someone here who can help me??

[SteelWeaver]

Hi. Welcome to the boards. You'll find a lot of good information here, but the best way to find it is to first search for what you want, and then ask specific questions about the stuff you don't understand or can't find.

Many of the same questions keep coming up, so sometimes the people who've been here a while get lazy and don't feel like repeating themselves, and then the newcomers feel unwelcome.

Have you done any searches yet? Try, it's amazing what you can find! I'm going to try and answer some of your questions, though, because I know how long the searches can take, especially if English is not your mother tongue.

I'm no expert, but I've learnt some of the basics.

So, good food to eat:
Protein
Fish/seafood
Lean red meat
Chicken
Turkey
Wild game
Eggs
Egg whites
Cottage cheese
Tofu
Soy beans

Carbohydrate (carb) - starchy types
Oatmeal
Sweet potatoes
Other kinds of legumes (kidney beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, etc)
Whole grain bread
Brown rice
Wild rice
Kashi
Quinoa

Carbohydrate (carb) - fibrous types
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cucumber
Green peppers
Well, basically most green vegetables, but not carrots, peas or squash.

Fats
Olive oil
Flaxseed oil
Fats from nuts
Fats from fish

OK, BAD food that you should avoid:
Anything too fatty - junk food, fried food, fatty meat.
Sugar, sweets, candies, cakes, cookies, and anything containing a lot of sugar like sodas, etc.

How MUCH food:
If you want to lose fat, body weight in pounds x 12 - but I'm definitely not a diet expert. There are many ways to diet. Try a search and read up a bit first, OK?

How to lose FAT (not weight - you don't want to lose muscle):
Train hard and as heavy as you can for about 2 or 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Use perfect form. Build muscle - muscle will burn fat away, muscle burns energy all the time, even when you're sitting doing nothing. Muscle is good! Fat is the enemy!

Don't worry honey - you won't build too much muscle - do you have any idea have difficult it is for women to build muscle?? I dare you to go ahead and try - see if you can build muscle easily. If you can you're genetically gifted and most girls on this board will be jealous!

Try to train every body part at least once a week. You need to adjust this according to your intensity in the gym and your body's recovery ability. Most people seem to do each part once a week because it's convenient, and gives them good gains.

Look at spatterson's weekly split above here, or search for "training programs", "training split".

You'll need to weight train 3 or 4 times a week, and do cardio 3-7 times a week. Look at spatterson's post about that.

I hope this helps, and happy reading on the searches!

 

[KEL]

WOW! SteelWeaver you covered that very well!

The only thing I have to add is to drink water...4 liters daily

 

[rez]

what about avocado as a fat? do u not recommend it b/c of its carb content?

 

[SteelWeaver]

Oh, yes, avocado too. I was just listing stuff off the top of my head. I know I didn't cover everything - just the basics. And yes, water - lots of water, lots and lots of water.

Elisaeth, there is SO much to learn, it seems VERY overwhelming at first, but it gets easier the more familiar you become with the basics.

Diet variations that I've heard of:
Diets with the same number of calories every day, with specific Protein (P), Carbohydrate (C) and Fat (F) calorie ratios. For example 50%P, 30%C, 20%F
Or, 40P:40C:20F
Or, 45P:45:C:10F

Right now I am doing 40:40:20 at 2000 calories per day. This means I eat 800 calories of Protein, 800 calories of Carbohydrate, and about 400 calories of Fat.

I don't know how much you know, but usually we talk about P,C,F in GRAMS. Protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, fat has 9 calories per gram.

So my diet above has 200g protein, 200g carbohydrate, and about 45g fat. You can find out the nutritional values of different types of food at www.fitday.com, or you can buy nutritional calculation and menu planning software like "Healthkeeper". Or you can look in a calorie counting book

Another kind of diet that many women here like is carbohydrate cycling. You can keep the calories the same each day, or change them above and below your maintenance levels according to the number of carbohydrate grams you eat each day. Most people increase the protein grams on the days they decrease the carbohydrate grams. I think the generally accepted advice on this board is to have 2g of carb per kilogram of bodyweight on a high carb day, and 0.5g per kilo of bodyweight on low carb days.

Different training splits

You can follow a training split like the one you're doing now, upper body and lower body, or split your training according to bodyparts, like I said before.

Some people train 3 times per week, and follow an upper, lower, upper split the first week, then do lower, upper, lower the next week. That way you hit each body part twice every 10 days or so.

Some people train their whole body 3 times per week - this is quite good for beginners to develop initial strength, and help your body adjust to new stresses.

Or you could train 4 times a week and do upper, lower, upper, lower.

Or the split routine style. My training split currently is:
Mon: chest and biceps, abs
Tues: Back and triceps
Wed: rest
Thurs: shoulders and calves, abs
Fri: rest
Sat: Legs and calves, abs

Like I said before, try a search, and don't be afraid to go to the training board for routine suggestions. Hope this helps, and anyone else feel free to add, or correct anything I may be mistaken on.

Have a lovely day!