Newbie seeking advice please

[FoxBlossom]

Firstly I'd just like to say hello and what a great website this is; I've been reading through a few of the posts and feel truly inspired by some of the pictures and success stories, and actually feel brave enough now to try and seek some advice and wisdom from you all if you don't mind lending me a hand

Basically I'm a 27 y/o female and I'd say my fitness ranges from mediocre to reasonably good; along with my weight I do tend to 'yo-yo' somewhat and go through fits and starts of exercising all the time to getting bored and slacking off and ending up back at square one. However, I really want to kick it in to touch now and permanently change my lifestyle and my body, and I'm hoping some advice and improved understanding on my behalf will help me reach my goals. I'm 5'7'' (67 inc) and approximately 164lbs at the moment; ideally I'd like to drop a lot of the weight but also replace the fat with some lean muscle. I'm not in to the ultra skinny girl look, I'd rather go for a strong, sculpted and healthy body.
I'm certainly not afraid of lighting weights and doing resistance, as I'm not from the thought group that assumes I'll become 'bulky' if I lift.
If someone can educate me and advise me on the correct way to go about it, then I will happily give it 100% knowing I'm going down the right road. I suppose it's the following questions that I've always had a mixed reponse from that confuses me, for example;

- Can I lose weight and build muscle / definition at the same time?
- How long will it take to drop significant bodyfat to see clear muscle definition?
- Should I cut first to my desired weight and THEN build muscle, or can this be done consecutively with diet?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just really keen to make the necessary changes and get the correct information on board to do so. I hope you don't mind me asking and seeking your advice guys.

Thank you in advance x

[kjake55]

I'll try to give you a little bit of help here for what its worth. There's many others who can probably do a lot better but here ya go...

Basically I'm a 27 y/o female and I'd say my fitness ranges from mediocre to reasonably good; along with my weight I do tend to 'yo-yo' somewhat and go through fits and starts of exercising all the time to getting bored and slacking off and ending up back at square one. However, I really want to kick it in to touch now and permanently change my lifestyle and my body, and I'm hoping some advice and improved understanding on my behalf will help me reach my goals. I'm 5'7'' (67 inc) and approximately 164lbs at the moment; ideally I'd like to drop a lot of the weight but also replace the fat with some lean muscle. I'm not in to the ultra skinny girl look, I'd rather go for a strong, sculpted and healthy body.

These are very altruistic ambitions but that's all they are, ambitions. Get some clearly defined goals that you can work towards. For example you want to lose X% of body fat w/i X months. Be realistic and then form an eating/lifting plan that will help you achieve those goals. Once you have a system in place you will probably also stop all of the "stopping and starting" you are doing. It's hard to get bored when you start seeing results.

I'm certainly not afraid of lighting weights and doing resistance, as I'm not from the thought group that assumes I'll become 'bulky' if I lift.
If someone can educate me and advise me on the correct way to go about it, then I will happily give it 100% knowing I'm going down the right road..

Try NROLFW. I haven't personally used it but it seems to be very highly recommended on this site and others that I visit.

I suppose it's the following questions that I've always had a mixed reponse from that confuses me, for example;
- Can I lose weight and build muscle / definition at the same time?

It's called recomping (recomposition) and yes it can be done but it takes time a patience and I'm not sure you're all that patient yet. You'll get there though so don't take that as an insult.

- How long will it take to drop significant bodyfat to see clear muscle definition?

That depends on you, your body and how hard you work and how consistent you are. Nothing works if you only do it a liitle bit of the time.

- Should I cut first to my desired weight and THEN build muscle, or can this be done consecutively with diet?

Truthfully I would suggest a cut first to get your juices flowing. I think the bulk part of gaining more muscle mass may throw you at first. Get used to being consistent and really understanding all your numbers before you start a bulk (imo only of course)

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just really keen to make the necessary changes and get the correct information on board to do so. I hope you don't mind me asking and seeking your advice guys.

Thank you in advance x

Don't be afraid of asking questions, we're not very shy around here and don't mind sounding off about bb topics (LOL!) Srs, best of luck in reaching your goals.

[Rowyn]

- Can I lose weight and build muscle / definition at the same time?
- How long will it take to drop significant bodyfat to see clear muscle definition?
- Should I cut first to my desired weight and THEN build muscle, or can this be done consecutively with diet?

1)Because you are a relative noob to real weight training, it is possible to both build muscle and lose fat at the same time (recomposition versus either cut/bulk). This will require you to train well on a progressive program (there is a thread at the top of the female Training section called Training Program Basics, good place to start educating yourself). And to also eat enough protein to support muscle development (around 1g per lb bodyweight), and a decent number of calories, without going overboard into "bulk" mode versus recomp. You should be able to drop dress sizes and become tighter, but the scale will not change a whole lot, though it should trend down. After spending some time recomping, you may then choose to cut to get rid of the last bit of fat.

2) How long it will take will depend on your training intensity and adherence to a decent nutritional program. And what you choose to do, lol. If you diet first and then build, you are looking at 3-4 months of dieting and then another 4-6 months of building before actually starting a cut for muscle. There is no way though, to tell you for sure where you will be in that timeframe since it is so highly dependent on your training/nutrition. It can't be haphazard as you have done in the past. Or bulking will become getting fatter.

3) You can diet (cutting is a term used for those who have already built muscle and want to lose the fat on top) to your desired weight first, that's your choice. I put little significance on "scale weight" myself, since the same person can look good and bad at the exact same weight depending on their lean mass. Some people can't handle having extra fluff hanging around and want to diet it off before they really build.

[FoxBlossom]

Thank you so much for the replies, some really great advice already and I definately agree with a lot of the pointers, specifically the one about setting a realistic goal; it's easy to slide I guess if I haven't got a solid idea in mind and timescale of what I'm trying to achieve.
I think my previous issues are getting to a certain point and then almost being a bit like "Ok.. what now?" - I dieted down to 140lb before from 170lb and was feeling very pleased, but after hitting a hard plateu and not being sure where to take it to next, I got a little blasé with it and was virtually right back where I started.

Will definately take on board the advice so far; clean up the eating again and devise a solid diet/fitness plan.

Thanks again guys x