Diet/Training Help for a friend

[hrdgain81]

A female friend of mine just got engaged and she has asked me to help her with her diet and training to get into shape before her wedding in october. She has a desk job, and also goes to school, so her activity level is not great right now. Her stats are

Ht: 5 ft 2
Wght: 160
Age: 25

She has access to a gym, and I've been leaning toward getting her started with 20 minutes solid state cardio every other day, and slowly working into alternating between solid state and hiit eventually. I also want to incorperate resistance training, but I may hold off on that untill her cardio vascular system gets used to the running.

My biggest concern is diet, I have no idea how to calculate BMR or caloric needs for a female, all the formulas I have are for males only. I also was leaning toward a cyclical ketonic type diet, as she has commented that her doctor thinks she is carb sensitive.

Any and all advice is certanly appreciated.

[IronKitten]

I think it would be more beneficial to get her into a little lifting right away along with the SS. Nothing too strenuous to start. Some full body stuff 3 days a week, compound movements. And since she's new to it all, she could do it circuit style which would help to build up her cardio endurance a little faster so that she could work into some HIIT earlier than if she were just doing SS.

Full body circuits should only take about 20-30 minutes. Then, if she wanted to do a little SS afterwards, she'll still be at the gym for less than an hour all together.

Calculating BMR... I use a basic formula:

Generally, for most active women (which she WILL be), 14-16xBW is a great range to start in. 14xBW is what to start with for a cut, 15xBW is maintenance, 16xBW is a start for a bulk. Not everyone falls in this range (of course) and individual BMR can never be pegged with just a simple formula. But it's a starting point. Some women will need to drop to 12xBW to be able to start dropping fat. So it's important that she keep good track of her progress on a weekly or biweekly basis. Measurements (I'd say at least 5 points of measurement) and weight first thing in the morning. If she's not dropping at a decent rate, scale the cals back a little.

And remind her that it's not all about what the scale says. If her weight hasn't moved much, but her measurements are dopping, she needs to remember that it's still a good thing!! Women get so hooked up on what the scale says, that they need some reinforcement sometimes that no matter what the scale says, you can still be making progress.

[hrdgain81]

Awesome, thanks so much IK, your the best.

I will keep things simple to start with, full body machine work is prob going to be the best thing as far as wieghts go for her. she is not familiar with free wieghts at all, and I'm too far away to go teach her.

I'm going to come up with a general plan for everything today, and I'll post up exactly what I'm going to send her, so you can crique before she sees it, if thats ok.

[TALO]

The best thing would be to get her to write down what she is eating everyday for 3-5 days. That way you can tell how many calories she is taking in now.

If she is slowly putting on weight, then you know her calories have to be lowered. If she is maintaining weight, then you know how many calories to give her, just make it the right food..

[hrdgain81]

^^good call Talo, will do.

[jessca]

Originally Posted by IronKitten

And since she's new to it all, she could do it circuit style which would help to build up her cardio endurance a little faster so that she could work into some HIIT earlier than if she were just doing SS.

Just wondering if it is beneficial to do weight training as a circut for weight loss (it's what i'm doing now) or if it's more effective to pace yourself more. I try to keep my HR at a cardio rate while doing my weight circut training (mostly free weights but some machine work), should I be doing this?

[hrdgain81]

Jessica, anything that keeps your heart rate up is pretty dam good for fatloss. Circuit training is no different, it isnt optimal for strength or mass gains, but its great for endurance and cardio like effects.

[jessca]

thanks hrdgain81!