Q&A for: 24-Jun-06
1631. Q:
hi mike, i need some ab exercises. im doin the standard crunches but only partials where you shoulder blades go off the floor then back down.. I can see my upper 2 abs showing, but my lower 4 dont have as much muscle and dont show as much. What can i do to work all of them?
A:
The exercise you're doing now is probably the single best overall ab exercise, so it's unlikely that the exercise is the problem. It's normal that the top of the six-pack is bigger and more visible than the rest of it. More likely the problem is that you simply still have too much fat remaining on the lower stomach and just doing more different ab exercises is NOT the way to solve it. Check out my answer in Q&A #1559 to see how to approach this problem.
1632. Q:
In your article ‘Lose Man Boobs?! Lose Belly Fat?! Get Abs Instead of the Fat Tire?!’ you say that in repairing the body after lifting heavy weights – that this process has incredible fat burning potential. Why should this process burn fat and why can’t moderate weights be used? Surely heavy weights will build bulky muscle and not all of us want that.
A:
The reason that heavy weights work better is that they put more stress on your muscles, causing actual physical damage to them, which in turn forces your body to spend energy repairing that damage. It's that repair process that is has incredible potential to burn fat and it is that same process that's responsible for the often talked-about 'metabolism boost' from weight training.
Light weights which you can lift many times before getting tired simply do not cause the same physical damage to the muscle as do heavy weights, consequently your body does not have to spend nearly as much energy repairing the damage.
As far as your concern about getting all bulky from lifting heavy weights, it's nothing to worry about. Heavy heavy weightlifting all by itself will NOT build big muscles in great majority of men and in all women. What builds big muscles is heavy weight training PLUS overeating to gain weight. If you make sure you don't overeat and keep your weight constant or decreasing then your muscle gains will be very modest, if any, and you'll simply have more muscle tone.
So heavy weight training is the best tool for losing fat, combined with controlled diet to make sure your weight does not increase. You WILL get hungry from weight training and that's the indicator that your body is burning its fat reserves -- you just have to make sure you don't constantly keep eating to satisfy your hunger. Keep your weight constant or decreasing and I guarantee you will NOT build big bulky muscles.
1633. Q:
Person from 1630: Actually I meant working at a job in a restaurant (my fault I wasnt specific) but also, I did exercise and I was sweating a lot at my job and exerciing. I just want to know is there a way to reduce the amount of sweat coming from my body? You said before the sweating will reduce once my condition improves? Sorry for the miscommunication.
A:
No, unfortunately there's nothing you can (or should!) do to reduce the amount of sweat, besides simply continuing to exercise and get in better shape. As your conditioning improves, the amount of sweating during exercise and during everyday life will decrease. But aside from that, you simply have to live with it.
Do NOT try to reduce your water intake in an effort to reduce sweat -- water is crucial for a healthy body and for fat loss and not drinking enough water, especially when exercising, can cause serious health problems. Just be patient, do all the right things as far as nutrition, exercise, and fat loss, and I promise your sweating problem will diminish with time.
1634. Q:
How do I lose my manboobs?
A:
Please read my fat loss article. 'Manboobs' are simply excess fat on your body and in order to lose them you have to lose fat!
1635. Q:
What makes you fat?
A:
The most basic answer is that your are eating more calories than your body is using. Extra calories that your body has no use for get stored as fat on your body. However the full story is more involved. It comes down to the kinds of calories you consume and to how your body uses them...
Not all calories are equal. Your will gain much more fat from eating 1000 calories worth of chips then from eating 1000 calories worth of spinach! I explain what foods are 'good' and what foods are 'bad' in my nutrition article but the gist of it is that whole foods that are as close to their natural state as possible are good and all sort of processed, refined, ingredient- and preservative-packed foods are bad. For example: plain old strawberries are perfectly good but strawberry jam or strawberry ice cream are bad. So it's not just the total amount of calories that matter, but also what kinds of foods these calories come from.
Our bodies also are very individual when it comes to burning calories. If you never exercise and eat poorly, your metabolism will be very low and you won't be burning many calories at all. So overeating even a little bit will make you gain fat. On the other hand, if you're physically active and eat healthy, your body will be able to burn many more calories so you can afford to eat more and not gain fat. Some people are also simply luckier than others in that they naturally have higher metabolism. But EVERYONE can greatly improve their metabolism and fat-burning ability by exercising and eating right.
Check out my fat loss article for my prescription of how to go about losing extra fat. Hope that helps!
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