pictures/advice

[smoothy_ab]

Okay - it's time to crack down. I've been working on this body for 2 years and it's not at all how I imagined. A few of you guys have been giving me advice for the past while but I think that it would be better if you could see instead of just read about me. I am 5'6/7 and 135lbs, 21 years. My goals are to add size to my upper body and lose on the lower half (as you can see I retain weight on my bum/upper legs). My current work out regime is as follows:
M-chest/tris/3x10 intense cardio sessions on 3 different machines split up troughout the workout
T-shoulders/1 hour kickboxing
W-legs/10 min warm up/10 minute cooldown
T- abs/1 hour step
F-back/bi's/same cardio as monday
Sat or Sun - calves/1 hour cardio or rest day

I currently eat about 5 meals - 1 portion carb/1 portion prot.
I do indulge every now and then. I drink decaf coffee with splenda about 2 a day. If I'm tired I will skip a workout - not too often.
And yet I can't seem to lose on bum/thighs OR gain around waist/chest.
Any advice would be appreciated. Should I get a personal trainer?
I'm a little embarrassed about the pictures - I wish more people would do this.

[Kitara]

I wish more people would do this.

I was going to . Now that I see yours I think I'll hold off! I think you look fabulous! I'll leave the advice to the rest of the group I just wanted to say that, while I can understand wanting to impove yourself for personal reasons, as an outsider I think you look awesome. Keep up the good work.

[galileo]

Honestly, you look absolutely wonderful.

I think whatever you are doing is working well. If you are not losing/gaining the way you want, adjust your calories to suit. You could even be too low in calories due to the kickboxing and cardio. I'd work your legs the same day as kickboxing and skip the cardio on wednesday. I think it's overkill.

Good luck and if you can post a detailed meal plan maybe we can better help you.

[Fudomyo]

First off, you look great.

I think you'd be better off focusing on diet as opposed to all that cardio. But that's just me. How many calories etc are you eating a day in those 5 meals?

What kind of sets/reps are you doing in your workouts?

Fudo

[RaGriffo]

I agree with Kitara....i think you look gerat! It looks like you have done a good job so far. I also suffer from many of the same trouble spots...I will be interested to hear the advice that the experts in this forum offer.
Good luck smoothy_ab in reaching your goals!

[4banger]

Try not to mix cardio and weight training on the same day, lift heavy, in the 4-8 reps range (to failure), and keep your workouts to no more than 40 mins, after that you start to produce cortisol wich is a catabolic hormone, if you do cardio, try to make as anaerobic as possible, sprint as fast as you can for 1min and slow down for 2mins(fast walking~slow jogging), repeat that for 20 mins and cool down (don't do cardio for more than 25mins) that raises your growth hormone levels, doesn't mean you'll get bigger, gh activates lipolysis (fat burning), and you'll keep burning fat at a higher rate for as long as 2 days after the workout (same thing happens when you lift heavy weights). Eat about 1g of protein per lb of body weight and eat some good fats (flex oil, walnuts, olive oil, salmon, tuna), they help you to burn more fat and to feel satiated longer, they also slow down digestion wich means that your blood sugar will rise more slowly after every meal, resulting in less insulin secretion and less sugar stored as fat, the amount of fat you can burn in the gym after long cardio sessions is insignificant, one lbs of bodyfat can supply your body with enough fuel to perform moderate cardio activity for about 10 hours, if you perform your workouts properly you'll burn several times more fat after your workout than you'd burn on a long high intensity cardio session (wich can lower your metabolism and make you store more fat out of your meals).
I'd also try to add one more meal to your diet, eat a high carb meal as soon as you wake up (30%p 60%c 10%f) and eat every 3 hours, eat a low carb, high protein meal right before bed and eat a high calorie high carb low fat meal righ after your workout (within 30mins).
Make sure you're getting enough calories, if your calorie intake is too low you won't loose fat (how much do you weight?) I'm guessing about 2000 to 2500cal a day, but I don't know how much you weight...
If you follow that you should see preatty good results.
BTW, you don't look bad at all!!!

[cursor]

I don't know what you looked like before (2 years ago) but a know a bunch of women who'd give their right ear to look as fit as you. Great work!

As has been mentioned, more specific detail is going to need to be supplied in order to tweak a body as well maintained as yours. Do you have a feel for your current body fat percentage? How much lower do you feel comfortable going? (That's essentially what it's going to take.)

Lookin' forward to you input.

[4banger]

Check out this article , it has some preatty good information.

[smoothy_ab]

Thanks guys - I didn't expect so much so soon. I'm not exactly sure how many calories I consume. It's so hard to tell. Here's kind of an overview:

Breakfast: 1whole egg, 6 egg whites, w/ mushrooms, onions, peppers. 1 fat free cheese slice. 1 tbsp. ketchup.
* Sometimes with some oatmeal or a bran muffin or apple (should I be having this?)
Morning snack: 1% Cottage cheese (1 cup) and some type of fruit
Lunch: Either a tuna or lean meat sandwich on a half a whole wheat pita, with lettuce, fat free cheese, mustard, low fat mayo
Snack: (generally after workout) 2 scoops of protein, 1 cup skim milk and half a banana
Dinner: Chicken breast (or fish or occasionally steak/roast/pork), steamed veggies or salad and 1/2 cup brown rice (low cal dressing).
If I'm hungry before bed I'll have some almonds or cottage cheese or egg whites

Also sometimes I'll throw in a yogurt or a granola bar or a cookie. Also when I feel like slurging and having fries instead of rice I'll do that too. Does cheating occassionally hinder your progress that much?

I don't drink any pop, don't eat chocolate but I do have a sweet tooth so anyone with any suggestions of what can fend off a sweet craving please let me know.

I'm around 135 lbs. Is this too much to eat or not enough? Also do I need to lose any reamaining fat before I bulk and cut? I guess my goal is to be in the best shape possible - I want to be able to compete - but not really compete!

[4banger]

Definatly eat the oatmeal or any source of complex carbs on your first meal, you want the carbs on that meal to raise your metabolism (around 40~60g of carbs), eat more carbs on your post workout meal, try 1 1/2 bananas instead of 1/2, and eat something (high protein) before bed a cup of cottage chease should do it, that is very important to help your body to recover during sleep.
You don't need to loose any fat before bulking, but you should get a bodyfat caliper so you can track your BF% during your bulk and cut cycles, if you're bulking you want to fnd a calorie amount that will let you add muscle but not fat (slightly higher than your daily maintenance), also when cutting you want to find a calorie amount that will let you loose fat and not loose muscle (slightly lower than your daily maintenance), a body fat caliper can really help you do do that.
Your daily calorie maintenance should be around 2000~2200cal (based on your weight).

[Fudomyo]

Man, that looks pretty sound. The fries and the bread are really the only place for improvements to your carb intake. Some oatmeal for breakfast is always a great idea. You might just be eating a tad more calories than you think but it looks fine to me.

I've proved to myself that I can add a pound of fat a day. That takes a week to get rid of. So having a few beers and a double cheese burger (or whatever) is a sure way to ruin many days of dieting and cardio.

On a genetic note, women are very Leptin sensitive. Leptin is what tells your brain how fat you are. Your brain wants to make sure you can give birth even if hard times hit. Hence the extra 80,000 calories of fat most women carry. Unless you want to cheat, there's not much you can do about it.

ECA perhaps?

[4banger]

I had preatty good results with Lean system 7, It works better than Hydroxycut for me (doesn't get me as hyper though).

[Brewsky]

You do look very fit. It doesn't sound to me like you cheat very much at all either. Maybe you should look into the weight loss supplements, but seriously, you look nice the way you are.

[ebon00]

I agree with the rest of the people here, you look great. About retaining weight in the lower part of the body, that's what plague women the most it seems. I have some definite ideas on how to deal with that (centering on sensible weight work for your entire body and then slightly overtraining the lower body) and you can find a sample routine here (it's the last post on that page). It might look like a lot of work but considering the time put into it, it's not that bad. Just keep plugging away.

[Cleav22]

Post what type of exercises you are using for your body parts...there may be some areas in your workout program that can help out as well...as for the diet area...you're not doing to badly....
Like some of the others have said, give an ECA stack a try...there are some great over the counter products that will help you burn the fat as well.....
unfortunately, some (if not most) people are predisposed to carry the fat in certain areas, and there really isn't much to do about it..aside from severe methods and surgery...which you are nowhere near needing anything like that....
Do you have any "before" pics of yourself to compare to the "current" pics that you just posted......that may help in seeing the results that you are searching for as well...