Several Questions

[DylanAilDon]

Hello everyone,

So I have a few questions, and I thought instead of starting multiple threads I'd just ask in one.

Now that the current Six Week Challenge only has two weeks left, I want to start looking ahead to the next one. I'm planning things out and figuring out what I can and can't do, should and shouldn't do, etc...

Enough exposition, let's get down to it:

#1: Body Fat

So I measured my body fat with calipers, with the results being around 20% (not 100% accurate, but I didn't expect them to be), and I want to reduce my BF% by half, obviously not within one six week period as that's far from realistic.

So what would be a realistic BF loss for a six week period, and how can I help the process along.

*My Circumstances*

I'm in my last year of school with full-time clinical practicum, and am in Water Polo practies roughly 4x per week, at Swing Dance lessons 1x per week and a social event (either Swing- or Nerd-related) 1x per week. Add homework... So I'm somewhat busy, which means transitioning to Paleo is not realistic, and there won't be much time for me to do too much extra training.

I've been eating 4 meals per day (one of which would be a post-workout smoothie), and I've lost 7lbs during this challenge. I'm planning on cutting the smoothie out once the challenge ends...

Any suggestions?

#2: Supplements/Multi-Vitamins/Misc.

So I'm wondering what kind of multi-vitamin or supplement I should try and take to help keep me healthy and work in conjunction with my diet/training.

I've considered maybe a multi-vitamin, but I'd like to hear some suggestions from more educated people than myself. There are so many options that I want to make an educated decision.

Let me know what you think.

Sorry for the long post...

- DylanAilDon

[Waldo]

1) In 6 weeks 5% or so is pretty realistic to achieve.

To help the process along, be perfect hitting your calorie goals and macro goals, don't ever skip exercising. Basically take it serious and give it your all. Don't do anything that promises fast results, they are all scams. Good old fashioned hard work is the way to go.

2) Food.

The only exception being protein powder, which I consider food anyway and not a supplement.

Some are, but I'm not a believer in supplements at all. People were doing just fine before the supplement companies came along.

[DylanAilDon]

1) To help the process along, be perfect hitting your calorie goals and macro goals, don't ever skip exercising.

I'm sorry to sound completely uneducated, but what are macro goals?

I've heard mention of them in at least one challenge thread, but I don't know what they are.

Even a handy link so that I can look it up would help immensely.

Thanks for the input.

[21katykat01]

Macros are you protein, carb and fat goals. Check out the IF/Leangains thread in the Tavern section of the forum here; you should find a macro calculator for you too. If you track your food on a site like MyFitnessPal, it automatically tracks your macros for you, and you can adjust your macro goals.

Good luck!

[notanartmajor]

Macro stands for Macronutrient, which are protein, fat, and carbohydrates as mentioned above. Micronutrients are your vitamins and minerals.

For multivitamins: Source Naturals Life Force Multi and Controlled Labs Orange Triad are both supposed to be good. In addition to a multivitamin (or just by themselves) you might want to consider Vitamin D and Fish Oil supplements.