Fitness Virgin! Looking for advice!!

[Babygirl7997]

I am a fitness newcomer and would love some direction. I am 28 5'7" and 115 lbs. Definitley under weight with some tone. My husband is in unbelievable shape, and has been training his body for ten years. He currently is using steriods. I have never been into working out, and now that we are done having kids (2 small boys) I am really motivated to get in shape and ripped like him!

So, for the last 3 months, I started a completely healthy and clean diet literally no cheating aside from my nightly glass of wine, with protein shakes atleast once a day (no other supplements because i was breastfeeding but now i have weaned) and 4-5 days a week for 30 minutes at home workouts. Cardio, light weight training, but mostly cardio and circuts just to get my body used to the activity. I ended up getting some good tone, but I ended up losing more weight!! So I started going to the gym with my hub and weight training and eating not so good stuff again to really try and get my weight back up. And ofcoarse, the steriod subject came up. He really wants to put me on a low dose and i do not want to consider that before I have tried everything else. I want to be at 130 pounds. Thats 15 lbs i need to gain.. How do you suggest I do it? Do i cut out cardio completely? Supplements? Steriods? Do i eat anything and everythin?

Any advice would be great!!
Thanks

 

[RottenWillow]

I am a fitness newcomer and would love some direction. I am 28 5'7" and 115 lbs. Definitely under weight with some tone. My husband is in unbelievable shape, and has been training his body for ten years. He currently is using steroids. I have never been into working out, and now that we are done having kids (2 small boys) I am really motivated to get in shape and ripped like him!

So, for the last 3 months, I started a completely healthy and clean diet literally no cheating aside from my nightly glass of wine, with protein shakes at least once a day (no other supplements because i was breastfeeding but now i have weaned) and 4-5 days a week for 30 minutes at home workouts. Cardio, light weight training, but mostly cardio and circuits just to get my body used to the activity. I ended up getting some good tone, but I ended up losing more weight!! So I started going to the gym with my hub and weight training and eating not so good stuff again to really try and get my weight back up. And of course, the steroid subject came up. He really wants to put me on a low dose and i do not want to consider that before I have tried everything else. I want to be at 130 pounds. That's 15 lbs i need to gain.. How do you suggest I do it? Do i cut out cardio completely? Supplements? Steroids? Do i eat anything and everything?

Any advice would be great!!
Thanks

Hello, and welcome to EF.

You absolutely do not need anabolic steroids. You need a proper diet and training routine.

Exogenous androgens can, and often do, cause irreversible side effects in women. Even 5mg daily of the steroid oxandrolone ("anavar") can cause permanent side effects in some women, and no one can tell you in advance if you are one of those women. Ladies interested in basic body recomposition have no need for AAS whatsoever.

Now as for your comment about "getting some good tone", but "loosing more weight", that's body recomposition. It's a good thing. Your body shifted from skinny fat to leaner and harder. It's likely you actually gained a bit of lean body mass while simultaneously loosing some subcutaneous bodyfat. Your result is very common for a completely sedentary woman just beginning a fitness program, and yes even a thin woman. If your diet and training is correct for your body type, the next phase should show progressive gains in lean body mass and a progressively slower reduction in body fat.

I would urge you to obtain a reliable measure of your starting lean body mass so that you can track the changes in your body. This will enable you to see what diet and training is aiding you in your body recomp plans. Probably the most accurate method is to find someone trained with using a professional grade skin caliper. Alternatively you could purchase an inexpensive bioelectrical impedance bodyfat scale. Make sure it also reports your level of hydration as that majorly effects the reported bodyfat level and you would need to take that into consideration whenever weighing yourself. Only record the bodyfat results that accompany identical hydration results. Those scales are about $40 at Wal-mart.

Your beginner routine does not need to be complex at all. Three total body workouts about every 3 days will work fine for the first 3-5 months. You might find this is too frequent if you're up with the baby a lot at night and aren't getting enough rest. If you aren't making steady strength gains, drop the frequency back to every 5 days.

As for cardio, you might want to keep those sessions infrequent and brief. Perhaps a mile every 3 days. Just enough to build and maintain a basic level of stamina and CV fitness, but not enough to interfere with your stated priority to gain size.

Please check out the stickie at the top of this forum with "START HERE" in the thread title for sample clean diets and sample beginner routines.

 

[Babygirl7997]

Thank you so much for the response! It was very informative, I will be sure to check out the start here thread. One question, when you say full body workout every 3 days.. are you talking every muscle group? Legs, glutes, abs, back, arms, shoulders, etc? It just seems like soooo much for one workout, considering I usually do 3 exercises per muscle group.

 

[Rebecca D]

I agree with Willow...stay away from steroids. Too big of a risk, especially for a fitness virgin. Keep eating healthy...just more of it if you want to gain. Potato chips and donuts are out.


Rebecca D