thescouselander77 Member

I do the same thing occasionally but I do try to limit the damage a bit. For example in that scenario I'd have skipped the cheese sticks and also ordered a slightly less calorific burger. I don't think a single session like that will make a significant difference though. I've been weighing myself daily and taking a 7 day…

I've tried to keep changes as small as possible. I'm aiming for a 4-500 cal deficit achieved by eating normally but smaller portions and reducing snacks and alcohol. There's also a couple of particularly high calorie foods I'm avoiding at the moment. It's been sustainable so far but on days I feel more hungry (especially…

I didn't say that - I said water is only taken on when you eat and drink. Regarding carbohydrates these are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms as the name suggests and these are rearranged in the body to create water and other substences. The point is in that reaction the atoms you start with in the food are…

Yes but that process is just a chemical reaction where one substance is transformed into another and as per my earlier link chemical reactions always conform to the principle of conservation of mass. So when the body makes water it converts glucose (already in the body) with Oxygen (breathed in) and produces water…

Yes but you can't have more water in your body than you started with at the beginning of the night. Even if you didn't lose any water you'd be the exact same weight in the morning as you were last thing at night.

Yeah, I do that too but it's only retention of water that has been consumed during the day so if I weigh myself immediately before bed any water that will be retained is already in my system and will show up as weight on the scale. Where are you suggesting this water that is retained over night comes from? It can't just…

That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter…

I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking. Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?

Sounds like your scales might be faulty. If you haven't consumed anything over night it's impossible that you'd be heavier.

Simple for me - I'm getting old so I just want to be able to get up without saying "oof".

Almost certainly yes. If you can manage 2 hours in the gym then you're not working hard enough IMO. When it comes to excercises focus on quality rather quantity and don't forget to get enough rest.

I weigh myself daily at the same time and have also noticed day to day fluctuation is all over the place. What I have found is that of I log my daily weights in a spreadsheet and then calculate a 7 day rolling average I get pretty much a straight line on a nice downward slope. Might be worth a go and if a 7 day rolling…

MFP looks to be miles out for me. I started out with an estimated maintenance level of 2500 cal per day (which I thought was low) and a target of 2200 cal per day to lose 0.25 kg a week. This was based on being lightly active as I have a desk job In fact I've been averaging 2350 cal per day and losing an average of 0.4kg a…

I'm in a very similar position except I don't run but I do lift heavy at the gym. It's early days for me; I've lost a about 2 kg since the beginning of the month and I've no idea where I've lost it. It's not muscle as I'm lifting heavier than I was and I'm not visibly carrying fat anywhere else is if it hasn't come off my…

I reckon you should step up the intensity; thats a lot of volume you're doing with not much weight. Your legs arent going to notice squats at 30lb and you wont be getting anywhere near full muscle activation which means little benefit for those early sets. My squats and deadlifts really took off when I started doing sets…

I'm quite new at this but I simply can't hit my deficit goals continuously. So, in the week I stick to my target calories but at the weekend I'll eat at maintenance which is working ok so far.

Personally I don't like the feel of the leg curl/leg extension so I save the heavy weight/low rep sets for squats and deadlifts. If I do use the machine (which is rarely) I'd do something like 3 sets of 8-10 reps with a moderate weight. I really don't think it's necessary if you're already squatting and deadlifting though.

Agreed there's no such thing as perfect form but it's important not to use outright bad form; especially on something like a deadlift. Its also important to get good enough so the lift at least feels right and doesn't put anything in a position that might cause injury.

General advice - keep it simple at first. Focus on a few compound movements like bench press, squats, deadlifts, overhead press. Programs like starting strengh or strong lifts are a good start and easily accessible. Since you won't have a PT available you'll need to work out how you can perfect your form - this is really…

I used to suffer from acne when I was younger. I don't think diet is anything to do with it. The only thing I found effective was antibiotics and more recently (thanks to Mrs thscouselander) Salicylic acid.

Here you go https://startingstrength.com/index.php/get-started/programs If you like the look of it the book can be picked up cheaply on Amazon. I'd just add I didn't bother with the power clean as it's quite technical and I didn't have anyone to train me on it so I replaced that with a bent over row (although it's not…

As others have said it’s probably best to start with the empty bar and increase from there. Some other thoughts though. When I started weight training I hired a PT who gave me a program very similar to Thinner Leaner Stronger and I stuck with that for maybe nine months and made ok but not spectacular progress. After that I…

Yes, it can be done but I think your deficit might be on the high side though. I'm trying to lose a few percent body fat while at least maintaining or preferably building muscle. I'm aiming for a 300 cal deficit while also seting my protein macro relatively high. So far so good and I'm still getting stronger for the time…

What are you doing re your resistance training exactly? I doubt it's going to be that intense if you're working out at home unless you have a full gym available. I'd recommend checking out Mark Riptoe's Starting Strength program and start doing that at a fully equipped gym. You'll quickly be lifting weights you'd never…

MFP has been really glitchy for me this week. It keeps telling me I haven't logged meals when in fact I have. It also keeps resetting my macro targets which is very annoying.

Thanks, that's a real help! I didn't realise you could enter strength training as cardio exercise. I just put it into today's diary and everything seems to balance out much better.

I don't think you should worry too much about weight if you're doing weight training - even though you might not think you have big muscles you might still have built muscle mass and put on weight. It might be better to calculate your body fat percentage and monitor that instead. BTW if your intent is to build some muscle…

I wasn't sure about the activity level. I have a desk job but on the other hand I work on a big site so a walk to a meeting could be a half mile round trip. Add to that I have a young son which sees me running around a bit. I put lightly active in the end.

Yeah, to be clear MFP thinks my maintenance amount is around 2500 and the weight loss goal is 2200. But, for example today I went to the gym and did 1000m of rowing and an hour of heavy compound lifting. I've no idea how many calories that is so I haven't accounted for it - should I?

Carbs 50 Protein 30 Fat 20 That's my target at least which I usually hit.