Where to begin?

[lindi17]

Just joined...doing a lot of reading and research on suppliments..steriods...stacks...etc.
I'm overwhelmed by everything! I'm a 5'5'' 26 yr old female @ 136lbs. I've been working my ass off w/ a personal trainer for the past 16 weeks. I'm still sitting @ 22% bodyfat. I need Help!! I want to leaner and more cut. What should I be doing?.....or taking to get better results? I'm very open to anything....Thanks!!!

 

[JerrymeMorales]

Question....

How is your diet and cardio like?

 

[lindi17]

cardio 5-6x a week 30 min morning- high inten
afternoon cardio 2-3x week 30 min low inten
weights 4-5 days a week

Diet- lean meats, fish, egg whites, complex carbs, low/ to no sugar. lots of veggies
whey protein shakes
sometimes a protien bar when to busy to eat.
multi- vit
lots of H2O
40 % protein, 40% carb, 20%fat

 

[JerrymeMorales]

Hey Lindi...

When I read your nutrition and workout plan, it doesnt seem like anything is wrong.

I mean your doing cardio like 5-6 times at high intensity so you should be burning fat and raising your metabolism. It doesnt seem like your diet is high starch/high carb so I dont see a problem with this.

Is there something you are not telling us?

I have another question for you.....for someone who is 5'5" and 136 pounds seems pretty normal but at 22 percent bodyfat?

I know that women carry more bodyfat than men but I am not sure what the norm should be on an athletic woman.

Ive dated a girl who was 5'3" and weighed 130 pounds and she didnt look at all out of shape and she worked out almost everyday and carried a fitness girl's physique. Mind you...I didnt know what her bodyfat percentage was but she did look great...she had toned muscle on her.

To be honest with you....I dont see anything wrong with your diet and workout plan if you are applying them.

But I have a lot of questions going on in my head about your dillema.

I wished Jodi or J'bo was here, they would give you a better idea at a woman's perspective.

 

[P-funk]

Can you please post your entire diet complete with meal times and macronutrient breakdown and calories? Also, that sounds like a lot of cardio. Cardio is good for the heart andcan help to create even more of a caloric defecit but starting out with that much may leave you no where to go in the future. You need to start slow and let your body adapt to the new level of energy expenditure as well as the new level of energy consumption (total daily calories) before you do anything crazy. Also post your workout, are you working out 5x's a week with a trainer??? If not you may be overtraining a little because you may be repeating things that you are doing in your training sessions with him when you go to workout by yourself. 16 weeks with a trainer is a good amount of time to see some improvement. Either you rae doing something wrong or your trainer sucks.

 

[lindi17]

I really wish I could say the reason I'm not getting the results I want b/c I sit around @ night stuffing my face w/ twinkies.
I forgot to mention I have had two children. Youngest is 3 yrs. I have an amazing shape and muscle tone but trouble areas are back of the legs and lower abs ( like most women) How do some of these women that I see at the gym look so tight and smooth? Have they been training for years or are they on something that helps them out? I really want to get to the level that I could enter competions or do some modeling. Gotta have dreams right?
Someone told me the only way I can get really lean and cut is to do steriods. Is that true?

 

[P-funk]

that is the biggest load of bs I have ever heard........The only way to get really lean and cut is to work hard and diet properly. Yes some women way be using performance enhancing drugs but that is not something that should concern you. All you should be worried about is getting into the best possible shape that YOU can be in. Please post your diet and training routine so that we can help you out.

 

[oaktownboy]

trust me lindi you do not want to go down the road of taking steroids...it's twice as harmful for women as for men because of their androgenic properties...to get lean you gotta reduce calorie consumption and taper your diet so it's about 60% pro 30%carb
10%fat..do half an hour of cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach 4-5 times a week..if desired, take hydroxycut or some other fat burner before the cardio..but you must curtail carbohydrate consumption!!!!!!!!

- TRAIN HARD

 

[gr81]

what about the anabolics? seriously though lindi, cardio isnot the key to fat loss, you diet is so worry more about that than the hours of cardio. It is possible to get incredibly lean without even doing cardio at all so prioritize. Just out of curiousity what steriods were you thinking of taking?

 

[Mudge]

Originally posted by oaktownboy
it's twice as harmful for women as for men because of their androgenic properties

You have to be carefull and know what your doing, they use very, very low doses in general - but in several ways they avoid problems men encounter, like recouperation. Virilization is the big problem though, but again, education.

 

[oaktownboy]

what i meant to say was that a lot of women who use steroids experience more visible side effects( at least the ones i've met) than men....

 

[gr81]

women can just very easily experience virillization side effects with even a moderately low androgenic compound, these side effects are permanent so yeah I would be cautious if I were a female.

 

[JerrymeMorales]

Are you really sure that the effects of steroids on women are permanent?

Loook at Bev francis and Kim Chivesky....since they have been off years ago, they both look feminine as all women not on the gear do.

 

[oaktownboy]

but what about their insides(liver,kidneys)? they're probably screaming for mercy

 

[JerrymeMorales]

true...true

 

[Mudge]

Originally posted by oaktownboy
but what about their insides(liver,kidneys)? they're probably screaming for mercy

Thats where blood tests come in, the pros know better, those that aren't getting tested well its thier life isn't it. If you know what your talking about feel free to post information, if you are not educated on the subject and merely passing on whispered rumors from the propoganda ministers then you are helping nobody.

 

[gr81]

Originally posted by JerrymeMorales
Are you really sure that the effects of steroids on women are permanent?

Loook at Bev francis and Kim Chivesky....since they have been off years ago, they both look feminine as all women not on the gear do.

You are right, regular sides are not permanent, virilization effects are though, such as the squaring of the jaw and other masculine features that come about. Sides such as acne and things along that line are not. Maybe the girls you mentioned were using mainly anabolic drugs as opposed to androgenic ones which is the path a woman would want to take if using at all.