Fitness Goals

I'm still thinking through my fitness goals, but generally I am trying to accomplish the following:

  1. Decrease body fat percentage from about my current 30-35% to a minimum of 20% (comparing how I look with women of similar body fat percentage).
  2. Increase my muscle mass by about 10 lb.
  3. Increase my strength.
  4. Still have enough stamina to do my Jiu Jitsu classes, hike when I am able to, run around after my kids, etc.

That's a handful.  Some people are lucky enough that all they have to do is lose some pounds, since there is enough muscle mass under that fat.  Ha!  Others are lean enough that all they have to do is have a slight calorie surplus coupled with weight training and consume enough protein.  Then there are people like me with too much body fat, but also not enough muscle mass underneath it all.  I first need to "cut" some of the body fat to become "skinny fat", then do a lean bulk to pack on muscle to avoid outgrowing my existing clothes.  That's along with getting enough protein during the calorie deficit and doing intensive enough weight training.  But it would be worth it, even if it takes women on average a year to gain 10-15 pounds of muscle mass.  If I have great genetics it may take less time, if poor genetics, longer.

I just starting the cut a few days ago and I could tell it makes the workouts more difficult, but this may take maybe 3 months.  It's not as miserable as it may sound ... I am shooting for no less than 1800 - 1900 calories.  My maintenance level is around 2200.  I want to lose about a pound per week.  I could still eat reasonably sized meals, but be careful with the carbs.  At the end of the day, I really care about the proportion of body fat to muscle.  If my waist measurement goes down, but I lost just 7 pounds, that is a win in my book!  If went it's all said and done a year from now and I lose maybe 5 pounds, but my legs gained a good amount of muscle, that would definitely be a win.

So how did I end up in this predicament?  After doing a little research online, I gathered the following... Years of ...

  1. Too much cardio ... five miles three times weekly!  More in high school.
  2. Too much of a calorie deficit when dieting (mostly in high school)
  3. Little to no weight training (I never touched a dumbbell until I bought one before my first was born, but never used it).  I did isolation machines in college, but found out that free weights and compound exercises are more effective for muscle building.
  4. Not being mindful of protein intake (most of the time)
That's how one becomes "skinny fat", may be thin, but still too much body fat compared to muscle mass.  Then I got pregnant and ended up ... fat! But it's not the end of the world.  But I need to do the difficult task of losing body fat and gaining muscle.  This is easier for "beginner" weight lifters to do, since they can use the stored body fat as energy to fuel the workouts.  Beginners also take advantage of "newbie gains", faster muscle mass gains, when lifting weights.  So I'm praying I have good muscle building genetics and now I'm off to my next workout!

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