GaryRuns Member

@sardelsa, I'll admit to reading your blog at least as often as you've updated it! :D

The only thing that matters as far as losing fat is concerned is to be in a caloric deficit. That means consuming fewer calories than you're burning. It doesn't matter where those calories come from, "clean" or "dirty". So the first thing to do is get a good estimate of how many calories you burn in a day, your total daily…

* Find a partner, even if they're also inexperienced. Things are always less intimidating when you do them with a friend. * Pay a personal trainer for a couple of sessions just to have them show you the correct form and how to use the machines you're interested in * If it's a big gym most have personal trainers wandering…

I don't know about the rest of you, but that gun (aka arm) looks awesome. Good job! I don't see "fat" in that arm. And if you're consistently trying to reach and maintain your fitness goal you are not a failure. That puts you ahead of 90% (estimate) of the rest of the population. Your trainer's job is to help their client,…

You can pretty much let MFP set your calorie goal for you based on what you tell it as far as gaining or losing weight and how fast you want to do it. You will likely need to adjust your macros to suit your desire to gain muscle because often MFP sets protein too low. The rule of thumb is 0.8-1.0 gram of protein per pound…

I'll have to disagree with the part in bold. There's some room for interpretation if you're a very advanced lifter, and I think even that's being generous, but outside of very advanced lifters the scientific evidence is pretty clear, lifting to failure provides no more benefit than keeping your lifts in the RPE7 or RPE8…

What is your goal? If you want to be lean, or leaner, focus on calories and maintaining a reasonable calorie deficit. 10-15% below maintenance is generally considered good for steady, sustainable weight loss. And unless you're sub-10% body fat, you can still make gains in strength and muscle size if you are using a good…

At the peak of my marathon training it was 42. Now it's probably closer to 65. BMI: 24

If you have healthy kidneys the whole "high protein is bad for your kidneys" thing really isn't a thing. I'm going from memory but there was only a single study that showed possible kidney problems on a high protein diet and it turns out that study was severely flawed and thus invalid. There's no recent, valid, published…

Oops. I was thinking it's my first day back to work in two weeks, I hadn't had coffee and I'm dreading the whole day. Obviously a great time to take a break and read MFP! :# You're absolutely right. 1g/kg = 0.45g/lb. So 1g/kg is well below what someone who is looking to build muscle should be eating. And I didn't bring up…

I've never seen any research papers indicating you need 1g of protein per kg of body weight per day when building muscle. That's a very large amount of protein. The only high-protein nutrition protocols I've seen are for cutting, mostly to help with satiety, and even then 1g/kg would be at the VERY high end for those body…

This is totally me. I've had two weeks off work and grabbing that bag of nuts, or those chocolate covered cherries, is so tempting when you're sitting around doing nothing. I can ignore a little hunger when I'm active. Not so easy when I'm binge watching the drop of season 2 of Lost in Space on Netflix.

You're better off just visually estimating your body fat. Here's some examples:

Speaking from my own experience, after running 4 marathons, I found that running that much wasn't particularly healthy, for me. My knees were sore constantly, my hip flexors always felt worn out, my feet had some weird callouses in places there shouldn't be callouses, lost toenails a couple of times, my feet were in pain…

Are you going to continue running at that level? It's going to be very difficult to build muscle if you're running 40+ miles per week. The problem is recovery. Trying to do both resistance training and running, at that level, is going to be very taxing on your body's ability to recover. If you're young, have your nutrition…

Gotta hear coach Greg on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39YvjFRiGac

Be sure and hit @sardelsa up about pregnancy too. Apparently it's her fourth state of physique training, bulking, cutting, maintenance and pregnancy. :D In my simplified view there are three requirements to build muscle, 1) eating 0.8-1.0 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, 2) performing a well-established,…

Measuring circumferences of areas of your body like waist and thighs is problematic for determining fat. Water, and for your waist measurement, bloating, amount of food in your digestive system, and probably other things will affect that. If you want to judge if fat has increased then track measurements using a pinch test…

Highly unlikely. Barring some medical condition that I wouldn't know anything about, it's almost certainly water retention. There's no doubt that bingeing cost you something in terms of progress, that's what it does, but I doubt it was to that degree. Lay off the salt and high carbs for a few days and you'll likely see it…

Please don't get the wrong impression, I said I was trying to cut during the holidays! My weight has flatlined the last two weeks because of Thanksgiving and a Christmas party this past weekend. A note to those concerned about privacy and going on a cut, make sure nobody has access to your weigh-in data. You can see every…

I'm no expert, but honestly, it sounds like you need to find a solution to the mental struggle before you worry about the physical one. Why do you find yourself in these binge-restrict cycles? For a lot of folks I know it's a way to deal with stress and so they have to learn to use methods other than eating to deal with…

I'm also hopeful that the fact that your hair got darker is related to your resistance training. I'm getting tired of the increasing "blonde" in my hair as I age and could use some of that darkening. :D

You look great. I think the improvement looks significant. Without a doubt a leaner physique. Great work! If you're not comfortable gaining fat then just stick to recomp. It is certainly a slower process but if you're doing this for your health you're going to be doing it for a long time anyway, right? Like the rest of…

Can I just take some valuable space on this thread to say how much it sucks cutting during the holidays? Okay, maybe I should say trying to cut during the holidays. Egg nog with lots of rum is SOOO delicious! :'(

Just a small point, but you can (or may) gain muscle mass while in a calorie deficit but the likelihood of doing so is certainly reduced as compared to doing so while in a calorie surplus. Good summary of the factors involved in gaining muscle while in a calorie deficit is given in this article:…

People tend to over complicate hydration. Determining whether or not you're hydrating sufficiently couldn't be easier. Look at the color of your pee. If it's a pale yellow then you're golden (no pun intended). The only exception to this is if you're taking riboflavin or some other supplement/vitamin/food that makes it's…

People, people. If you read the posts I don't see anyone saying a "buff" trainer can't be a good trainer, as many of you seem to be assuming. That's just as bad as assuming a "chubby" trainer can't be a good trainer. Anecdotally, I had a competitive body builder as a trainer for a year and he was exceptional. I also had a…

I'll second leaving out the ice. There's some evidence it may help slightly, initially, if applied soon after the injury, but then you may pay the price because it will slow down healing as time goes by. Even if you don't keep icing it, just the initial icing may degrade how fast you heal. Anyway, that was a rat study I…

That's called bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) and it's not very accurate. The only truly accurate way to get your body fat percentage is via a DXA (or DEXA) scan (there's a franchise called DEXAfit in a lot of major cities where you can have it done), or via a dunk test where they weigh you while submerged in water…

I keep mine open. Pretty boring though, as I eat the same thing every day, except on the weekends, and I don't often log on the weekends.