caloric intake :: tired of wrestling the same damn 5 lbs

[Dingo12]

The five pound gain is probably water being held by the carbs in your muscles, i.e. it won't be fat, 5 lbs of fat cannot be gained/lost withing a week. When you carb down again you lose the water as well as glycogen from muscle stores.

 

[KBgrl]

i just saw this post now...and regarding the question u had asked me i dont think my answer is appropriate now....well..in terms of ur goals anyway. any kind of cycle will add weight to u... good weight but weight. u want to be 110? i wouldnt take anything right now... just be consistent with ur diet and training and maybe u can kill the fat with that alone.
oh yea..and dingo is right...thats where those 5 lbs are comin from.....ur carb up...its just water...dont stress that.

 

[MS]

I'm gonna go against the trend here and say that IN MY EXPERIENCE the DiPasquale/Anabolic/CKD or whatever ultra low carb once a week high carb diet does not work for ordinary women that are not taking supplemental steroidsT3/clen etc..... I strongly suggest you research the moderate carb/low fat/high protein diet and ask around for diet and training suggestions for this method.

10 pounds over several months is very poor by any standards and you should think about changing you approach.

 

[SteelWeaver]

I'm still learning about this stuff myself, but I somehow managed to lose about 6 percent bf over several months without really concentrating on it, or paying too much attention to calories. Of course it helped that I was on thermogenics, but I had also just stopped smoking, so maybe I was subconsciously being extra vigilant.

Anyway, one thing I did was to try and time what I was putting in my body according to the energy that I was going to be putting out in the next few hours, both in terms of meal size and ratios of carb:fatrotein .. so tapering the carbs off toward the evening - last meal at night was basically pure protein.

I have a question, too, though - what is a bf percent that can be pretty reasonably maintained by a woman? Is 12 % maitainable? At about 20%, I've never been lower than this, but have to start dieting maybe in Jan for a contest in May. What do women normally compete at?

muskles, you definitely need to know your bf% - a goal expressed as a bf % is much more clear than one expressed in pounds - my weight fluctuates a kilo or 2 with every period, water retention will do that to us, darn it!

 

[ErgoGal]

I haven't read Mauro's book but I know the gist of it. For fat loss without major muscle catabolism, I've read that 11-13kcal per pound bodyweight is a good number to shoot for.

I personally have to dramatically drop both daily kcal and carbs AND take a wad of ECA to start dropping major fat in the absence of aas or other metabolic enhancers.

And it takes time for one to figure out what works for them. I suggest playing around with your diet, cardios, and weight training in 4 weeks intervals and journaling carefully to try to determine what works best for you.

For fatloss, I find myself best off at around 1600kcal and 25%carbs (at the most), 55% protein (or more), and 20% fat (or less - 15% is the rock bottom for me though some would say this is too much) and only one cheat meal a week (I'm female, 5'6", 155#, and around 15%-18%). My body *needs* to be in the gym doing *something* at least 6 times a week otherwise my fat loss stalls out. I've been playing around with 3 day and 5 day splits to figure out what my body likes most but haven't come to resolution on that one yet. Good luck and keep up the good work. HTH.

-K

 

[ErgoGal]

Oh, and with the quitting smoking - you might want to stay on the patch and / or gum for a while (I preferred both when I quit - my "Quitter's Stack"). Nicotine is a powerful appetite suppressant and also effects metabolism and other factors in weight loss (it affects the hormone leptin, I think - bizarre as that sounds). At any rate, nicotine withdrawal will definitely stall out fat loss.

-K

 

[muskles]

new plan of attack

okay, the 1000 cals didn't last long - i felt too week and hungry (not to mention CRANKEEE ), so since Friday I've been at about 1600 calories/day. Cutting that low did help me from gaining back those 5 lbs. - I agree w/ you it probably was just water weight. I also got my bf% checked on Saturday, so now I have a much better measure to work with than the scale. Unfortunately, I was much worse off than I thought on bf. My stats are ::
age: 26
height: 5'4
weight: 125
bf: 26% (using Skyndex calipers)

so, i've got quite a bit of work ahead of me, but feel pretty confident i'll get there. here's my routine and diet :: please feel free to advise ::
Monday - AM 35-40 minute run
afternoon weights back / biceps
(3 sets of 10 -15 for each) / stomach (2 - 3 sets of 20)
Tuesday - AM 35-40 minute run
Wednesday - AM 35-40 minute run
afternoon weights chest / triceps
(3 sets of 10 -15 for each) / stomach (2 - 3 sets of 20)
Thursday - AM 35-40 minute run
Friday - AM 35-40 minute run
afternoon weights legs / shoulders
(3 sets of 10 -15 for each) / stomach (2 - 3 sets of 20)

Diet will consist of 1600 calories :: 55% protein / 40% fat / 5% carbs (w/ probably 1 weekend cheat meal) supplements being 2 daily vitamins and xenadryne.

i plan to start an anavar/clen/eca cycle after about 3 weeks of being consistent on the above. i'll also add a 4th gym day when i start the cycle.

your thoughts? i totally appreciate all your advice. i would like to get to 110 eventually, but i mostly want to see significant changes in my bf% and am REALLY looking forward to seeing some nice strength gains with the anavar.

thanks,