Q&A for: 10-Aug-08
2723. Q:
I have been working out under a instructer for 5 months already.My weight has been stable but I have gain in size or inches around my waist n hips.Is it due to weight trainning?? I am really bothered about this.Please help me.
A:
That's not normal or good if your goal is to lose fat. You should expect to gain some muscle while weight training and it's possible that your weight stays constant, even as your gain muscle and lose fat (which is still a great result!). But it is extremely unlikely that you gain more muscle than you lose fat around the waist/hip area. If your weight is constant, a good development is larger upper body/arms and legs, but narrower waist/hips. I would talk to your trainer regarding this.
2724. Q:
Hi Mike.. thanks for the amazing site. Please I need your advice.. I'm 32 female. I'm 185cm and weigh about 76kg I know I have to lose about 20kg. My problems are as follow: 1- I don't eat appropriately. During the day, I just have two or three cups of coffee with low fat milk and low calories sugar. A cup or two of orange juice and some low fat yogurt. At night I sometimes have some fast food with low calories soft drink. I know it's wrong! but this is the way I am :( I don't like meat at all. From time to time I could have some tuna and green salad (every three days let's say) As you see my metabolism is very low :( 2- I do workout (cardio) every day for about 20min. And some strong anti-cellulite exercises (about 15min) then after a while, at night maybe, I do some pilates. Can I skip cardio for two days? and is it important to do the routine in the same time every day? 3- How can I lose fat from arms and chest faster? any suggestions? 4- My breasts are really saggy after 5 children. I'm not disparate with the size. I like it actually but I they really need to be firmed and lifted up. Is there any hope? Sorry for my long questions. I do appreciate your time for reading this. Thank you so much Mike, that was like a sense of relief. yours, Samar
A:
At 185cm, 76kgs you are actually in quite good shape -- good job! From the description of your daily diet, it does sound like you are eating way way too little. Unfortunately it's not easy to break habits, but I would encourage you to make an effort to slowly but surely start eating more. Find a time in the day where you can squeeze another meal, even if it's just a salad or a piece of fruit. It won't happen overnight, but over the course of a few months you can significantly improve your diet and rev up your metabolism. You don't need to eat meat, but you should make an effort to eat more. Vegetables and especially beans and lentils can be good sources of protein for somebody who doesn't like to eat animal products. When your metabolism revs up you can start thinking of losing fat and weight, but in the situation you are right now you simply won't get very far trying to lose fat/weight with such low metabolism.
Your training sounds good and, yes, you can definitely drop cardio 2-3 times per week if you'd like. I would also encourage you to start incorporating weight training into your exercise routine (read my Weight Training article if you need a primer). Weight training will help rev up your metabolism and burn fat.
As far as lifting your breasts, unfortunately I wouldn't be able to offer much advice. They will reduce in size and lift somewhat if you lose weight and fat, but I don't think that's exactly what you are looking for. You may be better off talking to a doctor or cosmetic surgeon about this issue.
For now my advice to you is to try and slowly improve your diet by eating more healthy foods. Substituting weight training for cardio a few times per week would also be very good. After a few months you should find yourself in much better shape to start losing fat. Good luck!
2725. Q:
This is in response to Q 2718, which I asked last week. I do something like HIIT already. I warm up walk for 1/5 mile (3 mph), then jog 1 mile (6 mph), then walk for 1/5 mile (3 mph), then jog for 1 mile (6 mph), then cool down walk for 1/5 mile (3 mph). That is my daily cardio. This takes about 30 minutes. I am doing this every day except Sunday. Are you saying I should change this to 30 second walk, sprint, walk, sprint, etc? I guess the sprint would be 10-15 mph? I can't imagine sprinting for more than 30 seconds. I'm 46, 6', and weight about 198 as of now. I lost about 6 pounds last month. Diet, lots of exercise. I've been working out for about 5 weeks now. I am now doing Upper body Mon and Thu, and Lower body Tue and Fri. For weight training, I perform 3 sets for each exercise, about 6-10 reps: whatever amount it takes to achieve failure. I try to make it so that I can get between 6-8 reps. The problem is that as I workout alone, I don't really have a way to perform reps past failure. What I am able to do with some exercises, is perform the reps to failure, using good form, of course, and then cheat them up, and perform a negative or two, with good form. Is this acceptable? I can normally get someone to spot me when bench pressing, to get a couple extra reps, but that's not possible on most other exercises.
A:
What you do now is regular cardio, not HIIT. HIIT is all about VERY high intensity that can only be sustained for VERY short time. So yes, all-out sprinting at 10-15mph or however fast you can possibly run for about 30 seconds, then walking for 30 seconds and then back to sprinting. If you like your current cardio program and you are aobviously getting good results, then you certainly don't need to add HIIT now, but keep it in mind as an extra boost in the future when your progress plateaus.
Your weight training program sounds very good now. You absolutely do not need to push past failure to get good results. If you like doing spotter-assisted reps past failure on bench press it's fine, but they are not necessary and I also wouldn't do cheat reps past failure on other exercises since they're much more likely to lead to injury. If you really want to push past failure, use the rest-pause method instead: do a set to failure, then wait 3-5 seconds and perform another rep or two in good form. This way you never sacrifice form or increase the risk of injury.
Overall it sounds like you are doing great -- congrats and keep it going!
2726. Q:
Reply to Q 2717. You say ...make things worse many people not only do a ton of cardio but also cut their caloric intake very low (under 1000 calories is quite common) which only encourages the body to burn more muscle than fat (from the body's point of view, you are trying to kill it by not feeding it and it will do its darnest to hang on to its fat reserves as long as possible!) ... Is that true even if you are doing a full body heavy weight program in addition to cardio and a low cal diet?
A:
Weight training will spare more muscle than pure cardio under low-calorie condition, but the end result will still be worse than if you followed the same program with more reasonable calorie levels. Your metabolism will shut down earlier and you will not be able to keep losing fat. And if your calorie levels are really low you might well develop general health problems too. Only use very low calorie levels if your doctor advises it. For an average person looking to lose, say, 20-30 pounds very low calorie diets are virtually never the best option.
2727. Q:
hi mike, i have a ?, because im a veggie, most of my protein is from soya protein, i drink it 4 times a day, so takng in about 100 g from that, and the rest from lentils, bread, milk, peanut butter, almonds, cottage cheese, all the variety of nuts, beins, roughly i take about 180 g a day, im 20, and im 6ft, weight 12.5 stones. do you think its ok 2 drink my protein drink four times a day, even though its not natural source of protein. And do you think i can still build good amount of muscle by drinking it, because i find it hard 2 get good amount of protein, as i dont even eat eggs, fish and so on. Look forward to hearing from u.
A:
Getting 180 grams of protein per day is great for a vegetarian like yourself and, absolutely yes, you will be able to build muscle with that much protein! Just remember that your overall calories need to be high too in order to gain weight and muscle. So make sure to eat plenty of whole grains and fruits as well.
2728. Q:
what is the calorie and fat gram intake for trying to lose weight?
A:
It depends on your weight and other things. You can get a rough idea by filling out my Fitness Guide -- it will give you a suggested diet with calorie and gram totals at the bottom.
2729. Q:
Whats the best approach for someone with an ectomorph body type, that has gained fat? how do i lose the belly but gain muscle? If I eat allot as is required for muscle building will I still eventually burn the fat, or do I need to shed the fat first and then bulk eat for muscle?
A:
I like to say that ectomorphs are actually mesomorphs waiting to happen :) Ectomorphs usually have great muscle-gaining potential -- they simply need to eat A LOT! If you are currently relatively slim, maybe just with some fat on the stomach area, my recommendation is to focus on eating good nutritious foods, eating a lot of them, and of course do heavy whole-body weight training. Once you put on a significant amount of muscle (say, after a year during which you can easily aim to gain 25-30 pounds) you can turn around and focus on losing fat by cutting down calories. So phase 1: build muscle, phase 2: lose extra fat. Good luck!
2730. Q:
Can you still build muscle by eating a normal regular diet, without eating lots of extra calories? Would results just take allot longer, or is it actually impossible without eating the right diet.
A:
Yes, you will be able to build some muscle without any special diet, especially if you are brand new to weight training, but your progress will be much slower and will stop sooner than if you followed a diet specifically for muscle gain.
2732. Q:
I have a verry health diet (I don't eat suger, candy,or fat product, i'am vegetarian),and a i don't eat much. but I dont lose fat?!What happend's with me? tnks
A:
I can't tell you without a lot more information about you -- age, gender, height, weight, detailed daily diet (with amounts of food in each meal), exercise program you follow, etc. The most likely explanation is that you don't eat much, do little or no exercise other than some cardio, your metabolism is fairly low, and your body simply doesn't have any 'reason' to burn fat or lose weight. But again, I can't tell for sure without a lot more detail -- please feel free to post here again with more info for me.
2733. Q:
what will be the best exercise plan for me to loose 250 lbs in 10 months
A:
Sorry, but for a situation like yours you should talk to your doctor instead of a personal trainer regarding the diet and exercise plan appropriate for you. Good luck!
2735. Q:
Hi mike,Iam 32 year old female and i am 5ft 3 in height .And i am 174lbs weight.I do walking 60min everyday.how can i lose fat at my belly and thighs ?
A:
Good job with starting to exercise. Walking is a good start, but to get meaningful results you'll need to adjust your diet and start on more intense exercise as well. Please start by reading my Losing Fat article and follow instructions in there, including reading my diet and weight training articles. Good luck!
2736. Q:
Hi Mike, I just have a question about nutritional diet. Should I concentrate on eating more carbs in the morning than at night? I've heard that eating starchy carbs at night is not effective in losing fat. Also, are steamed(or baked) potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins good substitute for meals? Thanks
A:
Yes, in general it's a good idea when trying to lose fat to keep starchier carbs for the first half of the day and eating mostly just green veggies for carbs in the evenings. Don't completely cut out carbs in the evenings, though. Salads are perfect evening carb sources.
For starchy carbs, sweet potatoes and pumpkins are better than regular potatoes, and boiling is much better than baking. The reason for that is how your body converts dietary carbs to blood glucose -- you want that conversion to be slow and boiling (which preserves water content) allows for such slower conversion. Hope that helps.
2737. Q:
Mike I love your site, it's great. Thank You ! I have a BIG ( J LO ) butt and need to loose 20 lbs, I'm afraid if I do squats with heavy weights my butt is going to get even bigger ( which I DO NOT want ) should I train light ?
A:
Do not be afraid of squats! Yes, they (as well as lunges, another great lower body exercise) will build some butt muscle, but that small muscle increase will be completely offset by their huge fat-burning impact! So definitely do squats and don't be afrain to go heavy (as long as you maintain good form and don't injury yourself of course).
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