beginners help anyone!?

[gohardxo]

i'm completely new to this whole weight lifting thing. i became a cardio queen for the past 6 months while dropping calories and dropped into the underweight category for awhile.. i'm 5' 9.25" and 125 pounds now. i WAS 119 but i hope to never see that number again. during this period i lost a lot of muscle and am hoping to gain it back. however, i want to keep tone without bulking and gaining fat. i'm happy with the way my body looks but i want strength! if i could i'd love to keep my flat stomach but be able to see some definition! i was wondering if anyone had any tips for training and nutrition that i should be following. i know i should be eating more calories than my body expends in order to gain muscle and it's such a hard concept to grasp. any reassurance and help with what types of exercises i should do and food i should eat would be great! i'm hoping the biggest roadblock i'll face is trying to eat more protein since i have a fairly clean and healthy diet already. thanks! :)

[char-dawg]

Post your diet (cals per day, grams of protein, etc.) and current workout. We need a starting place to be able to tell you where to go next.

[gohardxo]

Post your diet (cals per day, grams of protein, etc.) and current workout. We need a starting place to be able to tell you where to go next.

thanks for responding back so quickly!

a day of food for me usually goes..
breakfast: 2 pieces of arnold flax&fiber bread w/ 1.5 tsp promise spread, 1/2 cup of egg beaters
snack: medium apple dipped in 1/2 cup plain chobani
lunch: salad with grilled chicken, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers&ff honey mustard dressing, 12 almonds, pretzels
preworkout: organic fruit strip
dinner(post workout): veggie burger on a sandwich thin w/ light motz and tomato, sliced zucchini, 1/2 cup strawberries
food that i'll randomly eat in between: 1/3 cup of oatmeal w/ 1 tbsp peanut butter, 100 cal bag popcorn, 1 tbsp of peanut butter on low cal wheat bread
-approx. 1600 cal, 91.5g protein

this is just a layout of a day that i'll usually eat. sometimes i'll end up eating something else random like a nature valley oat and honey bar at night if i wake up hungry or another random snack. i know i probably need to up the calories though and have more protein.

my workout schedule usually is..
lower body 2x a week consisting of leg adductor, leg abduction, leg extensions, seated leg curls, leg curls, leg press, wall sits(65sec x 3 with 25 second breaks)
upper body 2x a week consisting of row/rear delta, overhead press, back extension, chest press, arm curl, arm extension
cardio 1-2 times a week for 20-30 min
and a day off once a week

when i lift, i lift as much as i can in order to complete 8 reps and have failure on the 9th rep. my cardio i've slowed down to a 9:30 minute mile pace and shortened the length of the session so i wasn't breaking down muscle. i'll never do lower or upperbody 2 days back to back. on a sun-sat schedule i'll most likely do legs, arms w/ cardio, legs, arms, cardio, rest day.

i also work 5+ days a week at a pretty high maintenance waitressing job. usually it's hard to eat while working. i end up having to move all my meals back farther and i end up eating later at night and trying to jam in calories. i don't like to order food from work since i know that it's not too healthy but i if i do i'll usually order a salmon burger and side salad after my shift. i try to at least munch on peanuts or something if i can't fit in a meal because i don't want my metabolism to slow down. any tips about how much i should be eating, how much protein and what i should be doing in the gym would be wonderful! :) thank yaaaa!

[sandi]

I would say the biggest key in changing your focus is to change your mindset. To me, this is the HARDEST part of 'shifting gears' in the physique game. It can be a total mind f*ck..............

If you want to put on muscle, you MUST accept some 'fluff'/fat gain as well. Now, having said that, I do not mean you must get porky:hamster:.....but understand that a certain degree of softness is the price to pay for putting on muscle. It's impossible to retain the leanness/conditioning AND add size. It would be nice if we could partition our calories to go ONLY into the muscle cells rather than into muscle AND fat cells.........but unfortunately, that isn't the case.

You will also have to ditch 'scale anxiety'. It's a difficult thing for a beginner (heck, even for an experienced gym-goer) to dissociate scale weight from progress. I'll admit, even at the pro level, I get inexplicably attached at times to that stupid digital number displayed on the scale. I don't know why, but we females become OBSESSED with that number..........when it really IS meaningless.

Additionally, if you are used to doing a ton of cardio? You are going to feel lazy, out of shape, and like you are turning into a giant marshmallow. (Trust me...been there....done that....LOL...speaking from experience.) If you keep your diet clean and tight, this isn't going to happen....but it's sure gonna FEEL like it. When you do cardio? Workouts/routines that used to be easy will leave you winded. (Again..been there, done that...). Expect this. And don't let it freak you out..........the goal of this is to get away with the least amount of cardio you can.

Finally, be sure your nutrition goals match your training goals. It's hard sometimes to wrap your mind around the fact that you'll be eating more and doing less (and possibly ZERO) cardio, but the work required to add a little muscle is useless without the calories to actually support muscle growth.

good luck!:wave:

[gohardxo]

you're so right, the number is nothing but it's just mind boggling to wrap your mind around kind of thing. i don't like weighing myself anymore and try to refrain from doing it unless it's just a weekly check to see if i'm still gaining weight so i wasn't underweight anymore kind of thing. when you were talking about nutrient goals vs training goals how many calories would you reccomend someone like me to eat as a beginner? and is it possible to keep around my current size while gaining this muscle? i know you said that some of it will be a little fat too and i'm willing to accept that because everyone needs some healthy fat, but as long as most of my gains are going towards muscle i'll be satisfied :)

oh and i also realized in the training routine i do that i forgot to mention all my ab work which is done probably 4x a week. i've been doing weight machines and bw exercises rather than free weights just because i've never done them and don't have a spotter or anything. it's something that i want to learn how to do but i want to get the hang of things first with the free weights and get some muscle there, then move on to bigger and better things :) ha.

[char-dawg]

You're eating about 22% protein in your diet, so you could up that a bit. 30% is generally a good number to shoot for. As for needing more calories overall, just eat like that for a month and see what happens. If you gain slowly then you're fine for the time being. If your weight doesn't move, then you know you'll need to add some more food to the mix.

How old are you?

[gohardxo]

You're eating about 22% protein in your diet, so you could up that a bit. 30% is generally a good number to shoot for. As for needing more calories overall, just eat like that for a month and see what happens. If you gain slowly then you're fine for the time being. If your weight doesn't move, then you know you'll need to add some more food to the mix.

How old are you?


yeah, i definitely thought more protein. i'm going to see if what i'm doing works with gaining muscle vs fat. after a month i'll reevaluate and see how my gains stand and then either add or cut cals from there. and i'm 19!

[char-dawg]

I know it might not seem like it, but at 19 you've got plenty of time to experiment and learn how your body reacts. Try a few things, keep what works, discard what doesn't. Just always aim for "better"; don't be too worried about "perfect".