Saturday night Q and A
SideSteel
Posts: 11,068 Member
Hey everyone,
I thought I'd make a Q and A thread in the main forums. Yes, I know that these can really come across as arrogant (not my intent) so go ahead and troll me
I'll be around for a couple hours if anyone has any general questions about training/diet, feel free to post here.
I thought I'd make a Q and A thread in the main forums. Yes, I know that these can really come across as arrogant (not my intent) so go ahead and troll me
I'll be around for a couple hours if anyone has any general questions about training/diet, feel free to post here.
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Replies
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Hey, SideSteel
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mandipandi75 wrote: »Hey, SideSteel
Hiya!!0 -
What do you think of doing Horton's 10 minute trainer and a 40 minute moderate walk? Is it enough with a desk job?0
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Hey SideSteel, thanks so much for doing this!0
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Do you believe the studies that say eating a diet high in calcium reduces the absorption of fat?0
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goldthistime wrote: »Do you believe the studies that say eating a diet high in calcium reduces the absorption of fat?
Great question.
So first of all I'm really only giving you a limited opinion on this. Take that for what it's worth.
I've come across a few studies where it appears that in the short term, high calcium intakes increase fecal fat excretion. So in theory you would expect that increasing calcium intake would allow you to absorb fewer calories from dietary fat which could then have a weight loss benefit.
1) I've not looked at this in enough depth to give you an educated response and that's important to clarify right off the bat.
But also
2) logically, let's suppose that it were true and that increasing calcium via dietary or supplemental means really meant a significant reduction to energy absorption from fat -- if this were the case I would strongly assume that most physique athletes would be pushing the benefits of calcium, and we would be hearing about it all over the place as a great fat loss aid.
Having said all that, I've not seen long term trials on it and if you have any please feel free to post.
Great question.0 -
Thank you for doing this. I think enough means to be healthy and fit--to maintain muscle while losing weight. It is kind of hard to answer. Will it at least start a body transformation?0
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Why do people post the same threads with the same questions EVERY DAY rather than READING the threads that are already here and answer their exact question?
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Thanks for the quick response. I haven't spent time looking at studies yet, with the exception of one that said increased calcium from calcium carbonate does not have the same effect as from dairy. I'm somewhat concerned that these studies may be funded by the dairy industry. Seems too good to be true.0
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Thank you for doing this. I think enough means to be healthy and fit--to maintain muscle while losing weight. It is kind of hard to answer. Will it at least start a body transformation?
Hi Gina,
So believe it or not, this is still going to be context dependent. I'll give you an example but I'll also hopefully provide you with some practical take-away from this.
A sedentary obese individual who goes from not exercising, to doing a 10 minute body-weight program will probably maintain muscle mass for a while provided the size of the calorie deficit isn't too great, and protein remains adequate.
A lean athletic person who is already resistance training would likely not maintain muscle doing that program.
So we are really dealing with several factors, none of which are discrete yes or no scenarios. The more sedentary you are, the less training stimulus you likely require to make adaptations. The leaner you are, the harder it may be to maintain muscle mass because fat is less available as a fuel source. The greater your calorie deficit (faster you attempt to lose) you may run additional risk of muscle loss.
But lets put ALL of that aside for a moment.
The first thing you should decide Gina, would be the following:
"What activities do I enjoy doing and what activities will I stick with?"
And I would START at that point. If you're already fit, and you don't have any issues with adherence (this is a rare circumstance but people like this exist) then you could be in a position to try and "optimize" your program for the best results.
But if you're like most of us, and especially if you are just starting out, then pick something you enjoy, and roll with it. And once you make that a habit that you've stuck to for a while, you might be in a position down the road to add something to it, or diversify your training, or turn that 10 minute workout into a 30 minute workout, etc. etc.
Let me know if this makes sense.
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goldthistime wrote: »Thanks for the quick response. I haven't spent time looking at studies yet, with the exception of one that said increased calcium from calcium carbonate does not have the same effect as from dairy. I'm somewhat concerned that these studies may be funded by the dairy industry. Seems too good to be true.
I never looked at the funding source but that's an interesting question.
I do agree that it seems too good to be true, at least in the sense of using it as a fat loss aid. I don't understand enough about the mechanistic side of things to really comment on it but it's possible that this is something that happens acutely that doesn't happen in the long term. The few studies I looked at were very short, and it's possible that what happens in the post prandial period doesn't necessarily extrapolate into tangible differences in the long term.0 -
@sidesteel that is great advice. And, you were very clear. Thank you!
Sometimes I try programs that are too far above me and just dread them. So far, 10 minutes isn't a big deal. It goes fast and gets me toasty before going outside (it is cooling off here).
Have a good night!!0 -
Hey again Gina,
I wanted to add something to my previous reply. Assuming your goal is to lose fat, one very reasonable thing you could do would be to start this exercise program and walking just as you mentioned.
Track your calorie intake using myfitnesspal and monitor your results over 2-3 weeks. If you see your body-weight start to reduce over that time period then just keep doing what you are doing.
If you do not lose any weight over 3 weeks, make a slight reduction to your calorie intake and make a slight increase to the duration of your walks or the frequency of your walks.
This will basically increase the size of your calorie deficit (or bring you from maintenance into a deficit).
Overall point here is this -- execute your workout plan and track your calories, and let your body-weight serve as a rough guideline to validate whether or not you've got things dialed in. And expect that you will need to make some adjustments along the way.0 -
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Why do people post the same threads with the same questions EVERY DAY rather than READING the threads that are already here and answer their exact question?
Because people believe they are special snowflakes and totally different than anyone else - therefore if it isn't an answer to them specifically, they don't want to waste time reading and learning (and discovering they don't actually have a special question).
The just want the answers for themselves.
I'm always shocked by how many times a question is asked about something that is not opinion based and Google would be just fine to get a fact.0 -
I started lifting weights this year and I'm wondering if I have to keep increasing the weight I lift? I'm not worried about getting bulky but I have terrible knees and a back issue so I am more concerned about injury.
For example I'm currently doing 3 sets of 10 barbell squats at 90lbs, I can't squat much more than 90 degrees because of my knee issue. Am I not going to see any results if I don't keep increasing the weight? I feel like I probably could lift more with less reps other than the worry about my joints.0 -
Hey everyone,
I thought I'd make a Q and A thread in the main forums. Yes, I know that these can really come across as arrogant (not my intent) so go ahead and troll me
I'll be around for a couple hours if anyone has any general questions about training/diet, feel free to post here.
A proper squat is your butt below your knees, right? Well, anytime I have seen someone at the gym do a proper squat, they are taller and longer legged.
Me, I'm 5 ft 5 and 140 pounds, which is average height and weight, but I have a long waist and short muscled legs (in other words, petite and other jeans for shorter people are sometimes be too long for me). I can squat to a sitting position only no matter how much weight I use (in other words, light or heavy weight makes no difference). but I can't get my butt below my knees.
Any pointers?0 -
I started lifting weights this year and I'm wondering if I have to keep increasing the weight I lift? I'm not worried about getting bulky but I have terrible knees and a back issue so I am more concerned about injury.
For example I'm currently doing 3 sets of 10 barbell squats at 90lbs, I can't squat much more than 90 degrees because of my knee issue. Am I not going to see any results if I don't keep increasing the weight? I feel like I probably could lift more with less reps other than the worry about my joints.
Depends on your goals. If your goal is to grow muscle then you're going to need to progressively increase the training stimulus and one way to do this is to increase the load on the bar. You could also increase the number of repetitions, you could decrease rest time between sets, you could add total sets, etc.
You could try to perform different lifts that may not be as demanding on the knees and see if you can progress those lifts instead.0 -
Hi Gina, based on your response here, I am going to just going out on a limb and suggest that this poster's question was not related to your question.0 -
Thanks very helpful! I didn't realize that adding reps or sets would do the same as adding additional weight!!0
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Hey everyone,
I thought I'd make a Q and A thread in the main forums. Yes, I know that these can really come across as arrogant (not my intent) so go ahead and troll me
I'll be around for a couple hours if anyone has any general questions about training/diet, feel free to post here.
Consider yourself 100% trolled.
Seriously, this is about squats.
A proper squat is your butt below your knees, right? Well, anytime I have seen someone at the gym do a proper squat, they are taller and longer legged.
Me, I'm 5 ft 5 and 140 pounds, which is average height and weight, but I have a long waist and short muscled legs (in other words, petite and other jeans for shorter people are sometimes be too long for me). I can squat to a sitting position only no matter how much weight I use (in other words, light or heavy weight makes no difference). but I can't get my butt below my knees.
Any pointers?
Proper depth by powerlifting standards would be the crease of the hip dropping below the top of the knee.
Sometimes a structural issue can prevent you from hitting depth, such as bone on bone contact. Has to do with the placement and depth of the acetabulum. I wouldn't be able to go into as much detail as Dean Somerset could (seriously, dude is brilliant) but I'll link his article here where you can check out a nice diagnostic test (rockback test) to see if it's structural vs possible a balance issue.
As far as a short-term test, I would try squatting narrower than you currently do and then also try much wider with a greater toe angle and just see if either of those changes make a noticeable difference. Depending on hip structure you may get better clearance with one or the other and it could make a difference if the issue is hip anatomy to begin with.
I would also try a front squat or a goblet squat to see if changing the position of the load has an effect on your depth. If it does, it would suggest that it's a balance issue.
See here:
http://deansomerset.com/butt-wink-aout-hamstrings/
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@SideSteel, thanks so much! I will look at the website you posted.
Comparing your drawing with what I see in the mirror, I think I'm pretty close.0 -
Thanks very helpful! I didn't realize that adding reps or sets would do the same as adding additional weight!!
They're not absolutely identical but you can certainly make progress in hypertrophy by leaving the absolute load the same and changing other parameters to increase training stimulus.0 -
I'm struggling to balance losing weight (which seems to take a lot of mental and phyical energy on my part) with life responsibilities. I'm just really busy and tired, like, a lot, and the weight loss process seems to be what suffers. I've been at this a long time and seen significant success, but I've been seemingly spinning my wheels for a looooong time now. Any suggestions?
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jennifer_417 wrote: »I'm struggling to balance losing weight (which seems to take a lot of mental and phyical energy on my part) with life responsibilities. I'm just really busy and tired, like, a lot, and the weight loss process seems to be what suffers. I've been at this a long time and seen significant success, but I've been seemingly spinning my wheels for a looooong time now. Any suggestions?
This is a tough one because without having a really in depth conversation with you and getting a lot of background info it's tough to make accurate recommendations. I can cover some general things though that hopefully will lead you down the right path or at least give you some ideas.
First of all if you are not getting adequate sleep, I would prioritize that at or near the top of your list. Even if you have to skip a gym session or two in order to use that time to get things done so you can get to bed earlier, I would do that.
Lack of sleep will make it much harder for you to make good decisions, and you're also going to feel like crap about things. So get that sorted out as a priority.
You may want to consider raising calories to maintenance levels or theoretical maintenance levels for two weeks if you've been attempting to diet for prolonged periods without a break. Taking regular periods of time at maintenance can do a world of good, primarily for psychological reasons but there may also be some physiological benefits on stress hormones and leptin. Point being, there are way too many reasons in favor of it, and very few reasons not to.
I will have my online clients take diet breaks and some of them are also on refeeds primarily for these reasons.
Dieting is a stress. You sound frustrated at lack of progress and you sound like you're in need of some rest. Bump calories up for two weeks, make a DEDICATED EFFORT to improve the quality (and perhaps quantity) of your sleep. After two weeks, bring your calories back to a reasonable deficit and see what happens. I think you'll be surprised.
As far as improving sleep, some quick tips:
- minimize blue light exposure about 2 hours before bedtime.
- sleep in a cool, dark room.
- minimize caffeine intake in the evening
- increase or improve sunlight exposure during the day
Good luck!0
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