Advice on New Goals and Plan!

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerful Women
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Hi All! Had a bit of a slip (due to health), and now looking for some advice on my new goals! I’ve listed them below, followed by some questions!

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SUMMED UP GOAL: Be in the best shape of my life by my 30th birthday through diet, strength- , stamina- , and flexibility building activities, and a focus on leading friends/family by example.

DEADLINE: January 17th, 2012

HURDLE: Recent illnesses and other factors caused me to gain about 20lbs of fat, and lose a bit of muscle. Currently ill, recovering. Should be fine next week, aside from possible lingering infection and ongoing knee/joint issues, so using this time to plan.

CURRENTLY:

  • Weight: 155
  • BF % : 32 (if my scale is to be trusted. Fluctuates with water retention)
  • Height: 5ft 7in
  • Age: 29
  • Somatype: Tends towards Mesomorphic

GOAL (all stats better than past best-shape, 2 years ago)

  • Weight: 130

  • BF % : 17-19%

  • Difference in weight: -25 lbs

  • Difference in BF: -13% to -15%

  • Difference in Muscle Mass: + 0 to +2.6lbs

  • Average lbs per week: -1.7 /week

  • Average BF% per week: -0.87 to 1% /week

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QUESTIONS

  1. I’d like confirmation: Do the above goals seem within reason?

  2. I’d love to do Velocity, but I’ve tried and something (the lack of carbs? Not enough fat?) makes me extremely touchy, on-edge and down/depressed. I don’t think what I get is a normal level of low-carb cranky, it’s just not working with my body chemistry (perhaps due to iron-deficient anemia, ADHD and used to have issues with hypoglycemia) Although I did loose weight the few days I was on, until my husband begged me to eat a fruit or something! ha)… Any suggestions for modification, or must I just simply find a different diet?

  3. Cutting always gives me more inspiration to keep going because I can see the changes faster, and I want to push forward (it also would help me to do easier body-weight exercises, with the reduced weight). However, I love lifting, and paired with my mesomorphic body type, an increase in muscle mass can help boost my metabolism. I want to be as efficient as possible. What do you suggest: cutting, building, build followed by cut, or a more boot-camp/crossfit style do-both-at-the-same-time approach?

  4. If you where in my shoes, what diet and/or exercise plan would you use?

====THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!====

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If you’re looking to drop around a lb/wk, I would suggest John Berardi’s Get Shredded Diet. I’ve used it for contest prep with great success. However, I can’t say I was a joy to be around during those 3-4 months. Get Shredded is pretty low on everything (kcals, carbs, and fat) and it isn’t fun, but it definitely works if you stick to Berardi’s calculations for kcals and macros and log food on a site like DailyBurn. Best of luck! :slight_smile:

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low fat diets lead to depression faster than anything else.

low carb diets make people cranky because they’re missing the quick fix that sugar/carbs provide. get over yourself, and you’ll be fine.

if you gained 20lbs of fat, it was the shit you were shoveling in your mouth, not your illness. had you not done that, you’d have healed faster and not ended up with this problem. above and beyond that, you know better, spartan.

yes, your goals are reasonable. you’ve developed bad habits- is it reasonable to expect you to change them?

diet- carbnite solutions

training- 5/3/1.

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  1. Yes it’s reasonable.
  2. Try an elimination diet to see what it is that sets you off. You could have allergies or mild sensitivities, or even just learn how you emotionally respond to either low cards or low fat. Keep a food journal the whole time and record mood before and after each meal. Next, precision nutrition is great for educational purposes and allows you to modify based on what you discovered with your food journal. This is a good free food journal www.fitday.com or you can find a million free, awesome apps for phone and tablet devices. A third option is to start a wordpress journal and include pictures of your food with comments. If you get a group of friends doing this with you, it can obviously become more fun.
  3. You can search the archives on here for a weight good program and check out people’s logs to start getting a feel for how the programs play out.
  4. Figure out a cardio plan that is a balance of intense and [b]sustainable for you[/b]. Everyone on here loves HITT and complexes. HOWEVER exercise studies reveal that high intensity programs have a low rate of adherence over time due to drop-out, whereas moderate and low-intensity cardio have much better rates, especially for middle-aged participants. Steady rate cardio was actually shown to be more effective at building cardio capacity and assisting in weight-loss than HITT in a study over time, because of this.
  5. Make an exercise log on here and have fun :slight_smile:
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PS. I would recommend taking the weight off first. Building muscle can become a very stupid excuse by novices to eat whatever they want. Also, it takes a while to get good at the complex lifts which will eventually help you with muscle building. Seeing visual results that you have been socially conditioned to associate with good health while mastering the lifts and learning how to control your diet will be great initial reinforcement that this lifestyle works. Also, you will build some muscle without focusing on it. Then, once you have a much better understanding of lifting and diet, plan for muscle or strength gain or whatever you want.