heya im a newbie

[Small]

Hey everyone, I just joined and it said introduce yourself so I thought why not?

My nickname is Small because I'm not particularily tall only 161cms-a friend (who is a golfer) told me I shouldn't be weightlifting because it will stunt my growth, is this true?

I am a 16 year old female and have been hard weight training for 8 weeks now doing no less than 5 trainings a week. My sessions at the gym usually last around 1h 45 mins - 10-20 minutes of this is cardio. I also have two netball trainings a week, and Sunday is "rest day" (if I have trained Mon-Fri) but I do go for a 1 and a 1/2 hour leisurely walk. I want to become more toned thus am on a chicken and rice diet (small servings of grilled plain chicken and boiled white rice 4 times a day with steamed veges at dinner, and a banana and a teaspoon or peanut butter afterschool before the gym). I used supplements about 1 month ago everyday and put on a bit of bulk, about 3kgs of muscle but I want to tone down now - get off the rest of the fat! On this diet in the last week alone I lost 1kg, but I want to keep building my muscle - is there anything I should be doing differently such as more cardio, or heavier weights, or different diet/start the supplements again? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!!

[Pseudonym]

Heya Small - welcome.

Weight training shouldn't stunt your growth. Here's an article one of our clever members found and posted recently: http://www.nzbb.co.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19306#19306

I'm a litle concerned about your diet though. When you say chicken and rice is all you eat - what about red meat or fish? Even though you're trying to lose weight, it's really important to keeping eating a balanced diet. In fact, eating a wider range of food probably makes it easier to lose weight, since your body responds better when it gets all the nutrients it needs.

Here's a starting point for a more balanced diet...

Breakfast

Porridge

Boiled egg

(This meal's a bit light on protein as it is, which could be fine for you, but depending on your muscle-building goals, you might like to add in extra egg whites and make an omlette or scrambled eggs, or have a protein shake)

Morning tea

Protein shake

2x Corn thins with peanut butter

Lunch

Chicken

Rice - white's ok, but brown has more fiber.

Pasta sauce for flavouring

Afternoon tea

Beef (don't care whether it's steak/schnitzel/mince/etc, but make sure it's pretty lean)

Potato

Post-workout

Protein shake in water

Dinner

Tuna

Pasta

That's a very generic diet, but you can see how it gives you a much wider range of nutrients than you get from just chicken and rice! :wink:

Here's a few extra points on it:

- You should throw a few servings of veges somewhere in there. Wherever suits really.

- It may have you eating more often than you're used to, but that's all good - eating small and often helps speed up your metabolism.

- I don't know what shape you're currently in, so you'll need to adjust portions to suit yourself.

Finally, make sure you're not starving yourself. It's a really common mistake, but it just makes your body hold onto every kilogram it can.

[Oros]

For a number of years I lived on grilled chicken or fish, steamed brown rice,.....and Jack Daniels, and spent 30-40 hours per week in nightclubs

At the time I weighed 85-88kg's with never more than 10% bf, an life was GOOD,......then I got married, now I weigh 105kg!

If there's anything for to be concerned about it's the 5x 1.75 hour training sessions per week at the gym plus other sport too.

Call me a synical, but at 16, one of a numbers of things could happen here.

You injure yourself, take a number of weeks to heal and probably never go back to gym again!

You exhaust yourself and your gym session gradually reduce from 5 per week to zero per week!

You achieve rapid weight loss (initially anyway) then hit a plateau where the number of hours per week trained no longer seems worth the effort and you loose interest!

Get the picture yet?

Slow down,.....3 gym (weight) session per week plus your other sports activities is more than sufficient at 16.

Gym (weight/cardio) training is a lifestyle choice that needs to become a permanent, enjoyable part of your weekly routine,....for life.Not a mentally and physically exhausting part of your life that you wish you could forget

[jahman]

howzit im 16 as well and started lifting weights about 1 yr ago and it certainly didnt stunt my growth lol im 1.93cm tallso yeh dnt worrie about that bit :grin: however your diet is really lacking in some things and it must get really boring eating the same old thing every meal try and varie it up a lil!

[63]

i would reduce your training as u are gonna overtrain or get injured sooner or later and at your age you should not limit your food try and eat a varity veges etc.

good luck .

[Dyceast]

Welcome Small :haha: :wave:

[Big_J]

Well im 16 as well and i train bout 4-5 times a week bout 1 1/2 - 2 hours each time. have trainings during week also nd play sport on saturday it doesnt affect me nd i havnt had ne bad injuries. injuries do occur but thts jst life and for me at first it was hard on the body to adapt to all the trainings but soon the body did adapt and now its jst a normal thing. i say go hard.

I personally believe tht when you are exhausted from the gym u simply have a day off to recover and i think if you are motivated enough then the next week u will b back in ther

[2guns]

wow! u sound really committed for a 16 year old chick. good to see yr into yr health and fitness.

its early days with yr trining yet (8 weeks)

im sure ull start to see more noticable results in not so long.

perhaos try not to eat yr rice late at nite.

just my opinion. but good on u and stick at it, uve started at a good age!

[Small]

Wow! Thanks alot guys your input is all really helpful! And its really nice to be welcomed so happily. I don't tend to tell people about my wieghtlifting because it is usually met with a kind of sneer and they act like I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing! So thanks!

To Pseudonym:

I'm not sure if this is any help but I was 56kgs before I started the weight training, and then went to 59ks with the supplements, now my weights hovering around 58kgs. At 161cms my doc said I had an ok bmi (which I no doesn't work for some people), but I should try to stay in 55kg-58kg bracket. This can be difficult for me though with ma Maori genes, I tend to bulk up easy haha and not shed fat (haha excuses....)

Anyway...I was looking at the nabba.co.nz website and went into classes, I saw the "Figure Women" class is the only class with a seperate section for secondary school girls. Then I noticed it had a height/weight rule: The following Height/Weight Rule will apply to Figure Women Classes from 1st January 2007.

Rule: Height (in cm) - 100 x 90% = Maximum Allowable Weight

This means for me 161cm -100 x 90% = 54.9kg Max Weight

Meaning I would need to have a weight loss of atleast 3.1kg.

What time frame do you guys reckon I would be looking at for loosing that weight (maybe more) with my new and improved diet (I have added more veges, and am goin to have a water+protien shake after after the gym) and current routines should I up the cardio? And how would I be able to do this, whilst still building muscle as the age old saying "muscle weight more than fat" ?

Thanks!!!

[2guns]

u sound reasonably clued up for 16..? does some one in yr family do bodybuilding or do u just reasearch on the net?

and no shame tell ing people u lift heavy weights, just tell them u go 2 the gym... wats wrong with that?

but if u put on 3kgs of muscle u must be doing something right.

good luck with yr goals

[ExpensiveUrine]

Welcome Small.

Just follow your diet and record body composition changes (weekly or whatever) and then adjust cardio/weights/diet accordingly. Wouldn't want to be too drastic wrt: fat loss either. Can you post your resistance training routine?

FWIW, I'm obese on BMI when compared to general population but just the right somatotype (meso-endomorph) for olympic weightlifters.

[Small]

Thanks 2guns,

Well my Dad has been weightlifting since his school days at St Stevens, but hes into bench and clean & jerk etc, not my cup of tea, I only bench 30kgs haha! My brother wanted to bodybuild, but his career stopped him - instead he is just an everyday trainer (along with my dad) working on his cannons! My dads friend Michelle, who trains at our gym also, is a bodysculpter and came 2nd in her latest comp, and she's offered me mentoring help which I'm going to take! Other than that I just find out info (and appreciate help) from sites such as this, and nabba and nzbodysculpting etc...

Thanks I won't stop till I accomplise them!!!

[poos_n_wees]

Hey gal! Wow, so kewl to see someone pretty young who's into lifting and the whole healthy lifestyle thang... very refreshing :grin:

So you're thinking of competing? Do you have a certain competition in mind? Next year? End of this year?

At the moment, I wouldn't worry too much about weight loss. When you're prepping for your comp, weight loss is a given 'cos of the changes in diet etc. I reckon you should just keep pluggin away with what you're doing - training heavy to maintain that muscle and eating healthy, though I'm with the others - add in a bit of variety of meats/veges etc to stop you getting bored/burning out further down the line. After your workout I'd prolly add in some carbs as well - maybe a banana with your protein shake?

[Small]

Hey poos_n_wees...

Haha thanks, well after I left competitive swimming I had alot of spare time-so the gym jus became an exercise outlet, but now I've started to take it more seriously (haha!). I probably won't be competing this year-after looking at the "competition" im not near that standard yet!, but I'm going to check out PIBBA this weekend to get a feel for the comp atmosphere!

I'm slowly building up my weights, and I have introduced way more veges into my diet (with all your guys help - thanks!), like tonight after the gym had some salad, beetroot slices, a little bit of rice and fish fillet, but Im worried I may be eating too much..ohwell time will tell...

[Pseudonym]

ohwell time will tell...

:nod:

That's the best way to do it - make gradual changes, little by little, refining it as you go.

I'm sure you know this already, but don't worry about eating too much salad or veges - no-one ever got fat on excess lettuce or broccoli!

The thing I'd really like to see included in your diet is red meat. Is there a reason you're leaving this out? Red meat is your best source of iron, which is incredibly important to bodybuilders. Without it, I'd be concerned you run the risk of becoming anemic - especially as a female. I'm no expert though, so perhaps our nutritional experts (Flex? Waldo?) can chime in on this one...

[Small]

Ok kool, well I have been really "good" this week! Um I don't eats lots of meat because I usually just eat the chicken/fish & rice my parents have in the fridge/pantry. We usually have red meat at least once a week-and I especially like the scotch fillet and thats the expensive stuff haha so Dad gets me a fillet of that! What would you recommend otherwise, and how often should I be eating meat/iron rich foods? Thanks!

Oh and To ExpensiveUrine I don't mean to be dumb but when you say post my resistance training routine do you mean the weight program I do when I go to the gym? Sorry...I don't fully get the technical terms of this stuff yet!