[quote]kayelle wrote:
[quote]Bron Sapir wrote:
Welcome!
Congratulations on your progress so far, that’s awesome. Your goals are definitely achievable and I don’t think you’re being too strict, it’s important to be very accurate and aware of what you are eating. However, the binging isn’t great but it happens to the best of us… I think that might have something to do with your macro breakdown and the total amount of food you’re eating each day because from what you mentioned your calories seem pretty low.
The supplements I’ve mentioned before are available in Australia as far as I know, you can order from the store here (click on ‘store’ up on the top left) and you can also read reviews and more information about the different supplements there. I am a huge fan of Indigo-3G and I can’t live without it! It’s amazing for body composition goals. You could also try Plazma intraworkout, it’s a superior carb source and it will give you the fuel for amazing workouts and has favorable effects on body composition as well. You mentioned a lot of fruits that you eat and that quickly adds up in your daily carbs, they do have a place in a diet but it needs to be timed correctly and if you eat too much it can leave you craving sugar a lot of times. A good way to make sure you get in all of your fruits and veggies is to add superfood to one of your protein shakes in the day.
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Hi Bron,
Thanks for taking the time to respond!
I seem to be doing better and have gotten to a point where I’m quite lean I have stopped having these all out binges, but am still having a few treats on some days, with the odd higher ‘refeed’ day (I’m calling them) due to going out for dinners or breakfasts where I can’t totally count the macros, only estimate as best I can.
What sort of calories should I be aiming for? I have recently started semi-carb cycling again as I stopped for a few weeks. Doing the very low carb 2-3 days per week where my total calories I’m aiming for is about 1400 and then on higher carb day it’s about 1650.
I must admit, this is the ideal but on some days I am eating closer to 1800-2000 because I’m either hungry or craving a sugar fix! I’m not as strict as I probably should be. I tend to only eat fruit (banana or sometimes an apple) within 30 minutes of a workout, or the raspberries in my yoghurt which is usually within 3 hours of a workout. I will look further into those supps though, thanks. I am so scared of eating proper carbs again, regularly (I have the odd bread roll during the week, and a very small amount of oats/bran every second day, but I can’t remember the last time I ate pizza, pasta, rice etc!!).
My other question is guess, is, to maintain the low level of body fat I believe I’m now at (I’m sure I’m sub 15%, maybe even closer to 12%), do I need to eat at a mild calorie deficit combined with high levels of exercise, ongoing? Is that they only way to stay truely lean? I feel if I up my calories to a more maintenance level, then weight will just come back on!!
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Glad to hear you’ve been making progress.
It’s hard to say exactly because it really depends on the person. But if you keep up with your high levels of exercise and stay in a mild calorie deficit then you should be able to maintain your current condition. If you are very accurate with your measurements you can always change things around and try to increase your calories a bit (keeping exercise levels the same) and see how your body reacts.
Keep in mind the scale isn’t always the best way to track you progress because it’s also likely that you may gain weight but have improved body composition and as females we tend to have a lot more fluctuation in weight.