Need help leaning my body out

[dreamgirl]

ok ok, now that I have been training hard for a while, my weight has plateaued at 133-135. I've gone (supposedly) from 30% to 24% (taken 3 weeks ago- could be lower)

I'm looking a whole lot better, BUT, I'm not as hard looking as I used to be before baby#2. Here's my diet:

meal 1: 2 egg whites & 1 whole egg

meal 2: 1/2 cup oatmeal + protein shake

meal 3: chicken or steak + sometimes brown rice + sometimes veggies

meal 4: (dinner) some kind of lean meat + veggies

snack (8pm): here's where I go wrong... lol, but I am being honest... 2-3 choc. chip cookies


workouts: 3-4 days a week 40 minutes cardio + 20 minutes weights on specfic muscle groups, 1 day a week 60 minutes lifting only, softball-catcher 1 hour a week


RS- I hope you see this... I know you'll have an answer for me. I want to go from 24% to about 17-18%. it's not about competing for me, but I have made muscle gains but I need to loose fat... maybe just keep it up and try to not have the cookies at the end of the day... I LOVE choc. chip cookies and I don't cheat all day... I'm helpless!

[ROCKILLER]

How about trying to consolidate your cheating for 1 or 2 days a week. Also, your cookies come at the opposite time of the day for you to be having them. Maybe have a cookie with your protein shake and a small bowl of low fat cottage cheese at night. The way I see it there is no reason to freak out all day and be perfect all day and then "fix" yourself by having some cookies. For example: I dont like vanilla protein shakes because they taste like cake batter. Now if I throw a froxen strawberry or 2 in there I love it. The strawberries dont really do anything for me other than keep me sane but I figure berries are better than candy and usually its post workout so no big deal. Maybe you can modify the rest of your diet slightly to make it more liveable and you wont feel the need to cheat.

[coffee-guy]

ok ok, now that I have been training hard for a while, my weight has plateaued at 133-135. I've gone (supposedly) from 30% to 24% (taken 3 weeks ago- could be lower)

I'm looking a whole lot better, BUT, I'm not as hard looking as I used to be before baby#2. Here's my diet:

meal 1: 2 egg whites & 1 whole egg

meal 2: 1/2 cup oatmeal + protein shake

meal 3: chicken or steak + sometimes brown rice + sometimes veggies

meal 4: (dinner) some kind of lean meat + veggies

snack (8pm): here's where I go wrong... lol, but I am being honest... 2-3 choc. chip cookies


workouts: 3-4 days a week 40 minutes cardio + 20 minutes weights on specfic muscle groups, 1 day a week 60 minutes lifting only, softball-catcher 1 hour a week


RS- I hope you see this... I know you'll have an answer for me. I want to go from 24% to about 17-18%. it's not about competing for me, but I have made muscle gains but I need to loose fat... maybe just keep it up and try to not have the cookies at the end of the day... I LOVE choc. chip cookies and I don't cheat all day... I'm helpless!

The first thing I will tell you is that you are starving yourself to death. You have almost no carbs at all (leaving out the cookies) which is the first (and biggest) mistake you can make.

Secondly, your total caloric count has to be lower than 800 (leaving out the cookies) and that is NOT what you want when trying to lose weight.

RS nows women better than I do so I will give her a day or two to pop on and help you out - otherwise I'll critique away :D...

[redsquirrel]

ok ok, now that I have been training hard for a while, my weight has plateaued at 133-135. I've gone (supposedly) from 30% to 24% (taken 3 weeks ago- could be lower)

I'm looking a whole lot better, BUT, I'm not as hard looking as I used to be before baby#2. Here's my diet:

meal 1: 2 egg whites & 1 whole egg

meal 2: 1/2 cup oatmeal + protein shake

meal 3: chicken or steak + sometimes brown rice + sometimes veggies

meal 4: (dinner) some kind of lean meat + veggies

snack (8pm): here's where I go wrong... lol, but I am being honest... 2-3 choc. chip cookies


workouts: 3-4 days a week 40 minutes cardio + 20 minutes weights on specfic muscle groups, 1 day a week 60 minutes lifting only, softball-catcher 1 hour a week


RS- I hope you see this... I know you'll have an answer for me. I want to go from 24% to about 17-18%. it's not about competing for me, but I have made muscle gains but I need to loose fat... maybe just keep it up and try to not have the cookies at the end of the day... I LOVE choc. chip cookies and I don't cheat all day... I'm helpless!

Ok, well first off all, I want you to keep in mind your body fat did not drop 6% in 3 weeks. It's just not possible, I hate to say....During even contest dieting, and tons of cardio, losing 1% per week is a GIFT. This all sort of goes back to that thread where I said I think those trainers inflate your BF initially, and then give you the false impression they are worth the money and gauge your BF some unattainable amount. And by unattainable, I mean it's just not possible in that period of time. That's primarily why I recommend getting your own set of calipers and having the same person pull your pinches each week....in this case I would recommend your husband do it. There's directions that come with thte calipers that tell you how and where to pinch. This way you KNOW it's a true reading.

Secondly, you need to remember a couple things about having babies. 1) Women will almost always keep 2-3 lbs of permanent weight from each birth. So, getting back to your old weight just may not be in the cards. 2) Getting abck the tightness you once had pre baby may also not be as easy as you think. You need to remember you body; especially your abdomen- has been stretched, and may not want to return to normal after 2 children. I'm not saying this to discourage you from where you want to go- just reality.

Now onto the diet...FH is right- your cals are too low.You have the right idea, but we need to tweak it a little. So here's what I would add:

Meal 1- add one more egg white and 1/2 c of oatmeal

Meal 2- exchange the oatmeal for 1 rice cake w/ 1tbsp of natty PB

Meal 3- 5oz of chicken, 4oz sweet potato or brown rice and 1 FULL cup of green veggies

Meal 4- same as 2

Meal 5- 5oz of fish or turkey, 2 cups of green veggies

Meal 6- 4 egg white omelet
* I wouldn't add this for another couple of weeks...just because you're only eating 4 meals right now...your body needs time to adjust

...Hope this helps. I would say try this diet for the next 3-4 weeks and see how it goes. If you don't tighten up more or lose any more BF, we can make more changes; like a no-carb or a carb cycle type of diet. :)

[dreamgirl]

Ok, well first off all, I want you to keep in mind your body fat did not drop 6% in 3 weeks. It's just not possible, I hate to say....During even contest dieting, and tons of cardio, losing 1% per week is a GIFT. This all sort of goes back to that thread where I said I think those trainers inflate your BF initially, and then give you the false impression they are worth the money and gauge your BF some unattainable amount. And by unattainable, I mean it's just not possible in that period of time. That's primarily why I recommend getting your own set of calipers and having the same person pull your pinches each week....in this case I would recommend your husband do it. There's directions that come with thte calipers that tell you how and where to pinch. This way you KNOW it's a true reading.

Secondly, you need to remember a couple things about having babies. 1) Women will almost always keep 2-3 lbs of permanent weight from each birth. So, getting back to your old weight just may not be in the cards. 2) Getting abck the tightness you once had pre baby may also not be as easy as you think. You need to remember you body; especially your abdomen- has been stretched, and may not want to return to normal after 2 children. I'm not saying this to discourage you from where you want to go- just reality.

Now onto the diet...FH is right- your cals are too low.You have the right idea, but we need to tweak it a little. So here's what I would add:

Meal 1- add one more egg white and 1/2 c of oatmeal

Meal 2- exchange the oatmeal for 1 rice cake w/ 1tbsp of natty PB

Meal 3- 5oz of chicken, 4oz sweet potato or brown rice and 1 FULL cup of green veggies

Meal 4- same as 2

Meal 5- 5oz of fish or turkey, 2 cups of green veggies

Meal 6- 4 egg white omelet
* I wouldn't add this for another couple of weeks...just because you're only eating 4 meals right now...your body needs time to adjust

...Hope this helps. I would say try this diet for the next 3-4 weeks and see how it goes. If you don't tighten up more or lose any more BF, we can make more changes; like a no-carb or a carb cycle type of diet. :)

OK - I will definately try this. I'm not that far off of it right now. I've added again taking 1-ephedra stacker 2 in the morning. I don't want to take any more than that because I am so afraid of hurting my heart or something. And that much caffiene really makes me wierd cause I don't really ever have caffiene. rs- you may have misread my bf... 4 months ago, supposedly it was 30% and 3 weeks ago they did my pinches at 24%. I haven't had it done in 3 weeks. I do look a lot different, so I know I have changed my bf, so no matter what my actual % is, I am lower, I can see a major difference. my eating is so much better and consistant, so are my workouts.

my belly is tight and pretty flat, I have a little extra skin on it, and i am going in for a consult with a dermatologist to see if I am a canidate for thermage... which is a skin tightening procedure. I've attached a pic... so you can see what I am talking about... I am not even as bad as this person. so for me, i might look like I truely never had kids! :)

[Mr I]

looks to me like your killing your metabolsim. The biggest change I'd suggest is that you need to eat a good complex carb inclusive meal within an hour of waking up, thats what sets your metabolic rate for the day and its a big opportunity missed if you don't.

Get up, get your oats in, ideally aprotien as well, and that way your cooking right off, then as the day goes you eat less carbs, ensuring that you take in some a few hours before your workout and a little after. From there just ensure your getting regular clean protien for muscle tone from your workouts, good luck.

[FitnessBrat]

my belly is tight and pretty flat, I have a little extra skin on it, and i am going in for a consult with a dermatologist to see if I am a canidate for thermage... which is a skin tightening procedure. I've attached a pic... so you can see what I am talking about... I am not even as bad as this person. so for me, i might look like I truely never had kids! :)

I've never heard of this. I'm very interested to hear what they tell you! I googled it for a little more info - looks like it lasts between 12-24 months and cost about $2-$3k. Does that sound accurate?

[xxxkazxxx]

DG, if you think your tummy is not as bad as that picture, then IMO I wouldn't think you need the thermo thingo. Even the tummy in the picture looks like 6 months of propper diet and exercise would fix the problem. But iv'e never had loose skin in that region so I dare not force that opinion at all. I know that until I have lived with something I can't totally understand. I don't know how long you have been trying to fix the problem yourself. If it's over 12 months, then I feel your frustration.

I think go along with the diet etc that RS has set out for you, & any changes she makes & stick to it for several months. Then think about cosmetic surgery if that still fails.
Anykind of cosmetic surgery scares the beejeezus out of me. I think it surely works for the purpose it's used for, but I worry about what it will cause later on. All the lasers & foreign material they inject etc, it would have to have an effect on all the cells & the composition of science within your body. That botox stuff is freaky, surely your face would adapt to that stuff being injected in your face & the muscles would no longer have to do their job 100%. So after years of using the stuff & then stopping, I just picture your face would collapse because the muscles havnt had to do their job for 10 years & don't remember how to. And all the pricking, prodding & laser beams that cosmetic surgery intails would interfere with the cells, surely they would have to mutate and turn cancerous. Its probably a far stretch from reality, but I just believe that when you start messing with mother nature, sooner or later you pay for it in one way or another & then you realise it was just not worth it.

[FitnessBrat]

I'm with DG. I've had loose skin in that area since my son was born 2 years ago. Its very frustrating, makes me so sad that with all the exercise and dieting I do, as disciplined as I am, it will never change without help. Thermage is non-invasive, no pain or recovery. I plan to have a tummy tuck in the near future, because that's how much the loose skin bothers me.

[dreamgirl]

I've never heard of this. I'm very interested to hear what they tell you! I googled it for a little more info - looks like it lasts between 12-24 months and cost about $2-$3k. Does that sound accurate?

this whole thermage thing came out in 2000... the lasting effects are sort of unknown... at minimum it stays the same for 2 years... it can cost from 1K - 5K. but here in cleveland there is one dermatologist doing it, so it's probably going to be on the higher side. it's not an invasive thing at all, they rub this machine over the skin which gives off hot and cold temperatures... some how making your skin stimulated into making collagen which then tightens the skin. This has been used in Brazil a little longer than in the USA.

for me it's about the wrinkles my skin looks like when i bend... it's a little loose.. I would think that most mom's would die for what it looks like for me after 2 kids. I am just extremely critical about it and it REALLY bothers me that it's "almost perfect". I looked the same after my first - like i never had a baby.

RS- I've been following the diet. I'll keep you posted on what's going on.

[xxxkazxxx]

I'm with DG. I've had loose skin in that area since my son was born 2 years ago. Its very frustrating, makes me so sad that with all the exercise and dieting I do, as disciplined as I am, it will never change without help. Thermage is non-invasive, no pain or recovery. I plan to have a tummy tuck in the near future, because that's how much the loose skin bothers me.

Yeah untill ive had something that bothers me that much, I guess I cant say 100% that i wouldnt take some action to fix it if it is non-nvasive.

It must be a genetic thing with how your skin deals with pregnancy? I dont have loose skin, but i thought it was just because I didnt put on any extra weight with my daughter. I was basically all baby. But then my sister however put on 38kg with her first pregnancy & 40kg with her second. She lost all the weight after birth within 12 months & also has no loose skin & neither of us have stretch marks. So maybe we just have lucky genes in that department. We do however pay for it in plenty of other ways. B cup boobs & pale sensitive skin. Both drive us insane. I'd love to be tanned and have bigger tits! Lucky for me there is tanning cream and push up bra's!

[ROCKILLER]

I read somewhere that it has something to do with age too. Women in their early twentys tend to "bounce back" quicker/easier and it gets progressively harder for the body to deal with a baby. I'm not sure how true it is but it seems logical to me.