Hey fellow BBers, Quick question looking for some advice... GF Stats quick: Height 5'4" Weight 130 BF% 25-26% Short term goal: 125 by June 15 and 22-23% BF Long Term goal: 120 by Oct 24 and 18-20% BF Edit: Forgot to add, eating clean and trying to stick around 1000-1200 cals/day. Some days maybe a bit more. Protein - I try and get her to eat as much protein as she can. Probably hits around 75-80g. 300-320cals Carbs - 140-150g. 560-600cals Fats - 30-35g. 270-320cals My gf has been dieting and working out for the past 3 months and she's done pretty well. Lost about 6 lbs and her BF% (using calipers) has dropped from 29% to 25-26%. But, in the last month or so she's been stuck at around 130lbs. 128-132 depending on the time of day etc. She's stuck and getting frustrated!! Incredible Hulk style haha, she's got a girls trip to vegas with a bunch of "anorexic" friends. Not truly anorexic but they are super skinny and don't eat much. They are just string beans basically, my gf is not at all that way ha. She's got an athletic build with strong legs from her gymnastics background. She had been doing mostly cardio with quick weight sessions maybe once or twice a week. She loves her cardio and won't stop. So here is what I have her doing (any advice on changes or ways to speed up fat loss are welcome)... 30 mins cardio (few mins hard, walk uphill few mins, jog few mins, walk a minute, repeat) Trying to get her to do intervals 20 minutes of weights. I had her started on Jamie Eason's plan, and she liked it but she wanted the cardio too... So after 30 mins of cardio she's too tired to do the whole weight portion. So I revised it and this is what I came up with. Weights: 2-3 sets of 12 depending on how she's feeling Day 1 Legs - Squats, Romanian Deadlift, Leg Extensions, Lunges, Lying Leg Curls, Calf Raises Day 2 Chest/Tri - DB Bench, Push ups, DB Flys, DB Incline Bench, Tricep Pulldowns, DB Tri Kickback, Bench Dips, DB Tricep Extensions Day 3 Shoulders - Front/Lateral Raises, Shoulder Press, Arnold Press Day 4 Back/Biceps - DB Bent Over Row, Wide Pulldown, Seated Cable Row, Underhand Pulldown, DB Curls, Seated DB Incline Curls, Hammer Abs - Usually try to mix in abs on one of the days our gym isn't too busy. 1-2 times a week. On top of all this... We are trying to do a Boot Camp once or every other week. Depending on our plans... TLDR - GF stuck here's her plan, need ideas or is this decent?
Plateau Advice You need to post her caloric intake and projected macronutrient goals. Weight/fat loss starts and ends in the kitchen.
Plateau Advice At 1000-1200 she should be making steady progress. Most would recommend she consume closer to 1500 a day, but if you're hinting that she's stopped seeing progress, she's already probably eating more calories than you or she thinks - by more than "a little bit".
Plateau Advice Eat 500 cals below maintenance for 6 days, and then have one day where you eat above by 500. Doing this keeps you on track losing fat while maintaining muscle effectively, and obviously its a really nice break to go and eat big for a day after dieting for 6. Its especially important to eat a lot of carbs of your refeeding day, so go slam a pint of ben and jerry's ice cream and know that its helping you!
Plateau Advice Right... That's what I'm thinking. But, I've been checking calorie counting websites and I check all the food we eat. Hence the confusion and post ha... I will add that we've been eating this same diet for the last 3 months.
Plateau Advice I've been logging my intake very, very carefully for well over a year now, to the point of unhealthy obsesssion with it, and I still occasionally find big, glaring errors in portions, measuring, raw vs cooked, recipe additions, bad labelling, etc. You should not assume that just because you are logging it you've got it down. Accuracy takes a surprising amount of work. Work that you don't need to do if you're losing the way you want, of course, but when the fat loss doesn't match the numbers, the numbers are wrong.
