Too little food.

[xEmeraldx]

HIya!

I'm a 20 year old girl from Holland. I'm 5,4 and I'm one skinny girl I weight about 104 lbs! I don't have the hard muscular look I want and I've tried a lot of diets which helped a little bit with gaining muscle but the last bits of fat won't budge and muscle isn't growing either!

So stupidly I started to decrease my calories and now I'm not eating enough at all. I'm not sure how to introduce more food back into my diet without gaining a ton of fat.

I workout about 8 to 10 hours a week since I'm a group fitness instructor. I teach stuff such as body combat and body attack. I do a fair amount of cardio. Most of my weight training ( approx. 3 hours a week) comes from doing bodypump.

Anyhow I would really appreciate some help and tips in the food department since I can't keep this up, it's too little energy and it's making me look like crap.

Thanks in advance!

[Mindi911]

Originally Posted by xEmeraldx

HIya!

I'm a 20 year old girl from Holland. I'm 5,4 and I'm one skinny girl I weight about 104 lbs! I don't have the hard muscular look I want and I've tried a lot of diets which helped a little bit with gaining muscle but the last bits of fat won't budge and muscle isn't growing either!

So stupidly I started to decrease my calories and now I'm not eating enough at all. I'm not sure how to introduce more food back into my diet without gaining a ton of fat.

I workout about 8 to 10 hours a week since I'm a group fitness instructor. I teach stuff such as body combat and body attack. I do a fair amount of cardio. Most of my weight training ( approx. 3 hours a week) comes from doing bodypump.

Anyhow I would really appreciate some help and tips in the food department since I can't keep this up, it's too little energy and it's making me look like crap.

Thanks in advance!

you're going to gain a ton of fat if you eat clean

[freebirdmac]

Originally Posted by Mindi911

you're going to gain a ton of fat if you eat clean

I think Mindi meant you're NOT going to gain a ton of fat if you eat clean

And she's right!

[trainwithrae]

You need to eat a surplus of calories, what does your diet look like right now? I assume you are an ectomorph and are fairly lean. You can probably get away with eating a lot of food.
Post up your diet

[JoyP]

If your body pump class is anything like the ones I've been to in the past then the weights your lifting will be to light & to many reps to build significant muscle.
A heavy weight training program & LOTS of good, clean food is the way to go.

[Mindi911]

Originally Posted by freebirdmac

I think Mindi meant you're NOT going to gain a ton of fat if you eat clean

And she's right!

luckily I have people who know what I mean

yep definitely meant NOT

[xEmeraldx]

Lol I was like "I WILL gain loads of fat?! help?! " but thank god you didn't mean that =) The bodypump workout I HAVE to do at least once a week because I teach it.


As for what I eat:

Breakfast: vanilla flavoured cottage cheese ( about 200 grams)
coffee with skim milk

Lunch: Mixed salad with 2 egg whites and some deli turkey


Pre-workout meal: 50 grams of oatmeal with skim milk
or some type of beans (kidney beans usually) with veg and tuna

Post workout: 100 grams of chicken or 2 -3 egg whites with mixed salad


Supper: sometimes have some fat free yoghurt

Yeah I know it's not a lot especially since I do one or 2 hours of cardio 5 or 6 days a week. I just find it really hard to eat a lot.

[Mindi911]

Originally Posted by xEmeraldx

Lol I was like "I WILL gain loads of fat?! help?! " but thank god you didn't mean that =) The bodypump workout I HAVE to do at least once a week because I teach it.


As for what I eat:

Breakfast: vanilla flavoured cottage cheese ( about 200 grams)
coffee with skim milk

Lunch: Mixed salad with 2 egg whites and some deli turkey


Pre-workout meal: 50 grams of oatmeal with skim milk
or some type of beans (kidney beans usually) with veg and tuna

Post workout: 100 grams of chicken or 2 -3 egg whites with mixed salad


Supper: sometimes have some fat free yoghurt

Yeah I know it's not a lot especially since I do one or 2 hours of cardio 5 or 6 days a week. I just find it really hard to eat a lot.

lol yeah sorry about that i do that occasionally - leave words out of a sentence I mean

just so happens that turned out to be the most important one - oops

honestly you really don't eat enough

try introducing more food slowly - don't try all in one go or you will make yourself feel sick

eg of a good menu

Morning :
3/4 plain nonfat yogurt with 1 scoop protein powder and 3/4 cup raspberries.

1 tbsp each ground flaxseed, bee pollen and wheat germ

Mid-Morning :
Smoothie made with 1 scoop protein powder, 8 oz water, 1/2 cup strawberries and 1 mango

Lunch:
5oz smoked salmon on 1 slice multigrain or ezekiel bread with low-fat humus and thinly sliced cucumber

Mid-Afternoon:
Handful unsalted almonds
handful of graps

Dinner:
Minestrone soup (homemade)
1 slice toasted multigrain or ezekiel bread

Before bed:
1/2 cup oatmeal topped with 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce



what do you do for your workouts?

[xEmeraldx]

Originally Posted by Mindi911

lol yeah sorry about that i do that occasionally - leave words out of a sentence I mean

just so happens that turned out to be the most important one - oops

honestly you really don't eat enough

what do you do for your workouts?

Thank you very much, this does give me a good idea of what I should be aiming for, even though it shocked me LOL

That is A LOT of food. Yeah I will need to do that slowly since I'm kinda scared I will blow up after slowing my metabolism down with bad eating habits.

Well I'm a Les Mills instructor so my work outs tend to be cardio mostly. Body Attack, BodyCombat, Bodyjam, bodypump and spinning.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with them: www.lesmills.com should give you an idea

Bodyattack and spinning being the hardest on the body of course. I work out mostly in the evenings so I find it hard to eat a dinner just before since I get the whole throwing up feeling. I have to be at the gym at about 5:30pm start teaching/working out like a mad woman at about 6 and won't be home til about 9 approx.

My schedule

Monday: Bodyattack 30 minutes
Bodycombat 1 hour

Tuesday: XCO 45 minutes( extreme core training) it's an hour of cardio that focuses on training the core while burning calories.
Bodyattack 60 minutes

Wednesday: Bodyjam 1 hour ( mild dance workout)
Bodypump 1 hour (weight training lots of reps light weight)

Thursday: 45 minutes XCO

Friday: 1 hour spinning

Saturday: FREEEEEEEEE

Sunday: occasionally 1 hour bodypump

[Mindi911]

Originally Posted by xEmeraldx

Thank you very much, this does give me a good idea of what I should be aiming for, even though it shocked me LOL

That is A LOT of food. Yeah I will need to do that slowly since I'm kinda scared I will blow up after slowing my metabolism down with bad eating habits.

Well I'm a Les Mills instructor so my work outs tend to be cardio mostly. Body Attack, BodyCombat, Bodyjam, bodypump and spinning.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with them: www.lesmills.com should give you an idea

Bodyattack and spinning being the hardest on the body of course. I work out mostly in the evenings so I find it hard to eat a dinner just before since I get the whole throwing up feeling. I have to be at the gym at about 5:30pm start teaching/working out like a mad woman at about 6 and won't be home til about 9 approx.

My schedule

Monday: Bodyattack 30 minutes
Bodycombat 1 hour

Tuesday: XCO 45 minutes( extreme core training) it's an hour of cardio that focuses on training the core while burning calories.
Bodyattack 60 minutes

Wednesday: Bodyjam 1 hour ( mild dance workout)
Bodypump 1 hour (weight training lots of reps light weight)

Thursday: 45 minutes XCO

Friday: 1 hour spinning

Saturday: FREEEEEEEEE

Sunday: occasionally 1 hour bodypump

A good way to start is to pre-plan your weeks menu (and buy your weeks food around the menu - fresh fruit and veg for four days) then you can pre-prepare your meals for the next four days..

buy a small soft sided cooler bag and take your meals with you (do you work at the gym?)

you shouldn't be eating your heaviest meal late at night when your body is trying to shut down - try eating your main meal at lunchtime then when you come home you can have a little something just to help you get through the night.

6 small meals throughout the day are what you are aiming for.

I know that you are giving the above classes so you don't really have much choice about those types of workouts but do you do your own workouts?

if you don't mind me asking what are your goals? or are you just simply trying to sort out your diet and bulk up a bit for now?

[xEmeraldx]

Well that's the hard part. I only work part time at the gym, only evenings. Between classes I don't have a break. Perhaps 5 minutes, just enough time to have a protein shake or perhaps an energy drink lol

I'm usually so tired that I don't get to work out much for myself. But I'm going to MAKE time to do all muscle groups spread over 5 days. Would that work?

The big lunch meal sounds like a good idea, I will definitely be changing that in my diet. Because then I will have some time to digest it before hitting the gym in the evenings.

As for my goals I want a feminine fitness body. Some good muscle tone but not too masculine. Something in this direction: http://www.modelfitness.com/kristia_knowles.html

At the moment I'm just scrawny. I have some muscle definition but I'm basically just skinny, and there's this small layer of fat that doesn't want to budge. But I guess that's just my crappy eating habits.

[Mindi911]

Originally Posted by xEmeraldx

Well that's the hard part. I only work part time at the gym, only evenings. Between classes I don't have a break. Perhaps 5 minutes, just enough time to have a protein shake or perhaps an energy drink lol

I'm usually so tired that I don't get to work out much for myself. But I'm going to MAKE time to do all muscle groups spread over 5 days. Would that work?

The big lunch meal sounds like a good idea, I will definitely be changing that in my diet. Because then I will have some time to digest it before hitting the gym in the evenings.

As for my goals I want a feminine fitness body. Some good muscle tone but not too masculine. Something in this direction: http://www.modelfitness.com/kristia_knowles.html

At the moment I'm just scrawny. I have some muscle definition but I'm basically just skinny, and there's this small layer of fat that doesn't want to budge. But I guess that's just my crappy eating habits.

yes hitting each muscle group once a week would definitely work you can do a split - I'm not the person to be giving advice on that though as I've never done a split routine before but I know it can be done and will work

a lot of bodybuilders use that type of routine

well if you plan your week ahead the same as you are going to plan your meals and fit the time in to lift weights you will gain muscle

remember having a good combination of diet and lifting is what's gonna help you pick up weight

as for your food that you will be taking with you a soft sided cooler bag big enough to take everything you want to put in it will work/class...

eg

also you might want to think about taking and keeping water in your car

[lovedagym]

I entered my first figure contest last December and worked with a nutritionist because I was trying to gain size. I was surprised at how much food I needed to eat, but after about two weeks I got used to it. Here was my diet:

Meal 1: Whey Shake (23g protein) and 1/2 c oatmeal, w/ flaxseed
Meal 2: Metrx shake (39g protein)
Meal 3: 1 cup eggwhites, 1/2c oatmeal w/flaxseed
Meal 4: 8 oz ground turkey, 1-2 cups green veggies
Meal 5: Whey Shake or 3oz tuna w/2 egg whites
Meal 6: 4-6 oz ground turkey, 1-2 cups veggies, occassional 4 oz swt potato

I could switch ground turkey for chicken, and I could have steak or fish once a week for dinner.

I ended up winning first place in 2 classes and the overall for age group (I'm 38). So, I didn't get as big as I wanted since I only decided on competing 4 months before, but overall, for the amount of time I had I feel like the diet worked really well for me to gain some size in a short period of time. My contest weight was 105. My off season weight is 112-115. Granted I was still smaller than most of the other competitors, and I'm currently trying to put on more size (10 lbs) for my next comp.

I think having oatmeal twice a day really helped, especially for energy level. Towards the end I was doing 2 cardio sessions a day. So more whole grains may help give you energy as well since it sounds like your energy level is low.

One thing that was interesting for me was that on this diet, I actually got leaner and bigger at the same time. Got down from 18% bf to <10% by comp time. (with the help of cardio of course).

For you, it sounds like you can stand to have more calories, so I would definitely add some fruit and yogurt to the diet above to make it more balanced. That was just a precontest diet for me.

Besides that you also have to LIFT HEAVY, don't forget that part! I did a three day on (lifting weights three days), one day off cycle. but i ended up doing cardio/and abs on off days.

As someone else suggested, you should try pre-planning your meals. I bought ground turkey in bulk, then would make a bunch of patty's and broil them. then weigh them on the scale, and place them in containers for the week. Same with oatmeal. Take one day, and just make a bunch of oatmeal, put in small containers and keep them in the fridge for the week. Then all you have to do is pull them out and reheat them when its meal time, or carry them in a cooler with you.

There are a lot of great suggestions out there. A lot of it will be trial and error, so just keep trying things until you find what works for you. But don't get discouraged. Just keep trying!

Good Luck!

[xEmeraldx]

Thank you!! That's really helpful for me! I will take a few days to make myself a meal plan and workout plan. It's really I should have done ages ago.

I have one more question though, I find it hard to pick sources for complex carbs. For how many meals should I be eating these and what are good sources apart from brown rice and oatmeal. Ezekiel bread isn't available to me here I'm afraid.