Q&A for: 23-Oct-05
797. Q:
i'm a 25 yr old female, and want to know how to lose the love handles and belly fat
A:
Same way as you lose fat anywhere else on your body -- through a fat-burning diet and heavy whole-body weight training and some cardio. It's impossible to target JUST your love handles and belly fat but by losing fat overall you'll lose on in those places too. Please read my fat-loss article carefully and follow its directions. Good luck!
798. Q:
i have a very large fram. alot of people think that i am fat because of it but i am 6 foot and 205 pounds. what is the best way for me to get to where i dont look fat but am not just skin and bones.
A:
You can't do very much about your frame, so the only thing remaining is to decide whether you're carrying a bit extra fat and whether you want to lose it. Unless you have history in strength and power sports or weight lifting, at 6 ft 205 lbs even with a very large frame, you can probably afford to lose 15-20 pounds without becoming skin and bones. That may be what you want to do. In this case, please read my fat-loss article carefully and follow its directions. Good luck!
800. Q:
can you lose 3 pounds a week?
A:
You can certainly lose 3 pounds of weight per week, but for most people that would be counterproductive. Even though we always talk about 'losing weight', we really want to lose FAT, not just weight. It is fat that gives us the flabby chunky appearence and it is extra fat that carries a host of potential health problems.
So the question then becomes: can you lose 3 pounds of FAT in a week? For most people the answer would be NO, or at least NO, for more than a couple of weeks. When you have aggressive fat and weight loss like that, your body will be simultaneously losing a lot of muscle (which your body can and does burn for energy, just like it does with fat). When you lose muscle quickly with severe calorie restriction like you'll need for fast fat loss, your metabolism will very quickly shut down and fat loss will grind to a halt.
So you might go one week losing 6-7 pounds of which 3 are fat, then another week losing 3-4 pounds of which 1-2 are fat, and that's it. Past that second week your weight loss and especially fat loss will be minimal, if any. And soon enough, because you've lost all that muscle and lowered your metabolism, the fat that you lost comes back, usually with extra! This is by far the most common scenario for countless fad diets and this is the reason none of them work in the long-term. They give you seemingly great results quickly, which soon enough stop, and soon after that reverse with all the fat coming back.
If you're very severely overweight or obese, 3 pounds per week may be an OK weight loss pace, but for most people who just need to lose 20 pounds of fat or so, trying to lose it so quickly will backfire. For an average person I recommend losing weight and fat at about 1 pound per week and certainly no faster than 2 pounds per week.
801. Q:
how to make my butt bigger?
A:
Please see Q&A #581
802. Q:
how do you lose man boobs.
A:
Please see my fat-loss article
803. Q:
what kind of weighlifting do you have to do to loose man boobs?
A:
Heavy whole-body weightlifting. Heavy weightlifting means weights heavy enough that you reach muscular failure (inability to lift another rep) in 12 or fewer reps in each set. Such heavy weightlifting will do maximum damage to your muscles which will force your body to repair them in the following days. That repair process is an extremely potent fat-burner (that's on top of the calories burned in the actual gym). Whole-body weightlifting will make sure that ALL of your muscles go through this damage-and-repair cycle maximizing the amount of energy your body spends. The focus should be on the big muscle groups such as thigs, lower and upper back, chest and shoulder. Please read my fat-loss article for more.
804. Q:
how many calories does the average person burn per day with no exercise?
A:
It'll depend on a bunch of things: person's gender, age, health and health history, weight and body-fat percentage, diet and diet history, and the all-important genetics. There's no way to say for certain. The much more important point is that pure calorie counting is a poor approach to losing fat. Not all calories are created equal, and 'burning' twice as many extra calories does not in any way guarantee losing twice as much fat. Instead of focusing on number of calories burned, you need to focus on having a good diet, exercise (preferably with weight training, but definitely some exercise), and slow steady weight loss. A routine that consistently loses you 1 pound per week is much more likely to give you long-term success than some fad diet that loses you 10 pounds in the first week! This is a very important point that is not understood by most people. Please see Q&A #800 and read my fat-loss article for more info.
805. Q:
How many calories does the average person burn per day who has a 'desk job'?
A:
It'll depend on a bunch of things: person's gender, age, health and health history, weight and body-fat percentage, diet and diet history, and the all-important genetics. There's no way to say for certain. The much more important point is that pure calorie counting is a poor approach to losing fat. Not all calories are created equal, and 'burning' twice as many extra calories does not in any way guarantee losing twice as much fat. Instead of focusing on number of calories burned, you need to focus on having a good diet, exercise (preferably with weight training, but definitely some exercise), and slow steady weight loss. A routine that consistently loses you 1 pound per week is much more likely to give you long-term success than some fad diet that loses you 10 pounds in the first week! This is a very important point that is not understood by most people. Please see Q&A #800 and read my fat-loss article for more info.
806. Q:
How many miles in a 10K run
A:
10 kilometers is 6.2 miles
808. Q:
how many calories do you burn while doing sit ups?
A:
Very few, and it doesn't really matter. Sit ups are just one exercise that targets only a small part of your entire muscle mass. Situps are maybe 5% of what a good complete fat-loss program should be. So don't worry about situps or any one other exercise and instead focus on have a good overall program, including a fat-burning diet and heavy whole-body weight training. Please read my fat-loss article and follow its directions. Good luck!
809. Q:
I'm a small guy when it comes to weight.... i want to gain muscles and gain mass. how would i do it?
A:
You'll need to have a good heavy whole-body weight-training program and, even more importantly, a good nutrition program which will have you eating A LOT! Without a lot of food, you'll never gain a lot of mass. How much is 'a lot of food' -- enough to have you gaining about 2 pounds of weight per month. If you gain weight much faster than that, then much of the new gains will be fat (probably not what you want). By sticking to a 2-pounds-per-month pace you'll ensure maximal muscle gains with minimal or no fat.
Please read my Weight training article and my Nutrition article -- they will give you the knowledge base you'll need to proceed. Then fill out Mike's Fitness Guide specifying 'Gain Muscle' as your goal -- it will give you a complete exercise and diet prescription. For the exercise program, you'll need to find a gym to join or at least buy some equipment (pullup bar, dumbbells, maybe a flat bench) for home. Read the couple of paragraphs above the diet suggestion carefully -- it'll tell you how to go about modifying the suggested diet. Remember your goal is to gain 2 pounds per month. If you're not gaining fast enough, increase portion sizes slightly and if you're gaining too fast, decrease them slightly. Good luck!
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