Q&A session - live right now!

mmapags

Awesome Steve! Just want to say I appreciate what you are doing here and the great advice you are giving!

jynxxxed

Would I benefit more buying my vitamins at a place like GNC rather than walmart One a Day viatmins? I have heard a lot of conflicting information.

General multis? I buy mine at Target. And I'd buy them at Walmart if it were more strategically located for me than Target. There's nothing fancy about GNC. Well, there's a lot more hype there... that's for sure.

Thank you! I appreciate it!

stroutman81

I know I'm out of the 2 hour time limit now, but I figured I throw this out there anyway... The resident trainer at the gym I belong to has a Q&A board for members to get advice from him. A few weeks ago, he wrote "To lose weight fast, cut out all dairy, grains, and fruit from your diet" with a little blurb about sugars. Now, that sounded a little vague to me, so I wrote "For how long? Permanently? Should you work out on this diet, if so where do you get your energy?". When I came back a couple days later, all he had written was "To lose weight fast, CUT OUT ALL DAIRY, GRAINS, AND FRUIT!".

Now, I always thought this guy was kind of a quack to begin with, but this really was the tipping point for me. Can you confirm or deny my suspicions? Thanks for your time )

Sounds like he just likes to spout off what he hears in the mainstream media.

But for the quickest rate of fat loss, I'd suggest something like a protein sparing modified fast. I would not recommend this to most people though. But if I were going about a blitz diet, that's how I'd structure things.

It essentially cuts out anything that's not essential to give you the biggest calorie deficit possible without sacrificing health. Lots of protein (1.5-2 grams per pound of goal weight), some fish oil pills, lots of fibrous veggies, some vitamins and minerals, and that's about it.

Depending on your level of fatness, I might include structured refeeds throughout the week or month, but that's sort of beyond the scope of my answer.

Lyle McDonald's book titled Rapid Fat Loss is his interpretation of a PSMF and it's the approach I've used a number of times with myself and various clients.

stroutman81

Alright guys... that was actually a lot more successful than I had thought it'd turn out. Thanks a lot for participating. I plan on doing these throughout the week each week. If I could, I'd close this thread now. If you can't wait for the next Q&A, feel free to hit me up on my wall or in my inbox.

Thanks again and stay strong!

Steve

aj_31

What would you tell a woman who wants to lose a lot of fat in her belly area? Is it better to do more cardio now and then focus on lifting later or a mix of both?

I'd tell her to read my post above about "flexing fat" and not being able to spot reduce. I'd also tell her to stop focusing on where the fat is stored, chalk that up to genetics. Rather I'd have her focus on a balanced approach to exercise that likely included SOME conditioning work and SOME resistance training.

I'd educate her to understand that resistance training, in most cases, should be prioritized over conditioning.

Yup, that's right.

I'd also help her understand that when it comes to fat loss, nutrition is the primary driver to success.

Thanks Steve. I guess I've just hit a point of total frustration with myself and my progress. I'm having such a hard time getting back on track 100%. All I can focus on is the fat I have to lose and how I'm not losing it. I think my mind is working against me to a point. I need to get back into it mentally.

That fat on your belly is here and now. It's staring at you every time you look in the mirror. Obviously it can easily overwhelm your reasoning and focus. Here's the deal though. The only thing that's going to get rid of it is a lot of consistent and deliberate effort over long periods of time. When you're only dealing with a little bit of fat, relatively speaking, it becomes a matter of will and consistency than anything else.

You can go for what seems forever without seeing any changes. But eventually, and I mean this, things just happen. The further along the spectrum of fat/lean you go, the less linear results tend to be.

So screw the problem areas you're seeing in the mirror. Direct your attention to the process. Prioritize consistency and patience above all else.

And if make sure you have your nutrition dialed in as well as your training.

Thanks Steve. I really appreciate your feedback. I do need to work on my patience and consistency that's for sure. Starting last week I started to add in some fun cardio like zumba/spin just because I felt like I needed it to help with the stress. I'm also keeping up with my lifting about 4x a week. It's a split routine and it takes me about 30-45 min. I'm hoping this will help.

I am also making changes in my diet. I was drinking at least 2 energy drinks a week and I've cut down to 1. I plan on giving them up altogether next week. No more soda as well as I was kind of drinking a lot in the recent months. Usually I've only been a water drinker. I'm also going back to my daily salads for lunch. Upping my protein and eating my fruits/veggies. I'm hoping this will all help me get my head back in the game.

I can say that although I've gained 10 lbs since the beginning of the year I have gotten a lot more definition in my arms/shoulders and I even see a few back muscles starting to show. I need to focus on the positive and not the negatives.

Thanks again!

LilEmm

Thanks for all the great info! I've learned so much.

As Steve has suggested ignoring any nutritional advice you hear in the media, can I add this one - ignore the cultural pressure that cellulite is the devil. Ladies - We're supposed to have 18.5-25% body fat.

thedreamhazer

Darn, I missed the window of opportunity. Some good stuff here, though!

AnotherJenn

Thanks for the info, very much appreciated!!

stroutman81

Thanks for all the great info! I've learned so much.

As Steve has suggested ignoring any nutritional advice you hear in the media, can I add this one - ignore the cultural pressure that cellulite is the devil. Ladies - We're supposed to have 18.5-25% body fat.

As I always say... I like me some feminine fat. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course... but it does sadden me how 'against the grain' the concept of ideal has become. It's against the grain to such a degree that many women will never reach it and many others, due to societal pressures, will venture into ED territory to chase it.

Frustrating to say the least.

At my gym, that's why I really push the focus of performance based goals. I know I'm a broken record.... but I've found that when I get my clients their strongest and pair it with a diet that makes sense for their given set up circumstances, things just fall into place.

stroutman81

I have another 2 hours or so where I'll be working on programs on the computer... so let's open this back up!

rjsehm5

Wondering if it is okay to eat calories burned off from working out and adjustments from fitbit each day. Example...I get 1320 cals a day. In addition I will get adjustment from fitbit for 160 and 200-300 for working out. Could I eat 1680-1780 calories a day and still have a loss? This is so confusing to me. Please advise..

stroutman81

Wondering if it is okay to eat calories burned off from working out and adjustments from fitbit each day. Example...I get 1320 cals a day. In addition I will get adjustment from fitbit for 160 and 200-300 for working out. Could I eat 1680-1780 calories a day and still have a loss? This is so confusing to me. Please advise..

Check this out:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

And as far as I know, MFP, which I've never toyed around with, wants you to eat your exercise calories back. They factor your deficit into the mix before exercise. So if you exercise, and don't eat those calories back, you're going into a deeper deficit than they'd like.

That's not how I personally go about things, but if you're using MFP for this, you might want to keep that in mind. We discussed this in my blog post here and the comments below:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/stroutman81/view/the-math-of-mfp-calorie-mathimatica-141021

PamelaKuz

I am often over on my daily sugar allowance just from fruit and veggies. I'm working out and staying under my total daily calories, and pleased with my weight loss so far. Is having a little too much sugar from fruit and veggies really a bad thing?

Thanks so much for doing this!

stroutman81

I am often over on my daily sugar allowance just from fruit and veggies. I'm working out and staying under my total daily calories, and pleased with my weight loss so far. Is having a little too much sugar from fruit and veggies really a bad thing?

Thanks so much for doing this!

Heck no! Sugar is not the devil that many people make it out to be. A good discussion I had about carbs/sugar can be found here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/502217-trying-to-shake-the-idea-of-eating-carbs?error_user_id=752632&error_username=stroutman81&page=2

How many grams of protein, carbs, and fats are you consuming per day and what is your weight?

mmapags

I am often over on my daily sugar allowance just from fruit and veggies. I'm working out and staying under my total daily calories, and pleased with my weight loss so far. Is having a little too much sugar from fruit and veggies really a bad thing?

Thanks so much for doing this!

Heck no! Sugar is not the devil that many people make it out to be. A good discussion I had about carbs/sugar can be found here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/502217-trying-to-shake-the-idea-of-eating-carbs?error_user_id=752632&error_username=stroutman81&page=2

How many grams of protein, carbs, and fats are you consuming per day and what is your weight?

Steve's question here is the more important concern. If you are tracking carbs and not eating all processed, sugar laden junk as your carbs, then your marco mix and setting it right and meeting is is far more important than tracking sugar as a seperate category. I don't track it personally and would suggest that you don't.

PamelaKuz

I started at 190 and I'm 182 now. I'm 5'3. My protein averages about 55 grams, carbs about 160, fat about 30. I've never actually looked at those numbers that closely, I just had to look back through my diary. (I just try to keep the little pie chart happy, lol. I'm new at this!)

PamelaKuz

Great, thanks! That's exactly what I've been doing. Almost all of my carbs are from fruit and veggies. I've never been a big bread eater. I have oatmeal some mornings, and brown rice maybe once a week. It's just disheartening seeing that red number at the end of the day. I love fruit and veggies and hate feeling like I can't have a carrot because I'll blow my sugar for the day.

stroutman81

I started at 190 and I'm 182 now. I'm 5'3. My protein averages about 55 grams, carbs about 160, fat about 30. I've never actually looked at those numbers that closely, I just had to look back through my diary. (I just try to keep the little pie chart happy, lol. I'm new at this!)

55 grams of protein x 4 = 220 cals

160 grams of carb x 4 = 640 cals

30 grams of fat x 9 = 270 cals

This means your average daily calorie intake is roughly 1130.

That seems pretty darn low give your weight. Put it this way. If you were exercising regularly, I'd have you closer to 1600-1800 cals per day.

Your protein is very low. I'd recommend at least .75 and better yet 1 gram per pound of goal weight.

PamelaKuz

Ooh, maybe I averaged wrong in my head just now. My cals are set to 1430 and I typically gain about 250 from my little bit of cardio that I eat too. So about 1700 cals. In the two weeks I've been here I've been over twice, and I think under twice. I'll try to eat more protein, thanks.

PamelaKuz

I did my math wrong, sorry! I just averaged my last 7 days with a calculator and my average protein is 67 grams.

Edit- wow, I just calculated and for my goal weight of 130, your formula gives me 97.5 to 130 grams of protein. MFP gives me 63!