from various diet ads on TV for "how to lose weight" - it isn't all just cortisol or all just because you're female or this or that particular reason - its a lot of reasons - all ultimately that reduce down to not eating clean foods and not eating the right foods in moderate amounts. BUt anyway - the guidelines for the BFL diet are very similar to what I listed above and it also gives lists of foods that fall into those guidelines to make it more flexible to build a diet you can live w/ vs one that dictates how you eat and makes you miserable (i.e. DIE w/ a T). The whole point of a successful diet is to make it a lifestyle - not a 6 week struggel to drop some weight and then gain it all back when you go back to eating a 'normal' way. IMO knowing how it all works is empowering. Its the fear of not knowing and all the confusion from the various marketing ploys we get bombarded with every day that makes it impossible to just apply common sense and succeed.

Training - I think the most important thing is to get her comfortable in the gym and build up some endurance for cardio and core strength. But also get her to be in the mindset of pushing herself -- the reason I go to the gym every day literally for the last 20 yrs is because I go in there and I want to see what I (my body, me, my mind, my endurance) can do. If she is like those people you see who go thru the circuit training w/ that glazed over look on their face just kicking away at the leg ext or whatever -- these are not people who are there to challenge themselves. These are probably the same people who wonder why they aren't making any progress even tho they "go to the gym"...

I will give you that people tend to fall into 2 categories - LOVE the gym, HATE the gym. If its a HATE situation, then maybe better to find another activity to get them out & active even tho the diet should be pursued. But if you find that sense of challenger in the gym - and keep a focus on the goals that can be achieved - meaning - sure there are the goals like be 125 by New Yrs - but that's several months off and sort of intangible right now - how about looking for some smaller wins along the way - i.e. making that 20 min of cardio easy - that just takes time contributed to establishing consistency which results in conditioning yourself for the next step up. All of a sudden, one day its "easy". And then the next its actually "fun". Pretty soon your BODY wants you to do it and you start to feel crappy if you don't do it.

... lol I"m starting to fall into my big OMG THE GYM IS MY LIFE AND MY PASSION speech - but you find that if you start to make those little wins just by consistently showing up and pursuing your goals, it actually starts to work. And then you want to keep going to see what comes next.

RE: goal of 125 by Jan - that's fine but I also want to emphasize the importance of not just looking at the scale to measure progress. In the past I've dropped 9% bodyfat and 2 lbs over a 2 month period while dieting - I went from 24% to 15% and from 165 to 163 lb... if I judged progress by the scale I probably woudl've jumped out the window. Please tell your friend to use the scale if she is ok w/ just looking at it for a number - but if she freaks out because it doesn't go down or looks at it every day (which includes the 4-8lb water weight swings...) then just throw the scale out the window & go by how her clothes fit and how she feels / energy level / strength level / mood / appetite / quality of sleep. THESE are so much more important than the scale to judge progress. The scale can just be a self-defeating mindfuck if you don't look at it the right way - it measures the sum total of the earth's gravitational attraction to your bone, muscle mass, bodyfat and water. How do people derive a sense of "OMFG I"M A FAT SLOB AND I DON"T DESERVE TO LIVE MUCH LESS EAT THIS BEN & JERRY"S CHUNKY MONKEY ICE CREAM! OMG OMG OMG!" ... uh... yea.

Hope that helps!

Again welcome to the women's board! Visit often!

 

[rick4423]

Hello Sassy and thanks for the VERY useful info! BTW, I saw your pics and all I can say is OMG - you look FANTASTIC! Ok, enuff booty kissing

I have told her about this board and I know she has been here lurking also. The problem is she is very new to all of this and it seems overwhelming to her at the moment which Im sure will change once she gets the hang of things. Its easier for me to understand all this and simply explain it to her... My gym is my life and has been for a VERY long time! Its very sad I know.

Thank you for that GREAT list of food! I think we can definately put something together out of that list.

The 620 calories is just the start for today (its the middle of the afternoon here). I think she would die if that was her DAILY intake... hehe. She is eating 5-6 meals a day but we are deffinately missing calories along the way. I set her daily caloric goals to 1600-1960 however we are having issues finding something to get her over usual her daily average of 1000-1300. As you mentioned perhaps some protein shakes would be a good idea. She doesnt seem to be having a problem staying within the 40/30/30 range (sometimes alittle under & sometimes alittle over but pretty close) but there simply is not enough calories in her diet I have expressed to her many many times not to be a slave to the scale because it doesnt give an accurate representation of body fat... I told her for now, go by how she is fitting into her clothes. As for your mention of diet adds and so forth, I have never bought into any of that crap and nor will she... There are no shortcuts IMHO... Being healthy is a lifestyle and you wont get a lifestyle change from any pill (she agrees).

As for the gym, she is very excited to go. She is constantly telling me how she is feeling better and having more energy throughout the day. I'm pretty sure she is very comfortable being there and working out... Its only been a week but hey, if she's feeling better already that's all that matters. SO, for now, she is loving the gym. She wont have a problem challenging herself but I just want to make sure her back will be ok when it comes to starting the circuit... I figure one more week of cardio and core training will be sufficient before we start the circuit. Much like you, I am a firm believer is pushing yourself as far as possible but she really hasn't done anything active in about 2 years and I prefer she not kill herself and get discouraged because "its too hard." She has already improved on the treadmill and I think this is helping her attitude to keep returning to the gym.

"These are probably the same people who wonder why they aren't making any progress even tho they "go to the gym"... " LOL - her gym is loaded with these people... they sit at the juice bar and socialize - I have already warned her about those types of people.

SO, again I would really like to thank you for your food list - it will be a HUGE help! and what are your feelings on beginning HIIT ASAP? I'm assuming I keep her from being discouraged after a couple HIIT sessions. Keep in mind she hasnt done ANYTHING active in approx 2 years.

 

[Sassy69]

Awesome - sounds like you are right in the sweet spot to watch yet another amazing transformation (we have a lot of those here )

She is more than welcome to just pop in & say hi! There are some great links on the stickies at the top as well that she can just peruse as time allows. There is definitely a dive in head first feeling to all of it - don't worry - just put on your water wings and enjoy the float No rush, no question is too small, nor too large and its all about success - there's no down side here. None.

A couple suggestions on diet / foods - I mentioned the list in the BFL book, and also I found the South Beach Diet book to be really good for adding variety to your food w/ the recipes it has. Also we have a killer Recipe Thread at the top of this board w/ all our top recipes as well.

As far as HIIT goes - Here's how I would approach that... when she's got the endurance built up to a decent 25-30 min steady state - just so she's not completely overwhelmed -- then take on a 15 min HIIT session -- 5 min warm up - 5 x 30 sec sprint / 60 sec recovery and then a couple minute cool down --- see how that goes and work on that say 2x / week and steady-state the other days.


LOL @ "juice bar" -- another of society's self-defeating inventions.