HappyStack Member

They aren't accurate, and will likely fluctuate quite a bit over a given time period. It's not a good way to measure progress, imo. If you want a good indicator of body fat... just look in the mirror. You'll see the difference over time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIgavNuBRRA

Not every food entry has all fats included. I see this a lot. As the above poster said, sat fats are important, the only ones you want to watch are trans fats. Don't worry about it too much. You're highly unlikely to be eating too much fat if you're following maintenance or deficit calories.

Speak for yourself. When you know the pain of smashing up biscuits and snorting them through a straw, then I'll take your opinion seriously.

Yeah, I got stuck around 2/3 months, and that's when I started to do research on the pros/cons of the high volume in SL & the straight sets system it has, found out SL switches to 3x5 after you need a certain amount of deloads and decided to go with 3x5 from the beginning once I'd recovered from surgery. Most people will…

How long have you been lifting? You can get away with this in the beginning, especially as a rank beginner, and still manage to do 5x5 sets across. One of the other programs Mehdi based his program on is Bill Starr's 5x5, except he removed Bill's ramped sets for sets across (usually to the detriment of linear progression).…

What was the tear pattern? Medial tears shouldn't affect your ability to squat safely and pain-free, provided you're squatting with proper form and not doing any of this 1/4 squat nonsense.

This is a myth.

Have you put in the exercise you intend to do, when you've added in your goals? Exercise-wise, there's nothing wrong with a bodyweight routine and you'll certainly exert yourself.

NROLFW - complex routine, lots of days, lots of isolation exercises, not exactly a strength-gaining program. Some of the exercises are difficult to learn. SL - basically the earliest version of Starting Strength before Rippetoe updated it. Even though it advertises itself as 5x5, by the time you've finished warming up,…

Your body doesn't understand time, but it understands your circadian rhythm. If you haven't slept, add it to today. Basically, log between your waking hours rather than according to a clock face. If it makes you go over, no big deal... as long as you keep your weekly deficit in check you'll still lose weight.

1400kcal is too low. What does MFP tell you to eat? Cardio is not the best way to exercise to create a calorie deficit, unless you have a specific goal in mind that requires you to train using 40 mins of cardio, it's unnecessary. Just exercise the way you feel makes you happiest. Meal replacement shakes aren't really meal…

I lost my first 50 in about 4 months, but I was more than twice that overweight. Word of caution to anyone looking to drop such a large amount of weight very quickly: losing weight is one of the best ways to lower your cholesterol. Gallstones are most commonly caused by too much cholesterol and not enough bile salts in…

How did you log the cake when you had the last piece? 2 options. Consider why you want the cake. Are you hungry? if you are, is there something else you can eat you can accurately count the calories of? Eat it. Log it as best you can estimate. Exercise.

NROLFW is too many isolation exercises for me. SL was something I did for about 2 months before realising 5x5 with warm-up sets was just too much volume for me.

You might find that covering your nose and mouth while you run really helps, as well as breathing in through your nose. Cold air is really harsh on already strained lungs. I have a thing called a Buff (buff.eu - here in Europe) which stays up when I run, and it's thin, and lightweight so it doesn't bother me in terms of…

It's a gift. Perhaps. Random trivia, smut is an edible fungus that grows on corn, but don't Google image search "corn smut"...

I have about 10 pages of recipes in my food section. I built that up over a few months, I just use the barcode scanner if I'm cooking on-the-fly, or (because I live alone and cook only for myself) I plan all my meals in advance so I don't waste things, and that's a perfect time to pre-log and juggle things around so I hit…

My bad :tongue:

Healthy human skeleton accounts for about 15-20% of LBM, if I'm remembering rightly. "Big bones" aren't that significant.

Grab yourself some callipers (they're ridiculously cheap) and have someone help you test your body fat percentage. http://www.linear-software.com/online.html (Use the female bit at the bottom of the page) That'll give you a better indicator of your muscularity (although not 100% accurate, it's accurate enough).

You can start both Stronglifts and Starting Strength with the empty bar (make sure it's an Olympic bar, they start at 15 or 20kg - ask, so you know how much you're lifting - the sleeves are 2" in diameter). SL recommends it, if I remember rightly. The only barrier is the difference in volume on the working sets.

I think it sets a bad precedent if you do this. Maybe it doesn't but, that's how I see it... you're not logging diligently if you do. Maybe just set all of your goals to zero, and then everything will be red all the time?

So you're between 7 and 9% body fat now? You're not gonna get huge on any type of bulk in a 4-month time period.

If you genuinely think you have fat to lose, you either do not have 10% body fat, or you're not even remotely muscular.

100g should be fine, maybe even a little bit more. A more moderate/high protein intake is important at a calorie deficit. ETA: I'm 5'4 and a little heavier than you, not incredibly active besides my workouts and I aim for around 1800 per day.

I currently have strep. I'm not working out, I'm resting instead. Aside from the fact my workouts would suffer if I tried today, it would also prolong my recovery time from teh strep. Take some rest, get back up to full strength (don't use it as an excuse if you're inclined to), and then fully commit first workout back.

Fibrous carbs are more than fine. Personally I don't even look at my carb/fat intake as long as I'm hitting my protein and calorie allotments.

Not for nothin', but I looked at your link when you posted it and the first ingredient listed is saw palmetto, which is high in phytosterols. And at the bottom of its description (I didn't read it all, just skimmed) it says it has no side-effects or drug interactions, which is patently untrue.

I think the "perkier breasts from weight lifting/exercise" phenomenon can be explained by the improvement of posture associated with doing so, not any sweater puppy remodelling.