I wanted to share some information on types of movement since strength training and cardio are often talked about, but may not be your favorite kind of movement. Hope this helps you think of other forms of training you could incorporate into your routines in a way that is fun and includes all parts of your body and mind!

Strength

Strength is about outputting as much force as possible, regardless of time. It is extremely helpful for bone density and training your mind to tell your muscles to contract hard.

This is where you see training with low reps and high weights. Typical lifts for this type of training are major compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, presses (shoulder and chest), and rows.

Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy training causes your muscles to create more tissue, focusing on making your muscles bigger. Strength training helps build that mind-muscle connection, while Hypertrophy training builds the actual fibers. In order to cause that muscle tear and repair, you need to spend a lot of time under tension as well as have adequate recovery.

This is where you see training with higher reps, medium weights. You often want slow and controlled reps so it forces more time under tension. You can use the same lifts as Strength training but with more reps, lower weights, or do isolation movements that target specific muscles, such as bicep curls, leg presses, and tricep extensions.

Cardio

Cardiovascular training builds your engine to power your body through delivering oxygen to your muscles. This improves your heart by increasing its efficiency, pumping harder and clearing out waste faster. This teaches your body to recovery quickly or sustain activity for longer periods of time.

You will typically see two types, low-intensity steady state (zone 2 or conversational pace) where your heart is active but not struggling. Incline walking, brisk pacing, jogging, cycling, and rucking are great examples. Next is high-intensity interval training (HITT) where there are short burst of intense demand, followed by recovery. Sprint training, burpees, and sled pushes are examples of HITT training.

Plyometrics

This is about quick energy through using stored energy in your tendons to create movement. Notice how this is tendon focused, not muscle focused! When your foot hits the ground, your tendon will stretch and snap back, Plyometric training focuses on using that snap back to generate force, rather than relying solely on your muscles. This keeps you agile and light on your feet.

Pogo hops, skips, and drops are great ways to train this type of movement. These are usually done with bodyweight, without external weights.

Power

Power is about force and speed. It's explosive. It's about moving an external weight quickly. While Strength training doesn't care about the speed, Power training recruits the necessary muscles quickly.

Exercises to train power are medicine ball throws, jumps (height or distance), and olympic lifts like clean and jerk and snatches.

Mobility and Stability

Mobility is control in a full range of motion. Notice how it's not about flexibility, but the ability to have strength throughout the entire range. Rotational work is often missing in many other types of training so mobility training is so important.

Stability is bracing and balance. It's about deciding what range of motion you are allowing so your body is fully under your control.

Examples of mobility exercises are cossack squats and thread the needle. Examples of stability exercises are get-ups, ab rollouts, single-leg balancing, single-arm carries, and pallof presses.

Hello r/PetiteFitness! With our growing mod team, we were able to put together a few updates to keep the subreddit a healthy, safe, and organized place for everyone.

New Subreddit Rules

Please take a moment to read over the updated rules in the sidebar. We shaped these based on the frustrations we were dealing with about gray-area posts and the disappointment of community members by some common patterns in posts and comments. Clearer and more concise rules are helpful to the community and moderating team to be on the same page about participation expectations.

Effective immediately, we will be enforcing under the following guidelines:

Rule 1: Posts Must Be Related to Being Petite and Women's Health and Fitness

Rule 2: No Low Effort Posts/All Photos Must Include Context

Rule 3: Attire/NSFW Policy

Rule 4: Be Good to Yourself and Others

Rule 5: No Unwarranted Advice

Rule 6: No Discussion or Encouragement of Eating Less than 1200 Kcal/Day and other Eating Disorder (ED) Related Behaviors.

Rule 7: Do Not Link to Social Media / No Self Promotion The details for each of the rules can be found in the sidebar.

New Daily Accountability Threads

We are also excited to announce that Daily Accountability Threads are live! You can find them pinned to the top of the subreddit daily. Please use this place to share your goals, report your progress, and get some support in a more casual manner. We'd love to celebrate, struggle, and persist with you!

Thank you for being patient for these changes and please continue to send us feedback about the direction you'd like to see the subreddit head towards in ModMail or in the comments below.

What are the Macronutrients?

Protein - 4 calories per gram

Vital for growth and repair. Protein with physical exertion prevents the body from breaking down muscle tissue and speeds up recovery.

Fat - 9 calories per gram

Long-term energy. Fat is necessary for the production and regulation of hormones. In addition, it is essential for the absorption of vitamins.

Carbs - 4 calories per gram

Our primary fuel source. Carbs help fuel training and spares protein for its other roles in the body.

Alcohol - 7 calories per gram

Alcohol provides no nutritional value and cannot be stored in the body, therefore, your body will prioritize burning the energy from alcohol over fat or carbs.

How much protein do I need? What should my macro split be?

Based on your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), you could simply stick to the 40/30/30 approach. This is where 40% of total calories in your diet come from carbs, 30% from protein, and 30% from fats. Macro needs can vary on goals, training style, preferences, medical needs, and more, so there is no single split that will be best for everyone. Different calorie tracking apps will have different recommendations for macro splits and can be customized to your preferences.

An example split could look like: 1600kcal diet

• Carbs - 640 calories or 160 grams
• Protein - 480 calories or 120 grams
• Fats - 480 calories or 53 grams

If tracking other macros is overwhelming, focus only on protein. Here are different measurements you could use.

For the general population (for those far from their goal Body Weight (BW), use that instead of current BW)

• BW in kg x 1.2 - 1.6
• BW in lbs x 0.55 - 0.73

For a more specific result (Using estimation or scan of body fat percentage)

• Lean Body Mass in kg x 1.75 - 2.2
• Lean Body Mass in lbs x 0.8 - 1

Who Benefits from the higher end of protein recommendations?

1. Older adults/elderly
2. Pregnant/nursing
3. Beginner lifters
4. Injured/recovering

Nutrition Timing

Getting total daily macronutrients is more important than the timing, but there are certain cases that timing matters.

Fasted workouts aren't recommended for high-intensity physical exercise due to potential muscle breakdown for fuel, but can be well-suited for shorter low intensity sessions, like a walk.

High fiber, fat, or protein before high-intensity physical exercise can cause digestive issues and make you feel sluggish during your workout. Quick digesting carbs (white bread, lower-fiber fruit, and sugary drinks) can break down into fuel for anaerobic activity to keep your energy up.

Protein after physical exercise is necessary for recovery, but not in as short window as previously believed. Feel free to take your protein anywhere from 10 minutes to 6 hours after a training session, depending on when your previous meal was.

Blood sugar spikes from food can be reduced by any physical activity after a meal, due to the energy being sent to the activated muscles.

Keto, Low Fat, Carnivore, Etc.

Due to the important roles that the main three macronutrients play in our bodies, balance is best unless recommended otherwise by a licensed professional.

Don’t Want to Track

If calorie counting isn’t a good fit for your body and brain, I recommend building your plate intentionally. Include non-starchy vegetables, lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. Prioritize whole foods over processed foods. Pay close attention to your hunger levels as you eat. And of course, make space to enjoy the “unhealthy” foods/drinks that fuel your soul in moderation.

A mindset I like to use is “what can I add to this meal to make it more satiating and nutritious?” rather than, “what do I need to cut out of my diet?”.

This post has been reviewed and approved by a licensed Registered Dietitian (thank you, friend!)

Hello everyone! I am u/sarkynir and I am the newest mod for r/PetiteFitness! As this sub continues to grow, I hope that I am able to contribute to making this a safe and helpful place for discussion. Thank you all for being a place where I can feel heard in a world full of people who cannot relate to the petite woman's experience!

As always, please reach out through mod mail if there is anything we can help you with!

About me:

I am 5'1" 27 year old woman who decided to start losing weight in Feb 2025. I didn't know anything about health, nutrition, and exercise growing up. I immediately fell down a HUGE rabbit hole and learned as much as I could about fitness. I am autistic and sustainable fitness/nutrition has become one of my main interests/passions!

Since then, I am 35lbs down and I have learned to love movement in all forms (strength training, running, and hiking especially). I am always so impressed and proud with what my body and mind can achieve when it does hard things.

About 2 years ago, I thrifted this cute skirt that absolutely did not fit me. It has a solid waist (not flexible at all) and if I huffed and puffed and sucked my stomach in, I still couldn't get the button closed.

Fitting into that skirt last year was my first major non-scale victory. A clear sign of progress!

This week, I wore it and it sat too low on my hips that the length was weird. Not only does it fit my waist now, it's too BIG for me!?!

32 lbs down and apparently several inches around my waist lost.