Q&A for: 5-May-06
1545. Q:
How many calories are burnt during sit ups
A:
Please check out Q&A #1439.
1546. Q:
hi mike ,i would drink 1 glass of water before and after every meal so that i wont feel hungry as i have a very big appetite is this good ?
A:
Sure, if that works for you, go for it! Personally I usually don't drink much water (or other liquid) right at the meal time -- it dilutes your stomach acid and makes it tougher to digest food. For some people that can actually lead to stomach discomfort. But if you experience no such problems, then drink away! If you do find that this causes digestion problems, then just drink most of your daily water in between meals.
1547. Q:
Mike i dont understand something.It is said that after 20 mins of cardio the body starts burning fat.If it so then the calories we burn before we reach the 20 mins where are from?muscles?water?If it isnt fat then it has to be something right?
Also the hiit cardio lasts less than 20 mins.Then how it burns fat?Is it maybe cause it is a mixed form of aerobic and anaerobic exercise?
I ve also heard that its good in order to lose fat to make 4-5 times a week 30-40 mins cardio at brisk pace or 3 times a week hiit.Is it ok?
A:
The statement 'your body starts burning fat after 20 mins' is very misleading. Firstly, at no point does your body burns ONLY fat or ONLY glucose (glycogen) as well as ready creatine phosphate store (which is the primary source of energy for beginning of any exercise) -- it's always a mix of all three.
Secondly, even for duration of low-intensity exercise (such as cardio) either liver glycogen or muscle glycogen store is contributing about a third of the energy.
Thirdly, fat stores become the dominant energy source after the first two (not 20!) minutes of any continuous exercise.
Finally, it's a bad approach to think of any one exercise or activity in isolation as burning so many calories. Your body is a very very complex machine and nothing happens in isolation. That cardio will not only burn calories while you're doing it, but it will also affect how your body burns calories for many hours afterwards. That's why I always say that counting calories is a subpar approach to losing fat. Instead you should just settle on a good training program (such as the ones I give here :) and stick to it while simply adjusting your diet to keep weight loss on a slow steady pace of around one pound/week.
So now the answer to your second question becomes clearer... 4-5 cardio sessions of 30-40 mins per week is 2-3 hours of cardio per week total -- in my opinion is a little on the high side for most people, but not unreasonable. I would rather do 2-3 sessions of HIIT and 30-60 minutes of regular cardio per week. But either one should be OK. I recommend trying both and see which you like more -- some people respond better to regular cardio than HIIT. However if you are not doing any weight training at all, then I would consider HIIT a must.
1548. Q:
How much should we lose each week in order to lose only fat?How much pounds is 1 kgs?
A:
The slower you lose weight, the more likely it will be actual fat. But for most people 1 pound per week is a good target pace. 1 pound is about one half of 1 kilogram (1 kg = 2 pounds).
1549. Q:
Mike in order to lose some fat after bulk up i have done i have cut the carbs nd fats from the last 2 meals of the day(for the beginning)I eat 300 calories less this week and the previous one.So, my last meal contains 300 calories and the previous 400(before both were about 500).How small can a meal become in order to be a good meal?The next 300 calories...should i cut them from the last 2 meal or cut from another one?If 2 last 2 meal contain 300 calories each are then ok meal?Which is the minimum of calories a meal should contain in order to give u protein u need and only little carbs?(my protein shake gives me 100 per serving so the rest 200 are carbs).
A:
I recommend keeping all meals roughly similar, so your next calorie cut (when it's needed to keep the weight loss going) should come from different meals. My preferred sequence for the cut is to keep the most calories and the most carbs in breakfast, followed by pre-weight training meal, followed by post-weight training meal, followed by all other meals (most of which have green veggies for carbs). But the simplest and perfectly acceptable way is to simply keep all meals roughly same in calories with earlier meals having more carbs and less fats and later meals having less carbs and more fats (with protein being the same throughout). This will also ensure that you get enough protein in each.
1553. Q:
hi mike, im 15 and i weigh 240 pounds and im 6 foot. I work out for football and baseball. I even sumtimes jog in my free time. I want to get down to 210 or 215 pounds by the end of this summer. But i am not entirely sure wat to do to get there.
A:
Assuming you do whole body weight training, you have the training part down already (if not, read my weight training article). So for you the key will be getting a hold of your diet. Couple things first... As a still growing teenager it's important for you to not lose weight too quickly. You have about 16 weeks till the end of summer and I recommend losing weight not much faster than 1 pound/week, so I would aim for maybe 20 pounds lost this summer (you can lose the remaining 5-10 pounds after the start of the school year).
As far as what your diet should look like, first read my nutrition article to learn about the principles of healthy eating to lose weight, then fill out my fitness guide specifying 'Lose Fat' as your goal. It will give you a complete daily diet as well as directions how to customize it and also how to stay on track. Take my suggested diet, customize it to your tastes and simply stick to it! Then just monitor your weight and adjust your diet every 3-4 weeks -- if you lose more than 5 pounds or so in those 3-4 weeks, you'll need to increase portion sizes slightly and if you lose less than 2 pounds, then you'll neeed to decrease portion sizes slightly.
Hope that helps! I strongly recommend that you read those nutrition and training articles that I linked a couple times if needed till you really understand them. Good luck!
1554. Q:
Hi Mike,
This is probably the most useful fitness site on the web. I have been working out for 3 weeks on your 5 day weight training while doing 30min cardio on the other two days. I have two questions for you:
1. According to your fitness plan for me to get 'cut', I need to do 3 30-min cardio a week. Since I do two of those sessions on bike, is it okay to breakdown the third session in two 15min cardio on bike after finishing my regular weight training on one of the other five days?
2. Like I said, I have been onschedule for 3 weeks. I love it. Sometimes it is hard not to eat that pizza or stay away from pasta, but I have been able to succumb those thoughts by filling up on water and vegetables. My problem is that even though I eat healthy and take close the protein I need, I dont follow the complete eating schedule.
will that be a problem to get the result i want since I am trying to lose a gut?
3. what do you think of vegetables that are not considered, 'green veggies'? I eat probably about 2-3 carrots a day.
A:
Glad to hear you're liking the program and sticking to it! I'll answer your questions in order...
1. Yes, that is perfectly fine. The programs I give are just guides -- you can and should customize them to your specific needs.
2. Same as above, it's just a guide and there's nobody in world who can follow it exactly day in and day out. If you can follow it only, say, 80 percent of the time you'll still get very good results. Though do try to not eat complete junk for the times when you're not following the program :)
3. I like the term 'green veggies' to hint people to eat more of things like lettuce, spinach, and broccoli. But virtually all veggies are great for you -- the main exceptions when trying to lose weight are potatoes and corn. Carrots are relatively calorie-dense as far as veggies go, but certainly, two or three or even five carrots per day are perfectly fine.
So everything you're doing is right on -- great job and keep it going!
1555. Q:
Mike, when exactly and why should one wear a weightlifting belt? How exactly does it help and for what exercises should it be used?
A:
This is a tricky subject. Simple answer is that you should wear the belt if your doctor or therapist tells you to :)
It may be necessary if you have a back condition (which may be diagnosed by your doctor or physical therapist as I indicated above). But aside from that, a weighttraining belt is basically a crutch for you, taking off some of the work normally done by your lower back and abdominal muscles. Using it all the time leads to chronic underdevelopment of those muscles which may in turn lead to injuries during weight training and/or normal activities.
A belt can also let you get away (temporarily at least) with using poor form on exercises such as squats, but sooner or later the poor form will catch up with you. As always, make sure that you learn and ALWAYS maintain good form above all else.
So my recommendation is to not use the belt unless your doctor tells you to. If you have aches and pains in lower back, you should ideally see your doctor/therapist or, if that's not an option, at least take it easy and rest until the injury fully heals (and restart with light exercises instead of jumping right away to your old heavy weights). Do NOT get into the habit of using belt just because it feels easier or more comfortable -- only do so if a professional recommends it.
I should also say that the belt only serves its purpose when doing compound lower-body exercises, such as olympic lifts, squats, and deadlifts -- it serves absolutely no purpose for things like bicep curls.
|
