Getting in shape/not caring fitness thread

[Ralara]

Not just that study - there was a UK Panorama program on "health supplements" ranging from energy drinks like lukazade (sp?) to protein shakes and similar stuff.

At best they're just a replacement for what you should be eating anyway and at worse they're either useless or detrimental - and they';re not covered by labelling laws... YET. However this year the EU is bringing in regulation for them and the companies all say they're going to have to "modify" their claims that they help burn fat or increase energy levels or metabolism or whatever.

Basically it's a big con.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...orts_Products/

[TZeer]

There are very few supplements that actually have any real independent research behind the claims of "more energy, boost muscles" etc etc

The few I have heard are: Protein supplements, creatine and ... fuck forgot from the top of my mind.

The supplements I take are creatine, protein (but not 100% whey, a mix of whey and kasein), and ZMA (zink/magnesium). The amount of protein I take depends on the activity. On cardio/non exercise days I have 10g during breakfast. Days I train strength I also have 40g right after workout. Rest I get from my food. Right now I'm doing 210g of proteins on a diet with less then 2200 kcal.


On the heavy metal thingy in protein shakes. For those interested, there are very good replacement for the normal whey protein on the market. And it's 100% natural. Tastes like shit compared to the strawberry, chocolate flavoured shakes though. Hemp proteins.... I have tried it, it works. Apparently it's also easier on the organs and your digestive system as it is not heavily processed as the whey protein. There was a lot more things to it, but people interested can google that shit them self.

[lt]

Can't you mix flavours in yourself? Also, how much more expensive is hempprotein?

:TpTlk:



Edit:


Anyone here do their own protein shake? And I don't mean mix different things and add protein pulver (I drink mine with water, no need to mix with other stuff).

[Reed Tiburon]

Yes, so a good sized dinner is about 1/2 your protien for the day right there.

Couple eggs for breakfast, glass of milk, nuts and yoghurt for a snack, and you hit your goal easily. I didn't even count a lunch. 130 is nothing.. some guys eat over 300g a day. If you want you can take a protien shake post workout for an easy ~40g (also one of the cheapest sources of protien).

If you want to put on some healthy mass you'll have to eat something.

this x 100000

I wouldn't be too overly concerned with getting that much protein. I'm not one for counting calories, because that shit's boring. I just eat until I don't want to eat any more, then I stop.

If you're a skinny guy, this is a great way to never make any gains tbh. Most skinny guys vastly overestimate the amount they eat. I will always recommend calorie counting for a while, at least to get an idea of how to estimate macros. I counted religiously for 3-4 months and now I can have a pretty good idea of the content of whatever I'm eating

TMA: good lean protein sources that are not tuna, chicken, lean beef, or whey. Bonus points if they are not pig-derived, taste good, and are suitable for snacking on or eating for breakfast/lunch. So far I have biltong (surprisingly cheap if bought online, delicious, good for snacking), venison, and Sainsbury's 'be good to yourself' bacon (37g protein and 200 kcal per 100g, wtf. would guzzle this down all day long if it weren't for the 'not pig-derived' thing). Trying to eat 180g of protein per day while staying under 2500 calories consumed is hard and is currently making for some rather repetitive meals, even with 3 protein shakes per day.

Greek yogurt / cottage cheese (very similar macro profiles, pick the one that tastes better to you, add fruit for taste but some added kcal)
Any fish source (I'd stick to the smaller ones if you don't want mercury poisoning. Salmon et al)
Egg Whites (filling, low cal, high protein. 1.5 cup egg white = 40g protein 200 kcal)

Getting 180g a day isn't that hard, when I was eating 2800 a day I used to hit 180g without protein shakes a lot of days. Eat more meat, drink more milk, eat more dairy

Serious question, can a body even process that much protein a day???

Yes

I'm currently following the Starting Strength plan and the author (who's not so much old-school as paleolitihic) recommends that trainees drink 4 gallons of whole milk per day (130g of protein, ca. 2000 kcal...) on top of their regular meals. Since I'm trying to lose weight (or at least not pick up any more flab) while getting strong, I'm trying to get that level of protein intake while consuming rather fewer calories. As I say, it's meant eating a lot of tuna and chicken, but my squat has gone up by 30 kg and counting since I bought my rack last month and my bodyweight is down, so I'm going to stick with it.

Rip recommends 1 gallon / day for skinny guys, not 4. Check this out:
http://startingstrength.com/articles...n_rippetoe.pdf

Nice squat progress m8

[Tsubutai]

Rip recommends 1 gallon / day for skinny guys, not 4. Check this out:
http://startingstrength.com/articles...n_rippetoe.pdf

Derp, yeah. Got confused by the imperial/metric conversion; 1 gallon = roughly 4 litres.

[Xiang Jiao]

I wouldn't be too overly concerned with getting that much protein. I'm not one for counting calories, because that shit's boring. I just eat until I don't want to eat any more, then I stop.

If you're a skinny guy, this is a great way to never make any gains tbh. Most skinny guys vastly overestimate the amount they eat. I will always recommend calorie counting for a while, at least to get an idea of how to estimate macros. I counted religiously for 3-4 months and now I can have a pretty good idea of the content of whatever I'm eating.

What gains should we be trying to make exactly? Do skinny guys not eat enough? Are their bodies incapable of figuring out how hungry they are? I am questioning the conventional wisdom of using a scientific calculator to determine what my body needs for fuel. I'm not making any estimates. I eat until I'm satisfied. Sometimes that means I have left overs for two days, other times that means I eat a pound of ground beef in one sitting. Sometimes it means I skip one or two meals here and there. I don't really understand why you need a strictly measured diet and training regimen to become fit and healthy. It's probably my type B personality showing, but why does living healthily have to be so masochistic? I'm sure Ralara doesn't want to break into the Olympics or professional sports.

You also forgot to quote the next sentence where I threw out a guideline on daily protein intake.

[AmaNutin]

I've been making gains on losing fat since I've opted to stop eating the snacks (even the healthy ones) at work and just drink water, tons of water, until lunchtime and until off work.

Usually a salad for lunch with lean meat (chicken) in it, maybe some avocado, etc. and light dressing. Breakfast is usually some berries and OJ, maybe some high fiber, low sugar cereal once in a while. Dinners are a mix between vegan or greens (broccoli, green beans, asparagus), and some lean meat with another salad with a pepper/vinegar dressing. Lots of romaine, arugula, diced onions, [less garlic] and some crushed walnuts.

As for my exercises, alternating between running in intervals/jogging and working on a full body interval set on an eliptical is helping get cardio workouts on my chest, arms, and shoulders. I have a workout cycle of biceps(minor back), chest (minor triceps), back(minor biceps), shoulders(minor triceps), and ensure I use the isolated weights and cables. Aside from being able to fully leg-press 540 lbs 4 times (my max record was 900), I've incorporated deadlifts into my bicep/back days to strengthen them: current limit was 3 reps of 265 at the end of my workout session, but that was my last set.

In better shape now than I was while in the armed forces,

[Reed Tiburon]

I wouldn't be too overly concerned with getting that much protein. I'm not one for counting calories, because that shit's boring. I just eat until I don't want to eat any more, then I stop.

If you're a skinny guy, this is a great way to never make any gains tbh. Most skinny guys vastly overestimate the amount they eat. I will always recommend calorie counting for a while, at least to get an idea of how to estimate macros. I counted religiously for 3-4 months and now I can have a pretty good idea of the content of whatever I'm eating.

What gains should we be trying to make exactly? Do skinny guys not eat enough? Are their bodies incapable of figuring out how hungry they are? I am questioning the conventional wisdom of using a scientific calculator to determine what my body needs for fuel. I'm not making any estimates. I eat until I'm satisfied. Sometimes that means I have left overs for two days, other times that means I eat a pound of ground beef in one sitting. Sometimes it means I skip one or two meals here and there. I don't really understand why you need a strictly measured diet and training regimen to become fit and healthy. It's probably my type B personality showing, but why does living healthily have to be so masochistic? I'm sure Ralara doesn't want to break into the Olympics or professional sports.

You also forgot to quote the next sentence where I threw out a guideline on daily protein intake.

I had a much snarkier reply typed up, but the forum ate it. I don't especially care what you do; however, if you're 5'10" 127 lbs, chances are, your current eating habits do not support muscle growth (which, if you're 5'10" 127 lbs, you probably want to add some muscle). I don't think your "eat whenever you want" approach fixes that.

You don't have to be aiming for the Olympics to want to train efficiently. And, to be honest, I'm confused as to why you would even think that.

[Reed Tiburon]

As for my exercises, alternating between running in intervals/jogging and working on a full body interval set on an eliptical is helping get cardio workouts on my chest, arms, and shoulders. I have a workout cycle of biceps(minor back), chest (minor triceps), back(minor biceps), shoulders(minor triceps), and ensure I use the isolated weights and cables. Aside from being able to fully leg-press 540 lbs 4 times (my max record was 900), I've incorporated deadlifts into my bicep/back days to strengthen them: current limit was 3 reps of 265 at the end of my workout session, but that was my last set.

Sounds like a lot of isolations. You have an entire day for biceps? Why.jpg

How many days a week do you gym?





This is pretty legit

  Spoiler:

(edit so I don't triplepost)

[Damien Smith]

I really really miss squats.

I've always had knees that gave me discomfort under flexed load, but it was managable and squats actually seemed to help.

Anyway, I managed to give myself a quad sprain while squatting tired (knee drifted too far forward on the way up) and I put myself out of action. After an MRI (which diagnosed the quad sprain) they also found out I had fat pad impingement (aka Hoffas Syndrome) which solved the question of why my knees kept giving me shit. Since the sprain healed though the pain is way worse and squatting is extremely painful. If I get anywhere close to parallel I can't continue except to literally drop down into the squat. This is just bodyweight though, no bar. Kind of sickening when I remember doing 100kg squats previously.

My left knee (the one I sprained) is now really unstable when the pad is impinged and only putting enough weight on it to pop the pad out of where it's being pinched (with an audible 'pop') is enough for my knee to feel stable again.

Has anyone had this before and if so, wat do?

[Xiang Jiao]

I had a much snarkier reply typed up, but the forum ate it. I don't especially care what you do; however, if you're 5'10" 127 lbs, chances are, your current eating habits do not support muscle growth (which, if you're 5'10" 127 lbs, you probably want to add some muscle). I don't think your "eat whenever you want" approach fixes that.

Why not? This is a serious question. The reason I brought up professional sports is because breaking out a spreadsheet to plan your meals and exercise sounds more like a job than living your life. I think it's a waste of time and needlessly structured. I don't need a planner to tell me when my body is hungry. Why should 5' 10" Ralaras want to follow a structured regimen of caloric intake arbitrarily decided by someone else? Why can't they eat when they want? By all means, add more snark if you need to do so.

[TZeer]

I had a much snarkier reply typed up, but the forum ate it. I don't especially care what you do; however, if you're 5'10" 127 lbs, chances are, your current eating habits do not support muscle growth (which, if you're 5'10" 127 lbs, you probably want to add some muscle). I don't think your "eat whenever you want" approach fixes that.

Why not? This is a serious question. The reason I brought up professional sports is because breaking out a spreadsheet to plan your meals and exercise sounds more like a job than living your life. I think it's a waste of time and needlessly structured. I don't need a planner to tell me when my body is hungry. Why should 5' 10" Ralaras want to follow a structured regimen of caloric intake arbitrarily decided by someone else? Why can't they eat when they want? By all means, add more snark if you need to do so.

In the beginning it can be a little work to adjust and getting used to. But after a while it's like everything else you do normally. And you don't plan and use spreadsheets all the time. You use that in the beginning to get the "feel" of it and know what you are eating and what you can maybe change.

Why "eat what you want, when you want" won't work.

- Simple example.
100g of chocolate = ~600kcal
750g of potatoes = ~600kcal

Both give you roughly the same amount of calories, but most likely you will still feel hungry after those 100g of chocolate. And you will most likely eat more.

It can also work the other way. Your body needs x amount of calories. And a mix of proteins, fat and carbs. If you eat stuff that fills your stomach but don't give enough carbs/proteins/fat (kcal), for the body to gain muscles. You can basically train for your life without seeing much progression, cause your body will always be in lack of "building blocks" to recover and gain.

[Diicc Tater]

List of things a bodybuilder at my gym gave me...

If you want to get fitter and stronger there is no other way than hard work.

The energy you take in has to be less than the energy you use to lose weight.

There is no need to "bulk" for one period of time just to "cut" for another period of time.

When people say that "the fat becomes muscles" when talking about training what they should say is that "the energy stored as fat is used when straining your muscles".

Protein drinks work as far as providing more protein easier.

It's super important to be hydrated before, during and after your training.

If you can deadlift and do squats with stability you don't have a weak core.

There are different kinds of pain, learn which one is bad and avoid it.

Put the weight back in their place. Moving them from one place to another is, even if you are tidying up, exercise.

[Tsubutai]

Why should 5' 10" Ralaras want to follow a structured regimen of caloric intake arbitrarily decided by someone else? Why can't they eat when they want? By all means, add more snark if you need to do so.

Based on his own description of his body (5'10", 58 kg, sort of fat and flabby despite low bodyweight), he's "skinny-fat", i.e. has a relatively high body fat percentage despite his low bodyweight, together with a desperate lack of muscle mass. By the sound of it, the best thing he could do would be to gain 10-15 kg of lean mass and maybe once he's done that, lose some fat. The best way to gain muscle as a novice is to lift heavy free weights according to a structured program such as Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 and eat lots of protein plus some excess calories in order to obtain enough energy to complete the workouts and enough raw material to build the extra muscle. And the best way to be certain he's doing *that* is to keep a log of his calorie/protein intake and increase them if he's not getting enough of either.

IOW, he should do it because it's the most effective and fastest way of addressing his issues with his physique.

edit: there's a good discussion of how to stop being skinny-fat here: http://stronglifts.com/how-to-lose-t...-look-forever/

[Cool09]

Xiang, this is a "getting in shape" thread, where we help eachother get in shape. Not a "I like eating whatever I want and it's pretty okay" thread. Some of us have goals, and are willing to put in the required time and effort to achieve them. Ralara asked for nutrition advice and mentioned he wanted to improve his physique, one could reasonably assume that he was willing to do some basic things such as count macros.

If you don't see the point, that's ok! Head on over to one of the recepie threads or something.

[AmaNutin]

As for my exercises, alternating between running in intervals/jogging and working on a full body interval set on an eliptical is helping get cardio workouts on my chest, arms, and shoulders. I have a workout cycle of biceps(minor back), chest (minor triceps), back(minor biceps), shoulders(minor triceps), and ensure I use the isolated weights and cables. Aside from being able to fully leg-press 540 lbs 4 times (my max record was 900), I've incorporated deadlifts into my bicep/back days to strengthen them: current limit was 3 reps of 265 at the end of my workout session, but that was my last set.

Sounds like a lot of isolations. You have an entire day for biceps? Why.jpg

How many days a week do you gym?





This is pretty legit

  Spoiler:

(edit so I don't triplepost)

I go to the gym every other day (usually ends up M-W-Sa) because the bicep workout is heavy on arms, light on my back. But it switches so every other time is heavy on back strength, "light" on bicep workouts. But I've got to get my squats back... my last max before I took a break from doing powerlifting was a 375-lb squat max. Only problem with doing deadlifts after bicep workouts is that my grip is weaker (considering getting the wrist-straps exclusively for this so I don't have to do my last rep holding onto the bar with my last two finger joints).

[AmaNutin]

E: bad doublepost

[Cool09]

Why exhaust your biceps before your big lifts? I always do big lifts first, isolation last.

That way I'm fresh for the big "important" lifts and can work to exhaustion on the isolation stuff.

So my back/bicep day is like this:

deadlift
chin ups
rows (cable, barbell or dumbell)
Then some assorted curls that I change up each time

[Reed Tiburon]

Oh baby trap DOMS. Guess taking 3 weeks off the gym was a bad idea~

Why not? This is a serious question. The reason I brought up professional sports is because breaking out a spreadsheet to plan your meals and exercise sounds more like a job than living your life. I think it's a waste of time and needlessly structured. I don't need a planner to tell me when my body is hungry. Why should 5' 10" Ralaras want to follow a structured regimen of caloric intake arbitrarily decided by someone else? Why can't they eat when they want? By all means, add more snark if you need to do so.

1. You're making this sound a lot harder than it is, which tells me you've probably never tried it.
2. I just made this point. If you are skinny, it means you likely have naturally low eating habits. Maybe you're the kind of person who "forgets" to eat, or you don't get hungry very often, or whatever. When you are trying to accomplish something that is a little more complicated than bare survival (i.e. putting on muscle), hunger doesn't cut it as an indicator of when to eat.
3. As TZeer points out, caloric value != satiety. Try eating 300 calories versus broccoli versus 300 calories of cake. The former will fill you up (in terms of volume and hormone markers), the latter, in addition to being like one slice of cake, will trigger a strong insulin response, making you hungrier, etc. It's more complicated than you think.

List of things a bodybuilder at my gym gave me...

If you want to get fitter and stronger there is no other way than hard work.

The energy you take in has to be less than the energy you use to lose weight.

There is no need to "bulk" for one period of time just to "cut" for another period of time.

When people say that "the fat becomes muscles" when talking about training what they should say is that "the energy stored as fat is used when straining your muscles".

Protein drinks work as far as providing more protein easier.

It's super important to be hydrated before, during and after your training.

If you can deadlift and do squats with stability you don't have a weak core.

There are different kinds of pain, learn which one is bad and avoid it.

Put the weight back in their place. Moving them from one place to another is, even if you are tidying up, exercise.

This is good stuff... bulk and cut is the only thing that's debatable. I'd say for most people who know which way they need to go (gain or lose weight), and don't have to stay within a weight range (e.g. for a sport), bulk and cut is the fastest way of accomplishing goals.

I go to the gym every other day (usually ends up M-W-Sa) because the bicep workout is heavy on arms, light on my back. But it switches so every other time is heavy on back strength, "light" on bicep workouts. But I've got to get my squats back... my last max before I took a break from doing powerlifting was a 375-lb squat max. Only problem with doing deadlifts after bicep workouts is that my grip is weaker (considering getting the wrist-straps exclusively for this so I don't have to do my last rep holding onto the bar with my last two finger joints).

If you're going with a three day split, a bog standard push/pull sounds like it would do you a lot better tbh. Check out these posts:

  Spoiler:

stick with compounds, don't go slap-happy with machines/isolation etc and you should be good. (Also, chalk + mixed/hook grip > straps; straps hinder you from developing grip strength.)

[Lex Fasces]

So i was looking at this photo on facebook about christian bale losing weight then bulking then losing then bulking. I decided to google his training workout type thing and apparently he does something similar to this:

http://www.motleyhealth.com/celeb/ch...he-dark-knight

then i cliked some more links at the top and ended up with this:

http://www.motleyhealth.com/celeb/to...kouts-and-diet

both are proper gay and fanboy, but the second seems more interesting to do?

im just looking to change up my current bog standard plan is all