can someone help give my GF some advice

[82ndAirborne]

hi ladies my name is vince and i am hoping some of you could possibly give my girlfriend some advice.

First of all she asked me for this help so i am not just going behind her back

Basically i think she looks great but she says she is fat and needs some help. I am an avid lifter but i am usually bulking and when im cutting its for a show and not too realistic for her who wants to keep her weight off for good.

She wants to lose about 10-15 pounds. I know that you cant spot reduce but she says shed primarily like to lose the fat in her stomach and she also wants lose some weight in her breasts.

As far as her diet is concerned she eats healthy but she eats small meals and not very often ive tried to convince her to eat more throughout the day but we are both in the miitary and sometimes that is hard.

She does pt with her unit - running, situps and pushups, but those workouts arent hard and she wants to do additional training which she does none of now

Can someone please help me construct a decent diet and workout plan for her to lose weight and tone up maybe like sets and reps and key exercises and maybe a cardio plan added in as well

my lifts are and have always been based on mass building and strenght building exercises and really dont know what to tell her

i understand this is alot to ask someone for help on she is just extremely busy being in the army and does not have the time to research it herself any advice would be appreciated greatly as she has the drive to start working out regularly she just doesnt know where to begin and that is what is shying her away

so again thanks to anyone who could offer her up some advice and she would appreciate it as much as i would thanks again

ive included a body only picture so you can gage maybe what she needs to work on she is like 5'8 138

[arose70]

A similar questions was just asked in the training area:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=535123

[lorabeann]

invite her to the boards! she's got a great base to work off... awesome legs.

my advice is to get her on here and have her read around in the different forums and training journals.

[Helene]

I sugest a simple split, something like:

M:Chest-Triceps (DB bench press, DB flyes, skullcrushers, dips)
T: Cardio
W: Back-biceps (Pulldowns, 1 arm DB rows, Deadlift, BB curls, DB incline curls)
T: Cardio
F: Legs-shoulders (BB squats, Walking lunges, romanian deadlifts, DB shoulder press, DB side laterals)
S: Cardio
S: Off

Women should train the same as men you know. Building muscle will help burn fat, accelerate her metabolism, make her stronger, harder..I guess you already know all that. Have her do what you do when your on a mass building program.
Okay maybe for the first 2 months she should get her body use to lifting by either doing a full body workout or a spit like shown above but by sticking to 12-15 reps. After those few months, she should lower her reps to 6-8 and lift heavy.

* If you have her do a full body workout, remove a couple of exercices listed above, that would be too much for 1 workout.


As for diet..what's yours?

I suggest 6 meals a day every 3 hours. At least 20g of protein per meal. She has to eat enough too, at 5'8 she needs about 1800 calories, maybe even more. Not eating enough is a common mistake in women.

Here is an example:

I don't know when she plans on hitting the gym, that's important info for pre-post workout nutrition (you should know all that..)

I'll pretend she works out at 7am (like me )

Meal 1 (6am) (PRE-WORKOUT)
6 egg whites + 1 yolk
Oats (not instant kind)
Coffee
Multivitamin

Meal 2 (9am) (POST-WORKOUT)
Oats
Protein shake

Meal 3 (12pm)
Protein + complex carbs + green veggies
e.g Chicken breast + brown rice + broccoli

Meal 4 (3pm)
Protein + good fats
e.g Protein shake + 12 almonds

Meal 5 (6pm)
Meat + Green veggies
e.g Salmon + green beans

Meal 6 (9pm)
Protein + good fats
Cottage cheese
Tbsp natural peanut butter

She doesn't need any supplements, just whey, multivitamin, and maybe fish oil capsules. I take 6 a day.


Anyway, that's a start, good luck!

[Angela R]

Is the Army allowed body piercings? I'm in the Marine Corps and that is a major no, no. Just wondering. Regardless, she does have a great base and with a little knowledge she'll be showing you up ;-) Good luck.

[82ndAirborne]

negative on the body piercing but she had it for so long when she took it upon joining the hole never closed up and this picture was taken on a vacation and so she put it in for that

thats pretty sweet that you are a female marine i know that there arent many my gf was actually an enlisted marine for a while before switching to the army to be an officer

[Angela R]

Yep, there are not many of us women in the Corps. I have a little over 7 years in, but it is time to go I have about 8 months until terminal and then I am going to try a hand at being a civilian.

[Paichka]

Body piercings are a major no-no while in uniform. Of course, I had my belly button pierced during OBC, and I used to wear that under my uniform. It's like wearing white socks with your boots -- as long as nobody sees it, who's to say you're wrong.

Not that I'm advocating that sort of thing, but my 1SG said something similar in a training meeting yesterday.

Now, as for your girlfriend. Army PT, as I'm sure you know, is designed for maintenance, and it's woefully inadequate...even in units that place a greater emphasis on it, like the 82nd. I assume she's in the 82nd with you? If not, she's still in 18th Airborne Corps, right? Anyway, the lightfighters tend to be a lot crazier about the PT than us mech guys...but even still, just doing Army PT is not going to get you where you want to be.

I agree whole-heartedly with what Helene said, but I'm also going to add this -- if she's going to be working out twice a day (once with her unit and once on her own) then she is going to need to be extremely careful about her calories. She and I are similar -- I weigh more, but from that picture it looks like I have more muscle -- so I'd recommend at least 2000 cals a day, with probably 45-50%C, 30-35%P, and 20%F.

The way we did it at Stewart was 3 days of running (4-5 miles) plus 2 days of MSE -- pushups and situps. One of the PSGs out here talks a lot about his days in the 82nd and how you all run every day -- if that's the case, she probably doesn't need to do any extra cardio on her own.

Here's what I would do:
Option 1: Split
M: AM -- run with unit, PM -- chest/triceps
Tu: AM -- MSE with unit, PM -- legs
W: AM -- run with unit, PM -- off
Th: AM -- MSE with unit, PM -- back/biceps
F: AM -- run with unit, PM -- shoulders/abs
S: AM -- off, PM -- HIIT or Hill training
Su: Off

This is essentially the program I followed at Stewart before we deployed -- I'm on a slightly different schedule now since we don't do organized PT out here. The only difference is I had two leg days -- one that was quad dominated and one that was ham/glute dominated as opposed to one day for legs and one day for shoulders & abs. With all the pushups and things, your girlfriend may decide that her shoulders get enough training indirectly that she doesn't need to train them directly.

Option 2: Full Body

M: AM -- run with unit, PM -- full body lift
T: AM -- MSE with unit
W: AM -- run with unit, PM -- full body lift
Th: AM -- MSE with unit
F: AM -- run with unit, PM -- full body lift
S: AM -- cardio
Su: OFF

hope this helps!
Sunny

[82ndAirborne]

thanks alot ladies, you guys have been extremely helpful i appreciate it very much i never really new much about females and lifting and now i know they dont do anythign different which is pretty sweet you girls are badass in my book

as far as the last post yes we are both in the 82nd together you are right her unit does do pt and they do a decent amount but its more about maintenence there but the workout suggestions you have all offered have been great and after talking to her on the phone she is extremely excited to have some direction and encouragment and she is very appreciative i am trying to get her on here because you are great bunch and offer the type of help and motivation we all need thanks again and keep training hard

[1stindoor]

Just curious 82nd, where do you lift? I'm at Callahan's M-F at 0500. SF MSG here. 19+ years and counting.