First time splits!

[sweetbecky]

Hi ladies,
You're all very helpful so I thought I would post what I've been doing recently that's new for me and get your thoughts. Please feel free to critique, advise...

My goals and stats: I am on a fat losing mission, HOWEVER, I really want to build or at least retain a good amount of muscle. This is important to me. Currently I weigh 155 :o and I am 5'4". The Tanita scale has me at 33% bf and a CKD calculator I used has me at about 28% using my waist size of 32".

I am on a keto diet and for the first time in 4 weeks did a 60/20/20 c/p/f carb up for about 15 hours. I'm hoping my leptin levels will rise as I've been plateaued for a little while.

I eat an average of 1,100 calories a day (I know, too few, but this is up from 700-900), some days I eat 1,300 and one day a week I eat around 1,500.

Here is my current workout split:
Day 1 Legs
Day 2 Back Tris and Abs
Day 3 off/cardio
Day 4 Chest delts
Day 5 off
Day 6 Legs abs
Day 7 cardio
I normally do 3 sets of 8-10 reps for each exercise.
With my cardio I'm trying to alternate between HIIT and 45-1 hour mod intensity. Sometimes I'll throw in 20 minutes when I feel like it. I'm not training biceps directly (I have a thread on this). I'm thinking I should probably increase cardio, but on keto I am anticipating catabolism... not sure what to do there.

I'll attach a pic, I'm not sure if it will be helpful because I'm fully clothed, but it might give you an idea of what I'm working with.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

[sweetbecky]

Here it is:

[E-Mann]

Sweet Becky

I just drop in to say your a Hot Mama !!!

And wish you the best with your training !!

I'm sure you will get lots of great tips
from the wonderful ladies here !!

Peace out babe.

[TrishB]

Hi Sweet Becky! Great to put a picture to your name. You are gorgeous, and when you get that BF down where you want it....watch out!!

A little advice regarding your diet.
Carb up weekly on keto....24-36 hours. Most guys also add a day during the week to fill out a little more, but I don't think it is necessary.
Get your calories up. It does not matter that you are up from 700, you are still too low. Get up to around 1400-1700 a day at least. No reason you cannot up your cardio if you want, but you need the nutrition to fuel your body.

You workouts look fine except not sure why you train legs twice a week. You give yourself 5 days between on one set, then only 2 days on the next set?

Anyway....keep us posted on your progress. You will be looking awesome this summer! :)

[sweetbecky]

Thanks for the compliments! :)
I knew I was leaving something out on my initial post... for my splits, I am rotating them so it would be like this:
Day 1 Legs
Day 2 Back Tris and Abs
Day 3 off/cardio
Day 4 Chest delts
Day 5 off
Day 6 Legs abs
Day 7 cardio

Day 8 Back Tris and Abs
Day 9 cardio
Day 10 Chest delts
Day 11 off
Day 12 Legs, abs
and so on....
I guess I feel like I recover quickly from leg day, but I know that lack of soreness doesn't equal full recovery. Maybe I should replace whatever workout repeats too often during each rotation with cardio, and delay the workout that extra day. So much to consider... it truly is a science!

I will take your advice and bump my calories up again. I'll try to do it in 100 cal increments per day to decrease any chance of extra storage ;) I'm going to aim for 1400-1500 calories at first, I think. Maybe when I plateau again I can bump them up a bit more and add extra cardio.
Thank you so much for your comments!

[bufchk]

very cute you are;) and I hope you achieve your goals. Just keep experiementing with different nutrition programs to see what you respond to best. Good luck!!

[Hibiscus09]

Becky,

You look great -- very pretty. I agree with Trish on the calories -- you definitely need more. Shoot for 1,500 to 1,700 at least. You might want to try cycling your calories -- such as 1,700; 1,600; 1,500; 1,700; 1,600; I throw in a cheat day here; 1,500. You could start that cycle with 1,600 & move down to 1,400 if the 1,700 is too many calories for you to handle. I felt that way. I also have just started trying to hit legs twice a week. I'm doing Monday & Thursday this week. I try to throw at least two days in between for recovery.

Good luck with everything! :)

[sweetbecky]

Thanks for the replies ladies! It's really nice to have a group of fitness minded women who know what they're doing and can offer solid advice. I really appreciate it.

The calories are definitely going to be my sticky spot. I've been finding that when I increase my calories to 1500-1600, my eating feels out of control. Almost like my appetite increases the more I eat. I'm not sure if anyone else feels like that. I'm grateful for fitday, at least I can track my trends and see what's going on.

Just a note about my splits.... this is my second week of doing them, and I'm so glad I am! I can devote more time and focus to each body part and wow... I can feel it the next day! I've never felt soreness in the seperate muscles in my back before. I'm defintely going to increase the cardio, I think I need a little jumpstart! Plus with my splits I'm spending less time in the gym, so more cardio should fit right in.

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions!