Newbie

[ChickieNZ]

Hi I'm Paula

So I have recently (the past two months) decided to take up body building. I thought I would write an introduction and tell people a little more about myself.

I am not really so good at talking about myself, so bear with me. (also I have never been a part of a fitness forum before, so not entirely sure what to say. )

If anyone has any advice, or anything at all, I am all ears.

Cheers

[teamfatboy]

Heya Chickie

Welcome - and great to hear you've decided to join us.

The way most people start is by summarising a few key things, centred on:

a. what you're working with - age, height and weight (ignore the requests for pics from the trolls :grin: ) and what you hope to achieve;

b. diet - what you're eating now, what you think's wrong with it; and

c. exercise - have you got access to a gym/ have you just started going or have you been going for a while; how fit are you now/ have you been in the past.

The way you can start finding your way around is by checking other folks' workout journals; there's the Ladies Room and the Diet/ Nutrition areas, and the resources at the top of the page.

There are some really experienced women on here, not just bodybuilders but fitness and strength athletes, who'll probably have pointers to offer.

Good luck

[justhell]

Hi Paula,

welcome to nzbb fourms.

:grin:

[ChickieNZ]

Thanks teamfatboy

Hmmm what im working with. . . .

Height: 170cm

Weight:81kg

I know my Body fat percentage is around 27% based on 5 skin fold sites.

as a start I hope to reduce this percentage to around 20% i would be over the moon to get below this.

My diet usually goes something like this

Breakfast:

2 pieces of whole grain toast, with banana or avacado

and a glass of light blue milk

or rolled oats with a banana, or half a tin of peaches.

if im in a rush, an up and go or two.

Lunch:

this depends on what is at the mess but usually fish or beef, with salad and steamed veges.

Dinner:

Beef or Chicken, with steamed vegies, or in a stir fry, with some spuds, pasta or rice.

(tonight i had Chicken Cabonara)

snacks are usually rice crackers, with avocado and tinned chicken or salmon, tomato, things like that. and fruit, usually one piece mid morning, and another mid afternoon.

crapoloa loads of water.

take outs maybe once every 3 weeks to a month. ( if that, used to be 4 times a week)

not many lollies, some chocolate occasionally.

Exercise

40 minutes in the pool every morning monday to friday

40 minutes of circuits monday, tuesday, Thursday lunch times

2-3 hours of roller hockey sunday, and wednesday night

1.5 - 2 hours at the gym after work monday to thursday

long distance tramping 15Km + on saturdays

sunday rest

weights/Gym as follows

Bench press 30kg

leg press 110kg

lat pull down 50kg

hamstring curls 25kg

upright row 20kg

leg extension 31kg

single DB row 15kg

calf raises 31kg

tricep pushdowns 36 kg

Standing db bicep curls 8kg

3 sets at 10 Reps.

have been doing this to get used to lifting weights again, they are set at a weight where its a struggle to complete the last set.

I am still getting a feel of what I can do on some of them.

I have access to a gym and swimming pool essentially 24 hours a day

I have lost 4 kgs in the past month, I would say sports fit, but Im pretty useless at running.

I have been pretty unhappy with my body image for a while now, so about 6 weeks ago i decided to do something about it, I am not if i want to compete, but getting the abs and the guns and some strength behind me, are what i want to start with

I welcome any advice, as I said I am pretty new to all of this

[teamfatboy]

First impressions, you're starting from a sound foundation. [warning]

Losing weight at about 1kg a week is the max rate you want to achieve - any faster and you'll just yo-yo. So well done on the first 4kg :clap:

First thoughts - you need to do two things:

a. put more protein in to your diet - starting with breakfast. Without wishing to advocate whey protein powder, your breakfast could easily use a protein shake instead of milk, give your body some protein to "break the (overnight) fast" with; and

b. your mid-morning and mid-arvo snacks should be more protein - canned chicken or tuna is ideal.

A lot of the gains you're looking for will come from shifting the source of your energy from carbs to proteins and fats. A diet high in healthy proteins (lean meat, poultry, fish) and essential fats (fish oil caps, flaxseed oil, etc) and comparatively low in carbs is the way to go.

You're doing a LOT of cardio, which will help lose weight, but at the expense of lean muscle mass. You'll get smaller, but arguably not visibly more toned. That makes tweaking the diet, and the meal timings, all the more important. In particular, getting in some protein and carbs immediately (before your shower) after weights. This prevents muscle breakdown. Oh, and don't worry about being useless at running... as Garfield the cat says, "never run when you can walk, never walk when you can lie down".

Do you do that entire workout each day, or split it? That's 30 sets, quite a lot. Sure, it works the whole body, but doesn't give much time to recover. You could consider a four-day split (for instance, chest/triceps, back/biceps, legs and shoulders/abs). Each muscle group would get worked more intensively, but have longer to recover. There are some good numbers in there already, so you've got a good start.

Abs - are made in the kitchen... again, the diet. In your case, this is going to come down to portion size in the mess. It'll mean tracking your carbs across the day, and maybe skipping the spuds or rice, or taking a half-serve.

It takes around 5000 cals spent to burn 1kg of bodyfat. So, you need to work out, perhaps using this calculator, what your total intake should be, then set a modest deficit of around 300 calories. Over the course of your very active week, a 1800 cal weekly dietary deficit and all that gym and cardio should see you expending more than 5000 cals over what you take in - net result, loss of bodyfat while retaining lean muscle mass.

Just my 2c worth - good luck

[ChickieNZ]

lol talk about Long Message,

Thanks for that, I got heaps out of it, and aim to cut down the Cardio a tad,

I do it 4 days in a row, then three day rest, as of next week Im starting a bulk phase, which i think is a four day split. I know it means im going to have to up the stakes, and keep track of everything i eat, it gets easier i have been doing this for a while, it helped me higlight the fact that i was having far to many take outs.

That website is fantastic, i have bookmarked it. it will make it easier for sure to keep my goals in mind.

looking forward to some lifestyle changes, and making a real go of this

[Grover]

lol talk about Long Message,

Thanks for that, I got heaps out of it, and aim to cut down the Cardio a tad,

I do it 4 days in a row, then three day rest, as of next week Im starting a bulk phase, which i think is a four day split. I know it means im going to have to up the stakes, and keep track of everything i eat, it gets easier i have been doing this for a while, it helped me higlight the fact that i was having far to many take outs.

That website is fantastic, i have bookmarked it. it will make it easier for sure to keep my goals in mind.

looking forward to some lifestyle changes, and making a real go of this

:?

At start of this thread you were wanting to cut bf and now you are starting a bulk phase, can't successfully do both when you are first starting out.

Get down to the bf % you desire then do the bulk

Gotta walk before u run!

[ChickieNZ]

Thanks for the advice grover,

Like i said new to this, any good avice is welcome.

[teamfatboy]

Yep, I noticed that too... a "bulk" phase tends to result in additional bodyfat along with the extra muscle.

If you want guns, abs and strength, then a "bulk" is probably not what you need right now. You definitely wouldn't get abs, and the chances are that while your arms might get bigger, you wouldn't necessarily like the changes - no 'separation' between biceps/triceps/shoulders, and the extra bodyfat smoothing-over.

You might like to have a look at Muscle Imaging to see NZ competitors, sometimes the better-looking arms aren't actually bigger so much as better-defined.

Abs are generally one of the last things to show up, once %bf is down (there's no precise answer for the % in general, but generally under 15% for women). A bulk would work directly against that.

[ChickieNZ]

Thanks for that,

Ill bear it in mind, and focus on one thing before the other.

battle the bulge first then bulk up,

Cheers guys

*

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