WHY!

[Crow_23]

Bodybuilding.com
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hitworkout.htm

Dont know if that site was mentioned already or not. Everything you could ever need to know can be found there. I've been doing

http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/brent2.htm

as well as some agility stuff and my endurance is through the roof

 

[blondiechick]

thanks for the link!

"The workout should last no longer than 45 minutes! Plan your rest between sets accordingly so that you finish in this time period. Studies have shown that after 47 ? minutes of intense weight training, your cortisol levels shoot up. This means that the longer you workout AFTER 47 minutes, the LESS results you will get and the more likely you will overtrain. So get in the gym, lift hard, stay focused, and get out."

i find this interesting... i usually do more than that.

 

[Crow_23]

HAHA wow I actually read the initial few posts and am confused as to how it got to lifting...guess I'll have to read the middle posts. But to put my two cents in about the initial comments about guys and stuff - how do you feel when a guy approaches you? Then reverse that - how would a guy feel if you approached him? Exactly. As a guy the coolest thing is being in a bar and having a girl approach me. Right off the bat it tells me a lot about her confidence and all that other stuff. Easiest way to make your approach is to find something in the bar or wherever you are that is silly/goofy and approach said guy and point it out and make a joke about it. Could be what someone is wearing or the goofy guy that is dancing and makin a fool of himself. Then just go off of that. If he is diggin it then continue if not then move on to next guy and repeat. In terms of "dating" I have had a handful of girlfriends and I can honestly say I have never been on a "date". Hanging out or "chillin" with a girl and eating dinner or whatever with her then yes. The minute a person considers it a date - dont know what it is in the thought process - but they act differently and try to gain acceptance by doing and saying the right things. This is NOT good at all. Another thing - when I go to any place I introduce myself to the bartenders and staff. Also, good thing you could do that I do....I walk up to a group of girls and tell them that if they forget my name later on that night that they each have to buy me a drink, and if I forget their names I have to buy them a drink. Of course you have to have a decent memory but nothin is better than to have a group of the opposite sex comin up to you shouting your name And that would be my 15 cents

 

[Asala42]

On the working out stuff, I've been at it for about a year and a half now and have done fairly well. I've done a lot of research already and although I still have a lot to learn, I've uncovered a lot. So if you'd like, here's the lessons I've learned in case they help.

For reference: My before stats started at 5'9", 215 lbs, ~30% bodyfat (not too too bad, but flabby definately). I'm now about 175 lb and ~17.5% bodyfat. (My ultimate goal is ~10-12%)

Nutrition
1) By far the most important thing I learned: Do not starve yourself!

Believe it or not, cutting calories too much is actually counter-productive to losing fat in the long term. That may seems counter-intuitive, but it's true because the body adapts to this kind of thing. If you cut calories too far, your body will quickly respond by entering a starvation mode - slowing metabolism and sacrificing muscle tissue. This is why most diets tend to fail long term, people aren't generally willing to excercise as well as change their diet. People who do crash diets without excercise tend to lose some weight in the short term, plateau quickly, then regain the weight - only now they'll generally be worse than how they started (same weight, lower metabolism, less lean muscle mass).

For most men, this means you usually want to keep you're daily calorie intake in the ballpark of 2200-2700 for losing weight (2700-2900 for maintaining). For most women, 1400-1800 is a decent range for losing weight, 2000-2100 for maintaining. Going less than these or at the bottom edge risks metabolism adaption and muscle loss.


2) 5-6 small meals per day

This is actually easier than it sounds, but usually takes some planning before you get into a routine. Most gyms know about this strategy for cranking up your metabolic rate.

The logic here is that your body always cranks up it's metabolic rate while digesting and processing calories, then crashes between meals. On average, after about 3 hours after a meal your calorie burning rate drops. So the idea here is to eat 5-6 smaller meals roughly 3 hours between them. This worked fantastically well for me!

3) Target 1-2 lbs of gradual fat loss per week (at most)

This falls in line with (1) above. If you're losing more weight than this, chances are you're starting to burn off lean muscle mass. That's bad. More muscle mass = higher metabolic rate. Losing too much too quickly will only make it harder later.

4) Have enough protein- and know the breakdown of what you're eating (Most people find they don't get much protein and need to bump it up)

I have a typical daily target of 40% Protein, 40% Carbs, 20% fat. Even if you don't log what you eat regularly, it's usually very worthwhile to take a "snapshot" check of what you've been eating lately. I don't hit this target as well as I'd always like, but I'll almost always find a way to make improvements when I check.

For reference, the usual assumptions for grams to calories are:
1g of Protein = ~4 calories
1g of Carbs = ~4 calories
1g of Fat = ~9 calories.

So when reading grams of fat on a label, note that those carry more weight

5) Know your (approximate) TDEE: Total Daily Energy Expendature

This is a handy one, it gives you an idea on how many calories you burn per day to maintain you're weight (and can be used to stategize for losing weight). Here's the Harris-Benedict formula:

BMR (before activity adjustment)
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

Sidenote:
1 inch = 2.54 cm
1 kg = 2.2 lbs

After you get a BMR, you multiply this by an "Activity Factor", which is kind of a fudge factor that depends on how much excerice you do.

Little or no excercise: BMR x 1.2
Lightly active (1-3 days per week of excercise): BMR x 1.4
Moderately active (3-5 days per week of excercise): BMR x 1.55
Very active (hard excercise 6-7 days per week): BMR x 1.7

So for me: I'm 34, 5'9", 175 lbs, and I'm probably on the high end of "Moderate" excersice (I run 5 times per week, 3 weight lifting workouts). I'll call that an Activity factor of 1.6.

My BMR = about 1800
My TDEE = about 2900 (2880, but hell I'll round up)

That TDEE represents the ballpark number of daily calories I should take in to maintain my weight with that excercise amount.

Ok now how to use that info

To lose fat, a common guideline is to run 500-1000 calories less than you're TDEE value per day. Another more precise way is to run 15-20% belowe your TDEE (instead of a flat value). In any case, as stated above you don't want to go too low or your body will enter a starvation mode.

Sidenote: 3500 calories per lb of fat. So if you can reach a 500 calorie deficit for a week: 7*500 = 3500 = 1 lb of fat. Of course that's not easy to maintain because your body is adaptive.


6) Zig-Zag calorie rotation strategy

This is a big one. It's used to exploit your body's adaptation abilities, and will prevent your body from adapting to a lower calorie intake.

Theory: The body begins to effectively adapt (increase or slow) its matabolism to your calorie intake after 3 days. This means if you stay in a deficit for long, the body adjusts to compensate (and you'll hit a plateau).

Step 1: Work your way to 100-200 calories ABOVE your TDEE. (I only needed a week to do this, but if you're eating substantially less than you should be, you mght want to take a little more time to build up to it).

This in a sense trains your metabolic rate up to your TDEE +100-200 calories per day.

Step 2: Enter a 500+ calorie deficit for 3 consecutive days. On day 4, have a "high calorie" day (roughly equal to your TDEE +/- 100 calories).

Repeat the cycle: 3 days of calorie deficit, 1 day of high calorie maintenance. This trips up your body's adaptation reflex and keeps your metabolic rate at around your TDEE level even though you're usually eating less.

I found that after every few months my body would adapt anyway - but I could resume progress again after taking a week of "retraining" with all 7 days of high calorie days.

7) Drink a lot of water
This is probably one of those "ok that's just common sense" type of things.



Well that's all I have for now, I hope some of that might be useful to some of you. I might talk about cardio and weightraining some other time.

 

[Greg Truby]

Asala,

Good post. What you've written there about weight loss is pretty much in line with my own experience and what I've read as well. And I'll repeat what you said in a different manner. If I were to come up and enthusiatically tell you "Hurry down to the supermarket! They're selling it for only $1.99 a pound!" What would be your first question? Your first question is "they're selling what for $1.99 a pound?" Yet so many people go on a "diet" and get all excited because they've "lost five pounds"! Woohoo! Well... ok, you lost five pounds; but it was five pounds of what? Did you lose 5 lbs of fat? 3 of fat, but 2 of muscle or 5 lbs or muscle? Most people fail to focus on this part of the question. So, I agree 100%, it's a very good point to make.

Also, considering that this is an Excel forum, I'm going to guess that I am not the only "numbers guy" who did the math on this and wondered about your "3,500 calories per pound of fat". If a gram of fat has about 9 calories, then a kilo has 9,000 calories, hence 1 lb should have about 4,082 calories. Turns out you're right, btw...it's generally considered to be 3,500 KCal/lb of fat.

<hr />
To Crow_23,

Yes, bodybuilding.com has a very comprehensive site. But, at least IMHO, it's almost too comprehensive for a beginner. Given the types of questions that Bianca has asked and her responses to the training information we have provided her in our posts, my suspicion is that she might find bodybuilding.com to be a bit overwhelming. For Bianca, I'd be more inclined to recommend something more like stumpuous.com's pages on women's training.

 

[Asala42]

If a gram of fat has about 9 calories, then a kilo has 9,000 calories, hence 1 lb should have about 4,082 calories.

Good link there - I always figured that the "1g of Fat = 9 calories" thing was just a rounded value.

edited for sanity points. No don't get up - I got it!

 

[Crow_23]

^^ agree Greg. I guess it depends on motivation and personality. Whenever I do something I want all the information laid out in front of me so that there are no surprises half way down the road and I have to turn around. I mainly go to the bodybuilding.com site anymore for the funny gym stories and the motivational stories. Makes ya feel better about yourself that other people are more incompetent that you are at certain things.

 

[blondiechick]

asala:

omg! i did not know that, about cutting calories. i have been limiting my food intake, and i guess i shouldn't really do that calorie-wise that is. when i was in high school, i didnt exercise and i would go on and off a diet. and i hated that. but now that i decided to work out, hopefully i will improve. ****, 2000 calories? i am begining to think, that i dont want to lose weight. i am not overweight or anything, i am where i am supposed to me. i am concertarting more on gaining muscle. but, in order to gain muscle, do you have to lose weight first? this has always been a question of mine.

yeah. i been trying to have 6 meals a day. somedays, i don't even reach 4, because i dont feel like eating. in my mind, i want to starve myself, so somedays are just like dreadful.

each week, it seems that i am losing 1 pound. so i guess that is good that i am not losing anything more! but like i said, i wish i could gain weight, so it will be muscle. how long will that take for that to take effect?

i need to get more protein every day. usually, i dont meet the 40% range! i should try and focus on that. i never heard of the TDEE thank you for bringing it to my attention. at first, when i saw the math, i was like no! but now that i glanced over it, is not hard to do. i hate math! i am always drinking water. so i guess that is a thing that won't ever go wrong. : )

thank you for your post! i really learned a lot.

i have one question, its kinda stupid. when i work out, will my upper chest size decrease? someone told me this, and i kinda freaked out. i don't want to end up having a flat chest.

Greg:
thanks for the site. its better than the other site. i am going to look at it more. : ) thanks so much.

 

[Asala42]

Hey Bianca - I'll take a stab at some of your questions.
(First I have a few)

Question 1: At the gym you go to, do you have access to a personal trainer or someone who can measure your bodyfat percentage? Taking a weekly measurement of your weight and bodyfat percentage are very useful in indicating how your body is changing, where you are now, and will give direction on what changes in your workout or nutrition should be made.

Question 2: Have you taken a quick snapshot log of what you eat on an average day? Both in calories and percentages of Protein, Carbs, and Fat?

Question 3: I posted a quick formula for TDEE above (one is for women, another for men). What do you think you're burning in an average day based on that? Anyway back on track

But, in order to gain muscle, do you have to lose weight first? this has always been a question of mine.

Actually to gain lean muscle well you really need to be an a calorie surplus. If you're losing about 1 lb of weight each week then you're definately in a calorie deficit. That's not good or bad, mind you - that's just a snapshot of where you are.

Since a calorie deficit is needed to effectively lose fat (and a calorie surplus is needed to effectively gain muscle) many people take a "flip-flop" approach between the two strategies over time. Like you, I'm in a "calorie deficit" mode. In January I'll switch to a "calorie surplus" mode to gain muscle mass. The problem: it's freakin' hard to gain muscle. Really hard. It means a bigger focus on the gym and a somewhat less focus on cardio. In a surplus mode, usually you'll gain some muscle and some fat. Then, when you're ready to go into a deficit mode again, you burn off the fat. After a few months of that, I'll move to a calorie deficit again to burn off whatever fat I gained (and hopefully that will prep me to burn even more)

Whether you want to start in a calorie deficit mode or surplus is really a matter of preference - there are advantages to both. Since you're losing weight now, you could keep it going if you want to trim down faster in the short term. On the other hand, gaining muscle now would drastically boost up your metabolism - making it easier to burn off even more fat pounds later. Both approaches used collectively work well to bring your bodyfat% down and give you some great tone.

yeah. i been trying to have 6 meals a day. somedays, i don't even reach 4, because i dont feel like eating. in my mind, i want to starve myself, so somedays are just like dreadful.

You might want to try to work a 5 meal day kind of thing. In one article I read that was what was advised for women - simply due to the fact that women generally take in less calories. Definately don't starve yourself in any case - that's only going to give short term results that you'll regain later. You should never ever feel hungry! You should check your daily calorie intake and compare it to your TDEE - from the sounds of things you might not eating enough.

Each week, it seems that i am losing 1 pound. so i guess that is good that i am not losing anything more! but like i said, i wish i could gain weight, so it will be muscle. how long will that take for that to take effect?

This is where the bodyfat % measurements are useful. There are several ways to measure bodyfat% - the usual (cheap/easiest) is the caliper (skin-fold) method. There's also a cheap hand-held device thingie (my technical term) you can use that sends a quick electric pulse through your upper body to estimate it. Neither are perfect - but they're sufficient in that you can use the numbers to trend where your lean mass and fat mass is going.

If you're immediate goal is to gain some strength and musle mass - go with a calorie surplus (you may want to slowly work up to it though depending on your current intake now) and take a more aggressive lifting program (like 3 full-body workouts with a day of rest between them). You'd gain weight, and the bodyfat numbers would tell you how much of it is fat or lean muscle. When you're bored with it a month or two later, switch to a deficit mode.

Now if you're going for "tone" and not really strength- you won't really get it until you go back into the deficit mode and reduce your bodyfat percentage. Again - this falls back to personal preference but using both methods alternating works very well to break plateaus.

I need to get more protein every day. usually, i dont meet the 40% range!

Another good rule of thumb kind of thing is 1g of protein per lb of lean muscle mass. That can frequently fall under the 40% mark depending.

When i work out, will my upper chest size decrease? someone told me this, and i kinda freaked out. i don't want to end up having a flat chest.

Fat loss will be in proportion with the rest of your body - so actually you have nothing to worry about there. It's only when you reach the ultra-low end of the bodyfat% scale where the chest would start to flatten out (and you'd see it coming a mile away).

Anyway hope that's useful! (sorry if that got a bit long)
Adam

 

[blondiechick]

question 1:
sadly, i don't have access to a personal trainer. they have a scale though, but i have one at home. plus, i dont feel confortable weighing myself in front of others.... because i feel as if i am fat, even though i really am not.. according to others.

question 2:
i keep the numbers in my head basically. right now though, i am not eating that much. i am loaded with so much stuff to do that i don't have the time. but mostly... i don't feel like eating for some reason. its all in my head.

question 3:
i believe somewhere between 200-275. so i really shouldn't do as much cardio as i am doing now? usually i do an hour a day. 30 at the gym and 30 at home. then i lift for about 45 min. am i doing something wrong, here? should i be lifting for like more than a hour?

i am going to start trying to go on that 5 meals a day approach... its just some days i get lazy and dont feel like eating. and when i do eat, i feel fat and digusting. i hate that, but its just the way i feel.

3-full body workouts.. so what does that mean? like shoulders, arms and legs all in day? and if that is the case- how long should i be at the gym for that?

thanks so much