Q&A for: 2-Mar-08
2591. Q:
How can tell that your body fat levels are too low?
A:
It's very very unlikely that you have dangerously low body fat levels unless you are medically underweight or a competitive bodybuilder (and likely abusing anabolic steroids). If your weight is normal and you don't use anabolic steroids there's virtually no chance of having too low body fat levels.
You can check if you are underweight by consulting this chart in Wikipedia article: BMI Chart. If your weight is to the left of the leftmost dotted line (the one marked 18.5 BMI) then you are medically underweight and may be in danger of having too low body fat. For example, if your height is 5 feet 5 inches, then anything less than about 115 pounds would make you underweight.
It also should be said that just because you are medically underweight does NOT automatically mean that your body fat is too low, but it is a possibility.
2592. Q:
hey mike i am 17 years old and i work out 6 days out of the week, i eat pretty well, and all that has helped me to lose the fat that i had on me, but for some reason i cannot get more defined muscles. also my abs do not get more defined not matter what i have done. Is it because i am too young to haven't developed enough or what? help me out please
A:
Congrats and great job on your fat loss! Muscular definition, whether in the abdominal region or elsewhere comes primarily from having low body fat levels. Unfortunately simply being healthy and in good shape is usually not enough to get body fat levels low enough to see the abdominal 'six-pack' (usually body fat of 10% or less). What you'll need to do to make that leap is make sure that your training and your diet are both top notch -- nearly everyone could use some improvement. You can read my Weight Training and Diet articles to see if you can improve your routine.
But even optimizing your diet may not be enough in itself. In that case what you'll need to do is one or more bulk-cut cycles. The idea here is that you spend some time (few months) eating more to slowly gain weight, mostly muscle and unvoidably some fat. After this bulk you'd reverse the course, cut the calories, and slim down to your old weight losing mostly fat and unavoidably some muscle. If you do everything right you'll end up at the same bodyweight but with a little more muscle and a little less fat and, therefore, with slightly lower body fat. It might take more than one such cycle, but when done right this is the best way to lower your body fat levels.
The key to successfully bulking and cutting is, besides optimized diet and training of course, to both gain and lose weight as slowly as possible. Immediately after you increase or decrease your calories you'll gain or lose a few pounds very quickly but after that you should aim to gain weight (when bulking) at about 1 pound every 2 weeks and to lose weight (when cutting) no faster than 1 pound per week.
After you read my other articles you can fill out Fitness Guide to get sample diets for both bulking (specify 'Gain Muscle' in Fitness Guide) and cutting (specify 'Lose Fat'). Hope that helps and good luck!
2593. Q:
This may sound stupid but is there any way to grow taller quicker. I'm 13
A:
Unfortunately, no. But you should make sure you eat plenty of healthy and nutritious food to reach your full height potential.
2594. Q:
Mike, why does your fitness calculater not have an option for people who go to the gym 0 times a week?
A:
That's an oversight on my part. I'll add a selection for people who work out at home. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
2595. Q:
Hi Mike, I am a 15 year old boy and i have started to take creatine for my fitness. i do not weight lift though, i only do pushups, is that good enough for me? Will it do any damage to my body if I only do pushups while taking creatine? Thanks
A:
It should not do any damage, but at the same time if all you do pushups you are unlikely to get much benefit from creatine. Creatine is most effective for high-intensity all-out efforts that take under 20-30 seconds and/or last 12 reps or less. Even if pushups seem hard now if you are not very overweight and keep at it you'll soon enough be able to do 40 or more pushups in a row at which time creatine really will not be doing very much for you.
2596. Q:
Hi Mike, I am a 51 year old woman and train 3 times a week for 30 mins with a personal trainer 1 day weights two days cardio and ab moves but I am gaining weight and my clothes are tight. I have allergies and wheat intolerant but still eat pasta etc can you suggest a solution to my problem
A:
I can't tell you for sure without knowing more about your routine and especially your diet and you should certainly discuss this with your trainer since he or she should have specific program and goals for you. But if I had to guess what's happening I'd say you are probably simply eating too much. When you train, especially weight train, your metabolism revs up and so does your appetite. It's a sign that your body is using a lot of energy and is a very good thing. But at the same time if you eat whenever you feel hungry and, especially, if you don't exercise food selection or portion control it's very easy to overeat and actually gain weight. This is what's responsible for the stories about weight training causing people to gain weight -- weight training makes people hungry and they overeat and gain weight. However if you have a well designed diet to which you stick reasonably well, all weight training will do for you is lose extra fat and weight and build muscle and strength.
2597. Q:
what muscle do use while doing jumping jacks?
A:
Virtually all of your leg muscles -- calves, quads, hamstrings, thigh adductors and abductors -- as well as front and side shoulder muscles.
2598. Q:
i weigh 180 and i have alot of fat on me should i still increase my calories for muscle gain
A:
It's a personal choice and also depends on your height. If, for example, you are over 6 feet tall then 180 is not overweight and you have some room to gain weight and muscle through calorie increase. On the other hand if you are under 6 feet, then going higher than 180 will make you medically overweight and may not be the best idea. In that case you may want to first go on a 'cut' and slowly lose a few pounds (while weight training, of course) which will give you some more 'breathing room' for the future bulks.
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