Woman trying to lower bodyfat

Z

Zackoz

0
Hi guys, I have a female friend who is having trouble lowering her bodyfat.

She is 28 years old and extremely active.

This is her current training schedule.

Insanity refers to the DVD workouts.
PD refers to a pole dancing class she takes.

MONDAY
Morning - Insanity (60 mins)
Evening - PD (60 mins)

TUESDAY
Morning - Insanity (60 mins)
Evening - Ballet (60 mins), Running/Hill Sprints (60 mins)

WEDNESDAY
Morning - Insanity (60 mins)
Evening - Weight Training (60 mins)

THURSDAY
Morning - Insanity (60 mins)
Evening - PD (60 mins)

FRIDAY
Morning - Insanity (40 mins)

SATURDAY
Morning - Insanity (40 mins) / Running/Hill Sprints (60 mins)
Afternoon - Weight Training (60 mins)

SUNDAY
Rest

She eats around 1800 - 2000 calories a day, and eats very clean foods. Things like chicken, veg, smoked Mackerel, fruit, nuts etc... She is very strict with her diet.

The main problem area is around her stomach, where she can't seem to shift the fat. She is actually in extremely good shape, very athletic, but in her mind she isn't losing bodyfat. She pretty much trains like an athlete and her fitness level is incredible.

What could she change to help her shift the fat? Thanks in advance guys.
 
You can't move fat. All you can do is lower your body fat overall to become slimmer.

Maybe it's loose skin?

Tell her to keep commited and she will see results eventually. Don't give up.
 
I didn't mean move the fat, I know you can't spot reduce, but she seems to have hit a plateau in lowering bodyfat and I was wondering, based on what she is already doing, what else could she do/change?
 
OK some simple and possibly obvious questions.
What bodyfat level is she now?
What is target and why?

If she is in good athletic shape, doing a lot of dance and running the body will need to be protecting the vital organs and want to have energy stored for the frewquent occasions when she will be burning it. In this instance a bit of excess is not only a good idea but totally essential to sustained performance.
The choice between form and function is a tough one for many. She may be looking at one now and have to decide if it is more important to drop bodyfat percentage a few percent or keep her ability.

If she goes for the aesthetic approach, food pyramid for balance and reduce everything across the board.
Intensity can be increased on training too if practical to burn more energy.
Basically do both gradually to attain what she needs, nothing drastic in order not to risk messing up her training or health.
 
CrazyOldMan said:
OK some simple and possibly obvious questions.
What bodyfat level is she now?
What is target and why?

If she is in good athletic shape, doing a lot of dance and running the body will need to be protecting the vital organs and want to have energy stored for the frewquent occasions when she will be burning it. In this instance a bit of excess is not only a good idea but totally essential to sustained performance.
The choice between form and function is a tough one for many. She may be looking at one now and have to decide if it is more important to drop bodyfat percentage a few percent or keep her ability.

If she goes for the aesthetic approach, food pyramid for balance and reduce everything across the board.
Intensity can be increased on training too if practical to burn more energy.
Basically do both gradually to attain what she needs, nothing drastic in order not to risk messing up her training or health.
Click to expand...


Her bodyfat at the moment is about 24% and she wants to get to around 20%... she is definitely after aesthetics at the moment... as she unfortunately stores more fat over her stomach area than anywhere else. In fact the rest of her body looks very slim and toned. But she just seems to have hit a wall now.

Could you explain further what you mean by food pyramid for balance and reduce everything across the board please?
 
Google will give you images of the food pyramid.
There are a lot of us who eat good food in bad balance, and it is easy to do.
The pyramid shows types of food to eat and the sections are sized to show the comparitive quantities.
Easiest one to get wrong is the additives, which is a tiny cherry at the top and for many this is not the case, and they forget to allow for this. Example is eating a nice pasta salad loaded with pasta, good deal of salad, and some chicken, and forgetting the 2 big dollops of mayo added for taste.
Reducing everything across the board means putting your diet in balance, then eating marginally less of everything but keeping the balance constant. Avoiding cutting out areas that would throw you out of balance.
The unbalanced diets are fine for short term loss but most people don't know what to do after so undo everything immediately. The above means getting something maintainable.

She is female and human, therefore a lot of the excess will be in the stomach area, sorry but there is no escape from this simple fact. There are a lot of essential organs in there with no skeletal protection and the body will use fat to protect them. If you think this is stupid, consider that it has enabled us to survive a few million years and become the only surviving homonid.
This is not great news for aesthetics, but something to keep in mind. Basically work to goals but accept reality.

20% is a good healthy level and dropping 4% over a sensible duration shouldn't be too difficult. Obviously slow and steady is mentally harder but with such a high activity level drastic reduction in dietary intake would be risky at best.
 
As her friend, what's your view on her shape?
Judging by the amount she trains I'm suspecting she's set a very high bar for herself and maybe what she sees in the mirror isn't that close to reality.

You mentioned her calorie intake but not height and weight, if she's stalled with fat loss chances are she just needs to cut calories. 18,000 to 2,000 sounds OK as a healthy intake but it depends on her height and weight
 
Honestly, I think her shape is pretty good. She does have more fat over the stomach area than anywhere else, as in, she doesn't have abs ripping through, which is what she wants. But she has a pretty athletic shape now.

She's about 5'3 and weighs around 9 stone 4...

She definitely has the bar set extremely high, I've never seen someone who is able to train so hard, despite being exhausted sometimes etc... so to give her credit, her motivation is there 100%, but she definitely gets into overtrained states sometimes, at which I have to step in and really get her to slow it down or take some time off.
 
You wouldn't be my friend for long. People who insist on me slowing down tend not to be. I have ignored calls of this nature from everything from friends to medical professionals, not wise but I don't claim to be right all of the time.
I do overtrain every week and know it will never stop. It is one advantage of being wholly functional, I can give all and accept that my body changes shape and tone constantly without really caring too much. I wouldn't be human if I didn't occasionally look and think where did my abs go etc. but I have gotten so used to them disappearing one cycle and reappearing another I don't care anymore.
Training for mixed ability often involves overtraining, one type of workout will interfere with another. For aesthetics this is disastrous and if she is set on this route alone she needs to keep this in mind.
The other area work checking out is the manner in which she eats. I don't have meals as such most of the time, I am awake and not too close to training, generally means I am eating. The more constant your intake the less likely your body is to feel in essential to keep stored locked up. There is a lot of contradicting research on this and others will disagree, personally I find constant browsing is the best way for me to eat what I need and stay roughly the same weight. In fairness my weight has changed little in almost 20 years, so I assume I am getting something right.
 
Her eating is pretty good, I've got her eating small meals, every 3 hours. I think it's extremely frustrating for her because she seems to be doing everything right (except for allowing herself to get overtrained) and she's not getting that low bodyfat % abs that she wants...
 
She sounds amazing! her intake of protein needs to looked at and I completely agree that she needs to eat small meals every 3-4 hours with plenty of hydration in between. Hope this helps!
 
Ok questions that may have some bearing on situation.
What is her liquid diet like, predominantly alcohol?
Does she use anything other than alcohol for recreational or medication purposes?
How often is hse having to take enforced breaks in training due to overtraining?
How long are these breaks?

When things appear perfect they rarely are. There are a number who forget the impact of alcohol and drugs, especially 'safer' prescribed drugs. I have to make allowances for my meds and hate this fact, but it beats dying in my sleep.
Drastic changes in training result in drastic changes in energy requirement. Suddenly stopping having gone too far especially if burning more calories than consuming when training will put the body in post starvation mode where it will store anything it can to avoid starving again. This will make the body reluctant to give up stored energy in the future too especially if this is frequent.
 
A lot of great contributions everyone. First and foremost, being a guy myself, I would like to highlight the importance of the context of this situation. As previously said, her caloric intake of 1800-2000 is entirely dependent on her height and weight. Furthermore, in my opinion I think spots, while problematic, can be targeted. Obtaining a six-pack is about your entire body, and specifically for body fat percentage. I would increase the amount of water she drinks and try and stay primarily to drinking water. There are a bunch of great videos on youtube (Vince delmonte or Rob Riches) from personal trainers but remember, you need to develop and create a work out program that works for you. Try and work out your whole body while incorporating a variety of cardio and ab workouts post-workout. What I mean by this, is to save the cardio and abs training until the end as by then you will have burned through your glycogen and will start to actually burn fat. Stay hydrated and eat well. Rest is extremely important as well.

Additionally, I have experimented with a variety of programs online and this dvd collection was extremely insightful as to what foods and more importantly, food combinations work well to burn fat. These have been tested in women and men and I have personally adopted many of these methods! Furthermore, its only 20 dollars in total but you can try them for 5 dollars which is a bit of a snag! Check it out here!
 
Really appreciate the input guys.

She actually doesn't drink alcohol, or take any drugs or medication... She's pretty clean!

She gets overtrained every couple of months or so, and she will then usually take a few days off... I feel like she never really fully recovers, but she has real issues with taking time off...
 
If she doesn't want to take time off, unless she's sick or injured, get her to deload the same way I do: Strip the intensity back to about a 5-7/10RPE and start working back up.
 
Basically beer belly, inner tube and belly pouch are just a few nicknames for the fat that sits on the lower part of the midsection. This is easy to be tempted to start doing crunches every night to attack belly fat, but this is not the solution. It is not possible to spot reduce fat, but she can perform exercises to develop the muscles in the area for a more toned appearance. When she decreases her total body-fat percentage, she will notice a flatter, tighter midsection. Just suggest her to follow these steps cautiously:

• Engage in circuit training workouts three days per week to build muscle and burn fat. Perform one resistance exercise per muscle group, like lunges, push-ups, tricep dips, chest press and overhead shoulder press for one set of 15 repetitions. Do 30 seconds of cardiovascular activity after each set like jogging in place. Rotate through each exercise for 30 minutes.

• Try to train abdominal muscles three times per week. Perform exercises that work every angle of the abs. Do exercises like crunches, leg raises, Russian twists and reverse crunches for four sets of 25 repetitions? Finish abdominal workout with three sets of plank holds -- hold yourself in a push-up position on your elbows for 30 to 45 seconds.

• Participate in 30 minutes of aerobic exercise four days per week to burn stored fat. Go for a walk outdoors, ride on bike, jog on the treadmill or take a group fitness class to add variety.

• Please avoid foods that cause bloating. Limit dairy intake; the sugars in milk can be a challenge for our body to digest, resulting in tummy bloat. Eating even some healthy foods like broccoli or beans can cause gas and bloating, causing our stomach to swell.

• Eat whole foods in their natural form. Prepare meals with foods like whole grains, poultry, fish, lean steak, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats like seeds, nuts, olive oil and nut butters. Stay away from processed foods that are loaded with chemicals, trans fats, sodium and refined sugars that encourage weight gain.

Hope so she would get her result.
 
The hardest thing to do is to fly in the face of what seems like "logic" to us, but sometimes it's what we have to do. If I eat too little and work out too much, my weight loss will slow down. If I'm stressed -- forget it! Not getting enough sleep can also work against us. Another issue is unfortunately, women have those pesky hormones that play a large part in weight (and where it is). Does she count calories? Has she calculated the amount she's burning vs. the amount she eats? It might help to get a very specific picture of what's going in and what's going out. Just a few more suggestions to consider.
 
Albert Smith said:
Basically beer belly, inner tube and belly pouch are just a few nicknames for the fat that sits on the lower part of the midsection. This is easy to be tempted to start doing crunches every night to attack belly fat, but this is not the solution. It is not possible to spot reduce fat, but she can perform exercises to develop the muscles in the area for a more toned appearance. When she decreases her total body-fat percentage, she will notice a flatter, tighter midsection. Just suggest her to follow these steps cautiously:

• Engage in circuit training workouts three days per week to build muscle and burn fat. Perform one resistance exercise per muscle group, like lunges, push-ups, tricep dips, chest press and overhead shoulder press for one set of 15 repetitions. Do 30 seconds of cardiovascular activity after each set like jogging in place. Rotate through each exercise for 30 minutes.

• Try to train abdominal muscles three times per week. Perform exercises that work every angle of the abs. Do exercises like crunches, leg raises, Russian twists and reverse crunches for four sets of 25 repetitions? Finish abdominal workout with three sets of plank holds -- hold yourself in a push-up position on your elbows for 30 to 45 seconds.

• Participate in 30 minutes of aerobic exercise four days per week to burn stored fat. Go for a walk outdoors, ride on bike, jog on the treadmill or take a group fitness class to add variety.

• Please avoid foods that cause bloating. Limit dairy intake; the sugars in milk can be a challenge for our body to digest, resulting in tummy bloat. Eating even some healthy foods like broccoli or beans can cause gas and bloating, causing our stomach to swell.

• Eat whole foods in their natural form. Prepare meals with foods like whole grains, poultry, fish, lean steak, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats like seeds, nuts, olive oil and nut butters. Stay away from processed foods that are loaded with chemicals, trans fats, sodium and refined sugars that encourage weight gain.

Hope so she would get her result.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips, I've actually got her pretty much doing these kinds of workouts already... I really think her main problem is overtraining, and this is slowing down her weight loss...
 
Gymstar2013 said:
The hardest thing to do is to fly in the face of what seems like "logic" to us, but sometimes it's what we have to do. If I eat too little and work out too much, my weight loss will slow down. If I'm stressed -- forget it! Not getting enough sleep can also work against us. Another issue is unfortunately, women have those pesky hormones that play a large part in weight (and where it is). Does she count calories? Has she calculated the amount she's burning vs. the amount she eats? It might help to get a very specific picture of what's going in and what's going out. Just a few more suggestions to consider.
Click to expand...

I don't think she's calculated how many calories she burns, but she has a heart rate monitor to work out what she burns during a run etc... I am 90% certain she's in a calorie deficit... the amount she trains, and she only eats 1800-2000 a day... she must be... lol
 
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