Getting in Shape & Eating Healthier

[Xaoz]

Also, milk products may be a good source of casein, but they are terrible for your body as a whole.

I don't really know where you get that from... There is really nothing wrong with milk products, as far as I know. In fact milk is pretty awesome if you do not drink it like water. I usually take like 800ml of milk per day (0,1% fat though) and eat low fat curd cheese every day before going to bed. Of course I am always open to learn, so I would be interested in what exactly should be bad about milk how it is not good for your body.

Further more, the 3 rules of doing anything:

1. Look cool
2. Only fuck up when no one is watching
3. Safety

Safety third.

Sad thing is, if you go to the gym and have a look at those guys... This is not a joke...

[ZeldaFan]

If you really want some in-depth advice, we should talk about your goals and where you are at the moment. How much weight you wanna add or cardio goals like running a marathon or shit. To do that, we need some more information like bodyweight, size, your phonenumber(I thought I could atleast give it a try!) and maybe even your % of body fat, if you happen to know it. If not... Doesn't matter. Just saying: The more we know, the more we can help and go into detail.
Another shitton of text...

Oh and for the inspiration:
WUUU, YOU CAN DO IT!

Ok so first of all, my goal is to maintain weight and tone my muscles, but I do want to target my abs/lower belly specifically. I am female, so I don't want to be bodybuilder status or anything, just want to have a firm, toned body.
I am 23 years old, 5'7" and weigh 117 lbs. I don't know my body fat percentage, but judging by google images (not a great source, I know) I'm probably in the 15-20% range. I probably only eat ~1500 calories a day (maybe that's an issue??). I don't count calories or try to eat less, I just don't have a huge appetite and don't eat a lot of food.
I have never had a regular workout routine. I just need to know what kinds of exercises I should do. I'm open to all kinds, whether it be weight-lifting, yoga, pilates, etc. Maybe a little zumba workout is all I need haha

[Xaoz]

Point of departure:

Spoiler

Ok so first of all, my goal is to maintain weight and tone my muscles, but I do want to target my abs/lower belly specifically. I am female, so I don't want to be bodybuilder status or anything, just want to have a firm, toned body.
I am 23 years old, 5'7" and weigh 117 lbs. I don't know my body fat percentage, but judging by google images (not a great source, I know) I'm probably in the 15-20% range. I probably only eat ~1500 calories a day (maybe that's an issue??). I don't count calories or try to eat less, I just don't have a huge appetite and don't eat a lot of food.
I have never had a regular workout routine. I just need to know what kinds of exercises I should do. I'm open to all kinds, whether it be weight-lifting, yoga, pilates, etc. Maybe a little zumba workout is all I need haha

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Introduction:

Spoiler

No phone number
Those american units... Crazy...
That would be like 181cm 171cm(I hope?) and 53kg(I hope?) in my country (if I did not fuck up... Turn out I fucked up...). That is really not much for your size! still ok, I guess... 15-20% bodyfat is like pretty awesome. If you can see all your abs, then it is probably 15%. I don't see how any woman could get below 15% without a workout schedule and on point nutrition. See this for a comparison. I think it is quite ok.

First I would suggest you add more weight instead of just maintaining it. But of course, this is your choice, but it affects your nutrition plan. Losing fat while building muscle is a really awkward topic... Common opinion is: Both at the same time is not possible. I kind of agree. When you start off, I think it is possible, since you build your muscles way faster.
If you want to build up muscles, there is two things you need to do: workout and eat right.

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The eating:

Spoiler

Let's start with the eating!
Since you will not get into bodybuilding really serious, I would suggest you eat just your usual three meals a day, but change them up a bit!
First let's start with your required protein!
Modern science says, you need 1,2-1,7g of Protein per kg of your bodyweight, if you want to build muslce. A bit more won't hurt, but not get you better results.
That would mean, you should take like ~63-90g of protein per day. That is basically.... 750g of low fat curd cheese and you already have enough Protein for the day. Or 400g of chicken. Not much, huh? Bodybuilders split this into like 7 meals every 3 hours, since our body cannot really save protein, so eating it all at once will not provide our body with enough constant protein to build muscles. But for your goals: Splitting it over 3 meals is perfectly fine! You should just make sure to let every meal contain atleast 20-30g of protein.

Next: The calories!
Okay, this is a way harder thing to do. I cannot really recommend the amount of calories, sorry! You need to find out by yourself! The amount you need is influenced by your job, your sports activity and how much you move in general! So I (computer scientist) need really few calories compared to someone who needs to carry shit around all day long. This range can make a difference of 50% in calorie needs!
You will not like it, but I would suggest the following:
For one week, write down EVERYTHING you eat. Check the nutrition labels at the back of each product and write down EVERYTHING! I know, it is some work, but you only need to do it for one week! After that you have an idea of how much your body needs to keep your weight. Of course you then need to add a bit (I would suggest ~10%), since you want to get weight. 10% is really only roughly. You do not need to check that at the end of every day. But you need to develop a feeling for how much you need. Of course, when you add weight, you need to adjust your protein and colorie consumption!

For your goals (just getting a bit better in form) you do not need to change THAT much about your eating. If you also want to eat healthier, then you probably will! Make sure to always check nutrition labels at the stuff you buy. Maybe you will get shocked when you read some stuff, but you need to get through this! YOU CAN DO IT!

Let's have closer look at the 2nd macro-nutrient: carbs/carbohydrates/saccharids!
Carbs are your main energy source. They give you the ability to move and also provide many useful other functions for your body! Carbs are good! All the carbs? Not in your case!
Try to avoid monosaccharids (the shortest form of carbohydrates) like sugar and try to find sources with polysaccharids(longer chains of carbohydrates) like potatoes, (BROWN!)rice, rolled oats(so good!) and such stuff. If you are not sure, which carbs are in the stuff you want to eat, look it up on google!

Last macro-nutrient: Fat!
Fat is always said to make people fat. But it really does not! If you have a closer look at fat, you will realize:

1g fat = 9kCal
1g carbs = 4kCal
1g protein = 4kCal

So fat has a higher energyamount per gramm, but that does not make you fat, if you do not overdo it! In fact, short carbs like monosaccharids(sugar) are the main source for getting fat. There is nothing wrong with using rapeseed oil for cooking or anything. You can do it, no problem!
Health tip:

Spoiler

If you put oil on your salad, try to get cold-pressed oil. Because of the production-process it still contains way more vitamins and is better for you overall! HOWEVER: Do not use cold-pressed oil for cooking stuff with a high temperature. Sorry, but I cannot explain the details of why you should not do it, since my english skills are insufficient for any detailed scientific conversation. Just trust me on this one or google it yourself! So here better use the standard low quality stuff!

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Make sure you get enough fat and do not cut it out of your eating plan!
Modern belief is, you should have your calories split up like the following (attention: split up by amount of calories, not grams consumed!):

40% by protein
40% by carbs
20% by fat

Of course this is just a rough value and you do not need to stick to it. But you should try to get next to it.


Regarding nutrition... There is not more to talk about, I guess... For your goals you do not need to change that much. Just make sure to read the nutriton labels and get aware of what you are actually eating!
If you also want to eat healthier, then this will be a way longer discussion!

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The workout:

Spoiler

Okay... There it is: THE WORKOUT!
If you kept reading until this point, without skipping a part, then that is already a good start.
So as a workout plan... What can I suggest?
Dependant on your goal, you have several options here:

Option one:
You can start a real workout-plan, which will include working out with free weights, provide you with the basics of bodybuilding and which can also carry you further than just adding a few pounds. It would consists of basic compound exercises and will require some effort to not mess shit up and get everything right. It will also require you to go to the gym 2-3 times a week for roughly 1 hour of training.
However: You will need a gym-membership or a homegym.

Option two:
We can work out some little bodyweight stuff which you can basically do at home if this is more for you... You might need to buy some stuff like a pull-up-bar or sth. but it would probably not require a gym-membership. It will however limit the maximum that you can reach and probably not be as effective. To be honest, I have never used any body-weight only exercise-plan, since it is nothing for me. But for you, it might be just the right thing.
I can already say that this plan would include, pushups and pull-/chinups.

You have to choose here and then we can figure something out...

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Epilogue:

Spoiler

Last point:
For a good definition of your muscles, you need nutrition and cardio. So you also need some kind of sport (running, tennis, riding bike, ice-/inlineskating(YAY!), etc.). I would suggest you do that atleast twice a week for atleast half an hour. If you want to do more, that's fine! Just make sure to adjust your calories! Doing sports consumes lots of calories and if you eat the same stuff you eat on the other days, you will get pretty hungry.

I think this is basically it so far... So uhm... Take your time to read this stuff and then decide which workout would probably fit you better.

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Bashing:

Spoiler

If you think this is a lot of text, you have never seen FierceDeity's longer posts.

EAT THIS, FIERCEDEITY

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[mikey]

snip~

spoiler tags please lol
Doesn't Wii Fit measure your BMI and all that jazz?

[Xaoz]

spoiler tags please lol
Doesn't Wii Fit measure your BMI and all that jazz?

Actually the spoiler thing was a good suggestion! Thank you!

BMI is like the most useless value ever... Atleast when we are talking about workouts. It does not include your muscle mass at all...

[Bubbles]

That would be like 181cm

Actually with the magic of google, thats more like 170cm

Doesn't Wii Fit measure your BMI and all that jazz?

BMI is body mass index, basically your weight in regards to your height. I'm not a health pro but it's different than your body fat percentage. Wii fit always made me severely overweight because it refused to accept my height lol

ninja'd: BMI is useful for people who aren't trying to consume their lives with exercise but still want to know where they fall on the weight list. Its a healthier way to compare body sizes than weights, because a 5ft person should not weigh the same as a 6ft one.

[mikey]

Yeah as far as I can tell Xaoz you're a bodybuilder so Wii Fit probably says you're massively obese 
I was wondering if it measured anything OTHER than BMI though

[Xaoz]

Actually with the magic of google, thats more like 170cm
BMI is body mass index, basically your weight in regards to your height. I'm not a health pro but it's different than your body fat percentage. Wii fit always made me severely overweight because it refused to accept my height lol

ninja'd: BMI is useful for people who aren't trying to consume their lives with exercise but still want to know where they fall on the weight list. Its a healthier way to compare body sizes than weights, because a 5ft person should not weigh the same as a 6ft one.

I fucked up then! Sorry! Thanks for correcting me! I suck at all this american stuff: pounds, miles, timeszones, whatever....

[mikey]

american stuff:

timeszones,

I cracked up

[Xaoz]

I cracked up

Just YOUR timezones!

Even though I am bad with timezones in general...

[mikey]

We've only got 4 timezones lol
I mean I realize european countries are smaller but the only exception to timezones is like china.

[Xaoz]

We've only got 4 timezones lol
I mean I realize european countries are smaller but the only exception to timezones is like china.

I demand we only use ze german time here! German time = best time!

[mikey]

Zulu time=best time

[Xaoz]

Zulu time=best time

Can we use stardate?

Yeah as far as I can tell Xaoz you're a bodybuilder so Wii Fit probably says you're massively obese 

Oh and btw... I am not. I just started working out!

[FierceDeity]

EAT THIS, FIERCEDEITY

Guys I wasn't even here

I'll admit, this wall of text is pretty impressive
But let's not turn this into a competition, because I don't want the rest of the forum-goers to have to undergo days of scrolling haha