Q&A for: 6-Sep-08
2738. Q:
My son is 15 1/2 yrs old and very active. He is 6' tall and weighs 143lb purse solid musles. I would like to know what would be best diet for his age and activity. Need help. He is rather fincky eater. Thanks, Mom
A:
It sounds like whatever he is eating now is working pretty good for him already. In general, for atheletes and/or active individuals eating as much as 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day can help improve performance and speed up muscle recovery (so for your son that would be as much as 140 grams of protein daily, spread over all of his meals). If you are looking for generally healthy foods, check out my Nutrition article (don't worry about the amounts listed in there, but rather simply on what kinds of foods are healthy).
Finally, if your son is specifically interested in putting on some mass, you may want to help him structure his diet a little more formally, to make sure he gets enough calories to keep gaining weight. To do this, read that nutrition article first, and then use Fitness Guide with 'Gain Muscle' as the goal to get a sample daily diet.
2739. Q:
I am 33 yrs old and I am 5ft 3in. I only weigh 115 , I can't seem to gain weight and I don't want to be underweight. What can I do?
A:
115 pounds is a perfectly healthy weight for 5 foot 3 inches, though yes, it's a little on the light side. The basics of weight gain simply come down to eating more calories than you burn. So you need to eat more and the weight will come. You may think you are eating a lot now and simply can't eat anymore, but I can assure you that's not the case if you are not gaining weight. It's just a matter of finding calorie-rich foods you like (or at least don't mind) and eating more of them. One of my favorites for healthy weight gain is a sandwich made of two slices whole-wheat bread, smothered with natural peanut butter (the ingredients should list only peanuts and salt -- it's sold almost everywhere on the same shelf as all the other peanut butters), and sliced banana in the middle. That's a quick and healthy 400-500 calories. One or even two of these sandwiches per day in addition to whatever you normally eat are guaranteed to gain you weight.
If you don't care about building muscle, then all you need to do is eat more and the new weight will come mainly in the form of fat. If you are interested specifically in building new muscle, then in addition to eating more you will want to take up weight training -- make sure to check out my Weight Training article for a quick overview of weight training and a number of sample programs.
2740. Q:
In response to: Question 2725, would it be better if I just did cardio twice a week, as apposed to 5 days a week? Something like this: weights (upper body Mon & Thu), and (lower body Tue & Fri), with cardio on the treadmill, on Wed and Sat. Would that be better? 5 weeks and counting so far!
A:
Either approach is fine. As I said, it sounds like you are making good steady progress so there is no reason to shuffle your program around if you like what you are doing now. In general, two hours of cardio per week which is what you are doing now is perfectly fine and splitting it into several shorter session as opposed to two long sessions is good too, so I would keep everything as is.
2741. Q:
how many fat burners do u take to burn 2500 calories
A:
I don't like fat burners and don't advise anyone to take them. You can see my reasons in Q&A #812. I recommend you start with my Fat Loss article to learn how to lose fat and keep it off.
2742. Q:
how healthy is ice cream? can i have it in order to gain weight?im a hard gainer trying to gain muscle,i train with weights 4 days/week,i have a very clean diet and though i've got much stronger and can use heavior weights i can hardly gain a pound,so im thinking about having some ice cream since im sick and tired of eating lots of food.
A:
There is very little healthy about ice cream :) It does have some protein and calcium from milk but is overloaded with sugar and fat and usually preservatives. In the end it comes down to your priorities and goals. Eating ice cream instead of healthier choices will certainly gain you weight with less effort but you will be much more likely to gain fat instead of muscle and if you really go crazy with ice cream could result in worse problems in the long run.
Before turning to ice cream I would recommend you try a healthier bulking food like the sandwich I mentioned in a recent Q&A: two slices of whole-wheat bread smothered with natural peanut butter (the ingredients should list only peanuts and salt -- it's sold almost everywhere on the same shelf as all the other peanut butters), and sliced banana in the middle. If you eat two or even three of these daily, in addition to your regular food I guarantee you that the weight gain will come. And while it's not ice cream it doesn't taste half bad either!
2745. Q:
Whats the best way to correct bad posture/slouched shoulders. Do you have any recommended exercises or certain muscles to work?
A:
Unfortunately that's not something I am qualified to advise on. I recommend you talk to your doctor or see a physical therapist.
2746. Q:
What can I eat to gain fat/muscle in my butt?
A:
You can't control where your body stores fat. Any overall weight gain will result in some added butt fat, but depending on your body's 'preferences' you might gain only little fat on your butt and too much elsewhere which may not be what you want.
You can control where you build muscle, however. Some of the best overall exercises will also heavily work your gluteus maximus (the largest group of butt muscles) -- squats, deadlifts, and lunges. You can find them on my Essential Exercises pages.
2747. Q:
Hi Mike, I am 28 years old. I have been dieting in different ways for about 2 years. Initially I lost 40 lbs in the first year, had knee problems that caused me to have 2 surgeries and gain about 15 lbs back, and am finally back to being able to eat right and exercise. For the past four weeks I have kept up the following; I do cardio dance for an hour followed by an hour of yoga 2 times a week, I use an eliptical machine for about half an hour then do pilates once a week, I swim laps for about a half hour and do a deep water work out class for an hour once a week. On other days I either go walking, mountain biking or at least some sort of exercise. I have kept this routine up for 4 weeks now and have not started losing weight. Prior to the past four weeks I basically did no exercise anytime and I also ate worse than I do now. I know I am building muscle, but I expected to see either a weight drop or a better fit in my clothes and have not. How long should I expect it to take to see some results? I eat lots of fruits and veggies and protein and I eat better then almost anyone I know but I am still rarely ever hungry. Do I need to feel hungry in order to actually lose fat?
A:
It does sound a little strange that you are not losing any weight with that routine since that's a lot of cardio. There's a few possibilities as to what may be happening and most likely it's a combination of all of them...
1) Your metabolism might be low after long recovery from surgery which means that your body will be hanging on to the fat more than usual and burning fewer calories than usual.
2) You may really be eating too much, even if it's all healthy. You didn't mention how much you weigh or how much you eat, so I can't tell how much is too much, but you can use my Fitness Guide to get an idea of what your diet ought to look like for fat loss. It's also possible that although each individual food you eat is healthy, the overall diet is not balanced and also suboptimal. You can read my Nutrition article for my diet advice.
3) Your current program is not well-rounded and not optimal for weight loss. While you do a lot of varied cardio you do little or no high-intensity activities such as weight training. Steady low-intensity cardio is great for you healthwise and will burn some calories but it does not have the long-term calorie-burning and metabolism-boosting potential of high intensity whole-body exercise. You can read my How To Lose Fat article for the reasons and my Weight Training article to learn about whole-body weight training. Hope that helps!
2748. Q:
I DO 40 PUSH UPS ,25 CURLS ,AND 20 SIT UPS. HOW LONG WOULD ITTAKE FOR ME TO BE BUILT
A:
It depends on what you consider 'built'. You will gain some muscle with that program, assuming your diet is at least average. But you can get much much better results if you have a whole-body weight training program (your current program exercises only maybe a third of all your muscles) and bulking diet. You can read my Weight Training and Nutrition articles to learn how to design such a program and diet.
2749. Q:
if i weigh 180 how much whey protine will it take me to gain 15 pounds and how long.
A:
Protein alone is not enough to gain weight. You need a good overall diet, including increased carb consumption. In addition, if you want those 15 pounds to be muscle and not fat you need to make sure you eat clean healthy foods and gain weight as slowly as possible -- the slower the weight gain the more likely new pounds to be muscle and not fat. Gaining 1 pound every 2 weeks is a good pace. And of course you need to be doing heavy whole-body weight training.
2750. Q:
hi mike, I recently asked a question about building muscle or losing fat for an ectomorph body type that has actually gained fat. You suggested to build muscle for a year and then concentrate on losing excess fat. What sort of diet and calorie intake should I go with for maximum muscle build without adding more fat?
A:
Start with the diet suggested by my Fitness Guide when you specify 'Gain Muscle' as your goal. If you are not gaining weight, then increase portion sizes in 2-3 of the meals slightly (so maybe an extra 300-400 calories) and give it another week. If you still don't gain, increase portion sizes again. Eventually you will zero in on the calorie level needed to slowly but steadily gain weight. As you bulk up you'll need to keep increasing your calories slowly as you put on new pounds.
2751. Q:
If muscles are sore 1-3 days after workout does this mean they have had a good workout or been overworked?
A:
Muscle soreness is not really an indicator of anything. Some people routinely get more sore than others, some muscles get more sore than others, and new exercises will cause more soreness than the ones you've been doing for awhile. None of that means anything, other than that the sore muscle group is not yet ready to be worked again.
2752. Q:
hi mike,i'm 5'11,and 165-pounds how many fat grams and calories should i have to maintain at this level?
A:
Maintenance calories vary a lot from individual to individual, even at the same weight, but you can use my Fitness Guide and specifying 'Tone and Maintain' as the goal to get an average case estimate. Fill out the form, click 'Get My Fitness Guide', and scroll down to the bottom to see calorie totals.
2753. Q:
Hi mike, I'm 17 this year, 178cm tall and 64kg. I want to maintain this weight and this is what i do 3 times a week. I will spend 30 minutes in the gym ( i wonder if this is enough? ) doing 2 sets of 10 reps on 8 different gym equipments. I eat normally and maybe would have fast food once in a blue moon. So mike, is this enough to maintain my weight?
A:
Sure, that should be fine. If you don't eat a lot of junk food and generally don't overeat then maintaining constant weight is fairly simple. On top of it if you exercise as you describe you shouldn't have any problems with it at all.
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