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Q&A for: 25-May-07

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Ask Mike Your Fitness Question:

2282. Q: I am 62 and weigh about 148lbs. I lost a significant amount of weight when I left the United States abot 30 days ago for Japan. Some weight loss has to do with stress of being here and away from my finance'. I would like to put the weight back on. I am athletic and have lifted weights on and off for years. I do have Type II diabetes but it is under control.. How do I gain weight and not fat. Thanks

A: Unfortunately as we get older our bodies become more and more reluctant to build muscle, so gaining lean mass will not be easy. On the plus side as a lifelong athlete you are at an advantage. The general approach will be the same for you as for anyone else trying to build muscle -- have a nutritious protein-rich diet with slightly more calories than needed to maintain weight. You can get a suggested starter diet by filling out my Fitness Guide and then following the instructions given there to customize it to your taste. From them on it's just a matter of monitoring your weight and slightly increasing portion sizes when you have not gained any weight in 3 or more weeks. In parallel, of course, you will need to be lifting weights -- dumbbells are perfectly fine, as in this program.

Two important points before you start, however... Make sure that you get your doctor's OK to start on an intensive training program, especially if you haven't lifted heavy in a while. This is something that everybody must do, but it becomes especially important for people with medical condition or older in age. Secondly, after you finalized your diet based on Fitness Guide's suggestion discuss it with your doctor or nutritionist as well to make sure it will not cause problems with your type II diabetes. In general gaining muscle requires eating a lot of carbs while it is important to limit and control carbs when you have diabetes, so there may well be a conflict there. On the plus side, the types of carbs that you want to eat while building muscle (or losing fat) are rich in fiber and nutrients and low in simple sugars which are all positives for diabetes. So I think it's not hopeless to reconcile the two, but you need to discuss it with your doctor. Good luck!

2283. Q: hi Mike. i am looking to lose the fat on and around my chest, i am looking into buying a rowing machine as i have heard that that, along with push ups is an extremely effective way to lose the fat. is this true? Richard

A: Rowing machine is a good piece of equipment and it will allow you to build up your back muscles a bit if they're languishing now, but as far as fat loss it will not be significantly better than other forms of cardio work (such as running).

Pushups are a good exercise also, but by themselves (or even with a rowing machine) they do not make a good complete training program because once you get good at them (and you will -- eventually you'll be able to do dozens in a row without) they will be closer to cardio than to heavy weight training. So in the end both of your exercises -- rowing and pushups -- will provide good cardio/light resistance benefits for the upper body but you won't have any heavy resistance exercises which as actually best fat burners out there as I explain in my fat loss article.

Remember that even though you want to lose specifically chest fat, it is absolutely impossible to trick your body into targeting chest fat directly. Your body will lose fat from wherever it 'wants to' and it will include chest fat as well, but you have no way of influencing your body into burning more chest fat than it would otherwise. So your goal should be to have the most effective overal body fat loss program possible. To accomplish that, all other things being equal I would simply do running for cardio and spend the rowing machine money on getting a set of dumbbells for home and doing this program or maybe joining a gym and have access to even more equipment.

Finally, don't forget that your diet will matter at least as much as your training in how much fat you lose. So to conclude, you should certainly see some results if you went with rowing machine + pushups, but you can obtain much better results by including heavy weight training and improving your diet.

2284. Q: hey mike i am nearly 15 years old i get bagged everyday at school cause i am too skinny i way 40 kilos and no matter how much fatty foods or watever i eat i dont budge is there any sort of routine that will make me have any muscles or be stronger cause even sum of my mates say that im too skinny, i dont have like a eating disorder or anything like that i just hate the way i am at the moment plz help

A: Sorry to hear about your trouble in school... At 15 it is possible that your body still hasn't hit the big growth stage (you didn't mention your height, but if you're less tall than your peers then that's another indicator that you haven't hit your growth spurt yet). But 40 kgs is certainly very light for a 15-year old in any case. The best advice I can give is to simply eat more and more often. I know you said you try to eat a lot of fatty foods, but unless you are actually following a schedule it is all too easy to miss meals or overestimate just how much you are eating. One very simple, tasty, and sure way to gain weight is to make sure you eat two large peanut butter and banana sandwiches -- take a slice of whole-wheat bread, spread natural peanut butter generously on it, slice a banana on top of peanut butter, and cover with another slice of bread. That's about 500 very nutritious calories right there. Have two such sandwiches every day (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) in addition to whatever else you normally eat. If even then you somehow manage to not gain weight, then add another such sandwich!

I assume you are already active, in which case you don't need to do anything else new besides eating to build muscle. If you are not very active, then you should consider playing sports and if you have access to equipment and adult supervision you can also start on weight training. If you do weights, please read my article carefully to learn the basics, make sure you have an adult supervise you, take time to learn exercises with light weights so you can perform them safely, and finally do NOT try to reach muscular failure until you're at least a couple years older -- you definitely don't want to injure yourself before you really started growing. Bust used safely with adult supervision and in parallel with a rich diet weight training will start building you some muscle. Good luck!

2286. Q: i mike what you think i my weight now is 235 i can loss 30 in 3 months and what is the best supplement for make muscle and loss weight?

A: 30 pounds in 3 months is pretty aggressive, but doable. I usually recommend losing weight a little slower -- about 15 pounds in 3 months, but if you really want to lose faster 30 pounds should be doable. Make sure to read my fat loss article if you haven't already -- it will tell you and point you to everything you need to know to lose fat successfully.

As far as supplements, you really don't need any and I would not recommend any. The only possible exception is plain whey protein powder (see picture and link at the top of the page) if you are having trouble getting enough protein from regular foods. The key is to have a good training program and a good diet. The resources on this site will help you take care of that. Supplements are grossly overhyped and often do more damage than good because people become obsessed with them instead of focusing on training and eating right. Pass on the supplements and focus on the basics and you'll be able to lose those 30 pounds no problem.

2287. Q: i am 13 stones and i want to lose weight and be 11 stones.how many calories should 1 burn a week

A: I would recommend allowing about half a year to lose two stones. Don't worry about counting 'burned calories', but instead make sure you have a good training program and good diet and those two stones will not be a problem -- please read this to get started.

2289. Q: HOW CAN I GET A V-CUT??

A: There're a couple areas that people call 'V-cut'. One is the wide upper back tapering to a narrow waistline, creating a 'V' when looked at straight on from the back. Accomplishing this is a combination of wide upper back and slim waist. Wide upper back is built by exercising lats with pullups, pulldowns, and rows of all sorts. Of course, as is the case with any muscle, it'll grow the fastest when you are bulking up and eating a lot to gain weight (slowly!) in parallel with exercising. Narrow waistline requires the opposite -- losing fat from the stomach which will really only happen when you lose weight. to build a really good 'V' in the back will probably require a few cycles of bulk (when you build up muscle) and cut (when you lose weight and fat), but it's certainly very doable.

The other 'v-cut' is what people sometimes call the upper groin/inner hip/lower abs area. Here the definition can only be accomplished by having very low body fat (read the same article as above for that). Genetics also definitely play a role -- some people will naturally have that v-cut be more prominent than others, even with same body fat.

2290. Q: I was wondering if you explain to me exactly what bodybuilding is. Is it the process of lifting weights to get ever bigger and eventually huge muscles and definition or is it the process of trying to improve your body to make it stronger and get rid of excess body fat so that your muscular definition will show? The idea of lifting weights and eating well to aid your fitness and health by being stronger and getting your muscles to show is to most people a great idea. I was watching a program the other day about teenage bodybuilders and it did seem it was huge muscle that they wanted and they did seem very obsessive about achieving their desired look – not just punishing workouts more or less daily, but stuffing themselves with food for several months to bulk up then crash dieting to lose the fat and get their muscles to show for competition time. Also pre competition dehydrating themselves so that they would have just muscle and skin over that muscle, i.e the muscle would look ‘ripped’. What concerned me was several things - the way it would take up and take over all their social life, the incredibly strict dieting, first overeating then underrating whilst they are still in the process of growing up, and most of all the fact that they only see huge(not ordinary sized) muscles as looking good. One of the teen’s coaches said two interesting things – how unhealthy it was to maintain the very low levels of body fat needed to compete and the fact that the teen he was coaching seemed to have body image problems – the boy felt he was small even though he was more muscular than most grown men ever would be. Ironically, this same boy had been a great rugby player and though small was quicker and faster than his larger teammates and could have played for his country. This was until the boy’s rugby coach advised him to go the gym to bulk up a bit, the boy went to the gym got addicted (in his own words) and dropped the rugby even though he could have had a scholarship! Is there something inherently addictive about bodybuilding and weightlifting that causes people to become obsessed with it – sometimes even using drugs to enhance their bodies. Sorry for the long question, but I really appreciate all the info you give in all your answers.

A: I don't think that everyone will agree on a single definition of 'bodybuilding' beyond the general notion of lifting weights to increase muscle mass. For some people bodybuilding inherently implies competition and maximum achievable muscle size and lowest possible body fat. Others take a more balanced view of it. You are certainly correct in that some (perhaps many) people take bodybuilding too far and develop all sorts of unhealthy and often dangerous habits around it. I don't think there is a single answer that explains why this happens, but it is undoubtedly heavily influenced by the common image of very muscular, low-bodyfat guys in the media.

This situation closely mirrors the phenomenon of how notions of beauty in women can lead to such disorders as bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Just as some women take being slim too far, so it seems some men take the notion of healthy masculine physique too far. In fact, a common term for obsession with muscularity is 'bigorexia'.

Having said that, I do not believe that weight training or bodybuilding is inherently unhealthy in any way. When approached with a sound mind and a healthy program it can tremendously improve almost anybody's mental and physical well-being. One simply must remain mindful of why they they do it -- lift to live better and not the other way around.

2291. Q: my daughter is 12yrs old nearly 13 and 5'4' she is very tall and she thinks she needs to lose weight.her best friend is the same height as her but skinnier and that is because of her fast Metabolism she weighs 55 kg and she looks like a normal kid to me.she is doing exercise in her bed room every few nights but she does exercise at school too . what is the normal weight for a 12 nearly 13 yr old is she normal weight?

A: An average 13-year old girl is 5 foot 2 inches and weighs about 46kgs. Being 5 foot 4, your daughter is taller than 75% of her peers and at 55 kgs she is heavier than about 80% of them. In other words, her weight is perfectly appropriate for her height -- she just happens to develop faster than average.

2292. Q: Great site by the way. I've looked at your articles and read many of the questions people have put to you. Keep up the good work. Being an average 'Joe' with Bills to pay, fitting a healthy lifestyle with a combination of wanting to loose fat, then ultimately to build some upper power strength, I wonder how people manage to do it. My gym is usually too busy to go after work, thus I go in the morning before work. As per your suggestion, to eat before a workout I would need to wake up about 5:30am-6am. (I'm sure sleep is just as important :) ) I am usually there approx. 1 hour, in order to leave for 8am. Also the practicalities of having at least 5 well prepared, what seems, warm meals per day during office hours would be a stretch. Is the issue more to do with diet and workout preparation for my “current” lifestyle (and maybe others) or the inability to find time in today’s society? I’m aware this may be a question that exceeds your normal Q+A. Your thoughts and advice from the above would be greatly appreciated.

A: You are certainly correct: fitting all the fitness requirements into a single day is not an easy task! I think for most people diet becomes the biggest problem. Finding 2-5 hours per week to exercise should be possible for almost anyone (though, yes, sleep is important too!) but preparing and eating 5 or more complete healthy meals every day can be quite a challenge. This is where you may have to make some compromises...

Best option is quick, on-the-go meals that you prepare at home, take with you to work, and chow down in under 5 minutes. This usually means sandwiches of some sort of another. Start with two slices of whole-wheat bread for carbs, use either lean chicken breast, tuna, or sliced hard-boiled eggs or egg whites for protein, and regular mayo or perhaps a slice of cheese for fats. Add to that some lettuce, sliced tomatoes, pickles and ketchup/mustard and you have a pretty decent meal with about the right amounts of protein, carbs, and fats. It doesn't even absolutely require a refrigerator to keep or a microwave to heat (though veggies do get soggy when not refrigerated). If you are trying to lose fat and can't afford to have too much carbs you can choose very low-calorie breads that are now available or perhaps use large lettuce leafs as a wrap.

Option two is good for somebody who really doesn't care about the look of the food too much as long as it's good for you... Simply mix water, whey protein powder, plain old-fashioned oats (precooked, if time allows), and maybe some natural peanut butter in a bottle and take it with you. When the time comes to eat simply gulp it down. If you use pre-cooked oatmeal, then the consistency shouldn't be too bad and the taste might actually be decent with chocolate-flavored whey protein and some peanut butter. This is also a complete meal. This would be my ideal 'weight gainer' -- much better than any commercial weight gainer powder you could buy.

Another option is to not have complete meals every time. A handful of dry-roasted nuts and/or a piece of fruit will provide healthy calories in a very easy and quick meal. It won't have quite as much protein as you would ideally like, but it's not a bad compromise once or even twice a day as long as you get plenty of protein in other meals.

Finally you can always start using protein meal-replacement bars. I am not a fan of these but are certainly better than missing meals. There are kinds that are low in carbs which makes them good choices when losing fat and there are kinds rich in carbs (unfortunately too often the wrong kind of carbs) which are OK on a bulk. A carb-rich kind can also be a decent morning pre-workout meal -- it's fast and will provide the calories you need to have a good workout session.

So it's all a matter of compromising and finding foods and meals that work for you. You may not have the ideal diet, but it'll certainly be good enough to make progress without creating so much hassle that it interferes with your everyday life.

2293. Q: hi mike I have recently lost a lot of weight with weight watchers - 1 was 16 st 6.5 lbs and i'm now 12st 7.5 lbs and still going with weight watchers, trying to get down to at least 10st 7lb. My weight loss sems to have plateaued over time and it has got much harder. I have taken up exercise as well, but have only really been doing that recently. I have found that as a result i have very saggy skin, particualrly on my stomach, where i have a 'pouch'. My legs are very wobbly and i have bingo wings. What can you suggest to get rid of this? At the moment i do half crunches, brisk walking and use weights in what i'm told are the correct manner, but this doesn't seem to be working, especially for my stomach. I feel very unnattractive as i'm only 21. What is your advice?

A: Congrats on your recent weight loss -- you should be very proud! As you found out, losing weight gets harder and harder as you approach your goal weight. This is normal and happens with any program, no matter how good it is. Unfortunately without a lot more detail about your everyday diet and exercise program I can't give you specific suggestions beyond my fat loss article.

In general Weight Watchers is not the best dietary approach because it does not emphasize good calories over bad calories. A couple cookies may have the same number of points as a bowl of oatmeal but the latter is much much healthier and conducive to weight loss. While simple overall calorie restriction as provided by Weight Watchers may be good enough to lose weight when you are very overweight (such as was the case with you), the better shape you are in, the more you have to work to optimize your diet to keep making progress. If you haven't already, read my Nutrition article to see what foods you should be eating.

As far as your training, again, I would need more detail about exactly what exercises you do. To get maximum benefit out of weight training you need to lift relatively heavy weights and you need to prioritize large exercises such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows, pulldowns, and bench press.

Finally, there is unfortunately not a whole lot you can do for your lose skin, beyond being patient. Vitamin E lotion may possily help a little bit, but don't expect too much. Good news is that with time your skin will shrink and not be so loose. Hope that helps!

2294. Q: how much fat do you need daily

A: I recommend 20 to 30% of your daily calories come from fats. So if you eat 2000 calories per day, then you want 400-600 of them to come from fats which equates to around 45-65 grams of fat per day. The key is to eat healthy fats and not junk ones -- see my Nutrition article for list of healthy foods.

2295. Q: Hey, I'm 14, Female, and I weigh about 115 lbs which isn't neccessarily overweight, but I have a short torso, so I have a lot of fat on my stomach that I would love to get rid of, so I tried dieting, and excercising, and I've lost almost no wait. I've been doing this since the beginning of April. I gain weight so easily, but if I try to lose weight it's nearly impossible. Is there something I can do to lose weight because it's really starting to bug me, I really don't like being fat. (P.S. Does your sleep effect your weight loss because I'm an insomniac?)

A: It's really not a good idea to try to lose weight at your age, especially since as you say you are not at all overweight. You are still growing and developing and losing weight can interfere with it and stunt your growth. Instead of trying to aggressively lose weight by dieting you should make sure that the foods you do eat are healthy (see this article but focus on WHAT you eat instead of HOW MUCH). and that you stay active in everyday life -- school sports are an excellent way to do that though you can certainly be active just on your own.

2296. Q: Mike, I am a 24 male and my key goal is to lose overall body fat. I have been following your 3-4 day program for nearly 20 weeks and have lost nearly 10kg, so I'd like to start off by thanking you from the bottom of my heart. Unfortunately I've reached a plateau I've gone from 83-73kg and I just can't seem to lose any more weight. How long would you recommend I bulk for? I'm still quite chubby around my midsection, although I look like a completely different person now, I'd still like to beleive that I can get a 6 pack with nice obliques and good overall defenition. (168cm, 24yo M, met rate 1900)

A: Congrats on your weight loss!! As you said, it sounds like you're plateauing now and could probably use a metabolism boost if you're eating just 1900 calories now and not losing weight. Going on a mini-bulk should fix that. Increase your daily calories by 200-300 (with mostly starchy carbs like brown rice, sweet potatoes, oats, etc.) and stay at this new diet for 2-3 weeks. Your weight will probably jump initially by about 1 kilo from newly retained water but should stabilize after that. After those 2-3 weeks, increase by 200-300 calories again and again wait 2-3 weeks. Then repeat again. The end result should be that in two months you'll be about 4-5 kilos heavier some of which will be new water weights. But most importantly you'll be eating 2700 calories or so and your metabolism will be much higher. Then you'll be able to restart your cut again. Hope that helps!

2297. Q: Whats the deal with energy drinks? Can you run after drinking one? Like Red Bull? I feel energized after it

A: The main ingredients in those drinks are lots of sugar and caffeine or other stimulant which give you a quick hit. You can certainly run or exercise after drinking them, but they are not particularly healthy (or good for your teeth) being so rich in sugar. If possible I would recommend eating a regular meal before workout instead and maybe having a cup of coffee if you need an extra boost.

2298. Q: mike im a girl and i never really hav worked out... i started working out everyday this weekby runinng for about 35 min and the firts two days i lost weight but then i started gaining, could it be the muscle weight or is it just ive been eating more?

A: You can't reliably tell whether you are gaining or losing weight in just one week. Your weight naturally fluctuates up and down a couple pounds day-to-day as you eat and drink different foods on different days. Don't worry about day-to-day changes, but instead focus on longer term changes. For example, if first week your weight fluctuates between 137 and 140 pounds but by third week it fluctuates between 133 and 138 pounds, then you know you're losing about one pound per week.

2299. Q: Hi Mike, Am really desperate for your help. What would be the best exercise schedule would you recommend me to follow if i were to do weights and cardio (would running be ok?) and for how long till i see the results? i'm 28, M, 5'10' and weighs 75kg, i'm having problems with fat deposits in my chest area (giving me a 'man-boobs' look) and flabby abs. What i'm currently doing for the past five months:- i'm working out by doing sports like soccer and badminton, twice a week for 2 hours (weekends) and a little of weight trainings at home with dumbells, normally for 1/2hr four times a week with pushups. but i just don't see any significant results especially in my chest and abs area although i did lose some weight (previously was 80kg). Question on weight training:- What would be the ideal weight to train with? i'm not aiming to be muscular like bodybuilders but just want to build muscles in a lean way, decent definition on the biceps, triceps, shoulders, chests and with flat abs that's all (if you know what i mean). Main aim:- To lose fats in chest area 'man-boobs' , flabby abs and to build muscles. Would really appreciate your advice and help... thanks a million! Cheers! Dave

A: First thing is that you'll need to decide whether you want to prioritize losing that extra fat first or building muscle first. It's not completely impossible to do both at the same time, but it's a lot more productive to focus on one or the other. The difference will be primarily in diet... When trying to lose fat you'll eat less and with fewer carbs to slowly lose weight. When building muscle you'll eat more, including more carbs, to very slowly gain weight (this should be done as slowly as possible to avoid extra new fat -- 1 kg/month is a good rate). From what you've described it sounds like you want to first focus on losing extra fat. You have cardio part of it covered with soccer and badminton. You mentioned you do some weights, but did not go into much detail on that. There are two very key points when you are using weights to lose fat -- one you want to select weights that are heavy and two you want to do exercises for your entire body (not just chest, abs, and arms).

The first point, about using heavy weights, is important because heavy weights will actually damage your muscles forcing your body to repair them. This repair process can burn a lot of fat in between your training sessions while you are going about your everyday life. 'Heavy' means such a weight that you can only perform a given exercise no more than 12 or so times in a row before physically being unable to do another repetition without rest. This weight will be different for different exercises, but the key point is that you should almost always be lifting heavy weights.

The second point is to work your entire body. Many people omit working out their lower body with weights even though it has more muscle mass and therefore more fat-burning potential than the upper body. Many people don't adequately workout upper back either. Chest, shoulders, and arms altogether add up to maybe a third of your muscle mass so by only working them you miss out on two thirds of potential fat burning. Read my weight training article and choose from one of the programs there ('split' ones are a good choice).

Finally, you didn't mention your diet but your diet is at least as important as training if you want to burn fat or build muscle. Read my nutrition article and fill out my fitness guide specifying 'Lose Fat' for the goal to get a starter diet suggestion. Then you can customize it for your tastes (and scheduled) as I describe in the article.

Hope that helps you get started on improving your routine. If you have more specific questions about diet or training, post them here and I'll do my best to answer them. Good luck!

2300. Q: Hi Mike, cool site btw. Do you recommend Whey protein or other supplements whilst 'cutting'?? or am i right in thinking this will be a negative effect for my current goal of losing a Stone of wobbly fat :)

A: Whey protein can certainly be used while cutting as well as bulking. At both times you want to have a protein-rich diet (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily -- or 2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight). If you are having difficulty getting that much protein from 'normal' foods, then whey protein powder can come in very handy. The only thing to be careful is to make sure you use pure whey protein powder and not a 'weightgainer' packed with sugar. Check the nutrition label -- it should show no more than a couple grams of carbs and fat per serving along with at least 15-20 grams of protein.

2302. Q: mike i'm 59 yeas old and trying to get back into a weight lifting program using dumbles. can you recomend aplace to get a work out rountine

A: Sure, I have a whole-body routine that you can do with just dumbbells here. If you don't have a pullup bar, you can substitute with bent-over dumbbell rows.

2307. Q: I just recently injured my right elbow. The symptoms sound similar to 'Golfer's Elbow'. It is minor, however I made the mistake of working through it during my upper body workout a couple days ago. I realize the mistake and am icing and resting it to let it heal. Just to be sure I'm avoiding any heavy loads on it for 3-4 weeks. I've been recently targeting chest but it seems that's out of the question. Are there any good upper body exercises that might be okay to do?

A: Sorry to hear about your injury. Unfortunately only a doctor or physical therapist can tell you for sure what upper body exercises will be safe to do with this injury. My advice would be to take the conservative approach and simply not do any upper body work till the injury fully heals which will probably take a few weeks. In the meanwhile you can do extra work for legs that does not put any stress on arms or elbows at all if you have access to machines. For example, do sets of leg presses to failure and then finish it off with deep walking lunges. Good luck with your recovery!

2308. Q: when I started doing push ups I could only manage to do eight.It took me about 10 days to work my way up to 12.But for the last three weeks I've been doing 12 pushups and cant seem to go beyond 12. I do about two sets a day.I am a 39 year old 195 pound male with a 17% body composition.my diet is pretty good. why cant I do more than 12 pushups?

A: In general the best way to get better at pushups is to simply do more and more of them. But it sounds like that's not working out too well for you. Try this: instead of doing 2 sets of 12 each day, do 8 sets of 6-8 pushups daily (maybe 4 sets in the morning and 4 more in the afternoon). Take full 4-5 minutes rest in between sets so you're fresh for each one. You should be able to complete each set of 8 pushups fairly easily (if latter sets are hard, then take longer rest in between sets). After a two weeks of that try doing as many pushups as you can in a row -- I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do more than 12!

2310. Q: I was sick with strep throat for 2 weeks and couldnt work out how much muscle have i lost

A: If you haven't lost any weight, then you didn't lose any significant amount of muscle. You probably lost some strength in any case, but that will come back as you restart workouts. If you did lose weight then you probably did lose some muscle, but as with strength rebuilding just-lost muscle is much easier than obtaining it for the first time. As you start eating normal again and get your weight back up, the muscle will come back.

2311. Q: How much and how many meals should i eat a day i am a soccer player.

A: If you are not trying to actively change your body composition (i.e. lose fat or build muscle) then just the traditional three meals per day can be good enough. The key is simply eating enough to keep your weight constant (more if you are a teenager and still growing, of course). How much food that is you probably know already -- if your weight is constant now, then your current diet is fine.

You could try eating more and see if your metabolism adjusts and your weight stays the same -- this is quite possible since many athletes don't use their metabolism to their full advantage. This may give you more energy for games and practices. To optimize your metabolism, fill out my Fitness Guide specifying 'Maintain' as the goal and use the suggestion as the starting point and then follow the instructions to customize it to your tastes and schedule. But again, this is not absolutely needed if you don't care about fat or muscle and simply want to keep your weight as is.

2312. Q: Hi Mike, i am 170 lbs and am aiming to gain muscle. this means (i think) that i should be eating at least 170 grams of protein per day. i was just wonderring how many grams of protein per meal can i have? also, how long should i wait between meals? thank you, Gilad.

A: Yes, 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is a good target. When trying to change body composition, such as gaining muscle in your case, I recommend having at least 5 meals spread throughout the day (from early morning till right before bed -- just don't eat starchy carbs in the evening) with those 170 grams of protein spread about evenly through those 5 meals, so about 35 grams of protein in each meal. If you eat more than 5 meals, then correspondingly each meal will be smaller and will have less protein.

2313. Q: Do starchy vegetables, like corn and field peas, have much nutritional value? These are the kinds of vegetables my kids like to eat.

A: They do have nutritional value. You can look up any individual food by typing its name in a box in upper right corner and clicking 'Look Up Food'. Peas especially are quite a good food. Corn is less so since people usually don't digest it very well and it passes right through. I also usually don't recommend corn on this site because it elicits higher insulin response which is generally undesirable when trying to alter body composition. But in your case kids eating peas and corn is perfectly fine. Ideally they would also eat some leafy veggies (spinach, lettuce, broccoli, etc.) as well but they could certainly do a lot worse than peas and corn.

2314. Q: why dont you jus put the search thing right above the firrst question on center.

A: Done! I am actually in the process of giving the website a lift and adding Blogs, so your suggestion came at the perfect time. Thank you, I really appreciate all suggestions about the site.

2315. Q: Just a comment on 2447. With machines you don't have any gravity pulling your arms down like you would if you were exercising your biceps with barbells.

A: Well, gravity is still there, but machines typically work your arms at angles different from freeweights, and, say, 60 pounds on one machine will certainly feel very different from 60 pounds of freeweights. So overall experience with machines will feel very different from freeweights, even if you are doing the same number of reps to failure.

2319. Q: hi mike im 17 and have them man boobs not big ones but there there was wondering what workouts to do.... we have a pool i think that would help but how long should i swim and any diets im dont think im overweight im in at 6 foot 185 lbs can u tell me what u think thank alot

A: At 6 feet, 185 pounds you're not overweightm but right on the border of it (your BMI is 25 and anything over 25 is considered overweight) so you could potentially lose a little bit of weight and fat and still be OK. Also, at 17 your 'man boobs' may still go away on their own to some degree with time.

With that in mind I recommend you read my fat loss article and start putting its advice into action. Swimming is an excellent cardio exercise. But in addition to swimming a good fat loss program will include weight training and a good diet. Don't try to lose weight quickly, but in 2-3 months of one-pound-per-week weight loss while weight training with good diet should give you visible results.

2323. Q: hi mike im 17 .185lbs 6foot i play all kinds of sports rec basketball i play varsity baseball and golf for my school and when playing basketball like if i run up and down the court twice im out of breath and tired ...and i sweat alot but i drink alot of water i dosent make any sence to me im always playing sports and always out of breath p.s. do to sports i run/ baseball basketball and walk/ golf 18 holes what can i do is there something wrong here

A: There isn't anything wrong with that. What you probably do is sprint up and down the courty as fast as you can and that will exhaust you, no matter how good shape you are in. Look at 200m Olympic sprinters, for example -- they are absolutely exhausted after just 20 seconds of running. The point here is that if you sprint all-out you will be exhausted very quickly. If, however, you run slower than full speed then you'll be able to run at that pace much longer without exhaustion. At any sport you need to not only be in good shape, but also know your pace.

As far as drinking water and sweating those are both good and normal as well.

One thing you could do to improve sport-specific conditioning when you have to go with spurts of all-out sprinting interspersed with slower jogging or running is do some HIIT. In HIIT you alternate 30-second or so intervals of all-out sprinting efforts with 30-second recovery periods when you jog lightly. A single HIIT session can last 5 to 15 minutes or 5-15 all-out 30-second efforts alternative with 5-15 30-second revory periods. You shouldn't overdo HIIT so 2-3 such sessions per week is all that's needed. You can start HIIT at 2 sessions per week, 5 minutes per session and add 1 minute each week till you do two 15-minute sessions per week.

2324. Q: Hey Mike, first and foremost thanks for your advice. I am a 40 year old I am 5.7ft and about 2 months ago I was 76KG and extremely unfit. I ate whatever I could eat, junk, chocolates absolutely anything. I was very unfit and miserable. So I decided to change my life, I joined a gym and for the past 2 months have been working 5 days a week. 30 min on treadmill, 30 min on cross trainer, then I do 5 different excersises for abs after that I do weights as well. I am happy to say that I have already lost 6 kilos and I am trying to get my weight down to 67kilos, that was my weight 10 years ago. But I have one mmajor problem, when I look myself at the mirror, I can see that I have lost weight from most of my body however I just can't get rid of my fat belly. ALthough there is fat there but I feel like mu stomach is bloated and it is like this all the time. I have around 2000 calories of food a day. I don't eat junk food and I eat lots of fruit, lean meat, chicken and salad. My question is do you think if I carry on the way I am doing will I one day get rid of the nasty fat belly? or is this bloating caused by sommething else? Thanks in advance for your advice.

A: Congrats on your recent weight loss and on making positive changes in your life -- great job!!! As far as your stomach looking bloated, unfortunately it's next to impossible for me to tell you exactly what's going on over the internet. There's no question that belly fat is always the last to go so your stomach will also look 'softer' than other areas. But even if you have very low body fat, when standing or sitting in natural relaxed pose, your stomach will still bulge out somewhat. It will bulge out a lot more after you eat or drink a lot. It can also bulge out more if you experience upset stomach or indigestion. So it could be any number of factors.

More importantly, however, is that it really does not matter -- you clearly have a good program now and are making good progress with it. You may not have your ideal goal physique now and you may not even have it at 67kgs but you still made great progress from your starting point and did the best you could. Once gain, great job and just keep it going!

2325. Q: Type your question here and click Submit. I used to lift weights for legs, calvses,stomach,shoulders,back,chest,biceps,tricepts,forearm at Balley's machines (no free weights) everyday for five days doing 12 reps per set, 6-8sets per group for about 5o minutes doing half-motion only and without any rest in between. I weighed 145lbs but I stopped for almost 3 years and I have gained 20 additional lbs and would like to get back to this exercise program to lose the addtional weight - question is, is this OK - meanig - all muscle groups everyday and half-motion instead of a full like you suggest - 1 sec positive and 2 secs negative? the idea behind the way I was doing this way, is to not gain too much muscle and at the same time keep my heart rate at a higher rate throughout the session - your comments certainly appreciated - I am also reading your articles on weight training, diet and fitness programs! Thanks, Mike. Kumorr

A: If you mean your range of motion was only half of full range, I would recommend changing it so you have the full range of motion or close to it. That by itself will not influence how much muscle you build, but it will give you better rounded development and better strength. If, on the other hand, by half-motion you mean that your positive or negative were much faster than I describe, then that's fine too -- just make sure they're both controlled even if fast.

The circuit training you did must have been using relatively light weights (since you were able to keep it up for 50 minutes without rest) and light weights like that will not build muscles to a significant degree, especially while losing weight at the same time. So you don't need to worry about that. However, as you know from my articles it is also not the absolutely best approach to losing fat. However if you prefer circuit training like that to heavy weight training and separate cardio you should still be able to make good progress, especially when combined with a good diet. Good luck!