Q&A for: 27-Aug-06
1749. Q:
how do you lose man boobs
A:
Please read this
1750. Q:
I exercise daily and I eat well. What I would like to know is - if you burn off daily the calories you put via eating is it possible to either hold onto fat or store more fat on your body. Take good carbs for example, they are much quicker releasing energy than good fats, does this mean that if you burn off the carbs from your last meal over hours rather than say an hour your body will store this temporary excess as fat even though over the course of a day you are eating only the calories you need. Surely, it cannot make sense to eat fat as opposed to carbs as these are slow releasing energy.
A:
As I mention in Q&A #1508 we should always keep in mind that when we talk about how our bodies work we are always using imperfect analogies and greatly oversimplifying the myriads of incredibly complex and interconnected processes that continuously take place inside us.
So, no it's not a good idea at all to forego carbs as a source of energy and eat fats only. Besides likely depriving youself of many vitamins and minerals you'll also be forcing your body into a mode of operation for which it is not designed. You will not get any body composition benefits out of it but you will certainly suffer cravings, low energy and possibly long-term health problems.
Stick with your active lifestyle, eat a healthy balanced diet, keep your weight constant and you're guaranteed to not gain any new fat.
1751. Q:
What is the best way to lose the extra fat around ur stomach???Any diet tips???
A:
There is absolutely no way to target any one body part for fat loss (no matter what the TV commercials say). The only thing you can do is lose overall body fat which will result in fat loss in the 'trouble spots' as well. Please read my fat loss article to learn the most effective way to lose overall body fat. And check out my nutrition article for diet guidelines and tips.
1752. Q:
I have been noticing lately that I am just not getting as sore as I used when I lift. I just came off of a two week break and am now on the five day heavy volume wokrout. the first week after my break I did get a little sore. During the second week I increased the weight on did even more sets than prescribed, but I just don't feel it the next day or day after. Does this mean that I am not doing enough? Or not using heavy enough weights? Thanks!
A:
Nope, that's perfectly normal. Getting sore (DOMS -- Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is not required for building muscle and is not indicative of a successful workout. It will typically happen after starting or re-starting an exercise program (like happened with you) or a new exercise. Some people tend to get it more than others too. Similarly, some muscle groups will get more sore than others. But overall, it's nothing more than a minor nuisance and I wouldn't worry about it one way or another.
1753. Q:
mike, aroudn a week ago i was doing a set of incline benches to failure, and i got a splitting pain in my neck, and behind my ears kinda.. it throbbed for about 2 hours, and for the rest of the night it hurt a little, same with the following day.. since then, i will get a little bit of a headache if i get up too fast, or start running quickly. tonight i went to the gym again, and i got the same headache, just not as painful. do you know what happened?
A:
Unfortunately I'm not qualified to diagnose something like this, so if you're concerned about it you should see a doctor. My guess is that it's nothing serious, but only a doctor would be able to diagnose for sure. If the symptoms don't improve and go away with time I would certainly see a doctor.
One thing that you want to make sure of for the future is that you do not hold your breath when you're lifting the weight up (the 'positive' movement), but instead you forcefully exhale as you push the weight up. Make it a habit and consciously force yourself to exhale when pushing the weight up. This will prevent momentary blood pressure spikes that can happen, especially as you approach failure. While a healthy person should be able to endure these blood pressure spikes without any problems, there's no reason to risk it and with practice you'll find that forceful exhalation actually enchances your strength. Good luck!
1754. Q:
When switching from cutting to buling, should you increase your calories slowly or just jump to the number of calories it takes for you to gain a 1/2 a week? When I was last bulking i was was taking in about 2800 calories. I have been cutting for a few months now and I am down to about 1900. I will be buling again in about two to three weeks, I am 23 and about 145. I have had to cut my calories a little more after about a month and half. I just daont want to gain like four pounds in the first week or anything.
A:
It's generally a good idea to make calorie changes gradually and this is no exception. Take a week to ramp up your calories to 2500 or so and from then on monitor your weight and increase calories as you need to keep gaining the half pound a week (you'll likely be back at 2800+ in a month or so).
However there's a very good chance that you will still gain a couple pounds in that first week anyway. This doesn't mean you gained fat -- it'll just be new water weight. As you eat more, especially more carbs, your body will naturally retain more water and it can easily be 1-2 pounds even with relatively small calorie changes. It's just something that happens naturally and not something you need to worry about.
1755. Q:
mike, I'm trying to improve my calve size and defenition, could you recommend a program that I could follow? ps, this website is great.
A:
Calves are tricky to build up and different people seem to respond to different training techniques. For many people calves respond with growth to long-distance jogging/running, so if you do a lot of cardio as part of your program you're in a good position to take advantage of that training approach.
When it comes to weight training for calves your most basic exercise is going to be standing calf raises and your primary approach will be to do more, not less. Calves, unlike most other muscle groups, can take a lot of punishment and still grow. So don't hesitate to do 10-15 sets per week for calves, split over 2-3 sessions. Do mostly standing raises mixing in some sitting raises.
The last decision is what rep range to target. Again, this will be different for different people, but unlike most other exercises, high reps -- 12-20+ reps to failure -- can work for calves. So you should try both very high-rep as well as the more usual 8-12 rep approaches and see which works best for you.
Like with any intense program you shouldn't do this year-round, but calves are probably the most resilient muscle group so you can keep bombarding them with high volume for most of the year with short breaks in between. Try high-rep and normal-rep approaches at different times and don't forget that running can be a great calf developer too. Good luck!
1756. Q:
In question 142 you stated that one way to increase your metabolism is eat more one or two days a week. How much more would you recommend? and should these calories come from and particular source, like mostly carbs or mostly fat? If you take this approach two days a week, shoudl you eat more two days in a row or should you split the two days up? Thanks Mike
A:
If you do that you definitely want to be eating more carbs on those 1-2 days, the usual complex carbs (oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc), maybe 500 calories worth per day. I would split these extra calories over 2-3 meals on that day and I would split the two days of 'overeating' up so they're not back-to-back.
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