Trying To Get Muscle Definition

[Sassy69]

I have to agree w/ Daisy - I'm 5'7" and I cut nicely on no more than 1800 cals / day. If I go above that it all seems to stop. You can start w/ the formulas, try & then tweak after a few weeks as to what seems to work the best.

My only suggestion on the diet would be to make the 4 pm "snack" more of a meal for 2 reasons - 1) no protein, 2) its 4 hrs since the previous meal & another 2 before the next real meal. Personally also, apples on an empty stomach just kill my digestion w/ the acidity. I would stick a protein + somethign meal around 3 pm instead.

From what you put into fitday.com, can you tell us the protein / fat/ carb percentages?

 

[superqt4u2nv]

You MUST take the time to get to know **your** body ....

Very true my point was that there are simple templates based on hieght weight and body type (IE meso, endo, ecto) and activitly level that come with a great baseline for calorie intake Just a matter of tweaking the macros to find your optimium fat burning combo.

 

[scorpiogirl]

You must spread Karma before giving it to Daisy_Girl again!!!

 

[XZIllR8]

I have been following my diet since the end of June. I lost 15 lbs from the plan. Last month I lost an inch but no weight. I'm not quite sure what that means. Over the last month to month and a half, my weight loss has been slowing and I'm just trying to narrow down what the cause may be. I personally thought my diet was fine, that's why I'm trying to find out if it may be my workouts that are not cutting the mustard.

I've been doing the basic workouts from the "Bodysculpting Bible for Women" for a year.....more consistently in the last 6 months. Would spreading my weight training from 2 days a week to 3 days a week increase my fat loss and bring out muscle definition?

Good suggestion on putting protein in my afternoon snack. I'm wondering if it would help if I had 1 small plum and 1 hard boiled egg for my morning snack and my afternoon snack. That way there's protein present in each meal. I will try to eat larger protions of what I'm already eating. Not eating enough calories may be the culprit as well. It's going to be hard for me to eat more....I'm not used to it. My approximate percentages of food intake are: 40% fat (good fats), 35% protein, and 25% carbs. I'm not sure what my body type is. I know my fat is at my midsection, so I'm apple shaped.

Thanks for all you suggestions!

 

[superqt4u2nv]

40% fat even good fats is way to high IMO. Fat levels are best kept 20-30%.

 

[Sassy69]

I have been following my diet since the end of June. I lost 15 lbs from the plan. Last month I lost an inch but no weight. I'm not quite sure what that means. Over the last month to month and a half, my weight loss has been slowing and I'm just trying to narrow down what the cause may be. I personally thought my diet was fine, that's why I'm trying to find out if it may be my workouts that are not cutting the mustard.

I've been doing the basic workouts from the "Bodysculpting Bible for Women" for a year.....more consistently in the last 6 months. Would spreading my weight training from 2 days a week to 3 days a week increase my fat loss and bring out muscle definition?

Good suggestion on putting protein in my afternoon snack. I'm wondering if it would help if I had 1 small plum and 1 hard boiled egg for my morning snack and my afternoon snack. That way there's protein present in each meal. I will try to eat larger protions of what I'm already eating. Not eating enough calories may be the culprit as well. It's going to be hard for me to eat more....I'm not used to it. My approximate percentages of food intake are: 40% fat (good fats), 35% protein, and 25% carbs. I'm not sure what my body type is. I know my fat is at my midsection, so I'm apple shaped.

Thanks for all you suggestions!

I agree on the way high fats. Something like a 40% prot, 30%carb, 30% fat or 40/40/20 might do you better.

Also yes if you want to build muscle 2 things are a must - 1) eat like u want to grow muscle - i.e. no protein = no muscle - nothing to build with. 2) training -muscle grows by tearing it down & letting it build back up. I'd go to the gym AT LEAST 3x /week. You aren't doing anything in your routine (eating , training) that even remotely supports anything above just bare maintanance.

Why you lost 1" but no weight --- "weight" = skeleton + bodyweight + muscle mass. If your weight isnt changing but your bodyfat is, that means the sum total of skeleton, muscle & fat isn't changing , but the amount of each (except skeleton) is. Its a good thing. This means your bodyfat is still dropping but you are starting to recover some of your muscle as well. That's why we constantly say don't get hung up about the number on the scale. Its almost irrelevant because it tells you nothign about the composition of your body. So many people freak if they dont' see the scale go down - there is a point where the exchange of fat & muscle starts and the total weight won't change. You should get your bodyfat measured to track relative changes, or even just go by how your clothes fit instead of teh scale.

 

[Miss Scarlett]

.... or even just go by how your clothes fit instead of teh scale.

I would be a cause for more than a little celebration month to month if the dress size droped but the bodyweight stayed the same...

 

[XZIllR8]

I will cut out the Flax Seed Oil in my morning shake then. That should help. For some reason though, the percentage naturally climbs up to that for my fat when I enter my meat in. I don't eat fatty stuff, so I'm not sure how to cut it down anymore than leaving out the FSO in the morn.

I've been doing interval cardio 3-4x a week and regular cardio (non-interval) 1-2x a week 30-40 minute sessions. The other 2 days I do weights. So I will start doing weights 3 times a week now.

 

[Sassy69]

Doing anythign 2x / week is sort of "nice to do" -- that's about the level of result you can get from it. For ex, something like yoga 2x/week is a nice thing to add into a weekly regimen just for something different and a little stretching. But you won't really get the full benefit of it that few times/week. Same w/ resistance training.

 

[scorpiogirl]

If you're going to cut out fat, I wouldn't cut the "good" fat. Keep the good stuff, such as your flax, and eliminate the fat you get from meat. Instead of eating a lot of red meat, switch to fish or chicken. ...and the fish is still "good" fat. I don't think 40% fat is cause for alarm....if you start getting any higher than that though, I would try to find ways to cut it back.

Basically, it all comes back to what your body responds to.