Hello T-Nation.
I’m a beginner, so to speak. I just joined T-Nation after a friend recommended it. I mean, I’ve lurked and read the articles before but never really though to join.
I’m 5’6" and 176 pounds. I want to cut fat, but not really sure where I should go in my goals.
I want to be strong and lean.
During the summer, I was relatively active and dropped 11 pounds. Gained the weight back when I got busy with school and my eating got away from me now. It’s May and I’m prepared to really buckle down and lose the weight.
I have been playing roller derby since January. Two practices a week, but am now attending three. They’re about 2-3 hours long each. My practices are M/W/Sun.
I just recently joined a private gym that specifies in strongman and powerliftingesque training. I lift Thurs/Sat/Sun, and it’s pretty much what my Strength coach tells me to do.
We deadlift thurs, bench saturday, and squat sundays along with accessory work and sometimes some conditioning thrown in. I also want sometimes go for a walks and rollerblade around my neighborhood. I’m also going to be starting some BJJ/martial arts training soon and also want to try out Bikram Yoga.
I average 1500-1700 calories on my non-lifting days and 1900-2100 on my lifting days. I haven’t been super consistent in recording my calories like I was last summer, but I’m getting back into it.
Pictures are here:
http://www.use.com/Pictures_be4b97d394286f1a8cef
blue sports bra pics are more recent after doing upper body at the gym.
bathing suit pics are from like two weeks ago.
Also, am curious to roughly what you think my bodyfat is
I feel like I may be eating to many calories? But I am eating in a leangains manner. I tend to keep it under 100g carbs on nonstrength days (I usually average about 50-70g) and eat roughly 150-170 g protein, and the rest of my cals from fat. On training days, I eat roughly 198 g carbs, 150-170 g protein, and the rest fat. I’m not really sure what my macros should be, and am a bit confused.
Also, I wasn’t really sure how to post multiple pictures so hence the link. It’s an album of uploaded pictures.
Goals:
-drop fat
-get lean
-adopt a healthy and active lifestyle
-eventually compete in powerlifting
HI f2f 
I really couldn’t guess your body fat %! My gym has a special scale that calculates it by sending an electrical charge up the person’s legs. It’s free and anyone can use it. I think most gyms have these. I think you look very nice.
I have done Bikram’s yoga in the past. I highly recommend it, especially if you are looking to lose fat. It is very very hot and the instructors really push you. Drink lots of water beforehand!
Roller derby sounds awesome. I rollerblade and I find it very aerobic. I think aerobic activities are really good for losing weight.
You sound really active and if you keep up that schedule you will be much fitter in no time. I think 1500 calories is a little low, but I am no expert. You don’t want to lose muscle or feel really deprived. I think the best thing you can do is go back to logging your food and keep the calories at a level where you are not hungry for more than a couple of hours a day. That is what I do when losing weight.
Maybe post your macros question in the Supplements and Nutrition forum… they will know.
good luck to you!
Thanks for the response. I forgot to mention, that roughly guesstimating, I want to lose like 26 pounds? I think 150 would be a good solid weight for me.
well f2f I think 25 pounds is a lot! Why not just try to get into a pair of pants one size down. Or get back to where you were last summer. You have so many wonderful activities on the go, I bet you can achieve that in no time just by logging your macros and eating pretty clean. You don’t want to lose muscle, right? Enjoy all those activities and have some fun, I think 25 pounds may be too much, especially if you are playing all those sports. Just my 2 cents. Anyway, you can only lose a pound at a time so you can always adjust your goals as you go.
Wow! You’ve got a lot of activities on your plate! (Sounds like me, always looking to stay busy and active). A couple of thoughts:
The VAST majority of your weightloss will come from your nutrition. But a calorie isn’t just a calorie so instead of counting those, from my persobal experience, I’ve had much better results from concentrated carb dosing, meaning consuming carbs only around workouts and otherwise maintaining a low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet. I ‘cheat’ one meal a week and I fast one day a week and have lost roughly 15lbs, made some excellent strength gains, and built muscle.
As for the activities that you’re doing, if you want to be good at roller derby, then use your practice as your conditioning, whether that’a a roller derby practice or rollerblading. Then, practice your strength, like you’re doing with your strength coach. The same goes for BJJ/martial arts. BJJ is extremely systemically demanding. Adding more ‘cardio’ or ‘conditioning’ days might just burn you out.
As for yoga, if doing Bikram is more of an active recovery than an actual workout, I’d say go for it! But if it feels more like a training session, then opt for a gentle yoga class.
Overall, more is not more. Oftentimes, less is more. It’s about intelligent design not quantity. If you have any questions, I’m happy to help! You can find me here or go to my site. Just Google “beauiful strength dot com”
Best of luck! Love to hear your progress, too!