HappyStack Member

There is nothing wrong with canned foods. The problem is not keeping track of what you're eating and how much of it you're eating. I can eat bolognese in a can every day of the week for cheap and still lose weight and get healthy.

You can do SL/SS on the Smith, but most people would advise against it for a variety of reasons - some of them silly - but the primary reason in my mind is that when you transition to free weights, you'll have a rude awakening in store in terms of how many plates you can put on the bar.

They changed the recipe for Pot Noodles to reduce salt and/or sugar, and now they taste like bum. I don't eat them any more. Same with baked beans, and a variety of other things. Fair enough, if you're eating 4 tins of baked beans a day, the fact they had 25% of your RDA of salt, or 30% of your RDA of sugar would be a…

Tandoori chicken, mint raita, chana masala and saag aloo.

#1 thing is to not buy pre-packed fruit and vegetables. So if that means going to the supermarket and weighing out loose fruit and veg, do so. You're then not paying for the price of packaging, the fact that it's pre-prepared, washed etc. If you possibly can, greengrocers, farmers markets, or travelling markets are…

Is the nutritional information for your product not on the Tesco website? (tesco.com/groceries) I buy Tilda's brown basmati rice, and it roughly trebles in volume the way I cook it... so 180g of cooked would be roughly 60g uncooked, and that's around 144kcal.

A pushup with proper form will rely primarily on your triceps and the chest (sternal pec major). So work on your triceps and the chest. Doing them against the wall or on a large decline is a nice idea but it won't fully engage the same musculature until you get closer to horizontal. Do some dips, start with the knees bent…

I had one, but gave it up. It was impossible to run on... the belt just didn't move without a heck of a lot of force behind it, it sustained no momentum when my feet were coming off it, so it was only good for "walking". I run outdoors now, but when the weather is bad or the ground is too sodden I pay the £1.50 required to…

I have been in the same boat as you, but I developed gallstones after losing weight. I had my gallbladder removed almost a year and a half ago, and it's been the best thing that ever happened to me. Best of luck, you can absolutely do it. Just take one day at a time and one meal at a time.

I'm from South Wales! :)

Back squats will "target" quads until your hip joint drops below your knee joint. If everything looks right form-wise and it's comfortable, don't worry about it. Most people will find their quads are weaker than their hammies and glutes when they begin strength training, once you've been training for a bit you'll probably…

This is so [unintentionally?] hilarious.

Headlamp and reflective gear. Underneath, same thing as I would wear if it was cold & bright. Running (or compression) tights/capris, loose shorts/tracksuit bottoms, long-sleeve compression top, hoodie/jacket, and a good pair of running shoes. I never wear a hat, it's a good way to lose excess heat when you're running.

Unless you have a medical condition, don't worry about your sodium intake too much. Just make sure you drink plenty of water, you'll be fine.

No, this isn't true. No carb is 100% simple or complex. Most of the digestible carbs in fruit are simple sugars, but nobody would tell you that fruit is going to make you fat, right?

You can eat whatever you want, just don't eat too much of it. The fact you want to eat an entire banana bread loaf is a psychological problem, not a hunger problem, or a diet diversity problem. You've decided you want to binge eat, indulge in a treat in a self-gratuitous manner. Address why you want to do that, overcome…

Low bar squats (recommended for SL 5x5) emphasise the posterior chain (you could simplify this and say 'the hamstrings') more. High bar squats emphasise the anterior aspect of the legs (i.e. the quads) more. Both work the same muscles, they just work them differently. When you first start out, you'll probably accidentally…

The Starting Strength book is a must-have, in my opinion. You won't find a more comprehensive bible of the most fundamental lifts anywhere else. I had New Rules of Lifting For Women for a while, and again this is just my opinion, the "For Women" part is a massive turn-off. Far too many isolation exercises because some…

You could also try a safety squat bar (SSB) if your gym has one. Most people find they need to lower the weight when transitioning from a traditional barbell to an SSB, so be wary of that. If you'd rather the traditional barbell, or an SSB isn't available, you could just widen your grip a little bit and work back to where…

What's wrong with your form? Until I started putting almost the equivalent of my bodyweight on the bar when doing barbell squats, I could never really "sit back" into the squat, and so I always stopped "high" and almost good-morning'ed the weight back up. You need enough weight on the bar for *it* to be your centre of…

She worked a traditional bodybuilding lifting routine & now does CrossFit. She squats. It doesn't help. You cannot control cellulite. The author of that blog even says, "Keep in mind that your own progress will always differ from the progress of others. No two bodies are alike."

Exactly this. If you can do 10-15 half- or "female" pushups, or pushups from your knees, you can probably do a single standard pushup. That would do more for your strength goals than 200 half-pushups. Building that up to 8-10 is a great start. Google "one hundred pushups" if you want a decent program. It advertises itself…

Can we have a consensus on how you define obese? is it just visibly obese, or do these statistics take into account BMI? actual DEXA scan results? Personally, I think people are fat in my country because "snacks" are so calorie-laden and - in Wales in particular - there's a massive [binge] drinking problem. I snack now. I…

Considering your height & weight, any increasing amount of physical activity plus a calorie deficit will get you losing quite a lot of weight so an extra evening session if you can manage it would be beneficial. 1-2lbs a week is a prediction that may not be accurate. I noticed when I was very obese, the weight would almost…

Yes x a million. Why do people argue this point to death? If you have a higher percentage of body fat, cut weight and keep going until you're at an acceptable level of leanness (~10% for men, ~20% for women, YMMV, it's personal preference) and then start working on building up your muscle mass IF you find that your level…

I always struggle with the first 10 minutes, but if you allow determination to carry you through, you'll probably find it's easier on the legs after that point... when the blood really starts flowing. Cardio-wise, I always just paid attention to my HRM. When I neared around the 190-200bpm mark (I'm 24, my max heart rate is…

This is probably why I should read all of the thread before I respond. D'oh.

Hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps more, use Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength to begin to get in shape. He's hardly the most athletic person I've ever seen, any more. If the knowledge is good, I doubt most people care, it's up to you to put knowledge into practice. That being said I've been thinking of getting into…

I don't know anything about the medication you're on, but 1200kcal does sound too low, even for someone with hypothyroidism. What type of workouts do you engage in? how often?

"A couple of lbs" is not an appreciable increase in muscle mass, especially if "it took a while". Increased strength has nothing to do with muscle *mass* it's just a central nervous system response to a stressor. I put on 10kg building more lean body mass over a period of 6-7 months, my bodyfat percentage did not change,…