kinda a long one....need some help

[Supergirl515]

After searching and researching these boards in the hope of putting enough info together to not have to post this but it just doesnt seem to be working out..
I tried crum's modified diet for a while but it did nothin for me.... then i tried crums origional diet and it was going ok but the key problem is that i dont eat red meat, so it is hard to get in enough protein even with shakes and what not...
so anyway, i am home from college until the end of august and want to cut like crazy....i am and always will be a cardio freak (was a runner and a swimmer) but i love to lift too...right now my only problem is diet..
with a history of eating disorders, i am kinda an extremist when it comes to food (on second thought, i am kinda an extremist when it comes to life) i either eat WAY too much or almost nothing at all...since i have started doing crums diet the problem has been that i am just not eating enough...like i can go from breakfast to dinner with nothing in between and be just fine...it is kinda wierd..
the even stranger part is that i am not really losing weight eating like this...i dont know..
i am 5'6, 160 lbs, 25% bodyfat....
basically i want to be as cut up as possible by the end of august bc i got nohting else to do all summer but workout and sit in the sun....
if anyone could help me figure out exactly what i should be eating, i would really appreciate it..

 

[Sassy69]

hey girl -- i feel your pain! My life long plateau had been aroudnd 150. I blew up to almost 180 after a competition last year and it took me close to a year to get rid of it. I'm back down around 155 and fighting to get below that friggin plateau again.

I just looked at crumb's diet -- that's pretty extreme -- the basic idea is a lot of protein & good fats - which is good -- but its also very restricting in variety especially if you don't eat red meat. And TRUST me, to pursue a restricted diet for 3 months will have you crawling the walls after 4 weeks with fantasies of mint chocolate chip.

I understand what you want to accomplish but I think that you need to set your expectations more specifically also lay out an approach that works for you -- e.g. is a lifestyle thing and not an extreme diet thing that makes you miserable.

I don't know how long you have been on this diet -- I wouldn't expect to see any majore changes for at least 3 weeks. Your body needs to adjust to the diet change. If you are not eating enough, you are not going to see changes because your body will think its in starvation mode, your metabolism will slow down and it will try to hold on to whatever body fat you currently have because it doesnt' know if its going to get enough food to run on. So regardless of what diet you are following, if you arent' eating enough, it aint' gonna work. Period.

You need to think of your eating schedule as your REFUELING schedule. The idea behind an optimal diet is to give your body EXACTLY what it needs to run on, refueling it as it consumes what it is given. If you skip a refueling session, your body will have to figure out how to run on what it has left over from the previous refueling. It works for the first few meals, and you may see some water loss, but if you keep cheating it out off its fuel, it WILL catch on and slow everything down. So there you are starving yourself and tryign to figure out why you arent' losing weight.

If you choose to follow crum's diet, fine. But make sure you follow it and dont' cheat yourself out of food. For something that relies less heavily on red meat, I suggest that you do a search on spatterson's cutting diet on the Women's board. You might also chat with MS - she is vegetarian BB -- which proves that you CAN build muscle on a vegan diet. But make sure you are gettign at least the amount of food your body needs.

The next part of the equation is your training. First of all -- you have all summer to train -- but dont' OVER TRAIN. Train smart, not hard. You didn't post what you were doign for training. Spatts also has a nice training split laid out and also some cardio. Lift with intensity and do 4-5 cardio sessions per week.

Then after say 4 weeks, change up the diet a little and the training split. You might want to shave off a few calories from the diet or not. See how you are coming along and adjust as u go. I HIGHLY dont' recommend extreme diets to "get as cut as possible" -- extreme weight loss always rebounds and its hard as shit to maintain an extreme diet for a long time. I know -- I've done 2 bb competitions. It sucks.

What is your current training split & cardio schedule?

 

[spatts]

Spatts also has a nice training split laid out and also some cardio.

Weights alternating heavy one week and moderate the next, for example:

Monday: legs
Tusday: back and rear delt
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Chest and tri's
Friday: shoulders and bis
Saturday: abs

On, for example Thursday, do shoulders light and bis heavy (start with the heavy) and then the next week shoulders heavy and bi's light. Heavy being about 90% of max and light being about 60% of max.

Cardio 5-7 days a week max (start with 3 non-training days) first thing in the morning, empty stomach, OR AFTER WEIGHTS. Moderate intensity, moderate speed, longer duration: walk up hill at 15% grade, 2.5 mph, for 60 min...point being, keep the heart rate between 135-140. I added a second cardio session in the evenings, 20-30 min of HIIT sprints, and straight protein after that, but only if one session and a clean diet aren't cutting it.

My cutting diet looked like this:

http://home.swbell.net/arkaynen/cutting.htm

You would have to alter the times by when you train, and cycle the carbs 3 days low (.5g/kg body weight) and 2 days high (2.0g/kg body weight), or high on training days and low on non training days. The diet in the link represents the 100g CHO median.

1Kg = 2.2046 lbs

 

[Sassy69]

Thx spatts! Seems that post should be required reading for anyone registering on ef!

 

[Supergirl515]

Thanx girls...

Sassy - currently my training split looks like this:

Monday - bi's and tri's
Tues - back
Wed - abs
thursday - chest and shoulders
fri - legs
sat - abs
sun - off

i also run 3 or 4 miles everyday/ 7 days a week

i got the whole "ur body needs fuel" thing down... ive been around here for a while... im just having trouble getting all the food amounts down....like when i set it up myself, it either comes out 1000 calories or 8000...lol..and i can never get all the ratios right and enough protein for my bodyweight...and to think, i was considering changing my major to nutrition!!

A few years ago i did an atkins type diet for a while and got to exactly where i am aiming for now but then i became anorexic and lost wayyy too much weight and then in recovery became a binge eater and so gained way more of it back...so i understand the results of extreme dieting, dont u worry...thats how i got myself here in the first place...
unfortunatly, it is a lot more complicated now because i have totally screwed up my metabolism and have become hypoglycemic so in a sense i am a "carb addict" and those carbs go straight to my ass (trust me)
ok i will stop rambling on now...thanx again
if you have any mroe suggestions, they are always welcome...

 

[Sassy69]

Yep, you've got some challenges. I don't know how far you've gone to explore your options -- I dont' know if you are going to find your solution wading through all the stuff on an internet chat board with some self-diagnosis.

Your options:
- see a general doc or endocrinologist to get all your levels tested and maybe get some suggestions. They may also prescribe something. Personally I've seen both my general doc and also an endocrinologist - my metabolism is normal and my thyroid levels are on the low side of the normal range. I've been prescribed phentermine and some other shit for obese people but skipped both.
- see a qualified nutritionist who can monitor your diet and provide support when you need it. I've used a couple different trainers over the years, 3 for competition and 3 for personal training/improvement. I've also worked w/ a holistic nutritionist -- I thought she was a little too "new age" for my tastes.
- examine your current diet & training. If Crumb's diet doesn't fit your lifestyle and you find you need daily meal plans laid out, check spatt's cutting diet or you might also contact Beverly International. (http://www.bodybuildingplanet.com/). Clickon their FaxBack link - you fill out a form, describe where you are/what your goals are/ etc. and they sort of consult via email.
- look at your training-- maybe your body is getting used to your current schedule. If you run all the time, change it up w/some diff cardio. Try adding in sprints a couple times / week orsome HIIT training. Change your lifting schedule or jack up the intensity.

If you are hypoglycemic , find a diet schedule that will meet your body's needs and stick to it religiously. If these are the limitations that your body is putting on you, address them instead of letting them control your ability to follow a diet. The hardest part is not falling to the urges or the panic feeding. That's up to you to do.

Hope that helps. The good news is that you aren't really far off a good weight so don't panic too much. And set your goals for something that is attainable over short periods of time -- e.g 4% bf in a month. And monitor it as you go - if you are stuck because you let the diet slip a few times, then challenge yourself to stick to the diet 100% for a week and then see if you got the results you expected. You probably will and that proves the point that diet works when you stick to it.

Good luck!

 

[Supergirl515]

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!