wackyfunster Member

Physics is discrimination against the overweight!

This is a really good point. The term "overfat" has come into vogue recently because BMI is so lenient that many people who are profoundly unhealthy due to high levels of visceral fat and low levels of lean body mass are still "healthy" by BMI standards. I see a lot of mental gymnastics here trying to justify why *I* am…

Aspirin (came from willow bark extract, and Bayer tacked an acetyl molecule to the end to increase bioavailability... and so they could patent it. Same thing with Heroin (which is a Bayer trademark just like Aspirin, if you didn't know) = diacetylmorphine, came from opium poppies (along with Codeine, one of the most…

Leg press is the right answer. Squats are dangerous even without anything making them more difficult. If you do want to do a free-weight squat, the only thing I would consider would be trap bar squats, which should be much easier to balance and lower risk. Sticking to leg press would be just fine though.

You need to track your weight daily IMO. There is no accurate way to estimate caloric expenditures from exercise. Even with a high-end HRM calibrated for age/weight/gender there is a +/- 50% margin of error (for females, tends to be slightly better for males), so you may have burned 150 calories, or 450 calories, and that…

Especially for beginners. Run a program developed by a reputable coach, and run it AS WRITTEN (i.e. no tweaks/customization) for at least 12 consecutive weeks before switching routines.

If you're not hungry, you're probably not losing weight. Track your weight daily, and make sure your rate of weight loss isn't excessive (IMO 1-2 pounds/week for most people is a good goal). Make sure you are getting a healthy and balanced diet. If all of that is true, then it's ok to spend some time hungry. Hunger has…

*kitten* woo phrase used by people who are out of touch with reality. It would be more accurate to say that more than 90% of people achieve less than 10% of that which they are capable, because they give up too easily and put forth a fraction of the effort that they could if they were willing to spend more time being…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment Also worth checking out if you're interested... full text was originally published as "The Biology of Human Starvation" and is ~1400 pages, but an interesting read IMO. The very terse version is that people under a controlled diet lose weight in an liner manner…

In case no one has posted this yet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf TL;DR: 382 days with no food for morbidly obese man under medical supervision. As long as you get electrolytes, you can survive without food until you reach essential levels of body fat (2-4% for men, 10-12%…

roughly 20 calories per ounce of breast milk

Barbell hip thrust and GHD both activate glutes a lot more than squats do. You should probably squat as well, but those two will give you much better butt gains.

I think one factor a lot of people don't consider is that the endocrine function of someone who has never been overweight/obese is radically different than someone who is currently or formerly overweight/obese. Your body will try its best to keep you from killing yourself with food, and even if you end up losing weight…

Obviously, I am assuming your diet and workout regimen are already on point. If not, that is the first place to look. With that said, some things that I've found to be successful in order of easiest to miserable-est: 1) Intermittent fasting (TBH you'll probably need more than this to hit 8% unless you have got tier…

Look into Tabata. 4 minutes, 3x/week gives peak benefits. It will dramatically increase vO2 max, and general fitness. It will probably be the worst 4 minutes of your week every time, but in terms of time efficiency, it doesn't get much better.

Should we teach our kids how to budget? Adding up numbers is really emotionally charged and controversial! Personally, I think we should just teach healthy spending habits... if you teach kids how to balance a checkbook and save and invest money, you might give them some kind of a complex or psychological disorder!

Try hack squats (http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/BBHackSquat.html). Safe to do without safety bars/a spotter. You can also try front squats with lighter weights as other posters mentioned.

Pop tarts and coconut water. Some source of protein before and afterwards.

That's really dumb. Squatting above parallel is actually a lot worse for your knees and back, as it prevents you from properly engaging the hips out of the hole. Additionally, the muscles supporting the knees are designed to operate under the heaviest forces at full extension and full flexion, so partial heavy squats are a…

You can do basically however much LISS as you want as long as you get adequate calories/protein. HIIT should be kept to a minimum (tabata for 4 mins 3x/week at an absolute max). Anything other than LISS and HIIT is counterproductive.

I reject the presupposition that food needs to be something that is primarily for pleasure (which is fundamental to the question OP asked). CAN food be a source of enjoyment? Definitely. Should our primary focus be of food as a source of pleasure? That seems unhealthy to me, personally.

TL;DR: Read Lyle McDonald's stubborn fat protocol. There are several pharmacological interventions that can dramatically increase stubborn fat loss. For areas such as abs/hips/thighs there the issue is alpha1:alpha2 adrenergic receptor ratios, yohimbine will help (personally, I hate the stuff and find the side effects to…

The effect is not terribly pronounced, but it does work. You can accomplish the same thing through regular ice baths (skin temperature needs to be cooled to approximately 50 degrees F). The cool (har har) thing is that this actually produces apoptosis of white adipose tissue (i.e. kills fat, doesn't just "shrink" it).…

Meh. Self-reported diet and exercise levels are notoriously inaccurate. How many people "eat 1200 calories and exercise two hours a day and can't lose weight" vs. how many in a controlled environment who have a defined meal plan and exercise regimen can't lose weight (hint, in the latter case, there has never been a…

Ignoring all the politically charged drama, fasting first will yield better results than fasting afterwards. TL;DR version is that this is due to hormonal signalling and glycogen storage. Eating a huge caloric excess in a fed state = most of the surplus calories will be stored as fat first. Eating a huge caloric excess in…

It definitely does, but not in a way that is helpful. If your goal is weight loss, one "cheat day" won't have enough of an impact to offset the calorie increase (there may be exceptions for refeeds at/near single digit body fat, but that doesn't apply to most people here). For n=1, I maintain at about 2600 calories.…

IDK about the calorie counting thing, but this summer we are teaching our teenage daughter how to create a meal plan and workout schedule, and monitor weight change over time (she's a teenager, so she won't be losing any weight) and calibrate diet accordingly. She may or may not choose to use those skills later in life,…

Snake oil or medicine? Difficult choice. Metformin is awesome... currently being investigated for its life-extension effects even in healthy people.

n=1, but I am dubious about this one. I typically eat ~100g of sugar (mostly simple/added sugar) per day while bulking, and have never seen a HS-CRP score above 0.5. I also have autoimmune issues, so from my limited anecdotal experience, it seems like being fit and physically active matter a lot more than cutting out sugar.

You'll lose both endurance and strength while on a cut. You'll get all of the endurance back when you switch to maintenance, but some of the strength will likely need to be regained through exercise+a bulk/recomp. You will also lose some off your lifts just due to having a larger range of motion (from less fat), and worse…