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Newbie Bodybuilder/Sculptor Starting out


Southerngal111

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Hi all

Im just starting my journey of bodybuilding

Im a 33 year old woman, with a fair bit of weight to lose and when I put my mind to something I like to think big.. or "go hard or go home"

Only problem is Im not a hundred percent sure how to start off.. i dont wanna get swamped with too much info and try to do too many things at once as i feel i will probably just end up doing myself more harm than good. But I do want to jump in and start getting results fast! Im not scared of hard work, as I say, once im on a path i can emerse myself in it quite easily.. i just need some direction

Any and all advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

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Hi, 

Welcome to the forum. It's great that you've got yourself a goal/new challenge. What has driven you to choose bodybuilding/sculpting? Have you much gym/sporting experience (its okay if you dont!) 

I definitely think the best advice is to make sure you're going into it with eyes wide open about yourself/past, what you want and most importantly why you want it. 

Bodybuilding/body sculpting is a very demanding sport physically and psychologically. There are many individual mental battles to face when taking part in something where the number one focus is how you look and being judged for that.

it really pays to make sure its going to be the right thing for you to channel your efforts into and that, most of all, it wont be harmful to you. So imo its worth the money and investment to first off to go to a professional psychologist or counselor to talk through this as a goal and to make some clear boundaries about what is okay and what is not okay for you. 

Although it sounds strange now its the one thing I would personally recommend. I also think you are much more likely to get the long term results you want if you do this, and have someone help you stay objective and realistic about healthily integrating bodybuilding with your life.  

Not meaning to sound morbid - just realistic. 

After that - the amount that you want to put in to it is up to you and how you want to do it is up to you.

Firstly - You can pay money to let a trainer take you through it. Or you can do your own research and start creating your own nutrition and training plans. That's probably going to be one of the first notable decisions you'll have to make. Have you thought about it? 

Either way its going to take a fair while to really "get" what it is all about and to understand the approaches, what's bullsh*t and whats not, to understand what works for you and to understand training and nutrition. But you'll get there eventually and it's a really great learning curve to be on!

Good luck! :)  

 

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a good trainer can help you get good fast results but if you want them on your own you gotta put some work in to learning things but takinga  little bit in at a time is also fine.

 

we really have no idea if you are currently under or over eating nor your exercise history but since you are a lady with 'a fair bit of weight to lose' first thing i'd tell you to focus on is take the batteries out of your scale and leave it out for some time. from today onwards you will measure your progress by change in dress/pant sizes.. knowing your weight can play mind games on you especially when starting out but the pant sizes never lie.

 

this forum used to have some really good nutrition guides/calorie calculators but can't find them right now, will try to describe the basics. maybe someone who knwos where they are can link them as you can refer to those for more info.

 

bodybuilding at least for beginners has just 3 key aspects : nutrition, training and rest. they are all of equal importance and you can transition yourself in to learning about each area a little at a time rather than getting confused with the unncessary all at once approach. as azide said, nutrition is pretty important and it's one of those things where even if you're not exercising right (or none at all) you can still see some progress in body composition so that's a good place for you to start.

nutrition : whether you get bigger or smaller all depends on the basic rule of 'energy out vs energy in'. food and drinks provide us with energy and exercise expends energy. spend about a week checking the back of your food labels and familiarising with what you're eating - note how many calories are in there and tally up how much you are getting in in one day. to make it easier you can use online tracking tools (like myfitnesspal.com) or just take photos of foods with your phone and add them all up at the end of the day. now you know how much you are getting in but what about figuring out how much you actually shoudl be getting in? that's where calorie intake calculators come in handy. you can use one like this : http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm (would have linked this forums own one but can't find it :() BTW ignore the 'extreme fat loss' figure. just key in stuff like gender, age, height and activity level (that's the most important as it uses that to figure how much energy you'll be burning away from exercises to tell you how much to eat... don't tell it you are exercising intensly every day if you just go gym once a week). it'll give you maintenance and fat loss caloric intake goals and with that you can start tweaking what you eat on a daily basis to fit within those goals. no you don't need to eat super healthy and prepare the same boring meals every day, you can make your own foods fit within your goals but obviously if you're making up 3000 calories with healthier choices vs. say KFC then you'll be feeling more energetic and probably not as hungry.

 

 

training : falls in to 2 categories, weights and cardio. lifting weights breaks down the muscles (provided you used enough weights to stimulate that muscle) and with proper food & rest, the muscle can grow back stronger (and bigger if you eat the right way for it). just having muscles we burn energy through the day even if we just sit there doing nothing and when you put even more muscle on you will burn more energy which can aid in fat loss (note : fat loss not weight loss) and help your figure look better. cardio is also important to help your health & fitness and also assist with fat loss as you get your heart rate up and burn energy running around.

 

rest : without proper rest such as quality sleep, your body will not go through the proper recovery process which could just end up being detrimental to your goals (broken down muscles taking longer to recover, all workouts less effective as result, body can start not to function optimally putting on more fat etc.)

 

to put it simply :

1) work hard when you go to the gym. lift weights which challenge you and make sure you learn some effective 'compound' exercises (from gym staff or knowledgable friends) which stimulate your big muscle groups (like bench press, squats, deadlifts, rows.. or start with pushups/pullups even) instead of doing the typical bicep curls and shoulder raises with light weights

2) control your food portions. last thing you want is to under eat and wither away, feeling like shit but also don't want to way over eat and keep getting fatter thus losing interest in your new goal

3) get 6+ hours of undisturbed sleep every night and have a coulpe days in the week where you don't work out at all to allow the body to recovery nicely. also try reduce stressful things form your life, that helps as well but that's another topic.

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Firstly, well done for choosing to get started, that is often the hardest step to take. 

Both DinahLady and FotRon have given you exactly the advice I give to people at your stage - nutrition, exercise, and rest in equal measures. 

Nutrition's about you - learning what your specific body needs, and what does it best.  It doesn't need to involve a lot of fancy powders and supplements - you will get great results from real food (which, my definition is, "something your grandmother would recognise").  A balanced diet, comprising protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats, will do wonders.  

Exercise - contrary to popular opinion, no-one bulks up and turns into a Hulk overnight.. but exercise with weights has two beneficial effects - firstly, the work you do burns calories (which helps shed the bodyfat) and secondly, it promotes lean muscle growth, so that when you shed the bodyfat, what's left is toned and shapely. 

I saw a post which, although it relates to skinny chicks, has a lot of good info in it:  http://boxjumping.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/you-see-skinny-i-see-damn-you-gotta-hit-the-weights-cos-those-bones-are-gonna-break/

One of FotRon's best pieces of advice is ditch the bathroom scales, and rely on your 'test pants'.  A kg of fat, and a kg of lean muscle, both weigh exactly the same - but a kg of fat is a LOT bigger.  So, whilst the number on the scales may not move, numbers like the waistband on those test pants will show that you're making progress.  

DO weigh your food (not obsessively, but so you can understand why you're making progress);

DO track the weights you lift and the cardio you do (time, machine setting/ speed/whatever):  take it from me, it's an awesome kick when you look back to the beginning and see how far you've come.  

Just DON'T track your progress on those damned bathroom scales :) 

Best of luck

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