Q&A for: 1-Sep-05
449. Q:
hello,Mike i had the gastro bypass about one year ago. i lose about 95 poundsbut i'm having problem losing more. my weight goes from 145 to 155 .what do you suggest
A:
The biggest challenge you will face after gastic bypass as far as fat-loss is keeping your metabolism up. You will lose a lot of fat (as you have done) and muscle (unfortunately -- it's always a side-effect of rapid fat loss), but after some point your body simply adopts to the low-energy regimen and all your metabolic processes slow down to a crawl. You've probably noticed that you don't have much energy and may sometimes be cold even on a warm day -- these are symptoms of slow metabolism.
For most people the way out of such a metabolic dead-end is slowly increasing number of meals and portion sizes (of healthy foods, of course) till metabolism revs back up. Physical exercise, especially intense exercise such as heavy weight training also helps speed up metabolism a great deal. Once the metabolism is high the fat-burning will continue.
Unfortunately in your case you're very limited in the amounts and types of food that you can eat. You may also be limited in the type of physical activity you can perform and heavy weight training may not be appropriate for you. Unfortunately I am not in any position to make that diagnosis. So here's what I want you to do: read and understand my Fitness Tips -- they're really quite simple. Now with those tips in mind, do couple things. One, consult your dietician to find out what foods and what amounts of them you can safely eat in an effort to get more meals and bigger portion sizes into you in an effort to boost your metabolism. Two, consult your doctor to see whether fairly intense weight training is appropriate for you. If your doctor says yes, then read the Weight Training article and pick from the sample exercise programs that it offers. Two of the programs (no-equipment and dumbbell-only) you can do at your home with minimal or no equipment. Remember that your goal with weight training is to exercise muscles over your entire body, so don't ignore legs or back or any other muscle group. Also remember safety first with weight training -- learn each exercise with light or no weights before you jump to a weight that's heavy for you. If your doctor says no to weight training, then ask him what is the most intense kind of exercising that you can do safely and do that. I hope that helps. Good luck!
450. Q:
I have been on a program for losing some kgs and lost them succesfully.Iam just thin now and i wanna try some bulk up slowly the next months.What type of cardio should i do in order to achieve this along with progressive weight training?I have asked and learned that u should do little cardio when u wanna bulk up like only 20 mins for 3 times a week only between the weight training days and only as fast as a brisk walking and no more.This should be able to make u lose the last fat u get (on your belly area mainly) while the bulk up will do the rest.What is your opinion?What is the best cardio exercise i have to do this period?
A:
Congrats on your successful fat loss! You're now in the perfect point in time to start bulking up. First to address the question of cardio... the only benefit of cardio while bulking is for the general cardiovascular health. It is an important benefit, no doubt, but cardio does not in any way help build muscle and it won't do anything for keeping the fat down that you can't accomplish as well or better with diet. Cardio simply burns the extra calories you need to gain weight. You could just as easily simply not eat the same amount of calories and skip cardio. But cardio actually does hamper muscle hypertrophy (growth in size) to some degree. So... Yes, cardo is still great for you general healthwise. No, it is at best irrelevant and more likely slightly counterproductive to building muscle. You'll need to decide how much of it to do for general health and remember to compensate with extra calories.
Now the actual program for bulking is pretty simple: just fill out the Fitness Guide! Specify 'Gain Muscle' as your goal. It will give you a complete diet and weight training prescription. Remember that the diet is absolutely crucial for a successful bulk. You want to gain weight slowly, no faster than 1 pound per week and preferably closer to 1 pound every two weeks. This requires paying close attention to your diet and overeating very very slightly. You also need to have many meals a day and eat whole healthy foods. If you gain weight too fast or eat junk you'll just wind up with a lot of new fat and little muscle.
Even with the best of planning and discipline you're likely to gain a little fat along with muscle, but you can take care of it afterwards -- the new muscle mass you gained and your high metabolism (and it WILL be high when bulking) will burn the fat quite fast when you switch from a bulking diet to a fat-burning one. Again, you can use the Fitness Guide to get the fat-burning diet when that time comes.
Of course, don't forget to weight train your whole body with heavy weights throughout all of it. Heavy weights + good bulking diet = new muscle! Good luck!
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