Q&A for: 10-Oct-07
2468. Q:
hi its pembe again you said i didnt mention my diet ,well its reasonably healthy i do eat low fat foods and use olive oil in most meals idont buy ready meals .and ido eat fruit and veg every day . because i have polysistic ovaries ive been told that i will find it harder to lose weight i also have low platelets at 105. but im not sure of what kind of diet i should be following my gp told me my diet is ok as long as i stick to it and carry on exercising but some classes at the gym would leave me feeling fatigue and bad headache afterwards so ive stopped going for awhile now beacause it puts me of from going what do i do? like i said before ive also gained some weight as well .
A:
Hi Pembe, sorry to hear about your health issues... Unfortunately in cases like yours it's not appropriate for a personal trainer like me to tell you what to do since we don't have medical training. Your diet sounds alright, though it's still difficult to tell for certain without more details about individual meals and foods. My prior advice about incorporating weight training still applies, but because of your medical condition you must clear it with your doctor first. This of course should be the process for anyone starting a diet and exercise program, but especially for somebody like you with already established health conditions. Good luck!
2469. Q:
i am 14 years old and i weigh 150 pounds. is that a healthy weight for my age? i am very muscular and athletic for my age.
A:
You didn't mention your height, but most likely your weight is fine, especially since as you say you are muscular and athletic. At 150 pounds you are heavier than most 14-year olds, but if it's mostly muscle and/or if you are taller than average (average height for 14 year old boys is 5 foot 5 inches) you have nothing to worry about.
2470. Q:
Hi mike, how to tell which are fats and muscle? I don't know if there are lots of fats around my waist area because ever since i went to the gym it became bigger and maybe because i have been eating more also. When i press it, it seems hard but i'm not too sure if its lots of fats combined to make it hard or its just muscles, btw i have a blur 4 pec which can only be seen under light, am i fat or its just muscles?
A:
The easiest way to tell is to simply flex (tighten) the muscle in question. Flexed muscle is quite hard while fat, of course, can't be flexed so it stays flabby. If you can grab and roll or pull the flexed area with your fingers, then it's fat. For everyone in world, a layer of fat lies on top of the muscle and below the skin -- the only difference is just how thick that fat layer is. If the layer is thin enough, then the countour of the muscle underneath can show through the fat layer -- for example the abdominal six-pack.
From what you described you probably have body fat composition in 12-15% range -- not quite a six-pack, but still significantly lower than most guys. So good job on that!
Also, gaining weight when starting to work out is quite common if you don't watch how much and what you eat. When you work out your metabolism speeds up and you get hungry more often. If you don't control what and how much you eat it's quite easy to overeat and start putting on new fat. Excess calories combined with weight training certainly build muscle but your body can build only so much muscle at a time and any calories above that simply go to fat. Again, this is extremely common and is responsible for the myth that working out makes you bulky and fat. The 'secret', of course, is to control your diet so that you eat good foods and gain weight slowly -- just enough to keep pace with your body's muscle-building speed. That way you gain mostly muscle and little fat. For a young guy, I recommend gaining weight no faster than 1 pound every 2 weeks to minimize fat gain. And you need to make sure the calories come from good foods as I describe in my Nutrition article.
2471. Q:
Im a little over weight and i want a six pack do you know any good ways to lose body fat quickly?
A:
There's no good way to lose fat and get a six-pack 'quickly'. There are certainly tons of crash diets which will lose you a lot of weight quickly, but also kill your metabolism ensuring that the weight will come back and that you never come close to getting a six-pack. Needless to say I don't recommend following such approach.
Instead, you first need to understand that it's going to take time if you are serious about getting the six-pack and that dedication and patience are key. Then please read my Weight loss article as well as the Nutrition and Weight Training articles it references. By then you should have all the knowledge you need and it's just a matter of putting it in practice. You can get a sample starter product by filling out Fitness Guide and customizing the program it suggests to your tastes.
Again, don't try for a quick solution and instead focus on the right solution. Aim to lose about 1 pound per week for some time. After a few months you should find yourself more musclular and with less fat. Then you can decide how to proceed, whether you want to focus on further fat loss or building more muscle (more muscle will help you lose more fat in the long run, eventually getting you to that six-pack look). Hope that helps and good luck!
2472. Q:
Hi Mike, I worked out excessively on my chest when I was younger. My chest got huge and now, at 32, I am seeing ugly signs droopiness and loss of definition. I try to burn it off, but my pecs still protrude. I want to reduce both muscle and fat to get a much flatter look. How can I weave both reductions into a solid workout? Thank you, G
A:
It's very very unlikely that muscle is contributing to the 'drooping' chest look. Muscle, even unflexed is not flabby and does not droop like fat does. So it's most likely that your problem is simply excess fat. Of course, it's not possible to target specifically chest fat, so you have to aim to lose overall fat and thereby reducing chest fat as well. So the solution then is straightforward: go on a fat-burning diet combined with a whole-body weight training program and cardio. Losing weight in this fashion will most likely also lose you some muscle, as you wanted (though again, I don't think it's necessary). Check out my Fat loss article as well Nutrition article if you need a refresher on burning fat and good diet, and then pick a whole-body weight training program of your choice (or any of the ones I list in my Weight Training article). The only tweak you might want to do is to either minimize or avoid chest exercises like bench press altogether -- that way you won't lose much fat-burning potential but will avoid getting your chest getting any bigger, which I assume you don't want.
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