Q&A for: 15-Apr-07
2156. Q:
hi im just 17 and im not comfortable with the size of my legs. they are so big and it is not proportional to my body. what should i do?
A:
I am not sure exactly what your situation is, so I'll describe some possible scenarios which may apply to you...
You may be overweight and your body 'prefers' to store a fat in your legs. For most males body's 'favorite' place to store fat is around the waist while for when it's around the waist and thighs. But even for men it's not that unusual to have an overweight person have large legs due to extra fat stored on them. In any case, there is absolutely NO WAY to selectively lose fat in JUST one part of the body (regardless of what millions of magazine and TV ads talk in 'targeting' belly fat or any other specific location). But what you CAN do is lose overall body fat which will decrease it in all body parts, including legs. Your body will 'decide' exactly how much fat to lose where, but the net result will be that all body parts will be slimmer. To find out the most effective way I know of to lose body fat and keep it from coming back, please read my fat loss article.
Another possibility is that your legs are naturally muscular and therefore appear out of proportion to your upper body. This is also quite common -- just like different people's bodies have different 'preferences' for storing fat they also have different 'preferences' for buiding muscle. It may be that your body is naturally predisposed to develop big muscles in your legs. This can be exacerbated if you participate in sports or other physical activity that heavily exercises legs. For this scenario if you desire to bring your upper and lower body into better proportion than you either have to try to lose muscle in your legs or build up muscle in your upper body. I'll break down these options next...
Losing muscle is generally difficult and usually not advisable. You can accomplish some muscle loss in your legs by (a) stopping lower body exercising/activity if you do any and (b) losing weight via diet and/or upper body exercise. The first part of the approach -- stopping exercising legs -- may prevent you from your favority and likely healthy activities. And the second part of this approach -- losing weight -- is not particularly healthy unless you are overweight in the first place. But if you are overweight then you should be following the directions in my first paragraph above anyway. If you are not overweight, then losing weight is unnecessary and can lead to health problems in extreme cases. Furthermore, it's quite possible that while losing weight you'll lose muscle and fat in your upper body as well so in the end your legs will still be out of proportion to the upper body.
That leaves the option of building up your upper body to gain some muscle and bring it into better proportion with the lower body. If you are a man and not overweight, then this is probably the best and most healthy option. Please read my weight training article and start on weight training. As anyone starting weight training, please pay attention to proper form while performing exercises, and learn the exercise well before piling on a lot of weight. The only difference in your specific case is that you will NOT exercise your legs because you don't want them to get even bigger. So skip all lower body exercises and just do the upper body. If you are a woman, then you won't be able to build up your upper body to the same extent as a man would, but you should still be able to make some progress and should be able to bring your upper body into better proportion with your legs. Hope this helps!
2158. Q:
A lot of teenage boys (lets say over 16) and youth in their early 20s get into weightlifting because they want to build muscle as they are can be lean or even very lean, like the young fella in question 78. You have said that between the ages of 16 and about 25, men will build muscle more easily and burn fat than at any other age. My question is, this being the case, why are so many young men on the lean side is the process of growing into an adult so energy demanding that it stops them from putting on bulk? Obviously, as we mature most people naturally fill out and I know weight training and careful overeating will build significant muscle. Why do people seem to be leaner, when they are younger one of the reasons younger guys will sport a six pack more easily than guys over 25. If you are lean like the guy in question 78, does that mean that you are undernourished or is it simply a natural by product of growing up? Being lean does mean though that any muscular development will show more readily than on a person with more bulk or body fat take Bruce Lee for example. There is an increasing amount of grown men, not just youth who are getting addicted to weights and constantly trying to put on more muscle because they feel they are small, even when they are already muscular I think its called Body dysmorphic disorder. I just think particularly younger guys should be aware of going overboard with weight training.
A:
A lot of young guys are quite lean because they are simply not interested and/or not trying to build up muscle by overeating and gaining weight. Even in the years 18-25 muscle gain will be quite limited unless the person makes a concerted effort to put on weight by overeating. The difference for that age compared to older age is that if the man does want to bulk up through weight gain, the ratio of new muscle to new fat will be quite high as is the ultimately potential for muscle gain before most of the new weight starts showing up as fat. In other words, for the same bulking effort, one can gain more muscle and less fat at that age. Most guys don't care about becoming muscular and some of those who want to don't know how to go about it (namely, that they need to overeat to gain weight). So the net result is many young guys simply stay quite lean.
As to the second part of your question -- about the body dysmorphic disorder -- you are most certainly correct! Obsession with being insufficiently muscular is unfortuantely a serious and probably growing problem for a lot of men in our society. In many ways it parallels the obsession with thinness among women and girls which also leads to many unhealthy behaviors and acts. Young men and anyone else who engages in physical activity or dieting for the purposes of changing their body composition should be very aware that taken too far this generally healthy pursuit can be quite damaging both physically and phychologically. One must always
maintain a positive optimistic and balanced approach to these activities and not let oneself get caught up in the negative thinking. One must be mindful and actively fight thoughts like 'I am too fat' or 'I am not muscular enough' or 'I am not lean enough' or 'My progress is too slow' or anything else that tends to put the mind in negative disposition towards oneself and the body.
Besides positive thinking one must of course also realize that balance is necessary in approaching body composition, just like with approaching any other activity or pursuit. While there is no absolute standard in how muscular is muscular enough or how thin is thin enough, certainly there are many commonsense sanity checks one can apply to make sure the progress is not going too far. If you find yourself constantly thinking of your body composition (even if positively thinking) or turning to steroids or other questionable/illegal supplements or spending so much much time working out that you don't have enough time for other activities it may well be time to take a step back and objectively re-evaluate the situation. This is of course often easier said than done, but nevertheless it is something one should be aware of.
2159. Q:
i WORKOUT 5 DAYS IN A WEEK AND MY MUSCLES ARE ALWAYS TIGHT. LET ME KNOW HOW MUCH PROTIEN i SHOULD TAKE TO MAKE LEAN MUSCLES BECAUSE i WANT TO LOOSE WEIGHT .
A:
If you are finding that your muscles are constantly sore from workouts, there's a good chance you are working them too much/too often. Do fewer sets or allow an extra day or two for recovery, so that you don't work out muscles that are already sore. It's OK to work out chest while your, say, legs are sore, but don't work out chest if chest itself is still sore from the last workout.
As far as how much protein, fill out my fitness guide to get a suggested diet depending on your goal.
2160. Q:
why is it that nhl hockey players(excluding defensemen) can only play 3 to 5 minutes before having to sit down for a break compared to soccer players who can play 50 minutes straight with no rest.Isnt runnig at full speed just as tiring as skating?
A:
I think NHL shifts actually last even shorter than that, typically under 60 seconds, with defensemen playing only slightly longer than forwards. The most basic reason for that is simply that the two games have different rules. Soccer only allows a few substitutions while NHL allows virtually unlimited substitutions. The implication of that rule is that NHL games are able to proceed at much faster pace than soccer because the players on the ice are much fresher. It is certainly very possible to play hockey for an hour without ever substituting -- anyone who played pond ice hockey has done just that -- but the intensity of the game is necessarily lowered as the result.
Any one individual soccer player does not go at full speed for longer than maybe 15-20 seconds before necessarily slowing down. NHL players do much the same thing, except instead of switching to walking or light jogging like soccer players they go to the bench instead. This is just the consequence of how our bodies function -- we cannot maintain top effort for more than around 20-40 seconds before having to slow down. Runners who run long distances (over 400m) necessarily pace themselves to not go all out in the beginning so they can maintain their speed over the entire race. In soccer or NHL there is not much pacing, but the players are given the opportunity to recover after a spurt of all-out activiity -- by jogging in soccer or by being substituted in NHL. Constant shifting in NHL allows the average pace of the game to be faster than in soccer since the skaters are always relatively fresh. But the bottom line is that virtually all major sports incorporate, either via rules or via the natural flow of the game, periods of intense activity when the players go all out with periods of relative rest/recovery. In soccer this is achieved via the fact that only a few players are running at top speed at any one point, in NHL hockey -- by both varied pace of the game (transition versus setups in offensive zone) and by substitutions, in NFL football -- by periods between plays, in MLB baseball -- by periods between pitches, in NBA basketball -- similar to NHL, by varied pace at different moments of the game (transition vs. offensive zone) and also by substitutions to some degree.
2161. Q:
do you know anything about the Shifting Calories diet and does it work?
A:
There are a couple different diets that use that moniker. One advocates shifting some of the calories from evening meals towards breakfast and lunch -- meals that typically get ignored. The other advocates substituing calories from 'good foods' for 'bad foods'. Both of those are valid advice for most people and will likely produce some results but neither is a very comprehensive approach that could produce truly significant changes in body composition.
2162. Q:
what are the causes of the body retaining a lot of water and how can I prevent this?
A:
Water retention is a natural and necessary process in your body and is not something you should seek to actively change or control beyond simply eating healthy. In general, lower carb diets will result in less water retention. Eating fewer calories in general will also result in less water retained. These are the biggest reasons for immediate 'weight loss' on many fad diets -- these diets simply severely restrict your carb and overall calorie consumption leading to quick water loss. Many people unfortunately take that to mean that the diet is working even though the long-term success or failure of these diets should be evaluated by the amount of fat lost and has nothing to do with water retention.
2163. Q:
hi mike, just wanted to commend you on your response in Q2155, I'm sure that there are a lot of young/ambitious people who are looking for a quick fix to losing man boobs or a beer gut, and I think that you were absolutely right in not even giving advice for the path of a steroid user. Great site and fantastic Advice. Kaz UK
A:
Thank you, Kaz! I certainly strongly believe that steroids have no place in anybody's program unless prescribed by a doctor for health reasons.
2164. Q:
mike, is it true that more fat is burnt walking in oppose to cardio? if a man was to walk 5km and run 5km on different days, would it be true that he would be likely to burn more fat walking? AL sweden
A:
No, 'fat-burning zone' for cardio is a myth. Check out Q&A #402 for related discussion. In most cases you will derive more benefit from higher-intensity activity -- in this case running -- as long as you can do it safely. Obviously there are exceptions like people who should not run because of heart or other health conditions or who have a leg or foot injury that would be aggravated by running. But for an average person looking to lose fat running will usually be more beneficial than walking.
2165. Q:
mike, I've been told that casein is an excellent anti catabolic supplement, that i should take an hour and a half before I go cardio. Is it true that in oppose to whey, it congeals in your stomach, acting as a slow digesting protein, and potentially blocks other food from going through whilst it is being digested itself? how would you rate casein in oppose to whey which is apparantley 'quick acting' thanks. Confused Dave
A:
While casein such as found in cottage cheese digests slower than whey on its own, we don't have any reliable evidence that the same holds true when they are combined with other foods or even water. Furthemore it is not clear what is the 'ideal' timing of protein consumption/digestion relative to the workout. If you are still digesting your food while working out it means extra energy and blood flow has to be expended on that activity. The processes involved are numerous and complex and I do not think the answer is clear-cut.
Personally, I believe the notion of 'protein digestion time' is overhyped in the supplement industry. Certainly, I have never come across any scientifically controlled study that verifies claims like that you've mentioned and have not experienced or notice them firsthand either. I would not worry about the exact type of protein I eat, but instead make sure that I eat enough protein overall, spread more or less evenly across frequent meals throughout the day.
2166. Q:
if one has to eat a surplus of calories to gain muscle mass isnt it possible that one can gain more fat than muscle and is that such a good thing?
A:
Certainly! It's not only possible but almost unavoidable. However by eating healthy nutritious foods in moderate amounts to ensure that weight gain is very slow (no faster than 1 pound every 2 weeks is my rule of thumb) one can maximize muscle gain and minimize fat gain. After enough muscle is gained, one can reverse the course and go on a 'cut' to lose the unwanted fat. The net result after a bulk-cut cycle is more muscle with same or less fat.
2167. Q:
Hi mike, I wanted to know a way to stop the weight loss but at the same time still burn fat I am still struggling with the last bit of lower stomach fat and I am still losing weight. So what is an healthy way to sustain my weight now and still burn fat?
A:
Unfortunately unless you are quite overweight/obese you will not be able to effectively burn fat while maintaining your weight. If you are young and/or have good genetics you may be able to accomplish it by simply eating healthy and maintaining healthy lifestyle, but for most people the only way to keep losing those annoying last bits of fat is to keep losing weight (while exericsing and eating right, of course).
You may want to consider going on a short bulk to add some muscle and rev up your metabolism before restarting on a cut. Make sure your weight gain is as slow as possible during the bulk, of course, to minimize new fat gains.
2168. Q:
I want a flat stomach and skinnier legs so I can feel comfortable in a bathing suit before the summer comes but I would not like to loose anything off my chest, is that possible? If so what can I do?
A:
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to influence where exactly your body will lose fat. The only thing you can control is lose weight/fat overall and your body will 'decide' which body parts it will come from. If you do lose fat, most likely you will come from all three -- legs, waist, and chest. But if you are overweight now, it's probably a good idea to lose some body fat and chances are good you'll like your new look better. Please read this to learn the best way to lose body fat.
2171. Q:
Type your question here and click Submit.HI mike , I have alot of chest and stomach fat . How can I get defined chest muscle and stomach . Is benching incline and decline better or push-ups. Please advise im struggling.
A:
The main thing you have to do is lose overall body fat. That is the only way to lose chest and stomach fat, in particular. Both benching and pushups can be part of your program but they only work a small fraction of your muscles and none of the big ones. In order to lose most fat you want to work ALL of your muscles, especially the large muscles of legs and lower and upper back. Start by reading my fat loss article and start by creating a diet and whole-body weight training program for yourself. I would advise doing mainly incline bench press for the chest but remember that it is only a very small part of your program. Your overall success will be determined by the quality and discipline of your overall diet and weight training program. Good luck!
2172. Q:
Hi Mike, I hurt my left arm a couple weeks ago, and I skipped a day of exercise (was doing the no-equip. every other day) to try and let my arm heal up a little. It was just an ache, not sprained or anything. I continued to do the program about a week and a half ago, because I don't want to gain back the weight that I've lost so far. But my arm still aches. The thing is, when I do the program and get to the upper body parts, the pain stars to get less. Then of course the next day, it hurts even more. Should I just take a break from doing exercises until it feels completely healed up, or should it still heal up while I'm damaging the muscles from exercising.
Another question: How many calories would you think be burned from raking and pitchforking leaves for a couple hours a day? Are there a lot of exercise benefits from raking and pitchforking (I've heard there is, and I'd imagine there would be, just not sure how much it helps with weight loss/muscle build and such.)
Thanks Mike.
A:
Let your arm fully heal before exercising it again. It may take a week or even two, but every time you stress your arm by exercising you are just aggravating the injury. Eventually this may lead to more serious injuries which will set you back much more. So skip the exercises involving arms until it heals and focus on lower body for now. You can also do a bit more cardio too.
Raking and pitchforking should be an excellent cardio exercise! Pitchforking could even serve as a good resistance exercise, depending on how much weight you're lifting up. I can't give you exact calorie expenditure estimate since it depends on your intensity in raking/pitchforking (mainly, how you are doing it), but I would guesstimate around 300 calories burned per hour. As I mention, depending on how you pitchfork, it may also carry the same benefits as heavy weight training thus forcing your body to burn more calories in the hours and days after as it recovers.
2173. Q:
how much muscle could I gain just doing pushups?I am a 6 foot 1 inch male
A:
Short answer is, not much. Pushups exercise chest and triceps and to lesser degree shoulders. All of those are relatively small muscle groups (chest is the largest of the three) and pushups are not actually very effective exercise for building muscle because they simply become too easy. Once you can do a couple dozen pushups in a row (and most fit men can easily do that and more) the muscle-building benefit of pushups will be quite small. But most importantly it's simply not possible to build a lot of muscle by exercising alone! If you really want muscle in addition to heavy training you have to eat enough to gain weight!
So while pushups are certainly a very good exercise and doing them a lot will make you stronger (you will likely be able to do several dozen pushups in a row eventually) they will not build you a lot of new muscle. If you are interested in building serious muscle, start by reading my weight training article and my nutrition article to learn the basics and then fill out my fitness guide specifying 'Gain Muscle' as your goal to get a starter program.
2174. Q:
Type your question here and click Submit.
HI,
I HAVE BEEN KEEPING A STRICT DIET AND I HAVE BEEN ONLY DOING CARDIO ON THE ELIPTICAL, AND I HAVE NOTICED WEIGHT GAIN OF 10 POUNDS... IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ITS MUSCLE?? OR DID I GAIN WEIGHT?
A:
If you did not do any weight or other resistance training but only did elliptical cardio, then it's very unlikely that you could have gained 10 pounds of muscle. But it's possible that your weight measurements are not consistent if you used different scales or weighed yourself at different times of the day. I recommend only weighing yourself first thing in the morning, always using the same scale, after using the bathroom, before eating or drinking and without wearing clothing. That will give you most consistent results that you can use to track progress.
The second point is, of course, that cardio alone is rarely the best way to lose weight or fat. If you haven't already, please read my fat loss article to learn a much better comprehensive approach.
2175. Q:
I am a 12 year old , weighing at 88-89 pounds. I am very skinny. I eat a lot of healthful foods and snacks but I never gain weight. Please help!
A:
Don't worry about it! Different people hit their growth spurts at different ages and it's most likely you simply haven't hit yours yet. At age 12 it's certainly nothing to worry about. Continue to eat healthy, just as you have, be generous with portion sizes, stay active, and let nature its course!
2176. Q:
is it possible to isolate hamstrings doing an excercise at home, in oppose to going to the gym and using the leg curl machines? I have bar/dumbells only. Is there any way of excercising the hams without incoorporating the quadriceps? thanks, Adam
A:
Hamstrings will be used in and will develop from squat and lunges exercises, but if you really want to isolate them with the home equipment, the best choice is probably straight-legged deadlift which you can find on my Essential Exercises page. It hits both the lower back and the hamstrings and many people find it difficult to really feel it in the hamstrings. My advice is to concentrate on using the lower back to keep your back straight from curving and to concentrate on using the hamstrings to actually pull the weight up. It may take some practice, but it's your best option at home.
2177. Q:
how much should a 5 foot 9 14 yearold girl weigh?
A:
Anywhere from 130 to 170 pounds would be considered healthy.
2178. Q:
how much weight can an average person pull?
A:
Unfortunately there's no way to answer that question since it completely depends on the amount of friction between the weight being pulled and the surface on which it is being pulled.
2179. Q:
When you under eat (slightly) and exercise to lose body fat why does the body not just turn to your fat stores once it realizes it cannot get enough energy from your food intake instead you get hungry. Surely if the body is getting energy from fat through under eating and exercise you should not feel hungry.
A:
Your body does turn to the fat stores when faced with caloric deficit, but at the same time it will also start burning muscle for energy as well. Why? Because your body is concerned with self-preservation in face of potential starvation. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue constantly being rebuilt and repaired which uses up energy and burns fat! Fat tissue, on the other hand, is metabolically dead -- it doesn't require any energy to maintain itself. The less muscle you have, the less fat you'll burn -- it's that simple. When you lose weight, your body is put in a situation where it has to decide between burning muscle or fat for energy (both can be used for energy by your body). It will almost always burn both because your body voluntarily does not want to lose weight! So it reluctantly burns fat because that's what fat is there for -- to keep the body going through tough times! But it also burns muscle because by burning muscle it lowers its future metabolic needs and can reduce energy requirements to keep itself going without losing weight.
And through it all body will use hunger to let you know that it does not 'like' the present situation of caloric deficit and wants more calories.
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