yup yup
 

Maybe my brain is still in -- need to lose weight so that I can even see the muscle mode. :?:

I am new to this all, remember. Only 2 weeks into working out. But I've been here, and there, reading and nothing is helping. One site says one thing then another contradicts it. :mad:

I hit the gym tonight. What I've gotten thus far is this:

* alternate the poundage -- a bit lighter maybe
* try doing more reps at less weight
* add some chest [butterflies] excersises

All your suggestions were great.

Colleen -- yup, that's it. Softness. LOL but I am waaaay tooooo soft now!

Tidey -- I don't have any friends who go to my gym, let alone excersise. There are hardly any women and the women that are there seem to be in a zone -- plus are scary :)

I am kinda alone on the weight loss/working out front... :^:

MrsJim -- Yes! That is exactly it. You look fantastic!!! That IS the look I am going for. I suppose the other images in my head were of professional body builders.

As you can see from my stats there, I want to get down to 165 lbs. I only have what, 60 more or so to go...lol

But I will keep trying to read and retaining. :write:
Can't join any more programs thought -- I am already giving my 1st born to get to the gym...

Jenn ~~ You say "alternate the poundage -- a bit lighter maybe" NO, go heavier actually... As a beginner you could maybe try reading Body for Life by Bill Phillips...He has a great workout and meal plan for beginners... You can get it at the library...Don't be scared of the girls in your gym, they "honestly" would love to help a newbie... Just like we're trying to help you here.... So just go for it girl!!

Jenne: it's easy to mistake those pictures we see for reality! If you want reality then stick around here - we are real women who weight train hard and don't look like magazines. Most people don't realise how hard it is to get like those bodybuilders on websites and the fact that most of them are not 'natural' so to speak. There are many natural bodybuilders around so if you do a bit of research you can find a good role model.

As for the chest doing exercises will tighten the muscles around the breast to make the breast look firmer but in 98% of case people lose size of their chest when starting building in the area because most of it is fat. I am part of the 2% though - started a DD and still am a DD - But I am sure it will happen to me one day!

JC

Oh, man, don't tell me that I could possibly stay a DD as well! I think we need to continue to have hope!

On a related topic, JC got me to thinking about lean body mass amounts. Apparently mine is on the high side for my height (140# at 5'4") - who knew! Anyway, how can I find out about other women who might have my same build, in terms of photos of what they were able to accomplish with their bodies?
Cindy

I think you will be hard pressed to find what could be with that lean weight and height. I think Pam Brown has about that lean weight but she is 5'7" from memory. I have another girl who is my shape and height and a high lean weight that I use as a goal and her name is Jennie - her picture is at the MSN picture site we have under my profile.

Actually I have decided to put my other pics up there but I must update my pics soon as well.

JC

Got Out My Magnifying Glass ....
 

and looked at Karen's incredibly cute photo -- whew! not a neck vein in sight! What I see are buff and feminine arms, great shoulders, flat abs and a beautiful smile -- and all of these (but the smile) are from hours spent in the gym lifting HEAVY weights.

I was a little concerned there for a minute ... :D

Cindy -- here's my experience with lean body mass, for what's it's worth. When I started losing weight, I was 257 pounds with a lean body mass of 108, putting me at 57% BF :fr: The trainer who I was working with explained that we would try to add as much muscle as possible at the same time as losing fat, but that as I got close to my goal weight, I would inevitably lose some muscle mass along with the fat (though we would try to minimize it). My lean body mass peaked six months later at 135 pounds when my total weight was 191 pounds and my BF% was 30%. From that point on, as my weight and BF% dropped, I also lost a bit of lean mass along with the fat.

When I hit my goal weight of 135, my BF% was around 16% and my lean mass was 114 pounds. Since then, my weight has stayed within a few pounds of 135 but my BF% has dropped to the 13-14% range, so my LBM has increased to about 119 pounds, I believe.

So my experience was that I lost some LBM as I lost a huge amount of fat. But the net result is that I still have 11 more pounds of muscle than I started with.

Extremely overweight people, like I was, often have very high LBMs simply because of all the weight that they carry around every day -- it's weight-bearing exercise, as your feet and ankles and knees will tell you. It's not necessarily a bad thing if you lose some of that along with the fat -- you still can end up with plenty of muscle and a low BF %.

So, even though your LBM is 140 now, that may change as your weight goes down. BTW, I'm 5' 4" also.

Meg

Oooohhhh I know there's neck veins there somewhere... :D

And the smile is thanks to my parents spending a buttload of cash on orthodondists (all four of us girls wore braces!).

As for LBM, bodyfat % etc. etc....I tossed out the fat calipers a long time ago (well not really...I never throw anything out...I just lost track of them). Numbers tend to get me all icked up...so I just go by "look and feel" - clothes size is what *really* matters IMO.

Sorry for being persona non exista :lol: this week, but I have one more day of Photoshop class...gotta run... ;)

"Persona non exista" I think not, we have a pic now!! How 'bout putting your pic up at MSN?

That's a great explanation Meg. Also, I don't think many people realise that LBM is not just MUSCLE but water and other bits as well so a small loss in LBM is not necessarily muscle loss.

JC

enough with the neck vein thing, ok?

I was mistaken. Don't worry. I won't post here again. I must be way too sensitive for this place -- or it could be the other way around....

Um Jenne I think you it mistaken. the neck vein thing was about Mrs Jim not you. I am not sure what has upset you?? Nothing has upset us!

We often go off on other tangents from the specific topics. Sorry if it has offended you?

JC