Q&A for: 20-Jul-05
208. Q:
how to lose manboobs
A:
Please read this
209. Q:
Hi Mike, what do u think of lunch-meat honey turkey? also, what is so special about cottage cheese, i see you recommend it alot. Could you give me a sample of what you eat in a day, or what you would recommend me eating to help lose my man boobs?
A:
Prepackaged lunch meats are an OK choice. I personally would still not eat them since they're packed with sodium and preservatives, but if you're not concerned about that then they should be OK. Look at the nutrition label and make sure there isn't too much fat or sugar added. Something like 2 or less grams or fat and 2 or less grams of carbs/sugar for every 10 grams of protein.
Cottage cheese is just a good protein-rich food. Low-fat cottage cheese has around 80% of its calories from protein. It also gives you extra calcium and vitamin D. I personally also like its taste with strawberries :) The protein in cottage cheese is mostly casein which has made it a popular choice among bodybuilders for a night-time meal. I personally don't feel that it's any better at night than a, say, salmon + green veggies meal. But on the whole it's another protein-rich food that can give you more variety. It's also a great source of protein for vegetarians (but not vegans, obviously).
As for my own diet, it's very very similar to the sample diets I posted, except I eat a bit more (usually 3500-4000 calories when bulking and 3000-3500 when cutting). All of the sample diets are structured from the same foods and meals that I have actually eaten at some point or am eating now.
If you want to lose man boobs you need to select from my fat-burning sample diets. But since you're still growing and don't really want to lose weight (certainly not a lot of weight), you'll have to eat bigger portions or, even better, add an extra meal or two compared to sample fat-burning diets. You probably want to shoot for 7 meals/day with 2800 calories/day total. So take this and have a second copy of meal #2 sometime during the day for a total of 7 meals. Obviously it's a huge change from what and how you're eating now and not easy to do, but that's my recommendation if you want to get best fastest results possible. You can compromise and eat somewhere in between, both in the number of meals and the quality of foods. That's why I encourage you to create a plan for yourself that's based on the sample plans but that's made to fit your life. You can then post it here and I can critique it for you.
210. Q:
What do you think of taking 2 whey protein drinks during the day, and 1 casein shake at night before bed?
A:
Those protein drinks in themselves won't make much of a difference one way or another. It's the rest of your diet that's going to determine how good your results will be. You should also keep in mind that there's nothing special in whey or casein powder compared to the regular everyday protein-rich foods you can buy in the supermarket (meats, fish, chicken, cottage cheese, etc). Protein drinks are simply convenient substitutes for real foods and not something that will give you superior results compared to those same foods. One big positive for protein powders is that they can be quite a bit cheaper per gram of protein than supermarket meats or chicken, so they may help on tighter budgets :)
211. Q:
I took once supplements for 5 months and gained 5.5 pounds of fat and lost 1.5 pounds of muscle.I was doing lower body weight training at the time. I gained fat because I took too much supplements but I cant understand how I lost muscle.I will never take supplements again.
A:
Results like that are almost guaranteed to be due to a sub-par diet during those 5 months, not due to supplements or weight training. You should also keep in mind that body fat measures are very prone to error and relatively small changes (like 1.5 pounds of muscle lost) can be entirely due to measurement errors as opposed to the actual muscle loss. Finally, many supplements are meant to be used for weight gain (hopefully muscle gain :), so without knowing what supps you took, I can't really comment on what went wrong. But in general, yes, supplements, at least the legal ones, are far from being the magic pill that some people expect them to be. 90% of your success will be determined by your diet and execise programs and how closely you stick to them. And large unwanted gains in fat are almost always due to eating too much or eating wrong foods.
212. Q:
Please forgive my ignorance (im a beginner), but what is the difference between cutting and bulking and when should each be done?
A:
Bulking and cutting are bodybuilding terms, but really they can apply to anyone trying to get more fit. Bulking means trying to put on muscle by gaining weight but in a controlled way that minimizes associated fat gains. Cutting means trying to lose the unwanted fat while preserving as much muscle as possible.
The distinction between muscle and fat is very crucial and is not recognized by most people. Most people think of it in terms of losing weight and gaining weight. The fact is that losing weight is only good when most of what you lose is fat. So a 20-pound weight loss is a spectacular success if you managed to lose 18 pounds of fat and 2 pounds of muscle. But it can also be a spectacular disaster if you lost 15 pounds of muscle and only 5 pounds of fat. The lack of understanding for this distinction is what's responsible for tens of millions of failed diets and exercise plans.
213. Q:
I noticed in the link u gave for q 209, i think the fatburning thing. that u said to drink whey protein in the morning, ive been taking them pre- and post-workout, should i change to one in the morning?
A:
No, it's perfectly fine to have whey before and after the workout. You don't need to change that. Just make sure you get enough protein in all your other meals as well.
214. Q:
What are some good work-out techniques without equipment?
A:
I am going to put together some sample bodyweight-only workout programs and add them to the weighttraining article. In the meanwhile, some of the exercises you can do include jumping jacks, squats (regular full squats, one-legged partial squats), walking lunges, touching your toes, 'supermans' back extensions, pushups (regular, with elevated feet, with hands close together), and pullups (wide overhand grip, narrow underhand grip), ab crunches, sit-ups.
If you can get some dumbbells, you will also be able to do all varieties of bicep curls, overhead tricep extensions and dumbbell kickbacks, shoulder presses, shoulder front/side/rear raises, dumbbell rows, dumbbell squats, dumbbell deadlifts, weighted crunches/sit-ups.
Hope that gives you some ideas for now and look for an article on no-equipment exercises soon.
215. Q:
Is there any replacement you would recommend for salmon in your fatburning article? i personally dont like the taste of salmon, and i wanted to cook everything to last a week, and salmon seems like it would spoil fast
A:
I included salmon because in addition to being a great protein source, it's also one of the very few sources of omega-3 polyunsaturated fats. A nearly perfect equivalent substitute would be equal-sized serving of skinless boneless chicken breast and couple tablespoons of milled flax seed sprinkled into your salad or on your green veggies (it doesn't taste bad actually :). That would give you the equivalent amount of calories/proteins/carbs/fats as well as the omega-3 fats.
If you're not crazy about flax seed, you can still have that chicken with a tablespoon of olive oil for the salad/veggies. Or you can have same sized lean steak. These options will give you the same calories/proteins/carbs/fats but without the extra omega-3.
216. Q:
One more question for you.I have the following problem.Iam lean overall but i have some fat only on my belly area which whatever i do i cant lose.Strange thing is that by fat percentance is only 10,8%.Before i start the gym i was 78kgs with 175 cms height and after about 2 months and a half i went to 68kgs.I know i cant spot reduce and i ll have to lose fat overall to lose this fat ony belly also.During that period i lose many of my belly fat but this remained.I cant lose more kgs and cant reduce my daily calorie anymore as in gym they told me this will lower even more my kgs and i should remain as iam now in kgs.I do cardio 40 mins 5 days a week in a moderate pace,weight training 3 times a week and good nutrition also.I also go for a brisk 30 min walking every day and sometimes first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.Only wrong things i did in my opinion were that i didnt take enough protein daily mainly and also i didnt progress enough my weight training program.So,can u tell me what i should do in order to lose the fat from my belly and get it look flat?
A:
Congratulations on your success so far! 10.8% BF is very very impressive already. I understand your frustration with that last layer of belly fat. As you've already discovered, the leaner you are the tougher it is to lose those last few pounds. Many people don't ever get to your level. As to what you can do I have two suggestions -- see which one appeals to you more...
One approach is to try to keep losing weight and fat. You can afford to lose another 3-4 kg before you risk becoming underweight. What you need to do however is lose your weight much slower than you have been so far. You will want to stretch out these last kilos to be lost at 1 kilo/month pace. You will want to optimize your already good diet even further. Look at my nutrition article and its fat-burning diets. Pick a fat-burning diet that's closest to your current calorie levels and adjust food amounts slightly to match your current calorie intake. Try to follow it as closely as possible while making it fit your life. For your training I will want you to increase weight training and decrease cardio. Either cut out your cardio sessions or your morning walks. If you keep your morning walks, make sure to at least drink some whey protein before you go on them (preferably you'll actually have a breakfast before the walk -- my reasons for this are in Q&A #159). For your weight training you will want to increase it to 4-5 days per week. You can find some sample programs in the weight training article.
The second approach is to try and rev up your metabolism by going on a mini-bulk, gain some muscle while minimizing fat gain. This is not easy to do but if you can pull it off, it will be a lot easier to lose the extra fat later. You goal is this case will be very very slow weight gain while doing intensive weight training and little or no cardio. You definitely do not want to gain weight faster than 1 kilo/month and slower is better. But as I said, it's not easy to have the kind of diet discipline that this requires. Good news is that even if you mess up and gain weight too fast, you should be able to lose it just like you've recently done. If you choose this route, you will want to follow a 3-4 day/week weight training (see article for sample programs) and a muscle building diet that would start at your present calorie level and would increase in calories very slowly (100 daily calories/week or so increase). Look at my sample muscle building diets and scale them down to your current calorie level before increasing it as I described. After 2-3 months of this program and 2-3 kilo weight gain, you would reverse and go back to the fat-burning mode as I described in the above paragraph. The extra muscle mass you gained and your newly revved-up metabolism should allow you to break through the 10% BF barrier.
Which of these two approaches you choose is up to you. I like the second approach but it only works if you are OK with seeing some of the fat you worked so hard to lose come back temporarily. If you absolutely cannot stand the thought of even a little fat gain, then the second approach is probably out and you should try to optimize your current diet and program as I described in the first approach. Good luck!
217. Q:
I cant eat eggs and milks products cause of an allergy i have.Can u suggest any other products or ways to get the protein of these foods?I ve heard i need them in order to lose fat and gain some muscles
A:
No, you by no means need to eat dairy or eggs to gain muscle or lose fat. My sample diets only include dairy (in form of cottage cheese and whey -- whey is derived from milk) for breakfast and an occasional egg with tuna can be substituted for by a bit of mayo with tuna. In case of my diets, your breakfasts might include a piece of chicken breast or perhaps pure egg whites (some people who have egg allergies can still have egg whites) to replace the protein of cottage cheese and whey.
218. Q:
why do u recommend doing cardio on days when one doesn't weight train? (in reference to question 157)
A:
I recommend cardio to be on non-weight training days so your muscles are fresh before weight training and have a chance to recover after the weighttraining. Cardio prior to weighttraining would tire the muscles out before you even start lifting and you won't have as quality a workout. Cardio soon after weight training would interfere with muscle recovery.
It's not a huge deal, but if all other things are equal, keep weights and cardio to separate days.
219. Q:
Q 211: It had nothing to do with my diet. I soon as I went off the supplements it took me only 10 days to lose the 5.5 pounds of fat That I gained.My waist went from 38.5 to 37 inches in that time. And one of the trainers at my gym told me that some people's bodies dont react well with supplements and may lose muscle even when weight training with supplements. All I could tell you is I'm doing much better without supplements.And of course weight training cant make you lose muscle.I took supplements which were 61% carbs,22% protein.Its called muscle juice.
A:
Ahh there's your problem! The supplement you took is meant to be taken only when on very aggressive bulking cycles. It is absolutely the last thing you'd want to take if your goal was trying to lose fat. Those 61% carbs is the dead giveaway that it is a weightgainer supplement, even if it wasn't advertised as such. On top of that huge carb amount, those carbs also tend to be very quickly absorbable by your body (like sugar) which leads to fast weight and fat gains. The only time you would want to take a supp like this is if you want to gain as much muscle as quickly as possible and you didn't care almost at all about fat gains. Even then, you would only take this supp immediately following heavy weight training and at no other time.
The fact that you appeared to have lost muscle is probably still due to the measurement error, but the fast fat gain was real. Some of the weight gained was also water weight (extra carbs retain more water in your system) which may partially explain why you lose that weight so quickly too. Glad you're doing better now without the supps. Good nutrition and training will get you way farther than just average nutrion/training but with supps.
220. Q:
Should I worry about eating a lot of fish? I hear that they contain a lot of toxins like mercury,etc...Would you know what is the safest fish to eat and which one should I avoid?
A:
Toxins in fish are a tough subject because there's a lot of conflicting or incomplete data on it. Some things are pretty well established however. For example, salmon's mercury levels are known to be much lower than average fish's. Tuna, on the other hand, has relatively high concentrations of mercury and albacore tuna the highest of all. So if you're concerned about mercury specifically, you can avoid tuna and maybe have more salmon (which has the very beneficial for health omega-3 fats).
In general however, yes, it's worriesome about what you put in your body as your food. Everything from mercury to pesticides to growth hormones will probably make it into your system unless you eat exclusively 100% organic foods (which takes a toll on your budget :). Each person has a choice to make for her- or himself as to how much to learn and how much to worry about various toxins in the foods they eat.
221. Q:
creatine
A:
A useful supp, but don't expect miracles. Will work best on bulking cycles when extra carbs in your diet will increase muscle nutrient uptake. Know that almost always you will take creatine with some sugary stuff (juices, dextrose powder, etc.) that will increase muscle creatine uptake, but also will make you gain some fat. It's a trade-off. Follow direction on the box that you buy since different creatine concoctions will have different direction. Avoid liquid creatine, go with powders instead. About a quarter of the people will not benefit from creatine at all and in general the results may differ widely from person to person.
223. Q:
what do u think of flax seed pills instead of flax seed?
A:
There's no reason why you would want to use flax seed pills or any other flax oil supplement over the regular ground flax seed unless you just cannot stand to eat the latter. Plain ground flax seed has extra protein, extra fiber, is MUCH cheaper, and you don't have to worry that the oil extraction processing might've turned the beneficial omega-3 polyunsaturated fats into the harmful transfatty acids or destroyed the lignans. Considering all the publicity that flax oil is getting, plain old ground flax seed is completely and unfortunately overlooked. You can buy Bob's Red Mill brand ground flax seed in your supermarket for around three dollars per pound. It will contain 150 grams of fat (i.e. flax oil), along with a ton of fiber and good amount of protein. Similar amount of flax oil supplement will run you around $10 and won't have any of the extra protein or fiber. And as I mentioned there's the chance of some of the oil having spoiled. I'll take ground flax seed over any flax oil supp every time!
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