newbie needs direction & help Please!!

[Beauts]

Hi everyone!!

I'm brand new to this forum, so let me tell you a bit about myself. I have struggled with an eating disorder since I was 8. A cycle of starvation, then binging & purging, then just binging and then after a few months - starting the whole thing over again. I decided that I'm not doing this anymore. I finally got up off my ass and got a gym membership and started eating better. I decided that instead of doing harm to myself, I will take care of myself and concentrate on getting the best body I can. I realize that my former way of eating will only hurt the goals I want to achieve, so I believe that actually having a goal and working towards it will change my life - and I'm so happy about it. In the mean time, I need some, no, a lot of help from all of you..that is if you're willing. Right now at the gym I am doing a minimum of 45 minutes of cardio 6x a week and some weight training a minimum of 2x a week. I know I have been blessed with great genes (muscular) but also have a slow metabolism from all of the "great" things I have done to my body up until now. I do have a lot of muscle - AND a lot of fat. You would think from the numbers that I was HUGE, but I am not. I am overweight, don't get me wrong, but not as large as people normally would be at my height and weight. I am 5"4 and 210 and I carry it mostly in my hips and thighs. Even at this weight, I can see a shadow of the outline of my abs (not just the obliques but the middle and horizontal breaks as well). I have muscular shoulders and VERY muscular legs - it's just that everything is beneath a large layer of fat. Yuck. Anyway, my meals right now are as follows:
Breakfast - 1 slice 100% whole grain toast
egg beaters & 1/2 cup cottage cheese
Lunch - 1 can tuna, a piece of fruit and a string cheese

snack - 1 oz almonds and a string cheese

Supper - lean meat and veggies (broccolli) and a salad (with 1 tbs flax oil)

Post workout snack - a protein shake or bay (homemade with pp, oats, milk & ff/sf pudding mix)

Give me your thoughts girls!

Beauts

 

[2dagym]

I'm not the best on diets myself so I'll let some of the other girls respond to you about that. First things in order - Welcome!!

The only thing I will suggest to you is that you increase your weight workouts. You believe you are muscular underneath your bodyfat. I just wonder how working out 2 times a week has accomplished this for you?? Are you lifting heavy or are you performing lighter weights with higher reps.

at 210 pounds I'm sure your legs are muscular but did you know that lifting good quality weight will help increase your metabolism? Cardio is good, but you almost have to ensure you are doing it under the right conditions to actually get good fat burning results (example: timing when you eat as to when you do the cardio, etc). When you build muscle though, you have more lean mass to feed and thus, your body will more readily tap into the fat stores for energy and use what you eat as fuel for your increased muscle mass.

I'll be honest with you, I don't speak as effectively or as "matter of fact" as some of the others here because they area so much more knowledge than I. I just love lifting the weight mostly . So I'll stop here and hopefully others will read your post and be able to help you with the partculars.

Good Luck to you Beauts!!

 

[*Bunny*]

Hi everyone!! Welcome

I'm brand new to this forum, so let me tell you a bit about myself. I have struggled with an eating disorder since I was 8. A cycle of starvation, then binging & purging, then just binging and then after a few months - starting the whole thing over again. I decided that I'm not doing this anymore. I finally got up off my ass and got a gym membership and started eating better. This is great! I hope you stick with it ... your body will thank you & you will LIVE longer .... healthy! I decided that instead of doing harm to myself, I will take care of myself and concentrate on getting the best body I can. I realize that my former way of eating will only hurt the goals I want to achieve, so I believe that actually having a goal and working towards it will change my life - and I'm so happy about it.Food is NOT the enemy ... it will help you reach your goals, you just need to learn how to USE it to help you ... not hurt you In the mean time, I need some, no, a lot of help from all of you..that is if you're willing. Right now at the gym I am doing a minimum of 45 minutes of cardio 6x a week and some weight training a minimum of 2x a week.I'd try to get weight training to 4 days a week and not focus so much on cardio ... you will NOT get big & bulky ... this muscle you build will help you burn more cals, and look damn good too I know I have been blessed with great genes (muscular) but also have a slow metabolism from all of the "great" things I have done to my body up until now. I do have a lot of muscle - AND a lot of fat. You would think from the numbers that I was HUGE, but I am not. I am overweight, don't get me wrong, but not as large as people normally would be at my height and weight. I am 5"4 and 210 and I carry it mostly in my hips and thighs. Even at this weight, I can see a shadow of the outline of my abs (not just the obliques but the middle and horizontal breaks as well). I have muscular shoulders and VERY muscular legs - it's just that everything is beneath a large layer of fat. Yuck. Anyway, my meals right now are as follows:
Breakfast - 1 slice 100% whole grain toast
egg beaters & 1/2 cup cottage cheese
Lunch - 1 can tuna, a piece of fruit and a string cheese

snack - 1 oz almonds and a string cheese

Supper - lean meat and veggies (broccolli) and a salad (with 1 tbs flax oil)

Post workout snack - a protein shake or bay (homemade with pp, oats, milk & ff/sf pudding mix)

Give me your thoughts girls!

Beauts

Have you checked out the stickies at the top of the forum??? Great info in there! Lets see exactly what you are eating ... can you sign up for www.fitday.com ? it's free & will help us see your calories & macros (Protein, Carbs, & Fats) AGAIN, Welcome *SHORTCUT*

 

[musclemom]

Hi everyone!!

I'm brand new to this forum, so let me tell you a bit about myself.

...

Anyway, my meals right now are as follows:

Breakfast - 1 slice 100% whole grain toast
egg beaters & 1/2 cup cottage cheese
Lunch - 1 can tuna, a piece of fruit and a string cheese

snack - 1 oz almonds and a string cheese

Supper - lean meat and veggies (broccolli) and a salad (with 1 tbs flax oil)

Post workout snack - a protein shake or bay (homemade with pp, oats, milk & ff/sf pudding mix)

Give me your thoughts girls!

Beauts

Hey honey ... my first thought is that it's probably not enough food but until you start measuring and logging food it's guess work.

Your body absolutely WILL hold onto fat if you don't feed it, that's what it's wired to do -- SURVIVE. If your body gets the message that it's in a famine situation it will burn muscle before it burns fat ... and will sock MORE fat at any opportunity, it's tough cycle to beat and the worst part is that coming from an eating disorder means you have to overcome the thought that you're eating too much. But you have to trust that if you don't consume sufficient calories you'll never kick your furnace up.

There's a lot of girls out there who would say increase your weight workuots and cut back and reduce the cardio, trade up to HIIT. Might be something to think about. Our bodies adapt and things become less effective.

 

[Sassy69]

Couldn't really add more. The first place to start is w/ diet. What you're eating looks good at the first pass - like suggested above, try putting your daily meal plan into a food counts program like www.fitday.com to get a REAL understanding of what you are eating. Then we can start from there. Bodies are weird when they seem to want to hold onto bodyfat forever & it becomes a matter of finding out what works for you.

 

[que_66]

Welcome to EF!!

 

[Beauts]

Hi everyone and thanks so much for the great replies. I am going to the fitday site today to check the stats on what I'm eating and then I'll report back.
2dagym, the reason I am muscular is because I have been very active since I was 4 years old, with figure skating, dance and swimming. Even as a child, I look at pics of myself at 8 yrs old and think "Wow! a little muscle woman!" My family is quite muscular as well so I guess it just boils down to good genes. Thats one reason I get so mad at myself sometimes! A lot of people have to work and fight like hell for just a bit of muscle and here I am, with all this potential and I feel like I've wasted it for so long. My best friend is 140 pound and 5"6 with lots of muscle and low bodyfat and she still can't see her abs. I can actually see mine under there - at my weight!! That tells me one thing. get off your butt, work hard and be thankful for the advantage you've been given!!!!!!
Back later with my fitday stats. BTW, when I listed my menu, I forgot to mention that at supper time I usually add in either a yam, some brown rice or whole wheat pasta to that.
B

 

[WoNderWoMan25]

Welcome! When I was heavier, I too had a good muscle base 'underneath it all' and carried my weight well.

I had to change my excerise routine - adding a seperate session of AM Cardio did the trick... keeping my weights 3-4x a week.

Do you really and truly measure your portions? That makes a difference as well. 4oz of chicken is smaller than you think!

 

[Beauts]

So I entered my food in Fitday and here is what I got:

Totals 1558 43 130 172


The 43 grams of fat seems really high though! Its mainly from the 1 oz of almonds (16) and the large chicken breast I had for supper last night. How does this look to you guys? Remember, I do a minimum of 45 minutes of cardio every evening. Should I cut out the almonds? I also eat a whole chicken breast when I have chicken (skinless, boneless and grilled). Sould I be cutting that in half for less fat? Almonds are good fat though, right??
Help!!

B

 

[scorpiogirl]

So I entered my food in Fitday and here is what I got:

Totals 1558 43 130 172


The 43 grams of fat seems really high though! Its mainly from the 1 oz of almonds (16) and the large chicken breast I had for supper last night. How does this look to you guys? Remember, I do a minimum of 45 minutes of cardio every evening. Should I cut out the almonds? I also eat a whole chicken breast when I have chicken (skinless, boneless and grilled). Sould I be cutting that in half for less fat? Almonds are good fat though, right??
Help!!

B

Hi, Beauts! ...and WELCOME to EF!!!

a couple of things here.....at your weight, you need more food. As you start dropping bf, you will drop your calories accordingly. Your minimum cal. intake right now should be 2100 a day. It may sound high, but at 1500 - your body is in starvation mode and you will NOT loose the fat. I PROMISE you that! You will loose MUSCLE at those calories and you will KEEP the fat...so get your calories UP, Girl!!!!!

Your fat intake is NOT high! It's fine right where it is. Keep the almonds - and yes, they're the good fat.

I think your doing way too much cardio and not enough weight lifting. I think MM said it above. To get your metabolism up, you need to get to lifting those weights. As far as cardio, I would drop it to no more than 30 minutes per day.

....I have more....but I've got a client....be back in a few.......