Deth Muncher's Trip To A Better Body

[Deth Muncher]

(Pre-Introduction Note: Wall of Text Attack! No Save!)
Introduction
Okay guys, here's the deal. I've been displeased with my body for a long time. No, not in a "I'm a man trapped in a woman's body" kind of way (though my moobs might lead you to think otherwise...:smallconfused:), but in a "I don't like the muscle/fat ratio in my body" kind of way. To shore things up, I have no eating disorders, I'm under the influence of no mind-altering substances (save for a Guinness from time to time), I've just finally gotten the drive to do something about how I look. At the time being, this post will be incomplete, but I will update this in several hours.
Rationale
So to elaborate further on the "why" of this log, here's the deal. I want to make myself look better. Okay. We've got that part. But the thing is, I'm a guy who lacks serious motivation. "Why go to the gym when I could sit on my arse playing one of the fifty-two videogames I need to play this summer?" has been my thought process for the past three weeks. No longer, says I! As to why I'm writing this journal? That goes to the motivation thing: See, if I'm just doing this for me, then eh, whatever, I'll get over it. But if I have to update this on the off chance that people who might possibly give a fart about the wellbeing of someone in their e-community, well, this bsns just got srs.
What I'm Working With
My university just built a spankity new gym, and while I don't have the list of all the machines they have, their website lists the following:

* 2 heated indoor pools: activity pool and leisure pool, large, multi-person whirlpool spa
* Rock climbing wall with bouldering/caving wall
* Outdoor Adventure Program retail space
* 18,000 sq foot fitness center with various brands of cardio, selectorized and free weight equipment
* 4 court hardwood floor gymnasium for basketball, volleyball, table tennis and badminton
* Multi Activity Center (MAC) with indoor turf
* Indoor running track
* Indoor cycling studio
* 2 glass walled racquetball courts
* Intramural office and equipment checkout
* Wet classroom, seminar room
* Fitness Resource Bar and Personal training office space

They open at 6AM every day, and that's when I'll be going - today, at least, if just to get a feel for what's there (I've been there twice) and what I can use. I'll get my schedule hammered out over the weekend, and go for realsies starting Monday.
How This Journal Is Going To Work
Basically, once I know exactly what I'm working with in the gym, I'm going to have a list of what I do what days, and I'm going to make a list of reps/sets/weights/whatever for each activity. I will also hopefully learn the names of the equipment, so I don't have to refer to stuff as "the bar you put the weight on and then you grab an pull towards you, which is done while sitting instead of standing." Also, to keep it interesting, I may put up my workout mixes that I'll be listening to.
What I Need/Want From You
For any of you folks out there who know what you're talking about, I'm going to need your help analyzing non-exercise factors to what I'm doing to shape myself - namely, dietary help, as well as just random tips in general. Not that I want to go on a diet, mind you, but rather I'm going to need some help figuring out some "Eat This, Not That's." My father got me the Abs Diet book for Christmas, so I'll take a look in there too. Also? If you could, uh, let me know that someone is looking at this? That would be great. I mean, I know this doesn't really apply to you, and you really shouldn't care, but at least knowing that someone will read this will be great for the encouragement to keep this going.

[Coidzor]

Hmm. Eating more slowly can help with the transition to smaller portion sizes. Lets your body acknowledge the food you've put in it already before putting more in and all that jazz.

Cutting down on le soda also helps.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I miss Crow, actually that might just be his avatar. A crow sitting on a book, D&D for dummies or something.

He posted a lot in threads like these with great advice. *nostalgic*:smallfrown:

Oh well, running is very good, it exercises most of the muscles in your body, build it up slowly. Get a steady rythm.

Take one or two days between exercising so that your muscles can relax instead of getting overstressed.

[Deth Muncher]

Hmm. Eating more slowly can help with the transition to smaller portion sizes. Lets your body acknowledge the food you've put in it already before putting more in and all that jazz.

Cutting down on le soda also helps.

If it makes ANY sort of difference, I only drink diet sodas, and the occasional real-sugar soda - none of that high fructose cornsyrup balderdash. Although I realize the sodium content in them isn't that good for me, at least they're zero calories!

EDIT:



Oh well, running is very good, it exercises most of the muscles in your body, build it up slowly. Get a steady rythm.

Take one or two days between exercising so that your muscles can relax instead of getting overstressed.

In the past, when I've gone and done exercising, I've gone and run a mile first, then done whatever it was I was going to do. And as to when I'm going to do this, I'm probably looking at M/W/F, though I may go every day and just alternate which half of the body I'm working: theoretically, this would mean that while, say, my arms were recuperating, I could be doing leg presses.

[Ranna]

My tip, dont go at 6am. I tried that it made me faint
I find that I cannot force myself to eat at 5am (leaving me an hour to digest my food in preparation for the gym) and then actually get to the gym without wanting to curl up on the floor workout mat

I go late in the evening at like half 8 till quarter to 10. Why? Cos it gives me time to get home (at 6, have a medium meal 6 - 6:30 walk the dog 6:30 - 8:15 then get ready and hop to the gym) Of course this will be adjusted to what you do during the day, study maybe as u mentioned uni.

Also I snack at night, I snack ALOT its awful so if I am out at the gym instead there is no snacking and exercise instead.

So I will give a quick (probably long and rambling account) of some of the equipment at my gym I am gonna skip over the weights machines as you should NEVER use them without proper instruction from one of the members of staff there.

Elipitcal/Cross Trainer
What to do at the gym well. I LOVE the cross trainer, I think they are also called eliptical trainers?? they are low impact so they dont hurt your joints and they burn ALOT of calories and I really dont know why to be honest I tihnk it is an easy machine to love.


Treadmill
What else. there is running I would recommend starting with brisk walks. Maybe try walking briskly about speed 6 on an incline of about 4 to start with and see how you go. This is High Impact, you have problems with joints or rubbish trainers you could hurt yourself be careful!
Usually when starting a running regime you run for 3 mins then walk for 2 (to catch your breath) and repeat this for 5 times meaning you get a good solid 25mins of running/walking which is really really fab for you, however the treadmill I find is hard to accomplish this on
Also Try using the fat burn programme as it measures your heart rate to ensure it is just high enough to be burning fat without you having to run for your life on the damned machine.

I HATE the treadmill!!!! I really really really hate it. But you know what, after I have pounded that meanie for 18mins at a speed of 10 - 12 I really really really feel proud of myself I am a sweaty panting mess but I feel accomplished
and that is why I go to the gym

Rower
Ahh the rower. Another machine I cannot fathom, It hurts my back and gives me a complex about my co-ordination! I always get the squeaky one that makes an awful noise whenever I move. My trainers fall off my feet and I nearly fall over. - It is a joy and a skill to use one of these things but again they give you an EXCELLENT workout. - I skip it because I am useless but if rowing is your thing and you are a normally co-ordinated human some people really enjoy them.

They are usually very simple machines there is a resistance switch at the side of them and basically you row your heart out, you can go for speed or distance or time and it is very very very good for starting out with your general levels of fitness as you TOTALLY control the speed you go at (rather than waiting for a treadmill to register your request to slow the frakk down and then take its sweet sweet time to slow the belt down) the rower slows the second you want it to slow. which makes it good for gradual fitness improvement,

row hard for 3 mins then lesuirly for 3 mins, and repeat 4 times similar to starting out running you can start out rowing on this machine and see improvement fast!

Stepper
Dont like the stepper it is a woman machine but gives me legs like a wrestler - SKIP


Bike
Wowies very nearly forgot this one, I use the bike to warm up but that is it, I find it hurts my bum. But some people again swear by it, low impact easy on the joints (not so on the bum) and you can really adust the settings to make it as hard or as easy as you can. Not as calorie burning as running rowing or the x-trainer but thats what you get for sitting on your arse :smallwink:

Swimming
Not a fan I don't like showing my body off and I think swimming although relaxing is not a very good use of your time when compared to other high intensity training machines. IF you are a pure beginner though who doesn't mind baring flesh swimming is a very gentle, non impact sport again just make sure you don't use the side to stop you must keep on with those lengths the point of a gym is to be out of breath, I find it too tempting to just float by the side after each length to catch my breath which is uselss really.

there a long rambling probably incomplete account of the facilities I use at my gym like I said before, don't start weight training without proper one-on-one guidance you don't want to hurt yourself

[Ranna]

Oh and as for diet, skip/lower the meat (try chicken turkey and fish) and skip cheese and your good

[Deth Muncher]

My tip, dont go at 6am. I tried that it made me faint
I find that I cannot force myself to eat at 5am (leaving me an hour to digest my food in preparation for the gym) and then actually get to the gym without wanting to curl up on the floor workout mat

I go late in the evening at like half 8 till quarter to 10. Why? Cos it gives me time to get home (at 6, have a medium meal 6 - 6:30 walk the dog 6:30 - 8:15 then get ready and hop to the gym) Of course this will be adjusted to what you do during the day, study maybe as u mentioned uni.

Also I snack at night, I snack ALOT its awful so if I am out at the gym instead there is no snacking and exercise instead.

So I will give a quick (probably long and rambling account) of some of the equipment at my gym I am gonna skip over the weights machines as you should NEVER use them without proper instruction from one of the members of staff there.

Elipitcal/Cross Trainer

Treadmill

Rower

Stepper

Bike

Swimming


Oh, I never plan on going to the gym at 6am EVER again. It's just that I was already awake at four, and I've got to go drive later today, so I figured I may as well take a peek around the gym, write down what they've got, maybe run for a mile or so and call it a day.

Since I volunteer on Wednesday nights, if I end up going on M/W/F I'll likely go during midday. Now, I may be getting a job in July, so this is subject to change.

I don't snack, which is probably good for me - a lack of snackfood means a lack of snacking, which I do heavily when there is. I may, however, need to up my food-getting when I start really getting into it, as faster metabolism = needs moar fudz. I think.

Thankfully for me, I do know how to use several of the weight machines, and have on several occasions (like...two. :P). But you're right, I'm not going to use anything without first knowing what it does and how to use it.

Elliptical - What the hell is this, exactly? I always hear about it, I have no idea what it is.
Treadmill - Yeah, I hate it too, but it's a good warmup, methinks.
Rower - Now that's an idea. I know we have rowing machines, since we have a rowing team - I've had friends complain about them hogging them. I'll have to look into this. There's also the fact that my father owns kayaks, so maybe I'll hijack a kayak and go real rowing sometime.
Stepper - I'm inclined to avoid the stepper, but you're right: these do give you the legs of a wrestler. That was the one thing I loved marching band for: ROCK HARD CALVES!
Bike - Yepper, I do this for a warmup too. Or I may end up using this as a cooldown from now on.
Swimming - I'm probably going to give swimming a miss until I start seeing a visible reduction in fat.

GIGA-EDIT:
Oh and as for diet, skip/lower the meat (try chicken turkey and fish) and skip cheese and your good
But I looooooove cheese! :smallfrown: Though I don't much eat it, honestly. Maybe some on my chilli/burrito/sandwich, but never too hefty. Regardless, I'll keep an eye on it. And you're right about changing the meats I eat: I have a bunch of chicken in the freezer that I need to stirfry once I get some veggies to go with.

[Ranna]

http://www.eurocosm.com/Application/images/fitness-equipment/Stratus-Elliptical-Trainer-md.jpg

Actually looking a picture they look well scary!

[Coidzor]

Oh yeah. I made the mistake of not having a very good breakfast and hitting the gym before lunch. Made myself sick and almost vomited. That cold sweat though, was a lesson to me. Don't work out without fuel. You might think you'll trick your body into burning off its fat stores in order to survive, but really it's just going to crap out on you.


Speaking of ellipticals. Aren't those supposed to be easier on your knees/joints as well? And very comfortable if you can find one with a good range of motion on it. Seems hit or miss whether the ellipticals are comfortable at the gym at my school.

[Deth Muncher]

http://www.eurocosm.com/Application/images/fitness-equipment/Stratus-Elliptical-Trainer-md.jpg

Actually looking a picture they look well scary!

Isn't that a stepmachine?

THE EDIT THAT PIERCES THE HEAVENS:


Oh yeah. I made the mistake of not having a very good breakfast and hitting the gym before lunch. Made myself sick and almost vomited. That cold sweat though, was a lesson to me. Don't work out without fuel. You might think you'll trick your body into burning off its fat stores in order to survive, but really it's just going to crap out on you.


When my father was working out regularly, he generally had a mini-steak and an egg sammich (occasionally together) for his pre-workout food. I plan on doing similar.

[Ranna]

A stepper's movement is up and down and there is no arm poles to hold on to whereas an elliptical moves in a sort of oval (well elliptical) shape so it is kind of like the running motion but without thud thud thud of your shoes hitting the ground.

You also hold on and push/pull those arm poles giving your upper body a workout too!

Just look for the funny arm poles thats your elliptical right there.

[Deth Muncher]

A stepper's movement is up and down and there is no arm poles to hold on to whereas an elliptical moves in a sort of oval (well elliptical) shape so it is kind of like the running motion but without thud thud thud of your shoes hitting the ground.

You also hold on and push/pull those arm poles giving your upper body a workout too!

Just look for the funny arm poles thats your elliptical right there.

Whurd. Good to know.

[Serpentine]

There's heaps of bits and pieces of advice. For example: if you want cheese, use more fuller flavoured ones (like parmesan for sprinkling or sharper cheeses for slicing), so you eat less of it.
Chewing every bite carefully makes you feel like you ate more than you would otherwise.
Food containing lots of water and/or fibre will fill you up more (as well as those two things being good for you).
You don't have to eliminate anything from your diet, but only have the really bad stuff occasionally.
Have smaller servings. You don't have to not have a slice of cake at all, just have half the slice you would normally; cut a steak in half to get two meals out of it; etc.
If you're having a snack, take out the specific amount you want (2 biscuits, a handful of nuts, a bowl of chips, etc) and put the rest back, rather than eat from the packet.
Drink lots of water.
Use healthy oils such as olive oil to cook with, rather than butter and the like.
Do a search for "food for losing weight" or something similar. There's some interesting things there - for example, tumerick, cinnamon and chili all speed up your metabolism or somesuch, and the latter in sufficient quantities also helps slow down your eating so that, as the second point above, you feel fuller on less.
Have healthier snacks nearby in a handier form than less healthy snacks (e.g. a quantity of vegetable sticks and a dip, easy fruit like bananas, etc.).
Look at healthier meat options - kangaroo is great if you can get it.
Always have a good breakfast. Oats seem to be extra-good, as well as low-fat protein such as eggs - things that are good for you and fill you up.

Not sure how much of this will work for you, so I'll just go over what I'm doing:
I go to uni most of the day 'til night, and I don't do very interesting things there. I make my own lunch - preferably a sandwich, sometimes leftovers - because most of the options available are pretty fatty and tempting, and they're all really expensive. I also take about 3 or 4 of the following: a handful of mixed nuts; fruit; a fruit bar (e.g. K-time Twist); a couple of biscuits. I also have a packet of gum at my study desk, so I chew on that rather than eat out of boredom.

[Deth Muncher]

There's heaps of bits and pieces of advice. For example: if you want cheese, use more fuller flavoured ones (like parmesan for sprinkling or sharper cheeses for slicing), so you eat less of it.
Chewing every bite carefully makes you feel like you ate more than you would otherwise.
Food containing lots of water and/or fibre will fill you up more (as well as those two things being good for you).
You don't have to eliminate anything from your diet, but only have the really bad stuff occasionally.
Have smaller servings. You don't have to not have a slice of cake at all, just have half the slice you would normally; cut a steak in half to get two meals out of it; etc.
If you're having a snack, take out the specific amount you want (2 biscuits, a handful of nuts, a bowl of chips, etc) and put the rest back, rather than eat from the packet.
Drink lots of water.
Use healthy oils such as olive oil to cook with, rather than butter and the like.
Do a search for "food for losing weight" or something similar. There's some interesting things there - for example, tumerick, cinnamon and chili all speed up your metabolism or somesuch, and the latter in sufficient quantities also helps slow down your eating so that, as the second point above, you feel fuller on less.
Have healthier snacks nearby in a handier form than less healthy snacks (e.g. a quantity of vegetable sticks and a dip, easy fruit like bananas, etc.).
Look at healthier meat options - kangaroo is great if you can get it.
Always have a good breakfast. Oats seem to be extra-good, as well as low-fat protein such as eggs - things that are good for you and fill you up.

Not sure how much of this will work for you, so I'll just go over what I'm doing:
I go to uni most of the day 'til night, and I don't do very interesting things there. I make my own lunch - preferably a sandwich, sometimes leftovers - because most of the options available are pretty fatty and tempting, and they're all really expensive. I also take about 3 or 4 of the following: a handful of mixed nuts; fruit; a fruit bar (e.g. K-time Twist); a couple of biscuits. I also have a packet of gum at my study desk, so I chew on that rather than eat out of boredom.

Please, PLEASE tell me you're joking about the kangaroos.

As to everything else: Yes. Although, when you say biscuits, do you mean biscuits (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/345960854_aeddcea49a.jpg) or biscuits (http://www.bvallc.com/pensionblog/uploaded_images/Saltines-702231.JPG)?

[Serpentine]

I believe the lesser colonials refer to them as "cookies" :smallsigh: Although cheese and crackers would be a perfectly legitimate treat also.

And yes on the kangaroo. It's delicious, high iron, very low fat, and good for the environment.
Oh yeah, we eat both the animals on our coat of arms :smallwink:

[Coidzor]

I believe the lesser colonials refer to them as "cookies" :smallsigh: Although cheese and crackers would be a perfectly legitimate treat also.

And yes on the kangaroo. It's delicious, high iron, very low fat, and good for the environment.
Oh yeah, we eat both the animals on our coat of arms :smallwink:

So, what, colonials now come in Dragonmark flavors of least, lesser, and greater?

Ooo, but are there Siberys colonials?

Wait. How is kangaroo eating good for the environment? Do you have an overpopulation of kangaroos?

[Deth Muncher]

I believe the lesser colonials refer to them as "cookies" :smallsigh: Although cheese and crackers would be a perfectly legitimate treat also.


I lament our lesser status, though I am wholly unsurprised, though maybe more than a little depressed.

[Serpentine]

Wait. How is kangaroo eating good for the environment? Do you have an overpopulation of kangaroos?Well...
1. They drink less water.
2. They eat crappier grass.
3. Their feet do much less damage to land and waterbodies than hooves.
4. I believe they're normally hunted wild, which means no intensive farming.
5. Regarding the latter specifically, the species used are not at risk of becoming Threatened. There are fairly regularly patches of 'roo population explosions. Especially when these happen in inconvenient places (such as military bases), they occasionally lead to mass cullings. Previously, the animals from such cullings would be left to rot or turned into dog food. I think this is starting to change, and the meat is being used for human consumption.
5.b) Some discussion has come up lately as to whether or not kangaroo population actually can sustain harvesting. I haven't heard any conclusion yet, but I don't believe they're at any immediate risk.

edit: Oh, and 6. They don't fart. At least, not nearly as much as domestic animals.

[Trellan]

I would also add that it is wise to set a series of small, very achievable goals. It really helps with motivation. A lot of people start working out with the goal of "I want to be skinny" and wind up getting discouraged quickly when it doesn't happen within a month or two. If you instead say "I would like to lose X pounds by Y date", you are able to see and track your progress in a way that keeps you going forward for the next small step toward your ultimate goal. Just my 2 cents. :smallsmile:

[Coidzor]

How about that. I wonder if I'll ever get to try it without having to somehow gain passage to Australasia.

[Lev]

Fitness/Nutrition Lev Hanuman here, and I'll try and advise you the best I can, but you gotta be telling and honest about yourself if you want any customized response or else this is just going to be 'middle-of-the-bar meant to appeal to the largest group of people' advice.

Summery of mentioned and completed topics--

Mornings-
First thing, Ranna is completely correct. Do NOT go at 6AM.
Why? You are out of shape, this means that your metabolism is slow to pick up, and you don't have the quality of metabolism increase to process the foods needed for a rapid metabolism boost. An early start day requires high GI foods (glucose index, best high GI foods for morning are probably blueberries or banana, blueberries have higher nutrient value and bananas have high potassium which fights lactic acid and banana generally solidifies the stomach in terms of nausea factor, after every strength training workout you should have 100g of high GI foods to stimulate muscle growth).
The more high-GI foods you have in the morning (out of shape means starting off slow) the quicker your metabolism picks up, you can also use a stimulant such as coffee but that generally replaces your metabolism instead of improving it.
So, you should not wake up before the sun's actual rays are hitting your trees, for maximum results you should be stretching for at least 30 mins each day and taking a 10min shower to relieve the growth stress caused by the downtime of your strength training workouts or else your muscles start solidifying like lego pieces (you may think this is ideal now, but don't complain to me when all your joints start yelling at you because your muscles are damaging your body and ruining your actual fitness level by retarding your bodies ability to do practical tasks). This leaves about 5 mins to wake up and then get up, 5 mins for brushing teeth and getting on clothes post-shower and such, another 10-15 mins for eating breakfast and drinking a few glasses of water while checking emails and such, another 5 mins or so to get your shoes on, keys, all your stuff for the day and you are quite quickly up to 7:30AM-8:00AM before you even leave the house (assuming sunrise is at 6:30AM).

Swimming-
Contrary to belief, swimming is not conducive to fat loss. The mass of fat on the body contribute heavily to the ease of swimming (fat is buoyant), but what it will work is your muscle lines, similar to a pushup swimming works solid muscle lines all through the body, if you keep switching strokes as you get tired you will very rapidly accumulate good TYPE2 muscle (type2 muscle is the type of muscle you gain while doing cardio-work, it doesn't build lactic acid easy so it's a great start for lightening the load on your cardio-respiratory system) and it's full body exercise so you'll see almost no negative muscle gain ever. Speed swimming is a different matter and should be supervised.

Weights-
Any high-intensity weight lifting-type machine aka almost all of those found at gyms are mainly for linear-movement muscle growth, you can become very VERY strong on these if persistent and diligent with your training but the muscles are mainly for limited tasks and for show as they are not muscle-controlling or balanced fiber growth muscle builds, they retard these functions and can quickly hinder your fitness... but fitness is based on practicality, not shape. It's really what you are going for what matters.
Talk to a professional trainer every time you move up your exercise regiment, hire one for an hour before even using a gym to evaluate you.

New Advice-

-Recreation, Contacts
You'd be surprised how easy it is to find out someone's fitness level just by talking to them, ask someone about their fav activities and their friends fitness levels and you can make an educated guess. Why? Because 1) People who have physical recreation activities as their regular ones get fit through those and 2) Unfit friends do not enjoy exercising, thus they drag other people down to their level. Try getting 2 fat guys, a programmer who smokes and a gamer to try and go for a 3 hour hike in the woods just for fun. Heh.

Dance is a really fun and easy way to gain confidence, cardio, strength, balance and understanding of the body all in one, I recommend it.

-Don't Be A Pussi
Eat red meat, plenty of it.
Do dangerous things when the risk is mostly just pain, pain is your friend and injury is not.
Regardless of career calling, having sore hot muscles is every man's job; duty, even.

-Run
Guide to running, best one out there. (http://www.amazon.ca/Beginning-Runners-Handbook-SportMedBC/dp/1553650875)
Running Schedule. (http://completerunning.com/dawn-on-the-run/wp-content/trainingplans/13weeks.html)
Best advice: Go to a pro sports store and ask for some help, they will get a shoe perfect for you, you NEED a good shoe.
Most important things about running:
Moderation
Water
Healthy Eating
Shoes
Reliable Schedule

-Path

Ok buddy, if you take away anything from this you gotta remember what I say next:

Getting in shape is a journey, a very long journey.
You don't sprint out of the gates when you have to walk for 5 hours, you pick a pace you KNOW you can do and you stick to it until you are happy with your destination, it just takes putting one foot in front of the other over and over again and keeping pace, once you are comfortable as a cloud you need to raise it a little harder.
Exercise is all about stress and stress metabolism, you gotta get used to it, confront your fears, bite their heads off, get used to the taste and then find even more stress. Being a man is all about stress hormones.

Super Important Links-
Fitness Database (Read the entire beginners section, it contains almost everything you will need about diet and nutrition) (http://www.exrx.net/)
Bodybuilding (Caution, articles may be ad-driven, lots of scary pecks!) (http://www.tmuscle.com/)


=======
Things I shouldn't have to mention-

Dietary Cheat Codes:
Cheat: Drink 2 glasses of water 15 mins before every meal.
Result: Stomach will be fuller, and won't be as hungry. (If you are out of shape you create lots of bad habits and need feelings can cross-wires, hunger and thirst can cross so when you feel thirsty you eat something, or tiredness and hunger will cross so when you feel tired you try to compensate with high-carbs because you feel your bloodsugar might be low.

Cheat: Stop eating at 70-80% fullness
Result: Stomach's art rocket scientists, they need about 15 mins to understand what's happening so if you stop eating early you probably are already full.

Cheat: Do not drink soda, EVER. Do not SNACK. Just eat 5 balanced meals a day and match calories to how much you do.
Result: Kerosene is cheaper by liter than soda. Freck soda. Fire = <3 :smallredface:

[Deth Muncher]

Lev: Wow. Just...wow. Thanks! I'll be addressing some of the things you brought up in my Day 0 Post. For now...a short nap. I've been running on fumes for several hours, so it's time to refuel the sleep-tank.

[Generic Archer]

Cheat: Do not drink soda, EVER. Do not SNACK. Just eat 5 balanced meals a day and match calories to how much you do.
Result: Kerosene is cheaper by liter than soda. Freck soda. Fire = <3 :smallredface:

Not true here, as a fire twirler I pay ~$4 au per litre for kero, and about $2.50 for coke.
But the less you drink the more fire you can afford.

OP: My preference would be the climbing wall, combined with cardio, the climbing gives you an ongoing and tangible incentive, and almost requires a leaner build. Unfortunately it won't burn the fat, thats where the cardio comes in.
I stay away from weights, but then as a climber the last thing I want to do is put on bulk, strengthen what I have sure, make more muscle, definately not. The more weight you need to haul the harder it is.

[Kaelaroth]

This's likely been screamed out already in the walls of text already thrown down in this thread, but I'm going to throw my hat into condone swimming. Uses loads of muscles, tones you nicely, and can be a nice social activity once you get good at it. Highly recommend it!

[Thrawn183]

There are two factors to decreasing body fat. Exercise and diet. Diet plays a much larger role than exercise. Half an hour on a treadmill can only burn so many calories, and if you eat too much it might not be enough to actually get you to where you want to go.

As far as flavoring of food goes, look into spices. Spices have a lot of flavor for very few calories, and are a great alternative to sweet foods. The real key is to find nutritious, low-calorie foods that you can eat on a regular basis (ie. a sustainable diet)

Some suggestions on food:
Bell Peppers: I eat them like I would an apple. You can also use them in things like stir fry, but if you go that route, make sure you aren't adding a whole bunch of empty calories to the stir fry.

Celery+Salsa: Just spicy enough to be interesting, and you can eat a lot without hitting you limit of calories for the day.

Plain Instant Oatmeal+Tobasco: Not really a fan myself, but it is technically edible. A great way to fill your home with only food that is healthy.

Salads: Almost everything in a salad is great, but stay away from the salad dressing and cheese!

Meat: Try to find the leanest meat you can. They are often slightly more expensive. Use this as encouragement to eat a small amount every day. Yes, you need meatprotein/iron. No, you don't need as much meat as you might think. Though if you are trying to go without meat, sit down and run the numbers to make sure you're actually getting enough protein. It's doable through legumes and such, but you have to make sure you're doing it right.

A note on exercise:
Yes, muscle tissue does burn calories. Unfortunately, the impact this has is much smaller than you have probably been led to believe. If you are thinking about doing half an hour of cardio and half an hour of lifting, you would almost certainly be better off doing two different cardio workouts for half an hour each.

Oh, I almost forgot. While weight loss is essentially based on the difference between calories burned and calories taken in, cardio is slightly different. If you are trying to become healthier and strengthen your heart; know that the greatest benefit comes from after 20 minutes of sustained heightened heart rate. Running a mile really fast will burn some calories. It will build some leg muscle such that you'll see improvement in your speed. Even losing weight will increase the speed you can run that mile; however, it isn't helping out your heart all that much. This is why I recommend biking to beginners over running. A lot of people starting out just can't run for more than 20 minutes, but it's not too hard to find a rate of biking that is a god workout but can still be done for half an hour.

Good Luck!

P.S.
If you are going to start lifting a lot, use light weight. You are less likely to injure yourself, and if you do, you will injure yourself less severely. An example is doing lunges instead of squats with a bar. If you do lunges with 10 pounds in each hand, you'll feel the burn and it's way safer than doing squats with 135 pounds on your shoulders.

[Serpentine]

Do you have any evidence for the "diet > exercise" claim? A couple of people have said it, and I'm skeptical.
Also, I thought the amount of time to exercise longer than was about 15 minutes, not 20.

[Spiryt]

Do you have any evidence for the "diet > exercise" claim?

Don't know what you mean by "evidence" by I read it everywhere.

Base of mass gain, reduction, body fat reduction, strength, endurance, or whatever training is proper diet.

Of course practically it is really important only to more "professional" athletic activities, but it's always true.

[Tyrandar]

Lev, you are my hero (and your name is still awesome). :smallbiggrin:

[Serpentine]

Evidence = a peer-reviewed paper, a reliable published book, a well-researched website, statements from weight-loss and fitness specialists...
Everything I've ever heard is that diet and exercise are both comparably important, and that in fact even a reasonable diet can still result in weight gain if you do little enough.

edit: Ah, while I'm here, worth repeating, use the hip-to-waist ratio to approximate your healthy weight, not the BMI.

[Pocketa]

I've lost a ton of weight over the past year (over 40 lbs), and this is how.

First 20 lbs: 2 weeks, reaction to Guardasil, the HPV vaccine, I was basically bedridden for 2 weeks.

Summer - 10 lbs. - no soft drinks, but no exercise either.

School year - 10 lbs. - "only" lost 10 lbs because I was building muscle tone as well. Exercise in gym class and LARPing. Diet. It works.

I go between dieting and not dieting, and I never gain any permanent weight. There are minor (.5 lb increment) fluctuations, but those don't count at all.

Dieting plan:

Candy and soda are eaten sparingly. Once or twice a month.
Few carbs.
Tons of vegetables, fruit, and proteins.
Tea, water, juice.


I went from a size 12 to a size 3. That is a loss of 5 inches off the waist, 5 inches off the hips, and 4 inches off my thighs.

I suggest finding a sport you're interested in, or a LARP, and getting really into it. It's usually cheaper than hitting the gym, and for me, it's more fun, because person2person interaction is a given. Nobody LARPs to be by themselves. So, it's a social activity and a physical one.

[Thanatos 51-50]

If it makes ANY sort of difference, I only drink diet sodas, and the occasional real-sugar soda - none of that high fructose cornsyrup balderdash. Although I realize the sodium content in them isn't that good for me, at least they're zero calories!

...


... at least they're zero calories

...


...zero calories

GAH! People! Just! Grr! Argh! Gah! Incomprehensible babbling! (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/calorie)

[Spiryt]

Most "serious" stuff I've read was in polish, so I can't probably help.

Still my own example is quite clear - since I've visibly reduced sugar, bread, chips, sweets and general refined carbohydrates, about 10 months ago, for general "healthier diet" purpose - my body fat level went from low to even lower (my smallish abdominal muscles are much more visible).

So diet alone resulted in lower BF, even though it was already low.

[Serpentine]

Of course, I never suggested that changing your diet would have no effect without exercise. However, I would suggest that if you had instead kept your diet the same and increased your exercise to a similarly significant degree, you would have had a similar loss of weight. And also different other health benefits, I imagine. If you had done both at once, you would've lost even more (so long as you did it properly, without kicking your body into starvation mode).

edit: Here (http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2835686), did it for you. Sucks that it's basically only middle-aged men :smallconfused:

[Deth Muncher]

GAH! People! Just! Grr! Argh! Gah! Incomprehensible babbling! (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/calorie)

I actually meant it in sort of a mocking, fail-tone, if it makes you feel better.

Now, I have some IRL obligations for a few hours, so I can't quite update yet, but a few mini-update things I can give out:
-The gym people are bastards, because not only do they claim to not have a master list of all the machines, but they also charge out the arse for personal training, plus they require a(n expensive) meeting beforehand to do all this other stuff. Blah I say, blah. Though honestly it's probably cheaper than other personal trainers, but I still say blah.
-I am, as of this morning, 177.3 pounds (that's 80.4kG, for all y'all non-'Murrkans). This HIGHLY depresses me, because that's the most I've weighed, EVER. During highschool I stuck at 150. Q_Q

That's all for now folks. I'll see you tonight.

Oh, and by the way? You all are effing awesome. Thanks.

[ZeltArruin]

177.3? You weigh less than I do, but then I am 6 1, so I kinda have to be heavy-ish, relatively though, I am a skinny bastard. How tall are you exactly? Also, this thread is awesome, and now I want to go work out.

Edit: Also, we live in the same state! Confusion! Oh, wait...

[Coidzor]

Ahh, the wonders of the human body. What for deth muncher is teh chubbs would be dangerously malnourished and underweight for my frame.

Technically I think that's about how much I'm supposed to weigh with very little body fat and very low muscle mass.

[Pyrian]

I locked down my total daily calorie count and my weekly exercise amount, and that works really well for me. Simple, mathematic, flexible, and effective. :smallcool:

[Darklord Xavez]

YAY! GO DETH MUNCHER! YOU CAN DO IT!
You're welcome.
-Xavez

[Deth Muncher]

DAY -2

-cue Get Pumped (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf45I1ZI__w) music-
Right, so at 6AM, I went to my university's gym in order to get a better look at just what I'm looking at. In addition to the stuff I listed at the top post for what the gym has, here's a short list of stuff I found in a very small area:
-Incline Press
-Tricep Extension
-Seated Leg Press
-Leg Extension
-Leg Curl
-Glute Machine
-Shoulder Press
-Fixed Lat Pulldown
-Vertical Row
-Chest Press
-Bicep Curl
-Hip Abductor/Adductor (does this mean there are aliens in the gym? O_o)
-Calf Machine
-Arm Extension
-Overhead Press
-Incline Pull
-Abdominal Machine
-Rear Deltiod/Pec Fly
Suffice it to say, they've got a machine for damned near anything - not that they could tell you as such: They claim they don't have a master list of machines - pure bunk, says I. They obviously have to have a list. But whatever. From previous excursions, I also know they've got treadmills, ellipticals, step machines, stationary bikes, and that bar you suspend yourself on using your arms and bring your legs up to your chest/make an L.

They offer personal trainer service, but it's a bit expensive for me right now. They also offer a body evaluation thing for 30 bucks, which basically figures out all your body statistics you could care about, sets some goals, and allows you to be personally trained. They also offer a 20 dollar consultation session, which basically means you go up to them, tell them your routine, and they tell you whether you're doing it wrong or not.

Speaking of body stats, I am roughly 5'7"-5'8", and about 177lbs.

I'm currently back home right now as opposed to up at the university, so no gym access. However, I can still do pushups and such, and I've been helping my dad haul stuff around. Tomorrow will also include lots of shoveling, so there'll be activity, at least. I'll update this with pushup amounts, if I do them. And as an FYI, my pushups are the "Nose To The Ground" type, if you were wondering.

EDIT: Pushups were not to be had, as lack of sleep caused me to crash early. :/

[Thanatos 51-50]

Wait: What other kinds of push-ups are there? :smallconfused:

Just make sure you break the ninety-degree plane.

[Deth Muncher]

Wait: What other kinds of push-ups are there? :smallconfused:

Just make sure you break the ninety-degree plane.

Apparently, ROTC @ the College of William and Mary uses pushups that JUST break the 90 degree plane. Strange ones, them.

[Serpentine]

-I am, as of this morning, 177.3 pounds (that's 80.4kG, for all y'all non-'Murrkans). This HIGHLY depresses me, because that's the most I've weighed, EVER. During highschool I stuck at 150. Q_QI am 1.9kg less than the most I've ever weighed, which was pushing 100kg v.v Also I can't even do one push-up, not at all v.v,

[Deth Muncher]

DAY -1
*cue ADVERTISEMENT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs) to a drink I need*
Today is filled with MANLINESS. MANLINESS meaning DIGGING. I've been DIGGING DIRT for about two hours now, and came in to take a break from the BURNING SUN. I will continue DIGGING DIRT until all the HOLES in my yard are FILLED with DIRT from OTHER PLACES, like the GUTTER from the ROAD. While I may not have done any PUSHUPS last night, I feel the GRATUITOUS DIGGING in the YARD will make up for it. Also, I had a healthyish breakfast of fruit and cheese w/ crackers (Smoked Gouda, if you care). I'm going to be visiting my mother for DINNER after I finish DIGGING, and she's getting CHINESE TAKEOUT for DINNER. >_< I asked for something stir-fried, in hopes of it being healthier. Also, instead of chugging Diet Cokes, as I would normally do in a situation where I needed lots of drinks, I've been slamming back PINTS of WATER, because WATER is FROM A TOILET (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbxq0IDqD04) GOOD FOR YOU.

UPDATE

So, a friend of mine has volunteered to go a-gymming with me on M/W/F. Excellent. Also, I have a friend who's an in with the school's rowing team, so while I may not want to join them I might be able to use their equipment. Also, said gymming friend has been going to this gym for the better part of a year now (it only opened in January, but the school had another gym before that), so he knows what's up. Further, I remember what working out with weights and such, so I remember what I used to be able to do. I mention all of that because, honestly, I don't have the money to be paying for personal training/advising, so I'm going to have to just rely on people more knowledgeable than myself/my own experience to see what I can do. Thankfully, I'm intelligent enough to know not to start out with 500lb weights tied to each pinky, so we'll see how that goes.

[Haruki-kun]

Evidence = a peer-reviewed paper, a reliable published book, a well-researched website, statements from weight-loss and fitness specialists...
Everything I've ever heard is that diet and exercise are both comparably important, and that in fact even a reasonable diet can still result in weight gain if you do little enough.

The personal trainer at my school supports this claim, I've also seen several books on it, shall I get you the APA or the MLA citation format? :smalltongue:

EDIT: Quick and dirty. If you look at the "calories burned" counter on a treadmill or stationary bike, you'll notice you lose approximately 200 calories in about 30 minutes. (AGAIN, THIS IS A QUICK AND DIRTY ESTIMATE, IT VARIES A LOT). A can of regular coke has.... about..... that.

Assuming you're not competing in the Tour de France, this will usually mean that you really can't outwork what you eat. A coke and a Big Mac will screw you up, no matter if you did work out that day already.

Disclaimer: If you do participate in the Tour de France, by all means, disregard this and good luck with that.

[Spiryt]

That's why stationary bikes and all are rather crappy ways of workout for BF reduction. :smallwink:

Boring, tiring, and not really very calories consuming.

[Haruki-kun]

Boring, tiring, and not really very calories consuming.

I do agree on that. I usually get bored out of my skull before I get tired.

It's Apple's fault for making iPod's they don't support two years after they've been released. :smallsigh:

[Deth Muncher]

EDIT: Quick and dirty. If you look at the "calories burned" counter on a treadmill or stationary bike, you'll notice you lose approximately 200 calories in about 30 minutes. (AGAIN, THIS IS A QUICK AND DIRTY ESTIMATE, IT VARIES A LOT). A can of regular coke has.... about..... that.


Well thank goodness the only Cokes I drink are Diet and the only burgers I eat are homemade. :D >_> <_< I think, anyway.

[Haruki-kun]

Well thank goodness the only Cokes I drink are Diet

Good.


and the only burgers I eat are homemade.

Still burgers. :smallfrown:

[Lord Mancow]

If you want a sport for improving your overall fitness then I'll echo swimming but also throw another into the mix, rowing. If you can handle the early starts (often 5am wake up or earlier) then you can get some real fitness bonuses. I started last year and was training 6 times a week (4 on-water, 2 gym) and after about twenty weeks (2 school terms in Australia) I had gone from getting around a probable 8-9 on the beep test to scoring in excess of 12.

I dropped around 2Kg during the season but some extra fat was most likely replaced by muscle in that process.

If you join a club though decide whether your going to be competitive or just social, the difference is more session intensity than no. sessions as far as I can tell although competitive rowers can be arrogant. The sport tends away from injury too as long as you don't have a problem in your stroke so you can keep going for a long time, plus it works your whole body.
p.s. If your back hurts when you use a rowing machine then you are most likely doing it wrong

[Dallas-Dakota]

Please, PLEASE tell me you're joking about the kangaroos.
Heck, we even have them here in the occasional restaurant.
It's very good.

Haruki: Well the Tour De France is starting 40 min away, going with Public Transport, or 1-1/2th hours with the bike.:smalltongue:

[shadow_archmagi]

Query:

So, for the past few weeks, I've been going to the local YMCA. (Going every-other-day, so M-W-F-S-T-T-S-M-W-F etc) I've been doing 30 minutes on the elliptical (keeping myself above 150 strides per minute at all times has been my current routine; I picked the number at random but it seems to be working pretty well and leaves me feeling like I had a pretty good workout at the end) followed by a trip through the Nautilus Circuit (A series of 12 weight machines).

1. Is this a good exercise pattern?

2. I often find myself wanting to take a couple minutes to catch my breath, particularly after the more strenuous machines. Is this a good idea? One part of my mind says that if I stop to catch my breath, I'll be able to lift more, which means I'll get more exercise. The other part says that by stopping I allow various internal thingummies (Heart Rate? Adrenaline? Circadian Rhythm? Probably not the last one) to tune themselves down and lose benefits that way.

[Deth Muncher]

Still burgers. :smallfrown:

Yeah, but made with 93% lean beef.

Also, update is updated.

[Serpentine]

Still burgers. :smallfrown:Burgers aren't necessarily bad for you. Have one with: wholemeal bun; lean mince - 'roo is recommended - with some egg, herbs, and spices, maybe some pine nuts; good dark lettuce or baby spinach (not iceberg); slice of tomato; slice of beetroot; a fried egg (no or olive oil); some onion (no or olive oil if fried); and tomato sauce, and you will have a very hearty meal with little in it even a little bit bad for you. The worst thing in it will be the tomato sauce, but you can get homemade or less-bad versions of that.
Also, I don't quite understand it, but there's more to it than "lose x amount of calories through exercise to counteract the consumption of y amount of calories through food". Basically, as I understand it, it's more or less impossible to do that, and exercise is actually more important for doing... other stuff... like metabolism effects or something, to improve the way your body uses the food that goes in.

So, I did an experiment. Basically, walking is very good for me, weight wise. Only for the interested:So. A few weeks ago, I gained 0.2kg one week and lost 1kg another. I did more exercise the week I gained weight, except that I walked more than twice as far the other week.
Last week, I did very little exercise and ate fairly poorly. I gained 0.6kg.
This week, I did basically no exercise except for walking to and from uni (4km each way, last ~500m there is moderately-to-very steep incline) as well as some other bits and pieces, for a total of 26km, and got back into my better eating habits. I lost 1.7kg.
Definitely gotta work on getting up in time to walk to uni...

[Felixaar]

Deth my biggest piece of advice is to establish a routine and stick to it, and steadily increase over time. About two years ago I started doing early morning excercises, and it took me two hours the first time and within a month I was doing it in half and hour. In half a year I lost 20 kg (44lbs). The unfortunate thing is that I slacked off, and I've put back on roughly half that - I'm on my way to correcting it now, trust me. So find something that works and dont stop doing it, EVER.

Also remember that excercise is only half the way to a better life, you're going to have to start eating healthier. Not going on a diet, anything which is not a permanent change to your lifestyle will be helpful now and fall apart later. I'll tell you what I've been doing here and let you decide for yourself - first of all, I've given up 'soda' (we call them soft drinks) completely - right now this is day 157 since I last had one. I know because I gave up on New Year's Eve. I intend to keep it up for ever, or atleast until I'm an old man diagnosed with seventeen different kinds of terminal cancer. I'm just going to go WACKY then. Anyway. I've recently decided to, at least temporarily, also prohibit myself from Chocolate and Cheese. I know, I know, my two favourite food groups gone in a flash. Well, I'm not giving them up forever, just a little while. When I feel like I've earnt it I'll reintroduce myself to minimal amounts.

You might not want to go so radical, but it's up to you. Like I said the important thing is to pick something and stick to it. Best of luck mate, you can do it!

EDIT: Oh, and did you know that Diversion Magazine (http://diversionmagazine.blogspot.com) contains no Calories AT ALL? Download it! Read it! Vote in this month's competition!

[Deth Muncher]

Also remember that excercise is only half the way to a better life, you're going to have to start eating healthier. Not going on a diet, anything which is not a permanent change to your lifestyle will be helpful now and fall apart later. I'll tell you what I've been doing here and let you decide for yourself - first of all, I've given up 'soda' (we call them soft drinks) completely - right now this is day 157 since I last had one. I know because I gave up on New Year's Eve. I intend to keep it up for ever, or atleast until I'm an old man diagnosed with seventeen different kinds of terminal cancer. I'm just going to go WACKY then. Anyway. I've recently decided to, at least temporarily, also prohibit myself from Chocolate and Cheese. I know, I know, my two favourite food groups gone in a flash. Well, I'm not giving them up forever, just a little while. When I feel like I've earnt it I'll reintroduce myself to minimal amounts.

You might not want to go so radical, but it's up to you. Like I said the important thing is to pick something and stick to it. Best of luck mate, you can do it!

Y'know, I keep thinking I should just go back to calling "sodas" "fizzy drinks." 'swhat they called them in Ireland, and I was amused. But I don't think I could ever give them up totally - they're one of my few vices. I don't smoke, I don't drink (very often)...but I HAVE cut my consumption WAY back. I'll be making a lot more sweet tea now that I've got a pitcher to put it in. And there's water to drink too, though I am dubious to how healthy the water is that comes from my tap. Also, I've pretty well cut out sweets from my diet, with a minor exception: I had to make a cake the other day, lest the strawberries in my fridge rot. So I've had that, though I've been making roommates/friends eat it. But other than that, I can't remember the last time I had anything dessert-y.

EDIT: Also, your shameless plug is shameless. :smalltongue:

[Felixaar]

That's impressive. I sometimes get told that I have a sweet tooth and have to correct people - I have an entire sweet jaw. Back in my heyday I would eat an entire block of chocolate in a night and shrug it off as if it were nothing. Couldn't help myself.

I can understand about the drinks, fizzy or soft irrespective. I don't really like to think that there is anything I couldn't live without, aside from the obvious and some things that would break board laws (I mean religion, not... yeah) so I decided to cut them out completely, but as long as you minimise it it should be fair enough. As my Dad would say, "Everything in Moderation, Including Moderation."

And yes, my plugs are shameless, but, I mean, no one's voted in this month's competition yet! All you have to do is read the stories and vote for the best one. There's even prizes involved.

[Deth Muncher]

That's impressive. I sometimes get told that I have a sweet tooth and have to correct people - I have an entire sweet jaw. Back in my heyday I would eat an entire block of chocolate in a night and shrug it off as if it were nothing. Couldn't help myself.


See, I make sure I don't have any sweets by not having any sweets around. :P If there are, I eat them. I generally get my sweet-jollies off by having cereal like Cocoa Pebbles or Cranberry Almond Crunch or having oatmeal with cinnamon and sugar - if I remember to eat breakfast.

[Felixaar]

Ha, I would be the same way except that for me it's like a half a block stroll to the nearest supermarket. If there's sweets around I pretty much eat them before I can even get a chance to leave them in the cupboard for a while :smalltongue: I'm a pig. Or, was.

Breakfast is great stuff, especially if it's something containing a bunch of complex carbs - give you energy all day long.

[Deth Muncher]

DAY 0

Sooo...not a lot to report today. I ate badly, I drove for most of the day. I did a little walking, but not much. Am currently planning my routine. Am also debating between doing upper/middle or middle/lower body work. Help?

THIS IS THE EDIT THAT BELIEVES IN ITSELF:

So okay. My basic plan for the gym is as follows:
-Run a mile on the treadmill.
-Bike for 15 minutes.
-Do arm stuff, like bicep curls, etc. Although I don't know the names for all the kinds of arm workouts, my father (who is rather knowledgeable about this sort of thing) taught me a bunch of stuff back when we used to work out together in my garage with weights and such, so I'm not going in blind.
-Use the abmachine - it's basically an assisted crunch machine. The last time I used it, it wrecked me. In a good way.
-Do the thing where you're suspending yourself on the bars and pull your legs to your chest/make an L.
-Do leg presses/extensions/curls.
-Have a friend help me do benchpressing.

With bicep/tricep work, my former weight was around 20 pounds (including the dumbell), so I figure I'll start back at 10 for this time, and if it's too easy, go to 15 next time. For leg stuff, I used to press 90, but a few months ago I could only press 45. I'll start there, push it back if it's too much. Leg extensions were the same, but leg curls were decidedly less. I'll probably only go with 20lbs for leg curls. Benching, I also was able to do 90lbs (including the bar) back in the day, but I'll probably only go with 20lbs (plus the bar, which I'm assuming is a 10 pound bar) just to be sure I've got the form right, then maybe add a little more on if I can still do some.

[Haruki-kun]

DAY 0

Sooo...not a lot to report today. I ate badly, I drove for most of the day. I did a little walking, but not much. Am currently planning my routine. Am also debating between doing upper/middle or middle/lower body work. Help?

When starting out you should be doing a full-body routine. At least the first couple of months.

The next advice makes people twitch and yell at me, but.... I'd suggest you first get used to following that routine and then you start focusing on nutrition. This is mostly because full lifestyle changes can't really happen all at once.

But don't eat badly. Cut back on the junk food.

[Deth Muncher]

When starting out you should be doing a full-body routine. At least the first couple of months.

The next advice makes people twitch and yell at me, but.... I'd suggest you first get used to following that routine and then you start focusing on nutrition. This is mostly because full lifestyle changes can't really happen all at once.

But don't eat badly. Cut back on the junk food.

No, you're right. Eating badly is bad. I ate badly because my mom's like "OHAI, just got home from the Bahamas and I don't wanna cook. Let me buy Chinese food." >_< And then today, I was visiting a friend who's back in town from having gone to Florida to work at Disney, and he, myself, and the friend who's house we were at were like "Hey, food! Let's go to the Vietnamese restaurant!" >_< So yeah. Bad news.

As to full body routine, let me go re-edit Day 0 for my proposed full-body plan. (Which is basically what I've done in the past.)

[Haruki-kun]

No, you're right. Eating badly is bad. I ate badly because my mom's like "OHAI, just got home from the Bahamas and I don't wanna cook. Let me buy Chinese food." >_< And then today, I was visiting a friend who's back in town from having gone to Florida to work at Disney, and he, myself, and the friend who's house we were at were like "Hey, food! Let's go to the Vietnamese restaurant!" >_< So yeah. Bad news.

Ah, yes. That makes things hard. :smallsigh:

Well, living alone this isn't a problem I come across much, except during the summer while back at home (now, that is). What you'll want to do is start learning what sort of stuff you can and should order if this is the situation. Chinese restaurants, for example, avoid the pork, aim for chicken. Rice is nice and good. Egg Rolls are horrible, but you should be fine if you eat only one. Avoid the deep-fried stuff like the plague.

Someone also told me that Egg Rolls are good if you eat only the inside and leave the dough... but then I figured, the dough is the best part, so for that I may as well not eat them altogether. :smalltongue:

Your mileage may vary.

[Deth Muncher]

Ah, yes. That makes things hard. :smallsigh:

Well, living alone this isn't a problem I come across much, except during the summer while back at home (now, that is). What you'll want to do is start learning what sort of stuff you can and should order if this is the situation. Chinese restaurants, for example, avoid the pork, aim for chicken. Rice is nice and good. Egg Rolls are horrible, but you should be fine if you eat only one. Avoid the deep-fried stuff like the plague.

Someone also told me that Egg Rolls are good if you eat only the inside and leave the dough... but then I figured, the dough is the best part, so for that I may as well not eat them altogether. :smalltongue:

Your mileage may vary.

Yeah. I was better than I normally am, and when my mother got me General Tso's chicken, I made sure to include some broccoli, and only ate about half as much as I wanted. Further, today, I ended up getting beef fried rice. Probably not the best for me, but I had only eaten a bowl of cereal today. It happens.

Also, update is updated.

[Ranna]

In the Chinese fill up on their soups?? and try the vegetables without the sauces then add some soy sauce? Boiled rice is much much better than fried and if you end up eating something saucy you don't really reap much benefits of the fried rice as it is all sauced up anyway.

I have a massive angry anger at cereals that are not pure organic ones. Take a look at some of the cereals that masquerade as healthy some have enormous amounts of fat and crap in them. But organic and healthy cereal is so DULL!!!!

I have given up and just eat fruit and a yoghurt nowdays but I am still pissed over the cereal deception.

[Deth Muncher]

DAY 1

So, I really did it. Went to the gym, did real people exercises. Success has been gained. The workout set went as follows:
(Special formatting note: If you see notation like this: "x/y/z" it means that I did X reps first set, Y reps second set, etc)

-Ran a mile on the treadmill in about 11 minutes.
-Failed at figuring out how to turn on the electric bicycles.
-Lost my pencil.
-8/3 @ 40lbs on the ab-machine. Basically, it's a machine you do crunches, but also have to pull weight with you when you do it.
-I still don't know what to call this, but I'm going to call it a Dip Bar. Although I did no dips, I did raise my legs to my chest 10/6, but I could only do one L after having so thoroughly used my abs.
-Went to the bench to press and figure out my maximum weight (yes, I had a friend with me helping me). The most I think I can safely do once is 75, and I could do 5 @ 65. I thought that was a good place to restart my benching. (That's including the bar, btw.)
-10/5 @ 15lbs for bicep curls.
-10/5 @ 15 lbs for tricep...uh, extensions? It's where you hold the weight over your head and slowly lower it behind your head to your back, then pull it up.
-10/6 @ 30 lbs for leg curls. I was really happy with this, because I usually did much less at leg curls. I think it's because the machine was contoured, instead of the flat bench I used to use.
-15 @ 75lbs/10 @ 90lbs/10 @ 105 lbs for leg press. I think I'm going to start at 105 next time.
-7 @ 60lbs/5.5 @ 45lbs for leg extensions.
-Tried doing an overhead press, when I remembered why I don't do those: I have really weak shoulders, especially my left. This pain in my shoulder was not the "Oh, I'll work through it" pain, it was the "Oh, this is a really bad idea" pain, so I stopped. I'll plan on doing other exercises to strengthen my shoulders.

And now I'm home. I'm gonna go take a shower, make some food, and pre-order Megaman Zero Collection (if I can, since I think it comes out tomorrow).

Oh, and if you were wondering? My music for this workout was the Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2 setlist. :D

[Haruki-kun]

-Failed at figuring out how to turn on the electric bicycles.

You start pedaling first and then turn them on. If that doesn't work, they're most likely unplugged.


-Lost my pencil.

As an artist, this makes me sad. I'm sorry for your loss. :smallfrown:


-8/3 @ 40lbs on the ab-machine. Basically, it's a machine you do crunches, but also have to pull weight with you when you do it.


For abs, try reducing the weight and doing more. This muscle is trained differently from the others.


-I still don't know what to call this, but I'm going to call it a Dip Bar. Although I did no dips, I did raise my legs to my chest 10/6, but I could only do one L after having so thoroughly used my abs.

Probably referring to the Parallel Bar.


-Went to the bench to press and figure out my maximum weight (yes, I had a friend with me helping me). The most I think I can safely do once is 75, and I could do 5 @ 65. I thought that was a good place to restart my benching. (That's including the bar, btw.)

Lbs. Ew. :smalleek::smalltongue:



-15 @ 75lbs/10 @ 90lbs/10 @ 105 lbs for leg press. I think I'm going to start at 105 next time.

Yeah. This one's a pretty special one. Since your legs are what holds up your body all day long, you'll find this particular exercise will require a lot more weight than most others, which scares people because they think "too much weight".


-Tried doing an overhead press, when I remembered why I don't do those: I have really weak shoulders, especially my left. This pain in my shoulder was not the "Oh, I'll work through it" pain, it was the "Oh, this is a really bad idea" pain, so I stopped. I'll plan on doing other exercises to strengthen my shoulders.

Shoulders.... are generally weak if you don't work them out. I'm not sure if going for other exercises is a very good idea. Just try using less weight. And do it with dumbells. Dumbells are generally better than bars.

Unless you're using a machine, that is.....


Oh, and if you were wondering? My music for this workout was the Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2 setlist. :D

And mine is nothing because my iPod broke. Le sad. ;_;

[Deth Muncher]

As an FYI, I won't be numbering days I don't go to the gym anymore. Also:

OH GOD MY MUSCLES! THEY WERE OKAY WHEN I WENT TO BED! NOW THEY HATE ME! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

[Pyrian]

No pain, no gain. :smallcool:

[Deth Muncher]

No pain, no gain. :smallcool:

-telekenetically throws hats at you, a la a psionic Mr. Oddjobs-

Anyway, my muscles have almost stopped hating me, but it sucks when the kitchen is downstairs and my room is upstairs: there weren't this many stairs before, were there?!

[Haruki-kun]

OH GOD MY MUSCLES! THEY WERE OKAY WHEN I WENT TO BED! NOW THEY HATE ME! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness)

Muscles get sore after they start repairing, which occurs when you go to bed, not when you leave the gym. On occasion it might take up to two or three days for it to begin. It means they're growing, though.

You'll get used to it.

[Deth Muncher]

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness)

Muscles get sore after they start repairing, which occurs when you go to bed, not when you leave the gym. On occasion it might take up to two or three days for it to begin. It means they're growing, though.

You'll get used to it.

Oh, I know. I just chose to believe that it surely couldn't possibly happen to me, for I am invincible. /BS

No, moreover, it was just that I wanted to pretend that it wouldn't be as bad as it was. Then I remembered I hadn't gone to the gym in six months, and only went twice total last year. This muscle pain, although good, is well deserved.

[Stubbed Tongue]

A word of advice to you. Don't weigh yourself, EVER! Because clothing is not weight specific nor are looks weight specific. All weighing yourself will do is place a negative thought process in your head. "I was in the gym 4 times this week and I haven't lost a pound", trust me you just want to look good whether you weigh 180 pounds or 600. Right?

Belt sizes will be your new indicator of success.

It will also help to refer to exercising with a new name to help with the mental aspect. Training, conditioning, strengthening, adapting, or my favorite 'war preparation'. Trust me this works to keep you interested and to stop the negative thoughts. I used to call it 'working out', well...I hate work so why not change the name to something with a more positive sound?

[Deth Muncher]

A word of advice to you. Don't weigh yourself, EVER! Because clothing is not weight specific nor are looks weight specific. All weighing yourself will do is place a negative thought process in your head. "I was in the gym 4 times this week and I haven't lost a pound", trust me you just want to look good whether you weigh 180 pounds or 600. Right?

Belt sizes will be your new indicator of success.

It will also help to refer to exercising with a new name to help with the mental aspect. Training, conditioning, strengthening, adapting, or my favorite 'war preparation'. Trust me this works to keep you interested and to stop the negative thoughts. I used to call it 'working out', well...I hate work so why not change the name to something with a more positive sound?

You bring up several interesting points. I mean, I know weight is largely irrelevant, it's just whether your body mass is squishy or rock-solid. I may force myself to wear belts more often now.

Also, you're right. Exercise sounds lame. Working out sounds too meat-heady. I henceforth shall refer to all exercise-related things as Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Conditioning.

[Stubbed Tongue]

Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Conditioning.

REALLY like that!

Whose physique would you like? Brad Pitt from 'Troy', perhaps Jason Statham from...basically anything he has been in?

Remember without a target all shots hit their mark.

[Runestar]

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness)

Muscles get sore after they start repairing, which occurs when you go to bed, not when you leave the gym. On occasion it might take up to two or three days for it to begin. It means they're growing, though.

You'll get used to it.

Heehee, I remember the time my arms were aching so bad after one workout I could barely muster the strength to scrub myself while bathing. :smalltongue:

Though I personally prefer to go running around a park or at least the campus, more exciting than doing it on a treadmill (net work done = 0, since your position does not change). :smallwink:

[shadow_archmagi]

REALLY like that!

Whose physique would you like? Brad Pitt from 'Troy', perhaps Jason Statham from...basically anything he has been in?

Remember without a target all shots hit their mark.


COUNTERSLOGAN:
If you've planned for nothing
That's what you'll achieve


QUERY: I never feel very sore after a workout. Am I not trying hard enough or something? Because I have worked to the point where lifting the weight again was painful. But the next day I was fine.

[Deth Muncher]

Heehee, I remember the time my arms were aching so bad after one workout I could barely muster the strength to scrub myself while bathing. :smalltongue:

Though I personally prefer to go running around a park or at least the campus, more exciting than doing it on a treadmill (net work done = 0, since your position does not change). :smallwink:

True story. I hate running without a purpose, but since I'm in the middle of a city, I can only run for about a block before having to wait at an intersection for cars. :smallmad:

[Haruki-kun]

QUERY: I never feel very sore after a workout. Am I not trying hard enough or something? Because I have worked to the point where lifting the weight again was painful. But the next day I was fine.

Probably. It depends on what you're doing. For example....

If I lifted 5 lbs. a hundred times, I'd probably be tired at the end. But it's no good in the end. You're better off lifting a lot more weight 8-12 times for a couple of sets.

[Flickerdart]

First things first, your name is not helping. Change it from Muncher to, say, Puncher, and then we're talking. :smallcool:

[Tyrandar]

Walked two and a half miles today. :smallsmile:

[Pyrian]

I suppose a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first two and a half. ...But you've still a ways to go, I'm afraid.

[Deth Muncher]

First things first, your name is not helping. Change it from Muncher to, say, Puncher, and then we're talking. :smallcool:

Dark Smoke Puncher, perhaps? XD For those that don't get the reference, it's this guy's brother. (http://drmcninja.com)

[Tyrandar]

Natch, but it's better than "Walked a block, sat on arse rest of the day." :smallyuk:

[shadow_archmagi]

Probably. It depends on what you're doing. For example....

If I lifted 5 lbs. a hundred times, I'd probably be tired at the end. But it's no good in the end. You're better off lifting a lot more weight 8-12 times for a couple of sets.

Have been doing the Nautilus machines. They're weight machines; the staff tell you to do enough weight that you can manage 8-12 reps. If you can do 12, kick it up a notch. If you can't do 8, kick it down a notch.

I've been improving fairly steadily, so I'm definitely benefiting.

[Pyrian]

I want a strength-training device that isn't crushingly dull. :smallannoyed: My Wii Fit is okay for cardio, and DDR is fantastic for it (I will happily dance until I can't lift my legs fast enough any more), but there doesn't seem to be any remotely interesting equivalent games for weight lifting.

EDIT: And that's including Wii Fit's strength training section, which really aren't games per se. Actually, the closest I can come up with is Wii Fit Plus's "chicken-flight" which can really burn the delts, but again, just one little thing.

[Lycan 01]

Deth Muncher, I gotta say thanks. I've been meaning to get in shape, and this thread has really helped to inspire me. I'd already started doing push-ups last week, but this thread really helped to light a fire under my lazy tail.

I've decided to completely change my diet, and start excercising working out getting in shape Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Conditioning. :smalltongue:


I will be...
-cutting sodas from my diet, maybe one can a week IF I MUST.
-reducing sugar intake (Snack Cakes only once or twice a week, candy a rare treat, et cetera)
-NO MORE FAST FOOD. Maybe Waffle House every few weeks.
-Chicken nuggets/fish sticks/corn dog only 2-3 times a week, rather than almost every day
-More fruits and veggies... too bad I don't like many. :smallfrown:
-More "real" meals with more ingredients, like spaghetti or omlettes.

And for excercise...
-Push-ups RAWR!! 200 (30 at a time) three days ago, but only got in 75 yesterday on an incline...
-Crunches (clocked in 100 the other day)
-Dips, pull ups, and body raises (Did 10 each last night to start small, arms and abs hurt...)
-Curls and extensions once I find some good weights
-Jogging/walking around the neighborhood starting tonight


Yeah, yeah, I'm starting small, but I'm quite out of shape. I'm not overweight or anything - in fact, I'm quite skinny. But I gained several pounds at college, and it ALL went straight to my gut. So I've got a noticeable pudge, even though you can see my ribs. I'm a body fat enigma. :smallannoyed:

A few quick questions, though...


-Peanut butter: healthy or junk food? Its got lots of protein and iron, but also fats and oils. And it goes good with soooo many things. For me, at least. :smalltongue:
-Is it better to run as long as you can, or walk as far as you can? :smallconfused: Running seems to burn calories faster and build stamina, but it also tires you out a lot faster and leave your more sore. Walking isn't as demanding, but you can do it a LOT longer and get much, much further, thus burning plenty of calories. But I'm not sure how the two compare...

That's all for now. Maybe more later...

If anyone has any advice, suggestions, or corrections for my diet and excercise ideas, please share! :smallbiggrin:

[Trellan]

COUNTERSLOGAN:
If you've planned for nothing
That's what you'll achieve


QUERY: I never feel very sore after a workout. Am I not trying hard enough or something? Because I have worked to the point where lifting the weight again was painful. But the next day I was fine.

I'm the exact same way. If I take a break from working out (excuse me, preparing for the zombie apocalypse) and come back to it I'll get sore for a little bit, but after about a week I pretty much stop getting sore at all. However, I am able to up the weight I use and I do get bigger. I remember someone once telling me it had something to do with muscle type, but I never did any research to verify it and I can't even remember the specifics.

What it comes down to (at least for me) is this: are you improving noticeably? Do you feel stronger, healthier, and more fit? Are you achieving this at a rate that seems normal as compared to other people that exercise? If yes to these, then not getting sore is definitely just an upside (although, if you're like me, it's frustrating because it feels like you didn't really work yourself hard enough the day before).

[Pyrian]

-Peanut butter: healthy or junk food?If it's natural peanut butter (usually Laura Scudders around here), it's very good for you but also very dense in calories. I'd avoid it if you're not counting calories, because it's very easy to make up any exercise calorie expenditure in peanut butter, and if your metabolism is like mine, you'll find yourself craving high-calorie foods in enough proportion to offset your exercise. (I have never successfully lost weight from either exercise or a strict diet - only the combination ever worked for me, my body would always find a way to compensate otherwise.)

[Tyrandar]

Is it better to run as long as you can, or walk as far as you can? :smallconfused:

Running seems to burn calories faster and build stamina, but it also tires you out a lot faster and leave your more sore. Walking isn't as demanding, but you can do it a LOT longer and get much, much further, thus burning plenty of calories. But I'm not sure how the two compare...

Both. Run until you get worn out, then walk, then start running again once you've marshaled your energies. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Or so they tell me. :smallredface:

[Trellan]

Both. Run until you get worn out, then walk, then start running again once you've marshaled your energies. Lather, rinse, repeat.


Seconded. I've had multiple occasions while running where I felt that I quite literally couldn't move another foot... dropped to walking for a few minutes and was able to continue running again. If you only run or walk, you'll be shortchanging yourself.

[Deth Muncher]

-More "real" meals with more ingredients, like spaghetti or omlettes.


Beware of carbs. :P As my father told me, anything made from a flour, or that can be made into a flour, is carbs. Some are good, some are bad, but all are carbs nonetheless, and you want to make sure you're not taking in too many, good or bad.

[Lycan 01]

Phew... Got back from a run around the neighborhood several minutes ago, and I feel pretty good. Must be that Runner's High... :smallbiggrin:

I'm not really sure how neighborhood streets equates to blocks, though, so I'm not entirely sure how far I ran. It took me about 15 minutes, though, half spent walking and half spent running.


Alrighty, so, less bread, and peanut butter in moderation. Nifty, nifty...


Any more advice? ^_^

[Serpentine]

-cutting sodas from my diet, maybe one can a week IF I MUST.It amuses me what a big deal it is for people to give up soft drink. I had a couple of glasses of Lift last night, and that was the first soft drink I'd had in... months, probably. Chocolate milk is my beverage of choice, and I allow myself free reign of that because of a lingering terror of osteoperosis. I would usually drink Just Natural 98% Fat Free Chocolate, Malt and Honey Milk, but noooooooooooo they had to stop selling it anywhere convenient, only the supermarket :smallsigh:

-More fruits and veggies... too bad I don't like many. :smallfrown:Look into different recipes and ways of preparing them. I added a bit of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese left over from the main part of dinner to some veggies the other night, and it made them go down a lot better. Keeping jars of pasta sauce to add a spoonful of can be a nice, easy touch, too.

-Peanut butter: healthy or junk food? Its got lots of protein and iron, but also fats and oils. And it goes good with soooo many things. For me, at least. :smalltongue:As already said, the less it has in it aside from peanuts the better. There's a healthfood shop here that sells peanut butter, but you take a bag of peanuts and shove it through a grinder there, so you end up with peanut butter with nothing but peanuts. All nuts are best eaten with restraint, but I think if, say, adding peanut butter to other things means you eat more nutritious stuff, it should be good.

edit: Rather than reduce the amount of carbohydrates too much (though if you're eating too many, obviously cut back somewhat), try to get wholemeal and high fibre/low GI versions of them.

[Deth Muncher]

So, I have to find some way to purify water, or the only water I'll be drinking is at the gym. The water on tap at my house is disgusting.

[Serpentine]

I can vouch for water filtering jugs. They do a great job.

[Tyrandar]

I can vouch for water filtering jugs. They do a great job.

Me too, even though I can't stand drinking water. It always tastes like the inside of my mouth, or nothing. Either way, not my favorite choice of beverage. :smallyuk:

I like Serp's idea of chocolate milk. <3 Milk.

[Deth Muncher]

Me too, even though I can't stand drinking water. It always tastes like the inside of my mouth, or nothing. Either way, not my favorite choice of beverage. :smallyuk:

I like Serp's idea of chocolate milk. <3 Milk.

Ever since my friend kept yelling "MILK IS BLOOD AND PUS" I haven't been able to drink it.

Also, epic failymclameness, I've gotta go to the gym at 11am tomorrow, because I need to drive home, get some suits drycleaned and probably cut my hair so that I can drive with my dad to South Carolina and go to my uncle's wedding.

[shadow_archmagi]

What's with all the carb-hate here anyway? I was under the impression that cutting carbs was purely an Atkins silliness, and not a particularly effective diet.

Is it really that important to reduce them?

[Lycan 01]

Chocolate Milk is actually the best thing to drink after a workout. I've heard it before, but last year during my Nutrition class the professor (who is the Chuck Norris of all the teachers I've ever had) halted class to explain to us why Chocolate Milk has the perfect mix of vits, mins, and chemicals your body needs after a workout - plus it tastes good. :smallbiggrin:

He said to wait 30 minutes after you get done working out, then drink it to get the full effects. It'll get into your system right as your body is beginning to repair itself and recover from the workout, IIRC.


Hm. Pasta Sauce... I need to get some of that, anyway. I was hoping to combine it with all the Ramen I have laying around, sans Ramen seasoning, to make instant spaghetti a few times a week. ^_^


Gatorade is pretty good. Find a flavor you like, and enjoy. I don't think you're supposed to reply entirely on it, though. :smalleek:

[Deth Muncher]

What's with all the carb-hate here anyway? I was under the impression that cutting carbs was purely an Atkins silliness, and not a particularly effective diet.

Is it really that important to reduce them?

So I hear. Or something. Also, you have to remember that often, stuff that's high in carbs is also full of stuff that sticks around with you a long time, so while the food itself isn't bad, if you eat too much, you may not be able to burn it all off.

[Serpentine]

Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the body. That's normal and good, but it means you've got to be careful not to overdo it. Really, the main thing to watch out for with carbohydrates is the "empty" ones. A slice of white bread isn't really all that much better for you than a tablespoon of raw sugar. A slice of wholemeal bread with tomato and cheese, on the other hand, is a pretty great lunch.
Ever since my friend kept yelling "MILK IS BLOOD AND PUS" I haven't been able to drink it.Heh, funny. But, although I believe blood and milk at least have the same origin, it's certainly, definitely absoposituvely NOT at all related to pus :smallconfused:
edit: Check the ingredients on those ramen. If they're anything like our 2-minute noodles, they're absolutely stuffed with oil and fat :smallyuk: I like Hakubaku noodles, if you can find them. They're really super-dooper quick to cook, and I just checked the package and all they contain is flour, water and salt.

[Tyrandar]

Ever since my friend kept yelling "MILK IS BLOOD AND PUS" I haven't been able to drink it.

In 10th grade, a girl made the observation that when you eat eggs, you're eating a hen's period.

Didn't eat eggs for a couple years after, but I got over it. Eggs are delicious.

[Deth Muncher]

.Heh, funny. But, although I believe blood and milk at least have the same origin, it's certainly, definitely absoposituvely NOT at all related to pus :smallconfused:

Oh, well good. Maybe if I make myself drink a glass of choco-milk a day, I'll actually use my milk as opposed to having it have to be thrown away. >_< And, y'know, actually have strong bones. Soda has been my main drink for a long time, with tea and tea related drinks a strong second. I haven't actively had milk other than in cereal in SO long.


EDIT @ ^ - Buhh. :P I don't think eggs are necessarily all that delicious, but they're certainly protein-tacular. If I had the money, I'd do like my father did and have a small steak and an egg on a muffin (one of those flat breakfast muffins with the nooks n' crannies in them, not, like, a cornmuffin), but alas, I have no job.

[Pyrian]

Is it really that important to reduce [carbs]?...No. In fact, unless you go full-Atkins, are diabetic, or are eating way too much sugar, I wouldn't worry about carbs at all. (Mind you, Atkins-style works pretty well, last I researched it, it was the ONLY diet shown to be more effective than its calorie count would otherwise indicate.)

[Serpentine]

Pus is lymph, dead white blood cells and dead bacteria. I don't know the exact make-up of milk, so it might contain lymph and maybe live white blood cells (particularly doubtful of the latter), but it definitely doesn't contain bacteria live or dead, or there's something very wrong with the producer.

[Haruki-kun]

Have been doing the Nautilus machines. They're weight machines; the staff tell you to do enough weight that you can manage 8-12 reps. If you can do 12, kick it up a notch. If you can't do 8, kick it down a notch.

I've been improving fairly steadily, so I'm definitely benefiting.

Well, if you're improving there's not much else to say on it. Soreness is generally a good sign, but not a necessary one.


Wii Fit

Ur doin it wrong. :smalltongue:

I don't think games'll help you much for weight lifting. Cardio and stuff? Sure. You need weights in order to lift weights.


There's a healthfood shop here that sells peanut butter, but you take a bag of peanuts and shove it through a grinder there, so you end up with peanut butter with nothing but peanuts.

I'm officially jealous. :smallannoyed:

[shadow_archmagi]

peanut butter with nothing but peanuts.

Wait what? How does that even work.

I've tried hitting peanuts with a hammer and you don't get butter, only smaller pieces.

[Lycan 01]

The Ramen is hard to gauge, since it says the facts are based off the full pack of seasoning plus the noodles, rather than just the noodles. But I'll check later.


How do I know what is a good or bad amount of oil or fat? :smallconfused:



Actually, my best friend lost several pounds from playing Wii Sports. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was a noteworthy number for just waving your arm around... :smalleek:

[Serpentine]

They pulverise it to a little mush 'til all the oil gets mooshed out. They might add a bit of water to it, but I think that's about it.

edit: How do you know what's a good amount... That's a good question.

[Haruki-kun]

How do I know what is a good or bad amount of oil or fat? :smallconfused:

IIRC..... Fats and Oils should make up about 20% of your diet. I read an article on it, but that was ages ago, so don't take it as fact.



Gatorade is pretty good. Find a flavor you like, and enjoy. I don't think you're supposed to reply entirely on it, though. :smalleek:

Actually, Gatorade has a crapload of sugar. It has vitamins and rehydrates you, but other than that it's not much different from drinking a coke. Read the label.

[Lycan 01]

Hm. Ramen's got lots of fat, it seems, but it doesn't say if its from the noodles or the seasoning. >.>

And why does everything have some much sodium in it? I'd really like to cut down on my salt intake, but that doesn't even seem possible with the food my family buys, or ANY food for that matter... :smallannoyed:


And as for the Gatorade... Darn. I drank almost two liters of that stuff today, mostly during/after my jogging. Talk about counter-productive... :smallsigh:


Edit: And just out of curiousity, how do things like Chef Boyardee Ravioli and Hot Pockets rank on the "good/bad for you" scale? The Chef B stuff is supposed to have a full serving of veggies, and I love Ravioli. And I <3 Hot Pockets... and their nutrition facts are actually pretty good, to my surprise. :smallconfused:

[Deth Muncher]

I rage, though am unsurprised at the fact, that most chocolate syrups have high fructose cornsyrup as their sweetening agent. I need to locate a bottle that does not. That is also less that 10 dollars, hopefully.

Also, went to the sto', picked up milk, bread and orange juice (fortified with Calcium! Yeah!). Unfortunately, the damned fool store does not have baby corn, waterchestnuts, or anything ELSE I want to put in my damn stirfry, damn. Damn. Anyway. Yeah. Also, the bread I eat is apparently not so bad for you: It's called "Health Nut," but I just thought it was a pun because it has nuts chopped up in it. Turns out each slice is only like 120 cal, so sammich I eat might only turn out being 300-350 cal. And yeah, counting calories sounds silly sometimes, but it's helped my grandmother lose weight, and she has NO activity in her life. Seriously. You think you're bad? Trust me, my grandmother outlazies you (I still love her though).

[Cealocanth]

I find that a good boost to phisical healthieness is a day spent doing nothing but exersising. A day spent hiking, skiing, or biking are good ways to work out your legs. A day spent lifting heavy things is a good way to work your legs and arms. A day spent swimming, LARPing, or gardening (I mean the digging and hoeing and shoveling compost and stuff) are good ways to work out almost all of your body.

Doing days like these constantly could be unhealthy, muscles working and releasing poisen into you're blood stream can really dehydrate you. Working hard can harm you're joints and make you feel sore. Days spent exersising can be good for you in moderation, but it can hurt.

[Lev]

I don't have internet atm and don't have time to catch up on this thread, but I do care and will post more advice when I have time!

[Dragonrider]

A word of advice to you. Don't weigh yourself, EVER! Because clothing is not weight specific nor are looks weight specific. All weighing yourself will do is place a negative thought process in your head. "I was in the gym 4 times this week and I haven't lost a pound", trust me you just want to look good whether you weigh 180 pounds or 600. Right?

This.

Basically, don't try to force your body into a size it doesn't want to be. It won't be happy with you and you'll gain the weight back. That's part of the reason it's good to avoid the scales: it's easy to look for a number that doesn't necessarily reflect your body type. It is better instead to focus on stamina and general good feeling.

[/experience]
You don't want to hear the story.
For mental health reasons I can't exercise or diet, though I'm not hugely happy with my appearance. :smalltongue: So I'm passing this on: FOCUS ON HEALTH, NOT WEIGHT. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

[Haruki-kun]

Edit: And just out of curiousity, how do things like Chef Boyardee Ravioli and Hot Pockets rank on the "good/bad for you" scale? The Chef B stuff is supposed to have a full serving of veggies, and I love Ravioli. And I <3 Hot Pockets... and their nutrition facts are actually pretty good, to my surprise. :smallconfused:

Quick google reveals this to be Hot Pockets' Label.

http://www.quitehealthy.com/nutrition-facts/food-labels/label225341.gif

Is this correct?

[Lycan 01]

That is NOT the same label on mine... :smalleek: Almost everything is a noticeably lower on the ones I have.


Hm. It seems that my friends have been inspired by me trying to better myself, and now THEY want to try and get in shape do Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Conditioning. :smalltongue:

[Haruki-kun]

That is NOT the same label on mine... :smalleek: Almost everything is a noticeably lower on the ones I have.

Wanna hint me as to what it actually says?

[Lycan 01]

Lemme check. All I've got is the 4 Cheese Pizza, which has higher stuff than the ones I normally eat, like BBQ chicken...

Calories: 300 (120 from fat)
Total Fat: 13g (20%)
Sat Fat: 6g (30%)
Trans Fats: 0
Cholesterol: 25mg (8%)
Sodium: 750mg (31%)
Carbs: 39g (13%)
Fiber: 2g (8%)
Sugars: 9g
Protein: 13g

And then several vits and mins...

[Pyrian]

Ur doin it wrong. :smalltongue:I made my targets.


I don't think games'll help you much for weight lifting. Cardio and stuff? Sure. You need weights in order to lift weights.I have weights. I see no fundamental reason why weights could not be incorporated into some sort of game. I would rather not have to be the one to design such a thing, though. ...I'm too busy!

[Runestar]

Seconded. I've had multiple occasions while running where I felt that I quite literally couldn't move another foot... dropped to walking for a few minutes and was able to continue running again. If you only run or walk, you'll be shortchanging yourself.

That's the funny thing. If I ever stop (or slow down to a brisk walk) while running, I can never seem to find the strength to resume running again. The only way is to hang in there and continue running however tired I may be, till I reach the finishing line, plop myself down on the ground and die. :smalltongue:

[Ranna]

Sorry about this but I am dead proud of myself I dont like what I am about to say so I am going to spoiler it.


I got an excellent in my fit test yesterday. whippeee


I have however hurt my glute muscles you'd be surprised at how often they are used I wasn't even working on my glutes I have clearly done something wrong there. Ooops better warmup stretches and cool down next time me thinks!


And diet, I hear that coconut milk is really good after a workout but I don't buy into all that too much, if I don't drink anything that is flavoured I can have that extra bit of salt on my dinner haha.

Salt is a huge huge huge weakness of mine sadly I get grumpy without it. I have low blood pressure though I always think that is something to do with it.

Single biggest thing I did to improve my diet was to watch portion control. Have you measured out 40g of Crunchy nut Bites.. Don't! It is really really really miserable. Also, smaller plates, trick the mind feel better.

[Deth Muncher]

DAY 2

-cue beginning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzpHmbwqHLM) of my playlist-

So, my abs and triceps still hate me from the other day. I blame this on stupid tasting water at my house, since I'm not drinking it, and thus not washing away acid crystals and blah blah. Also, ran into some friends of mine at the gym, so I warmed up with running and then playing badminton. The other thing I did today to shoot myself in the foot was I forgot to eat early, so I ended up only having like 15 minutes to digest before leaving - bad news.

Running - Ran .7 of a mile, then almost got sick due to breakfast
Biked 7 minutes, then played badminton.
Bicep Curls - 10 @ 15lbs, 5 @ 17.5lbs, and then 4 more on the right arm and three on the left.
Shoulder Thing (where you lift the weights til your arms are in the same plane as your shoulders) - 7/7 @ 10lbs.
Dip Bar Thing - 7/7/6.5 legs to chest
Leg Press - 10/10 @ 105lbs
Leg Extension - forgot to write it down, but I'm pretty sure it was 7/7 @ 65lbs
Leg Curl - 10/3 @ 30lbs
Benchpressing - Tried 2 @ 65lbs, and couldn't, thanks to stupid triceps.

Stupid weak triceps never let me have any fun.

[Trellan]

Stupid weak triceps never let me have any fun.

If you really want to focus your triceps and make them stronger, try doing tricep kickbacks (google it and you'll find a bunch of videos). Just a warning in advance though: they are NOT fun. Seriously, I'm pretty sure tricep kickbacks are my least favorite exercise (and that includes running, which also sucks). Start the weight low, especially if your triceps are a weak area (you might need to do just the dumbbell starting).

[Haruki-kun]

Shoulder Thing (where you lift the weights til your arms are in the same plane as your shoulders) - 7/7 @ 10lbs.

Lateral Raises.


Lemme check. All I've got is the 4 Cheese Pizza, which has higher stuff than the ones I normally eat, like BBQ chicken...

Calories: 300 (120 from fat)
Total Fat: 13g (20%)
Sat Fat: 6g (30%)
Trans Fats: 0
Cholesterol: 25mg (8%)
Sodium: 750mg (31%)
Carbs: 39g (13%)
Fiber: 2g (8%)
Sugars: 9g
Protein: 13g

And then several vits and mins...

It could be worse. Lots worse. Just don't make it a daily thing. 13 g. of fat is nothing to scoff at.

[Stubbed Tongue]

Stupid weak triceps never let me have any fun.

Today they are weak, tomorrow... stronger! Zombies will quiver in fear when they see your triceps in 2 months!

Imagine the look on girls/guys faces when they see the body you have crafted preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse.

For what it's worth: I am proud of you. Yes.. that's right, a total stranger is proud of you.

[Ranna]

DAY 2

-snipped-

Running - Ran .7 of a mile, then almost got sick due to breakfast
-snipped-

Stupid weak triceps never let me have any fun.

Do treadmills measure in miles or do you convert it?? I always thought they measured in Kilometres? What make are yours?

If they measure in miles then I really have been underestimating myself...

[shadow_archmagi]

Do treadmills measure in miles or do you convert it?? I always thought they measured in Kilometres? What make are yours?

If they measure in miles then I really have been underestimating myself...

It's probably a regional thing.

[Lev]

Deth you weigh less than I do, figure out your body type and see if your shape is already correct, then try and change the density of that shape while retaining range-of-motion.


Not true here, as a fire twirler I pay ~$4 au per litre for kero, and about $2.50 for coke.
But the less you drink the more fire you can afford.
We get Kero for about $21CAD for 20L in a big plastic jug, though I only buy camp... I like my wicks and my lungs, and any skin I burn is usually just by heated metal anyway.

What do you do? I was a professional fire performer for 2 years =]


followed by a trip through the Nautilus Circuit (A series of 12 weight machines).

1. Is this a good exercise pattern?

2. I often find myself wanting to take a couple minutes to catch my breath, particularly after the more strenuous machines. Is this a good idea? One part of my mind says that if I stop to catch my breath, I'll be able to lift more, which means I'll get more exercise. The other part says that by stopping I allow various internal thingummies (Heart Rate? Adrenaline? Circadian Rhythm? Probably not the last one) to tune themselves down and lose benefits that way.
Cardio and weight lifting should be done on different days, the body is kind of like a community or a computer or some other general task-driven system with limited resources... it's best to let your body have a light load while keeping balance with improving the amount of load it can do, this is done by:
1) Focusing on one thing at a time, so when you sleep your body can take the brunt of it.
2) Giving rest between specific things, the body should have about 2 days in-between high intensity strength training and at least 1 day in between cardio, and it's best to cross-train (easier, more fun and flat out more efficient to gain power in any field, crosstraining will make you a stronger ____ than if you just did ____, period.


though I am dubious to how healthy the water is that comes from my tap.
Boil it. Seriously, it removes some of the chemicals from the water as well.



And for excercise...
-Push-ups RAWR!! 200 (30 at a time) three days ago, but only got in 75 yesterday on an incline...
You are going to get injured very fast like that, trust me, I've done this.
No one worth his salt will judge you on number, pushups do not work that way. Go at a good speed, 1-2 seconds (or more if you feel comfortable) per pushup, do it slow, flawlessly, and with intent. If you feel it's too easy then go slower. 1 minute is a good shoot for an average level (will get you into boot camp in the army), 2 mins will advance your training in the army leading you to specialty paths. Generally military fitness eval is based on a 1-1-1 and then 2-2-2 (#min pushup, #min situp, #min run #mile).
If you want to "boost" your training and add intensity then when you are getting close to where you feel your limit is start doing them EXTREMELY slow, all the way up and all the way down at the same pace.
Remember with any super high intensity fiber gain like this you should be stretching for like 20 mins 3 times a day in all muscle groups.



Yeah, yeah, I'm starting small, but I'm quite out of shape. I'm not overweight or anything - in fact, I'm quite skinny. But I gained several pounds at college, and it ALL went straight to my gut. So I've got a noticeable pudge, even though you can see my ribs. I'm a body fat enigma. :smallannoyed:
You are just slender body typed, that is your shape the same as a big ripped hawaiian guy will sill be shaped like a cube.


-Peanut butter: healthy or junk food? Its got lots of protein and iron, but also fats and oils. And it goes good with soooo many things. For me, at least. :smalltongue:
Mine says 100calories per tbsp, 12%fat 7%saturated fat.
With a name that has the word butter in it, no it is not healthy at all.


-Is it better to run as long as you can, or walk as far as you can?
Read my first post, it contains a running guide and schedule for you.


Eggs are delicious.
Hardboiled egg is a great source of on-the-go protein.

Music was mentioned, I'll post some of my favs
You're the best around! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qae_TUTeGo)
Push it to the limit! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhsTmiK7Q2M)
Eye of the Tiger! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS4giqtbRBM)
Final Countdown! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt_ro2aerQg)
No Limit! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFd5Cci_pE4)
Pump it up! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpprOGsLWUo)

[Deth Muncher]

It's probably a regional thing.

Yup, that'd be it. I'll try to find out what brand these are, but I'm pretty sure they're 'Merican made.



Deth you weigh less than I do, figure out your body type and see if your shape is already correct, then try and change the density of that shape while retaining range-of-motion.


Where does one find a list of body types?

[Spiryt]

Why the people keep treating fat like it was worst thing since flood? :smallconfused:

Fat's are great source of energy and aren't very "junky" at all, as long as one is keeping roughly good proportions and don't eat too much saturated ones.

At least if we're talking about loosing/gaining fat, carbohydrates, especially refined ones, with highglycemic index are bad stuff, in many ways.

Of course, said carbohydrates along with a lot of fat are even worse.

As for peanut butter, I heard there are nice recipes around the net, how you can made your own nice, one with just oil and penauts, without salt and sugar - it's really quite nice food then, at least for non professional athletes and "normal people".

[Lev]

Where does one find a list of body types?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatotype_and_Constitutional_Psychology


Why the people keep treating fat like it was worst thing since flood?
Because unbalanced diets/exercise ratio is a full out epidemic, for srs.
Fat is even more simple than sugar, of course oils are not bad for you and are an important thing to help you function, but modern food has gone so far off the chart from natural food that the ratios of fat can cause diseases and seriously freck you up.

[Spiryt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatotype_and_Constitutional_Psychology

I wonder, had those "endo, mezo, ecto" types been ever really confirmed and examined?

Not that I'm suggesting much, because my knowledge is very small, but theory always seemed rather stretched too me.

[Lev]

I wonder, had those "endo, mezo, ecto" types been ever really confirmed and examined?

Not that I'm suggesting much, because my knowledge is very small, but theory always seemed rather stretched too me.
I believe it from personal experience, if that matters.

[Haruki-kun]

Mine says 100calories per tbsp, 12%fat 7%saturated fat.
With a name that has the word butter in it, no it is not healthy at all.

Awesome speculation, bro.

Peanut Butter doesn't include the slightest hint of butter.

[Lev]

Awesome speculation, bro.

Peanut Butter doesn't include the slightest hint of butter.
Cool story, yes the lactose intolerant are safe I agree.

[Haruki-kun]

Cool story, yes the lactose intolerant are safe I agree.

I meant to say "lol, no". Peanut Butter is actually quite healthy. Assuming you're not having that crap with sugar in it.

[Spiryt]

I like eating "raw" peanuts packed in the shells.

Somehow "lacking" for a modern broken taste, compared to roasted, salty ones, but good anyway.

[Lev]

I meant to say "lol, no". Peanut Butter is actually quite healthy. Assuming you're not having that crap with sugar in it.
Anything processed or refined removes steps in which your body would have to work to break down the food. Peanut butter is oil, salt and peanuts of course, only one of those really has nutritional value huh? Just eat the peanuts, it's cheaper too.

[Haruki-kun]

Anything processed or refined removes steps in which your body would have to work to break down the food.

Oh. I will remember not to slice my meat into pieces, then.


Peanut butter is oil, salt and peanuts of course, only one of those really has nutritional value huh?

The Oil in Peanut Butter comes from the peanuts themselves. Assuming you're not getting the already mentioned processed crap, there is no extra oil in it. Like the Peanut Butter that Serpentine mentioned.


Just eat the peanuts, it's cheaper too.

....where? :smallconfused:

[Lev]

....where? :smallconfused:
Buy either in bulk or in large bags, in shell. If a real food isn't cheaper than a processed food of the same health quality then I'd consider buying food more locally grown, shipping processes use a ton of energy and we really pay more in environmental damage than we do in monetary loss. Plus if you are American you should be supporting foods grown in America, patriotic and all that.

[Deth Muncher]

....where? :smallconfused:

Peanutopia.

Anyway, I don't have superhealthy PB right now. I USED to have Cashew Butter, which was sex in my mouth. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find that, and it's probably not cheap. But oh God. So good.

Also, this isn't really DAY 3, but on a active note, I went to the beach and swam a bunch today. And ran in the water, which is a lot more difficult than I remembered. I mean, I know you can't really run in water at all, but if it's like top of your shins, you can shamble. I also almost fell over like four times. :P

[Lev]

Anyway, I don't have superhealthy PB right now. I USED to have Cashew Butter, which was sex in my mouth. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find that, and it's probably not cheap. But oh God. So good.
Googling quickly tells me peanuts are 1.50/lb and cashews are 5/lb.

[Deth Muncher]

Googling quickly tells me peanuts are 1.50/lb and cashews are 5/lb.

But it wasn't shelled cashews, it was cashew butter. Same as peanut butter, but with cashews instead of peanuts.

[KoboldRevenge]

Find a way to exercise when ever you can find time, not really all out just slight.

[Lev]

Find a way to exercise when ever you can find time, not really all out just slight.
Agreed, also stop using furniture except for sleeping! Correct posture (using martial arts as a guide) will improve your health drastically.

[Haruki-kun]

Plus if you are American you should be supporting foods grown in America, patriotic and all that.

I'm not.

[Serpentine]

Also, this isn't really DAY 3, but on a active note, I went to the beach and swam a bunch today. And ran in the water, which is a lot more difficult than I remembered. I mean, I know you can't really run in water at all, but if it's like top of your shins, you can shamble. I also almost fell over like four times. :POn the coast you see groups of older people "going for a walk" through the water. Seems like it's a good, low-impact exercise.

Plus if you are American you should be supporting foods grown in America your own country, patriotic environmental and national costs and all that.Fixed it.

Fats and oils aren't bad, too many of the wrong sort is. And most Western food is so packed full with it that you will be doing very well to have to worry about having too few.
I've seen at least one cookbook about redeeming fats. I can't remember what it's called, though... Probably worth grabbing if you're interested, though.

[Ranna]

Avocado fat is good for you? as is Omega/Oily fish fat.

That's what I heard.. anyway I don't eat fish and avocados are quite expensive for my liking so I tend to skip them. But on the plus side I do not eat much fat at all!!

When you want something sweet eat a banana and when you want something savoury try sliced tomato with a very very little bit of salt

Yes I know I know salt is the devil and all...

[Alarra]

Me too, even though I can't stand drinking water. It always tastes like the inside of my mouth, or nothing. Either way, not my favorite choice of beverage. :smallyuk: You could try adding those little crystal light packets. Don't really impact the 'nutritional' value of the water much at all, but add a lot of taste.

As for the 'exercise isn't nearly as important to losing weight as diet' argument, I have to fall on the side of diet doesn't really do anything if you aren't exercising. Of course, that's just my personal experience. I eat pretty well, not perfect, but I don't drink any soda, do drink a lot of water, try to have a lot of salads, fruits and veggies and only eat fast food, hmmm about once a week or so, and eat a lot of small meals throughout the day to keep my metabolism up, and really haven't been much of a sweets eater for the past year or so. Every time I go to the doctor, I seem to have gained weight and I'm 40lbs at least more than I'd like to be. I am going to the gym again now, so we'll see if that helps. It's just kind of depressing when I have friends that drop 20-30 pounds just by cutting out soda, when I did that years ago to no benefit.

I would recommend supplementing your diet with fish oil, which will lower your bad cholesterol and help you lose weight.

[Dragonrider]

As for the 'exercise isn't nearly as important to losing weight as diet' argument, I have to fall on the side of diet doesn't really do anything if you aren't exercising. Of course, that's just my personal experience. I eat pretty well, not perfect, but I don't drink any soda, do drink a lot of water, try to have a lot of salads, fruits and veggies and only eat fast food, hmmm about once a week or so, and eat a lot of small meals throughout the day to keep my metabolism up, and really haven't been much of a sweets eater for the past year or so. Every time I go to the doctor, I seem to have gained weight and I'm 40lbs at least more than I'd like to be. I am going to the gym again now, so we'll see if that helps. It's just kind of depressing when I have friends that drop 20-30 pounds just by cutting out soda, when I did that years ago to no benefit.

Not to be a downer, but maybe you're 40 pounds heavier than you like to be, but that's where your body wants to be/should be. I know that's how I am.

[Alarra]

Definately not the case as I'm far bigger than I used to be and certainly not a 'healthy' weight.

[Haruki-kun]

As for the 'exercise isn't nearly as important to losing weight as diet' argument, I have to fall on the side of diet doesn't really do anything if you aren't exercising. Of course, that's just my personal experience. I eat pretty well, not perfect, but I don't drink any soda, do drink a lot of water, try to have a lot of salads, fruits and veggies and only eat fast food, hmmm about once a week or so, and eat a lot of small meals throughout the day to keep my metabolism up, and really haven't been much of a sweets eater for the past year or so. Every time I go to the doctor, I seem to have gained weight and I'm 40lbs at least more than I'd like to be. I am going to the gym again now, so we'll see if that helps. It's just kind of depressing when I have friends that drop 20-30 pounds just by cutting out soda, when I did that years ago to no benefit.

It also falls as one of those "every one is different" thing. But the general consensus on Diet vs. Exercise is that Diet without Exercise has a lot more impact than Exercise without Diet.

Both are important, of course. And it's true that Diet with no Exercise isn't as good as say.... Diet + Exercise.

[Lev]

Deth if you have any more questions or updates feel free to PM me, I'm kinda finished with this thread.

[Haruki-kun]

I think the rest of us would prefer it if stuff remained in this thread, so that we can all participate, as well.

[Lev]

I think the rest of us would prefer it if stuff remained in this thread, so that we can all participate, as well.
I'm not stopping you, enjoy.

[Deth Muncher]

Rawr! Why peoples be feisty!? No feisting.

Anywhey. I'm in South Carolina right now, for a wedding. You know what South Carolina and weddings are known for? Fattening food. >_< Though the hotel I'm at has an exercise room and pool, so we'll see if I can't go be active.

I also fried my iPod today, so I have to try to get it fixed, or I have no jammin' tunes.

[Lycan 01]

Oh crap, you're in the South for a wedding? That's like diet suicide. :smalleek:

At least you're not in Mississippi. We make food for everything. Especially weddings. And funerals. Don't quite understand the last one myself. :smallconfused:

[Haruki-kun]

I also fried my iPod today, so I have to try to get it fixed, or I have no jammin' tunes.

AAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's start a Fried iPod Club, shall we?

[Copacetic]

Oh crap, you're in the South for a wedding? That's like diet suicide. :smalleek:

At least you're not in Mississippi. We make food for everything. Especially weddings. And funerals. Don't quite understand the last one myself. :smallconfused:

You eat food at weddings to appreciate the fact that not everyone attending can eat.

[Deth Muncher]

AAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's start a Fried iPod Club, shall we?

Yeah...and I mean literally fried, btw. I felt an electrical current run through it. O_o

And Lycan - yeah, yeah it is. The rehearsal dinner last night was at a BBQ place. Barbecue - so good, even us Jews will eat it. :smallbiggrin: Anywhey, but yeah. I'm staying at a rather nice hotel, so as I mentioned they've got workout stuff. I just actually have to GET to it...

[Lev]

Rawr! Why peoples be feisty!? No feisting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj1w0vxCC2w

[Tyrandar]

AAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's start a Fried iPod Club, shall we?

Let the first meeting of FriPods Anonymous be called! *bangs gavel*

[Deth Muncher]

Was all that nonsense about sweating out calories they thought way back true? Because if so, I may have lost five pounds today.

[Don Julio Anejo]

On diet vs. exercise: guys, the thing is... It doesn't matter very much what you eat as compared to how much you eat. More specifically, calories. You can live quite well of candy and beef jerky as long as you take some vitamin supplements. Sure, it won't be very healthy, but it's not like you'll die from it. Vegans do far worse when it comes to diet.

It's just that if you eat high-calorie foods like candy, you can't eat a lot of it. Like 2-3 bags per day and that's it, assuming you're eating nothing else. When compared to vegetables, where you can eat an entire fridgefull and still be pretty far from what your body needs.

That's all there is to it. Exercise won't help you at all if you're eating 4000 calories daily - even with an hour on the treadmill, you'd still be eating 1000 calories too many, and not many people who eat 4000 calories per day can actually do 1 hour on a treadmill at 5.5-6mph you would need to burn that 1000 cal.

On the other hand, if you're only eating a tiny bit more than you need and simply look a little round or maybe have a few things poking out here and there, exercise works great. You may or may not burn the fat, but you'll look much, much better from, well, exercising.

[Serpentine]

I very, very strongly disagree with that, Julio. It is both what you eat and how much of it. A diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, sufficient meat and protein, lots of grains and a little bit of fats and sweets is far and away ridiculously more healthy than "candy and beef jerky with supplements". I cannot stress enough how much more. It's nothing but harmful to suggest otherwise.
Was all that nonsense about sweating out calories they thought way back true? Because if so, I may have lost five pounds today.Sweating (and all the other things your body does to keep your body temperature stable) takes energy*. Sweat itself does contain salt and ammonia, but I don't think they're big on the (at least usable) calories, so nope.
You still might've lost five pounds, though :smallwink: (Just mostly water :smalltongue:)

Somethin' interesting: my weight fluctuates much more than my waistline. Even when I put on a little weight, my waist will often stay the same or even get a little smaller. Innnteresting.
(this week I put on a little weight, but not as much as I lost last week, and I was on holidays not doing anything so I wasn't at all surprised)


*that we keep our bodies warm on a cellular level is the reason that, unlike reptiles, we can't go for days or weeks (even years, with at least one type of snake, I think) without food. Our internal heater takes a lot of energy.

[Spiryt]

On diet vs. exercise: guys, the thing is... It doesn't matter very much what you eat as compared to how much you eat. More specifically, calories. You can live quite well of candy and beef jerky as long as you take some vitamin supplements. Sure, it won't be very healthy, but it's not like you'll die from it. Vegans do far worse when it comes to diet.


Not die perhaps... But that would be horrible, really.




That's all there is to it. Exercise won't help you at all if you're eating 4000 calories daily - even with an hour on the treadmill, you'd still be eating 1000 calories too many, and not many people who eat 4000 calories per day can actually do 1 hour on a treadmill at 5.5-6mph you would need to burn that 1000 cal.

Unless you're 240 pound guy, with metabolism 4000 calories with some treadmill is just about right for. It all depends.

[Lev]

You can live quite well of candy and beef jerky as long as you take some vitamin supplements.
No. ,

[Serpentine]

Well said, Lev :smallbiggrin:

[Deth Muncher]

Somethin' interesting: my weight fluctuates much more than my waistline. Even when I put on a little weight, my waist will often stay the same or even get a little smaller. Innnteresting.


True story, bro. :P No, but really. I've stayed pretty much a 32 for...close to 6 years now, I guess. Since I hit highschool, anyway, and that's even after having gained 8 inches in height.

[Ranna]

Fpllowing on from Serp...

"*that we keep our bodies warm on a cellular level is the reason that, unlike reptiles, we can't go for days or weeks (even years, with at least one type of snake, I think) without food. Our internal heater takes a lot of energy."

Cold showers like ice cold can burn calories (apparently twice a day is something akin to 500 cals but I think that's a little bit of bs)

Its a very pro-ana tip that... worryingly it was recently repeated in a mens health magazine.

Have you heard what those men models go through to look like they do the the photoshoot. and I thought girl models were the ones that had it bad!!!

[Deth Muncher]

Okay, I'm officially counting my beach excursion as DAY 3 since it was more exertion than is the norm for me, thus exercise. Which means today, it's...


DAY 4

I was going to go to the gym today, but stupid city traffic after having walked around a bit to a nearby island left me rageful, and I felt no desire to go to the gym. So what did I do tonight?

I raved.

For two hours.

With not enough hydration, though some.

But lo, that's not all that happened. Afterwards, a friend wanted to show me + other friends this neat spot they'd happened across during their travels into the underbelly of the city/the beach. So I ended up walking across a large concrete pipeline. For a mile. Plus random hills we needed to scale to get back to proper land. And then we hiked back.

So basically, I had four hours of constant activity today. Oh, and did I mention I haven't slept in almost 48 hours? O_o

ALSO: It was totally fun.

[Lycan 01]

So I weighed myself out of curiousity, and it seems I've actually lost a few pounds. :smallbiggrin: Not sure the exact amount, but at least 3 or 4. My dad commented that my arms and chest look a bit bigger, and my girlfriend told me today that my stomach actually looks smaller, though she might have just been trying to cheer me up after a bad day. :smalltongue:

At any rate, I feel proud of myself. :smallbiggrin: At first I wasn't sure I'd be able to stick to the whole Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Conditioning thing, but I've actually done a pretty good job so far. And I've only drank one soda this entire week - today, because I felt I'd earned it. :3

[Faceist]

In 10th grade, a girl made the observation that when you eat eggs, you're eating a hen's period.

Didn't eat eggs for a couple years after, but I got over it. Eggs are delicious.
I dunno if I'm weird (actually, I suspect I prob'ly am) but when people say things like that it just makes me hungrier. Especially when militant vegetarians are all "THAT'S PART OF A COW"; it doesn't make me associate beef with a living, feeling creature, it makes me associate said living, feeling creature with beef. Makes me wanna take a bite out of it on the hoof, dig?

Anyhoo, good luck to the dudes and dudettes embarking on personal training regimens. I go to the gym three times a week, personally, since I'm attempting to tone up. (My metabolism is naturally freaky-fast - that somatotypes thing says I'm Mesomorphic - so I don't have any problems with weight.) Even have my own routine worked out, though since I don't know the names of the machines, I'm all "awright, that's my five minutes on the yanky-steppy done, time for the pully-down bar!"

[Deth Muncher]

DAY 5

Since I'm back home for a few days and thus not near my school's gym, I was afraid I'd not get my necessary workout. Little did I know that I'd be heading to a beach this past night, and ended up hiking around the beach and the surrounding town. All in all, I'd say about three miles of walking was done on land, two of which being actual intense walking, and another mile of sand-hiking.

[Deth Muncher]

Okay, so question/re-focusing of goals here. I've decided that my primary goal here is to burn as much fat off of me as possible. Muscle addition would be nice, but not as vital. What are some good metabolism-boosting foods/exercises that specifically target burning fat as opposed to building muscle as a primary goal? I remember swimming mentioned as a slimmer, but is there anything else?

[Deth Muncher]

DAY 6

SO MUCH MOVING.

I helped my friend move his belongings into a moving van, then into his new house. I think I may have damaged my back in the process. :/ But regardless, many hours of lifting and moving. RAWR MY ARMS BE STRONG NAO.

[Lev]

Okay, so question/re-focusing of goals here. I've decided that my primary goal here is to burn as much fat off of me as possible. Muscle addition would be nice, but not as vital. What are some good metabolism-boosting foods/exercises that specifically target burning fat as opposed to building muscle as a primary goal? I remember swimming mentioned as a slimmer, but is there anything else?
Swimming actually only appears to be a slimmer, swimming rapidly converts type1 muscle into type2 (type1 being round bubblies that are very visible and chunky, type2 being flat plates that perform extremely well and increase endurance).
Read the runners handbook I posted a link to in my first post and cross-train all of those, the more you exercise the more you can eat, eat healthier and get more nutrients which means more overall health.
More exercise = More Food, More Food Use = Higher Metabolism, Higher Metabolism = Healthy and Nutrient Saturated

[Haruki-kun]

What are some good metabolism-boosting foods/exercises that specifically target burning fat?

Building muscle generally makes it easier to burn fat.

[Ranna]

Spicy foods boost metabolism.. or so I've heard.. spicy foods also give you Rosacea too.. again so I've heard..

Just don't eat curries that are full of fat.. no no no!

[Serpentine]

Similarly for cinammon and tumeric, supposedly. Cinammon's easy to add to all sorts of things, but not so much tumeric.

[Deth Muncher]

Uh...wow. Okay. I haven't posted here in a while, and the auto-alert to my email apparently didn't exist because I didn't get updates for you guys posting back to me. As to Serps and Ranna talking about spicy foods, I generally try to have something with Cholula hotsauce on it daily, as well as other stuff. On the cinnamon note, if I can find some powdered/crystallized/whatevered cinnamon, I might start adding it to meat dishes...I had it in an eggroll thing at the Moroccan restaurant in Disney World Florida a while back, and I hadn't realized what an awesome flavor compliment it is to meat. So yeah.

Haruki - Well...yeah, yeah it does, dunnit? :smalltongue:

Lev - I'll try to find that book in a library or something, but I'm rather strapped for cash at the moment.

As to my own general health and fitness, I've been doing a lot of labor lately, but not necessarily intense, muscle building labor - stuff like moving furniture, replacing garage doors, etc. While all of those DO have muscle-using moments (like when my drill failed, and I had to use a torque-wrench-thing to screw in all the bolts on the door O_O ARGHLEBARGLE), for the most part it's not too intense. So. Today, being Monday, July 5th, I will (once back in the city my college is in) start back on the Mon/Wed/Fri gymming.

[Ranna]

Deth lycan and all those who are looking at trimming down.. dont give up now keep at it!!!!

If you get bored try something else I am ALWAYS on different sites looking to jazz up a routine, I have delightfully discovered an old friend of mine goes to the same gym as me so we;re gonna hook up and work out

Just keep at it and you will see the results!!!

[Deth Muncher]

Hey, so I haven't posted in a while. Mainly, this has been due to not actually going to the gym, but I have been exercising sporadically. Today marks my return to the gym, after I get ready. I'll be trying out some new machines today, after having conferred with a friend of mine who was a football player back in his highschool days, and knows the equipment very well.

[shadow_archmagi]

I saw an interesting article (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100528092021.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily% 3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader) the other day about force of will.

Apparently, demanding something of yourself actually makes a person less able to do that.

That is, sitting down and saying to yourself "OKAY YES I AM GOING TO EXERCISE I REALLY REALLY AM DEFINATELY THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE HOO RAH GO GO GO" can be counterproductive.

[Pyrian]

That study is fascinating. I've noticed, myself, that that sort of self-cheerleading doesn't work for me, although the propaganda behind "positive thinking" had me convinced that I was unusual in that regard. Also, I always thought that the causality was backwards: I only really try to stress that "I WILL I WILL I WILL" do something when I know perfectly well that I won't. :smalltongue: Yet the study design is controlled in such a way that, short of statistical aberration, such a causality doesn't explain the result.

Innnnteresting. :smallcool:

[Deth Muncher]

Hinteresting. Usually it's my overwhelming self-loathing that finally kicks me into the gym. Which reminds me...


(OFFICIAL) DAY 7
Honestly, the day thing is a bit wonky, since it only really applies to gym days, but I've been doing random other exercisey things too, so eh. But regardless. Although I crit-failed and forgot my notebook to record exact notes, I know that I:
-Biked a mile
-Moved up to 17.5lb weights for bicep curls, and 15lb weights for tricep thingys.
-Tried out the Butterfly Press, which was good times to be had. It's exactly what I needed, I think. It felt really good.
-Did leg extension/curls/presses at normal weghts.
-Did lots of ab junk (like the assisted ab machine, plus the dip bar stuff I normally do)

All in all, it went well. I look forward to doing it again tomorrow. (I went yesterday and forgot to post this.)

The interesting thing is that I did all of this in about half an hour. Which...y'know, kinda works for me. I don't like the idea of exercising because it takes up too much time. If I can do my basic workout in half an hour...well, I mean, that's basically no time at all. Hell, I burn through more than half an hour watching old TNG episodes. Or on Facebook. Or on Dragon Age. See my point?

[Kneenibble]

Listen sweetie, I know a great workout routine. The half-hour will fly by and motivation will be no problem. I'll even throw in a nutritious breakfast.

[Deth Muncher]

Listen sweetie, I know a great workout routine. The half-hour will fly by and motivation will be no problem. I'll even throw in a nutritious breakfast.

Kneen! Where on Earth have YOU been?

Also, I'm hesitant to accept any offer of a workout from you, all things considered. XD

[Keld Denar]

Hell, I burn through more than half an hour watching old TNG episodes. Or on Facebook. Or on Dragon Age. See my point?

Aquire a method of combining A with B. Download a season of TNG onto an iPod Touch or similar device, and then mount it on your treadmill. That Picard guy just makes the miles roll by. Hillarious.

If its inspiration to you, I just joined a gym on Saturday. So far so good, been there every day since Saturday. I do short workouts, usually isolating one muscle group with a bunch of ab workouts mixed in each day. Your trunk muscles are REALLY resiliant, so you can generally afford to beat them up in nearly every workout without remorse.

EDIT: Are you taking a multivitamin and a protein suppliment? Both help TREMENDOUSLY with energy levels, and the protein specifically, when taken IMMEDIATELY after your workout helps boost muscle recovery and reduce "next day soreness". I've been dabbling in the world of Soy proteins lately out of shear curiosity, so I'll let youk now how I feel after about a week on it if you care.

[Deth Muncher]

Aquire a method of combining A with B. Download a season of TNG onto an iPod Touch or similar device, and then mount it on your treadmill. That Picard guy just makes the miles roll by. Hillarious.

If its inspiration to you, I just joined a gym on Saturday. So far so good, been there every day since Saturday. I do short workouts, usually isolating one muscle group with a bunch of ab workouts mixed in each day. Your trunk muscles are REALLY resiliant, so you can generally afford to beat them up in nearly every workout without remorse.

Hm...you may be onto something there. But I only have an iPod classic, so the screen isn't big enough for that. Also, that would require biking or whatevering for forty-five minutes. That's almost too much to bear (bare? This forum has me messing up with which version to use at what time thanks to all the bear puns). Also, my entire post is being narrated in my head by Patrick Stewart now, so thanks for that. :P

And yay other people joining gyms!

EDIT: No, I take no vitty-mins. They're just way too expensive for me.

[Milskidasith]

I've been exercising recently (not that I'm overweight; I'm 5'9" and 130 pounds, so I'm actually looking to gain muscle) but I am pretty sure I am not doing enough. Generally I run a mile on the treadmill and then work some on the machines at the gym, but I am fairly certain I am not pushing myself hard enough, unfortunately. I'm certainly not likely to gain weight, but I don't think I'm gaining much muscle either, besides my abs, which have at least some improvement visible.

Also, Ranna's first post on the thread scares me... if she's running 10-12 miles per hour for eighteen minutes, she's running over three miles at a fairly impressive pace (12 MPH for actually leads to three miles in 15 minutes, which is only 2 minutes 30 seconds above the world record). I also don't see six miles per hour as a brisk walk... that starts to get to the point you're actively jogging.

[Keld Denar]

Powdered Protein shakes cost like, 15 cents a piece when you divide out a 5 lb canister into 2 tablespoon segments. Check out www.bodybuilding.com (site is down atm, but try again in the morning). You can get some stuff on there for pretty cheap. Trust me, its awesome for making day-after soreness go away.

Multivitamins are all in all good for most people. In general, people don't get 100% of all of the crap that the body needs to operate at 100% peak efficiency. Multivitamins come in and help with that. Often times its the little things like an amino acid that helps your body metabolize fat, or like the way that vitamin D helps increase protein absorbtion into your body, etc. If you changed your breakfast to a reinforced cerial like Total, you'd at least pick up most of the key vitamins there. Plus, Total is high in whole grains which are VERY healthy and the stuff doesn't taste too bad. Suppliment with raisins or frozen blueberries (yay antioxidents!) and it becomes downright delicious.

Just some thoughts.

PS: Try shifting all of your grain intake to whole grains. Cerial, bread, rice, pasta, and even tortillias all come in whole grain varieties. If you are gonna ingest carbs, at least make sure they aren't completely devoid of all other nuitritian. Bleached flour products have almost no redeaming value, and the dietary fiber you get from whole grains is AMAZING for weight control. Trust me.

EDIT:

I've been exercising recently (not that I'm overweight; I'm 5'9" and 130 pounds, so I'm actually looking to gain muscle) but I am pretty sure I am not doing enough. Generally I run a mile on the treadmill and then work some on the machines at the gym, but I am fairly certain I am not pushing myself hard enough, unfortunately. I'm certainly not likely to gain weight, but I don't think I'm gaining much muscle either, besides my abs, which have at least some improvement visible.

If you really want to figure it out, and have a bit of disposable income, consider hiring a trainer at your gym. Most established gyms like Bally's or 24 Hour Fitness or LA Fitness have trainers on staff. Buy like, 4-6 sessions have have a trainer kick your ass for an hour twice a week. You'll learn a TON about what you need to be doing. Also, as I indicated above, increase your protein intake with a suppliment. Only thing to make sure of is that if you do, increase your fiber (powdered flax seeds are AMAZING with amino acids and other goodies), since most whey based protein suppliments make you...irregular.

[Deth Muncher]

Powdered Protein shakes cost like, 15 cents a piece when you divide out a 5 lb canister into 2 tablespoon segments. Check out www.bodybuilding.com (site is down atm, but try again in the morning). You can get some stuff on there for pretty cheap. Trust me, its awesome for making day-after soreness go away.

Multivitamins are all in all good for most people. In general, people don't get 100% of all of the crap that the body needs to operate at 100% peak efficiency. Multivitamins come in and help with that. Often times its the little things like an amino acid that helps your body metabolize fat, or like the way that vitamin D helps increase protein absorbtion into your body, etc. If you changed your breakfast to a reinforced cerial like Total, you'd at least pick up most of the key vitamins there. Plus, Total is high in whole grains which are VERY healthy and the stuff doesn't taste too bad. Suppliment with raisins or frozen blueberries (yay antioxidents!) and it becomes downright delicious.

Just some thoughts.

PS: Try shifting all of your grain intake to whole grains. Cerial, bread, rice, pasta, and even tortillias all come in whole grain varieties. If you are gonna ingest carbs, at least make sure they aren't completely devoid of all other nuitritian. Bleached flour products have almost no redeaming value, and the dietary fiber you get from whole grains is AMAZING for weight control. Trust me.

Pfft, breakfast? You make it sound like I wake up before 2PM on a regular basis. :P But there is veracity in your statements. Perhaps I'll requisition my parents for some multivitamins when I go home this weekend.

Also, I WISH I could find whole grain tortillas near me. That'd be AWESOME, since I'm big on making burritos.

[Milskidasith]

Keld, I am seventeen; my disposable income is nonexistent (I am fairly certain that a trainer would cost more money than I could make working a part time minimum wage job). I do think we have some protein powder around the house, though, and some total, so I can try that. Hiring a trainer is... completely unlikely, however.

[Keld Denar]

You have to look hard, since they are generally on the bottom shelf. I currently have a package of: La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Smartwraps (http://www.latortillafactory.com/). I'm not convinced that they are really smart, since I haven't seen them do any higher math lately, but they ARE delicious. Looked like the website had coupons, so you might even be able to get them cheaper than white flour tortillas.

My dinners often consist of one of those, 3ish slices of lean turkey, 3ish slices of lean roasted chicken breast, 2 slices of provolone cheese, a handful of romaine lettuce, and a couple tablespoons of low fat ranch, low fat thousand island, or Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sause (which isn't healthy, but I LOVES IT SO VERY MUCH!!!!). Suppliment this with a banana (bananas are REDICULOUSLY CHEAP, 59 cents a pound most places), and maybe some carrot sticks (I like the pre-cut baby carrots) and you have a pretty balanced dinner. A slight variance on that would be to add on some baby sprouts to the wrap-up, if you can find some pretty cheap. Adds a new dimension of flavor that mixes things up.

EDIT:

Keld, I am seventeen, my disposable income is nonexistent. I do think we have some protein powder around the house, though, and some total, so I can try that. Hiring a trainer is... completely unlikely, however.
17 eh? You might want to be a little careful with protein powders. Probably ask a doctor next time you have a physical. You aren't still growing much, but you are still a little. They aren't dangerous, but your body might process them a little different than anticipated which could have awkward results. Again, see a doctor or nutritionist.

Also, I'd assume that at 17, you are in the summer before your senior year of HS? Check with your HS to see if they have summer gym hours. My HS had the weight room open for a few hours every day, and it was staffed with one of the various sport coaches at all times (liability, etc). Most coaches have a pretty good idea how to construct a good workout program to make the best use of your time. Never hurts to ask.

The main problem most people have going to the gym, and I see this a lot, is that they take too long between sets. They'll do a set on the bench, and then just sit there on the bench and look stupid for 2-3 minutes, then do another set. Don't just sit there, do an exercise. Great bench exercises include grabbing the bench behind your head and doing leg lifts, or grabbing a weight, balancing on your butt, and twisting your trunk back and forth with the weight. That one hits sooooooo many stabilizer muscles its silly. Things like that. Try to always alternate 2 different activities with very little downtime. Once you finish your 3-4 sets, THEN take a break and get some water. This has the side effect of raising your heart rate to rediculous levels and holding it there for longer giving you a better cardio workout even when you aren't doing cardio. If you can trick your body good enough, you can even raise your resting metabolism to a level where you'll be burning superior amounts of fat even when you AREN'T working out. This is done with quick series' of high intensity/short duration exercises and is a little complicated, but you could probably find something about it online.

[Milskidasith]

17 eh? You might want to be a little careful with protein powders. Probably ask a doctor next time you have a physical. You aren't still growing much, but you are still a little. They aren't dangerous, but your body might process them a little different than anticipated which could have awkward results. Again, see a doctor or nutritionist.

Also, I'd assume that at 17, you are in the summer before your senior year of HS? Check with your HS to see if they have summer gym hours. My HS had the weight room open for a few hours every day, and it was staffed with one of the various sport coaches at all times (liability, etc). Most coaches have a pretty good idea how to construct a good workout program to make the best use of your time. Never hurts to ask.

The main problem most people have going to the gym, and I see this a lot, is that they take too long between sets. They'll do a set on the bench, and then just sit there on the bench and look stupid for 2-3 minutes, then do another set. Don't just sit there, do an exercise. Great bench exercises include grabbing the bench behind your head and doing leg lifts, or grabbing a weight, balancing on your butt, and twisting your trunk back and forth with the weight. That one hits sooooooo many stabilizer muscles its silly. Things like that. Try to always alternate 2 different activities with very little downtime. Once you finish your 3-4 sets, THEN take a break and get some water. This has the side effect of raising your heart rate to rediculous levels and holding it there for longer giving you a better cardio workout even when you aren't doing cardio. If you can trick your body good enough, you can even raise your resting metabolism to a level where you'll be burning superior amounts of fat even when you AREN'T working out. This is done with quick series' of high intensity/short duration exercises and is a little complicated, but you could probably find something about it online.

The only method I have to possibly get access to our school's gym would be to join the football team, and... again, 5'9", not exactly going to get anywhere. Plus their summer workouts already started, and I believe the penalty for going late is... 200 yards of bear crawls for every day you missed? So yeah, I'd prefer *not* to do over three miles of bear crawls just to join a sport I don't like just to get a chance to work out slightly better. :smalltongue:

As another side note, I really don't like using the bench at the gym; I prefer using the machines instead of free weights. I am sure you would know better about which one is more likely to work out better, but... eh, when you are as incredibly weak as me (seriously, my arms are absolutely pathetic, though my legs are fairly decent), going over to do free weights is somewhat embarrassing.

Also, I actually do use the trunk workout you suggested, albeit not with weights because I generally do it at home.

[Keld Denar]

Bummer on the football thing though. Generally, people love to talk, so if you approach one of the assistant coaches outside of a workout and say "hey, I'm kinda interested in working out, but have no idea if I'm doing it right. I see you run amazing workouts for the players, could you give me some pointers?". This appeals to ego and will generally get said coach to regale you with a bit o' knowledge.

Concerning free weights vs machines. They both have their advantages. Machines tend to isolate a specific muscle or muscle group. This is good for targeting, which results in "definition". Free weights don't isolate, so you get a lot of other muscle groups kicking in to help you do things like "not drop the weight" or "keep motion straight". These are called stabilizer muscles and they are generally the ones that dictate quantities such as "tone".

If I was you, I'd at least try to mix it up a bit. Both are good in their own right, but too much machine neglects your stabilizer muscles (which are very worldly practical) and too much free weights denies you the ability to really target a muscle group for a maximum workout.

Make sense?

[Deth Muncher]

Concerning free weights vs machines. They both have their advantages. Machines tend to isolate a specific muscle or muscle group. This is good for targeting, which results in "definition". Free weights don't isolate, so you get a lot of other muscle groups kicking in to help you do things like "not drop the weight" or "keep motion straight". These are called stabilizer muscles and they are generally the ones that dictate quantities such as "tone".

If I was you, I'd at least try to mix it up a bit. Both are good in their own right, but too much machine neglects your stabilizer muscles (which are very worldly practical) and too much free weights denies you the ability to really target a muscle group for a maximum workout.

Make sense?

For the record, this is what I do, and it seems to be working rather well. For my upper body strength, at least.

EDIT: Does anyone have a recipe/vague idea for cinnamon hamburgers? The closest recipe I could find used a bunch of stuff I don't really want... I'm just wondering how much cinnamon and such I should put into my burger meat to make it tasty.

[drakir_nosslin]

I must say that I really like this thread. It's inspiring to see so many people exercising Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Conditioning-itp!

Anyway, I started with parkour this year and that's some great training for the entire body! There's a lot of people who train with us now to loose weight and get in better shape and it seems to be working quite well for them. Me, I'm trying to gain weight instead, it isn't quite as easy though... But yea, parkour is a wonderful form of exercising if you like challenging yourself and get the adrenaline flowing :smallbiggrin:

[Serpentine]

EDIT: Does anyone have a recipe/vague idea for cinnamon hamburgers? The closest recipe I could find used a bunch of stuff I don't really want... I'm just wondering how much cinnamon and such I should put into my burger meat to make it tasty.Maybe start with a teaspoon (or less - that's probably quite a lot), and then sniff.

On my end, I think I've generally been losing a tiny bit each week. It's rather hard to get up the motivation to exercise, even just walking to and from uni, when it's cold... But I think I've mostly been eating reasonably well, at least.

[Lioness]

I'm a bit scared of the weights room at the gym. It's full of muscly guys who know what they're doing. I just sort of walk in awkwardly, set the machine to the lowest weight, and follow the instructions on the side...
I'm not even going to attempt free weights...

My usual workout consists of stretching for a bit, then 20-30 minutes of cardio - bike, elliptical, or treadmill, depending on how I feel. Then I go to the general workout room (has all of the old weights room machines, and isn't as scary) and do some ab work, and other weights training - usually all parts of arm, leg, and that odd butterfly-like machine. Then I go back and do a little bit more cardio, maybe 10 minutes, and then I stretch again.

I get bored easily with more than about 20 minutes of continuous cardio...when I'm not very motivated, I take a book along and do a while on the exercise bike. That usually works. Otherwise, I get on the treadmill that has an animation of trees and a running man. It amuses me.

But yeah, tips on how not to be bored would be great. I only have an iPod nano...so movies won't really work well

[Keld Denar]

Don't be intimidated by all the muscly men and their massive...stacks of weights. :P

Most of those guys would be more than willing to help you get started with something a little more involved. Just ask. I know I won't really approach a girl in a gym other than maybe a sideways smile if we catch eyes, simply because most ladies at the gym feel uncomfortable or unattractive while working due to the sweat factor and other things. If someone did approach me, though, I'd be more than happy to help, and I ask other guys around me to help spot me when I do heavy lifting. Just ask. Who knows, you might gain a weight lifting buddy or even a date!

Free weights are pretty important as they do give you a more rounded workout experience and do add a lot of tone to muscles due to the hundreds of minute tweaks that go on every second to keep the weight centered and moving on the path you desire. In general, dumbells (the short ones made to fit just 1 hand) are the easiest to work with for beginners, and give you a good workout since each hand is independant of the other. Lifting with a bar (bent or straight) allows you to lift more weight combined than each hand would with dumbells, but you lose some (but not all) of the stabilizers that control lateral movement. A machine is the ultimate isolation, and they are designed to only target the one muscle. It takes many more machines to get a complete muscle group workout than free weights because of this.

As far as tips on how to not be bored, is there any way you can get books on tape on your iPod? That would probably be ideal since it would totally take your mind off of what you are doing.

[Lioness]

Thanks for the reply

I'm still fairly young, so approaching the guys would be awkward, simply because they might take an approach the wrong way.

The gym offers a group class that combines cardio with weightlifting, and they use a bar. That's a great class, and I tend to do that when I'm sick of the machines.

I'll see if I can get some audiobooks...I've never tried them before...should be interesting.

[Deth Muncher]

Lioness, you should check and see if the gym has some kind of head person - I don't know how old you are, so I don't really know if this is a school gym or a gym gym, but either way, a school gym generally has a coach you can bother about how stuff works, and most real gyms have staff on hand who can explain things if you're too intimidated by superbeefymusclemen. I know I am. :P That's why I pretty much never do benchpressing, is because I'm afraid to ask one of them to spot me.

@ Serps - Hokay. I wish I had the recipe for the little cinnamon-y meaty eggrolls they serve in Disney World Florida's Morocco part of Epcot - that's the first place to introduce me to cinnamon in something other than desserts. Plus it'd be a good guide to how much cinnamon to use. But I'll see what I can do with one tsp.

EDIT: I actually found the recipe, believe it or not. They're called Beef Brewat Rolls.
1 pound ground beef
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 ounce chopped coriander
1 ounce chopped parsley

Mix above ingredients and brown. Add:

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch saffron
1 teaspon salt
2 eggs, whipped
1 ounce peanut oil

Add to beef and herb mixture, cook fully, then cool.

Wrap 1 ounce of meat mixture in a bastilla leaf (similar to a phyllo pastry sheet, found in Middle Eastern grocery stores). Deep fry rolls. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

So now I have to figure out how to make that.

[Milskidasith]

I managed to get some Total (and we already had raisin's) so woo, I can now have healthy breakfasts. There's still not a ton of other healthy food in the house, but we've got fruits to snack on and whole wheat bread to make sandwiches from.

[Serpentine]

I'm still fairly young, so approaching the guys would be awkward, simply because they might take an approach the wrong way.What if, instead of approaching one individual, you did a general call-out "excuse me, would anyone be willing to show me how to [whatever you want to do]?"
Pros: You're not approaching any one person, and thus you shouldn't be giving any "signals" to be taken the wrong way. Hopefully, you would get a nice individual, or if they all know each other they might nominate someone, but...
Cons: ...you might end up with the sleaziest guy there, by virtue of him being the first to leap at an opportunity. In which case you could, if so inclined, be mean and ask again, "excuse me, sorry, but could anyone else help me?" :smallamused:

[Deth Muncher]

I managed to get some Total (and we already had raisin's) so woo, I can now have healthy breakfasts. There's still not a ton of other healthy food in the house, but we've got fruits to snack on and whole wheat bread to make sandwiches from.

There are few things I hate more than raisins.

However, I might start eating oatmeal, and...yeah. I also hate blueberries. Why do I hate things that are good for me?

I also picked up some fancy cinnamon that should be good for meat, so I'll attempt burgers with it tomorrow.

[Serpentine]

Oats are meant to be really good - absorb cholesterol, filling, low GI, etc. I'm fond of porridge with a bit of honey (if you're worried about the sugar, I'm sure you can find another sweetener) and lots of cinnamon.

Good luck with your burgers!

[Keld Denar]

Not all oatmeal is created equal. Just like other bleached grains, most oatmeal is made from bleached oats. Look for whole grain oatmeal. You can get Quaker quick oats in whole grain. Thats about as easy as you get. If you want to zing it up a bit, scoop on 2-3 tablespoons of plain or vanillia low or non-fat yogurt with some frozen fruit (non-blueberries since you don't like them, but strawberries or raspberries are good). You can even get some of the little non-fat yoplay cups and dump one of those into the oatmeal and stir it up. Looks kinda wierd, but tastes amazing.

[Deth Muncher]

You can even get some of the little non-fat yoplay cups and dump one of those into the oatmeal and stir it up. Looks kinda wierd, but tastes amazing.

That's crazy. You're crazy. You're a crazy little manpeach.


Which reminds me, I need to see if there are peaches anywhere around me. I rather enjoy the taste, though I'd forgotten until I had a peach milkshake.

[Milskidasith]

I take it brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal is not particularly healthy. It's just too delicious... Quaker Oats, I love you so.

[Keld Denar]

Seriously, Deth Muncher, it tastes amazing. I used to eat it at work when I was working in Alaska and all my co-workers thought it looked repulsive. Delishous!

And yea, it depends. The instant oatmeal that comes in the little packets? Yea, thats all the not-good stuff. Check the box, its like 13+ grams of sugar PER PACKET. I used to eat like, 4 of those packets at a time. I just shudder thinking about it.

Get the stuff in the big round canister. Its plain on its own, but as I mentioned in my last post, you can spruce it up for a lot less extra sugar and fat than anything you can buy all together. Its also a lot cheaper to get the oatmeal in the big canister and add yogurt and/or fruit and/or brown sugar yourself.

[Serpentine]

I'm talking about oats, not oatmeal. Specifically, I get this (http://www.nestle.com.au/uncletobys/#/products/oats/traditional_oats/) for my porridge.

[Lycan 01]

Sorry for not checking in for awhile. I've actually been trying different things, both excercise and diet-wise. I've been doing pretty good, despite a few days of being lazy and a soda or two more than I should have had last week. :smalltongue:


For excercise, I've gotten to where I can do over 200 push-ups a day, in even-paced sets of 40. I've gotten better at Dips, doing two different types in varying sets. I've made little progress with pull-ups and chin-ups, since I messed my elbow up doing them and had to stop doing them for awhile. I've started doing Curls, Lifts, Shrugs, and other weight excercises. And I've picked up a rather nifty ab plan: While watching tv late at night, I started doing situps during commercials. Specifically, hurricane situps, which work both your abs and obliques. Lemme tell ya, those things burn. But I've gotten to where I can do about 60-80 non-stop during a 2-3 minute commercial break, though it leaves me pretty worn and torn afterwards. My friends' reactions to all this? ":smalleek:"

Needless to say, I've actually seen some progress. My arms have gotten noticeably bigger, and my chest and stomach have also gotten stronger. Still some belly flab, but its gotten a bit smaller. Oh well, I know that'll take awhile...


In regards to food and diet, I've started eating a lot more fruits and veggies, and have really taken a liking to bananas and apples, eating one and/or the other almost daily. :smallbiggrin: I've started eating lots of lettuce on most of my sandwitches and burgers, adding corn, green beans, baked beans, and/or potatoe wedges/fries as sides with some meals, fruit & grain bars for a quick and healthy meal, and various other changes to my diet. One of my new favorite meals is actually a random sandwitch I made last week, and have fallen in love with. Don't read if you get grossed out by weird food combos. :smalltongue:


Banana-Peanut Butter-Orea-Raisin Mega Sandwitch

-Take two slices of bread, and add peanut butter to your liking - thin or thick layers, one or both slices, you're choice.
-Lightly or heavily sprinkle a handfull of raisins over the peanut butter, so they stick and stay in the sandwitch.
-Slice up a banana, and position slices on sandwitch to your liking.
-(Optional) Crush up some oreos and sprinkle over bananas and peanut butter. Only 2-3, since you're just trying to add some extra flavor and crunch without wrecking your diet.
-Combine sandwitch, and optionally microwave it to make it warm and delicious-er.
-Enjoy your relatively healthy snack of awesomeness.

I figure the bananas and raisins are pretty healthy, the peanut butter has protein and fiber (and covers the taste/texture of the raisins, which I don't actually like that much...), and the oreos are just an added bit of sugar and flavor that won't hurt your diet too badly. Plus, its absolutely delicious. Eaten in moderation once every few days, I've found this to be an AWESOME meal.

You may now proceed to either drool or gag. :smallbiggrin: I've found reaction amongst my friends to be quite mixed...



Overall, I'm doing pretty good, and making progress at a decent rate. Not exactly fast results, but its not a snail's pace either. Not like I'm in much of a rush, anyway. Although I would like to surprise my friends when I go back to college at the end of August. :smallamused:

[Deth Muncher]

Lycan > Me when it comes to Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Training.

Edit:

CINNABURGERS.
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz51/amidamaru42/0715101449.jpg

They have an odd, but awesome flavor. They're all 1/4 lb (or Royales, for you French out there) (cinnaburgers to those who get the reference). Dispersing the cinnamon evenly was a bit of an issue though, so it kinda comes in flavor pockets. Then again, the top left burger got WAY too much cinnamon on accident, so I'll probably explode when I eat it.

[KuReshtin]

They're all 1/4 lb (or Royales, for you French out there) (cinnaburgers to those who get the reference).

The reference is for Pulp Fiction...

[Deth Muncher]

The reference is for Pulp Fiction...

And a cinnamon burger for you. You just have to somehow show up to my house before I eat them all. I'm also not telling you where I live.

[Anteros]

I've been exercising recently (not that I'm overweight; I'm 5'9" and 130 pounds, so I'm actually looking to gain muscle) but I am pretty sure I am not doing enough. Generally I run a mile on the treadmill and then work some on the machines at the gym, but I am fairly certain I am not pushing myself hard enough, unfortunately. I'm certainly not likely to gain weight, but I don't think I'm gaining much muscle either, besides my abs, which have at least some improvement visible.

Also, Ranna's first post on the thread scares me... if she's running 10-12 miles per hour for eighteen minutes, she's running over three miles at a fairly impressive pace (12 MPH for actually leads to three miles in 15 minutes, which is only 2 minutes 30 seconds above the world record). I also don't see six miles per hour as a brisk walk... that starts to get to the point you're actively jogging.

Well, if you don't think you're pushing yourself hard enough, then you probably aren't. If you want your muscles to grow, you need to be exerting them with at least 80% of your maximum weight for at least 40 seconds at a time. Individual reps and sets may vary, but this is pretty much a universal truth.

[Lycan 01]

So I found a new ab workout yesterday. A friend of mine showed it to me, and it ended up working my stomach and sides a LOT more than situps and hurricane crunches. Today, my torso is killing me. It seems I've discovered a devastatingly effective new way to work my gut...

Basically, you lay on your back, and have a second person stand over your chest facing your feet. Hold on to their legs so you're able to stay stable, then try to raise your legs up. The person standing over you then pushes your legs down, and you raise them right back up as fast as you can, trying not to ever let your feet touch the ground. Does that make sense? Also works your obliques if the person throws your legs from side to side. I didn't even feel like it was having any affect, but about an hour afterwards I realized I couldn't sit up or anything since my gut was so sore. :smalleek:

So yeah, today my stomach is killing me, as well as my legs. Even the muscles between my shoulders are sore, but that may be from pullups. :smallconfused:

[Milskidasith]

I have found out something today.

The protein powder at our house is absolutely delicious; when it's soggy, it's like vanilla pudding, but presumably healthier for me. Or I can put it in milk and get (somewhat chunky) vanilla flavored milk. Artificial flavoring, I love you so. :smallsmile:

[Marillion]

An exercise that I cannot do at home anymore because it will severely annoy my neighbors, especially the ones below me.

You start standing, legs together, arms at your sides.
Crouch until you can place your hands flat on the ground.
Fling your legs out behind you. Do a pushup.
Jump back to a crouching position.
Stand up and jump as high as you can. (this is the part that'll really tick the neighbors off:smalltongue:

Repeat as quickly as you can as many times as you can. Then do 5 more. And then apologize to your neighbors.

[Lycan 01]

Just had my first bit of fast food in over a month. My dad got a bunch of McDonalds cheeseburgers, and I didn't want to scounge up something else to eat. So I decided to be a bit... naughty. >.>

I'm recovering today from a bunch of weight lifting yesterday and the day before. Its not really leaving me sore anymore, just fatigued for a couple hours after I get done. Time to add more weight, I suppose? :smallconfused:


So my little brother scolded me for not working out right. Apprently, I'm not supposed to do sets of what's comfortably challenging. Instead, I'm just supposed to do one long push past the point where I'm comfortable, pretty much to the point of hurting myself, then stopping for the day. He's 18 and pretty in shape, but he's also very stubborn and hard-headed. So when I tried to argue, he pretty much shot me down at every turn and said some bodybuilder who could bunch and squat hundreds of pounds had told him this.


So I must ask, what's the better approach? Doing several sets through-out the day of a certain workout, or just doing one long set of that workout that strains your muscles? Lets say pushups. Hypothetically, you start to "feel the burn" at around 30 push ups, "tire out" at 40, or "it ****ing hurts" beyond that point. I say several sets of 40, a few minutes apart, perhaps broken up into a few sets through-out the day to keep your muscles active and working. Like... two sets of 40 every few hours, to a total of 200+ for the day. He says one long string of 40+ during your big workout time, to the point that you strain your muscles and can't do anything else for the rest of the day. We both think we're right, and the other one's an idiot.

Who's right? :smallconfused:

[Marillion]

You both are. Of course, that depends on what your overall goal is. If your goal is to build a lot of muscle, like if you're say, some bodybuilder who can squat hundreds of pounds, then your brother is correct. If your goal is to tone the muscle you have or overall fitness, you're right.

Personally, I like to do both. But on different days. Obviously.

[Lycan 01]

Ah, thank you. Yeah, I'm just trying to lose a little weight, get in shape, and maybe add a little bit of muscle bulk. I don't want to be a walking slab of muscle. :smalleek:

[Keld Denar]

There are a couple of different factors there.

Muscles need time to recover. If you exercise a group of muscles too hard without enough rest in between, you can do more harm than good. When you stop exercising a muscle group, about 30 minutes later lactic acid starts to build up around the muscle to repair it. This acid inhibits further muscle growth as it promotes recovery, so working out when this occures yeilds lower results. It generally takes a day or two to flush this out of your system, at which point you are good to destroy that muscle group again. Certain dietary suppliments can promote this flushing, but most of them are pretty hard on your kidneys and tend to force lifegiving water out of your body, so caution should be taken when using them. About the only exception to this is your trunk muscles, which you can attack almost mercilicessly. They are used to it.

Also, your heart rate/stetched condition/energy levels play a pretty big role. The advanage to doing a single, heavy exercise session is that your heart rate is higher for longer, and held higher for a longer sustained duration. If you do a large number of mini-workouts, by the time your heart rate gets up to business time, you are done working out. This does nothing for endurance, and given that your heart is one of the strongest and most important muscles of your body, you need to exercise it most of all. You are also most limber when you stretch before and after a workout. Limberness is important as warm loose muscles are least likely to pull or tear. After a workout, you'll notice stiffness set in, and if you work out multiple times a day, you'll have to take greater care to make sure you are completely stretched out to prevent unwanted damage to your poor fatigued muscles. Metabolism is also very affected by your workout cycle. High density intense workouts spike your metabolism higher than low impact long duration workouts. Spiking your metabolism is a good thing, as after the spike, it takes a while to settle back down. If you spike it regularly enough (4-5 times a week), you can actually force your metabolism up artificially, which is generally a favorable condition if you are trying to burn fat. The more intense your workout, the higher you spike and the longer it takes your body to reset. Thats why I suggested previously to always line up two workouts and swap between each without rest for 3-4 sets each.

Touching a bit on free weights vs machines, another advantage to free weights is that you can get a more diverse workout. When doing dumbell presses, at the end of my extension, I turn my palms toward my head and touch the weights together at roughtly a 60-90 degree angle. This has the advantage of tightening your inner pec muscles, a very tough muscle to isolate and the glorious one that gives you that chisled shelf pec look that girls seem to love. In ladies, it'll give your breasts a bit of extra lift, making them perkier, and who doesn't love perkier?

Anyway, time to go run to the gym. Have a good night kiddies!

[rakkoon]

As far as I know there are only two muscle groups you can train every day: abs and calves. The rest need one day in between to recuperate.

Also

Basically, you lay on your back, and have a second person stand over your chest facing your feet. ...then pushes your legs down, and you raise them right back up as fast as you can,
Works great but terrible for your back. If you have a strong back no problem.

I've been doing ab workouts with my wife every evening now for four whole days :smalltongue: (she's a physical therapist, I've been doing Martial arts for 22 years) and there are a thousand ways to do them.

Her favorite is lying on your back and making circles with your feet (45° angle with ground, less is bad for back).
My favorite at the moment is spreading you legs (45 degrees) and punching both fists forward between your legs. Looks weird but fun :smallsmile:

[Deth Muncher]

Ohai guise! I'm rather atrocious at keeping this up, aren't I? :P It seems like while I've been failing at going to the gym, on the weekends I end up working out via manual labor...so yay? Which reminds me, I've still got...uh...today to go to the gym, but tomorrow (being Saturday) I'll be chopping wood, likely all day. And this isn't like Canadian Mountain Man wood chopping, this is more along the lines of "my father cut down a bunch of branches and I need to hack them into manageable bits."

What is more important here, however, is that I'm actually getting the URGE to go work out, or at least do something physical. See, every day I'm sitting there going "Man, I wish I could be doing something right now that's both exercise AND has a real purpose." That's why I hate exercise. See, sure, calling it Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Training is one thing, but it has no real tangible result. Farming, however, uses all the same muscles I would be using, and provides food. I unfortunately do not have the ability to farm, but I need to figure out something like farming that has some sort of tangible result that is a workout - or something. I dunno. But the main point of this sleep deprived rablement right here is that I'm starting to get fed up with my weak, flabby self. When I went home this past weekend, I found I was able to lift a lot more things (we were moving jank for a yardsale) than both my father and I thought I could...and it was a good feeling. A VERY good feeling. Knowing that I had some sort of improvement...yeah. It felt good. And now I need more. I'm not trying to be AHNOLD circa Mister Universe, but I do, finally, feel the urge to be fit not just because of I don't like having man-boobs, but because it's HELPFUL to be strong. No, I'm not gonna be ripping cars in half any time soon, but damned if I won't be trying.

[Lycan 01]

Just got home from a half hour walk. 30 minutes of walking/striding, with about 5 minutes of jogging/running thrown in there. No idea how many calories it burns or what muscles it works, but my shirt is soaked with sweat and I feel good, so I must have done something right. :smallamused:

However, if anyone has a rough caloric burn estimate for time spent walking/running, that'd be nice to know, since my roommate has basically challenged me to see who can get in shape the most and the fastest. He's counting calories and protein and whatnot, so I want to humor him and satisfy my own curiousity. :smalltongue:

So yeah. Half hour around/through the neighborhood, and worked out my arms earlier this evening. Using 10-lb weights (I'm weak, I know. :smallfrown: But its all I have right now, and I lift slowly to make more effort) I did one set of 20 curls, 1 set of 25 curls, 1 set of extending them from my shoulders to up over my head 30 times, 1 set of pulling them up from my feet to my chest 30 times while leaning over, 1 set of lifting them from my sides to my arm pits 20 times (random, but works random parts of my arm that normally don't get used), and then a few various other lifts and raises to just try different things and hit different muscle groups. My usual limit is about 20-25 for all those things, so my arms are pretty dead right now. My biceps, at least. Need moar tricepz dakka. >.>

If I can use my arms/chest later, I'm going to try and get in some pushups and dips before bed. Which gives me plenty of time, since I don't go to bed until around 5 AM. :smalleek:

[Marillion]

However, if anyone has a rough caloric burn estimate for time spent walking/running, that'd be nice to know

That all depends on how much of an exertion it is for you. Since I have to walk 40 minutes twice a day whether I want to or not, it barely gets my heart going at all:smallannoyed:

One thing I remember from my high school health class, though, is that the amount of calories you burn running is roughly the same as the amount you burn walking over similar distances. Walking a mile is the caloric equivalent of running a mile. However, walking 5 minutes will burn a hell of a lot less than running for 10 minutes.

[Lycan 01]

Actually, the adverse is true. I saw on the news a couple of days ago that walking for 40 minutes burns around the same amount of calories as running for 20 minutes. So while walking 5 minutes doesn't equal 10 minutes of running, 10 minutes of walking equals about 5 minutes of jogging. Roughly.



Edit: And out of nowhere we're both beaten by my best friend, who has be inspired by me to get in shape. He walked about two hours this evening. I have been defeated. Soundly. :smalleek:

[Serpentine]

You're both using different units of measurement, so if you assume that you run a mile twice as fast as you would walk it, you could both be right.
But this is something I would like to know. Minute for minute, and kilometer for kilometer, how do running and walking compare?

I've been pretty slack with my walking lately, but even when slack I've walked to or from uni... I think at least 3 times this week. That's about 4km, and 50 minutes each way. What I'm meant to do is walk to and from uni every day I go up there (Tuesday-Friday).

[Marillion]

Actually, the adverse is true. I saw on the news a couple of days ago that walking for 40 minutes burns around the same amount of calories as running for 20 minutes. So while walking 5 minutes doesn't equal 10 minutes of running, 10 minutes of walking equals about 5 minutes of jogging. Roughly.
Right. Minutes. But over the same *distance*, walking is equivalent to running. Or so I'm told. :smalltongue:



Edit: And out of nowhere we're both beaten by my best friend, who has be inspired by me to get in shape. He walked about two hours this evening. I have been defeated. Soundly. :smalleek:
Considering that I spend the 6 hours in between my 40 minute walks running (well, walking very quickly) back and forth across a kitchen, and walk the dogs for 20 minutes immediately before I leave and after I get home, I think I still win. :smallbiggrin:



But this is something I would like to know. Minute for minute, and kilometer for kilometer, how do running and walking compare?
Don't quote me on this, but my health teachers have consistently told me that mile for mile walking is as good as running. It just takes you a lot longer if you walk:smalltongue: I wouldn't know about minute for minute, though.

[drakir_nosslin]

Don't quote me on this, but my health teachers have consistently told me that mile for mile walking is as good as running. It just takes you a lot longer if you walk:smalltongue: I wouldn't know about minute for minute, though.

I'm quoting you on that right now :smallwink:

But, yea, while you might (I'm not convinced) burn as much energy walking the same distance as running it, I don't think that your heart and lungs will develop as much while walking. OOTH walking is not as hard on the legs as running is, especially if one happens to be a bit overweight, so it might be a good idea to start out walking and switching to running later. Damaging the knees is a really bad idea.

[Pyrian]

...while you might (I'm not convinced) burn as much energy walking the same distance as running it...Most estimates are that walking burns fat better by distance. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as "a less energy efficient way to cover the same mileage". 'Course, to most people, the fact that you're spending at least twice as long to burn the same amount of calories is rather more significant, anyway...


...I don't think that your heart and lungs will develop as much while walking.The body will become accustomed to what you put it through. I'm a seasoned hiker, and run very little (and never for exercise per se). Now, granted, hiking around here is a lot more exercise than just strolling around the flatlands, but still. I can dance for seven hours and be disappointed when it ends...


Damaging the knees is a really bad idea.Yup, yup. One might consider something like this (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/knee-strengthening-exercises.html) or this (http://www.bigkneepain.com/knee-exercises.html).

[Deth Muncher]

I...am a GOD UNTO LUMBERJACKS.

Not really. But I've spent most of today hacking up limbs with axes. My father offered me a chainsaw, which I used all of twice, for two rather large limbs. Other than that, it was axing the whole time. I'll post pictures in the YOU thread.

[shadow_archmagi]

My knees give me a lot of grief when I do the elliptical machine or do the leg-based weights. I'm pretty tall (Slightly over six foot last I checked) so that may be the reason.

[Pyrian]

My knees give me a lot of grief when I do the elliptical machine...Gah. :smalleek: The elliptical machine was designed for the specific purpose of mimicking normal walking/running motion with less joint strain!

[Ranna]

doesn't it take at least 20 mins of raised heart rate before you begin to actually tap into your stored fat? Before then its just your glycogen that your muscles store naturally?

best time to fat burning ratio is HIIT which is something along the lines of 20 secs sprinting like at 90% of effort level and then do 40 secs recovery?

[Lioness]

So on monday, I'm doing some orienteering to represent my school. It's been two years or so since I've done orienteering. Best preparation would be to use gym workouts to train jogging for long periods of time, yes? Or should I do something else to build up stamina.

And yes, I should've started preparing earlier, but I figure that I'm fitter now than I was two years ago.

Also, I've not lost any weight, but am apparently looking visibly thinner. I have muscles too :3

[Keld Denar]

Ranna, what you are describing is often refered to as Interval Sprints. And yes, they are considered one of the best fat burners. They essentially trick your metabolism into thinking that you are at a dead sprint for the entire duration, rather than just during the sprint times. This really kicks your metabolism into high gear.

Repeated interval sprints on sucessive days will actually increase your resting metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories while you are doing absolutely nothing. Of course, its not easy to get to this point, but once you do, it certainly pays off toward keeping you toned.

[Deth Muncher]

So, an update as to the original purpose of this thread - I'm slowly getting a better body. No, I haven't been exercising as much as I should, and hopefully once my life calms back down after I move apartments and get my life settled, then all will be well. But while I do not own a scale (and that may be for the best, honestly), I HAVE noticed that my lovehandles have all but melted away. Not that I had ultrapronounced lovehandles in the first place, but the point remains. And what is the catalyst? I think it's because I'm eating better...ish. I generally eat two to three meals per day, plus the occasional snack, which lately has been pita chips and crunchy peanut butter (SO DELICIOUS, but if the PB isn't warmed first, the pita chips are too brittle to scoop properly). My meals have largely consisted of the cinnamon burgers - I've made quarter pound burgers, so that's kept me for most of the day, and then I generally have some sort of pasta-based food later. This will likely change once I get my new apartment this weekend, as I may finagle my mother into helping me buy some healthier foodstuffs.

Soooo yeah. Progress is being made. ^__^

[Ranna]

Abs are made in the kitchen not the gym :smallsmile:

[Keld Denar]

So not true! It plays a big part, but the biggest part of getting a 6-pack is cardio. After cardio is diet, then comes abs strengthening/toning.

Cardio also happens to be Rule #1 for zombiepocalypse survival.

[Lycan 01]

Good job, Deth Muncher. :smallbiggrin: Glad to know you've been making progress. Once again, I gotta thank you, too. If it weren't for you making this thread, I might not have been able to get fully motivated to start Zombie Apocalypse Fitness Training, nor would I have been able to find and get such good advice. So yeah... thanks. :smallsmile:

[tehjohnli]

It's nice how you're trying to work out and stay in shape.

Anyway, weight lifting and running are always good. To stay in shape, I used to (because I'm currently injured) run about 5 times a week, and I lift about 4 times a week. I also pole vaulted quite a bit as well.

Food wise, I just try to eat 4-5 500 calorie meals a day, and drink about 8 glasses of water a day. It really helps. :D

good luck!

[Keld Denar]

I've found a new favorite exercise...its like, a total abs/core workout with one exercise. The trainer I had a free session showed it to me.

Basically, what you do is you get one of those pilaties balls, one of the 1/2 pilaties balls, and a decent weight medicine ball (I used a 12 lb one, less would work if you are WEAK!). You sit on the half ball thing so that your butt is barely touching the end, and most of your back is supported by it. Now pull the big ball up and sit your feet on it. Balance like that and grab the medicine ball. Keeping your arms fully extended, put the ball behind your head, then sit up, extending your feet. This will cause the big ball to roll away from you. When you are fully upright, push the medicine ball toward your feet as far as you can.

Warning, you will fall over. This is good. Get back up and do it again. Once you start getting good at this, your body will subconsiously flex and unflex nearly every stabilizer muscle in your core in a valiant effort to keep from tipping over. You'll notice fatigue relatively quickly, but keep going until you fall off the ball. It took me about 3 tries to really get the hang of it. Its like situps, but it targets EVERYTHING. I hurt in places I didn't even know I had and I love it!

Everyone go do it NOAW!

[Anteros]

doesn't it take at least 20 mins of raised heart rate before you begin to actually tap into your stored fat? Before then its just your glycogen that your muscles store naturally?

best time to fat burning ratio is HIIT which is something along the lines of 20 secs sprinting like at 90% of effort level and then do 40 secs recovery?

Studies are ongoing, but I've seen a few things that indicate the absolute best ratio for fat burning you can do is sprint for 6 seconds, rest for 9, then repeat. Test groups who followed this ratio were found to lose around 1/3rd more fat than groups who did interval training, but with longer intervals.

HIIT is really, really great. It absolutely revolutionized my workouts. The only real problem with it is that you have to be in somewhat decent shape to even get started with it.

[Deth Muncher]

Good job, Deth Muncher. :smallbiggrin: Glad to know you've been making progress. Once again, I gotta thank you, too. If it weren't for you making this thread, I might not have been able to get fully motivated to start Zombie Apocalypse Fitness Training, nor would I have been able to find and get such good advice. So yeah... thanks. :smallsmile:

Pfft, don't thank me. I'm just some kid with a bad self image. :P

[Don Julio Anejo]

Okay, I'm wondering if anyone here can help me.

Background: I'm pretty fit - I can run at around 6mph for 40 minutes flat. But here's the problem. I shattered my kneecap in grade 10 (6 years ago give or take), which resulted in a torn ACL and having about half of my patella removed with a labroscope (so the joint is pretty loose).

Since then I've recovered, until I recently dislocated my knee joint (knee popped out and then right back in). I've recovered from that too, but now any time I run for more than 15 or so minutes, my knee feels extremely loose, like it's about to pop out again. I've had this feeling before I popped it, but it was never really a problem since it was more about cold weather than movement. But now I'm afraid if I put too much strain on it, I'll pop it again.

So here's the problem: what kind of cardio + lower body exercises I can do that are easy on the knee? I am doing the elliptical (and I try to run as much as I can), but elliptical feels like it's doing jack all for me in the 20 minutes I'm allowed to be on it at my gym and running... well, I feel pretty crappy afterwards. So... any ideas? I'm interested in both weights and cardio.