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I'm 44 and in the process of getting in shape and a little lost. I have lost a total of 10 pounds since February and I do not need to lose anymore weight, however I do have what I call FLAB on my belly, inner thighs and buttocks that I am trying to get rid of. Now I know it takes time to do this along with exercise and eating right. Now my dilemma is I need to lose the FLAB and not anymore weight so how many calories should I be consuming each day and what percentage of Carbs, Protein and Fat. Like I said I am 44, 130 pounds, 5'8" tall and working out at gym 4 days a week and exercising at home 5 days a week.
Also a little confused on what supplements I should be taking in order to achieve my goals? I am currently taking a Isoflex Whey Protein Isolate 2 x a day, a NLA for her Shred Her Fat burner 2 x a day, NLA for her Uplift pre-workout and NLA for her Amino acids during workout. And if anyone can recommend something better please do so.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Hope this helps - the poster is a male nurse who lost over 100 lbs. and gives you a formula on how to figure out how many calories, carbs, protein, etc. you need to achieve your weight loss goals. He's got quite a few videos but this one is probably the most important to watch.
To stay about the same weight, you need about 15x your bodyweight in calories a day. That'd be about 1950 for you, so a range of say 1850 to 2150 is what you're probably shooting for each day, especially given the fact that you exercise so often.
Normally I'd say stay away from carbs for the most part, except for after your workout, but since you're so active, feel free to eat them. They'll help you to recover from your workouts. Still, try to get a majority of them around your workout, especially right after you've finished as your muscles are primed to take those carbs and absorb them right away.
As for percentages, shoot for about 25ish% protein and about 20-25% fat, the rest carbs. When you eat fat, avoid carbs and vice versa; fat slows down digestion so carbs eaten with fats are much more likely to be stored as fat rather than used. Again, this is why we want to eat most of our carbs right after a workout.
So to get your breakdowns, let's just use 2000 calories as your goal as it's easier for math. Adjust later as you need
protein has 4 calories per gram, as do carbs. Fats have 9 calories per gram
25% of 2000 calories is 500 calories or 500/4 = 125. That's roughly a pound and a quarter of meat a day, or roughly 5 protein shakes given they have 25 grams per scoop. Or it's two shakes and 3/4 of a pound of meat, say a shake mid-morning and mid-afternoon (50 grams), 3 eggs for breakfast (27 grams), 6 oz chicken (25ish) for lunch and another 6 oz for dinner (25ish) or 127 grams for the day.
20% of 2000 is 400 calories or 400/9 = 45 grams of fat. That's about 3 tablespoons of olive oil, or two tablespoons (possibly on a salad at dinner for instance) and about 10 walnuts.
given this example, we'd have the rest, 55%, be carbs or 1100/4 or 275 grams. That's a little less than 1.5 cups of rice, or 1/2 cup oatmeal at breakfast, 3/4 cup rice at lunch and 1/4 cup at dinner.
As far as supplements, protein powder is great. Try to add in amutlivitamin, maybe some fish oil, vitamin d3, maybe some zinc and magnesium. The amino acids will be good for you since you're exercising so often. Maybe drop the fat burner as they're not really proven to be effective. Caffeine would be a good substitute or just plain black coffee.
Google Lyle McDonald and read his articles on losing "Stubborn Fat".
If you want to lose flab, you are going to lose weight. So you really have about 2 options if you want to remain at 130 lbs. Cut the fat and gain back in muscles. Bulk up with muscle and then cut back the fat. When you decide on which direction you want to take, then you can calculate your macros.
I really appreciate the post and you all have given me some very useful information. Thank you [URL="http://www.city-data.com/forum/members/schmedes2-770499.html"][SIZE=5]schmedes2[/SIZE][/URL] for all the information, trying to get into shape is really HARD but I will continue on my journey to do so. It does get a little discouraging at times especially when you don't know exactly what to do...Again thank all of you for your help
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