Q&A for: 31-Jul-05
278. Q:
I am the guy from Q 276: I was moderately overweight.I lost a total of 18 pounds.I am 6 feet and 0.5 inches at 202 pounds.
Besides chocolat everything else that I ate was healthy.I drink about half a litre of fruit juice per day also.
I rather eat chocolat and take more time to reach my weight goals. Following a strict diet would be too stressfull for me.I tried once to go without chocolat for 2 months and I didnt lose a single pound. It would take around 6 months for me just to lose one pound on a non-chocolat diet.Peanut butter has even more fat than chocolat and I eat that also.But my total calories that I ate and drank never went beyond 2500 calories.But with a bmr of 2300 I had no problems losing weight. I look pretty lean at 18% and I am sure that with a lot of exercise I can reach my goal of 12% even though I consume too much juice and chocolat.But If I would have to change my diet to reach 12% I wouldnt do it.
A:
If you went from 220 lbs @ 27% to 202 lbs at 18%, that is very impressive indeed. You lost about 21 pounds of fat while gaining 3 pounds of muscle. Congratulations on the job well done there! Obviously your diet is completely up to you and if you think you can continue making progress, then by all means go for it!
279. Q:
Q277:the difference in body fat % between me and my brother in law is 1%. I disagree with you. I have read and seen stuff to the contrary.
A:
We'll agree to disagree then :)
One note about BF% measures is that even the golden standard (underwater weighing) has a built-in error of 1%. Caliper measurements done by a professional can have 2-3% error and bioimpedance methods (body fat scales or handheld devices) are notoriously unreliable and can easily have 5% error. So the 1% difference between you and your brother is not statistically significant and in reality he may well have more fat than which would explain the appearence.
280. Q:
does Whey powder come in pill form? my body is unable to handle this nasty stuff. it doesn't taste bad, but the strawberry smell is HORRIBLE. i can't take it any longer. how many times a day should i be drinking it? i do 30 minutes of cardio (treadmill) and 15 minutes with weights. sadly, i only get 1300 calories a day. i am CONSTANTLY hungry. to avoid my hunger, i end up taking sleeping pills. what's going on here?
A:
Sounds like you just picked up a nasty flavor. As I said in my Protein Supps article, chocolate flavors tend to be the safest choice for protein powders. There are no whey pills (you'd have to take like 15 of them anyway), but I recommend that you don't give up on whey altogether but find a better-tasting brand and flavor.
As far as how often and how much of whey you need to take, the answer is that the whey powders are simply replacements for protein-rich foods. So if you wanted to, you could just have lots of chicken or fish or meat or cottage cheese with every meal and then you wouldn't need whey at all. Take a look at my sample diets in the Nutrition article -- you'll see that almost all of them use whey for breakfast and use 'real foods' the rest of the day. But again, there's no magic in whey. It's just an alternative source of protein if you are not getting enough protein in your regular diet.
The other thing is that you said you only eat 1300 calories and are constantly hungry. 1300 is VERY little. It might be OK if you're a petite woman, but it's too little for anyone else. If you starve yourself like that, your body will start burning more muscle instead of fat which is exactly the opposite of what you want. It doesn't sound like you are following a good nutrition program overall -- please read that same Nutrition article and use the calorie calculator in it to see roughly how much you should be eating. Then slowly make changes in your diet (over the course of a few weeks) to ramp up to those suggestions. I am not sure what kind of weights program you're following, but I also recommend reading my Weighttraining article and implementing its suggestions.
My nutrition and weighttraining recommendations go hand-in-hand, so if you don't follow my style of weighttraining, then my nutrition guidelines won't apply to you. But I urge you to follow both for optimum results. Good luck!
281. Q:
I have had tendonitis on my shoulder for 6 weeks now. Do you know long it can take to heal ? And would physiotherapy do any good?
A:
Shoulder tendonitis can be very bothersome and stay for a long time (years!) so you should approach it carefully. If it's in the early stages, it should subside in anywhere from several days to several weeks when given rest. If you haven't worked the shoulder in these 6 weeks and the pain is still there it may well be an indication of a more serious problem. In this case you should definitely see your doctor or physical therapist (and yes, physical therapy may be required). Going forward decrease the volume of work you put on your shoulder and give it more frequent rests.
If you HAVE worked the shoulder despite the tendonitis, then stop immediately!!! It will only heal when given a chance to rest! By continuing to work through the pain you are only making the problem worse and it will take longer and longer to heal.
282. Q:
are sit ups good for loosing belly fat?
A:
Sit ups are a good exercise as a part of a larger program, but by themselves they will do virtually nothing for your belly fat. Please read this article.
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