MY PICS - need help losing fat and maybe a bit of leg muscle

[thin]

My diet consists of foods that I consider "safe" I never eat the same thing every day, but my plan is always around 800-1200 calories.

Foods I'll eat:
unprocessed bran fiber (great stuff just 90 cal a cup!)
most sweet fruits (apples pears etc.)
tart fruits (grapefruit, lemons, but not oranges...don't ask)
Sometimes some avocado
Soy Milk (mixed with the unprocessed bran)
mushrooms (too many to count)
Miso Soup mixes (high in sodium, but yummy!)
plain lean cuts of steak (twice a week maybe)
shrimp (when I have the cash)
leafy vegetables (collard greens, spinach, leeks mostly raw)
onions (raw)
most squash (baked)
garlic (raw and roasted... love it!)
coco powder (indispensable like it with hot water)
air popped popcron (a treat!)
tons of water
whole lot of salt (I LOVE SALT)


Today I'll have:

5 pieces of fruit
1/2 cup bran
some mushrooms onions and miso soup
1/2 cup soy milk
raw spinach with salt
acron squash


I try to eat the shrimp or steak (I don't like chicken!) like every other day, but I must admit I don't crave either much and would rather eat more fruit or veggies.

The things I don't eat are basically:

breads, creals, grain
and milk cheese and dairy
sugars

-S

 

[FitFossil]

Today? Is this the day's total? Your metabolism will continue to slow if this is all you're eating. On this, your body's doing it's best just to survive. It's going to cling for dear life to whatever bodyfat you have. Even when I was an 80 pound skeleton, I had jiggly thighs. It took me 20 years to see the light and I ended up fatter rather than skinnier until 2 years ago.

I learned how muscle burns calories even at rest (fat burns nothing) AND muscle is denser than fat (so if you trade 5 pounds of fat for 5 pounds of muscle, you'll be thinner and firmer. You get to eat more when you have muscle. In fact you HAVE to eat more just to grow the muscle, and even when eating more you still lose bodyfat. (It's like the world's best kept secret!)

You need more protein and you also need some healthy fats like flaxseed oil. EACH meal should contain some protein, some carbs, and some healthy fats. Someone mentioned Body For Life - check out that book, that's pretty close to the diet I follow, but it doesn't seem like a diet to me - more like an "ALL U CAN EAT" gorgefest since I wasn't used to eating!

The proper nutrient balance makes a huge difference. You'll start to have more energy which lets you train better. The protein helps to build muscle. The healthy fats help burn bodyfat and make you feel full longer. Your body needs enough food and nutrients to keep your metabolism high. That's what will burn fat. I didn't believe any of this either at first, but I gave it a shot and kept coming back to this board for more inspiration. Low and behold it worked for me and lots of others!

 

[thin]

I learned how muscle burns calories even at rest (fat burns nothing) AND muscle is denser than fat (so if you trade 5 pounds of fat for 5 pounds of muscle, you'll be thinner and firmer. You get to eat more when you have muscle. In fact you HAVE to eat more just to grow the muscle, and even when

I've been trying to turn some of the people at the thin page on to this idea. Still I find it surprising that you think I should eat more. Would that cause me to gain? (I'm talking size not weight here! I'd be okay with being 150 lbs if I looked thinner, if my things, for instance were 16" instead of 19" ...)

My base metabolic rate is low since I'm very small I only weigh 95 lbs so at rest I burn 950 a day add in 200 for the light office work I do and 250 for my work out and I only burn about 1400 a day, if I eat more than that it will be stored as fat. Right?

Um. Maybe I'm missing something, but my meal plan is about 1000 calories which more than covers my BMR and all my extra activity should be used to burn remaining fat?

If I ate more my thought is that I would stop burning fat. In fact when I mess up and eat say 1400 I go out of ketosis (I got some of those test strips, I love 'em!).

If I ate 1400 every day I think I either stay the same or gradually rebuild the fat that I spent the last 6 months losing.

I'm going to try the shrimp thing though-- That will be about 1200 a day and I think that is okay I'll see how I feel after a week. I really scared I'm going to puff up but the total exces (in shrimp) will be only 1400 calories and I'll burn most of that off on my race this weekend!

Thanks guys I'll let you know how it goes.

-Susan

 

[Sassy69]

I think there's still some confusion in perception of "size", "weight", "how I look".. What is the goal? Is it to look thin? Or lean and solid with some muscle? Is it the number on the scale? You said you are going for the "emaciated" look -- which to me translates to "bag of bones", but you still want some muscle. The two are mutually exclusive.

You have a fear that if you increase your calories you will blow up / gain weight / get fat. This is all a perception, and a false one at that. Let me give you an example. I have always had a pear shape and an extra 10-15 lbs on me. That seems to be my body's "comfortable" weight or my "plateau". OK fine. I've been lifting most of my life and I build muscle fairly easily, but I also collect some fat in the process - just the way my body type works.

So I decide I"m gonna do my first bodybuilding show in Aug of 2000. I got the brilliant idea that I was gonna try a "no carb diet" - not really a diet, I just quit eating most carbs. Of course within a few weeks I was getting light headed and all the stuff associated with lack of carbs. But I didnt' know about increasing fats or anything else (similar to a ketogenic diet). I lost some weight. So in April I go start training for this competition. Here are my stats as I progressed over 4 months with diet and training, some cardio:

May 7: 155 lb, 16% bf
June 2: 148 lb 12 % bf
July 1: 144 lb 11% bf
Aug 9: 140 lb 9% bf
Aug 26: 133 lb 8% bf - competition day (lost about 6 lbs in water weight in the last few days)

Check this - I lost total, about 15 lbs (excluding water weight because it comes back following the competition), but also gained more muscle, but i dropped from about a size 10 to a size 5-6, in some cases even a 4 in pants. And I wasn't friggin emaciated. I couldn't even do that while starving myself on the "no carb diet".

The lean look you can get with a clean diet that provides enough food for your body to operate at maximum efficiency. When it does that and you are training, you burn what you eat - it doesnt' get deposited as fat. You may see your weight go up as you build more muscle - muscle weighs more than fat, but your body fat will drop. When your body fat drops, you get the lean look without sacrificing your health, your energy, etc. If you don't provide enough food, your body will slow down, burn what it needs to continue to function but at the cost of those body functions that need those nutrients. The ultimate goal is to give your body exactly what it needs to run, not too much, not too little, and it will, by nature, seek to run as optimally as it can - thus providing you with lean, yet muscular look that you want.

Hope this helps some. If you eat, don't assume you will blow up. Its counter intuitive, but that's the way the body works. Its a fantastic machine that is callibrated to work optimally - but if you dont' fuel it appropriately, it will either bog down or burn out.

Oh, another thing about numbers -- bodyfat. Numbers around 8-10% are extremely low for women. 6-8% is considered competition body building level and is maintained ONLY for a period of a few days around competition time. Levels below 10% can probably "turn off" your menstrual cycle, which has been shown to affect the calcium levels in your body, and can ultimately lead to brittle bones. The average female has about 23-25% bf. This is *healthy* and *normal*. Several of the girls here are pursuing levels around 14-18%. Personally I'd want to stay about 15% off season. At 8% bf, my joints were sore - I felt like a bag of bones and didnt' think my body would be very happy with me attempting to maintain somethign like that. My point here is that just as the number on the scale can instill fear, the number on the bodyfat can freak people out too. If you are 16% bf, you are NOT obese. What makes up that 16% is what should be important. Do you want to be 16% and anorexic (skinny fat) or 16% and lean with some nice muscle? The number is something that helps you gauge where you are but the quality of the muscle & fat that makes up that ratio is what's really important.

 

[thin]

Well to give you and idea of the look I'm going for she:

is perfect!

so is she:

but she (looks great) but is way to big and NOT how I want to look:

(all these people are my heros though! I love women runners, but esp. marathon runners.. I'm running in the 2002 NYC marathon! hope to get miles under ten for that...)

so I guess it's a mix of a look and running and how I feel-- like how you feel when you wake up in the moning and you body feels right and NOT gross.

-Susan

 

[KBgrl]

omg susan... thats freakin nasty!! im sorry grl but seriously .. GAG!! i was going to say the last pic u posted was the best out them all! she looks the most "normal" .. the first one is totally disgusting! eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww

 

[SteelWeaver]

Something you might want to consider if you're a marathon runner:

Endurance athletes need FAR more carbs than strength athletes. How do you have the energy to get out of bed, never mind run? (Not flaming, just saying ...) You need to get clear on your goals. Training styles and nutrition programmes for strength and endurance athletes are completely different. Marathon running is catabolic - it tears down muscle - see that woman in the pic you posted - she has very little muscle, and the muscle she DOES have is likely mostly red fibre - small and built for endurance. Beyond about 90 minutes of cardio exercise, the body starts using protein for fuel - i.e. muscle. Strength training activates white muscle fibres, which have the greatest potential for hypertrophy, or growth. They are for speed and size. The bigger the muscles, the more fat they will burn. That's how come bodybuilders can get shredded and marathon runners can't. See the woman in the bottom pic? She's a sprinter (right?) - the type of training she does encourages hypertrophy - that's why her legs are so big and muscular - and you'll notice she's far more shredded than the marathoner, who has the "bag of bones" look.

Are you wanting to be a *competitive* marathoner? I mean, are you interested in winning, not just running? Then start eating more carbs and resign yourself to the skinny-fat look forever. Don't worry - the carbs will all burn off whilst running, and your body shape will remain pretty much the same it is now. If you want the shredded but muscular look, cut out the cardio, keep the carbs lowish, and hit the weights hard and heavy.

Ladies, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on anything here.

 

[thin]

omg susan... thats freakin nasty!! im sorry grl but seriously .. GAG!! i was going to say the last pic u posted was the best out them all! she looks the most "normal" .. the first one is totally disgusting! eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww

Ha ha. You want me to post some pics of muscular chicks at the thin page and see how they react? Exactly the same.

I had to use the pictures of Turn and Laroupe to convince them that *distance running* would not give them "man legs"
(if you do read the topic let me know if I have any facts wrong-- it would be a big help...)


Don't dis the top two women, they will kick your ass on 20+ mile runs (so would I, I might add... I think )

I think Marion (the fastest woman sprinter in the word, last pic) is AMAZING I'd love to look like her, but -uh- I'm 5'1" and slow like the truck so not only would I look like a small tank with all that muscle but I would not even be any good at my sport!

Hmm question about the carbs: do you need to eat them every day or just before a long run? I switch to carbs before a race... but every day. eek!

 

[thin]

Just wanted to add I'm not a competitive runner I just enjoy it-- personnel best and all that, you know. 10 min miles are slooooow. But, I think I can do better.

 

[Debu]

Those pics were GUUUUUUROOOOOSSSSSSSS!!!

I could blow her away with one good protein fart.