Q&A for: 31-May-07
2326. 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:
Gilad, check out my reply to Q&A #2312.
2327. Q:
I know that fibre keeps you feeling fuller for longer, but I’ve heard that protein is the best food to stave off hunger because it takes so long for to digest. When fibre keeps you feeling full, is it because it is providing calories for longer than other foods types or is it making your body feel full even though you may be undereating – to lose bodyfat.
A:
Fiber has two things going for it to keep you sated longer... For one, it does, as you said, take up more room in your digestive tract than heavily processed foods with little fiber. The second reason, which is probably more important, is that fiber actually slows down digestion and insulin release into the bloodstream. Insulin release is what triggers the uptake of the nutrients from the bloodstream into various organs, muscles, and fat deposits. Once the nutrients are gone from the bloodstream you'll start feeling hungry again. So by making the insulin release more gradual fiber keeps you sated longer.
The very important point to this is that you virtually always want insulin release to be slow and gradual! This will minimize uptake of nutrients into fat deposits, thereby keeping you slimmer and leaner. Not to mention helping you avoid type II diabetes. This is why I always always always tell people to eat natural, nutritious, minimally processed foods -- they are the type that will digest slower (in large part because of the natural fiber content) and keep you leaner and healthier.
2328. Q:
how many calories should a 13 year old have
A:
Don't worry about how much calories you are eating, but instead make sure that those calories come from quality foods and not junk. Always make sure to eat plenty of raw or lightly cooked veggies, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats (like olive oil or dry-roasted nuts), and lean protein. Minimize sweets and junk food. Your body is growing right now and if you give it plenty of healthy nutritious food it'll put it to good use. On the other hand, the more junk you're feeding it, the more likely you'll be to gain fat and have all sorts of health problems down the road. Again, don't worry about HOW MUCH, but instead make sure that WHAT you're eating is healthy.
2329. Q:
hey mike is there any leg workouts i can do to help me jump higher ....for some reason i got on the im going to dunk a basketball no matter wagon lol but i still cant get rim lol im about 6 foot 6 foot1 what can i do i weigh around 180 to 190
A:
The answer is plyometrics. Questions like yours have been coming up a lot lately, so I'll definitely be adding plyometrics article to my website in the future. The topic of plyometrics deserves a thorough discussion, so I'd rather not give a half-baked answer here -- instead check out the book I recommend in Q&A #2230.
2330. Q:
I`m 11 yr old 5`4 185 pounds.I cant run for distance and want to play football this august what can I do to get in shape and lose the weight so i can run without quiting?
A:
The most important thing you need to do is probably improve your diet. 5 foot 4 and 185 pounds is definitely overweight and in vast majority of cases like yours the diet is to blame. Because you are so heavy it's a real struggle for your body to move your frame at high speed, so you get tired quickly when running. You need to start doing two things...
One, improve your diet. You don't need to try to eat little and you don't need to try to lose weight necessarily -- you'll keep growing and growing over the next several years and your natural growth will use up your extra fat all by itself. You do need to start eating healthy nutritious foods, however. Make sure to eat LOTS of vegetables like broccoli, spinach, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, green peas, carrots, etc. Some corn and potatoes are OK too, just make sure they're not the only veggies you eat. Most of these should be eaten raw or lightly cooked (steamed, boiled, lightly stir-fried with little oil). Virtually every meal you eat except maybe breakfast should have a hearty helping of vegetables. Also eat whole fruits (not juice or canned concentrates), beans and lentils, and whole grains such as oatmeal and whole-wheat bread. If you can learn to like plain old fashioned oatmeal without sugar then you'll be doing yourself a huge favor! Try it with sliced bananas, strawberries, or apples and add cinnamon for taste. Don't be afraid of fats, but make sure the amounts are moderate and most importantly come from healthy sources such as olive oil, dry-roasted nuts or seeds, fatty fish like salmon, or some eggs. Finally have lean protein foods like fish, skinless chicken breast, or 95% or leaner beef. AVOID sweets and junk food (burgers, shakes, pizzas, fries) and minimize processed foods like cold breakfast cereals, white bread or rice, packaged microwavable foods, and commercial salad dressings (use olive oil instead). Drink plenty of plain water or unsweetened tea. Don't drink juices (eat actual fruit instead) or sodas (diet or regular).
That should take care of your diet. The second thing is you need to start jogging and running to build up your endurance. The key here is to learn to find your pace. Even in your present condition you can almost certainly walk or slowly jog a mile without too much trouble -- you just have to start relatively slow and maintain that pace the whole time. If you start too fast you'll run out of breath quickly. So start slow and keep at it for at least 15-20 minutes each day. With time you'll be able to increase your pace more and more and if you are diligent, there's a very good chance you'll be able to run a 8-9 minute mile by August. Good diet and your natural continuing growth will help with running too.
Hopefully this will help you meet your goal of football in the fall. However keep in mind that even more important is long-term perspective! The habits you acquire and follow now will likely stick with you for your whole life. If you adopt healthy habits in eating and exercise you will likely not be overweight at all in 1-2 years time and will be in superb shape by high school, college, and the rest of your life! Good luck!
2331. Q:
what happen to the excess fats?how is it used by the body?
A:
Your body uses fat both as an energy source and as a building/repair material for all its billions of cells. But if you overeat fats and there's excess of them they'll simply go into your fat deposits. The same is true of carbs -- carbs are an excellent energy source, but if your body has more of them than it can use, they'll simply make you fatter.
2333. Q:
hello, Mike... I know you are not gonna like this question, but anyway... I wanna ask if by eating very little but through the entire day, not only once, and exercising, cardio and weights, if there will be a fat loss or just temporary weight loss, if it was performed for some time... I also wanna ask if doing weight training every day could change it to cardio, or if it could become less efficient or so... thank you...
A:
Eating small amounts throughout the day can actually work just fine, assuming that altogether they still add up to a reasonable amount of calories and nutrients. If you like and have the time, you can certainly break up your daily intake into 10 or even more meals per day. But the key is to make sure that overall you are still eating enough -- try filling out my Fitness Guide for a ballpark idea of how much you should be eating and then break it up into as many small meals as you like.
As far as doing weight training every day... If you are doing heavy to-failure weight training (12 or fewer reps in set to muscular failure and 10 or more sets per day), then doing it daily will sooner or later lead to overtraining. Your body, both your muscles and your nervous system, need time to recover from heavy weight training bouts and vast majority of people will burn out doing it daily for too long. Overtraining leads to any or all of the following: injuries, loss of strength, loss of appetite, insomnia, irritability, lack of progress in losing fat or building muscle.
In short, you do NOT want to overtrain, so you almost certainly will not want to do heavy weight training daily for any length of time. Even if you do light weight training like circuit training, which is closer to cardio, it is usually still not a good idea to do it daily.
2334. Q:
im around 146 lbs and i was wondering how many calories i burn if i do 300 sit-ups a day and i eat less than 1500 calories a day?
A:
300 situps a day won't burn a whole lot of calories, but more importantly your overall approach to losing weight (I assume that's what you are trying to do) is not the best one. Keep in mind, that just because situps target abdominal muscles does NOT mean that they'll specifically burn abdominal fat. Instead of just doing situps, you need to exercise all your muscles (situps exercise maybe 15% of them) to maximize your fat burning potential. Please read my fat loss article.
2335. Q:
Hi Mike.I was doing weight lifting yesterday and when i was lifting a heavy weight i experienced a strong headache.The weight i was lifting was slightly better than i always do cause i did 12 reps before and i start from 10 then go 8 and 6 till failure.I search and found this is very common in weightlifting but i dont know what to do.Seems the cause is still unknown.Have u ever experienced this and what do u think is happening and causes this?
A:
Sorry, that's a medical question and not something I will be able to advise on. I would encourage you to see a doctor about it, especially if the pain does not go away on its own after a couple days. I definitely would not do heavy training while the pain is still present or if it returns. Good luck with your recovery.
2337. Q:
hi mike, i am a 16 year old guy and i have recently gotten quite tubby. by recently i mean, i'm an ex-athlete. i was a sprinter last year, but this year i havent really found the time for it. i sorta gave up on running. and now ive gotten fat. i keep saying to myself 'im goin for a run tomrow' but i never do. whats wrong wit me? why is it so hard for me to get back on that cycle that i was in last year? even my girl friend left me cause i got fat!
A:
Sorry to hear that, sounds like you are in a bit of a rut now. I wouldn't stress too much about it -- everybody falls off the wagon at some point or another. As an athlete, it'll be much easier for you to get back on track than it would be for an average person. So I wouldn't overthink or stress about it, but simply start running again. Right now pick a time when you're free to run and then just go for it! You of all people know that you'll actually enjoy it.
And if you are really getting too tubby you may want to examine your diet for what's causing it -- at your age even with no particular physical activity you ought not put on much fat unless your diet is poor. Most likely culprits are sweets, fast food, and sodas. Good luck and I'm sure you'll get back on track easily once you put your mind to it!
2338. Q:
Hi Mike, I am 25, M, 5'9' at 176 lbs. I am quite satisfied with my progress. I do almost all exercises for all body parts, including squats, deadlifts, and benchpresss, and all other exercises. I am using Optimum Whey. I have used Animal Pak before in 2005, SAN muscle mass, optimum whey, Prolab whey, prolab creatine, used APN creatine but stopped two weeks ago. The main problem is that my left side of the body is a bit weaker than the right side of the body especially arms and shoulder (Left arm biceps is 1 inch short than the right one ). I am not able to feel the right amount of pump in the left arm as I do in the right arm. Is there anything that I can do to make this equal. I thought of getting accupuncture sitting, so that it may stimulate my left side of the body to promote growth. What u say? I am fighting with this thing since last 3 or 4 years. Sometimes I think of saying bye-bye to bodybuilding, but cant do that also, as I am quite used to it now, cant think of life without going to gym.........Any supplements if u want me to try to promote growth on my left arm?????
A:
Your problem is actually quite common -- many people have asymmetries between right and left sides of the body. Unfortunately as far as I know there's no treatment or supplement you can take to fix this problem. The only thing I could recommend is to primarily do dumbbell exercises for those muscle groups for which asymmetry is most pronounced (like arms and shoulders, as you mentioned) and doing equal number of reps on each side. Likely what will happen is your left side will reach failure 1-2 reps sooner, so the right side will actually not go to failure with the same number of reps. The end result will be that left side will be getting more intense workouts and will eventually catch up (or at least come closer) to the right side. It's obviously going to take time for the effect to show and it's far from perfect solution, but as far as I know that's the best you can shoot for in curing asymmetries like that. Good luck!
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