dbflgirl

Overview

Many women who first venture onto a bodybuilding site do so in search of a magic formula that will help them to lose weight and “tone” up.

Although I’ll state right off the bat that there is no such thing as “tone" – you either have muscle and low enough bodyfat for it to be apparent or you don’t – parts 1 and 2 of this article will deal with the weight loss side of things. Part 3 will discuss weight training and aerobic exercise (cardio). You can think of these as three legs of a stool: each is needed in order for the stool not to topple.

Losing Weight

The bad news: If you’re looking for a way to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks or if you want to know what supplements you can take so that you’ll lose weight without significantly modifying your eating habits, stop reading now. There are no magic pills or formulas and I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending that there are. Losing weight is all about establishing a healthy relationship with food, one in which your food choices are fueled by knowledge, not the latest fad or gimmick.

And, speaking of fads and gimmicks, any diet that suggests that you eliminate an entire food group or that you subsist on starvation levels of calories is one you should run from as fast as you can. While you might lose weight in the short term, you’re practically guaranteed to gain it all back. Worse yet, taking it off the next time will be that much more difficult. So let’s get started doing it right the first time.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

The first thing you need to do is to calculate your maintenance calories, that is, the number of calories you need to eat to stay exactly as you are. I understand that you don’t want to stay exactly as you are, but this is where you need to start. To calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR – the number of calories you would need if you were lying in bed all day.) visit http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Write down the number you get.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

Next, you need to apply an activity factor to the number you got above (your BMR). An activity factor is a way of estimating the calories you burn doing whatever it is you do during the day – driving your car, making meals, sitting at a desk, etc. The activity factors established by Harris Benedict look like this:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): BMR x 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): BMR x 1.9

Let’s say your BMR was 1350 and your activity factor is 1.55 because you weight train 3 days a week and you do HIIT cardio 2 days a week and steady state cardio once a week. You'd multiply 1350 by 1.55 for a total of 2092. This is the number of calories you’d need to stay at the weight you are, called your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

Calories For Weight Loss

You want to lose weight, though, so you need to do one more calculation. You will often hear the suggestion to eliminate 500 calories per day as this results in a weight loss of one pound per week. In some cases, this might be appropriate, but in others it could be too much and in rare cases of extreme obesity, it could be too little. Better is to find a number that is 15%-20% less than your TDEE. Using the 2092 example, this comes to 1674-1778 calories. Eating inthis range will help to ensure that you lose fat, not muscle and that the weight you take off will stay off.


Summing Up

To determine the number of calories you should be eating you will
1. Establish your BMR
2. Estimate your TDEE
3. Establish a target calorie range that is 15%-20% less than your TDEE

Coming Up in Part 2

How often and what foods to eat.

dbflgirl

You will often see bodybuilders refer to a “clean” diet. But what exactly does this mean? Simply put, it means your food should be as unprocessed as possible. That is, your food should be as close to its natural state as it can be. Grilled boneless chicken breast is “clean.” Deep fried chicken nuggets are not. Baked potato is “clean.” French fries are not.

Macros

In addition, you may have also heard a lot of talk about “macros.” If you don’t already know, these are the individual components of your diet. At the top level, everything you eat can be broken down into one of three categories: Protein, Carbohydrate, and Fat. Alcohol is a fourth category but we won’t even talk about that here since no one who is serious about losing weight drinks.

Within the aforementioned categories, there are further divisions: Carbohydrates are classified as either complex or simple. Fibrous carbohydrates are vegetables, which are a type of complex carbohydrate. Fats are divided into saturated and unsaturated categories, with unsaturated being further divided into mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated. The point of mentioning these distinctions here is not to make you into a food scientist but to empower you with the knowledge to make good food choices.

So what are the components of a clean diet? Lean protein (i.e., not loaded with fat), complex carbohydrates and unsaturated fats. The list below will guide you.

The Bodybuilders Shopping List

Proteins

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
Boneless, Skinless Turkey Breast
Tuna (water packed)
Fish
Shrimp
Top Round Beef (aka London Broil)
Extra Lean Ground Beef
Venison
Buffalo
Ostrich
Protein Powder (whey, casein, soy, egg)
Egg Whites or Whole Eggs
Tofu
Soy products
Low-fat cottage cheese

Complex Carbohydrates

Oatmeal (Old Fashioned or Quick Oats)
Potatoes (sweet or white)
Beans
Barley
Quinoa
Oat Bran Cereal
Rye Cereal
Grape Nuts
Brown Rice
Cream of Wheat
Whole Wheat Pasta
Whole Wheat Bread

Fibrous Carbohydrates

Lettuce (Green Leaf, Red Leaf, Romaine, Bibb/Butter)
Broccoli
Asparagus
String Beans
Okra
Spinach
Peppers (green, red, yellow)
Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Celery
Cucumber
Eggplant
Onions
Pumpkin
Tomatoes
Zucchini

Fruit

Cantaloupe
Blueberries
Strawberries
Apples
Grapefruit
Peaches
Raspberries
Lemons or Limes


Healthy Fats

Natural Peanut Butter
Olive Oil
Nuts (walnuts, peanuts, almonds)
Flax Seed
Flax Oil
Olive Oil
Fish Oil Capsules

Beverages

Water
Water
Water
Green Tea (no sugar)
Other Tea (no sugar)
Coffee (no sugar)
Diet Soda (1 per day)

Seasoning, Condiments, Sweeteners

Reduced Fat Mayonnaise
Garlic
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Soy Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Balsamic Vinegar
Salsa
Hot Peppers and Hot Sauce
Chili Powder
Curry Powder
Mrs. Dash
Steak Sauce
Sugar Free Syrup
Chili Paste
Mustard
Extracts (vanilla, almond, etc.)
Beef, fish, chicken or vegetable broth
Tomato sauce, puree, paste
Stevia (natural sweetener)


How Much of Each Macro?

For people lifting weights, the general rule is to eat a minimum of 1 gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight. You should then plan on another .3 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight. The balance should come from carbohydrates. So for someone weighing 150 pounds who should be eating 1500 calories per day, this works out to:

150 g protein (4 calories per gram of protein, so 600 calories)
45 g fat (9 calories per gram of fat, so 405 calories)
124 g carbohydrates (4 calories per gram of carbohydrate, so 496 calories)
Total calories: 1501
Protein: 40%
Carb: 33%
Fat: 27%

Eat Often!

In part 1 of this article you learned how to calculate how many calories you should be taking in. Once you’ve arrived at that number, you want to split it up across 5-6 meals, no more than 3 hours apart. Eating often not only helps to stave off hunger pangs (we all have a tendency to make poor food choices when we are over-hungry), but it keeps your metabolism humming along at maximum efficiency. Many people who diet do so by eliminating breakfast, eating a tiny salad for lunch and then a large dinner. Even though their total number of calories are low, the insulin hills and valleys they inadvertently create through this pattern of eating sends the body into starvation mode. In a nutshell, your body thinks a famine is eminent – why else isn’t it getting the nutrients it needs? – and begins to slow its metabolism and conserve fat. The very same mechanism that lets us read miracle stories about folks being saved after being stranded for weeks with nothing to eat but snow will prevent you from losing weight if you don’t keep your metabolism busy.

So the rule is: eat every 2-3 hours. And make sure your meals are meals.

What is a Meal?

Often, when I am asked to critique someone’s diet, I see things like “1/2 cup oatmeal and a handful of raisins” or "yogurt and a piece of cheese" listed as a meal. These are not meals. A meal has three components: protein, carbohydrates (complex and/or fibrous) and fat. The exceptions to this rule are as follows: 1) Immediately post-workout (that is, the first meal after your lifting session) you don’t need any fat, as you want something fast digesting (this is an excellent time for a whey protein shake); 2) Your dinner can be protein + fibrous carb + fat (no need for complex carbs here); and 3) Your last meal of the day should be protein + fat only (cottage cheese and nuts, for instance).

Keeping a Balance

Your meals should reflect a balance of your daily intake. If you are planning to eat 1500 calories a day and 5 meals a day, each meal should be roughly 300 calories. Don’t make yourself crazy with this – some meals will be a little less and some a little more. As long as you are not toggling between meals of 500 calories and meals of 100 calories, it is ok. The thing to remember is to surround your workout with high quality protein and carbohydrates.

In the same vein, you should allocate your protein, carbs and fats fairly evenly across your meals (with the exceptions as noted previously). Again, you might want to have a slight increase in protein and carbs (complex ones, please) in the meals just before and just after your workout, but your other meals should have a balance of all three macros.


Putting it Together – A Sample Day

Here’s what a day could look like for someone who is targeting roughly 1575 calories per day:

Meal 1 (pre-workout): 1 cup cooked oatmeal with 1T flax seed, 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites,
298 calories; 24g protein; 28g carb, 10g fat

Meal 2 (post-workout): Whey protein w/ 1 cup skim milk and 1 cup strawberries.
249 calories; 31g protein; 27g carb; 2g fat

Meal 3 4oz broiled salmon, .5 cup cooked brown rice, 2 cups broccoli w/lemon
321 calories; 32g protein; 31g carb; 8g fat

Meal 4: 3.5oz tuna, sweet potato, 2 cups mixed greens with balsamic vinegar and 1tsp olive oil
329 calories; 28g protein; 43g carb; 5g fat

Meal 5: 6oz Baked or broiled chicken breast (bone and skin removed), 1.5 cup green beans
199 calories; 31g protein; 12g carb; 3g fat

Meal 6: .5 cup lf cottage cheese, 7 walnut halves
182 calories, 18g protein, 5g carb, 10g fat

TOTALS
1578 calories
164g protein = 656 calories/42%
146g carb = 584 calories/37%
38g fat = 342 calories/22%

Summing Up

Eating too few calories is as detrimental to weight loss (and especially to fat loss) as eating too many.

A clean diet is a diet that consists of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats.

You should eat 5-6 meals per day, with your protein, carbohydrates and fats roughly evenly allocated across those meals.

Each meal should contain a protein, carbohydrates and fat. Exceptions are post workout (no fat) and the last meal before bed (no carbs).

You can track your intake by using a free site such as www.fitday.com.

dbflgirl

Part 3 – You’ve Got to Lift Weights!

I talked about the three components of a shapely, healthy body in part 1. They are nutrition, weight lifting and aerobic exercise. Unfortunately many people, especially women, put them in reverse order, making cardiovascular exercise the cornerstone of their program. This is wrong. I know, I know – you’ve read countless magazine articles in which cardio was emphasized. In addition, you’re worried that if you lift weights, you’ll end up getting bigger or bulky. Trust me, it won’t happen. It doesn’t even happen all that easily for men, who are blessed with way more of the muscle-growing hormone testosterone than you are.

Debunking Some Myths

The first idea I’d like you to get out of your head is the one that says that weight lifting will turn you into a she-man or some such nonsense. It won’t. But it will make you look smaller (yes, smaller), increase your metabolism, improve your health, give you curves in the right places, and help you to stave off osteoporosis (and even grow new bone), to name just a few.

Let’s look at these claims one by one.

Having Muscles Will Make You Look Smaller

Muscle is much denser than fat, so five pounds of muscle takes up much less space than five pounds of fat. So even if you didn’t lose a pound but instead replaced ten pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle, you’d likely lose a dress size or two and your friend would all swear you’d lost weight.




Muscle Increases Your Metabolism

Muscle has a metabolic rate about four times faster than fat. This means that the more muscle you have, the more food your body needs to maintain its weight (read: the more calories you can consume). This is why it is so important to fix your nutrition such that you are losing fat, not muscle. When you lose muscle, the scale will go down, which can be gratifying for a while. But in time, as your metabolism slows in response to the reduction in muscle, you’ll find that you need to keep cutting calories further and further in order to remain at a maintenance level. Few people have the willpower to do this, especially since your body doesn’t get less hungry just because you lose some muscle.

Weight Lifting Improves Your Health

You’ve no doubt heard that being overweight puts you at risk for many diseases, particularly heart disease. But did you know that the actual risk factor is not being overweight but being over-fat? Here’s what The American Heart Association has to say:

Obesity is defined simply as too much body fat. Your body is made up of water, fat, protein, carbohydrate and various vitamins and minerals. If you have too much fat -- especially in your waist area -- you're at higher risk for health problems, including high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. (http://www.americanheart.org/present...dentifier=4639)

More muscle means less fat and less fat means less of a chance of health problems.

In addition, researchers have linked exercise to a host of other health benefits ranging from improved mood to greater sexual enjoyment. You can’t go wrong!

Muscle Gives You Curves in the Right Places

While spot reduction is not possible (read that twice), you can use weight lifting to create the illusion of curves where you want them. If you’ve always had a flat butt, for instance, squats and lunges can pull it up and round it out. And widening your shoulders can create the illusion of a smaller waist for those who have always had more of a straight up-and-down shape.

Weight Lifting Staves Off Osteoporosis

I know, you’re not old enough to worry about osteoporosis. Actually, if you’re over the age of 29, that’s not true. Osteoporosis occurs when new bone is not made fast enough to replace old bone that is being broken down. Without enough new bone growth, the old bone becomes porous and weak, which can lead to fractures later in life. By the time you turn 30, bone breakdown outpaces new bone growth, setting the stage for the beginning of osteoporosis. You already know to incorporate calcium-rich foods in your diet. But you may not know that weight bearing exercise actually builds bone (Virginia Mason Medical Center, http://www.virginiamason.org/dbEndoc.../sec88903.htm).

Getting the Most Out of Weight Lifting

So now that you’re convinced you need to be lifting weights, here are some general guidelines to follow. Of course, before beginning any new exercise program, be sure to get your doctor’s ok.

1. Work each body part once a week with the exception of abs and calves, which can be worked twice if you like.

2. Rest at least 48 hours before you work the same body part again.

3. Start with big muscle groups and then move to the smaller ones. For instance, work your chest before your triceps, your back before your biceps, and so on.

4. Make sure your form is perfect. Practice with light weights in front of a mirror until you are sure you are doing the movement the rigt way. A site with good pictures and videos of exercises (and which also has some sample routines) is: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

5. Aim for 3-4 exercises per part for the large muscle groups (chest, back, legs, shoulders) and 2-3 exercises for the smaller groups (arms, abs, calves).

6. Lift in the range of 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions (not including your warm-up sets… and do be sure to include 1 warm-up set per body part). Pick a weight in which the last rep or two are very hard. You might not even be able to complete all your reps on the last set – this is fine. Keep with it until you can complete all three sets at the desired number of reps and then increase your weights and start over.

7. Take 1-3 minutes rest between each set. In general, the heavier you lift, the more rest time you should allow between sets.

8. Design your training split based on your goals but also take a realistic look at how many days a week you can go to the gym and how long you can spend there. As a newbie, you may find a full body workout to be effective for the first 6 weeks or so. After that, you will probably see better gains on some sort of split that limits you to 2 body parts per session.

9. Do your cardio after lifting. The reason for this is that when you first hit the gym, your muscles are full of glycogen, which you want to use to build more muscle. If you burn through this glycogen on cardio, you won’t have any energy source to bring to your weight lifting. In contrast, if you burn through your glycogen in your lifting session, your cardio session will burn more fat.

10. Don't go nuts with cardio. The most important element in your program is your nutrition, followed by weight lifting. While cardio has a place in a well-designed program, it should never be the cornerstone of your program. Spend some time learning the difference between steady state, interval and HIIT cardio. Allocate about 3 days a week to cardio.

Summing Up

Muscle takes up less space than fat.

Weight lifting will speed fat loss and won’t make you bulky

Lift heavy (for you) in the range of 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

Pay attention to your form. Poor form leads to injury and slower gains.

More is not better. Growth occurs outside of the gym, when your body is at rest. Resist the temptation to be in the gym 7 days a week.

GameDayDog

Ok.. Thanks for the wonderful & informative article DBFLGyrl...

Thys thread is now officially open for discussion & comments...

Peace..~G

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I want to be bigger than all the humans!!

"I'm sure I should be doing cardio too....but I don't run from anything...so why practice?" - 1stInDoor

Goal - 200#'s
5/27/07 -
4/27/07 - 175#
3/27/07 - 167#

mistermuscles

Wow, dbflgirl, it seems like you really know your stuff. Great article!

Now I need to figure out why the hell I am in the Women's forum.

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IronMASS Kicks IronASS. :nosthumbs

Pj-Macx

LoL... this article is posted in 2 different sections... but we dont mind that the guys post in here..

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dbflgirl

Thanks. The principles are the same for men and women. It's just that women more than men are afraid they will "bulk up" if they weight train. So I had women in mind when I wrote part 3, but the principles apply regardless of gender.

DanaDarlin

Great post! Thanks!