New to weight training - need advice

mairead116

Hello,
First of I'll give my stats:
sex: female
age: 22
height: 5ft 4 / 5ft 5
weight: 48kg

I'm quite slim apart from abit of tummy fat. My main reason for wanting to start weight training is because I am really weak so would love to build some muscle and tone up my stomach. I suppose my question is how can I ensure I don't lose too much weight while working out? I have joined a gym recently and the guys up there have been great help. They have done up a routine for me and showed me what to do and how to do it and all of that but would love any advice from you guys - just dont make it too complicated lol
Here's what my usual diet consists of:

Breakfast
orange juice
Porridge with flaxseed

midday snack:
banana
2x rice cakes
raisins

lunch
2 boiled eggs with toast
or
ham salad sandwich
or
soup and roll

Dinner:
potatoes
veg - carrots/peas/onions
meat can vary but i'm not fond of it so eat v. little
or
chicken curry
or
stir fry

evening snack if i was to have one would probably be cereal but alot of the time I don't eat after dinner because I work until 8pm most evenings.

I realise that this is probably a very small diet but I don't have a big appetite. I do take whey protein after my workout and half a portion on the days I don't go to the gym. I also take a multivitamin, zinc and cod liver oil every day
As i said already any advice would be great as I'm totally new to all this
Thanks in advance

P.S. How much cardio, if any, should I be doing?

cmyk

mairead116 wrote: »

I'm quite slim apart from abit of tummy fat. My main reason for wanting to start weight training is because I am really weak so would love to build some muscle and tone up my stomach.

Super...toning up your stomach essentially means dropping some bodyfat of course.

mairead116 wrote: »

I suppose my question is how can I ensure I don't lose too much weight while working out?

Just monitor yourself on an ongoing basis, if you feel you're dropping weight too quickly simply just add some calories into your diet, and vice versa. Use your clothes as a guide, maybe take some simple measurements yourself and/or take pictures of progress.

mairead116 wrote: »

Breakfast
orange juice
Porridge with flaxseed

midday snack:
banana
2x rice cakes
raisins

lunch
2 boiled eggs with toast
or
ham salad sandwich
or
soup and roll

Dinner:
potatoes
veg - carrots/peas/onions
meat can vary but i'm not fond of it so eat v. little
or
chicken curry
or
stir fry

evening snack if i was to have one would probably be cereal but alot of the time I don't eat after dinner because I work until 8pm most evenings.

I've highlighted your carbs in red, protein in blue and fat in green to give you an idea of where the majority of your calories are heading. My advice is to get some more protein sources in there, lean meats/eggs/fish some dairy or nuts too. That alone might make the difference for you along with your gym programme (I'm assuming that's based primarily on resistance training).

mairead116 wrote: »

P.S. How much cardio, if any, should I be doing?

What does your training week look like?

Chancer3001

more protein less carbs. Find a programme you like the look of and stick to that.

Dont take a "sure ill see what ill do today" approach.

Write down the exercises you do, how much you do and how hard it was.

Next session try and beat that.