PrimalSiren

Thanks everyone, I need to get to a place where I'm actually eating more than 800 calories a day. I'm starting at it slowly because lately everything I eat makes me feel so sick. I think the stress of divorce, bartending, and being a mom has just pulled me into a place where bad habits are easier to maintain than doing what I know I should. I know I should be able to figure this stuff out on my own, but my brain is just not working as it should lately and I'm finding my patience for anything is very short. What do you think about vitamins? I've read the perfect health diet and they favor getting vitamins from the food you eat so I'm a little wary of taking supplements, besides multi-vitamins give me pretty intense headaches. I know I'm lacking a lot of vitamins and such, but I have no idea how to find out what =| I think my fatigue has something to do with my body not getting the vitamins it needs.

I was doing mostly hiit style stuff like bodyrock. I'm not 100% sure on my bf % but is say it's close to 24% or 25% right now. I would love to be closer to 20%

I've been primal for over two years on a weight loss and maintenance plan. My weight dropped to 125 from 180 and I've been happily maintaining that for a while. I was eating nearly 1800 (at least 50% or more of that was fat) calories and exercising regularly for a lot of that time. I got skinnier, but never felty body tone up at all. Recently I've been dealing with some very stressful life situations and my calorie intake has dropped to under 800 most days. I've stopped exercising and I feel like crap. I want to get back into sprinting once a week and heavy lifting 2 days a week, but I know in order to do that I need to get my nutrition back in order. My divorce will be final at the end of the month and I need something like this to pull me through the depression that has ahold of me. I need someone that can walk me through nutrition (with a primal/paleo focus) not necessarily for maintenance, but for toning up my body. Macro suggestions and/calorie amounts would be great. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm eating roughly 1400 calories a day, I haven't tracked for over a year so this is just a guess. I basically eat 3 eggs and a few strips of bacon and some veggies in the morning, lunch and dinner are usually meat and veggies and rice or potatoes at dinner. I cook with a lot of fat and I drink tea with coconut oil which adds to my calories also.

Ok I'll try to keep this short. I know how to eat to drop weight, but I've been at maintenance for two years and I want to take it to the next level and tone up and build muscle. My problem is I can't figure out how to go about this. I've been eating primal/paleo pretty strictly for over two years and my body composition won't change. I know with maintenance I can be pretty lazy with my macros, but I want to get fit and I have no idea where to start. So far I go to the gym 3x a week and do sprints in the elliptical for 12 mins then lift heavy (for me) weights (usually the barbell battalion routine). Currently I'm 125lbs at 24% body fat. I'm short at 5'3. I'd like to lower my body fat to 20%. Thanks in advance for your replies

Basically I've been familiar with Nerdfitness and actually did the barbell stuff for about 4 months and had to stop due to moving and just life making things difficult for me. Right now I have been asked to participate in a photo shoot where photos taken of me will be sold at the comic con (I do a lot of cosplay). That photo shoot is about 5 weeks away and while I my body fat is in the healthy range and my body looks ok, I would like to look a bit more toned. After the photo shoot is over I'll go back to heavy lifting, but I'm wondering if there's something I can do to cut some of the fat my body just doesn't want to get rid of. I've been stuck in a rut. I've been eating primal for two years, lost a ton of weight and now my body composition doesn't want to budge. I was lifting heavy, increasing my weights and gaining muscle, but its like my body fat just doesn't want to get lower than 24%. I guess basically I've built up some muscle and now I want to be able to see it so I'm assuming this would be the cutting phase (I'm a total noob at fitness stuff). How do I go about this?

All of this info has helped me a lot. Thanks so much everyone! Adding weight to the bar actually did help with form. Now I feel a little silly for not trying that to begin with!

Wow that was really helpful. I may be off on body fat % because I use picture comparisons and my measurements. My tummy will always look slightly more toned because I had an abdominoplasty to repair torn abdominal muscles. As far as the other question goes, I want to have a nice firm butt instead of the flat squishy butt that I have. I'm assuming I want to build muscle there and also lose the extra fat I have in my thighs. I guess that would mean I want both? I mostly want to build muscle because as it is I look like I have no butt

I went from 180 lbs in October 2011 to 130 lbs in May 2012, I believe I went from a size 14 to a size 5, since then I've been the same size. It's actually abnormal for my body to hold onto fat in my butt, I usually gain in my stomach and arms, then legs and butt. It seems like since losing weight my body has shifted to storing in my legs and butt, or maybe I've never really noticed because I had never been overweight until after having kids. I'm still not lifting very heavy, I've only been doing this for 5 weeks. I'm at 70 lbs on the deadlift, 40 lbs on the push press, I do pull ups with body weight and can only do the first two pull ups of each set from standing, the rest are negatives, and the squats I use only the bar. The only other exercise I do would be sprinting once a week.

I eat basically Primal, I don't really cheat on anything anymore it just ends up bad for me. I don't eat wheat, and have very little sugar, no fruit since I'm basically allergic to it all. However, I do still eat dairy, I've thought about cutting that out as well. I could take a closer look at my diet and make sure I'm eating as well as I should be. I do have about 4 oz of wine most nights. I could live without it or just have wine on the weekend. I don't drink alcohol besides that. I already do deadlifts, I love those. I just wasn't sure if I should be adding more leg workouts in, I have a tendency to overdo things so I'm taking it slow and making sure I'm giving my body time to rest. Bodyrock and Zcut totally killed my body and it's taken a while to recover from it. I was doing way too much with too little rest.

I'm not afraid of being uncomfortable, if I was I wouldn't be lifting at all. I've just had it drilled into my head by the trainer I was using to always have correct form before adding weight. I would take a video of my form and upload it, but my husband is deployed and has my only camera with him. I do add weight regularly to my workouts, since I'm still new to lifting the weight increases pretty rapidly. I suspect it will slow down soon. As far as TDEE goes, I must be doing something wrong when calculating it, because the number I get is around 2200. Dropping calories isn't a big deal for me, 1800 calories is more food than I can eat most days anyway. I'll try the suggestions and see if adding weight to my squats helps with my form and flexibility issues.

I may be over thinking the form on the squats, but I hate doing something incorrectly. I have very little flexibility and I always end up hurting myself when I squat with weight. I supposed I could start adding weight to the bar and see how it goes. My form issues really come from not having the flexibility required to make it through the movement while holding the bar, I tend to jack up my wrists and lean too far forward which throws off my balance a bit.

*I wasn't sure where to post this* This is where I’m at right now, (female) 130 lbs, 5’3, about 25% body fat. I have been stuck in that range for about 6 months, regardless of what I do. Looking at me from the front I look average, slightly toned arms, flat tummy, toned legs. Looking at me from the back I look gross. I am desperate to tone my butt and thighs! I’ve been doing the barbell battalion for about 5 weeks and I already see improvements. Where my frustration comes in is that I’m starting to tone up in my arms, my tummy is starting to show a bit of ab definition, but my backside is just stuck being gross. I want to get rid of my flat butt and extra fat on my thighs. I am not able to squat with any weight yet, because I’m trying to get the correct form down. Before NF I was doing bodyrock and Zcut, but still there were zero changes in my body. I know you can't spot reduce, but I was wondering if building up the muscles there would help in some way. Would it be a problem to add in extra leg workouts throughout the week to help build some muscle back there? Should I just give it some more time? Should I also add in cardio? I eat primal and have been eating this way for about 18 months. I stay at or under 150g carbs, eat approx. 80 to 120g protein and the rest of my 1800 calories comes from good fats. I rarely eat out and don’t eat a lot of sugar or sweets. I can’t figure out what I need to do so my body will let go of the extra fat!

I actually found a trainer that wants, and is excited to work with me. Although he did mention he thinks I'm crazy, but that's a good thing right? He's pretty good as far as I've heard so hopefully this will work out. Woot! I'm so excited to finally build some real functional strength. /dance

Thanks everyone, I'm waiting for starting strength to come in the mail. I think I'm going to have to go it alone for a bit since I really can't jump into it until I know for sure I'm healed. I love the recording movements idea, I can't believe I didn't think about that myself! I'm not near or on a base, and it wouldn't help me much since my husband contracts with the military and isn't in the military anymore. However, that would have been a great idea when he was in the military; unfortunately I was overweight and not looking into changing anything during that time.

I do, however I need a gym with kid care. My husband is currently deployed and I don't have anyone available to watch the babies for me while I work out My situation is totally crazy where I'm in Utah for 3 months then Cali for 3 months; basically I go home to Utah while my husband is deployed every three months. While in Cali I'll be able to do the Crossfit thing, but here in Utah I have to go with a gym because of the kids.

Hey everyone! I'm new here and loving this website and the programs. I'm a 5'3 female at 130 lbs and I'm looking to not necessarily lose weight, but build muscle and gain some functional strength *flex*. I'm still post-op and am not allowed to work out for another 2 to 4 weeks *smacks forehead* I hate sitting around and want to get moving so bad! So far I'm only allowed to do simple cardio such as elliptical and the stationary bike. I recently changed to the paleo/primal lifestyle and lost 35 pounds in 5 months. I had an abdominoplasty to repair the major separation in my abs and now I'm in recovery. I have to take things pretty easy, but I'm excited to start training. *squeal* The problem I'm finding is that I can't find a personal or fitness trainer that will help me with barbell training. They all want to put me on a "diet" and fitness plan that they tailor to me. I've argued with most of them and it all comes down to the same reason, "you're gonna bulk up and be really unhappy with the way you look, you should probably look into toning up with smaller weights." If I had any strength I'd punch someone. That said, what do you do when you can't find someone to help you out? I can watch youtube videos and learn from there, but I need help with my form, especially when I have to make sure I don't do anything to injure my abs. I'm seriously frustrated about this. The closest I've come to a trainer that will teach me the ropes of barbell lifting is a female trainer that can show me the basic movements with free weights. /scream