Q&A for: 15-Oct-05
715. Q:
how many miles are in a 5k run
A:
There's 3.1 miles in 5 kilometers.
716. Q:
I wrote question 711. I am on a low fat, low cal diet and I do cardio 3 times a week and resistance training and light weights 3 times a week. My husband insists taking amino acids will help me to burn more fat.??
A:
Amino acids are just protein broken down into its building blocks (same thing as your body does when you eat meat, fish, etc). Taking them separately will almost certainly have zero impact on your fat loss unless your diet is woefully low in protein (in which case you should just have a better diet).
I would encourage you to switch to a lower-carb, medium-fat diet -- keep the total calories the same but subsitute veggies (other than potato or corn) for your starchy foods (breads, pasta, rice) AND add some healthy fats like some olive oil or fatty fish (salmon) into your diet.
For training, don't be afraid to use heavier weights -- as long as you're losing weight overall you won't gain muscle, but heavier weight training will help you burn more fat.
717. Q:
I'm fat. I need to lose weight fast.
A:
If you want to lose fat for good, then forget about losing it 'fast'. All the millions of lose-weight-fast diets are just marketing hype. You can lose WEIGHT fast, but you can't lose FAT fast -- instead you'd just be losing a lot of muscle and water. The lost water will come back when you switch back to the normal diet and the lost muscle will just be lost which will make you MORE likely to gain new fat. So forget the notion of losing fat fast and instead focus on losing it for good! A good fat-loss pace is about 1 pound per week and definitely no more than 2 pounds per week. Please read this article carefully and then fill out Mike's Fitness Guide specifying 'Lose Fat' as your goal to get the complete diet and exercise prescription. Good luck!
718. Q:
Hello Mike, I am the recipient of question 635. Let me just say that your advice has already been showing results within a brief window of time. In regards to my diet, my current diet has me consuming around 200-220 grams of protein a day (I weigh 175lbs), is it unhealthy to consume too much protein? If not,would it be beneficial to the fat loss program to maybe add another protein or shake or two (with water mixture only, no fruit or milk) since the shakes contain hardly no fat (2g, 1g sat fat) and about 220 calories?
A:
Very glad to hear my suggestions are working for you! Eating that much protein is fine unless you have an existing kidney condition (in which case you should of course consult your doctor). You should drink a lot of plain water when on high-protein diet to help your kidneys flush out the extra wastes. Check out Q&A #453 for references to actual studies that examined whether additional protein is bad for your health.
As to your question regarding and extra shake or two, I would guess that it won't have much of an effect one way or another because you're already getting plenty of protein. But it shouldn't hurt either, so feel free to try adding another shake into your day. Pick the time when you don't eat the longest and have a plain water shake in the middle of that period.
|
