Q&A for: 14-Nov-06
1880. Q:
hey mike, reply to 1872, i noticed you said to refrain from eating corn and potatoes, why is this? cant you kill 2 birds with one stone, since they are both veggies, and potatoes are a good carb source?
also, i have 1/2 wheat bagel in the morning, 1 slice of wheat bread w/ pb for a snack during class, a chicken sandwich on wheat during lunch, and tuna sandiwch on wheat after sschool, thats like 5 slices of what + bagel.. is this too much wheat do you think? wat should i change if so. im thinking about maybe making oatmeal in the morning, but i kinda dislike the taste, and i put it in my pre and post workout shakes.
A:
The problem with potatoes and corn is that our bodies digest them relatively quickly causing fast rise of blood sugar and following insulin release and fat storage. For anyone trying to avoid gaining fat it's very important to eat foods that keep blood sugar at lower levels -- green veggies are just about the perfect food in that respect, though of course it's impossible to get by on green veggies alone. In addition, many people don't even get much nutrition out of corn. For that reason I would recommend avoiding or minimizing these two veggies. If you do eat them, sweet potatoes or yams are a better choice than regular potatoes, young small red potatoes are the best choice of regular potatoes. In addition, boiled potatoes with skin are much better for you than baked potatoes.
For your second question, yes, those 5+ servings of wheat bagels/bread is a bit on the high side. Oatmeal, as you said, would be perfect -- try slicing bananas, stawberries, apples, or cinnamon into it to improve the taste. Another choice to consider is brown rice for after school when you have time to prepare a meal. If you keep eating wheat make sure that the package says 'whole-wheat' and not just wheat or even all-wheat. 'Whole-wheat' is an official designation that allows you to be sure that much of the nutritious and healthy grain hull was included. Other labels are just marketing gimmicks.
Also, I'm not sure if you meant that half the bagel makes up your entire breakfast, but if it does you should really do better. That's a very incomplete breakfast full of so-so carbs and little else. Try adding an omelette or even a whey shake if you don't have time for a bigger meal.
1881. Q:
i am a 63 year old female and i am feeling very old and ugly. after i began menopause and, with the constant stress of my job, i went from 130 to 220 pounds. i am 5'9' and i had weighed, with very minor fluctuations, 130 all my life.
i have lost 30 pounds and i will continue to eat properly and exercise to lose the rest of the weight. as you mentioned in your article, the problem is that i didn't gain the weight evenly. at 130 pounds, my breasts were a B cup. i always thought that was just wonderful. i felt womanly but i could go without a bra or, with a bra, jog without pain or discomfort. now i am a 38 DD. and when i lose weight, it seems to come off everywhere else but my breasts. is there any exercise i can do to target weight in the breasts so it will come off from that area as I lose it from the rest of my body?? the only thing that gives me hope is that the right breast is slightly smaller than the left one. i am right handed and that must mean that my using that arm more makes a difference. i am resigned to the fact that when i lose weight, they will hang in an unattractive way. i still want them reduced w/o plastic surgery if possible. I did read your information on this problem but i am still a little confused. along with weight training for the entire body, if i do the weight training that targets the chest muscles, will that ULTIMATELY, reduce my breasts?? if that is the case, should i make sure that i do more of the chest presses than i do other exercises?
thank you so very much for your answer. i can't get back the years i missed being fat but at least i want to be able to move around again w/o always feeling this very uncomfortable top heavy feeling. if i lose weight and that doesn't go away, i will still be miserable. the prospect of that is too horrible to comtemplate. i thank you in advance for your answer. i am so lookinging forward to it.
A:
Great job resolving to fix your situation and losing those 30 pounds! Unfortunately, there is nothing extra you can do to specifically target breast fat besides eating right and exercising to lose overall fat which it sounds like you are already doing. Doing more chest presses will not help in this case, as long as you do regular chest presses already. I also would not read too much into the fact that your right breast is slightly smaller than the left one -- small asymetries like that are common and need not be associated with being right handed.
While it definitely becomes harder to lose fat as you get older, it sounds like you are managing to do just that and that's the most important thing! You should be very proud of yourself and very happy with your results, even if they may appear modest. As long as you keep at it and lose fat, even ever so slowly, your breasts will get smaller and you will look closer to how you looked when you were younger. I can't promise that you'll be able to reach 130 pounds again, but you can certainly make tremendous progress from 190 and change the way you look quite a bit. Just keep at it, stay positive, and be proud of what you are accomplishing! Best of luck to you!
1882. Q:
mike, whats the overall best meal to eat preworkouT? and how long before preworkout should it be eaten? usually i drink a protein shake with 1cup of oats like 15 minutes preworkout, but i never get much energy
A:
Oats + whey is a pretty good pre-workout meal, but the problem may be in that 15 minutes is not enough time for your body to digest the oats and get the energy out of them. Try eating the same meal 30-45 minutes before the workout or so. Alternatively try making a smoothie with fruits and whey -- both of those are digest quickly so that 15 minutes before the workout is appropriate for such a smoothie. Yet another option is to have a regular full complete meal (for example, salmon + brown rice + broccoli) an hour to an hour and a half before the workout.
1884. Q:
Mike, I recently went back to a heavy-weight weight lifting program, after going light for a couple of months. My question is, for minor muscles, like the biceps, can I continue doing light weight reps? When I increased the weight on my bicep curls, I notice that I don't feel the concentration on my bicep that I feel when I use a lighter dumbell. Also, I just feel like the motion just isn't as smooth. Should I also increase the weight on such minor muscles, or is it okay to go light on those while going heavy on the major muscles?
A:
You should not sacrifice good form to lift heavier weight, so if using heavier dumbbells causes you to swing the weight up or otherwise use subpar form on arm exercises then you should use lighter weights. On the other hand, if you can maintain proper form but simply can't do as many reps, then I would recommend sticking with the heavier weights. You may not feel the same 'burn' that comes with many reps, but the burn is not an indicator of progress. Variety is always good and now that you finished a lighter-weight program, it's a good idea to challenge your arms with heavier weights.
1885. Q:
hi mike, will your 5 day training program increase the strength of core muscles? I was told that I have weak core muslces, what exactly are they? Miko (JAP)
A:
Core muscles are the muscles in the center of your body: abdominal and lower back. They are responsible for stabilizing your body in everything that you do standing up or sitting down and are of course very important. You can do direct core muscle training through exercises such as crunches and hyperextensions, but I prefer to focus on whole-body exercises such as deadlift, squat, and lunges all of which do a great job developing your core muscles because they all require abdominal muscles for stabilization and directly work lower back muscles (especially in case of deadlift). On top of that my 5-day program mixes in some crunches to target abdominals directly. So, yes, this program will increase the strength of core muscles.
1886. Q:
how do i lose weight?
A:
Please read my weight loss article.
1887. Q:
Type your question here and click Submit.flabby pectorals
A:
Flabby pectorals are a result of excess body fat some of which accumulates in the chest. The way to fix that is to lose overall body fat through healthy balanced diet and exercise, including weight training as I explain here.
1888. Q:
Mw weight keeps going up and down(a couple of pounds) week to week – despite me eating the same amount and exercising the same amount. Do you have an idea why this is? Meanwhile my body fat percentage is staying the same – I can’t afford to eat less, as I feel drained if I do. I have had the strange thing where my weight goes down and so does my body fat weight– result my body fat percentage stays more or less the same. Would I be right in saying that the idea is to have a constant weight whilst your body fat decreases in weight?
A:
Small up and down fluctuations in body weight like that are completely normal. They happen because of differences in your daily consumption of foods and liquids and because of changes in when your body eliminates wastes.
But yes, as long as your body weight stays basically the same it will be quite difficult to lose significant amount of body fat (though not impossible if you are overweight and just starting out with weight training). The best way to lose body fat is to slowly lose weight while maintaining a healthy balanced diet and exercising including weight training. A good weight loss pace is about one pound per week. Slower than that is OK too, but if you lose weight much faster than that then you risk losing muscle along with fat and driving your metabolism into the ground.
1889. Q:
hi mike im a big guy i have man boobs a big belly and hips how can i lose weight fast and easy
A:
Unfortunately there is no good way to lose weight fast and easy. Any rapid weight loss is virtually guaranteed to be followed by all that weight coming back and then some. This happens because when your body loses weight quickly it loses a lot of muscle along with fat and with less muscle it becomes much easier for you to gain new fat -- so a few months later you end up in worse situation than you started. As a big guy you may be able to afford to lose weight a bit quicker than average person, but still 2 pounds per week should be the absolute fastest you should try to lose and I would recommend slower.
Please read my weight loss article to understand what's involved in losing fat effectively and keeping it off afterwards. Then go through the nutrition and weight training articles linked in there and fill out the fitness guide to get a starter diet suggestion along with ideas how to customize it for yourself. Good luck!
1890. Q:
Hi Mike. I'm only a teenager and I'm overweight and its playing with my emotions. What kind of exercise would you recommend doing? And I want to lose 40 pounds in two months or around there. Please help me immediately. And what kinds of foods should I eat?
A:
Glad to hear you decided to get back in shape, but losing 40 pounds in 2 months is not a good idea, especially for a teenager. Fast weight loss like that will almost certainly not give you the results you seek and will almost certainly end up in all the fat coming back. In addition, rapid weight loss in a teenager can stunt your growth. You didn't get overweight in 2 months so there's no reason to expect to or try to lose it all in just 2 months.
Instead you should resolve do the right thing and make the long-term changes to your diet and lifestyle that will over time lose all the fat you want to lose and leave you in great shape. Allow at least 1-2 weeks of time to lose each pound of weight you want to lose -- so 1 year or more to lose these 40 pounds . Slow and steady definitely wins the race here.
Please read this article to learn how to eat healthy and change your daily diet accordingly. For exercise, any type of activity is good. Walk, run, bike, swim, play pickup sports with friends, mow lawns, shovel snow, clean the house, etc. If you're over 15 and have access to weights, then supervised weight training can be a tremendous aid in losing fat. Read my this article to learn about weight training, but remember to learn proper form for each exercise to avoid injuries and do NOT push yourself too hard till you are very familar with each exercise.
A year may seem like a long time when you are just starting out, but you have a real chance to make a lasting difference in your appearence and health and 12 months from now you will be thanking yourself for making the right decision. Good luck!
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