# Diet for small women



## anakada (Jul 25, 2010)

I am 5ft 2 and weigh 116lb on Atkins style diet. 

I have dropped  from 25.5% body fat to 22%. I'm looking lean except for small  amount of fat under arms and on hips. I want to lose another 5lb of fat  but if I wasn't training, I would say I'm thin. I'm eating 25-40 grams  carbs. 

When you are thin, how do you keep losing fat and  continue to have energy to train? Do you start to lose muscle at this  point - how do you preserve it?


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## unclem (Jul 25, 2010)

ask the guru built shes amazing at dieting. if you listen to her youll be good to go. i cant talk about dieting because iam learning now but iam getting alot better. but she, built is awesome at teaching people how to diet ask her.


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## anakada (Jul 26, 2010)

unclem said:


> ask the guru built shes amazing at dieting. if you listen to her youll be good to go. i cant talk about dieting because iam learning now but iam getting alot better. but she, built is awesome at teaching people how to diet ask her.



Yes where is Built? 

Has anyone seen articles on this subject?


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## Jodi (Jul 27, 2010)

It's called skinny fat   Unfortunately we all have it   At your height and weight you really shouldn't diet.  You need to lift hard and heavy.  You probably should take a closer look at your training.


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## anakada (Jul 27, 2010)

Jodi said:


> It's called skinny fat   Unfortunately we all have it   At your height and weight you really shouldn't diet.  You need to lift hard and heavy.  You probably should take a closer look at your training.




I want to do that and go back to normal eating, but from experience, I end up looking fat when I put on alot of muscle. 
I thought if I lose most of the fat now then I will look good later.

When I say thin, I mean in normal terms not fitness where you are  expected to be lean. I have put on a fair amount of muscle. My  stomach looked very skinny but I have done some abdominal excercises and  it now looks normal. When I start doing heavy squats, my legs are going to start to look fat.


It's this high fat/low carb diet that's confusing me. How should I eat next? I find it easy to eat this way but miss fruit and cereal. I can eat what I want at 9 stone but I can't get away with it doing weight training - not unless I put on alot more muscle.

Should I just add fruit and cereal or does this affect the amount of fat I can eat. Do I have a high fat/low carb meal and switch to carb meal in same day? I would like to eat fruit every day and lots of it but maybe I can't do that? 

Until I figure out what to do, I'm stuck on Atkins. I say it's a diet but I am not counting the calories other than for the purpose of talking about it.

I can eat alot of food and it only amounts to 1500 calories. On training days I try to eat 2000 calories. I am resting completely in between so it's not that low and am losing 1lb per week. Today I am 115lb. 

Tonight I had 113 grams roast beef, olives with feta cheese, roast chicken leg and salad and brazil nuts. I expect to get fat from eating that but it doesn't happen.


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## Jodi (Jul 27, 2010)

You are possibly in ketosis if you are sticking to a true Atkins diet.  Me thinks you have a misconception of muscle vs. fat.  If you are truly in a caloric deficit, which 1500 - 2000 cals for the average person of your height and weight is not a caloric deficit, you shouldn't see fat on your legs with heavy squatting.

It's a huge misconception that women get bulky.  You eat right (within deficit or maintenance) and train heavy, your body won't get bulky.  It will get lean.  

Can you please post your food intake on a daily basis.  Please include macros.  Posting macros mean:  how many cals, fat grams, protein grams, (and depending on your stage of Atkins), your carb grams.  Please try to include all the foods you eat because most of the time people miscalculate.


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## anakada (Jul 28, 2010)

Jodi said:


> You are possibly in ketosis if you are sticking to a true Atkins diet.  Me thinks you have a misconception of muscle vs. fat.  If you are truly in a caloric deficit, which 1500 - 2000 cals for the average person of your height and weight is not a caloric deficit, you shouldn't see fat on your legs with heavy squatting.
> 
> Keytones tested by my Doctor yesterday were at maximum level.
> I have only been doing this for 4 weeks so that's why I have fat on the back of my legs. The skin is loose so I want to fill them out by working hamstrings. The leg curl machine isn't the right size for me so I can't work them properly. I am doing 7 x 12 squats. I was not able to put weight on the bar last week but managed 15kg today slowly adding the weight.
> ...



I normally eat 50 grams protein when not training. 

Fat  (g) 106.3
Carbs (g) 43.5
Prot (g) 86.2
Total
1,446


Mixed  salad greens, raw - 200 grams
Chicken,  breast, skin eaten 
Cheese 3.5oz
Cream 3oz
Blackberries,  raw
Almonds,  unroasted  (15)
Olive  oil 2 tablespoons
Peppers,  sweet, yellow, raw slices
Salmon,  cooked 4.5oz
Beans,  string, green, cooked 100 grams
Coffee,  decaffeinated 2 cups
Omega 3 5 grams
Onions,  mature, cooked 1 medium
Mushrooms,  cooked 5 small
zucchini,1 oz
Sunflower  oil 0.75 tablespoons
Snowpeas  (pea pod), raw 2 pods


Training day
Fat  (g) 119.7
Carbs (g) 25.4
Prot (g) 108.6
Calories 1585


Chicken  leg quarter with skin roasted, 
Brazil  nuts 0.5 cups
Beef, roasted 180 grams
Mixed  salad greens, raw 1 cup
Cherry Tomatoes, 4
Celery, 1 stick
Spinach,  raw 1.2 cups
Snowpeas  (pea pod), raw 0.4 cups
Mushrooms,  raw 7 small
Cheese 2.5oz
Peppers,  sweet, yellow, raw slices
Olive  oil 1 tablespoon
Cream 1oz


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## anakada (Jul 28, 2010)

About the 50 grams protein, I mean before I started training.


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## unclem (Jul 28, 2010)

^^^built usually chimes in on diets threads. by the way do you use any aas? thats important. if u dont want to say then just say nothing, and i apologize for asking, but it is helpful.


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## Jodi (Jul 28, 2010)

Your diet looks fine but why are you still eating low carb if you don't need to lose weight?


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## anakada (Jul 28, 2010)

I am doing it because I don't know what else to do and have got used to it. 
I see it as a fat burning method not really a diet. 
I read some info on Atkins site what you can eat at stage 1 & 2 and then made up my own thing and eat what I want except carbs and don't think about it other than to make sure I get enough veg. 

I want to find a balance between this and eating normally so I can put on some more muscle but not put on fat and have alot of energy during training. I want to eat fruit and cereal but don't know when is right time to eat them every day or for one meal or on day of training and so on and if this means I need to reduce fat in other meals or stay the same.


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## Built (Jul 28, 2010)

anakada, the only way to drop bodyfat is to eat fewer calories than you require. And I started on Atkins, too - dropped 40 lbs of fat in about a year, it was awesome - and definintely the right way to start.

I can help you make the transition from flat-out keto to something called targeted ketogenic dieting. 

Can you run an average of your intake over the last few weeks? Average calories, grams pro, cho, fat, fibre, also the fatty acid breakdown (monos, poly, saturates). 

Are you taking any supplements? And are you doing any cardio (it's overrated, I just want to know what your activity level is).


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## anakada (Jul 28, 2010)

That's alot of fat loss! I'm pleased you started off like me. 

I like the sound of this diet. 
It might take me some time to put this together. Will do this ASAP.

I am doing full body circuit training every 4 days for 90-120 minutes (weight lifting + 5 minute jog warm up ).  My heart is racing throughout but I take breaks - is this cardio? I am resting completely for three days in between work outs.

I am taking vitamin supplement but doesn't contain many minerals just Zinc and Iodine), 900 calcium/vit D supplement ( I have osteopenia), I eat sliced processed meat for potassium and have been taking antioxidants to replace fruit. I take nutrawound sometimes the day after training but not regularly.


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## anakada (Jul 28, 2010)

My average food intake over 3 weeks:

Calories 1693
Protein 107g
Fat 133g
Carbohydrate 39g
Fibre 16g
Saturated fat 40g
Monounsaturated  51g
Polyunsaturated  28g

The carbohydrate average is 30grams but I ate lots of them on a couple of occassions.
I forgot Omega 3 on top - 2 teaspoons


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## Built (Jul 29, 2010)

Okay, so 1693 calories, plus about another 70 calories from the omega 3 brings you up to about 1750 calories a day. Most folks maintain on about 13-15 x their bodyweight, and 1750 divided by your bodyweight is 15, so you are at maintenance, with a healthy metabolism. That's awesome! Now, reduce your calories by 10 - 20% and you'll see your losses continue.


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## Built (Jul 29, 2010)

anakada said:


> That's alot of fat loss! I'm pleased you started off like me.
> 
> I like the sound of this diet.
> It might take me some time to put this together. Will do this ASAP.
> ...



Okay, you're doing what we call "iron cardio" - which is fine, but you need to get in some low-rep,  heavy lifting, with nice long rest breaks between sets to let your heart rate come down. This way, you will be able to lift heavier. On a low carb diet, the aggressive circuit stuff isn't so great - you don't have enough glycogen to fuel that type of activity for very long. But low-rep heavy lifting doesn't tax glycogen stores, and you can follow your workouts with some walking, cycling or whatever other kind of steady-state cardio you like. 

You can run a modest deficit and keep your diet the way it is. Something else you can do is do high and low days - so your low days could be your rest days, and your high days will be higher carb days, the same days you train. 

Either way works - it all comes down to how comfortable you are under either paradigm. 

Have you lifted free weights before?


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## anakada (Jul 29, 2010)

I trained heavily when I was 18. I weighed 150lb. I am 37 now starting again but not from the beginning.



Built said:


> Okay, so 1693 calories, plus about another 70  calories from the omega 3 brings you up to about 1750 calories a day.  Most folks maintain on about 13-15 x their bodyweight, and 1750 divided  by your bodyweight is 15, so you are at maintenance, with a healthy  metabolism. That's awesome! Now, reduce your calories by 10 - 20% and  you'll see your losses continue.


 
 I am still losing weight eating the 1750 just over 1lb per week.  
The transition from eating no carbs is where I'm stuck and don't know which way to go. I would love to learn more about your targeted ketogenic diet as it seems to fit with what's going on.


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## Built (Jul 29, 2010)

anakada said:


> I trained heavily when I was 18. I weighed 150lb. I am 37 now starting again but not from the beginning.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You're either hyperthyroid, training an insane amount of time, or mistaken on your current rate of fat loss - lol - in the early stages of Atkins, so many things change, and so quickly too - it's hard to really know what's going on. My money is that you are currently at exactly maintenance, and that to drop you'll have to drop calories, but we can play that one by ear for now - you're certainly not overweight. Not anymore. 

How many days a week do you currently lift weights?


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## anakada (Jul 29, 2010)

Built said:


> You're either hyperthyroid, training an insane amount of time, or mistaken on your current rate of fat loss - lol - in the early stages of Atkins, so many things change, and so quickly too - it's hard to really know what's going on. My money is that you are currently at exactly maintenance, and that to drop you'll have to drop calories, but we can play that one by ear for now - you're certainly not overweight. Not anymore.
> 
> 
> How many days a week do you currently lift weights?



It sounds like 1750 is the minimum maintanance enough to keep by body  working at optimum metabolism from what  you are saying but excludes the excitement of life and wanting to burn  more energy. I am always excited even when not doing anything.
I think this is the amount of calories I eat normally as basic healthy food including fruit and veg and then add things I like on top e.g. chocolate biscuits.


I train twice a week for 90 minutes ( but I'm there for 2 hours taking long rest breaks)

I AM starting from the beginning. I am a completely different person to when I was 18.  I can't believe that was me .  I did it for maybe 9 months 5 times per week. I didn't get fat but I kept the fat I already had. It's more exciting to do it in a controlled manner and it's not necessary for me to get so big.


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## Built (Jul 29, 2010)

Listen, I don't know what your maintenance is - but it is reasonable to say it's probably about 1750 given your activity level. At your size, 1750 is good, believe me. I know women who weigh what I weigh and maintain on 1750; be happy. 

Are you willing to switch to a heavier lifting type of workout and go three times a week? Long rest breaks, not circuits. And the workouts are shorter; you should be out of there in an hour. 

If you do that, I can set you up with a carb cycle to try.


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## anakada (Jul 29, 2010)

Yes.


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## Built (Jul 30, 2010)

Okay, cool. Have a look at the link in my sig on "getting started" - there's a full-body workout in there. I'd like you to start with it, for a month, then we can move you into a four-day lifting/cardio protocol to lean you out. Sound good?

For now, you could try something like this for your diet:
*Average daily macros: *
117g of protein, 
92g of fat, and 
48g of carbohydrate, 
1,488 calories in total.

*(3) Lifting/HIIT days: *
125g of protein, 
95g of fat, and 
60g of carbohydrate, < - target these around your workout - something like a half cup of rice with your post-workout meal, perhaps a slice of toast with jam before. 
1,600 calories in total.

*(4) Rest/SS Cardio days:* 
110g of protein, 
90g of fat, and 
40g of carbohydrate, 
1,400 calories in total.

You may choose to fiddle with the ratios, it's really up to you. If you want your calories higher, you can do that as well.


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## anakada (Jul 30, 2010)

Built said:


> Okay, cool. Have a look at the link in my sig on "getting started" - there's a full-body workout in there. I'd like you to start with it, for a month, then we can move you into a four-day lifting/cardio protocol to lean you out. Sound good?
> 
> The routine looks great.
> And can't wait for the next bit :bounce:.
> ...


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## Built (Jul 30, 2010)

T-bar's fine for now, but learn the rows as you are able. Either is good.


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