Q&A for: 1-Jul-05
1. Q:
i've been busting my butt doing 100's of situps every day but still don't have my six-pak?
A:
Whether or not you see your six-pack depends entirely on your body fat percentage. You will need to get it to below 10% or so before you can see the six-pack. Please read the nutrition, weightlifting, and body fat articles.
2. Q:
i want to bench 200 pounds!!!
A:
You need to make sure that you eat to build muscle and exercise specifically to improve strength. Eating to build muscle is covered in the nutrition article. To build bench-pressing strength, bench press 3 times a week. 2 of those times, do many (10 or more) sets of 4-6 reps with relatively light weight (around 60% of your max). The other bench-pressing day do a few (2-4) heavy sets of 2-4 reps with heavy weight (80-90% of your max). Make sure to have a spotter on heavy day.
3. Q:
I run over 6 miles every day and have dropped from 220+ to 190 pounds, but lately I've stopped losing weight despite not even eating very much. Please help!
A:
Congratulations on your weight loss! It sounds like now you are at a point where your metabolism is very low because you are putting a lot of stress on your body with running, but not providing sufficient nourishment in food. I recommend you cut down running to no more than 3-4 miles per day two or three days a week. You should simultaneously start weight training as described in this article and start eating more as described here. Gradually with more food intake and with demands for recovery after weightlifting your metabolism will pick up and you will start losing weight (and more importantly - fat!) again.
8. Q:
I want to lose weight. What will help me more - diet or exercise?
A:
Both diet and exercise are important for successful weight loss. If I absolutely had to pick one of them, I would definitely say exercise is more important, both for health and for cosmetic reasons. Without exercise your body will not be compelled to keep muscle over fat when losing weight so in the end you would still have much of the fat you wanted to lose. Instead you would have lost a lot of muscle and some bone mass (both of which are desirable from both health and looks perspectives).
On the other hand, exercising alone is not guaranteed to get you any weight loss at all (in case you consistently overeat even after taking exercise recovery needs into account). But if you eat average (not too much, not too little, and well-balanced) and exercise you will likely reach or at least approach your goals -- it would just take much much longer than if you complemented your exercise routine with an appropriate diet.
9. Q:
What's better - a low-fat diet or a low-carb diet?
A:
For losing fat, you would optimally have a balanced high-protein, low/medium-carb, and medium-fat diet rich in whole unprocessed foods as described in the nutrtion article in the Articles section. If you want to pick between just low-carb or just low-fat, then I recommend going with the low-carb approach. Dietary fats, especially the essential fatty acids such as Omega-3 found in flax and fish are necessary for a healthy body. Moreover not limiting carbs will continue to expose your system to insulin spikes after carb-heavy meals which will continually deposit more and more fat in your body.
When going with low-carb approach, make sure to continue eating lots of vegetables. In fact, most of your carbs should come from green leafy vegetables. Eliminate sweets, processed and refined foods such as pasta, breads, and even refined grains such as white rice in favor of brown rice or other whole grains. Also cut out starchy vegetables such as potatoes and corn and limit your fruits to 1-2 pieces a day.
14. Q:
i am a vegetarian and eat almost all healthy stuff. But my food choices are around carbs and vegetables. What should I do to gain muscles?
A:
As a vegetarian, you will have most problems getting enough protein. Fortunately there are beans and lentils, which provide not only near-animal quality protein, but also have a lot of it! Lentils, for example have almost 50% of their calories come from protein, and most beans are right there too.
If you read the nutriton article in the Articles section, you you will see that you need to eat often to grow muscle (every 3 hours or even more often, ideally), so make sure at least a couple of your meals every day have a good amount of lentils or beans. Complementing legumes with rice gives you complete animal-quality protein, so remember to have some rice (especially brown rice) in your diet as well.
Though legumes are by far the most protein-rich veggie foods, a lot of protein is also found in green leafy veggies like spinach and nuts. If you allow for dairy and/or eggs, those are also plentiful in protein.
Also, as a vegetarian make sure you don't forget about fats in your diet -- include olive oil, flax seed, and avocados which are all excellent sources of healthy fats.
17. Q:
have a fitness question for you. I am totally frustrated with current situation and need help for permanent change.
1.) I am vegetarian, weigh clost to 150, and 5'8. Even with this much mass, I am very skinny. I got a fat gut and small 'man boobs.'
2.) I'm interested in having a lean runner's body for triathlons and surfing. Can you help me set up somekind of plan. I tried eating like on website for 2 days. I felt really bloated.
3.) How do I overcome urges of eating unhealthy food. I will go 4-5 days eating healthy then I will have huge urge for nachos, french fries, and onion rings. Another thing I have noticed that, I even overindulge on good food.
4.) You mentioned lentils being good source of protein. But those nutritional label is when they are dried. In able to eat, I least have boil them 5 minutes. Seems like the its nutrition changes.
Very Confusing !!
Seems like every month, I 'restart' my diet plan. I dont know what to do anymore
A:
First of all don't stress out :) It will take time and it's OK. After all, you've been shaping your body your whole life -- serious changes will also take awhile... 1) You are not overweight but you do have a high-ish body fat and low-ish muscle mass. Our goal will be to switch that around. This requires two things: losing fat and building muscle. Although you can try to do both of those things at once, it's better to focus on one thing at a time. So the question is what order do you want to proceed in? Build muscle first, then lose the fat or lose the fat first, then build the muscle? The two approaches will only differ in the amount of food you'll eat in one meal. You'll still eat often and work out as you normally would.
I recommed the first option -- spend some time revving up your metabolism, packing on 10-15 pounds of muscle (and inevitably some fat too, but we'll lose that later). Then go hardcore and lose the extra fat. If you absolutely can't stand having more fat, then we'll go the other way: lose fat first, then build muscle -- but I don't recommend that approach since a lot of muscle will be your biggest ally in losing fat.
2) It's true that your body will take a couple weeks to adjust to eating more often (and probably more quantity compared to unhealthy junk food). It's normal and may feel uncomfortable for a bit, but you will get used to it within a week or two. Starting is always the hardest. If you start out losing fat, dieting will be a little easier since you won't be eating a lot (though you'll still eat often).
3) This you'll have to figure out for yourself. Ask yourself how much happier eating junk makes you compared to achieving your fitness goals. Overindulging on healthy foods (And overindulging in general) is an indication that you probably go without food for a long time and then gourge yourself. By going on a many-small-meals nutrition plan, you will overcome that problem. Just need to stick to the plan.
4) Cooking food in water does not change food's nutritional value in any way. Water contains no calories, fats, carbs, protein, minerals, or vitamins. The food absorbs water and becomes bigger in volume, but the nutrition value does not change. Some forms of cooking may change nutritional values. For example, frying in oil obviously adds a lot of fat (mostly bad fat, and should really be avoided at all costs), grilling reduces fat a little bit since it drips out. But boiling or steaming in plain water does not change food's nutritional value (at most some of the vitamins will be lost, but not so much that you should worry about it).
So to summarize, decide whether you are willing to bulk up first before slimming down (which is what I recommend) or you cannot stand the thought of being fat and want to lose the fat before building muscle. Based on that decision go with a muscle-building or fat-loss nutrition plan as outlined in the article. And be patient and consistent :) It'll take a month or two to see first results and a year or two to reach your goals.
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