hamlet1222 Member

You may be at a point of diminishing returns, where it'll take a lot more effort to be able to add a few more grams of weight. What are the smallest weight increments you have available? "Progressive overload only applies up to your natural limit." How is that terrible advice? If people could keep adding 1 kilo discs to…

sorry, I didn't really explain it well. 50Kg is a measure of mass, the scientific meaning of 'weight' is how gravity acts on the object. here's a nice link the explains it more: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/39281/needed-energy-for-lifting-200-kg-weight

yeah, I wasn't mixing up BMI and BF, my BMI is just below 25, and BF 21%. I don't think 7% BF looks that great anyway - once veins start appearing everywhere. I'm hoping to get to 15% without needing to be too obsessive.

Progressive overload only applies up to your natural limit. Everyone has a limit to what they'll ever be able to lift, you might be at that limit, or at a lower plateaux, if the latter then you can try adjusting your workout/rest/diet, but if nothing works you're probably at your peak - so be happy :)

great point, and I do also think about all the disposable incomes people waste on gym memberships and exercise equipment when they just need to eat less and move more. Still I think it's a personal matter as to where you draw the line.

If it's a lot of hard exercise that can lead to excessive muscle breakdown then I think it's worth logging, and eating extra protein.

"should I exercise more/longer so I can eat more" - that route of trading minutes on the treadmill for scoops of ice cream never worked for me (and I tried it for a long time). I find it simpler just to work out daily calories and stick to it, and do enough exercise to 'get my system going', but not too much to overtrain.…

yep, more than enough for most people. Unless you're training for a marathon then 30 minutes cardio a day is awesome - just make sure your calorie intake is where it needs to be and you're sorted!

You could try the katch-mcardle formula for working out your BMR: http://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/katch-mcardle-bmr-calculator/ It's based on lean body mass, so you need to know your body fat % to use it.

Hi AnvilHead, what do you reckon is the lowest body fat % you can get down to without too much obsessive dedication? I'm looking for an initial target to aim for, and am prepared to log my intake for some days (and just wing it on others).

dlm7507, the 500 comes from gravity (9.8 m/s/s) multiplied by mass (50 kg). Force, measured in Newtons is for our purposes a measure of how gravity acts on a mass. On the moon gravity is much less of what it is on earth (1.6), so doing the 30 reps would only burn 0.3 calories :-(

A lot depends on how much space you have and how much equipment you're willing to buy. For your husbands upper body, he can make a great start with a pull-up bar and doing push ups. For yourself, PinkPixie's advice above is a good routine. If you're up for getting some equipment, I would get a small barbell and dumbells,…

Whatever you do I would always work with free weights, and don't go too heavy until you've nailed the form and are really comfortable with the moves - SL kind of does that if you start with an empty bar, and move your weights up in very small increments. A couple of areas I think SL is lacking is that there is no vertical…

Low GI carbs are best for stable energy levels, but high GI carbs tend to be the yummiest! I love my carbs, and find there's nothing better than doing a workout fully carbed up with full glycogen stores. Checkout Durian Riders website and youtube videos: carbthef**kup.com. He and his wife Freelee (bananagirl) are quite…

what I do is skip or have very light meals either side of the big one. Where I'm really weird though is on Easter Sunday, I just eat my chocolate eggs and have one normal meal that day (it freaks my family out though) - and manage to stay under 2500 calories doing so.

You can work out the minimum calories when weight-lifting very precisely: Energy = Force X Distance (Force is measure in Newtons, and on planet earth it's about 10 x Weight in kilos) So a 50 kg bench press, moving the weight 0.5m vertically, you get: 500 x 10 x 0.5 = 2500 joules converted to calories: 2500 x 0.000239005736…

thanks, will check it out.

intervals of logging - interesting idea. I too lost my first 9 kilos quite easily just by not snacking and not drinking calories, but now I'm stuck at around 21% bf (at the top of the BMI 'healthy' zone). I've read Mike Matthews book and watched his podcasts, and it seems if you want to get to 7% bf like him, you really…

how many coffees a day are you having? a teaspoon of real sugar in two or three cups of coffee a day you can get away with no problem. Not sure what sweetener Splenda uses, but I prefer the saccharin based ones to aspartame.

not heard about that, where was this correlation found?

haha, I know a few body builders who can't their calves to match their upper bodies, no matter how many/heavy calf raised they do - even with steroids. I find sprinting is awesome for the legs.

Tea, green tea, black tea, fruit tea - even with 1 teaspoon of sugar. I find this is great for staving off hunger. In Argentina people dieting just drink lots of their local green tea called Yerba Mate, and don't feel hungry.

Brilliant question! From what I've read, if you're in a calorie surplus then fat is worse than carbs - with carbs at least your bodies will 'waste' a few calories digesting them and converting them to fat (thermogenesis I think it's called) - whereas your body will store excess dietary fat with minimum fuss if it's not…

If you can't kick the addiction, just try and eat less so your calories stay at the level that's right for you. Check out Professor Haub's twinkie diet, which he did to prove that it was quantity and not what you eat that matters:…

my favourite way to make pizzas lower calorie is ditching the cheese. They call it Fugazza!

I would ditch these ones from your programme: Calf Press on the Leg Press Machine Leg Extensions Seated Leg Curl Machine Ab Crunch and spend more time and effort on these: Seated Barbell Military Press Barbell Bench Press Seated Cable Row Lat Pulldown Leg Press and have more time for cardio and ab workouts.

I do a modified version of SL with more rest days, the addition of chin ups, and just deadlifts for the legs (I only do squats as a warm up with low weights, because I don't have a rack and can only safely use weights I'm capable of getting over my head). It's a nice simple routine, my only problem with it is the guy who…

I've been drinking diet coke since the 80s, I'm not worried about artificial sweeteners. Although I find saccharin nicer then aspartame and the awful stevia.

Sometimes I find a week off does me the world of good, and when I hit the gym again I'm performing measurably better than the previous session. Just work out your calorie needs for your activity level on your week off and stick to it.

rainbowbow, nothing wrong with your face in any of the photos, but I think number 2 is the best - stick with that and forget the abs. You don't want to end up like Cheryl Cole (I saw her on x-factor recently, she might have great abs, but face looks like she's starving.