Q&A for: 15-Jun-08
2691. Q:
I keep hearing about people getting gastric bypass surgery and how effective it is. I think that would be extreme. But it makes sense to me to follow the diet they would be on, without the surgery. But then there are those that say that the calorie cut would be too extreme. I am 37, 5'7 and 270 lbs.
A:
Sorry, your doctor would be able to provide much better information about gastric bypass surgery than I can. The diet that gastric bypass patients follow is essentially very resitricted calorie diet which, as you point out, would in itself lead to significant weight loss. The procedure does make it easier to follow such a diet. In general indiscriminant low-calorie diets are rarely the best way to lose weight and fat, but in case of serious obesity they are better than nothing.
I don't think there's much question that if you can achieve weight and fat loss via exercise and healthy eating you will be much better off overall than if you got to the same weight via gastric bypass or via low-calorie diet alone. So I would encourage you to give exercise and diet a fair shot first -- read my Fat Loss, Nutrition, and Weight Training articles. If for whatever reason that did not work out for you or is not an option for medical reasons, then you could discuss gastric bypass with your doctor. Make sure to find out about side-effects of the surgery and also about the percentage of people who go on to gain the weight back after the procedure. Good luck!
2692. Q:
A 40 year old male weighs 200 pounds and has a body fat poecentage of 40%, how many pounds are fat tissue?
A:
Fat content is simply body fat percentage times weight. So in your example it's 40% * 200 pounds or 0.4 * 200 = 80 pounds of fat.
2694. Q:
will i gain weight if i consume soyagranules and soyamilk daily?
A:
Don't think of gaining weight in terms of a single food or meal that you eat. It completely depends on what your entire diet looks like. If you eat soy products in addition to other foods, then probably, yes, you'll gain weight. But if you substitute soy in place of other foods then you'll simply be exchanging calories from one for calories from another and your weight won't change. It's not soy (or any single other food) that matters but what your whole diet looks like.
Read my Nutrition article to learn what healthy foods you should be eating (the article does not mention soy specifically but it's a perfectly fine food choice as well) and then simply use these foods to make up the bulk of your diet. If you find that your weight does not increase simply eat more of these foods.
If you are looking to not just gain weight but specifically gain muscle, then you have to be more careful with how you eat. By default, your body will add most of the new weight in the form of fat. To force it to add more muscle you need to not only eat a healthy balanced diet rich in protein (as described in the article I linked), but also:
- make sure that your new weight gain is very slow and gradual (1 pound of bodyweight added every 2 weeks or so)
- perform heavy whole-body weight training or other physical activity such as sports to give your body a 'reason' to build new muscle.
You can read my article about Weight Training and also fill out Fitness Guide (select 'Gain Muscle' as your goal) to get a sample diet and training program.
2695. Q:
I have started weights training this year for past 6 months. 3 times a week. while i have been gaining some muscle mass, i am struggling to get rid of fat on my belly. My diet includes whey protein and promax protein bars. In fact I substitute protein bars whenever i feel hungry as much as possible. i also do a bit of cardio - 10 mins warm up and 10 mins after weights. my typical food routine is breakfast : 8am : egg white, prot shake 9am - fresh orange/grapefruit juice. 10:30am pro bar. 12pm - salad/sandwich chicken breast 2pm - skimmed milk cappucino 3pm - pro bar. 6pm pro bar. 9pm 2 scoops pro shake 1 cup non fat yoghurt
A:
In general protein bars as health food or weight loss food are highly overrated. They serve one useful purpose: easily provide you with more protein, since most people have difficulties eating significant amount of protein that's useful in changing body composition such as losing fat or gaining muscle. Besides providing protein however, these bars are not a particularly good or healthy food choice at all and I certainly would not rely on them as heavily as you do.
Looking at your diet you definitely do get plenty of protein and you do eat small meals often. That's a good start but that's not enough. You have just one good healthy meal -- the chicken salad. The rest of the meals are lacking healthy carbs and/or fats and have most if not all carbs come from sugar or sugar equivalents (juice, milk, yogurt, juice, and protein bars which typically pack a bunch of hidden sugars). Please read my Nutrition article and start changing your diet accordingly. Instead of over-relying on protein bars use 'real' foods as much as possible -- especially whole grains and leafy vegetables for carbs which are nearly completely lacking in your diet now.
You didn't mention your weight/height/body fat percentage, so I can't tell for sure that my next advice applies, but if you are already in good shape (body fat below 12-14%), then finding that the last bit of belly fat is stubbornly hanging around is normal. While it's relatively easy to lose weight and fat when you are in subpar shape, by the time you get yourself in pretty good shape it becomes harder and harder to make progress. This is normal and happens to 100% of the people. The way to break through these plateaus is to optimize your diet (as I already described in the above paragraph) and your training. Make sure to read my Weight Training article to see how you can improve your existing program. Also use the search feature (upper right of the page) to search for 'HIIT' as a cardio training alternative. Hope that helps!
2696. Q:
Hi Mike! To follow up on Q 2685: I do three days of weights (Mon - Chest, Triceps & Abs, Wed - Shoulders & Abs, Fri - Back, Biceps & Abs) and two days of moderate cycling/spinning (140 hpm for 30 - 40 minutes). I'm not doing any leg exercises, as I don't want my legs to grow. I use weights that allow me to do 3 sets of an exercise, reps ranging 10-10-8. I rest 40 seconds between sets. I don't do super-sets or any other exercise cycling, although I'm planning on tweaking the type of exercises I do in the next 3 weeks. I usually gym late afternoon/early evening, but plan on changing to go before work in the mornings. When is the best time? I've read your nutrition article and have already started making changes. My typical daily diet consists of the following: Breakfast (cooked oats with currants, milk and a scoop of whey powder and a spoon of flaxseed oil), mid-morning shake (whey), lunch (tuna/chicken & rice/lentils/sweet potato), pre-workout shake (whey), post- workout shake (whey) and dinner (tuna/chicken & vegetables & canned beans). I don't use oils of creamy toppings, only spices and herbs. I'm thinking of using creatine as well. I'm still confused as to how many calories I'm suppose to be eating.
A:
Thanks for posting back! Your training program looks fine, except I'll talk about training legs a little more when talking about cutting versus bulking. As far as when is the best time to work out it is really completely up to you -- whatever fits your schedule the best and whenever you feel the most energy. For some people it's mornings, for some it's evenings. Just pick whatever suits you best.
Unfortunately you didn't mention your weight/height/age at all, but my answer shouldn't change much. From what I understood, right now you are trying to accomplish two things: get a V-taper and build up your upper body. Unfortunately those two goals are somewhat opposite of one another and trying to achieve both simultaneously is rarely the best approach. Let me explain...
Building up upper body (upper back, chest, shoulders, arms) requires gaining new muscle. Gaining new muscle virtually always requires gaining weight -- the only exception is when you are just starting out with weights for the first time and your body can put on new muscle easily. So if you are serious about building up upper body you need to be eating enough to slowly but surely gain weight.
Now let's talk about V-taper. V-taper is a product of two things: wide upper body (that's what we discussed above) but equally importantly, a narrow waist with no excess fat. To get that narrow waist with little extra fat you will almost certainly need to lose weight (losing fat without losing weight is again almost impossible except for beginners).
So now you can see that you are trying to accomplish one thing (building up upper body) that requires weight gain and another (V-taper) that requires fat loss. If you are trying to accomplish both you'll likely simply find yourself running in place, making no significant progress over time. My advice is to pick one or the other as your primary goal. Either concentrate on bulking up, eating generously, gaining weight and building up your upper body OR choose to cut the extra fat first, lose weight, and get a narrower waist.
Whichever one you pick, you should stick to that program for at least a few months to make decent progress. After that you can change course and focus on your other goal, adjusting your diet accordingly. By alternating bulking-up and cutting-down periods like that you'll eventually both build up an impressive upper body and get a V-taper with slim waist.
Depending on which of the two goals you want to pursue first you'll need to adjust your diet accordingly. You can use Fitness Guide to help you come up with starter diet -- specify 'Lose Fat' if you want to focus on getting a narrow waist first or specify 'Gain Muscle' if you want to build up the upper body first. Once you have the diet defined, simply monitor your weight and adjust portion sizes up or down slightly to stay on track. When gaining weight try to gain no more than about 1 pound every 2 weeks. When losing weight try not to lose more than about 1 pound per week.
Finally let's talk about your training program briefly... If you chose to focus on bulking up first, I would recommend that you stop or at least reduce cardio. And you are probably right to not train legs if you do not want them to grow. On the other hand if you are focusing on cutting down extra fat, then you can keep your cardio as is and I would recommend also exercising legs -- you won't gain new muscle on legs (or anywhere else) while losing weight but by weight training legs you greatly increase your fat burning potential.
Hopw that helped. Please feel free to post back again and ask any follow up questions. Also, if you are interested, you can register for my site and start your fitness blog (everything is completely free and you can see some other blogs in Blogs section) and I'll be able to check in from time to time and answer your questions or give suggestions. Good luck!
2697. Q:
dear mike,whats heavier muscle or fat ?
A:
Muscle is more dense (i.e. 'heavier') than fat. Muscle has mass of about 1.06 grams per cubic centimeter while fat has mass of about 0.90 grams per cubic centimeter. For reference, water has mass of 1.0 grams per cubic centimeter, so muscle is about 6% heavier/denser than water while fat is 10% lighter/less dense than water.
2698. Q:
Of a persons weight how much of your weight should be muscle.. how do you figure that as we are all built different. I would like to know in pounds, like if female small to medium bone..5'4" tall and 168 pounds how much of that weight should be in the form of muscle weight?? Thank you
A:
Usually people talk in terms of body fat percentage -- what percent of your bodyweight is fat. Healthy body fat percentage range recommendations vary somewhat depending on soruce and age of the person in question, but roughly speaking for men healthy body fat percentage range is somewhere between 10 and 20% while for women it's between 20% and 30%. For example if you weigh 168 pounds and have 30% body fat percentage that would mean that you have 0.3 * 168 or about 50 pounds of fatty tissue. The recommended body fat percentage ranges go up with age. Also note that many athletes will have body fat percentages lower than those ranges and that's perfectly fine too.
Your question was a little different since you are asking about 'body muscle' percentage (as opposed to body fat percentage) and unfortunately literature is a lot sparser on this subject. From what I've seen the body muscle percentage is typically 40-50% for a healthy man and 30-40% for a healthy woman. The rest of our bodyweight (other than fat and muscle) is, of course, made up with bones, organs, etc.
Note that all measures of body fat (or body muscle) percentage are inexact and some measures can be way off. If you are concerned specifically about whether you may be overweight, then if you are not an athelete (i.e. you are an 'average person') you probably should simply consult the BMI table. For your weight and height your BMI is 29 which is overweight and close to being obese. For your height recommended body weight is 115-145 pounds.
If you are or have been very physically active (via sports or weight training), then you probably have more muscle than an average person and your BMI measure of 29 may only correspond to, say, BMI of 27 of an average person -- only slightly overweight.
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