I have been clean dieting and exercising, any suggestions?

[krmass24]

Hey there, On my bf's elite fitness account. My name is Michelle. I am 22 years old. I am 5'7", 135lbs. I am at about 22-23% body fat. I have been doing clean eating (tons of protein- lean meat, myoplex shakes, tons of veggies, low on carbs, nuts/seed for snacks), doing cardio 3X/week @45 mins. I cant seem to srop anymore weight, I think I hit a plateau, even if I try doing more cardio, i still onger. Someone told me about albuterol. I am really looking to shed body fat. I have some pics that you can check out. I am trying to shed a little in my mid section, and thighs and butt of COURSE! I really want more muscle definition which comes with dropping body fat. Any suggestions???

 

[Sassy69]

Hi Michelle You have a beautiful body.

Can you give a little more detailed info so we can know specifically what you are doing now? "Clean diet" may or may not be sufficient for your goals. I'm going to say what is generally in the "Are you new to EF Women's Board? START HERE" sticky at the top of the board.

Can you list your typical day's meal plan? E.g.

Meal 1: 8 am
1/2 c oatmeal
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 scoop protein mix

Meal 2: 11 am
2 oz almonds

Meal 3: 2 pm
4 oz chicken
2 c broccoli
4 oz sweet potato


etc.

Even better if you can put it into a food counts program like www.fitday.com -- its free & onilne - takes a couple minutes to configure but very easy & quick to use. It will tell you the total calories for the day as well as the macro-nutrient breakdown, i.e. % protein /% fat / % carb. This is a really good exercise to do because people often think they are eating "clean" and "enough" but they have never actually enumerated the actual amounts they are eating & what they are eating. It is very enlightening. If you can post this then we can make more specific suggfestions & comments. Otherwise its really just guessing on our part.

Are you doing any resistance training? This will be a critical part if you want to increase muscle mass. Cardio alone won't do it.

Finally - I wanted to point out the more important thing to watch- your bodyfat ratio (ratio of lean muscle mass to bodyfat) - this is more useful than just looking at the scale. The scale only measures the sum total of your bone, muscle, bodyfat and water weight. The number on the scale is not going to really tell you anything useful about your bodyfat when it measures 3 other things, one of which, water, can be the source of a 10 lb weight swing easily just based on what you ate that day (e.g. high sodium will make you water retentive). Bodyfat measure will tell you more about the composition of your body.

Can you get someone at your gym or your bf to do regular bodyfat measures so you have something more useful to measure your progress by? Even just looking at how your clothes fit will tell you more about changes in your body composition. For ex, if you are increasing your muscle mass, you may not see your weight go down, you might even see it go up, but you should also notice that your clothes are fitting looser because muscle mass takes up less space than bodyfat.

 

[Sassy69]

Oh yea, forgot about the albuterol -- just so you understand - diet & training are going to be the main source of any progress. Throwing in these different supplements is not going to be the magic bullet that makes the difference. It actually sounds like you'd do well to just spend some time lifting and not worry so much about "fat loss" - that comes w/ lifting w/ intensity & consistency. Things like albuteral have consequences - it is just a little bit better as a fat burner than your typical over the counter thermogenic - so its not the miracle drug. But more importantly - if your diet & trainign aren't already producing the results you want, any other supplement won't make the difference.

 

[*Bunny*]

Nice pics. Just look a bit soft, yet beautiful which Im sure you know.

My vote is from what sassy stated, key focus on adding resistance training.

 

[krmass24]

Thanks, will do, I'll let you know how my progress is in a few weeks. My bf is at about 23%, I'll see where I am at in 3 weeks and let you know what my new results are