HEY MODELS!

What are your diet and exercise routines?


just curious how you keep your body in shape

currently i've been eating pretty unhealthily (meaning I don't eat much, and if I do it's usually junk) and not exercising much.

i also haven't been doing much modeling.

I do a high protein diet! I eat lots of eggs (and I mean a lot!!).. mostly egg whites, chicken, turkey, fish and also lots of spinach, hummus, vegs & lentils and I snack on fruits & nuts. I try to avoid anything that's bad carbs, such as pasta, rice & bread and saturated fats.. I also try to drink lots of water (although I know I don't drink enough) and I avoid fizzy or sweet drinks! But I do have my cheat day.. once a week, sometimes once every 2 weeks.. you got to enjoy life and I love wine & cheese far too much to give it up completely! Herbal tea as well... I drink lots of them!!!

As for training, I do quite a lot! A mixture of bootcamp style exercises (body weight stuff with high reps) and I also do heavier weights training.. and I try to increase the weight whenever I can.. the heavier the better!! Many women have this misconception that they will get very bulky if they lift heavy weights which is completely untrue!! I train 6 days a week, with 3 days where I workout twice.. once early morning and once in the evening! And one rest day! I hate those! lol

I've dropped all sugar in the last couple weeks and lost 5 lbs. I still eat it if it's included in boxed/canned food or fruit but candy, cookies, ice cream that's all gone. I do a lot of lunges, squats and leg lifts too to tone and tighten the lower half of my body, the "problem" area.

RUN five miles a day.
Food is all organic and home grown.

I've dropped all carbs and focused on eating a high protein & veg diet.

Currently...I'm not doing anything (naturally skinny). But I would like to get some muscle tone in my stomach. If any women (since it seems harder for women to tone their stomachs) have any tips about activities that might help, I would love to hear it! I find 'working out' in a gym or doing sit-ups/crunches to be tiring and dull so if anyone knows some type of fun activity/sport that might help, please let me know.

I am a very lazy lady who does not like to work out. On top of that I live in China, where any food (Nutella pizza) can easily get delivered to your door 24-7, and the result is one lazy soggy model.

So, I have started to do damage control. I hate sports (high school gym class trauma..), however I love to cycle. So whenever there is a casting I take my bike, or rollerblades.  I just came back from a trip to HK, where we had a pool, so I went swimming twice a day. Turns out, I love swimming! Sadly I live in a water deprived city, so now I have to find a pool within cycling distance.

Now the big challenge is to kick the habit of eating junk; add to that some easy, no muss/fuss home workout excersizes, and I hope i'll be on the track for a little less pudding around my waist

Don't forget to get plenty of sleep/rest.

Staying up too late or not getting enough rest makes your body just store calories, feel tired, and take time away from your body to regenerate (and you look older).

"Diet & Exercise? "

I lie down ......until such thoughts pass.

I train with moderate to heavy weights, 4-6 days per week, and go until exhaustion or form starts to break down.

Yesterday was chest day, so I did chest exercises, followed by ten minutes of core and 45 minutes of cardio:

4 sets of 15 light chest flyes with 10 pound dumbbells to "warm up" my chest
3 sets moderately heavy benchpress to failure each set
3 sets incline dumb-bell press, "pyramiding" the weights, up to 35 pounds in each hand
1 set 15 push-ups with feet elevated on a bench

Sunday was leg day, and I did:
3 sets squats, 10 reps each of 150 pounds
3 sets legs press, 10 reps each set of 280-300 pounds
3 sets plyometric box jumps
1 set light single-leg deadlifts for each leg (only used about 30 pounds resistance)

My diet is pretty much like nothing anyone in this thread is advocating, as I eat very little of any animals foods, and get a huge percentage of my daily caloric intake from whole fruit, and raw vegetables. My average protein intake is actually on the lowish side overall, though I am lean and quite muscular, and despite the fact that I come from a more conventional bodybuilding background, I believe we have been brainwashed to believe we need a bunch of protein, that most of us don't actually need. Different people, however, are different.

In my late teens and early 20s, I was much fatter than I am now. I have totally changed my body composition over the past 7 years. I lost about 25-30 pounds of fat through simple calorie counting, from the end of 2006 through the beginning of 2007. Subsequently, I have added about 11 or 12 pounds of muscle, with no significant change in body fat after that initial loss. That's a HUGE change, but it's taken years to accomplish that. Naked, I look almost totally different than I did in my teens, and far better.

Like most people, I've tried a large variety of diets. I'm a trainer, and have been a serious recreational athlete for a number of years. It's not unusual for me to train my body with weights at the gym for 4 or 5 days straight, then go rock climbing on weekends, or hike 15 miles in a day. That's not an easy hike either; that will be doing a mountain climb, with scrambles over boulders, and difficult terrain.

All I know is that I need and crave carbs and simple/fruit sugars. I feel 1000% better when I eat that way, have less aches and pains, recover faster and get more power in athletic performance overall. However, I likely have success eating that way BECAUSE I am so active, and am able to burn through the sugars at a faster rate than people who are not as vigorous in their habits. I am currently 31 years old, soon to be 32, and have a lean, strong body that I couldn't have imagined myself owning when I was 19 and a dress size 12 (at 5 feet tall).

I'm not one of those people who believes there is a way that works for everyone; there isn't. There's just what works for you, versus what works for others.

That is a fairly adequate assessment of how I eat and work out currently. You, OP, should read every response as people talking about what works for themselves, NOT for you. If you want to know what will work for you, talk to a trainer, talk to a dietitian. Get a baseline understanding of your body, how it works, and experiment from there. Some people figure out what works for them in a year or two, and for others, it's a lifelong process of learning about themselves. It's a journey, but a good one.

I'm naturally pretty thin but I like to keep up a little bit of a muscle tone (not exactly fitness model but I like to keep lightly defined abs and just keep nice and toned) and while I don't gain weight too easily, it shows through my skin when I don't eat healthy. I find that you shouldn't dwell on what you shouldn't eat, but what you can! If you're obsessing over "I can't eat this this or this" then you'll be more inclined to eat it. Personally, I'm vegetarian and have been for 4 almost 5 years but that's just a personal choice. I like to eat all kinds of fruits and veggies and I've learned to make unhealthy recipes slightly healthier. For example, if I make Kraft Mac and Cheese I like to cook up some veggies (spinach, tomato, peppers, onions and really anything you have laying around in the fridge), toss in some beans (or you can do a lean meat if you're not vegetarian!), instead of using butter use greek yogurt (seriously so good, way better than butter!) use a skim milk, cut back on the packaged cheese and use cheddar or something like that instead. Make up some veggies and tofu (or eggs, I just hate eggs so I do a scrambled tofu with veggies) and toss it on some whole wheat toast with a bowl of fruit. Bake fries instead of frying them, or switch for baked sweet potato fries! Use spaghetti squash instead of pasta, or try zucchini noodles! Freeze a banana, toss it in the blender with coco powder and a little bit of vanilla and honey for chocolate ice cream! For exercise, if you're walking somewhere, clench your abs a little bit and power walk. Take the stairs, in heels. Work out in bursts. My favorite thing is yoga! I started because someone told me it would help make me grow taller, it didn't but it's still great for you and I'm now super flexible! Eating healthy doesn't have to be this terrible life change where you only eat carrots, it can still be awesome and satisfying. What's important isn't restricting yourself but maintaining a balanced diet and giving your body what it needs.

I just have the general rule of eating clean and healthy as I can. I only drink water and tea, and stick to high protein but leans foods such as egg whites, chicken, and turkey, and also various fruits and vegetables. I try to incorporate as much complex carbohydrates so I don't get hungry so easily. Other than that, I just focus on portioning my food, and eating to the point where I'm satisfied.

Since I have a aesthetic goal I want to achieve (of course - fitness and health should always come first) I work out 4 times a week which includes at least 10 minutes of cardio, and a whole hour of weight training on arms, back, chest, and legs on separate days of the week. I try to fit in ab workouts after as well. I usually use light-medium weights with moderate or high amount of reps, and try to increase if it's not strenuous enough.

After, I eat greek yogurt, or drink a protein shake so my muscles don't get eaten away. I also try to replace the carbs that I lost with simple carbs. This is usually the time I can get away with eating sweets sometimes even though it's probably not all to good for you. I can't give up sweets!

Oh, don't forget the stretching and flexibility!

I lift weights and do yoga 1-3x a week (although I've been terrible about it lately) and eat a lot of food. I try to eat healthy about 80% of the time and usually it works out well, but I definitely indulge when I feel like it.