Last week’s series was great because I had a ton of you asking me a ton of questions (which is always a good thing).  It’s good mainly because I love to answer questions…unless you’re one of my children…and I just got on the phone.  Let me focus.

The number one question asked was,  “Am I skinny fat?”  Or basically, what constitutes being skinny fat?  And the way it was asked was like I had some big book on the side of my desk about the size of an almanac that had all kinds of guidelines and questions in it like what’s in “other natural flavors” and “do bananas have seeds”.  It was quite interesting and quite telling.

First, you should know by now you can’t ask me a question like that because I’m just going to go into a ten minute over the top diatribe about fat levels and our perception of ourselves vs. gaining muscle and so on that in the end is tragic and hard to listen to.  I think in a polite way I am referring to myself as a blowhard.  Whatever.  If the shoe fits…

Second, what you’re really asking me is, “I know you can’t see me right now, cuz this is just through email an’all, but…is the small farm animal hanging off my backside…fat?  Or is it just displaced muscle?  Because I have been ignoring it for months and I was hoping you would alleviate my fears by telling me I’m ok.”  Honestly, you know I won’t get on board with any of that so stop asking me to call you fat.  Personally, I am not a fan of the term but seeing as ‘thin body wrapped in strategically placed insulation to keep the woman warm’ wasn’t a big hit, I’m going with skinny fat for now.

Third, it is just too hard to put into words what it is because as soon as you do that, the exception walks into the room.  (Who can guess how much I people watch and observe body types?)

Lastly, there is nothing wrong with you.  You are not “fat”, unattractive, useless and whatever other negative word you may want to put in there because you have extra body fat.  What you are, though, is unhealthy and that concerns me more.  Weight is an indicator that something is wrong in Dodge but when it is absent, what’s left is undetected illness.  Stay on top of your healthy habits.  Cool?

So I am not going to give you a hard and fast rule, but I will give you some ideas by telling you that skinny fat girls:

Put NASA on alert

One of the things about being SF (makes me feel better about the term) is that they are smooshy.  They look good in clothing but when they are not in clothing much more is revealed about their current eating habits.  In other words, if you can take a size 4 body and shove it into a size 2 pair of pants in such a way that when you take them off a sonic boom is released into the atmosphere from the expansion, you may be on your way to SF.  Now you would think that about *any* size girl, but not so!  With SF girls, they still *look* good in those size 2’s.

Are Off the Charts

Most of us have no idea what is an appropriate amount of body fat to have once we have entered into the clean eating zone.  We start out looking ok/good—basically, not bad per se—at about 22% body fat.  We fully invest ourselves into the eating and lifting regimen for a season or so and can get down to as low as 11-14% body fat.  We realize we need a break from killing ourselves and ease up to about 16 -17%, which is awesome but now we think we’re obese.  Really right now?!  So our idea of what’s an acceptable body fat level is not exactly what I would call a ‘good litmus’.  BUT, if you are a grown woman and fit into your doctor’s weight chart as an acceptable weight for your age (because let’s face it, those charts are biased toward prepubescent nymphs that live in a fairy land somewhere) and your body fat % is 24% or over, you may be skinny fat.  So if you’re 5’9”, weigh 125 pounds and are 25% body fat…you would be…really SF.

Are Like Cockroaches and Taxes

…they have just always “been”.  Almost all SF girls have been just that—SF—all their lives.  Yeah they may fluctuate a few pounds here and there (as much as 15 and then qualify for NASA) but for the most part, dey small gurls.  Small.  Real small.    And not much is changing that other than hardcore prayers from some haters and maybe a bad, bad, bad break up.  But other than that, that’s who they are.  So…if you dieted down to that small of size but also, that high of body fat level—that’s not SF.  That’s bad dieting.  You need to knock your coach upside his/her head and hope that your weight doesn’t bounce back up like a superball dropped from the roof of your house.

So there you have it.  If I met you and assessed you and you had any of these things, the only thing that I would think is:

• You need to clean up your diet.
• You need to lift heavy and smart.
• Cardio is not the answer.
• Watch out for alcohol, it’s not your friend.

That’s it.  Nothing more.  So no more asking me questions phrased in a way that I can hear the fear coming through the email.  You, like the rest of us, just have some bad habits that need attention but you are still worthy and gorgeous as far as we are concerned.  Cool?  Woop woop!!

I’m sure some of you have figured out that I have some issues.  From the butter obsession (that I must say I do not indulge upon, just dream about) to my pen/journal  fixation, it is clear that I can come across a bit unhinged at times.  Let me assure you that I have been cured of those afflictions and now sit in a place where I can at least look back at them and giggle.  Another gift that I have been given is learning that is ‘less is more’.  This is one that I hope to instill in you, as well.  This is tough for us type A folks because we are so extreme in all that we do.  If we are going to be an underwater basket weaver, we are going to be THE BEST underwater basket weaver there is.  Knowing me I’d learn how to do it with every possible type of reed available to weave and I’d understudy with a reedologist and I would complete an accredited course on basket weaving and become a certified weaver and—you get the point.  This is a perfect illustration as to why it was so important for me to learn the principle of ‘less is more’ before I became a walking symbol for destruction.

In the case of building muscle when you are lean, less is definitely more.  Or as I like to say, “Just a dab’ll do ya!”.  Give up the dreams of waking up tomorrow with shoulder caps so round you could hang your coat on them.  Walk away from the idea that in 12 weeks you’ll develop your glutes to the point that you could pick up your kids and carry them to the car while your hands are full.  These things are fallacies and because you believe that you can achieve them, you allow your desires to talk your head right out of common sense; because common sense would tell you if it was that easy, everyone would have them.  But you aren’t thinking like that right now.  You have visions of iron clad butt cheeks with tennis ball like caps separated by a rigid 6 pack…it’s scary in your mind right now.  So let’s get you back to reality, girl.  You’re out of control.

Gaining muscle takes time.  There I said it.  It takes time, lots of consistency and due diligence.  And honestly, if you don’t have any of that right now, keep doing what you’re doing until you do have time to do it fully.  (Essentially, if I keep you from thinking about how long it takes and you just keep doing it, you’ll get there without realizing it.  Wait til I tell you tomorrow that developing a tight body takes time, too.  You’ll really flip your lid then.)  Because it takes forever and a day (did I say that?), do not set aside times to specifically gain muscle and lose body fat like they used to back in the day.  You are going down a long dark road doing it that way.  Instead, let’s look at an alternative way to give you the shoulders and glutes you so desire.

YOU’VE GOT MY ATTENTION, NOW WHAT?

Wow.  Fiesty today, are we?  Ok, let’s get specific.

What you need to effectively build is a surplus of calories, ample rest and full recovery from effective workouts.  Since we have come to the conclusion that we are not going to be Arnold by the end of 12 weeks, it is not necessary for us to eat like him either.  An easy way to create a surplus sans calories is to do much less than before.  This means the only activity you would do during this period of time is lift.  No cardio, Zumba, pilates, power yoga or any other activity that makes you sweat.  Nothing.  And you would also rest more than you did before so you will create an even larger surplus of calories.  If you tell me that you cannot rest more because your life is go, go, go kind of busy, I will give you that look that says, “Well then you must not want to build right now then do you?”  Please refer back to Saturday when I said there is no whining and yes you have to do all that I say.  If you can’t cut your schedule down and rest, you can’t build right now.  All of this is important because you are not going to eat too much more than what you are right now maintaining.  At best you may go up 200 cals, but not much more than that so you can see why you becoming part of your couch is necessary.   We do not feed you more, we move you less.  It works really well without all the extra poundage that is incurred through traditional stuffing programs.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?

For all age groups, a bit of paranoia is to be expected.   If you are used to doing cardio 5 days a week right now, going down to none may make you freak out a bit.  You may also be more anxious because you just lost your daily stress relief.  However, it is still a better alternative to the freak out you would have eating extra starches in a day with a steady weight gain on the scale.  That, my dear, is a harrowing experience.  And you can expect minimal weight gain.  Seriously, you should gain no more than 10 but 7 is optimal over the course of 12 weeks.

TWENTY SOMETHING:

You can expect…well…not much.  Your ability to build muscle at this age is like my ability to give you a straight answer without some kind of wisecrack—hard.  You are going to slog away at the weights like it’s your job and have very little to show for it.  Especially if you are curvy.  The curvier you are, the less muscle you will make.  Sorry.  Just accept it.  So why depress you with this?  To keep you from thinking you’re doing something wrong and thereby attempt every lifting program/ergogenic aid under the sun which will in turn screw up your body for your thirties.

THIRTY SOMETHING:

You can expect the world.  At this age, it is at your fingertips.  Hormonally you are ripe for the picking.  You make muscle easier, you have the beginnings of muscle maturity and you aren’t calling your girlfriend every five minutes anymore as to what she is wearing so there is this inner peace and patience about that helps you stay focused.  This is a great age.  Get in the gym now and never come out!

FORTY SOMETHING:

You can expect density.  You will not get “bigger” but what you have will be fuller.  This is the look we all really strive for.  You are past your prime of making muscle and now are on a hormonal decline.  I know that well known dr. type folk are coming out saying the contrary but they are talking about general public making some muscle.  I am talking about you, the lifting elite, making more muscle.  Very different.  It ain’t happening now without a major battle or you being genetically gifted out the wazoo.  But you are in the age of making nice, full shoulder caps without trying.  Not two oranges sitting atop your clavicles, but a subtle attractive fullness that comes from muscle maturity.  And boy do we have focus now at this age.  Not only are we not calling our girlfriends, we are lucky if we keep our phones on.  And rest is not an issue.  We’re in bed by 9.  Shame.

I will put numbers to all of this when I wrap this series up.  Next up, dieting.  What you can really expect and how long it takes to truly get that lean look.  I will end with a talk on skinny fat because it is a daunting place to be and someone needs to put that reality out there for some of you.  I will put the numbers in that post or the one right after it but I promise to give you something very concrete to walk away with.  If you are signed up on the blog, you are getting the numbers today.  That is an advantage of being signed up.  Hang tight, there’s more to come!  Woop woop!

…pounds that is.  And lots of them.

Building is a myth of epic proportions for women.  Not so much for men, but for women–oh yeah it is.  Whenever I talk to a woman who’s in a building phase, I normally stand there silent, in awe of what she thinks is going on vs. what really is going down.  Typically her trainer has her taking more pills than a senior in assisted living, eating enough food for a small army and lifting like a psycho while she “builds” this ginormous amount of muscle in 8 to 10 weeks.  On the surface, some of that is true.  You will build some muscle in that time period; but nowhere near the amount that you think you’re going to build if you are doing it naturally and you will be left wondering if the price was worth it.

I want to remind you that I am all about all natural before I go on any further.  I mean no fat burners or hormonal help in any way other than all natural sources.  I have no issues with things like creatine and bcaa’s but I will not even entertain the idea of anything else you can dream up that’s on the market today that serves as some type of precursor to testosterone or the like.  This makes a huge difference as you read on because I’m sure you are going to say in your head that this isn’t true and that you know of such and such who did so and so in 10 weeks and she looks amazing.  And then you find out she took xyz and that just killed this comparison.  And trust me; if she looked like that in 10 weeks, she was taking xyz.

As a coach, building in the traditional sense is a kiss of death.  If you tell me you want to take time to build, you are essentially telling me you are preparing yourself to walk the plank and end your fitness training right then and there.  Why the drama?  (Besides the fact that that is my middle name?) Read on…

WHAT IT IS

Building is a period of time where you lift heavy and eat in a caloric surplus to support your lifting.  Recovery is essential during this time in terms of both food and rest and ample attention needs to be paid to how much you are gaining weekly vs. how much you originally weighed so you are not just gaining fat during this time.  This is done through carefully increasing the amount of food that you eat over a period of time while watching the scale for major increases in weight.  Extra activity is cut back and becoming a hermit is a must.  Short of not shaving your legs anymore and letting your eyebrows grow out, you basically adopt a life of baseball hats and big sweatshirts.

TECHNICAL FACTS TO CHEW ON

Training:  Heavy.

Food:  A lot.  Like a wicka-lah.

Supplements:  Expensive. No seriously.  Don’t buy a house or condo before you embark on a building program.  You may not make the payments.

Rest:  Minimum 8 hours of sleep but really, you’ll need more than that.

THE FINE PRINT

Honestly, the program itself is not the thing that I want you to focus on.  You can find a great building program from some of the most notable names out there so there’s no need spending time quibbling those facts.  What I want to talk about is what you WON’T find on the web about building, being natural and being a woman.

First, if you are interested in a building program, you most likely have already gone through a dieting program of some kind and realized you ain’t got no muskel.  NONE.  If you did, you would not be so concerned with building.  You probably lost a good amount of body fat and realized that you were all lower body and no upper and you need take 12 weeks to “build some shoulders”.   This is pretty straight forward, just eat a little extra and lift a little heavier and you’ll be on your way to the new and improved you.  Only it doesn’t go down that way and the amount of weight you can gain in the first few weeks of building can send you into a tailspin that sets up the next 16 weeks of dieting to get it off.

Second, if you are natural and female and you spent the entire year lifting in a building phase, you’d be lucky if you put on 2 pounds of muscle.  Go read the titles of your average man’s magazine:  “Gain 5 pounds of muscle in a year!”, “Follow this protocol for the ultimate gains”, “Max gains in minimum time” and “Gain X pounds of muscle in 6 months”.  Now that’s for men…on the cover of a non-natural man’s magazine…that’s what they’d gain in a year…and they are genetically predisposed to gain muscle.  So stop and think about what this says about you…a female…who wants to build for 10 weeks…naturally…while you have the genetic disposition of a noodle.  So you put on say 10 pounds of weight only to gain less than a half pound of muscle.  Yeah…good luck with that.

Lastly, you have no idea what  you are about to take on emotionally.  This all sounds fine and dandy on paper, but when you put this into practice—you lose your mind.

• You eat more so you feel full.  Feeling full makes you feel fat.  It doesn’t make you fat, you just feel fat.

• You typically eat more carbohydrate than normal.  You don’t have to go crazy with it, but you have more ST than you normally would.  This means you carry more water and you will feel it all over.  Instantaneously your thighs are bigger.  In real life they aren’t, but as far as you’re concerned they just became water filled Lincoln logs.  You will think that everyone can see that you just swallowed a baby beluga and you are ready to deliver it at any second.

• Eating becomes a full time job and it begins to wear you down.  You will hate chewing, chicken and choices.  Everything seems the same and all you want is a break from eating another meal.

• You become stressed from the amount of pills you are swallowing.  Every meal is just another reminder of the pill sac sitting in your purse that you need to chug down sometime during the day and you look like you have a major illness when you’re out to lunch with a friend popping them all.

• Every time you go somewhere and run into someone who saw you when you were leaner, you say hi to them with a caveat attached:  “Hey girl, how are you?  I’m good.  I’m building right now.”  As in…that’s-why-I-am-in-a-baseball-cap-and-sweat-suit.  Soon you’ll just put a name tag on yourself and carry a picture of what you used to look like before you started building.  Really right now?

Once you are lean, stay lean.  Tomorrow we talk about what this really needs to look like for you to make it happen, how it varies by your age, how much you can truly gain before you are setting yourself up for failure and how to get around constantly making an excuse for how you look.  Cool?  Woop woop! )

So unrelated to this post but so worth sharing, this morning my husband was in the kitchen making my youngest son’s lunch (yes, read that and weep—woop woop!) when he dropped some of what he was putting in the lunch box on the floor.  My son, in the sweetest tone and facial expression said to him, ”It’s ok daddy.  It’s your fault, but it’s ok any way.” 

Honestly, don’t you wish you could have someone like that follow you around in life and just make you feel better about anything you may do “wrong” knowing you’d have that kind of support? 

Jail clerk, “It’s ok Ms. Jones.  You did take a baseball bat to the car in front of you at the light because it cut you off at the previous intersection—so yes it is your fault, but it’s ok any way.  Let me get you a soft pillow for your cell.”  *Sigh*

On to other things like six pack abs and a stellar performance!

“Ordering” your food (and I don’t mean, “I’ll take a large steak and cheese with pickles and tomatoes”) can make the difference in the outcome you want to achieve either aesthetically or performance-wise.  There are many different ways to align your food choices to elicit a different effect such as more definition, greater muscle gain and excellent recovery.  The following will give you some guidance as to how to put your menu together to get the most out of it:

Six Pack Abs:

I am constantly asked not ‘how can I get six pack abs?’ or even ‘can I get six pack abs?’ but ‘Can I have her six pack abs?  I want hers.’  I say the same thing every time I am asked, “Sure, go find her parents and ask them if they have any spare DNA.”  When it comes to definition, musculature, symmetry and etc. you are at the mercy of the genetic gods.  Get over it.  Wait…you missed this…

GET OVER IT.

If you have abs, you have them.  If you don’t, you don’t.  If you are female and 10% bodyfat and smooth as smooth in the belly but ripped up shoulders—guess what…you missed the ab boat.  If you are 18% bodyfat, large on the bottom, nice shoulders with a visible outline of a 6 pack—guess what…you just hit the lottery.  Where you wear your bodyfat is specific to you.  You can alter this (although be careful of what you wish for sometimes) if you stick with it long enough, but it requires due diligence.  So how can you maximize the chances of getting 6 pack abs?  Do not mix your starches with your fats. 

When you order your foods for the day, put a protein and a fruit/veggie in every meal and then decide which meal will get the starch that day and which meal will get the fat.  i.e.

MEAL 1                        ST

MEAL 2                        ST

MEAL 3                       

MEAL 4                        GFAT

MEAL 5                                               

Do you need to have your starches all in the morning?  Not necessarily, depends on when you are working out.  But I would separate them from your major serving of fat by at least one meal.  This does not kick into effect until you get within 5 to 10 pounds of goal weight.  If you have 30 to lose, head over to Order In the Court.

Stronger, Faster:

I am sure you have figured out by now that I do not believe that you need to sacrifice your physique to perform well.  I believe you can go for both without having to have to choose until you want to go to the highest level for either.  Whenever I say this I always get the person who points out many an athlete who is on the national circuit who looks fabulous.  These athletes are always the elite athletes who again, were blessed by the genetic gods in both talent and body.  They don’t count.  However, their parents DNA is for sale–hurry up and get it while it’s in stock. 

Now, if you’re reading this you are not one of them therefore you must think about you and your situation which requires a bit more attention than theirs does.  If you want to perform beautifully, then you need to think in terms of recovering and in terms of dieting.  So you end up with a hodge podge of days:

                    TRAINING                    TRANSITION                    DIETING

MEAL 1             ST                                ST                                ST

MEAL 2             ST                                ST                                ST

MEAL 3             ST/GFAT                      (GFAT)                        

MEAL 4                                                ST                               GFAT

MEAL 5             ST/GFAT                      (GFAT)                                    

MEAL 6 (TR)

Training is a day where your activity extends longer than 90 min. and you need maximum recovery.  Transition is an active day where your training is 90min. or less so you need to fuel but not too much.  Dieting is a day where your activity is an hour or less and you are just like everybody else doing cardio. 

When you mix up your days like this, you are truly serious about performing well and looking good both at the same time.

Behemoth:

Muscle gain.  Man is this a loaded subject or what?  It’s the hardest thing to get folks to understand–even more so than the elusive 6 pack abs.  If you want more muscle you need to eat more food. Simple as that. You know and I know there is more to it than that but 9 out of ten times when I get a client, male or female, who wants to get “bigger” and I check out their diet they are not eating enough.  Why?  “I want to get bigger but I don’t want to gain any weight.”  Really?  I want to pay my mortgage but I don’t want to use my money.  Do you think the bank wants a great diet plan to help them out instead?

I don’t know where this started but I honestly would pay money to make it go away.  Please, resign yourself to the fact that if you want to put on muscle, you will have to gain some weight.  Do you need to go up 25?  No, total waste of your time because you will lose much of what you gain in muscle having to diet that long to get off all that extra poundage.  But you will need to go up by *something*.  That means you cannot have 6 pack abs during a building phase.  So…

GET OVER IT.

Same concept as stronger faster but no transition day:

                        TRAINING                               DIETING

MEAL 1               ST                                          ST

MEAL 2               ST/GFAT                                ST

MEAL 3               ST                                                       

MEAL 4                                                            GFAT

MEAL 5               ST/GFAT                                                         

MEAL 6(TR)     

I Want What I Want

I do understand how this may seem easy to me because I do this all day long and so much work for you because this is the first time you are seeing it, but I cannot stress enough that if you want something more than what you have right now you are going to have to WORK for it.  If you want to do this on your own, you will truly have to learn how to do it.  There are short cuts and diet programs and etc. but they are made for the masses.  If you want to just complete the goal then please go that route.  It will simplify things and give you a foundation for you to build upon.  But if you have done that already and are looking for more, take the time to learn about what works for you and what does not.  You can do it with someone’s guidance or without.  To me, that’s a preference thing. Regardless, it will be work for you none-the-less.  Remember, there is JOY in the completion!

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