A little help here?

[angelkisssed]

Hey ladies!! I've been a stalker/fan of this site for a looooong time now but I still can't seem to get the handle on my needed macros!! I've read all of the sites and stickies I can get my hands on, but I'm not confident that I'm using the correct formulas OR calculating accurately. If any pro's have a second, would you mind giving me a hand? I'm not sure exactly all or what info you might need but I'll give you what I know:

5'6
123ish lbs
I'm currently in my second month of a p90/insanity hybrid (after completing a round of p90 already), so that's 3 days/week lifting with cardio in the evenings and 3 days heavy cardio. Kind of looks like this:

Monday: am-Chest/Back/Abs
pm- P90 Cardio

Tuesday: am-Insanity

Wednesday: am-Either Shoulders/Triceps/Biceps/Abs OR Back/Biceps/Abs
pm- P90 Cardio

Thursday: am-Insanity

Friday: am-Legs/Back/Abs
pm- P90 Cardio

Saturday: am-Insanity

Sunday: REST DAY (and Sunday it's do NOTHING day if I can help it, although I'll admit I fight against the impulse to train. I feel so lazy doing nothing! But I know my body needs the rest...)

And as far as what I eat, my diet consists of mostly oats, flax, barley, brown rice, various other grains, lots of eggs/egg whites, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, nut butters (usually almond/peanut/walnut), coconut oil, turkey, chicken, ezekiel wraps/spelt muffins, sweet potato's....stuff like that. i rarely deviate from what I eat mostly because it tastes SO good and I actually look forward to eating it I usually follow my body's que's : eat when I'm hungry and eat until I'm full. I don't track calories but that's kind of why I'm asking for help with macro's because as I fine tune my body I'm finding it necessary to know. I want to make sure I'm getting enough to build but I'm worried that I'm not taking in enough cals actually with my training regimine. And I find counting cals to be such a tediously hard task...even the calorie counters don't seem to help!!

I'm also thinking I over think this stuff a lot lol. And I wonder if my training plan is far too strenuous? I find myself tired 24/7. I always make sure to drink enough water and lately I've been hitting the coffee hard :/ Other than my multivites and fish oil/b vite supps I don't take anything else. And I've noticed results but they seem slow going. I've had 3 kids so my body is SO different and I can't tell if I just have *ahem* extra skin in places or fat?! It's quite concerning and annoying to me all at once. I've only been training hard since February but with the amount I train I'd think I'd notice more results which makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong? Or perhaps I'm just not being patient enough? Some days it seems no matter how hard I train, or what I do it's never quite enough which is very disheartening.

Any advice, or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time gals!!

Jess

[thedogdidit]

I'm not really familiar with the P90X stuff -- is that all cardio? Insanity, too?
It seems an awful lot of cardio to do, but then I hate cardio ...

What are your goals? To gain muscle? You certainly don't look like you can afford to lose much and if you do, it would probably be muscle. Even if you have small pockets of fat, you'd need to bulk first, I think, or risk becoming skeletal.

Since you've read the macros, you *know* you're gonna have to track your calories if you're not currently getting the results you desire. I mean, if you need to be eating more of something - either calories, or one of your macros (protein?) - you first need to know how much of it you're eating. You don't have to do it for long, but it would really help if you did track for a week or two. At least then you'd have a baseline.

[Nate2010]

Goals?


Also, workout in the morning and then P90x in the afternoon.......:O

[angelkisssed]

Goals:
I want to eventually compete in some BB comps. I'm also planning on becoming a certified personal trainer/nutritionist. Simply put, I want a hard body. Lean and ripped.

I train with weights in the am Mon/Wed/Fri mornings with cardio in the evenings. I just upped the cardio past two weeks. Usually it's just weight training in the am with cardio on alternating days but lately I've been adding the pm cardio. I feel compelled...

Thanks again, guys!

[Nate2010]

Goals:
I want to eventually compete in some BB comps. I'm also planning on becoming a certified personal trainer/nutritionist. Simply put, I want a hard body. Lean and ripped.

I train with weights in the am Mon/Wed/Fri mornings with cardio in the evenings. I just upped the cardio past two weeks. Usually it's just weight training in the am with cardio on alternating days but lately I've been adding the pm cardio. I feel compelled...

Thanks again, guys!

So, goal = build lean muscle.

IMO.....too much cardio.
Not sure what your routine is, but you seem like a smart ladie so Im pretty sure its fine. But, all that cardio.......DAMN. I believe your depriving yourself of much needed calories to build muscle with such intense cardio. I would cut it back just a we tiny bit. Of course, I am not a female so I cannot accuratley disect and diagnose such an issue.

[sonti]

Goals:
I want to eventually compete in some BB comps. I'm also planning on becoming a certified personal trainer/nutritionist. Simply put, I want a hard body. Lean and ripped.

I train with weights in the am Mon/Wed/Fri mornings with cardio in the evenings. I just upped the cardio past two weeks. Usually it's just weight training in the am with cardio on alternating days but lately I've been adding the pm cardio. I feel compelled...

Thanks again, guys!

Your goals conflict.

If you want to eventually compete in BB (and I assume you mean BB and not figure or even bikini), you need to put on mass. A LOT of mass. You are very lean, yes, but you don't have much muscle - a result of too much cardio and likely a low calorie intake.

BB's spend years... many years... putting on their mass at a calorie surplus. They don't stay lean when they do it. When someone is extremely lean, they see a lot of muscle definition but that doesn't mean they have a lot of muscle.

Someone wanting to put on mass for BB would scrap the cardio (maybe no cardio EVER) for a very long time, putting their food + energy into the weights only Are you willing to do that?

And you are tired probably from little food, too much exercise, and if you have 3 kids and are 27, I assume as well too little sleep??? (I have a baby too, lol).

[angelkisssed]

Mmm. Good input guys! Gives me something to think about for sure I worried that I was overdoing it with the cardio as far as muscle growth goes...

And as far as BB goes, I'm more down for some figure comps as opposed to getting super jacked. I'm not afraid of size, but I will be honest...I'm slightly scared to drop some and/or ALL cardio to bulk. I know it has to be done if that's something I really want, however. It's just something I'll have to get over in my mind I suppose. I just can't get over the cardio mindset, especially when I feel like there's a few trouble spots on my body I'd like to fine-tune (inner thighs and love handles for instance).

And as far as my macro's go, anyone willing to take a stab and help me out with that?? I come up with around 2600? Give or take a few hundred. Does that sound about right?

Again, I appreciate the help and advice and it's not lost on THESE ears

[thedogdidit]

Mmm. Good input guys! Gives me something to think about for sure I worried that I was overdoing it with the cardio as far as muscle growth goes...

And as far as BB goes, I'm more down for some figure comps as opposed to getting super jacked. I'm not afraid of size, but I will be honest...I'm slightly scared to drop some and/or ALL cardio to bulk. I know it has to be done if that's something I really want, however. It's just something I'll have to get over in my mind I suppose. I just can't get over the cardio mindset, especially when I feel like there's a few trouble spots on my body I'd like to fine-tune (inner thighs and love handles for instance).

And as far as my macro's go, anyone willing to take a stab and help me out with that?? I come up with around 2600? Give or take a few hundred. Does that sound about right?

Again, I appreciate the help and advice and it's not lost on THESE ears

I think 2600 is pretty accurate for your current training regimine. If, though, you dropped some cardio, it'd drop (obviously). Like the others have said, the amount of cardio you're doing is pretty extreme. You don't need to drop all of it, but I'd think you'd be better off dropping some of it.
Have you been lurking on the First Time Bulkers thread? You should .. or, better yet, join them!

[birdiefu]

On your bodyspace you said something about just finishing 3 hours of cardio. Um, how many total hours of cardio do you do a week? Really, getting rid of problem spots will not be fixed with more cardio. Lift, rest, and adjust your *calories* to tweak weight gain/loss. You will get the results you need with diet, not by running yourself into the ground with cardio.