brendanwhite84 Member

I'm happy to chat with people here and even engage in a bit of 'Like' cheerleading now and again, but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say that the people who are generally more successful in their efforts are going to be those who are less prone to attracting a large entourage of supporters for the primary purpose of a…

I'm sure you'll hear 'nut butters' a lot - I know you mentioned nuts but seriously, they're among the best ways to fill a gap in calories and the partial liquefaction might help with packing it in. If you're willing to throw in some sugary calories there are these delicious dutch syrup waffle cookies they sell where I live…

Generally speaking when I'm taking it easier with my weight management (right now I'm obsessing with getting definition on my abdominals, like a doofus) I play it week-by-week in terms of reaching a balance, which would align with what you're talking about. I have heard that a lot of these devices overestimate exercise…

How in the hell did this post get 4 'woo's? I'm not 100% sure about 'train to failure' per se but is somebody going to try to tell us that strength training is a 'sprint'??

There was some recent science suggesting BCAA supplementation doesn't accomplish much. That said, I wouldn't mind reviewing the study to see who the subjects were - who knows, maybe vegetarians might benefit. I do use BCAAs but only while weight training fasted (I do 16/8 intermittent fasting) and with full knowledge that…

Nah, I get you - I haven't gotten sore the next day after heavy lifts in a while; with the exception of my pecs and biceps, which always stay a little touchy after my bench / curl day.

People who say that don't know what they're talking about. My four main barbell lifts are all in the triple digits and I barely show any definition yet. And I don't have a lot of body fat to be concealing that.

Good question; I reviewed the paper and it's only by bodyweight, not explicitly by LBM. That said, the LBM of the study groups was pretty high: Strength athletes - 13.0 ±6.3 % body fat Endurance athletes - 9.8 ±5.0 % body fat

I should mention that our study was only of male athletes - which had to do more with difficulty in finding willing female subjects rather than a conscious choice not to include them. :smile: Re. amino acid completeness: if I'm not mistaken dairy and eggs provide a complete amino profile? I think it's only vegans who have…

I have done what you're looking to do - I've put on 20+ lbs of muscle and plan to build more, while eating as a vegetarian and lifting heavy weights. 1. I would recommend that much protein - it's worked for me and I have a nutritional study from a major university (in which I was a participant) that confirms that ~1g per…

My girlfriend has Hashimoto's - she had to get her medication (levothyroxine) dialed in properly before she was able to figure out her metabolic rate and start eating accordingly. I believe she's about 20 lbs down from her peak at this point, and I anticipate further losses. She doesn't use MFP though, unfortunately.

Oh I definitely prefer digital for both my bathroom scale and my food scale. I had a cheap dial scale in the kitchen for a short while and it was a huge hassle to get a precise reading.

Most scales will have some variance in their reading depending on the slope of the floor they're on, and other minor factors like that. I try to make sure mine is level and stable but I don't really sweat it and I wouldn't sweat a 1lb skew personally.

My weight losses and gains (I dropped a small quantity of fat and added a moderate amount of muscle) have all tracked exactly in keeping with my accounting for my food and exercise in the app. If you use the tools with precision the process works.

Is indoor cycling (recumbent maybe?) an option for you with your injury? Cycling provides a good amount of caloric burn without much impact or physical stress to speak of. For example, I do a 90 minute class on a fluid trainer and burn about 900 calories (validated by my HRM chest strap).

This variability exists but with less skew than most people think. I am 'naturally skinny' but this is a 300 calorie/day variation, e.g. one muffin.

The woman who wrote the WaPo "dieting doesn't work" article I read today is selling an alternative medicine weight management plan that involves naturopathy, acupuncture, and probably other stuff that has nothing to do with weight loss. In other words, she's slinging pseudoscience to profit from people who don't know any…

I saw some discussion on Reddit about these garbage articles, and a comment stuck with me: people think of yo-yo dieting like this (more or less): "If I just restrict my calories I can get down to a weight that's acceptable to me, and then I can go back to eating the way I like." (The implication being that somehow they…

I did it before I stalled and had to cut back on volume due to an endurance race I was training for. After I came back to lifting I switched to Wendler's 5/3/1 for lower volume and slower progression. Based on my experiences I'd heartily recomment SL5x5 for beginner lifters. Eat 1 gram protein per lb bodyweight per day…

It was some kind of apple pie blossom thing a la mode I ate at a Cracker Barrel in Michigan. I cycled several hours that day so it still fit in my calorie budget, but my jaw almost fell off my face when I logged the calories after getting back to my motel. I wouldn't be surprised if people tended to split it between…

Graphic example: I once ran a long foot race that burned 3500 calories (I wore a HRM). On another occasion, I ate a single serving of a dessert (in the United States, lol) that was 3200 calories. Ain't nobody running 30 miles after they eat that dessert, by and large.

Make sure you're eating around 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight while you're bulking - this is an often-cited figure that I can actually produce an academic study in support of. Also, I'm sure you know this already but just in case, keep in mind that eating protein doesn't build muscle in and of itself.…

You might find this useful for crafting your own exercises (since it gives MET values): https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/

William-Adolphe Bouguereau - Dante and Virgil I like the Divine Comedy but over and above that the technique of this painting has always astounded me.

No - from personal experience I can confirm that the only important thing in terms of weight loss is the amount of your caloric deficit. Meal timing is something that only matters at very high levels of nutritional goal setting, e.g. optimizing post-exercise recovery or building lean muscle. Even then, that sort of timing…

I'd be willing to mentor someone. I've been using the app (along with a digital food scale and other implements) for just over two years and my weight has tracked according to what I've logged with a high degree of accuracy. I began by losing about 30 pounds in support of an endurance sports goal I had in mind (I achieved…

This is an interesting point I just recently learned about after two years of calorie counting - at least in the USA (which isn't where I am) the FDA does indeed allow that 20% margin of error on labels.

If you're anything like me (not-spectacular genetic potential for muscle, light frame) you'll find it way easier to cut the fat than build muscle. So enjoy that phase while you can. The app's really great for both directions, though. When you're bulking you're going to want to make sure you're eating the right (large)…

My goal for last year was a 140.6 - with that out of the way I'm focusing on strength and bulking this year although I still hang out with a tri club and I might do a 70.3 in the fall on top of a couple of shorties in the summer. I'll never stop loving running and cycling. Swimming, on the other hand, can bite me. Feel…