Yes it was; we're all different in what approaches will work.
I agree with everything you said. In fact, I eat about 55% Fat, 30% Protein, 15% Carb. I think most of the general populace would do better with a reduced carb diet. Low carb is successful, in the most part because people tend to be full and satisfied on fewer calories.

Those protein requirements are way too low, considering the body processes dietary protein very poorly. I would tend to overcompensate with protein, especially if I were active.

I agree - I would be chewing my ARM off at 50g of daily protein, even if I WASN'T active.

Built BUMP - your mailbox is full

Oh - sorry then. I must have gotten it wrong. I could have SWORN you suggested losing muscle as a means of reducing overall weight and improving APPEARANCE. In fact, didn't you suggest to Vanity that she try to lose more muscle than fat at one point, to help improve the appearance of her legs? Losing muscle mass certainly doesn’t improve health or fitness – it’s just the pursuit of a different ideal of beauty than I enjoy. Now, the ideals of beauty are subjective. To me, there's just no such thing as too much muscle. On a NATURAL body, that is. Perhaps you were thinking of a steroid-using elite bodybuilder? The natural ones aren’t NEARLY as massive, of course, because it’s impossible without “help”.

Of course, bodybuilding is ALL about the look. There IS no other motive. It's pretty pure that way. The good news is that in doing so, such good health falls out as a side effect. Weightlifting develops EXCELLENT cardiovascular health.

This isn't always the case from other forms of activity. For example, elite cyclists all pretty much HAVE to take steroids to continue to compete, because the amount of muscle mass catabolized by the extreme nature of endurance activity. They come under SEVERE pressure to win, because if they don't, their sponsors drop them. There's a HUGE controversy about this with the Tour de France right now. Endurance sport is probably the area where the most abuse of steroids takes place. The irony is that so many people peruse these sports and then wonder why their bodies don't look like the pros.

Well, that's why.

Just thought I'd come back here and let you know how my attempt to change my diet went..... Imagine my surprise to see all of this Lots of good conversation happening over here!

So the end result was that by consuming smaller, lower fat meals throughout the day, I never seemed to get enough food at one time to be satisfied which set me up for a lc binge last night. I didn't even make it one day on low fat/low cal. My tolerance for low cal/low fat is completely gone. I haven't had the experience of feeling hungry throughout the day in a very long time. And even after I would eat, I was still hungry, so I was constantly thinking about what food was coming next. I just can not live my life like that any more.

I know I do best with 65/30/5. I come pretty close to that most days. I also know that I don't need to separate my meals into 6 timed and measured meals a day. And I'm perfectly fine with 3 meals a day. I rarely eat snacks and don't feel hungry or deprived this way. With very little effort I have lost nearly 50 pounds, so I'm pretty sure it's working and I know I can keep it up for the long haul.

So at the end of the day, I'm sticking with what I know works for me. I'll see what the trainer has to say about the workouts, but the diet is up to me. I'm meeting with him tomorrow, so I think I'll come back here and post the workout and see what you all think about it

Thanks again everybody!

You can't get an elite body builder's muscle mass without massive amounts of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. I, however, would love to have a natural body builder's body (workin on it right now).

Me neither. I have never ever seen a drug free bodybuilder who looked anything less than beautiful to me. But I must emphasize, totally drug free. I have seen many grotesque bodies, male and female, among the steroid crowd--which probably includes ALL the pros and all or most of the high ranking amateurs.

For myself, I say bring on the muscle mass. But then again, my thing is powerlifting. The reason I'm on the weight loss wagon is to go down at least one weight class so I'm more competitive, and for sheer vanity because I don't like gobs of fat hanging off my body, and right now that's what I have going on. I chose low carb because not only is it the only thing that reliably gets fat off my rather endomorphic body, but it is the most muscle-sparing weight loss diet there is. I mean, when you're under a very heavy weight and you hear the command "SQUAT!" you're praying for every micron of muscle mass you can recruit!

good for you Cindy...maybe it is just the workouts that need modifications to get you to the next level...and as Built said if your trainer is not familiar with training someone who favors a lowcarb/high fta diet...try to find one who does. Good Luck

Furthermore, there are plenty of us here who ARE familiar with how to integrate low carb high fat dieting with weightlifting - ask away!

And have fun!

- Built

Thanks Built! You have already been a great help! I have been keeping up my upper body routine for the past 3 weeks, 3/4x a week. I think when I get out of the boot I will use curves for my cardio and add a LBW to the UBW I'm already doing. I have a 3 station weight machine at home that I know is somewhat limited, but I have really enjoyed using it. At some point I know I'll end up with a bench and dumbells, but I'll stick with the machine until I'm back up and running.

Thanks again

Okay...just for Built,

I am reluctant to take the bait, but here goes:

At the time that Vanity asked me if she could lose some mass, she had 52 inch hips. She wanted to change her body shape. This is only my opinion, but I thought that given her body shape and mass at that time, it would be a healthful move to lose some of her body mass. She didn't have an excess of body fat, according to her doctor's report of her body composition.

Are you saying that she was being too vain, to want to change the shape of her body. And are you saying that my advice was ill-advised in trying to help her?

Point 2: Perhaps that steriod-using elite body builder is the image that I have when I think of one. If so, there sure must be a lot of them.

Point 3: A lot of my friends are great cyclists. I don't believe that any of them take steriods or any other performance-enhancing supplements. I take creatine, and I am considered the radical one. I am aware of the scandal involving some the professionally-sponsored cyclists, including Lance, that appear to be taking performance-enhancing supplements. It saddens me that competition has pushed the sport to that. But, the body shape doesn't seem to be one that my friends and I can't achieve. I've seen Lance Armstrong a number of times and his body shape doesn't seem to be much different than mine or my friends, and none of us seem to be steriod-abusers.

And point 4: No, I wasn't aware that body-building developed great cardio health. I thought that cardio-training developed great cardio health. Thanks for enlightening me.

Jeff

Yes. As a woman with a similar shape, nothing has done as much for changing the shape and proportion of my body as heavy weightlifting. My thighs and hips are smaller now than they EVER were when I was running 10Ks, and I ran them for about 8 years. They have a much more pleasing shape, too - deep rather than wide, and better definition. I'm very pleased.

Women's and men's bodies respond quite differently to heavy lifting. Men tend to put on a lot more mass. Beyond a certain point, women just get tighter and leaner. The extra testosterone we gain from the muscle further helps to reshape the lower regions, because these areas are estrogenic fat deposits. Change the endocrine balance, and the shape follows.



As was mentioned earlier, yes, there are. Pretty much every single one you've ever seen, in fact.



Unless you have been trying to hold off on the name dropping, they also aren't winning world class events. If they trained enough to compete on this level, they would have simply catabolized too much muscle to be able to do so. Hence the AAS. And no, the body shape wouldn't look much different, if at all. There are LOTS of different AAS cycles that athletes use. Not all are to become massive, and even with these, your training and diet STILL have to be BANG ON, as well as genetics, of course.

Just because I don't USE steroids, doesn't mean I don't know a lot ABOUT them. There are bulking cycles, cutting cycles, cycles for connective tissue regeneration...the list goes on and on. It can be VERY specific.



You're MOST welcome!

Here's a link, to get you started:
Pumping Iron Improves Heart Health

Weight training can be good for your heart health, according to a new Scientific Advisory published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Cheers!

Well, Built,

I read the article you hyperlinked, but I don't draw the same conclusion that you seem to have drawn.

My read of the article indicates that body-building makes small improvements in cardio vascular health.

I think I'll go on reccommending a balanced approach of 50% cardio-training and 50% resistance-training.

Thanks, though.

Jeff

I noticed an earlier post suggesting that elite cyclists ALL had to take steroids to compete, and thats simply not true. It is true that some do take performance-enhancing supplements, however you want to remember that there is a great disparity between the average pro racer, and the upper-most echelon of a much smaller number of riders at their peak. And some do feel compelled to dope to compete at that level.

History of the sport has usually been highlighted by one or several riders competing at their peak for several years, to be followed by the next one small cadre at their peak.

Interesting notion of balance. I have never read anything that suggests you need that much cardio for heart health. There's nothing particularly natural about half and half. Once again, balance is an outcome, not an input. It can't be measured as an input. You can only go by results, and tweak accordingly.

And I certainly never suggested doing NOTHING but weightlifting for cardio. I just don't think you need nearly as much cardio as 50/50. I spend over 4 hours a week in the gym lifting. I don't seen the benefit of spending an additional 4 hours a week doing cardio. A good brisk walk every couple of days ought to be more than sufficient for heart health.

The Heart Foundation and other leading authorities recommend that people include at least 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity (such as brisk walking) on most, if not all, days of the week. The 30 minutes can be accumulated in shorter bouts, such as three 10-minute walks.

So, if I did this 5 days a week, this would qualify for heart health, and would only take up 2.5 hours of my time. If you choose to do more, that's your choice. I sometimes do too, but it's purely for pleasure. And I've had to cut back because it was interfering with my fat loss - too much cortisol in my body develops from it, and it's too catabolic to my muscle tissue - the part of my body I rely upon for fat-loss. I was getting too soft from it.

Like carbs and fat, I think the balance point is a little different for everybody. The trick is to find your OWN.