WTF #2!!!!

[redsquirrel]

Alright....so I need some insight. As you all know, I've been trying to stay on the straight and narrow the past 4 months. I've been working out twice a day about 4 days a week. In the afternoon, I'll go and do 40-45 min of cardio, and at night I do my weights, and then maybe another 20 minutes.

Now, I know bodies plateau, and I feel like that's where I'm at. I want to lose about another 8lbs, and it really seems like this is it. So, what do you all suggest? Should I do the no carb Beverly diet to switch my diet up??? Here's a sample of what I eat in a given day:

9:30am- 3 egg whites, 1 whole
1/2 grapefruit
1:00pm- 5oz turkey
1 cup of veggies
OR
5oz chicken on wheat burrito with 1/2 tomato, TBSP LF sour
cream, sprinkle of LF cheese, and 1/4 c black beans
4:30pm- Muscle milk shake (small one)
Rice cake w/ 1 TBSP Natty PB
8:00pm- 5oz salmon, trout w/ veggies or turkey tacos
11:30pm- 3 egg whites, 1 whole

Now, obviously I could cut out the sour cream and cheese, but then it would pretty much be like being on a contest diet. I might as well do another show. So that leads me to my next question- In order to get where I want to be and stay there, am I going to have to eat like a competitor forever??? On the weekends, yes I do cheat a little bit, but with the amount of activity I'm doing on a regular basis I just feel like I've hit a wall at 17.5% BF and 148 lbs; making my LBM 122. My hips have gotten narrower, and my upper body is really starting to look lean. But my legs; and my legs have ALWAYS been the leanest on my body, don't seem to be leaning up AT ALL!!!

[Caladin]

Hey I noticed this post. This diet might help you get leaner if what you use now has stopped working. Let me know what you think.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1150209

[FitnessBrat]

Hey I noticed this post. This diet might help you get leaner if what you use now has stopped working. Let me know what you think.

http://www.t-nation.com/
readTopic.do?id=1150209

This guy claims he's walking around at 3.9% bf - he's not a competitor - sure. Then he says your diet should be 60+% fat (1/3 of that being SATURATED) - wtf?

[trip]

believe it or not, that's a particular cutting diet that some use

[redsquirrel]

Well, it's not so much the diet that I need help with. I know how to diet for a show and get my BF low.

I was moreso asking if I basically need to eat like a competitor for the rest of my life in order to minimize any fat gains. Or, eat less and do more and more cardio as I get older? Metabolism is said to slow as we age. However, I've done a bit of research, and that doesn't seem to be entirely true. 1) I'm a very active adult, which should keep my metabolism high. and 2) Metabolism actually only slows by about 1% a year after the age of 30. The main reason previous research stated it did was because as we age, we have less energy.

[FitnessBrat]

I would guess you need to eat that way to get there - but you won't have to stay eating that way to maintain. Your bf% is already great for a female. :)

[trip]

rs,

i'm 48 been doing this stuff since 16

i'm kind of like u, yeah, it slows, yet, i don't think it slows in a bad way, it's just that as humans we are doing growing the whole body as a whole

here's my experience

at 35, had too really get a more balanced approach, especially with making diet more a priority than training, earlier i focused let's say 70% of effort on training, 30% on diet

at 35, i'd say, i split it 50-50

now, in my younger days i'd say based on your posts i ate like u, generally clean and good, little processed crap, sugar, yet, when i cheated i didn't stress out, i enjoyed cuase i earned it

48, i think i'm in this phase right now of, 33-33-33, i really have to take into account the rest portion, whereas before I was Bull, lol, always trained like bull, and now without proper rest and diet, i get overtrained at the drop of a hat

Looking back in all seroiousness, my great strength was, tough mo fo, out work almost all, great weakness, refusal to try some new things and change for any length of time, for fear i'd lose what i worked so hard for.

Now, i'm forced to change, I think it will be my best ever going forward, i can feel how my body is responding and liking it.

Now, if i was helping someone younger, of course i'd focuse more on the 33-33-33, which since i've been thru it, and have the experience i can see all of the signs.


Here's what I think was happening with me all those years, imho, I was maybe always on the verge of overtraining, right at the edge, so if I missed a week, I'd see drastic changes in my body, which would make me think i was losing it, versus, what the body was really doing was going into protection mode, overcompensating.

So, since i'd see drastic change, i'd jump back right in work hard, get back to where i was, yet, over time no real progress.

What i'm finding out now, with the 33-33-33 balance, my whole body mind and emotions are more stable over great lenghts of time, ie, missing a week my body stays tight taught and feels good.

good luck

oh, in ps- i don't believe the crap, i believe there is always a better way, we just have too find it, nevah give up

[redsquirrel]

. Your bf% is already great for a female. :)

I think I'll have to make out with you after that comment, Ms. Size 0!!! :loveheart

But in all seriousnes, my BF may be lower than most females. It just seems like no matter what I do I still can't tighten up...you know- the hail storminess. I feel like that I need to be 13-14% in order to see changes. But in the same token, I still want to enjoy my life, you know?

[redsquirrel]

rs,

i'm 48 been doing this stuff since 16

i'm kind of like u, yeah, it slows, yet, i don't think it slows in a bad way, it's just that as humans we are doing growing the whole body as a whole

here's my experience

at 35, had too really get a more balanced approach, especially with making diet more a priority than training, earlier i focused let's say 70% of effort on training, 30% on diet

at 35, i'd say, i split it 50-50

now, in my younger days i'd say based on your posts i ate like u, generally clean and good, little processed crap, sugar, yet, when i cheated i didn't stress out, i enjoyed cuase i earned it

48, i think i'm in this phase right now of, 33-33-33, i really have to take into account the rest portion, whereas before I was Bull, lol, always trained like bull, and now without proper rest and diet, i get overtrained at the drop of a hat

Looking back in all seroiousness, my great strength was, tough mo fo, out work almost all, great weakness, refusal to try some new things and change for any length of time, for fear i'd lose what i worked so hard for.

Now, i'm forced to change, I think it will be my best ever going forward, i can feel how my body is responding and liking it.

Now, if i was helping someone younger, of course i'd focuse more on the 33-33-33, which since i've been thru it, and have the experience i can see all of the signs.


Here's what I think was happening with me all those years, imho, I was maybe always on the verge of overtraining, right at the edge, so if I missed a week, I'd see drastic changes in my body, which would make me think i was losing it, versus, what the body was really doing was going into protection mode, overcompensating.

So, since i'd see drastic change, i'd jump back right in work hard, get back to where i was, yet, over time no real progress.

What i'm finding out now, with the 33-33-33 balance, my whole body mind and emotions are more stable over great lenghts of time, ie, missing a week my body stays tight taught and feels good.

good luck

oh, in ps- i don't believe the crap, i believe there is always a better way, we just have too find it, nevah give up

WOW. I'd have to say you are right in my head!! Your comments are resounding similar to what I'm thinking.

You are 110% correct on your assessment of where I'm at. I feel I have to go to the gym and workout with weights 5 times a week. And I feel like a dirtbag if I don't do 1 hr of cardio at least 4 times a week in addition to my weights at a separate time. But on the flip side, doing that is really the only thing that has yielded any results....which really depresses me and tells me I will have to maintain this level activity just to stay where I'm at.

I guess it just becomes having patience with our bodies and not overtraining them (even though we think we aren't).

It's not so much that I want to gain any more muscle, because I don't. I want to lose BF. But it seems like ever since the baby thing, my body just doesn't want to respond to losing anymore BF. I want to know what the secret weapon is, you know? I mean, I don't want to have to eat like a competitor in order to look how I looked when I was 25.

So, based on this 33-33-33 theory, I'm assuming you mean, 33- training, 33- diet, and 33 rest?

[redsquirrel]

And furthermore, I'm really tempted right now to do a small cycle of Var coupled with some GH maybe....

That's what pisses me off- that I have to look into other supplements now, rather than just with diet and exercise.

You know you go to the gym a lot when the front desk people know your name, and say "see you at 6!" when you're walking out at 3pm...

[trip]

yes, throw in more rest

no secret just lot's of failures

it's a consistency thing, i don't eat like a competitor and i'm still basically similar to my 20's with actually some better body parts

just a guess, i'd say it would take 2-3 months to break that mind habit

Focus, which I know u do already, yet, think HOW DO I FEEL, rather than look

Want to get in touch with the feel thing, to grow some confidence, and also make some progress is some areas versus volume volume volume

ur hitting 9 workouts a week, i know it would be hard, yet, next week try every other day training, one day on, one day off, train whatever u want or as long as you want, just do it for one week and see how you feel

u want to get into two areas

a. confidence in that u know what ur doing, and have control
b. and that some continual progress is made in some area

And maybe look at it this way, have u ever given the rest issue close scrutinity and made a commitment to it, like the diet and excercise.

The difficulty in changing a habit, is what you are doing now makes u happy, very happy and secure. Any change creates temporary pain, yet, we do that in hopes of long term permanent growing happiness.

Take baby steps, that are consistent, planned out with a real plan, to measure the progress to boost confidence. this will minimize all pain and discomfort in the change, and lead too quicker happiness. If things don't work out, u can always go back and try some thing new, yet, most find if they give it a chance they are better for it.

That's it in a nutshell, yet, it's not an easy task. I talked to a client last night and we have been working on this ONE issue for one whole year. Last year he was all over the board doing lotsa stuff that produced nada, even though i was like this is where ur at. Beginning of this year he was bummed, and i said if he still wanted success i'll stick with him but we'd have too change cause i'm tired of waisting my time and listening too all of his failures. He agreed. So, I said, this is the program, the program will not change until you change, it is the only thing i will talk about with u, i don't want to hear this and that and all the other crap cause it's meaningless, u gotta get over this one wall, or you'll continue too struggle.

The first month, bouncing ball, big up's and downs, yet, he did finally see seom light. Second month, he started to get in the flow, and last night he said, "You know I'm making a big stink about nothing, this stuff u talk about doing is really nothing, etc. etc. etc."

So, with him now we are at the part where the light bulb went off and he believes, he believes cause he finally had a little bit of progress and pleasure.

And now, we're just going to take the next 3-4 months to build up the consistency of his actions so by the end of the year he's done with this learning phase of his life and he can go onward and upward.

And btw, i go thru this stuff myself at times. It's hard too let go, yet, sometimes when it is hard, it's the best thing to do.

hoped that helped
good luck

[FitnessBrat]

I think I'll have to make out with you after that comment, Ms. Size 0!!! :loveheart

But in all seriousnes, my BF may be lower than most females. It just seems like no matter what I do I still can't tighten up...you know- the hail storminess. I feel like that I need to be 13-14% in order to see changes. But in the same token, I still want to enjoy my life, you know?

Now THAT might get some activity going on the board :devil:

I do understand what you mean - however I still believe that once you get there (whatever that may take) it will be easier to maintain. As long as you don't get way off track of course. I think age has a lot to do with it. I've always thought it was easy to lose if I needed to - once I turned 30 it wasn't quite as easy!

[beefcake]

I think I'll have to make out with you after that comment, Ms. Size 0!!! :loveheart

I was going to start pct, but after that comment, I think my levels are now back up. LOL

[Bouncer]

I think I'll have to make out with you after that comment