Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below well Right now i weigh between 113-115 (I could go through the different weights in one day), but i have 18% body fat. I would love to get the number down and gain muslce as im toneing. Im not big i just want to be more solid... my inner thigh being my main focus. I have a faint 6 pack but its getting there and my stomache is really all i can see that ever changes. Last summer i got down to 108 not really trying to just working out alot (not really knowing what i was doing), but my abs looked wonderfulll , i just still had a problem with toneing the rest of my body.
what can I do to actually see change?!?!?
- Thread starter star21
- Start date
well thats sorda the problem im not real sure what to eat or how much or how less. Right now i usually eat 3 egg whites and some oatmeal in the morning, then i eat some yogurt or protein shake, for my second meal i usually do either turkey or chicken sandwich(plain), then yogurt or protein, and dinner would be chicken or tuna vegtables small salad
There more specific you are & where you are starting from the better we can help you 
EXAMPLE
11:00 A.M. –
Meal # 1 :
• ~ 4 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• 1 Medium Granny Smith Apple (~ 4 ½ oz)
10:45 A.M. –
Meal # 2 :
• ~ 4 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• ~ 2 Cups Broccoli
2:45 P.M. – I think??
Meal # 3 :
• ~ 4 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• ~ 2 Cups Broccoli
6:00 P.M. –
Meal # 4 :
• ~ 3.5 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• 2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
9:00 P.M. –
Meal # 5 : Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade
• ~ 5 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• 9.5 oz Sweet Potato
• 1 Cup Green Beans
etc ...
Then training ...
Do you do anything? Like what?
Cardio
abs
Do you lift weights?
etc
EXAMPLE
11:00 A.M. –
Meal # 1 :
• ~ 4 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• 1 Medium Granny Smith Apple (~ 4 ½ oz)
10:45 A.M. –
Meal # 2 :
• ~ 4 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• ~ 2 Cups Broccoli
2:45 P.M. – I think??
Meal # 3 :
• ~ 4 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• ~ 2 Cups Broccoli
6:00 P.M. –
Meal # 4 :
• ~ 3.5 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• 2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
9:00 P.M. –
Meal # 5 : Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade
• ~ 5 oz Fit N Easy Chicken Breast Tenderloins, cooked in Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic & Fat Free EVOO Spray
• 9.5 oz Sweet Potato
• 1 Cup Green Beans
etc ...
Then training ...
Do you do anything? Like what?
Cardio
abs
Do you lift weights?
etc
Sassy69
New member
Hi star - welcome to EF!
The best way to start is to look VERY SPECIFICALLY at what you are eating now -- usually the problem is not enough food and maybe too many carbs, not enough fats. If you put your above menu in a food counts program like www.fitday.com (its free, online, very easy to use- most everyone here uses it), then you can see ExACTLY what you are eating - calories, amount of protein , fats, carbs. This is what we need to look at first because DIET is what drives everything.
It doesn't sound like you are far off -but I'm sure there are some tweaks to put in there. As far as "seeing change" -- its usually those places where women tend to hold the greatest concentration of fat cells (e.g. thighs, waist, hips) that we want to get rid of the most, but are also the slowest to go - this is what estrogen does - its natural to have more fat tend to be deposited in these areas as a survival mechanism to protect a growing baby. To "see change" there - if your diet & training are working, then you just have to be patient and let it do what it does - you can't "spot reduce" - you lose bodyfat proportionally all around your body but in the places where you tend to hold a greater concentration of fat cells, x% bodyfat dropped looks like "less progress" there than where you tend to hold less bodyfat -- most women tend to shred up pretty easily on the upper body, but the ass & thighs is a slower process. So you just keep plugging away at the diet or make tweaks as needed & it comes.
If you can put your above meal plan in fitday.com & list out specifically what the amounts are e.g.
Meal 1: 8 am (whatever time you ate)
3 egg whites
1/2 c oatmeal
Meal 2: 11 am
etc
Total cals: xxxx
Proteins: x grams (y%)
Fats: x grams (y%)
Carbs: x grams (y%)
If you look at any of the girls' journals you'll see this sort of info listed out -- it will help to open the discussion of what can be improved, what is missing, etc.
The best way to start is to look VERY SPECIFICALLY at what you are eating now -- usually the problem is not enough food and maybe too many carbs, not enough fats. If you put your above menu in a food counts program like www.fitday.com (its free, online, very easy to use- most everyone here uses it), then you can see ExACTLY what you are eating - calories, amount of protein , fats, carbs. This is what we need to look at first because DIET is what drives everything.
It doesn't sound like you are far off -but I'm sure there are some tweaks to put in there. As far as "seeing change" -- its usually those places where women tend to hold the greatest concentration of fat cells (e.g. thighs, waist, hips) that we want to get rid of the most, but are also the slowest to go - this is what estrogen does - its natural to have more fat tend to be deposited in these areas as a survival mechanism to protect a growing baby. To "see change" there - if your diet & training are working, then you just have to be patient and let it do what it does - you can't "spot reduce" - you lose bodyfat proportionally all around your body but in the places where you tend to hold a greater concentration of fat cells, x% bodyfat dropped looks like "less progress" there than where you tend to hold less bodyfat -- most women tend to shred up pretty easily on the upper body, but the ass & thighs is a slower process. So you just keep plugging away at the diet or make tweaks as needed & it comes.
If you can put your above meal plan in fitday.com & list out specifically what the amounts are e.g.
Meal 1: 8 am (whatever time you ate)
3 egg whites
1/2 c oatmeal
Meal 2: 11 am
etc
Total cals: xxxx
Proteins: x grams (y%)
Fats: x grams (y%)
Carbs: x grams (y%)
If you look at any of the girls' journals you'll see this sort of info listed out -- it will help to open the discussion of what can be improved, what is missing, etc.
okay i have a different question now... because i also think my problem is not what im eating but when im eating it... Well i was wondering how yall stay on such strick diet i always have stuff going on the i cant be on my food plan everyday. I try hard, but im always like well if i dont eat that then i will eat it later with something else as well and if i eat something thats not in my plan im like well i will just run more or workout more and.. thats been okay for me i dont ever really gain weight but i dont ever loose anything either....or gain muscle.
Sassy69
New member
That's another of the challenges -- this is a bit extreme, but it gives you a context - I compete in bodybuilding. I've had people tell me there is no other sport that is as demanding - because you "train" 24/7 - not meaning time in the gym, but also time modifying your diet, preparing your food, packign your food, carryign yoru food, arranging your day so that you do eat on time, as well as recovery time (sleep), cardio and generally keepign an even keel in your life to reduce the occurrence of cortisol spikes when you get stressed out.
I dont 'want to say you can't achieve your goals w/o impacting yoru daily schedule, but after you make the tweaks to your diet and get your training laid out, the next level of detail is to look at how consistently you are hitting your meal times. We base the idea of eating 5-6 small meals over the course of the day on the fact that your body metabolizes proteins, fats & carbs within 2-3 hours. If you grew up on the 3 meals/day thing - your body has adjusted to that. But for optimized "fitness" (meaning trying to most efficiently achieve specific body shaping & performance goals), we set up our activities on how our body runs. It is essentially a very fine-tuned biochemical machine. You fuel it w/ the right stuff, it burns at this rate (2-3 hours) and then you refuel. This sets up an effective burn rate if you fuel exactly what you need for whatever is the goal you want.
If you wanted to build significant muscle (I don't mean to look like Arnold Schwartszenegger, but to make a specific difference in what you have now), then you need to eat more protein to have the materials to build muscle and more carb to provide the energy for harder lifting to build more muscle & strength. But you will also have some left over carb that is deposited as bodyfat -- this reflects the idea that you can't really build muscle and burn fat at the same time. If you wanted to cut bodyfat, like for competition , there is a point where you will cut the bodyfat but you can't expect to build muscle - in fact you hit a point where your typical max lifting weights will start to drop as well simply because you arent' eatign for the purpose of maintaining strength w/ a competition cutting diet.
So where I was going with this -- if you are random about when you eat, then your body has a hard time setting up an average burn rate because it doen't really know when to expect the required about of food to come. So for example, yesterday I happened to be out running errands and hit my next meal time - since my diet is very optimized right now, if I don't feed when its feeding time, my body starts to freak out- I get dizzy in the head and feel like I'm going to die. It does pass, but it sucks. That's tellign me that I've added a small hiccup in the efficiency of fuel / burn / fuel / burn process that I'm trying to setup so I can hit that optimized rate of bodyfat burning. That will keep me from hitting optimum dieting when I have a target date in mind where I need to be a certain very lean bodyfat level and every additional time I screw up my schedule may hinder my ability to hit my date w/ my goal.
So its not saying it completely destroys my progress, but it will slow it down some. If you keep doing this --random eating time, not enough food, etc then you won't see fast progress w/ your goals. Its taking that extra step to do as much as you can to commit to eatign at the scheduled times that will get you resutls quicker.
But I think in your case, your first level of optimization is to look at your diet. I really think you aren't eating enough. Also like Bunny asked - what else is involved? Do you lift weights? Cardio? What activities do you do?
I dont 'want to say you can't achieve your goals w/o impacting yoru daily schedule, but after you make the tweaks to your diet and get your training laid out, the next level of detail is to look at how consistently you are hitting your meal times. We base the idea of eating 5-6 small meals over the course of the day on the fact that your body metabolizes proteins, fats & carbs within 2-3 hours. If you grew up on the 3 meals/day thing - your body has adjusted to that. But for optimized "fitness" (meaning trying to most efficiently achieve specific body shaping & performance goals), we set up our activities on how our body runs. It is essentially a very fine-tuned biochemical machine. You fuel it w/ the right stuff, it burns at this rate (2-3 hours) and then you refuel. This sets up an effective burn rate if you fuel exactly what you need for whatever is the goal you want.
If you wanted to build significant muscle (I don't mean to look like Arnold Schwartszenegger, but to make a specific difference in what you have now), then you need to eat more protein to have the materials to build muscle and more carb to provide the energy for harder lifting to build more muscle & strength. But you will also have some left over carb that is deposited as bodyfat -- this reflects the idea that you can't really build muscle and burn fat at the same time. If you wanted to cut bodyfat, like for competition , there is a point where you will cut the bodyfat but you can't expect to build muscle - in fact you hit a point where your typical max lifting weights will start to drop as well simply because you arent' eatign for the purpose of maintaining strength w/ a competition cutting diet.
So where I was going with this -- if you are random about when you eat, then your body has a hard time setting up an average burn rate because it doen't really know when to expect the required about of food to come. So for example, yesterday I happened to be out running errands and hit my next meal time - since my diet is very optimized right now, if I don't feed when its feeding time, my body starts to freak out- I get dizzy in the head and feel like I'm going to die. It does pass, but it sucks. That's tellign me that I've added a small hiccup in the efficiency of fuel / burn / fuel / burn process that I'm trying to setup so I can hit that optimized rate of bodyfat burning. That will keep me from hitting optimum dieting when I have a target date in mind where I need to be a certain very lean bodyfat level and every additional time I screw up my schedule may hinder my ability to hit my date w/ my goal.
So its not saying it completely destroys my progress, but it will slow it down some. If you keep doing this --random eating time, not enough food, etc then you won't see fast progress w/ your goals. Its taking that extra step to do as much as you can to commit to eatign at the scheduled times that will get you resutls quicker.
But I think in your case, your first level of optimization is to look at your diet. I really think you aren't eating enough. Also like Bunny asked - what else is involved? Do you lift weights? Cardio? What activities do you do?
