Q&A for: 22-Jan-08
2548. Q:
y is it that alcohol makes me feel so ful? i have read about cals and how important they r, but evn drinking water doesn't fil me up. if i drink alcohol tho i get too full to eat enuf food, y?
A:
Alcoholic drinks have a lot of calories, so it's not surprising at all that they fill you up. Pure alcohol has 7 calories per gram and many alcoholic drinks add extra calories from sugars which can add up to even more than the alcohol calories. To give you an idea, a single 12 ounce beer will have 150-200 calories (lite beers are around 100 calories). So a six-pack of beer has more calories than almost any fast food meal! A glass (4 ounces) of wine has around 100 calories. And a single mixed drink like a margarita can easily have over 400 calories, depending its size and on how much sugar is added. And all of these calories are of the bad variety -- they are very easily absorbed into the bloodstream and deposited in your body as extra fat.
2550. Q:
I am 25 year old male, 5'7" 185lbs. I work out in the gym three days a week doing complete body exercises with a 6 min run to warm up and a 10 min cardio to cool down. My question is how many caleries do I burn on my off days?
A:
There's no way to give a meaningful answer to your question since the number of calories burned heavily depends on your metabolism and specific diet at the time. It might be as low as 2000 and it might easily be as high as 3000. I don't recommend counting calories, but instead working to ensure that your metabolism is as high as possible via good diet and good training program (which it sounds like you do with heavy whole-body weight training). Once you take care of these basics, all you need to do is to have your regular everyday diet plan and simply monitor your weight and adjust calories up or down slightly to keep yourself on track for weight loss (or possibly weight gain, as is the goal for some people).
If you are completely unsure how much and what to eat, ready the diet article I linked and then fill out Fitness Guide specifying Lose Fat or Tone and Maintain as your goal. This will get you a starting point for your diet. Then you can customize the suggested diet to your tastes and lifestyle and simply monitor your weight to ensure steady weight loss (not too fast -- 1 pound per week or so is perfect pace). And there's no need to count calories!
2551. Q:
I weigh 206, I have just started working out again after a few years off. I am 5'10 and I was wondering what the average weight for my height and year of age is?
A:
You didn't mention you age but for 5 foot 10 inches the healthy weight range is considered to be between 135 and 175 pounds or so. On average people are overweight, so they tend to weigh more than that, but 175 pounds would certainly be a good healthy goal to attain.
2552. Q:
Mike, when looking up nutritional information on different foods, the unit of measurement is sometimes "g" and sometimes "gm." What's the difference?
A:
I believe they both refer to the same unit of measurement -- gram.
2553. Q:
Hi, I am 19yrs old girl, 130lbs. I stareted my work out plan 2 weeks ago. I do jogging, 1.8 to 3 miles every evening. I also do weight training, I use the weight stack machine, well... every other day at least 30mins. I try to walk a lot in addition to all of that above. Lastly, I eat healthy foods, I am not overeating or stuff. I wanna ask when, probably, I will start noticing some change? Am I doing enough exercise? I just wanna know if it will show a bit in some time, after a month? I don't know. I won't stop jogging just hoping I will put some weight down. Thank you.
A:
I assume you are trying to lose some weight... You didn't mention how tall you are but at 130 pounds you can't be overweight, unless you are under 5 feet tall. That means you are already in pretty good shape and that means that further weight loss -- and more importantly fat loss will not be easy if you want to not only lose extra pounds but also keep them from coming back. You mentioned all the right things -- eating well, jogging, and doing weights -- but without knowing more detail about your diet and your program I can't really answer your question or give you suggestions on what to improve. Compare your diet against my recommended diet and see what changes you can make. Make sure your weight training covers all the major muscle groups in your body -- legs, lower back, upper back, chest, abs, shoulders, and arms -- by reading my weight training article and looking at the list of exercises. Also make sure that you select fairly heavy weights, such that you can only do 10-15 reps straight before needing a rest. If you only exercise a small subset of your muscles or select only very light weights (which is unfortunately all too common) then you lose most of the point of weight training.
If you are doing everything right then you should aim for very slow steady weight loss of about 1 pound every 1-2 weeks. If you were badly overweight then you could easily lose weight faster than that, but since you are already in good shape your weight loss should be slow. And if you'd like post back here with a lot more details on your daily meals (foods and portion sizes) and weight training program and maybe I can give more specific suggestions. Hope that helps!
2554. Q:
hello,im a big dude and ive just started to workout.i was wondeing if i should take anything,like protein or creatine?i just want to be strong.
A:
You don't need to take anything, but either protein or creatine might provide a little bit of a boost for you. First thing is you need to make sure you have adequate and healthy Diet. Even if you are not trying to lose weight or gain weight, eating healthy will help you become stronger. Specifically you would do well to get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily. so if you weigh 200 pounds, then you should aim to get 200 grams of protein in your diet every day (this includes all the food that you eat). If you are having trouble getting so much protein from 'regular' foods, then a protein powder supplement might come in useful.
Besides eating right, if you training specifically to get stronger then you need to make sure you have a good training program. Lifting willy-nilly will still get you some results, especially when you are just starting, but a good program will take you farther faster. It is important to realize that training for strength is mostly training your nervous system, as opposed to building new muscle mass. Your nervous system 'learns' to be stronger through many repetitions of exercises with medium-to-heavy weights, but it 'learns' best when it's freash. That means plenty of rest before every set and NOT going to muscular failure in vast majority of the sets. Here is a basic but very effective strength training program.
Once you have your diet and your training down, you can use creatine to get a little bit of an extra boost. Don't expect it to be a big difference and certainly don't expect it to make up for a poor diet or a bad training program. But it can provide a little edge when you are already doing everything else right.
Finally, note that so far I have only been talking about training specifically for strength. You can certainly also train to get physically bigger, build more muscle, and get stronger that way too. That is what's called 'bulking up' and it requires eating more than usual in order to gain weight. Your training program need not change, but by eating more you give your body fuel to build new muscle. You can read more about bulking in the same diet article I linked above. And to get some started diet programs you can fill out Fitness Guide speficying Maintain or Build Muscle as your goal.
2555. Q:
Hi Mike! i love the site... I have a question of my own, here goes: I'm 22/f, 155lbs, 5'4... i am undergoing a horrible exhausting yoyo weight loss /gain cycle. over the las summer i gained 12 pounds which i've lost only 6 months before that. This has been the story of my life. I wasn't active at all and underwent all sorts of diets that ever existed until i totally stopped doing any at all. I find it very hard now to even consider having an organized thought out meal. I am a binge eater and i eat anything and everything that is in front of me. I don't eat if there is nothing...... i recently joined the gym for the first time and am actually seeing the difference in strength and my trainer is moving me a notch to the next level in strength training. However i don't see any difference in my clothe... except maybe that they may be tight? and my face looks fuller... my problem areas are my backside and hips... What advice can you give me concerning these areas? and how can i control my binge eating habits? p.s i rarely eat junk food most of the food in my system is home made stuff like rice and roast beef and casseroles ...etc the only thing i am addicted to is ice cream and occasionally some cake. i snack on olives, pickles, and lupini ...etc
A:
Glad to hear you are starting to take a more organized approach to weight loss. Unofrtunately your story with yo-yo dieting is all too common. The first step is to realize that following a diet of the day for a few weeks rarely leads to lasting results. You don't need to have an absolutely rigid daily meal plan but you do need to have a general outline of how you should be eating on an average day and then following that outline to the best of your abilities. Occasional cheats and even binges won't hurt you that much as long as you stick to the plan for the most part.
For somebody like you a good starting point might be this diet plan. Obviously you won't eat this daily, but it should serve as the outline I mentioned: several small balanced meals throughout the day, each one with plenty of protein, nutritious fiberous carbs and a source of healthy fats. If you read my Diet article you'll find a section where I list 'equivalent' foods that can be combined and substituted to make healthy meals. You can use that section in deciding how to customize that sample diet plan.
A very important point is, of course, portion control. Even the healthiest diet in the world won't help you if you can never eat only as much as you are supposed to. So to prevent overeating, only prepare a single portion at a time or, if you cook in bulk, separate out the meals out by portion. Then when it's time to eat, get the food out, put it on a plate, close the fridge and the pantry and go sit down to eat somewhere outside of the kitchen. This will help prevent impulsive eating from the fridge or the pantry. This isn't foolproof, of course, but such a methodical approach to every meal should cut down on impulsive binges. The sample diet plan should keep you reasonable sated throughout the day which should also cut down on binges. Keep low-calorie snack food around your house as needed -- pickles, baby carrots, celery, and even apples are all good choices.
Finally, don't get discouraged when you fall off the wagon and don't ever try to make up for overeating one day by undereating the following day -- simply get right back on track and don't give it another thought. It's not easy but with a good plan and a consistently positive approach you can most definitely reach your goals. Good luck!
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