Never too late! LeRae's journey...

[LeRae]

Well I don't know exactly what I'm doing but I have to get started somewhere!

Beginning stats:

Age- 38
Weight - 125
BF - 26% (not sure how accurate)
Waist - 28


1/13/12 meal/workout log:

oatmeal, 1 apple
spinach salad w/ chicken breast, honey mustard (subway), diet coke (need to kick that habit!)
1 small bunch grapes
PP shake w/ frozen peaches & soy milk
small baked pork chop, steamed broccoli
1/2c greek yogurt

Workout: (MF=to muscle failure)

machine fly - 2x15, 45 lb; 1x10 (MF), 50lb
incline bench press, 2x12(MF), 40 lb
bench press, 2x12, 30lb; 1x8(MF), 35 lb
row - 2x18, 45 lb; 1x12(MF), 50lb
reverse fly, 2x15, 30lb; 1x12, 35 lb (MF)
Lat pull down, 2x15, 40lb
Delt raise, 2x15, 10lb (MF)
Biceps curl, 2x15, 10 lb; 1x8, 15 lb (MF)
triceps pushdown, 2x15, 25 lb
tricep exension, 1x10, 10 lb (MF)

 

[Jenner]

Awesome, you are right...it's never too late! Keep it up

 

[NutNut]

That's next to no food...

 

[Jenner]

That's next to no food...

holy, just saw that! leRae, you need a diet overhaul!

 

[AllTheWay]

Outstanding to have you start a log. It is a great way to keep track of things and to get help or suggestions!

Looking forward to following along. What are your goals?

 

[shan]

Never too late for sure...I was 40 when I got back to it...hang in there and definitely eat more food This is the right place to come for advice and support....we have all been there done that so don't be afraid to ask for help.

Definitely need to review your BMR and get you a good calorie level to work with.

 

[SHINE]

Welcome to TID LeRae! lota good folks here to help you with your goals!

 

[LeRae]

Thanks everyone! Yes, you are right, I definitely need to re-look at how and what I eat. For so long I have just done the calorie counting thing to maintain a healthy weight, but now I need to get all that out of my head. It'll be a challenge but one I'm up for

My goals ATM are pretty simple, gain muscle size and definition. That might change, but for now, I just want to add some size.

 

[AllTheWay]

how tall are you?

if you want to gain muscle you got to eat. you need to re train your metabolism to work with more food! right now your body is probably close to the ever talked about "starvation mode"

you need to figure out your daily caloric maintenance and then drop about 500 calories from that if you want to lose fat or just maintain there if you want to gain some muscle and size. but without knowing what your body needs to get through the day it is hard to know how many calories you need to eat.

once you get your body up and running you will be amazed at the difference in how you feel and how everything functions.

 

[LeRae]

I'm 5'6". I have a desk job so I'm pretty sedentary except for my workout days. I'm getting 3 workouts in per week, usually spending about an hour there.

 

[shan]

I took the liberty of doing some calcs for you...based on your height/weight and age and using only lightly active (1-3 workouts a week) your adjusted BMR (with tdee: total daily energy expenditure) is between 1800-1900 daily. The sample diet you posted came in at about 1300-1400 depending on serving sizes (I took the mid point where you didn't specify). At this calorie level you will either a-steadily lose weight..or b(the most likely if you have been eating this amount for very long) your metabolism will slow to meet your low calorie intake.

I would recommend a diet revamp that increases your protein and complex carb intake to the 1800-1900 range. If as I suspect you have been at this low end for some time, I would suggest adding a couple hunded calories a day for a couple of weeks and continue working out. Once you have reached your daily calorie needs (1800-1900) you should start to see a change in body composition, you should be able to build muscle (which at the low calorie level will be difficult if not impossible) which will in turn increase the calories required to maintain that muscle mass. As you add muscle and drop fat your calorie needs will increase. Muscle requires ALOT more energy just to maintain...a pound of fat only requires about 5 calories to maintain versus between 35-50 (depends on the literature) for a lb of muscle.

Keep us posted, and if you need any help at all...let us know.

 

[any1uno]

Nice advice Ms Shan.

Welcome to TID Ms LeRae. It's good to see you here and hope to see more of you. Just because you sit at a desk doesn't mean you can't get up and move from time to time! (OK..just giving you a kick to get going!)

Looking forward to following your log. Keep posting.