Q&A for: 18-Jun-06
1623. Q:
How much space does a pound of fat take up compared to a pound of muscle – I’ve heard that fat takes up more space than muscle despite being lighter than muscle.
A:
Fat is about 20% less dense than muscle, so it takes up about 20% more room than muscle. It's normal that the lighter substance (fat in this case) takes up more room than the heavier substance (muscle) -- just think how big a two-pound feather-stuffed pillow looks compared to same two pounds of, say, iron.
1624. Q:
i mant to increase my weight
A:
Two words: EAT MORE! :) It really comes down to simply eating more -- even the skinniest guys can gain weight if they make up their mind to eat more every single day and every single meal. If you're still not gaining weight, then you simply have to eat even more!
If you specifically want to add this weight as all muscle, then it's a little more involved -- you still have to eat more, of course, but you need to make sure you gain weight slowly (about 1 pound every two weeks) or else you'll be gaining a lot of fat instead of muscle. And you also need to do heavy whole-body weight training. You can fill out my fitness guide specifying 'Gain Muscle' as your goal to get a suggested diet and exercise program. It'll also give you tips how you can customize the diet to your own tastes. Just remember that in any case the main thing will be to eat more food to slowly but surely gain weight.
1625. Q:
How much calories does a protein bar usually contain overall?
A:
You can always check the nutrition facts label on the protein bar packaging. It can vary, but typically they'll contain somewhere around 300 calories.
There's nothing particularly great about protein bars, except convenience, so I recommend you eat them only when you simply cannot have a regular protein-rich meal with 'real' food.
1626. Q:
Mike, im on your push/pull schedule. Heres my question. On push day, i do my incline, regular benchpress. then for triceps i do pushdowns, but i dont like the other exercise, it hurts my elbows.. Could i sub it with closegrips? I think this is good because 1. my inner chest is lacking, and i need to fill it out, and 2. it doesnt hurt my elbows, therefore getting a more effective tricep workout. what do you think? is this too much benching?
A:
Sure, that should be fine. Remember that to make the close-grip bench press target your triceps more, you'll want to keep your elbows from flaring out to the sides as you push the weight up.
1627. Q:
When people say short intense cardio is more effective than long light cardio, what is the time span??? Say you jog lightly for 10 minutes nonstop. Would sprinting for 5 minutes straight have to same effect as the 10 minute light jog? I would rather do something fast that takes half the time rather than spend a long period of time on long running. Also, I am obese and am wondering if it would be bad to do short intense cardio rather then long light cardio? I am 15, 5'11, 220 pounds, male. I want to lose my man boobs and gut and fat all over my body. I am planning to eat right as in eating healthier. I am just not sure what to do for exercise that will be really effective. Thanx
A:
Short intense cardio is a very good tool to lose fat and yes, I would recommend 5 minutes of fast running over 10 minutes of slow jogging. If you start out in untrained shape (like it sounds you are) and you can't run for very long, then 'short intense' may simply be jogging, but as your conditioning improves you'll be able to run faster and faster.
There's a few different types of cardio you can do:
- Traditional slow pace cardio. This is where you walk, jog, or run at a steady pace for well over 15 minutes and up to an hour. In this case you pick the pace that you can sustain for a very long time. If you do this, I recommend you keep it under 2-3 hours total per week.
- Fast pace running. Here you jog or run as fast as you can at the pace that you can sustain for only a limited time, anywhere between 3 and 15 minutes usually. You can do these bouts of fast-pace running 3-4 times per week and I recommend picking a pace you can sustain for about 10 minutes. Again, in the beginning this 10-minute pace may be quite slow for you but as your conditioning improve you'll be able to sustain faster and faster speed for 10 minutes.
- HIIT cardio. The effect this has on your body is actually closer to weight training (which is a great fat-burner) than to cardio. HIIT consists of alternating 30-second periods of all-out sprinting and walking. It can be done using any sort of activity -- from running to biking to swimming, though running is the most common. For example, a typical 4-minute HIIT session would look like this (after a warm-up): 30 seconds of all-out sprint, 30 seconds of relaxed walk, 30 seconds of all-out sprint, 30 second walk, 30 second sprint, 30 second walk, 30 second sprint, 30 second walk. That's it! You would do HIIT 2-3 times per week slowly increasing session length from 4-5 minute sessions in the first week to eventually 12-15 minute sessions. The key is to make those 30-second sprints to be truly as fast as you can possibly go.
So you can mix and match from these three types of cardio as you like -- I recommend giving HIIT and fast-pace running higher priority, though you can certainly do traditional slower pace cardio too if you like.
Besides cardio, it's very important to eat healthy and in moderate portions, as you have mentioned yourself. You may also want to start doing some weight training under adult supervision. And of course any other form of activity, whether mowing the lawn or playing pickup basketball games, is great for you too. When you jog or run or play basketball, remember that in the beginning you will not be able to sustain very fast pace for long and you may get runner's stitch in your side after not very long -- that's OK and you'll just need to stop at that point. You'll also likely to get very sore in the beginning of your exercise program -- that's also OK and you'll just need to wait an extra day or two till muscle soreness goes away before getting back to exercising. You'll learn to pace yourself and your conditioning will improve quickly, so don't let initial aches and pains scare you. Good luck!
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