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Q&A for: 3-Sep-05

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Ask Mike Your Fitness Question:

453. Q: What happens if u take too much protein?Is it bad and if yes why?

A: You will just pee it out :) Contrary to the popular old wives tales, too much protein does NOT damage healthy kidneys and does NOT leach calcium from bones. It can put additional strain on kidneys that are already unhealthy, but there's no evidence that it damages healthy kidneys. You should drink more water when on high-protein diets to help your kidneys flush the extra protein out easier.

References:
Dawson-Hughes, B., S.S. Harris, H. Rasmussen, L. Song, and G. E. Dallal. Effects of dietary protein supplements on calcium excretion in healthy older men and women. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 89:1169-1173. 2004.
Poortmans, J.R., and O. Dellalieux. Do regular high protein diets have potential high risks on kidney function in atheletes? International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. 10:28-38. 2000.

454. Q: how can i have body like movie star

A: I can't promise that anyone who wants to can look like a movie star, but everyone can improve their appearances (not to mention their health) considerably and many can in fact achive movie-star like physiques. You need knowledge, patience, and discipline. I try to provide the knowledge on this site and in its Articles section specifically. Patience and discipline you will have to find within yourself. It will not happen overnight and can easily require years. But as they say, it's about the journey more than about the destination. Along the way every day you will see yourself making progress, looking better and feeling better.

Also check out Q&A #375 for some other comments I have about looking like a movie star.

455. Q: I have been working out for just under six months, and although I have noticed some pretty good definition almost all over, I have seemed to remain the same size. Does it just mean that i've toned and haven't lost much fat, or maybe that I've replaced some of the fat mass with muscle? I do look a little better but my measurements haven't changed much.

A: Yup, what happened to you is very typical for beginners: you lost some fat and replaced it with some muscle so overall your weight or measurements don't change much but you have better definition and muscle tone. This is especially common for people who do not significantly change their diets, but simply start working out.

Unfortunately this early progress slows down with time and pretty much comes to a stop after awhile. So to continue making significant progress you would be best advised to choose your goal: lose fat or build muscle? Then you'd structure your diet program accordingly and follow it closely for best results. I suggest you fill out the Fitness Guide with the goal of your choice (lose fat or buil muscle), adapt the program it recommends to your specific needs food-wise and exercise-wise, and follow it.

456. Q: I don't have real heavy weights to work with. I reach failure, depending on which muscle I'm working, usually around 20 reps. Does that mean I won't see results very fast?

A: That's correct. If you're trying to burn fat, build muscle, or just gain strength, you want to use heavier weights. Rep range between 6 and 12 to failure should make up the core of your exercises. You can do 20+ rep sets once in a while, but it shouldn't be the majority of your workout. Doing 20+ rep sets will help a beginner make some progress (pretty much any exercise program will work to some degree for a beginner) but in the long run it'll simply increase muscle endurance with ony minimal effect on muscle size, fat burning, or strength.

457. Q: I ve heard nuts are a good source of protein but they contain much fat also.How many nuts can i eat a day so i take the necessary protein they can give me and avoid the mass fat the have.I use them as a meal-snack along with some fruits.

A: Raw or plain-roasted nuts are an excellent nutricious food! As you said, however, they are very high in fat and in calories. Depending on the kind of nut, it'll have from 5 to 10 times more calories from fat than from protein. Because optimal fat-burning (or muscle-building) diets will have roughly the same number of calories from protein as from fats, nuts should not be a major source of protein for you. Instead, consider them a source of healthy fats in your diet and take the protein as a bonus.

How many nuts is too much? Again, you should view nuts, as well as all other foods, as part of your overall healthy balanced diet. An ideal fat-burning diet would have 40% of calories from protein, 30% from carbs, 30% from fats. Very few people actually manage to eat that much protein and I don't know what your overall diet looks like, so I'll have to make some assumptions... Let's assume your diet now has 2000 calories broken down into 20% protein, 40% carbs, and 40% fats. Then 40% means that you get about 800 calories from fats. In terms of nuts, that's about 4 handfuls (4-5 ounces). But, of course, nuts are unlikely to (and should not, for variety's sake) be your exclusive source of fats, so more likely that you can eat about 2 handfuls (2 ounces) of them throughout the day.

Those 2 handfuls will only give you around 10 grams of protein which is only a small part of your overall protein intake. Going back to our assumption of 20% of 2000 calories from protein, you should be getting 100 grams of protein total during the day. And remember, ideally your protein intake should be 40% or 200 grams for a 2000-calorie diet. So you can see that nuts will contribute very little to your overall protein intake.

Hopefully that helps you a little bit in deciding how many nuts to eat. Again, they're an excellent nutricious food -- just don't rely on them for a lot of protein. If you don't know which nuts to eat, I recommend almonds (raw or dry-roasted) -- they have a lot of calcium and monounsaturated fat (which should make up the most of your fat intake. Other nuts usually have mostly polyunsaturated Omega-6 fat).

458. Q: Dear Mike, I want to know the best way to get rid of muscle on my arms and legs. I look like a have a mans body. Can you tell me also what to eat that would also help. I heard turkey helps. Please help

A: Since you're a woman it's very very unlikely that what you have is excessive amount of muscle. Instead you almost certainly have significant amounts of fat on upper legs and arms covering the muscle. You can test for your self -- flex the muscle and see how much soft tissue that you can pinch is on top of it. All that's soft and pinchable is fat, not muscle.

So your objective should be to lose all that fat. Your two biggest allies in losing that fat are a good diet and the muscles themselves!

A good diet means more than just eating one healthy food. Even if turkey was the greatest fat-burner known to man, by itself it would do nothing if the rest of your diet was junk. So you need to start thinking in terms of your whole diet, not any one food. Check out the 'How to Lose Fat' section of my Fitness Tips or, for a complete daily diet suggestion, fill out the Fitness Guide specifying 'Lose Fat' as your goal.

Besides having a good diet, the best thing you can do to help your body lose fat is engage in heavy whole-body weight training. Don't get scared that it'll make your muscles even bigger! As I said your problem is not in your muscles, but in the fat around them. And heavy weight training by itself will not make your muscles bigger AS LONG AS YOU'RE LOSING WEIGHT! That good diet I described before should ensure that you're losing weight, around 1-2 pounds/week. Do that along with weight training and you'll see the extra fat disappear and instead of having a big man's body you'll have a very feminine body with slight muscle tone. It's not going to happen overnight, of course, but in a few months the progress will be obvious and in a year or perhaps two you will have achieved the kind of physique you truly want.

So once again, change your whole diet, not just one food, and strongly consider starting weight training. The Fitness Guide will suggest a gym-based weight-training program and you can choose from it or from two programs you can do at home with minimal equipment: this and this. Those home programs won't give you quite the results of a gym program, but they're certainly much better than not exercising at all. Good luck!

459. Q: I am sixteen and i want to loose my man boobs, i also wan to bulk up but i don't want my chest to be muscle and fat. what should i do?

A: At 16 your primary goal should be to make sure you eat lots of healty foods instead of junk and get a lot of physical activity, whether it's schools sports, pickup games, weight training, or mowing lawns. At your age your body, when fed and treated right, will naturally shed the extra fat and build up some muscle.

The physical activity thing is pretty straightforward -- do it! To learn about proper weight training, read this -- there you'll find many sample weightlifting programs as well. Remember that safety always comes first and you should not push yourself so hard that you lose good form and risk injury. Contorting your body to lift an extra five pounds does absolutely nothing for your strength or muscles -- always lift with perfect form for best results.

Eating healthy will take a little more knowledge and effort. Here's what's involved... Have 5 or more small or medium meals throughout the day. Drink lots of plain water throughout the day. Eat: lean meats (for beef it means 90% lean or better), fish, chicken, cottage cheese, TONS of vegetables (especially green veggies. Go easy on corn and potatoes), whole grains (like old-fashioned oatmeal), fruits, eggs, nuts, olive oil. Do NOT eat: processed and prepackaged foods (like breakfast cereals), juices, sodas, smoothies, sweets, fried foods, junk foods. Just because a food is labelled 'Fat-Free' or 'Sugar-Free' does NOT make it healthy by any means. In fact, foods with those labels tend to be the super-processed junk that you should avoid. Read the ingredient labels to see how many ingredients the food has -- rule of thumb is the more ingredients, the worse it is for you. Focus on having lots and lots of vegetables (raw, as much as possible) and some fruits and the rest of your diet should take care of itself.

460. Q: i weigh in at approximatly 270pounds or 135kg i havent lost much weight at all, only 5kg in 3months, my arms seem bigger same as legs and chest and most other muscles however im starting to worry cause its only 5kg drop in 3 months and there is still alot of fat sarrounding my muscles, do you think ive converted some of my fat to muscle? is this the reason i have only lost 5kg? will i see more results and less fat in due time?

A: Congratulations, what is you're doing now is actually perfect! Slow weight loss like this is the best way to lose weight because you're certain to be losing fat and not muscle -- as is confirmed by your observation that your muscles seem a little bigger. So, just stay patient and keep on doing what you've been doing!

If you absolutely feel that you need to lose weight faster, you can safely go to as fast as about 10 kilos in 3 months. To move to that rate of weight loss, you can do more cardio and maybe very slightly cut your calories, unless they're already low (less than 2400 calories/day total).

But the main thing is to just stick with your plan because what you have is precisely the healthy long-term sustained fat loss that you should strive for.