She's SUPER fit but hardly eats

[ananke]

So, I've been keeping my cals at 1600 for a while now (up from like a year at 1400). But it looks like most of you suggest going higher; I can't seem to be doing this without thinking "cals in should be less than cals out???". I'm just trying to get leaner overall and shed these last 3lbs of chuckiness without losin any muscle. But any time I up my cals I feel bloated and think, well.... cals in = cals out so i'm not really doing much? (I'm 5'5 and 126).

I have this friend she is FIT i mean like JESUS!! fit (really toned and strong looking) and the weird thing is, she's super scared of food like, she only drinks coffees with a TON of sugar throughout the day, maybe a choc. bar and then a biggish normal whatever dinner at night. Works out like crazy.

HOW CAN THIS BE??? I mean she must eat like...half of what I eat and lousy amounts of protein!

[D2Dude]

Each persons body is different. And you can't know what she eats when you're not around. Just hope and pray that she remains healthy and remain intently focused on your own goals!

Just my 2 cents...

[ananke]

oh trust me, i know her well. She downs sports drinks, lots of super sugary coffee, like 1 candy bar and a store-bought-sandwich during the day and maybe an apple...then a regular plate of dinner (one chicken breast and rice). HATES cooking so she doesn't and works out 2.5 hrs every other day (an hour run plus 1.5 hours lifting). It's crazy.

[Rowyn]

oh trust me, i know her well. She downs sports drinks, lots of super sugary coffee, like 1 candy bar and a store-bought-sandwich during the day and maybe an apple...then a regular plate of dinner (one chicken breast and rice). HATES cooking so she doesn't and works out 2.5 hrs every other day (an hour run plus 1.5 hours lifting). It's crazy.

Well, there are tons of calories in those drinks too. Just think what she would look like if she actually applied all that energy to eating properly! You could always try it her way and see if it works for you, lol. j/k

[girl81]

I know a female athlete who is very self-conscious about eating in public. She trains hard and eats plenty when she's in her own home.
Do you live with this woman?

[inbetweendays]

Based on what you say she eats, it sounds like she's taking in quite a lot of calories. They may be mostly from sugar rather than normal meals, but in the end, the calories are there.

[ananke]

yeah you guys are right, no I dont live with her and so maybe she eats by herself or yeah, maybe all the sugary stuff she eats is high cal...what i wondered is, how can someone with so little protein overall be really fit and muscly?

Anyways, I was askin coz I THINK i should up MY cals but then lookin at her who probably doesn't eat half what I eat I dunno.... What do you guys THINK?? Should I stick to eating 1600ish Cals to lose fat and not lose muscle? or should I up them gradually to say, 1800????

(I liked up her case and mine coz she eats (or i think she does) so little and here I am thinking about eating MORE hehe)

Any advice on what I should do? I go to the gym like 5 times a week, cardio days twice and the rest just lifting hm hm hm: 1600 too little????

[FemmeFatale28]

oh trust me, i know her well. She downs sports drinks, lots of super sugary coffee, like 1 candy bar and a store-bought-sandwich during the day and maybe an apple...then a regular plate of dinner (one chicken breast and rice). HATES cooking so she doesn't and works out 2.5 hrs every other day (an hour run plus 1.5 hours lifting). It's crazy.

sounds to me like shes probably getting adequate calories. I once new a girl who lived off diet pepsi and vitamin C tablets and worked out all the time. It was sad to watch. Anyways.. I work out 2 hours a day nearly everyday and im not much for eating in public so she could be the same.

[aznprincess]

So, I've been keeping my cals at 1600 for a while now (up from like a year at 1400). But it looks like most of you suggest going higher; I can't seem to be doing this without thinking "cals in should be less than cals out???". I'm just trying to get leaner overall and shed these last 3lbs of chuckiness without losin any muscle. But any time I up my cals I feel bloated and think, well.... cals in = cals out so i'm not really doing much? (I'm 5'5 and 126).

I have this friend she is FIT i mean like JESUS!! fit (really toned and strong looking) and the weird thing is, she's super scared of food like, she only drinks coffees with a TON of sugar throughout the day, maybe a choc. bar and then a biggish normal whatever dinner at night. Works out like crazy.

HOW CAN THIS BE??? I mean she must eat like...half of what I eat and lousy amounts of protein!

if you just want to lose 3 lbs my suggestion is to take a full diet break and eat at maintenance for at least a week. your macros can be just what you would normally eat from desire. in other words... eat freely for a week AT MAINTENANCE not higher (i'm not saying stuff your face). i'm saying, eat for a week without caring about your food choices as much.... NORMAL.

then go back to your diet. i don't know your stats but if you're not planning on eating 1400 cals for the rest of your life, which i don't recommend but are just doing it to create a deficit, then go back to 1400 for the next 6 weeks. i'm POSITIVE you should lose the 3 lbs. keep lifting heavy.

[ananke]

I like your advice of mixing my diet for a week ... ehhmm: hello pizza, it's been a while hehehe

But no, i mean, how much should maintenance BE??? I'm 5'5, almost 5'6 really, 126-129lbs mmmm, probably 19-21% BF??? (haven't checked it in a while so I'm being really general here)....And yeah, I eat like 1400-1600 cals (like 1600ish for the past two weeks) and burn a good 700ish a day, walking around + working out....Any suggestions here? Really I dont wanna lose WEIGHT per se, I just wanna tone up more and what not which is why I was thinking to eat more and stuff

[andrerox80]

I like your advice of mixing my diet for a week ... ehhmm: hello pizza, it's been a while hehehe

But no, i mean, how much should maintenance BE??? I'm 5'5, almost 5'6 really, 126-129lbs mmmm, probably 19-21% BF??? (haven't checked it in a while so I'm being really general here)....And yeah, I eat like 1400-1600 cals (like 1600ish for the past two weeks) and burn a good 700ish a day, walking around + working out....Any suggestions here? Really I dont wanna lose WEIGHT per se, I just wanna tone up more and what not which is why I was thinking to eat more and stuff

did you check out emma-leigh's sticky on calculating cals? it has your answers...

[aznprincess]

in order to "tone up" or get more "definition" that really means dropping body fat. honestly. you could try and gain muscle but the amount of body fat you have is going to stay the same or go up when you do that.

which means, muscle "tone" isn't really going to show up until you lean out.... does that make sense.

it's really up to you.

[Holly2710]

I actually know women like that who take hGH or other illegal supp. But really, unless your with her 24/7, it would be hard to tell what her diet really consists of. I totally knwo what you mean though, I see girls outside the gym that drink **** loads of energy drinks. Dont worry about your friends progress, just focus on your own. Good luck with you goals

[ananke]

Thanks you guys! you're awesome!

Yeah I don't know about my friend. It's just funny you know? Because I really look after my body and what I put into it and going to the gym and working out and somehow I thought everyone that was really INTO working out a lot and getting fit would care about stuff like that and be informed.

I mean, even if she eats when I'm not around, drinkin cup after cup of super sugary coffee? I mean and the thing is, her body is fab, she's super lean and yeah it just strikes me as bizzarre coz clearly she's got lots of muscle but whenever i talk to her about say, if im having a protein shake or whatever, she thinks it's weeeird hehehee

funny no?

[ananke]

PS: you guys all have great abs going on! good job!

[nea_lin]

hmm you would think she would feel like sh*t all the time by eating that way...

[thepowerwithin]

if you just want to lose 3 lbs my suggestion is to take a full diet break and eat at maintenance for at least a week. your macros can be just what you would normally eat from desire. in other words... eat freely for a week AT MAINTENANCE not higher (i'm not saying stuff your face). i'm saying, eat for a week without caring about your food choices as much.... NORMAL.

then go back to your diet. i don't know your stats but if you're not planning on eating 1400 cals for the rest of your life, which i don't recommend but are just doing it to create a deficit, then go back to 1400 for the next 6 weeks. i'm POSITIVE you should lose the 3 lbs. keep lifting heavy.

^^^This has worked for me.

I had been dieting for a long time, pretty low calorie (1300-1500 cals) and was stuck (mostly cuz I would fall of the plan). It was recommended I give it a break and eat at maintenance or so - 1800 cals - not paying too much attention to macros, but definitely getting adequate protein and fats and keeping my carbs moderate. At first I was bloated and felt "fat." I did add more cardio back in (not too much). Lo and behold, I've lost 2-3 lbs and my strength and energy are through the roof. Plus, most importantly, I am HAPPIER!!!!!

[vhc09]

I like your advice of mixing my diet for a week ... ehhmm: hello pizza, it's been a while hehehe

But no, i mean, how much should maintenance BE??? I'm 5'5, almost 5'6 really, 126-129lbs mmmm, probably 19-21% BF??? (haven't checked it in a while so I'm being really general here)....And yeah, I eat like 1400-1600 cals (like 1600ish for the past two weeks) and burn a good 700ish a day, walking around + working out....Any suggestions here? Really I dont wanna lose WEIGHT per se, I just wanna tone up more and what not which is why I was thinking to eat more and stuff

I'm 5'5" ~122lbs and my maintenance would be closer to 2000cals (I work out amost every day). I am taking in almost 1600cals (hoping to lose the last bit of fat and still maintain muscle). I'm also taking Oxy Elite Pro. For me, this is working. I also eat very healthy with one "cheat meal" per week. Hope this helps!

[aznprincess]

Thanks you guys! you're awesome!

Yeah I don't know about my friend. It's just funny you know? Because I really look after my body and what I put into it and going to the gym and working out and somehow I thought everyone that was really INTO working out a lot and getting fit would care about stuff like that and be informed.

I mean, even if she eats when I'm not around, drinkin cup after cup of super sugary coffee? I mean and the thing is, her body is fab, she's super lean and yeah it just strikes me as bizzarre coz clearly she's got lots of muscle but whenever i talk to her about say, if im having a protein shake or whatever, she thinks it's weeeird hehehee

funny no?

who knows what's going on with her. meh.

PS: you guys all have great abs going on! good job!

thanks :-) work in progress...

^^^This has worked for me.

I had been dieting for a long time, pretty low calorie (1300-1500 cals) and was stuck (mostly cuz I would fall of the plan). It was recommended I give it a break and eat at maintenance or so - 1800 cals - not paying too much attention to macros, but definitely getting adequate protein and fats and keeping my carbs moderate. At first I was bloated and felt "fat." I did add more cardio back in (not too much). Lo and behold, I've lost 2-3 lbs and my strength and energy are through the roof. Plus, most importantly, I am HAPPIER!!!!!

i agree that i too felt totally bloated going back to maintenance after eating at a deficit for years. it does go away and you don't get fat AND your metabolism "usually" bounces back full force!

[alexandra1984]

this always amazes me...people with a 1600-1700 calorie diet....I eat 2000+ a day and I'm still hungry...what is wrong with me?!

[KyleAaron]

this always amazes me...people with a 1600-1700 calorie diet....I eat 2000+ a day and I'm still hungry...what is wrong with me?!

Very probably nothing is wrong with you.

Most women athletes undereat.



Gender effects on energy (food) intake in physically active individuals (SW=swimmers, XSK=cross-country skiers, RN=distance runners, WL=weight lifters, BB=bodybuilders, WR=wrestlers, BKB=basketball players, GY=gymnasts, BD=ballet dancers). While men typically increase their energy intake appropriately for the increased expenditure of their activity (with the exception of bodybuilders and wrestlers), women routinely fail to do so.

Taken from here.

Note that the 100 baseline is the percent of energy required for a sedentary person. So all of those people should be way above that line, being at 100% would actually make them undernourished. Being below that, definitely in trouble.

Most women athletes undereat.

[ananke]

Very probably nothing is wrong with you.

Most women athletes undereat.



Gender effects on energy (food) intake in physically active individuals (SW=swimmers, XSK=cross-country skiers, RN=distance runners, WL=weight lifters, BB=bodybuilders, WR=wrestlers, BKB=basketball players, GY=gymnasts, BD=ballet dancers). While men typically increase their energy intake appropriately for the increased expenditure of their activity (with the exception of bodybuilders and wrestlers), women routinely fail to do so.

Taken from here.

Note that the 100 baseline is the percent of energy required for a sedentary person. So all of those people should be way above that line, being at 100% would actually make them undernourished. Being below that, definitely in trouble.

Most women athletes undereat.

Hmmmmm, so you don't think any women athletes eat the Michael Phelp's diet?

[KyleAaron]

Hmmmmm, so you don't think any women athletes eat the Michael Phelp's diet?

If they did, maybe they'd beat him. They'd certainly defeat their undereating colleagues.

But... the table's all about averages, I'm sure there must be one or two sane women out there who actually match their food to their training. To be honest, I have had a couple of women working with me drop out or be asked not to train with me anymore simply because they reached a point where to progress they had to eat more, and psychologically they couldn't handle this. Like one woman for lunch was having a half-litre container of salad vegetables - lettuce, carrots, capsicum, etc. Her protein came from a scoop of protein powder. Her breakfast was a cup of oats with some milk. I can't recall her dinner, it wasn't much.

We're talking at most 1,300kcal daily. I managed to get another 300kcal in her during sessions by making her down a litre of milk, but I suspect she compensated by eating less at other times.

She had good natural strength and conditioning, squatted her bodyweight for reps in the second session. She got stronger over the next couple of months. But in the end, while you could squat your bodyweight on the bar, you're not going to squat 1.5 or 2x your bodyweight surviving on salad vegies and some protein powder.

That's okay if she didn't want to. Everyone has their particular goals. But she was enjoying gaining strength, wanted more. She just couldn't handle the thought of actually eating properly. If she continued to try lifting heavy but didn't eat to support it, some kind of injury was inevitable. She wouldn't listen, or rather she listened, nodded, and then continued starving herself. She wasn't physically unhealthy overall, we're not talking an eating disorder. This was just the common craziness. Nevertheless, continued heavy training with the poor diet would lead to injury. So I had to stop working with her.

By contrast, another woman I've worked with was a bit mental about food to begin with, bought lots of chlorophyll to "cleanse" herself, wouldn't eat carbs at night and that sort of nonsense, but after a while she trusted me and improved her diet - less junk and booze, more fruit, vegies, nuts, beans and just overall a larger volume of food. And a result she has got a lot stronger and dropped bodyfat. Her initial goal was to run a marathon, on closer questioning this turned out not to be an actual goal, just that she thought if she could run a marathon she'd have a smaller and perkier bum. So really she just wanted a smaller and perkier bum. Well, weight training and a good diet did that, no pavement-pounding needed.

Many women in the gym, their goals - which are commonly to lose fat, gain muscle, and often to be better and safer at some team sport - would be best served by heavy weight training, and large volumes of good food. Both of those scare women, the food most of all. You're just one trainer talking to them, you're drowned out by most of society blaring bullsht at them.

Just look at the chart above again. Many of the women athletes are professional athletes. It's their whole life. So if anyone is going to get their diet right, it's someone whose performance in their job, their whole prestige and so on, all depend on it. Yet they still undereat. If the professional athletes are still mental about food, how's the typical woman who just wants to "lose weight, get fit, tone up" going to be?

[ananke]

It's fascinating! I mean, I look around me and I eat sooo much more than all my girl friends and cousins who seem to be scared of food, it's all very very strange. And this is taking into account that i STILL eat way less than I in theory could (and in practice should). It's bizzarre in a way...Yesterday I ate with a cousin of mine and I ate half of an avocado and paused chewing on her salad leafs and looked at me as if I was trying out for the Bridget Jones role as soon as humanly possible...It must be interesting, as a trainer, to work with women who are terrified of gaining any weight and eating more than just as little as they need to keep on going...

As for my friend, the one who I was talking about in this thread, she still boggles my mind. Sooo much sugar, soo much coffee, she smokes like a chimney, eats pseudo-sandwiches for lunch almost daily (the nasty ones that use "bread" and some kind of bacon filling), and a chicken thigh for dinner...trains for 2 to 3 hours a day and is soooo damn muscly, it's very odd...very little protein overall (she thinks whey protein is for men and raises eyebrows whenever i down my shakes)

[KyleAaron]

Your friend's being "muscly", does this mean she has a lot of muscles, or just low bodyfat showing the muscles she does have?

I recall a way back someone posted up a "transformation of the week" of a young woman in her late teens, asking how she could grow muscle so quickly. And in her pictures that's what it looked like. However, when we looked at her actual bodyweight and bodyfat before and after... she'd lost both fat and muscle. It's just that she lost more fat than muscle, so her remaining muscle was more visible.

So I wonder whether your friend is genuinely "muscly", or is just low bodyfat. Could she even deadlift her bodyweight? Squat it? Because I find that young women with a physically active background can deadlift and squat their bodyweight for reps in the first month of training, sometimes the first or second session. Whereas young women who are simply low bodyfat and overall small with a poor diet cannot.

I wonder about her "fitness", too. I suspect that many of the experienced lifters here could take your friend through an ordinary session of doing a deep knee-bend, picking something heavy up off the ground and putting something heavy overhead, an ordinary 30-60 minute session of 12 sets or so - and your friend would lift not much weight and be absolutely tanked afterwards.

[Miranda]

i'm amazed people start threads on what others supposedly do and then analyze/judge the minutiae of their lives.

if it works for them and they're happy, fine.

[ananke]

i'm amazed people start threads on what others supposedly do and then analyze/judge the minutiae of their lives.
if it works for them and they're happy, fine.

I know right? What filth such people are...so judgmental and despicable! It's amazing the person who started this thread has any friends!

Anyways, the reason I was asking was not to be judgmental about my friend and criticize her freely in a 'public platform'; I was simply wondering about how someone with the same goals as me could lead a lifestyle so opposed to mine and have such amazing muscle structure going on. I talk to her about it all the time and we laugh so yeah. I wasn't aware I was divulging 'the minutiae of her life'! Hahaha, how absurd.

Yeah, KyleAaron you're very right about this, muscle visibility does not equate strength necessarily!

[SexyChic]

I know right? What filth such people are...so judgmental and despicable! It's amazing the person who started this thread has any friends!

Anyways, the reason I was asking was not to be judgmental about my friend and criticize her freely in a 'public platform'; I was simply wondering about how someone with the same goals as me could lead a lifestyle so opposed to mine and have such amazing muscle structure going on. I talk to her about it all the time and we laugh so yeah. I wasn't aware I was divulging 'the minutiae of her life'! Hahaha, how absurd.

Yeah, KyleAaron you're very right about this, muscle visibility does not equate strength necessarily!

It's called genetics/metabolism/age and calories in vs. cals out.....It's not rocket science. Besides you aren't with her 24/7...You have no idea how she eats when you aren't around.

[ananke]

It's called genetics/metabolism/age and calories in vs. cals out.....It's not rocket science. Besides you aren't with her 24/7...You have no idea how she eats when you aren't around.

Ahhhhhh, really, can this just be dropped? I asked the question months ago! I still find it curious how different our eating patterns are but it ends THERE. The whole point of my question was to inquire into the possibility of getting a certain body without following any of the 'rules' after she and I debated the validity of the latter. C'est tout.