Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi my name is Cathalie im almost 17 and i have been having trouble acheiving the body i wanted for basically ever.
right now i am 140pounds and 5'4. to me im not so preoccupied on the number i weigh but on how the clothes fit. i wish to loose like about 10 pounds. get rid of my fat. although it isnt a easy as it sounds. im an hourglass figuire and tend to add muscle prettty quickly, and bulk up. so right now i feel quite bulky. i eat around 6 meals a day. i find that starches make me expand. and i will do at least 2 pilates classes a week and try at least 2 times in the gym for a week. there i will go on the elliptical for like an hour.

so my question is how do i loose fat and some mucscle? i realy want to get alot slimmer all over my body especailly on my butt and legs. what sjhould i be eating? how should i be working out? any suggestions? because i am sooo lost.

help?

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Our life's a stage, a comedy: either learn to play and take it lightly, or bear its troubles patiently.
-Palladas

cathalie 20 pounds to gooo!

you mean: and gain some muscle ?

Well if you only have 10 pounds to lose, there's 2 ways : you can do it the fast way or the longer one. I can lose 10 pounds in 7-10 days by ingesting nothing else than protein drinks. That's a very low-calorie, low fat and low carb diet. Or I can do it in 2 months by increasing the amount or fruits and veggies and decreasing the rest. This second option is better because it's not very healthy to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week, and also because if you lose lots of weight in a very short period of time, you're more at risk to gain it back in a short period of time too ! A god diet is one that works but which also promotes good habits that you will keep once you reach your ideal weight instead of getting back to less healthy foods...

Anyway, for you goals of losing fat and getting toned on lower body, I would suggest you to eat lots of fresh produce such as fruits, fruit salads, fruit smoothies, green smoothies, salads, and enough protein sources (hemp or rice or yellow pea protein power or Vega, or tofu, etc) to get about 1g protein per pounds of bodyweight per day. So 120g proteins/day if your ideal weight is 120 pounds. Every 3 day or at least once per week add more calories from more carbs : sandwiches, etc. and/or more fats: avocados, etc. This will boost up your metabolism and thereby will make you lose more fat than if you stay always on a low calorie diet/slow metabolism.

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"Do your best, don't worry, be happy" - Meher Baba

Sorry I made some weird mistakes : I meant "a good diet", not a "god" diet. And "protein powder", not protein "power", lol.

Forgot to say about your training: I would suggest you Circuit Training, which means no rest or only brief rests, to burn more calories. So do these exercices in supersets, which means switching to different muscle groups instead of resting for 2 minutes, and about 2-4 sets of 15-25 reps per exercise. Abs: sit-ups, crunches, etc... Legs: leg lift, leg curl, leg press, squats, calves raise, seated calves raise. Glute kickbacks, butt lift...

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"Do your best, don't worry, be happy" - Meher Baba

hmm i know its not the best for you but i want to try the protein drink for 7 days. Along with excersise. how many times a day should you drink it how many scops? what tastes decent in it?i have the hemp powder.

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Our life's a stage, a comedy: either learn to play and take it lightly, or bear its troubles patiently.
-Palladas

cathalie 20 pounds to gooo!

Ahhh I knew you'd pick that one! i kinda wish IYM didn't say that..

honestly, everyone wants to lose weight quickly but the only practical way to lose weight, keep it off, and stay healthy is through exercise and clean eating. NOT a crash diet.

When you do crash diets like that you are running the risk of depriving yourself of vital nutrients. Yes, it's only 7 days, BUT at the end of those 7 days you're probably going to be feeling pretty rough.. and I can't honestly say you'll lose the 10 pounds of fat you want. A person can only lose at maximum, 2.5 pounds of fat a week. That's MAXIMUM! Most of the "weight" you'll lose during that fast is water weight.. Which is only temporary.

The body needs a well balanced diet to function properly. I can't argue this point enough.

If you want to get in shape you should do more weight training. Do compound movements like squats, lunges, push-ups, and stuff like that. It can be done anywhere and you can use anything for weight, such as jugs of water if you don't have any free weights yet.

Circuit training is really good too. Get a skipping rope, try plyometrics, or interval training.

I recommend a two pronged approach. First diet. Make sure you know what you are eating every single day. I keep a diary, use a scale, and know exactly what I am eating. Find your maintenance calorie number, which is the number you need to maintain your current body weight. Eat 500 calories less. For most people simply giving up anything with sugar, sodium aka salt (hidden in anything prepackaged), and white flower will dump ten pounds. If you drink soda, even diet give it up. This alone might do it for you over a few weeks.

Second find some activities, running, walking, weight lifting, whatever and make sure you are burning 500 calories. The problem here can be if you are relying on the monitors on some fitness equipment the numbers are not always right.

Eating 500 calories less and burning 500 more should drop about two pounds per week, 1 pound equals 3500 kcal.

eheh, it's not that bad. It's pretty healthy, because with all the proteins, you don't lose too much muscles, and eventhough it doesn't provide enough vitamins (but you can take multivitamins) the absence of solid food gives a rest to your digestive system and while burning fat you detox. Short fasting is healthy once or twice per year. You can do it just for 2-3 days if you want, or just one day per week. Personally I do it because it's what works best for me, drinking only protein drinks this way I don't think about eating all the time.
I encourage you to follow a normal diet (just reduce 500 cals per day like Nija said) and once in a while include the protein fasting if you want. Concerning how much scopps, etc: take about 6-8 drinks per day, with about 20-25 grams proteins each, you should arrive with a total of 150 grams proteins per day and under 1000 calories...

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"Do your best, don't worry, be happy" - Meher Baba

I think heeding the warming of I'm your man would be beneficial. And his weight loss plan doesn't have to take place over 2 months. Think if you lose 2 lbs a week, in a month you've lost 8 and you'll probably lose a few more just by exercise. On just protein shakes you are going to get very hungry. That probably is okay if it's all you have to eat, but I know when I've tried a similar diet (and i still eat all the veggies and fruit, I'll just try eating really low carb) all kinds of low quality carbs are still available, its easy to get to those when very hungry. I found that not eating carbs for dinner such as pasta, have some brown rice or something if you must, and spending some time on the treadmill running fast, really shaped me up.

Marcina: i actually chose the other option first but then lateron got interested in the other one. Yup i do weight training but i bulk alot it seems like i am at a permanet plateau.

DCNINJA: keeping track of what i eat is a good approach but i uslally am so busy that i forget what i eat. :/

I'm your man: well i think i will try the protein drink idea maybe at the end of this month. For now im just trying to include more protein in my diet. i didnt know it was 1g per body weight. If you do cardio, should the nprotein consumption stay? or change?

CollegeB: cutting out carbs at that time is a great idea. thank-you! you mean like sprints? wouldnt long distance running burn more than sprint since it is low intensity meaning it burns more fat rather than energy?

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Our life's a stage, a comedy: either learn to play and take it lightly, or bear its troubles patiently.
-Palladas

cathalie 20 pounds to gooo!

I definitely agree with the whole cutting the carbs thing, but I usually have complex carbs (like bread/cereal type foods once a day just to keep my energy levels constant) usually cereal for breakfast and try not to eat any more starchy carbs as the day goes on (or if not, just in less and less amounts and none after 4pm). Definitely try to make a couple of your meals liquid meals (it's been working out great for me too!) and try to make your last meal heaviest on protein.

In terms of workout, if you do want to follow the goals you say, cardio is probably best. Try to do a least one day of medium intensity cardio for a little bit longer (about 30 minutes) and one day of intervals where you go as hard as you can in well... intervals. I'm sure there must be a 'how to do interval cardio training' somewhere online or on this forum (sorry I'm not so helpful but I'm sure I'd explain it terribly if I tried), but interval training is really what made the biggest difference for me when I wanted to lose weight fast and wanted to keep it off. It can be as short as 20 minutes (which is usually good because you go so hard, it'll feel like enough) or more if you like!

Good luck!

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Chantal
More me goodness at: http://www.eatdancelive.vox.com

Yeah a "cleanse" is okay but I was under the impression she was looking for a permanent solution.. Which wouldn't be achieved that way.

Cathalie, if you bulk up easily, just do weight training in conjunction with cardio. Do the cardio after the weight training session though.

Gee.. Must be nice to bulk easily.. Lol. I've been a hard gainer my whole life.

its not not i guess you always want what you dont have.

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Our life's a stage, a comedy: either learn to play and take it lightly, or bear its troubles patiently.
-Palladas

cathalie 20 pounds to gooo!

quite the contrary sweetheart. Use your strengths to you advantage. Their are no weaknesses only parts of training and diet that need more focus or less b/c of your genetic predisposition.

I am tagging your blog to give future input, just wanted to give a shout out and also let you know you have a somewhat similar build ot my gf a forum member 'thendanisays'. I'm going to refer her to here and i will have more input going forward as well..

Be consistent for now, it will all flow in no time

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Where do you get your protein?
http://www.VeganProteins.com

Hi Cath. The women in my family have builds like you and gain like you. It's a genetic gift, right? We're strong women! Our bodies like to move, and we're tough.

From just being intimately familiar with how my and my daughters' metabolisms and health work, i think it's probably more important to make lifestyle changes that will make your body happy over the long term. So for us that means not concentrating on protein powders and stuff, and more of working lots and lots of physical activity into your lifestyle... jogging or biking to work/school, shooting hoops on weeknights instead of coffee shops, always taking the stairs instead of elevators, cultivating physically active hobbies (hiking, kayaking etc) trying to get like 2 workout times a day. If you commute to work or school under your own power, you got it done right there. If you do this, I think you'll see that 10 pounds go somewhere else, and at the same time, you can concentrate on eating healthy, natural whole foods. If I was you, I would take a vegan multi vitamin and watch my iron levels too.

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Radical simply means "grasping things at the root." - Angela Davis