Q: hi mike, ive been squatting for around 6 months. but today my knee was hurting. i was at the gym, warming up with just the barbell. i went down and it started hurting.. generally i'll get a litle knee pain on my first warm up set, but it goes away, this time it didnt. it wasnt like miserable pain or anything, but it also wasnt a little tickle. kind of in between. my stance is semi-wide with my toes pointed out if that helps

Q: Hey Mike. I'm from Q:1578. Well I am 100% sure I know that I cannot stick with the 2000 calorie diet that good because I'm not that good at sticking to plans. I've been surfing the net for a while and read some interesting things. These are the things I am going to do to lose weight and hopefully gain muscle while I'm at it: Water: I will drink water according to the color of my urine. If my urine is not clear, I will drink more water. Tea: Plenty of Antioxidants, doctor said I need those. Eating: No obvious junk food like pizza and candy etc.

Q: hi mike i was bulking up now im 5 kg heavier so how much calories should i drop ?

A: Hopefully you gained those 5kgs slowly, over 3-4 months at least. If you want to start cutting down fat now, then I'd start by dropping 500 calories from your bulking diet, mostly at the expense of carbs (especially in evening meals). Then monitor your weight and adjust calories up or down to keep yourself on track to lose weight no faster than 1kg every two weeks.

Q: how to firm and lift butt

A: Two things: you need to lose some fat overall and you need to do some lower-body exercises to build up your butt muscles a bit. The main thing is to lose some extra fat -- if you didn't have extra fat overall you wouldn't have it on your butt either. Unfortunately you can't pick and choose and tell your body to lose the fat ONLY on the butt, but you can lose fat overall and the butt fat will diminish along the way. Read this to learn how to best lose fat.

Q: Hi mike, im 15 and i weigh 60kg and my height is 173, i do this everyday can you tell me if its a good top to toe body workout, 1. i would do leg curls 2 set:10 rep each. 2 , i would do chest press 2 sets:10 rep each. 3 , i would do low row 2 sets:10 rep each. 4, i would do dumbbell row 2 sets: 10 reps each and finally i would do leg press 2 sets: 10 reps and all are taken to failure is this a good wholebody workout

Q: Mike, can you please tell me what a good monounsaturated to polyunsaturated fat ratio is?
ratio

A: I don't have a strict ratio, but the main bulk of your fat intake should be in monounsaturated fats. You will almost always get some saturated fats, especially if you eat animal products, and that's fine too. For polyunsaturated fats, try to get more of omega-3 polyunsaturated because almost any diet will already include sufficient amounts of omega-6 polyunsaturated.

Q: Hi mike when people lose fat sometimes they lose some muscle mass right ? so if someone is losing weight very fast it might not be fat am i right ?

A: That's exactly correct. The slower your weight loss is, the more likely the lost weight is actual fat. Losing weight too quickly can result in lost muscle which in turns greatly increases chances of the fat coming back (because your muscle is a fat-burner so the less muscle you have, the less fat you can burn).

Q: Hi mike!If i put weights on my stomache when doing situps will it be more benificial to me?Thanks!

A: Sure, that's a good way to make the exercise more intense. This especially makes sense if you can do many (20 or more) situps in a row. I would advise keeping the weight up more on the chest than the stomach for maximum effectiveness. Just remember that situps alone will not make you lose a lot of weight or give you a six pack -- you need a complete diet and weight training program for that as described here

Q: hi mike im the guy from 1556, i decided to add Quaker Low Fat Granola Bars as you say i should eat more healthy fat so i guess this Granola Bars are healthy as have oatmeal , high source of calcum, 0 tans fat and is low fat so should be okay

Q: reply to 1560, so is brown rice, potatoes, wheat bread all low GI foods?

A: Brown rice is a good food choice. For bread, make sure it's a whole-wheat bread, not just 'wheat'. Potatoes are best replaced with sweet potatoes. If you absolutely want to eat regular potatoes, stick with with baby red potatoes. And for all potatoes, regular or sweet, best way of cooking them to keep GI low is to boil them.

Q: hi mike why does carbohydrates make you fat and not eating fat itself make you fat ? its so weird , i thought eating fat would make you fat? which is better a lower carbo meal with higher fat intake or higher carbo meal with lower fat intake ?

Q: hi mike, i am so close to getting a six pack, but there is this layer of fat that wont go away! i can see it if i pull the fat down on my stomach...how should i get red of this? Thank you.

A: Getting that last bit of fat off is hard. First off, if you haven't yet, read my fat-loss article. If you haven't been doing the things I mention there you need to start doing them.

Q: hi mike let me tell you more about my self and what i want to achieve. Firstly i want to achieve a 6 pack and secondly i read one of your articles that you said we must lose fat in order to see it , but i think if i lose more fat or stuff i would be underweight.

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?

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

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?

Q: How many calories are burnt during sit ups

A: Please check out http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/how-many-calories-does-doing-crunche...

Q: Mike i have a problem with my back and this week i wont go to gym at all.The previous week i didnt get also cause it was rest period after 2 months of continuus heavy whole weight training.In order to keep my muscles and not gain any fat should i eat more or less this week.Maybe i ll need another week rest after this one also.Should i reduce my calories or not?

Q: Hi Mike.When doing diet to lose some fat can i do some cardio in order to burn lets say 250 calories and eat 250 calories more?Can i do the opposite?In other words should i count the calories from cardio to my diet?I have been told that in order to lose fat its better to do both.But if i lose 250 calories from cardio and 250 from eating less calories(250+250=500!)then i will lose more than one pound a week.What i should do?Should i count cardio or not in my daily calories?