Q&A Thread 1/7/2015
SideSteel
Posts: 11,068 Member
Since we started our YouTube channel there is a chance we may discuss some of these questions in video format. Undecided as of now but either way, please post any general questions here.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Replies
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I'll...0
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OK. So I've lost just about all my weight that I should probably lose. I'm pretty lean right now but I am not certain what next to do with my fitness. I figure lifting should be part of it and I don't know where to start or how to compensate from doing 7 days of cardio to adding lifting in there.
I intend to keep doing the cardio (I feel good from it and I like getting out) . So.. it's sort of a "what now?". Key points- I am a stay at home mom without the husband to rely on for watching the kids so I have to do things at home. I have a few weights now I can work with (some plates for the bar- cage wont be set up yet and some waaay too heavy kettle bells of my husbands {16kilos and 24 kilos})
I have Sarauk on my FL and she'll be able to see my last pic in my photos which is the most recent pic of me. I feel lean, but still weirdly flabby in areas.
Thank you for any advice or direction.0 -
I hoped you could lend me your expertise/thoughts/opinions on what I should/could be doing differently to ensure I am going in the right direction for my goal.
My goal:
my main goal is to lose fat, I'd also like to have visible definition (think Brad Pitt in Fight Club, Man-crush!)
MFP diary is currently set at 1950kcal with 40%/30%/30% (Carbs/Protein/Fat) this was a custom setting I had done a while back but can't remember how I came about this?
My Stats:
27
Male
Height: 5ft 9ins / 69"
Weight: 68kg / 150lbs
I work a desk job 9am-6pm with an hour lunch break which use walking (no showers in the office)
Current Measurements:
Waist: 35 inches
Hips: 34 inches
Chest: 37 inches
Neck: 15 inches
My current exercise plan:
Walk for at least 1 hour - 5 days a week
Run 5K - 2 days a week OR 20 minute HIIT - 2 days a week
Lifting - 3 days a week
My lifting routine (3 sets of 10-15 reps)
Abdominal Crunches @ 15kg
chest press machine @ 20kg
seated shoulder press machine @ 15kg
lat pull down machine @ 30kg
biceps curl machine @ 15kg
triceps extension machine @ 15kg
leg press machine @ 60kg
standing calf raises @ 16kg
I will increase weight slightly every week until I am unable to complete a set.
So with the above information, Is there anything I should be doing differently or more of?
Many thanks,
Lee.0 -
Good questions to both of you above. We will discuss these and either post here via written answer or we'll discuss this on a vid soon.0
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How much is too much cardio? When i lift (I do an upper/lower body split M,T, Th, F) i do a 5 minute warmup on the eliptical, and after my session, i do 20 minutes on the dreadmill. If i do an hour cardio session on my day off from lifting, would that deplete muscle growth? I'm looking to lean out ( i know being in a calorie deficit helps with that) but don't want to muscle either.0
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I'm getting ready to do a bulk, my first time, here soon, end of January. But I have a cruise coming up in May and I was wondering should I bulk after or start end of this month?? I want to look good for the cruise, but I also want to get started on bulking. Hope this isn't a stupid question. Thank you.0
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When transitioning from a cut to a bulk, are there any advantages or disadvantages between slowly increasing calories over the course of a few weeks vs jumping straight into a surplus?
Edit: Also same question for transitioning from bulking to cutting: straight into a deficit or gradually lower calories?0 -
How much does body type (endomorph, ectomorph etc.) factor in modifying your macros? I've read so many things that say endomorphs should eat a lower percentage of carbs and more protein as well as exercise consistently, all the time as we are prone to gaining fat quickly. This goes against the "calories in vs calories out" concept that I've always followed. Just curious what your thoughts are.0
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When transitioning from a cut to a bulk, are there any advantages or disadvantages between slowly increasing calories over the course of a few weeks vs jumping straight into a surplus?
Edit: Also same question for transitioning from bulking to cutting: straight into a deficit or gradually lower calories?
Good question. I have always done it slowly, both ways. Curious if I'm just wasting my time.0 -
When transitioning from a cut to a bulk, are there any advantages or disadvantages between slowly increasing calories over the course of a few weeks vs jumping straight into a surplus?
Edit: Also same question for transitioning from bulking to cutting: straight into a deficit or gradually lower calories?
Good question. I have always done it slowly, both ways. Curious if I'm just wasting my time.
This is actually a great topic for a video as, while there are 'rule of thumb' recommendations its a bit nuanced (as well as needs to be caveated and put into perspective) and would be a good one to discuss.
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How much does body type (endomorph, ectomorph etc.) factor in modifying your macros? I've read so many things that say endomorphs should eat a lower percentage of carbs and more protein as well as exercise consistently, all the time as we are prone to gaining fat quickly. This goes against the "calories in vs calories out" concept that I've always followed. Just curious what your thoughts are.
There is no compelling evidence that your somatotype (which I am using in the context of how people use it here) plays any roll in macro selection.0 -
Tat2dDude_0105 wrote: »How much is too much cardio? When i lift (I do an upper/lower body split M,T, Th, F) i do a 5 minute warmup on the eliptical, and after my session, i do 20 minutes on the dreadmill. If i do an hour cardio session on my day off from lifting, would that deplete muscle growth? I'm looking to lean out ( i know being in a calorie deficit helps with that) but don't want to muscle either.
What type of cardio?0 -
After many years of ignorance, I see diet and exercise as an investment in my overall health and longevity. Outside of any specific athletic goals (I.e.. Recreational lifter only and not looking to compete), is there a specific lifting modality (bodybuilding, powerlifting, or circuit training) one should concentrate on more that has been shown to help "play catch-up" better for those getting to the iron "later in the game" as it relates to health and longevity?0
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I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's (autoimmune, attacks thyroid) last Spring and was unable to lose weight on 1300-1600 calories per day. I am currently going gluten free (recommended for Hashi's) very low carb at 1400 and have seen a modest loss over the past month. I'm on medication but hesitant to increase it because of the bowel problems it can cause.
I finally have access to a gym to begin with weights again (had a brief love affair with them a more than a year ago and then we moved) I want to do a recomp, with approx. 30lb to lose, and was wondering if I should eat at tdee or if I should eat at 1400 and add calories on lifting days?
5'3", 166.5 lb, My tdee is calculated at an average of 2000 using different calculators. I read in a thyroid forum that I should try eating at tdee -200 -20% for weight loss but this did not take an actual recomp into consideration. Cannot find anything about hypothyroid patients and weightlifting, recomp, etc. I'm beginning to think we don't exist. Haha sigh.0 -
Lilly_the_Hillbilly wrote: »OK. So I've lost just about all my weight that I should probably lose. I'm pretty lean right now but I am not certain what next to do with my fitness. I figure lifting should be part of it and I don't know where to start or how to compensate from doing 7 days of cardio to adding lifting in there.
I intend to keep doing the cardio (I feel good from it and I like getting out) . So.. it's sort of a "what now?". Key points- I am a stay at home mom without the husband to rely on for watching the kids so I have to do things at home. I have a few weights now I can work with (some plates for the bar- cage wont be set up yet and some waaay too heavy kettle bells of my husbands {16kilos and 24 kilos})
I have Sarauk on my FL and she'll be able to see my last pic in my photos which is the most recent pic of me. I feel lean, but still weirdly flabby in areas.
Thank you for any advice or direction.
Given your circumstances you might want to entertain the idea of body-weight training.
A few programs that I would suggest googling would be
You Are Your Own Gym
Convict Conditioning
Since you're presumably new to resistance training you will likely make decent progress with body-weight programming and additionally it seems to be a good fit given your circumstances. You could also add in some traditional weight training exercises with some of the equipment you have.
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littleleebrinkworth wrote: »I hoped you could lend me your expertise/thoughts/opinions on what I should/could be doing differently to ensure I am going in the right direction for my goal.
My goal:
my main goal is to lose fat, I'd also like to have visible definition (think Brad Pitt in Fight Club, Man-crush!)
MFP diary is currently set at 1950kcal with 40%/30%/30% (Carbs/Protein/Fat) this was a custom setting I had done a while back but can't remember how I came about this?
My Stats:
27
Male
Height: 5ft 9ins / 69"
Weight: 68kg / 150lbs
I work a desk job 9am-6pm with an hour lunch break which use walking (no showers in the office)
Current Measurements:
Waist: 35 inches
Hips: 34 inches
Chest: 37 inches
Neck: 15 inches
My current exercise plan:
Walk for at least 1 hour - 5 days a week
Run 5K - 2 days a week OR 20 minute HIIT - 2 days a week
Lifting - 3 days a week
My lifting routine (3 sets of 10-15 reps)
Abdominal Crunches @ 15kg
chest press machine @ 20kg
seated shoulder press machine @ 15kg
lat pull down machine @ 30kg
biceps curl machine @ 15kg
triceps extension machine @ 15kg
leg press machine @ 60kg
standing calf raises @ 16kg
I will increase weight slightly every week until I am unable to complete a set.
So with the above information, Is there anything I should be doing differently or more of?
Many thanks,
Lee.
Hey there Lee.
We may chat about this one on a video as this is a good discussion topic.
As far as immediate changes, assuming we aren't going to re-work your program from the ground up, I would generally recommend doing Leg Press first and Abs last.
As far as your nutrient intake goes it looks within a range of what I'd consider acceptable/reasonable provided that your total calorie intake is reasonable to begin with, but that's an entirely different topic as well because a viable question would be whether or not you should be cutting at this point vs attempting a recomp/etc.
But if we make the assumption that yes, you should be in a calorie deficit then I'd tell you to monitor your change in weight and try to land in a range of .5 to 1% change in weight per week.
I have more to say about this but it would probably come across better in discussion format so I'm going to run this by Sara and see if we can Skype and record it.
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Tat2dDude_0105 wrote: »How much is too much cardio? When i lift (I do an upper/lower body split M,T, Th, F) i do a 5 minute warmup on the eliptical, and after my session, i do 20 minutes on the dreadmill. If i do an hour cardio session on my day off from lifting, would that deplete muscle growth? I'm looking to lean out ( i know being in a calorie deficit helps with that) but don't want to muscle either.
In my opinion you're fine and you probably aren't going to start losing muscle. I think some things to consider are how lean you are, the size of the energy deficit you're in, and to a lesser extent when we consider the training as a whole, are you training like a marathon runner who happens to lift a couple of times or are you training like a bodybuilder who does some cardio, or is it somewhere in between?
To my knowledge, the interference effect demonstrated in the literature was done on endurance athletes. So I don't know how much we can conclude on that, other than it might not be a good idea to structure your training primarily around moderate intensity steady state cardio with lifting as an afterthought/secondary aspect to training.
To wrap this up, take all of the above as my current understanding and philosophy on it, and not a statement of fact or science.
Take a look at these videos by Eric Helms as well, and consider context when watching them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmEJGR1_sZc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQRv1CIpjn8
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I'm getting ready to do a bulk, my first time, here soon, end of January. But I have a cruise coming up in May and I was wondering should I bulk after or start end of this month?? I want to look good for the cruise, but I also want to get started on bulking. Hope this isn't a stupid question. Thank you.
This type of question is really hard to answer without knowing things about your personality, your preferences, and what your physique currently looks like (and beyond that, not to get too deep but it also matters what your perception of your physique is like). I bring this up because all of those factors are important when it comes to your decision about whether or not you should be in a surplus, a deficit or near maintenance.
To elaborate a bit I have one or two clients who I would hesitate to put into a surplus even though they may be lean enough physiologically to warrant it.
As it pertains to your situation, the only thing I can say with at least some confidence without knowing much about you is that simply being that you are female you are already going to be in a position where it makes sense to keep your rate of gain slow. You don't have nearly as much growth potential as a male and your growth potential is a determinant in how rapidly you should be gaining mass.
For example, if you have the capacity to gain .5lbs/week of pure muscle (think 17 year old male who is new to lifting) then it might be reasonable to intentionally gain 3-4lbs/month (with the hopes that about half of that is pure muscle).
Why am I bringing all of this up?
The slower you gain total body mass, the slower you get fat. If you DO decide to bulk, and I can't say whether you should or shouldn't due to factors previously mentioned, I would keep the surplus on the low end and in doing so you probably aren't going to gain all that much fat.
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Hi... Looking for help on the amount of calories and exercise needed as I am struggling to lose 12 pounds and had a frustrating last several weeks.
Age: 54
Height: 65.5 inches
Weight: 149
RMR per recent test is low: 1182
Exercise: zumba two or 3 times weekly at high impact, high cardio
Yoga 2x weekly (just started)
Calories 1200 to 1300 per day with careful logging last 3 weeks
RMR test print out suggested I eat only 1000 to 1100 to be 'in the weight loss zone' which seems way too low. Especially given that per the scale I went from 147.4 to 148.8 the last two weeks which was very disapointing.
Previously in the summer I was doing NRol4w 3x weekly and zumba 2x weekly and eating 1450 on non lifting days and1600 on lifting days. Probably more due to not careful counting. My weight was stable for several months with that routine.
Any advice will help.... Thanks!0 -
Hey there Lee.
We may chat about this one on a video as this is a good discussion topic.
As far as immediate changes, assuming we aren't going to re-work your program from the ground up, I would generally recommend doing Leg Press first and Abs last.
As far as your nutrient intake goes it looks within a range of what I'd consider acceptable/reasonable provided that your total calorie intake is reasonable to begin with, but that's an entirely different topic as well because a viable question would be whether or not you should be cutting at this point vs attempting a recomp/etc.
But if we make the assumption that yes, you should be in a calorie deficit then I'd tell you to monitor your change in weight and try to land in a range of .5 to 1% change in weight per week.
I have more to say about this but it would probably come across better in discussion format so I'm going to run this by Sara and see if we can Skype and record it.
Hey Sidesteel,
Thanks, I'll switch to leg press 1st and abs last. I'll also keep an eye out for the video discussion.
Lee.0 -
Lilly_the_Hillbilly wrote: »OK. So I've lost just about all my weight that I should probably lose. I'm pretty lean right now but I am not certain what next to do with my fitness. I figure lifting should be part of it and I don't know where to start or how to compensate from doing 7 days of cardio to adding lifting in there.
I intend to keep doing the cardio (I feel good from it and I like getting out) . So.. it's sort of a "what now?". Key points- I am a stay at home mom without the husband to rely on for watching the kids so I have to do things at home. I have a few weights now I can work with (some plates for the bar- cage wont be set up yet and some waaay too heavy kettle bells of my husbands {16kilos and 24 kilos})
I have Sarauk on my FL and she'll be able to see my last pic in my photos which is the most recent pic of me. I feel lean, but still weirdly flabby in areas.
Thank you for any advice or direction.
Given your circumstances you might want to entertain the idea of body-weight training.
A few programs that I would suggest googling would be
You Are Your Own Gym
Convict Conditioning
Since you're presumably new to resistance training you will likely make decent progress with body-weight programming and additionally it seems to be a good fit given your circumstances. You could also add in some traditional weight training exercises with some of the equipment you have.
Thanks
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Hi... Looking for help on the amount of calories and exercise needed as I am struggling to lose 12 pounds and had a frustrating last several weeks.
Age: 54
Height: 65.5 inches
Weight: 149
RMR per recent test is low: 1182
Exercise: zumba two or 3 times weekly at high impact, high cardio
Yoga 2x weekly (just started)
Calories 1200 to 1300 per day with careful logging last 3 weeks
RMR test print out suggested I eat only 1000 to 1100 to be 'in the weight loss zone' which seems way too low. Especially given that per the scale I went from 147.4 to 148.8 the last two weeks which was very disapointing.
Previously in the summer I was doing NRol4w 3x weekly and zumba 2x weekly and eating 1450 on non lifting days and1600 on lifting days. Probably more due to not careful counting. My weight was stable for several months with that routine.
Any advice will help.... Thanks!
This is a volatile topic because if I tell you to eat 1100 calories I'll have half the internet sending me PM's telling me that I'm putting you in danger of metabolic damage or a number of other conditions.
I would rather position it like this:
If you are certain you are tracking accurately and at a given level of intake and activity, you are not losing weight, then you should either make a reduction in intake, an increase in activity, or both.
And you should consider your CURRENT intake and your CURRENT level of activity when making those decisions. So for example when someone is exercising a few times per week and on an already low calorie intake (by low I'd say < 9 cals/lb) you might be in a position where you can't really afford to reduce intake much further so you may need to increase activity rather significantly to attempt to get into a deficit.
Conversely, if I have someone who already does a high volume of activity but they are on a high-ish calorie intake (12+ cals/lb) I'll tend to look at making a caloric reduction as the primary means of getting them into a deficit again.
And of course personal preference definitely plays a huge role in this as well.
In your particular case, I'd probably look at a combination of adding in additional activity probably as a combination of increasing non exercise activity (I'd assess your activity when NOT in the gym and look to increase it) and possibly adding in some additional formal cardio.
Depending on your goals you may want to add in resistance training as it's highly benefial.0 -
After many years of ignorance, I see diet and exercise as an investment in my overall health and longevity. Outside of any specific athletic goals (I.e.. Recreational lifter only and not looking to compete), is there a specific lifting modality (bodybuilding, powerlifting, or circuit training) one should concentrate on more that has been shown to help "play catch-up" better for those getting to the iron "later in the game" as it relates to health and longevity?
The short answer is "I don't know".
The long opinionated piece full of random bits of info that won't actually answer your question but might make me look like slightly less of a dumbass is as follows:
I think you HAVE to consider personal preference as it pertains to this IN PRACTICE. For example if someone told me that I had to do moderate intensity steady state cardio in order to grow my biceps I'd just rather have crappy biceps because I HATE that form of exercise.
Getting that out of the way, I think you'd have to establish which markers of health you would be using in order to try and make a statement about one particular form of exercise being superior for health and/or longevity.
My personal philosophy about this is that SOME FORM of resistance training done at high enough intensity such that you're breathing hard and blood is pumping, is probably going to get you a great deal of "general health benefit". Being relatively lean will also tend to improve a number of health markers if you go from overweight or obese to lean.
Eric Helms makes a statement in one of his videos (might be one that I linked earlier in the thread in fact) comparing the adaptations that occur in resistance training vs HIIT. In both examples you are performing bouts of very high intensity work (think of a set of bench press taken to failure or near failure) followed by a short rest, followed by another burst of activity.
So to make a useless answer even uselesser, I have no factual information on this and I'm basically giving you pure speculation.
I'm not convinced that I am missing any significant health benefits by not doing hours of endurance training. What I'm missing is the ability to run marathons and such, but I'd speculate that the nature of very high intensity resistance training probably gives me a good chunk of the cardiometabolic benefit.0 -
Tat2dDude_0105 wrote: »How much is too much cardio? When i lift (I do an upper/lower body split M,T, Th, F) i do a 5 minute warmup on the eliptical, and after my session, i do 20 minutes on the dreadmill. If i do an hour cardio session on my day off from lifting, would that deplete muscle growth? I'm looking to lean out ( i know being in a calorie deficit helps with that) but don't want to muscle either.
What type of cardio?
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Steady state cardio. Treadmill on 3.4 mph w/7 degree incline.0
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Tat2dDude_0105 wrote: »How much is too much cardio? When i lift (I do an upper/lower body split M,T, Th, F) i do a 5 minute warmup on the eliptical, and after my session, i do 20 minutes on the dreadmill. If i do an hour cardio session on my day off from lifting, would that deplete muscle growth? I'm looking to lean out ( i know being in a calorie deficit helps with that) but don't want to muscle either.
In my opinion you're fine and you probably aren't going to start losing muscle. I think some things to consider are how lean you are, the size of the energy deficit you're in, and to a lesser extent when we consider the training as a whole, are you training like a marathon runner who happens to lift a couple of times or are you training like a bodybuilder who does some cardio, or is it somewhere in between?
To my knowledge, the interference effect demonstrated in the literature was done on endurance athletes. So I don't know how much we can conclude on that, other than it might not be a good idea to structure your training primarily around moderate intensity steady state cardio with lifting as an afterthought/secondary aspect to training.
To wrap this up, take all of the above as my current understanding and philosophy on it, and not a statement of fact or science.
Take a look at these videos by Eric Helms as well, and consider context when watching them.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmEJGR1_sZchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQRv1CIpjn8
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Thanks for the reply. I'll definitely check out those videos.0
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"Are you training like a marathon runner who happens to lift a couple of times or are you training like a bodybuilder who does some cardio, or is it somewhere in between?"
It's somewhere in between.0 -
Hi all,
another question!
I seem to be having difficulty with my shoulder press (on a machine), my left shoulder has always clicked and had a sort of 'grinding' feeling when I roll my shoulders, yet it is my right arm that tends to struggle?
I am keeping it lightweight (3 sets of 10 @ 10kg) for now in the hope that it is just a matter of strengthening the muscle, but just wondered if anyone else had/has this problem and what else I can do to help?
Lee.0 -
littleleebrinkworth wrote: »Hi all,
another question!
I seem to be having difficulty with my shoulder press (on a machine), my left shoulder has always clicked and had a sort of 'grinding' feeling when I roll my shoulders, yet it is my right arm that tends to struggle?
I am keeping it lightweight (3 sets of 10 @ 10kg) for now in the hope that it is just a matter of strengthening the muscle, but just wondered if anyone else had/has this problem and what else I can do to help?
Lee.
If you're experiencing pain I'd consider getting it looked (by a physical therapist) and I'd also consider not doing that exercise.
Also, consider that machines restrict your plane of movement. You could consider attempting a seated press with dumbbells to see if that feels better.0
This discussion has been closed.