Q&A for: 14-May-07
2246. Q:
Hi Mike, I am 29, M, 5'10' at 187lbs. I have lost approx 16lbs over the past 3-4 months mainly reducing/cutting the intake of chocolate, biscuits, alcohol etc etc. combined with Cardio. Running for half-hour would loose 600 calories (according to the machine), finishing off with a swim. (I usually visit the gym 3-4 times per week) Comparing this with the other Cardio machines this appears by far the most effective calorie burner. Is this recommended or should I spread my time but on different cardio machines – for an all over cardio workout? I have recently found your website and think it is great. Your advice is extremely helpful and your articles even better. After reading your advice I have decided to follow your 3 Days/Week Full-Body Program, Muscle/Strength Mix with Circuit Training on the 4th day. I am hoping to cut down my fat levels and my beer belly. What weight should I aim for?? BMI says I have another 16lbs before I get in to the “normal” range. My Wife and colleagues say I would look ill if I loose that much more. What do you advise?
A:
Congrats on your recent weight loss! As far as what cardio to do, sticking to just that one machine finished off with swimming is perfectly fine. That mixed with your new weight training program will give you very well rounded development.
What weight to aim for really is up to you. At 5'10 you can afford to be 171 pounds or even lighter without any adverse effects on your health and the program you have along with a good diet will certainly get you there. But nobody besides yourself could or should set your goals. One thing you can certainly do is just postpone the decision about your ultimate goal weight till later and simply stay with your current program and aim to lose about 1 pound a week (which is what you've been doing so far already). As you get under 180 pounds and lower you'll be better able to visualize what your goal physique may be like and set weight goals accordingly. Note also that since you are just starting weight training now you'll likely be able to build some muscle even while losing weight which tends to go a long way in making you look (and feel!) better.
Lastly, keep in mind that the better your physique gets the more difficult it will become to keep losing fat and building muscle. So if your progress slows down even with your good program, remember that the more likely place where you can make improvements is in your diet as I describe in my Nutrition article. And also make sure you always eat enough to keep your metabolism up -- at your age, height, and weight around 1800 calories/day should probably be the lowest you should go and with a good diet and training you should be able to keep losing weight even while eating 2500 or more calories daily. Great job so far and best of luck in your future progress!
2247. Q:
If the amount is the same, What difference does it make lifting free weights as opposed to machine weights?
A:
Free weights are better than machines because they work all the little stabilizer muscles that don't have to do much with machine work. They also allow for different paths of motion working muscles from different angles and for working through different sticking point in the exercise. Finally they allow for compound exercises like deadlifts, squats, and lunges.
Of course if you do not have access to free weights, machines will still allow for great progress. And machines may be a good starting point for beginners since there's less chance of injury and they are in general less 'intimidating'. But all other things being equal, I would almost always recommend using free weights over machines.
2248. Q:
im jose my weight is 240 and i just want to now if muscle milk is good for my self to loss weight and make muscle
A:
Muscle milk is a perfectly good supplement and you can certainly use it as part of your program, but you need to keep in mind that it or any other supplement will determine maybe 10% of your eventual success. The much more important factors are your training program and your overall diet, not just the Muscle Milk part. Muscle Milk or almost any other whey protein supplement may be of use to you if you are having trouble getting enough protein through regular food, but it will still be only a relatively small part of your diet.
2249. Q:
I am a vegetarian but also have been diagnoised with High Cholestrol. I would like to build muscle and also gain some weight as my height is 6ft and weight 68Kg. Could you please help, with information on what protein etc I need to take.
A:
Gaining muscle is not difficult -- it simply requires heavy whole-body weight training and eating enough calories to slowly gain weight (the slower the better -- 1 kg per month is a good pace). Obviously, you should eat healthy nutritious whole foods as much as possible as described in my Nutrition article. As a vegetarian, good calorie-dense choices include old-fashioned oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes, fruits, all sorts of dry-roasted or raw nuts or natural nut butter, and olive and other plant-based oils. The biggest challenge will be not so much getting enough calories (that's just a matter of eating calorie-dense foods and increasing portion sizes till you start gaining weight) but getting enough protein. You should shoot for at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight daily -- in your case that would be 136 grams of protein daily, which is quite a bit. The best vegetarian source of protein are various beans, lentils, and soy products. Nuts also contain a lot of protein, but they wrap that protein in a whole lot of fat which makes it difficult to get much protein from nuts alone (you'd have to eat so much of them that you will gain a lot of weight quickly -- which means lots of new fat). Most green veggies have 30-50% of their calories come from protein, but because they are so light in calories it would be difficult to eat enough of them to get a lot of protein from them. In addition you could consider supplementing with protein powder -- soy protein powder is 100% vegetarian and does not have any cholesterol. Whey protein powder is derived from dairy and can have some cholesterol depending on brand and serving size -- I am not sure whether that would be acceptable for you.
So in the end your best source of protein are beans, soy, and lentils and I would recommend including generous helping of some sort of them in most meals. If you eat 5 meals a day (5 should be considered the minimal number of meals to keep your metabolism high throughout the day) and 4 of them have 20 grams of protein come from beans or lentils, then the rest of your diet -- between whole grains, vegetables, and nuts -- will prolly add up to the other 60 or so grams of protein to combine for that minimum goal of 140 grams of protein daily. If that sounds like too much beans for you, consider soy or possibly whey protein powder as I mentioned before (you may want to consult with your doctor or nutritionist regarding cholesterol content of whey powder). Good luck!
2250. Q:
DOES PROTEIN MAKE YOU BREAK OUT??
A:
Some people are allergic to whey protein (usually the same people are allergic to dairy, even if they are not aware of it!) which may cause them to break out. So yes, although not very common, it is possible.
2251. Q:
How many calories do you burn doing 15 jumping jacks
A:
Very very few. I don't know exactly, but it would likely be less than 5 calories. Don't think of jumping jacks or any other one exercise in terms of burning calories while doing the exercise (although they certainly will burn some calories). Instead, take the holistic view and understand that by constructing a heavy whole-body resistance training program along with a good diet for yourself you will greatly boost the total number of calories burned not just during the exercise, but also AFTER it as your body repairs the muscle damage that the exercise inflicts.
2252. Q:
I recognize the value of eating often – what do if you can only eat say three times in a day due to work or other restrictions – is it possible to eat more early in the day say at breakfast and lunch and use the extra calories till the next time you can eat or will that simply crash your metabolism and cause gains in fat, I know that marathon runners use carb loading as they cannot eat and run at the same time.
A:
While eating frequently is certainly preferable, you have to work (and eat) within your schedule. If all you can do is three times a day, then that's what you have to do. As you said, you will just have to eat more in each sitting. I would increase the size of all three meals, but save most carbs for breakfast and lunch and make dinner lighter in carbs (a nice big salad would be perfect) but with more protein and healthy fats.
Because your metabolism will likely not be able to stay as high with just three meals, if you are switching from, say, six meals a day to three, then you'll probably need to lower the overall calories slightly so each one of the new meals will be slightly less than two of old meals.
2253. Q:
mike my weight is 240 and i have 18 years is good for my take muscle milk y do excersaise every day or tell me what i have to do for loss fast weight?
A:
Check out my answer to question 2248 above -- while Muscle Milk is a perfectly good supplement, by itself it will do next to nothing for you. Please read my Fat loss article for a comprehensive approach to losing extra fat and making sure it never comes back.
2254. Q:
Mike,how do i get rid of love handles?and bun all my fat fom the body?
A:
Please read my Fat loss article -- any time you have extra fat anywhere on your body that article is your solution.
2257. Q:
What,s your view on running in the morning?
A:
Check out my answer to Q&A #159 for my view on it.
2258. Q:
is it possible to add muscle to your legs through weight training while still playing sport and running often?
A:
Definitely! The key to building muscle (besides weight training, of course) is eating enough to slowly gain weight. Playing sports will burn a whole lot of calories, so what you'll need to do is eat more and more until you start slowly gaining weight. It may take A LOT of food but it's certainly doable. Focus on calorie-dense foods like whole grains, brown rice, sweet potatoes, fruits, dry-roasted nuts and natural nut butter.
2259. Q:
Hi was wondering how many calories I would burn walking 8km?
A:
Around 600 calories.
2260. Q:
how many calories will i burn doing 60 jumping jacks
A:
Please see my answer to question 2251 above.
2262. Q:
hi mike, great site. I'm planning on squezing out the last 2kg on the final stages of my cut, before I go onto a bulk, and I just wanted to ask you if there were any tips for that last push? My body seems to have adapted quite well to having less than 2000KCal a day and I've heard it's unsafe for a man (I was 82kg i'm now 75kg) to eat less than 1500KCal a day. Should I do more cardio? or more weights sessions a day? thanks
A:
Thanks! It's a little difficult for me to give advice without having seen your recent progress and routine, but here are some thoughts... First off, if you have really had hard time losing fat and weight lately (and at 2000 calories that may well be the case) you may want to ask yourself whether those last 2 kilos are really worth it? If you have a competition coming up, then it's certainly a must or perhaps you have a beach vacation coming up. But if this is just a regular cut sandwiched in between two bulks it may simply be time to stop the cut and slowly switch over to bulk.
But if you are determined to lose those 2 extra kilos no matter what, then it's probably time for some drastic approaches. I would not recommend eating less, but instead doing more. If you still feel strong in the gym and have plenty of energy this would be a good time to go on a very high volume heavy to-failure program with generous helping of supersets, dropsets, rest-pause reps, spotter-assited reps, etc. Basically really push yourself with weight training. Do not do this for more than a month at most since it will take a heavy tall on you and make sure to take a week or even longer break from the gym after this program. In addition you can certainly do more cardio and/or HIIT. So overall, I would increase training before decreasing calories below 2000 if you really want to lose more. But, as I said at the top, really consider how much you need to lose those extra two kilos in the first place if you will be going right back on a bulk next.
2263. Q:
mike, i'm not very good at push-ups/press ups, do you have any suggestions to how I could go about getting better? I can only do 4-5 properly.
A:
The main thing is to simply keep at it. Do several sets in a tow with 3-4 minute rest in between sets a couple times per day and then do that every day. You will be surprised just how quickly your strength builds up. Second thing you can do is if you are overweight now you could lose some pounds. The lighter you are the easier it will be to do pushups (or any other bodyweight exercise). I would not recommend doing this unless you actually need to lose weight, of course. If that is the case, check out my weight loss article to get started.
2265. Q:
Im a 14 years old, im 5'6 and i weigh 130 pounds. Im great at running, and i have good stamina. But my weakness is strength. What do u recomemd to gain muscle but no fat, to bulk up. For this comming football season im training to be a wide reciver so what do i need to do and not to do?
A:
Sports-specific training is quite involved and really needs to be done in person, so I won't be able to help you too much over the internet, but here are some ideas... First off, at 14 your body is most likely not quite ready to put on a lot of muscle (around 16 is usually when your prime muscle-building time kicks in) but you can certainly improve your strength and (more importantly for football) explosiveness and agility even without putting on much new muscle. This program is custom designed to improve your strength in three most basic exercises -- squat, deadlift, and bench, all of which will make you a better WR. With this program you spend the first four weeks training your nervous system to learn the exercises well while lifting relatively light (though increasing week-to-week) weights. In the last two weeks you will come close to maxing out one lift on every day to push your strength. At all times, allow generous time in between sets for recovery (3 minutes or more), even if you do not feel tired at all. This program is quite unusual if you are used to the typical high-intensity, to-failure bodybuilding programs, but I promise you that it will give great results when followed to the letter. Please note that you should always have adult supervision while weight training and it is especially important for the later parts of this program (the last two weeks) when you will be pushing your limits and going very heavy and nearly to failure.
For explosiveness you would do best by starting on a plyometrics program. Unfortunately I have not yet created a plyo section for my site and the scope of it is too large to describe here, but if you are serious about improving your explosiveness and power, I would strongly recommend this book.
For your nutrition, it is probably too early to try to aggressively bulk up so just eat as you usually do, making sure to eat plenty of fresh veggies and fruits. Hope that helps and good luck!
2266. Q:
Hi mike, after following your advice for the all over weight training and diet program I lost over 25 pounds and about 10 inches off my waist. So thank you. I am now at my desired weight and size but still have my lower stomach problem, I wanted to try Yoga to help me the rest of the way with toning. So my question is will Yoga help with toning as well as my lower stomach?
A:
Congrats on your recent weight loss! 26 pounds and 10 inches lost is great!! That little bit of extra fat in the lower stomach is probably the most stubborn fat there and is extremely difficult to lose completely unfortunately. While Yoga is great for your overall health, well-being, and flexibility I would be surprised if it makes a big difference to fat loss, compared to traiditional cardio or resistance training. However Yoga is certainly very good for you, so by all means go for it! I would love to hear of your experience with it, especially if it helps you lose that extra bit of fat. Good luck!
2268. Q:
Is it ok if 16 years old guy take BSN NO-EXPLOAD?
A:
I am not a huge fan of supps in general, especially for somebody your age -- if you really decide to learn and follow a good weight training program and diet the sky is the limit for you physique-wise. There is no need for any supplements and they more often side-track people than help them because instead of optimizing diet and exercise guys tend to focus on what is the 'best' supp to take (answer: there is none -- creatine and whey protein are the only two proven supps and neither gives spectacular results all by itself). If you are absolutely set on taking supps, I would recommend plain creatine monohydrate powder over no-xplode since it is much more studied and proven and not known to pose any health dangers. No-xplode on the other hand is fairly new, heavily hyped, is certain to be dangerous to some people due to its nitric oxide content, and is not proven to be any more effective. It will give you better pump at the gym (again due to nitric oxide) but that is not relevant for long-term muscle and strength improvement.
2271. Q:
hello, i have been working out for about 2 months and i have seen results in the way my body has changed, but i am going on a vacation in july and i was wondering what exercises i could do and what to eat to look the absolute best i can for july. Anything would be extremly helpful....I'm 6 foot 6 and about 190 pounds and 22 years old...thanks SO much
A:
There aren't really any shortcuts or tips to improve your physique quicker. It sounds like you are already doing the right things, so you just have to keep at it. If you haven't already, please read my nutrition and weight training articles to make sure your diet and weight training are as good as they can be. But if you are already doing all those things, then that's about as good as it gets.
From your height and weight I assume you are trying to bulk up and gain muscle and while doing so you have to be extra-careful because it's easy to gain weight too quickly and gain more new fat than muscle. Ideal pace for muscle gain is about 1 pound every 2 weeks. Because you are still young, so tall, and relatively thin you could potentially try to risk it and start gaining weight quicker, but I would still definitely not try to exceed 1 pound per week weight gain. And even then prepare to gain some new fat. Ultimately it is up to you to strike the balance between faster muscle gain and more new fat -- the slower you gain weight and muscle, the less new fat you will pick up along the way. Good luck!
2273. Q:
i have a broken foot and pushups wouldnt be the best thing to do to work my triceps. what are some other things i can do that can bulid my triceps that would cause much stress on my foot?
A:
If you have access to the gym, then there is a huge variety of tricep exercises you can do -- all sorts of tricep cable pushdowns, skullcrushers, close-grip bench presses, behind-the back presses, etc. If you only have your own body to work with, then it's a bit trickier and really pushups are just about the only choice you have. What you can perhaps do is to keep your broken foot up the air (or perhaps propped up by something) so it's not bearing any weight and only have the other foot bear the weight. This will make the exercise more challenging and will stress your core muscles more but it will still remain primarily chest and triceps exercise.
2274. Q:
Iweigh 130 but i am young. I am 5feet 7inches but my stomach is has a lot of curves. How do i get rid of the curves.
A:
I am not sure exactly what you mean, but your weight is perfectly normal for your height. If you are a teenage, then especially you should not be thinking of losing weight. Instead, focus on being more physically active (doesn't matter how -- sports, walking, jogging, running, biking, swimming, mowing lawns, or anything else really) and eating healthy foods -- especially whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.
2275. Q:
If i wanted to burn 3 pounds in 7 days, how much jogging on the spot would i have to do each day?
A:
To burn 3 pounds of fat you need to burn 10500 extra calories which works out to burning extra 1500 calories daily which would require walking around 12 miles daily!
My recommendation is to first not look to lose so much weight so quickly -- about 1 pound lost per week is a much healthier and more practical pace for most people. And second, don't equate losing weight with doing more cardio. Instead please read this article to learn how a good diet with heavy whole-body weight training and moderate cardio make for a much more effective long-term fat loss program.
2276. Q:
how much more does muscle weigh than fat on a femal age 40, 5'6' and 160 lbs?
A:
Unfortunately there is no way to know that exactly without knowing your body fat percentage. At your height, weight and age your body fat is probably around 30%. Average muscle content in a person is about 35%, so you have 5% more of your bodyweight (or 8 pounds) in muscle than fat.
2278. Q:
i am trying to improve the ammount of push-ups i can do can you recommend a good pus-up workout
A:
Check out my response to 2263 above.
2279. Q:
hi mike, how long will it take an average person to add an inch to their deltoids?
A:
The most traditional and probably most relevant way to measure shoulders is to place two rulers in parallel, one against each shoulder, and measure the distance between them. If you simply use tape measure against the skin to measure shoulder-to-shoulder, the result will heavily depend on upper back and traps muscles which are bigger than deltoids and will not reflect the shoulder size well.
Having said that, if you use that traditional and accurate way of measuring, adding a full inch to the measure would require adding half an inch to each medial deltoid which is extremely ambitious. Medial deltoids are quite a small muscle and even with aggressive muscle gain it may easily take 1-2 years to gain that much. Even then, it may be the case that the new fat contributes as much to the measurement as new muscle.
If, on the other hand, you are measuring shoulder-to-shoulder with tape to skin, then adding an inch is considerably easier since as I mentioned that measure takes upper back and traps into account and they are bigger muscles and have more potential for growth.
2280. Q:
MIKE, how many calories above my basal metabolic rate should I be consuming when going on a bulk? I've calculated my BasalMR, to be 1800 KCal or there about, judging by the foods i eat and not putting on any weight. Would 1.5 kg a month be good for someone like me with a slow metabolism? (23 yo male, average physique - used to be fat)
A:
1.5 kg/month is a good aggressive bulk pace. For that pace you will want to overeat by around 250 calories/day. Keep in mind that even the slowest metabolism will rev up when bulking with weight training so while 2000 calories may be enough for you to start the bulk it's quite possible that in just a few weeks you'll be needing 2500 calories to just keep gaining weight at the same slow pace.
2281. Q:
Mike on non training days is it ok to eat 300 calories less?I want to obtain only muscle if possible and little too no fat.Is it ok?
A:
In my experience changing calories between training and non-training days did not produce better results than simply keeping them even throughout. It's much more important to make sure your average calorie level is just right to keep gaining weight but as slowly as possible. So I recommend focusing on that as the main goal and not worrying too much about changing calorie level on non-training days.
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