Headed towards my bikini body!!

[new@gettinbig]

I wouldn't worry about or rely on an internet site for reference to your food and journaling...they are obviously set up for the general publics good nutrition which is not close to what a bb needs to put on muscle mass etc...I think they are a waste of time..but that is just my opinion..do whatever you think helps you.

 

[Debu]

That's why I posted what values most people use for rice, chicken, potatoes, etc. Every different book, product, mag, states something different. And if you are counting carbs and protein you want it down to the last half-gram right Steel? (j/k)

 

[Cheetarah]

How many calories should I be consuming in a day?? I am currently @150 lbs. not sure of my bodyfat yet. I believe I am getting that measured on Monday along with taking some measurements. I put my foods in on Fitday.com yesterday, said I had @1500. Isn't that sufficient?? Please tell me more about rotating my carbs. Never heard of that before...
I will definitely cut out the Cheerios and the crackers from now on.
As for the weights, I've only just begun to learn about all the different machines. I've been just trying them out. This week my training partner and I are going to create a good split routine to follow. I'll write down what machines are there and what my current schedule has been!!

Thanks New!!

Personally, I would throw any automated system that is supposed to tell you how many calories you need out the window! There are just too many factors involved for any automated system to come up with a correct number. I think the best way is to figure out your own maintenance calories by eating normally, when your weight stays the same, and for one week keep track of your calories. At the end of the week, average them to get your maintenance calories then you can go from there. And you don't need to subtract a lot of calories to cut, you'd be surprised at how much fat you can lose just by eating clean. You don't NEED to starve yourself, cutting your calories too low will only result in overtraining and muscle loss! For example, the current plan I'm using, I've been losing an average of 1 lb of fat a week and gaining some muscle at the same time, about 2 lbs of muscle gained in 3 weeks. My maintenance calories are 2650 and I'm cutting right around 2350! It's only 300 cals below my maintenance calories and I'm losing fat! And I weigh 140 lbs (5'5"around 18% body fat) right now. I just hate seeing so many women diet on such low calories, it is NOT NECESSARY!

And fat DOES NOT make you fat. Heck I eat 105 grams of it a day and I'm STILL losing fat! I started at 22% body fat in August and got down to 16.6% before Thanksgiving. I'm living proof that fat does not make you fat. I've heard of never having high fat AND high carbs but this stuff about not having ANY fat with carbs? Where did that one come from? Fat is not evil. You NEED fat, good fat. Fat actually slows down digestion and absorption which is what you want when you eat carbs, so that your insulin doesn't spike. I NEVER have carbs WITHOUT fat and I always have protein with my meals as well. And I INCREASE my fat when I go low carb. You must give your body enough fuel, whether it be carbs or fat and hopefully the protein is spared for muscle tissue rebuilding. Anyway, I hope I was of some help.

 

[new@gettinbig]

Cheetarh once u become leaner taking in that much fat is not going to be good...when dropping as you become leaner..it gets harder and taking in that much fat is not needed..yes you need fat to lose fat..but not 100 grams of it!! 20-40 grams at most...it may work for you now..but later you will need to make adjustments.

 

[hookdup]

I find fitday addictive too.
I eat a few different protein bars and I've just gone into the custom menu and typed in everything off the label of the bars. Most of us don't have a lot of variety when it comes to bars / protein shakes / meal replacements, so I've found I've done a few custom foods and the rest has been pretty consistent.
The only time I've had problems is when I've eaten at restaurants and the problems were mainly to do with the fact that I was eating food I probably shouldn't have....
But then again .... who can resist Pad Thai??? I know my limitations!

 

[KBgrl]

i use fitday.com when im realllly watchin what i eat. it takes some time....but once u get the hang of it.... u will be able to manipulate the values successfully. keep us posted.

good luck lilady!

 

[SteelWeaver]

That's why I posted what values most people use for rice, chicken, potatoes, etc. Every different book, product, mag, states something different. And if you are counting carbs and protein you want it down to the last half-gram right Steel? (j/k)

EXACTLY!!

 

[SteelWeaver]

And good luck LiLady! You'll get there, even if things seem confusing - eventually you start figuring it all out.

 

[Cheetarah]

Cheetarh once u become leaner taking in that much fat is not going to be good...when dropping as you become leaner..it gets harder and taking in that much fat is not needed..yes you need fat to lose fat..but not 100 grams of it!! 20-40 grams at most...it may work for you now..but later you will need to make adjustments.

So you're saying I'll have to go low carb AND low fat? Gosh, I hope not, that would really suck. I starve enough as it is on low carb days!

I hope you didn't think I meant mod carbs and mod fat. Generally I increase my fat intake as I decrease my carbs so I never have a lot of both. I'm aiming to get down to 12%. I hope that doesn't entail eating low carb AND low fat, ack! As you may have noticed, I'm generally of a different school of thought when it comes to cutting. I advocate low carb, mod fat diets only because I believe insulin to be the real enemy. At least it is for me cause I think I'm at least somewhat insulin resistant so I believe the key for me in losing fat is to keep the carbs in check. I've also got several competitor friends who generally keep their carbs low and fat higher. Thru experimentation they have said they found that the more they dropped their carbs and increased their fat intake, the leaner they became. Of course these are all male friends so I can't be certain that it will work for me as well. Plus I'm on the birth control pill so I'm sure that isn't helping me either.

But anyway I do appreciate any input from you as I know you have competed so you know what has worked well for you and I'm always open to new ideas, especially things that have worked for other women. I'm just hoping I'm not gonna have to get too crazy to get down to 12% body fat. I'd really like to get there and maintain but at the same time I don't want to have to stick to an impossibly strict diet to do that. I eat really clean now as it is. The only cheats I really have are protein bars. It's really hard to stay away from them when you sit in a supplement store all day with them staring at you!

 

[Cheetarah]

I think what she's saying, and what I would say, is that if you cycle your carb intake (rather than slowly stair stepping it down to nothing but protein), you will NOT HIT A WALL, and you will CONTINUE TO LOSE FAT.

Yep, already doing that. This is the diet I was following before the holidays. I'm currently working on a new plan now, I change it pretty often.

Diet Ratios P/C/F (all in grams, six meals per day):

Sat - 40/40/15 for daily totals of 240/240/90 35%/35%/30% total of 2730 cals

Sun - 40/30/15 for daily totals of 240/180/90 39%/29%/33% total of 2490 cals

Mon - Thu 45/10/20 for daily totals of 270/60/120 45%/10%/45% total of 2400 cals

Fri - 42/25/17 for daily totals of 252/150/102 40%/24%/36% total of 2526 cals

I use (or at least try) only foods conducive to keeping the fat burning going. I eat only green veggies for carbohydrates for meals 5 & 6.