(I'm re-posting this message from a suggestion a member gave me so I could maybe get a better response to my questions)

I've been trying to be good about what I eat.

Breakfast I have 2 scrambled eggs in the morning with butter and a bit of olive oil (to get extra fat.)

Lunch I have a protein of some sort fish, chicken or beef and 2 cups of salad with carb options italian vinagrette dressing

Snack I have a pepperoni stick or some celery with dressing

Supper I have protein fish, chicken or beef with 1 cup of green beans (with butter). And when I have steak I have been sauteing mushrooms with butter and garlic.

I drink around 3 litres of water a day and I posted a couple days ago that I got an elliptical. I plan to work on it for about 30 minutes a day 5 days/week and eventually get into the habit of using it everyday. So far since I'm really out of shape and I'm a smoker I can only last on it for like 7 minutes and my legs are sore so I'm going on it like every other day hopefully my body gets used to it soon! My husband has a weight bench that he's setting up for me so I can do weights after my cardio work out. I have two questions:

Am I eating enough for my workouts (once my workouts reach 30 minutes....cause I know 7 minutes isn't anything to scream about right now

And how often should I be lifting weights? I've always thought, and I'm probably wrong, that I didn't want to lift weights when I'm fat....I'd rather do cardio and shrink first and then lift weights to tone my already thinned out body. Who wants to turn their fat into muscle when they're at a size they're not happy with? Am I making sense? I'd rather tone a smaller body. I'm big fluffy now but wouldn't a girl want to be small fluffy and tone that body?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I still have another week of induction and I'm not excited about eating more meat.....I like it but the amount I'm eating right now is quite enough for me. I supposed if one of your suggestions was to eat more protein what could be my options?

A couple of things.

Your basic diet looks good.
1. weightlifting in women will not bulk you up. (check out our members "BUILT"or "LIFTNLADY"). Women lack the testosterone to bulk up.
2. weightlifting will change your shape and help burn fat faster than cardio.
3. Lift three days a week. no two consecitive days.
4. try to do cardio on non lifting days, If not able to do cardio
AFTER lifting.
5. keep lifting time 40-60 minutes.
6. lift as heavy as possible and still be able to keep PERFECT form.
progress gradually and concentrate on FORM.
Check out my gallery and see I was fluffy too but making good progress.

Jag

http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.php?f=52
There are a lot of good threads here

Jag

Jag's got the right info for you...

You'll be toning the muscles underneath the fat so that when those layers of fat start coming off you'll be able to see the toned up muscles underneath.

Don't be afraid of bulking up! I started lifting in January and have seen better definition of my muscles but none of the bulking you sometimes see in male weight-lifters.

Good luck! You'll be at your 30 minutes before you know it.

Kiks

Thank you for your replies.

Am I eating enough? I'm on induction right now (one week left) but what's a good snack to have to up my calories or protein or whatever it is I need to increase to suit my workout schedule.....nuts or something like that? I don't like avocados and I don't think I could handle eating more protein in the form of chicken, beef etc. How about carb options peanut butter? I'm feeling satisfied with the amounts of foods I'm eating already so I'm not starving. I'm just worried that I'm gonna go into starvation mode or something and my workouts will just stall me or set me back. I'm okay with cardio and lifting and knowing how to do it but it's the food part that I'm lacking knowledge in.

I always thought that you had to do cardio first and lift after. That's probably what I'll end up doing anyways since I plan to work out 30 min on cardio and lift after 3x a week and eventually do it 5 times a week. I'm really impatient so it will be hard for me to not overdo it. But if I'm feeling good and I'm up to it can I do more than that?

I don't have specific answers on the food question for you. The only thing is that during induction you should not have nuts, although I stayed at induction level of carbs after 2 weeks, but added in nuts and cottage cheese and other non-induction foods. Cottage cheese (after induction) is a really good source of protein, and easy to eat after lifting, no preparation required.

If you want to lift more than 3x a week, just make sure that you don't work the same muscle groups 2 days in a row. You have to give the muscles time to re-build after breaking them down, this is what increases muscle. You can split your workouts into upper body/lower body, or do a push/pull split (for instance: chest, triceps, and shoulders 1 day, back and biceps another day, and lower body another day). You can try different combinations to see what works best for you.

Your BMR is what your body needs (resting) to maintain itself. You add calories to compensate for exercise and activity level.
Here is a link about BMR and how to calculate your level.
http://www.ecybex.com/education/cal...s/bmr_calc.html

Once you calculate your BMR then adjust for activity level.
To lose fat and not muscle you cut the adjusted rate 10-15%
Example:
BMR 2200 x adjuster (1.4) = 3080 (adjusted BMR)
3080 - 15% = 2618 calories a day
2618 would be the optimal calories intake a day to maintain muscle mass and lose fat.
Remember the difference between losing "weight" (fat and muscle) and losing FAT only. You want to keep your muscle to burn the fat. You want to lose fat for long term results.
A lot of "diets" out there you can lose "weight" but low carb and exercise helps you lose FAT and KEEP the muscle!

Jag

Ricotta is lower than cottage cheese.
I eat a quart a week!

Jag

Your body needs a good amount of rest if you are lifting hard.
Cardio on non lifting days.
2-3 cardio days a week would be plenty.
Jag

Weightlifting works by damaging the muscle in an intense way, which stimulates your body to try to grow more later and repair the damage.

Women have a LOT less testosterone than men - be basically SUCK at packing on muscle. But our bodies try to anyway - and what happens is we spend a lot of calories in the attempt. So we get leaner.

Yeay!

So lift 'em heavy, ladies. Even if you're TRYING, you really can't get bulky unless you train very carefully, eat very carefully, and for the vast majority of women, take anabolic steroids. It certainly cannot happen by accident.

I've actually been TRYING to pack on muscle for three years, and I'm natural. You can peek into my gallery to see how much success I've had. The biggest change to my body has been how much leaner I am now.

Okay so i guess I'll just eat when I'm hungry and not worry about how much calories I'm intaking cause my body should let me know right?

I've been using my elliptical every other day and my husband set up that weight bench for me last night. So ultimately when I get good enough to last on my elliptical for at least 30 minutes at a time I figure my schedule will be:

Sunday:
Weights & 15-20 minutes of ellliptical

Monday:
REST

Tuesday:
30-45 minutes of elliptical

Wednesday:
Weights & 15-20 minutes of ellliptical

Thursday:
30-45 minutes of elliptical

Friday:
Weights & 15-20 minutes of ellliptical

Saturday:
30-45 minutes of elliptical

Is that okay? So far I'm on the elliptical every other day cause I'm still getting used to it....my legs are too sore the next day to go back on it. And I'm gonna start lifting every other day too. Can I work on all my muscles that day since I won't be lifting again the day after?

Plus I should be lifting weights before I do my cardio right?

Thanks again!

Weights before cardio is correct. Yes. Good.

Why not start up a gym log and put in exactly what kind of lifting you do?

Thanks Built!

Is there too much cardio in my program?

I am gonna look for a protein shake mix so I can have that after I'm done lifting. YAY I'm excited to get a program going.

I think it's good idea to keep track of how much weight I used on each muscle to better track my progress. I will keep a journal.

I'd avoid a protein shake after working out, personally. I find they glycolyze too quickly because of the whey. Try real food - I've been doing cottage cheese lately. Casein digests more slowly than whey.

I don't know if you're doing too much cardio. I also don't know if you're lifting intensely enough.

Gym log. Now. 'K?

Is cottage cheese allowed in OWL.....just basically eat something after you lift weights or eat some sort of protein? A protein shake is just so easy...maybe I can switch between a protein shake and cottage cheese....I do like cottage cheese....about 1/2 cup?