Q&A for: 16-Jul-05
140. Q:
man boobs
A:
Please read this!
177. Q:
Hi, i've been going to the gym about 5 days a week following a workout plan for about 4 months, and i also do cardio and have 2 protein shakes daily. I am 6'3 200 pounds and 15 yers old if that helps, anyways, i still have puffy nipples and extra fat in the chest area. I've had it for about 4 years now.
A:
At only 15 years of age don't worry about it. Over the next few years, your body will go through the natural maturation process and you will shed a lot of that fat. Even though you've hit your growth spurt early, your body is far from being done maturing, so try to be patient (not easy, I know) and give it time.
On the other hand, it sounds like you already are getting an early start on training! This is VERY good because during that same maturation process you will have an opportunity to put on some serious muscle! I would not recommend that you try to lose weight at this point, but that instead you focus on weight training and clean up your diet as much as you can. During the next five years or so you will have the only opportunity in your life to put on significant muscle while burning fat and you can completely transform your body. If you just absolutely cannot stand the extra fat and feel like you must lose weight, please do so slowly, while weighttraining, and don't drop below 180-185 lbs. But again, I would not recommend losing weight at all at your age and condition.
Instead try to learn as much as possible about weightlifting and proper nutrition and optimize your training and diet by using your new knowledge. If you look at the Articles section of my website, you'll find overviews of weighttraining, nutrition, and essential exercises. Please read the first two very carefully and absorb all that you can from them. Use the third one as a reference to look up exercises. Ask me any questions as needed and good luck!
179. Q:
How to lose man boobs
A:
Please read this.
180. Q:
I am 14, 148 pounds. I have a little problem with my chest area. I would like to know how to lose it. I never have been fat or a little chubby my chest has been like this practically my whole life. But now that I am getting to an age where I want my body to be in the best shape, I would like to know how to lose it. Any exersizes or any help at all would be great.
A:
I understand your desire to look your best, especially in the summer, but you also need to keep the big picture in mind. Over the next 5-6 years your body will change a lot, you will lose a fair amount of fat and gain a fair amount of muscle, provided you eat right. You also definitely do NOT want to mess with your growth by trying to lose weight at this point. Having said that, here's what you can do to make sure you grow muscular instead of fat...
Learn about good healthy nutrition! Read this and implement its suggestions into your everyday life. That does NOT mean following a diet to lose weight (because, as I've said, it'll jeopardize your healthy growth), but instead learning what foods to eat, what foods to avoid, and how to structure your daily food intake. Eat LOTS of veggies (raw veggies as much as possible), fruits, whole grains (like old-fashioned oatmeal), brown rice, beans and lentils, fish, lean meats, chicken and other poultry, eggs, nuts (plain roasted), olive oil (use it as salad dressing), some dairy (cottage cheese is great). Avoid junk/fast food, pizzas, burgers, fries, chips, fried foods in general, candy and sweets, sodas, (both diet and regular), juices (eat real fruit instead), white bread, white rice, pasta, processed pre-packaged foods including but not limited to TV dinners, most boxed breakfast cereals, things like 'Hot Pockets', commercial salad dressings (use plain olive oil instead), canned foods (eat fresh instead).
As far as exercising, do body-weight exercises such as pullups (a great great and very underappreciated exercise), pushups, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, touching your toes. Be generally active, play sports. If you want, you can get started on freeweights as well, but do NOT push yourself too hard with freeweights and never go to muscular failure in the gym until you're at least 16. As far as the kinds of weight training you should do, it should be the same as anyone else, BUT with adult supervision, solid discipline, and always keeping in mind to not overdo it. Read my weighttraining article but remember that not everything in it applies to a 14-year old. Mainly, for the tenth time :), do NOT push yourself very hard in the gym. You will grow anyways and you absolutely do not want to sustain an injury that may stunt your growth and possibly haunt you for life. Be careful in the gym.
If you follow the above suggestions, you will not only lean out but grow strong and muscular. Plus if you already have good knowledge of healthy nutrition and weighttraining philosophy, by the time you hit the gym, you'll have a huge advantage over your peers. As I've said before, your body is about to start on a once-in-a-lifetime growth spurt and it's up to you to choose whether it results in a lot of fat or a lot of muscle. Learn, eat well, exercise, and your chest fat will disappear in no time!
181. Q:
I'm a 5'10, 200 lb Woman. I have a treadmill and a total gym in my basement which I never use. I want to loose weight, but I don't know how much I shoul loose or how to loose it. I've tried fad diets, but as you know they don't give long lasting results. Please, will you reccomend an excercise program and a diet plan for me? I'm 47 years old and desperate! Please, please help me.
A:
Sure! At your height you probably want to be somewhere in 150-160 lbs range or less, so you're looking at losing 40-50 lbs. Good news is that it's very doable as long as you're willing to give it your best effort and be patient. Allow 1 year or even longer to lose all that weight. Faster weightloss (as you've probably experienced with fad diets) just comes right back. So slow and steady is your goal. Try for about 1 pound of weight lost per week and definitely no faster than 2 pounds per week. Consult with your doctor first, especially if you've never really exercised before. Assuming everything's OK, here's how to eat and exercise...
Read My nutrition article and try to really understand all of its points. Reread it as necessary. This is your overall guide to healthy eating. Then look at the sample fat-burning diet -- it happens to be just about right for somebody like you. This is your new daily diet. Pay very careful attention to portion sizes -- they're all fairly small and if you're overly generous with your servings it can easily turn from fat-burning diet to a fat-gaining one. Be careful and measure your portions, especially in the beginning, if you're not sure. Switch to this gradually, over a couple of weeks and maintain it from that point on.
For your exercise, first read through my Weighttraining article and understand it like you did with the Nutrition one. You can then pick from any of the weightlifting programs given in that article. To do the exercises, you'll want to either dust off that total gym machine or join a gym yourself. I recommend joining the gym since it'll provide you with much wider equipment selection. Plus most people find gyms more motivating than working out at home by themselves. Assuming you join the gym, you can use this as an exercise reference. If you decide to go with your total gym machine, you can use a guide that should've come with it that describes some of the different exercises you can perform and what body parts they target and substitute total gym exercises for the ones I give in my sample workout routines. If you're not sure what total gym exercise work what muscle, you can try describing it to me and I'll try to give you an answer. On the whole though, if possible I once again recommend the full gym. When weight training, remember to make the weights heavy, so that you physically can't lift them more then 12-15 times -- that's needed for the weight training to be an effective fat-burner.
For cardio, use either your tradmill or just run 2-3 times per week for 20-30 minutes each time.
Now that you have your exercise program and your nutrition program it's going to be important for you to keep track of your progress and adjust your diet to keep on track for that 1 pound per week weight loss. Don't start tracking till 2-3 weeks into the program (first few weeks are always an adjustment period and your weight can go down or even up quite a bit -- ignore it!). Once you start tracking it, track it closely. Weigh yourself every morning on empty stomach before eating or drinking. Don't worry about day-to-day fluctuations, but make sure that over one month you lose about 4 pounds. If you're losing too fast, add a little more food into your diet. If you're not losing fast enough, decrease serving sizes.
Your success will depend on how closely you can stick to these programs. It's easy to overeat and wipe out all your efforts -- watch your diet most closely. It won't come easy, but if you fully invest yourself into doing this, you will reap great rewards. Good luck!
182. Q:
What is the fastest and most effective way to get rid of man boobs?
A:
Please read this!
183. Q:
Are low carb diets good for losing body fat?
A:
In the broadest terms, yes, low-carb diets have the right basic idea of limiting carbs. But there's still a lot more to constructing a successful diet than just blindly limiting or cutting out carbs. Plus there's the exercise aspect which is easily as important as the diet for successful long-term weight loss. Check out my articles for my suggestions for both the diet and exercise.
184. Q:
Hi, again its me from question 177, i've been only doing about 20 minutes of cardio at about 5mph when i run.. and i have beel following this weight training guide: http://www.workout-routines.com/bodybuilding.html do u think it's a good one? also, on my chest days i do flat,incline, and sometimes do dumbbell flyes, i pyramid on the flat bench.. does this seem like a good workout plan to you?
A:
Those two routines look fine. They are definitely on the high end as far as the volume (in other words, the number of sets) goes, so my recommendation would be to follow a few months of those programs with a couple of months of lower-volume training (such as the programs I give in my weighttraining article) before going back to high volume. This gives your body both a chance to recover in between intense training periods and provides it a shock when switching between programs which is a good way to break through your plateaus.
As far as specific notes about those programs... It'd be good to have more lower back and leg work (deadlifts and lunges are great exercises which are missing there). Also I wouldn't do isolation exercises like leg extension before main exercises like squats or leg presses (do them after instead). But on the whole those programs are very reasonable and should give you good results.
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