katysmelly Member

I was like you at your age. I just didn't want to eat a lot. I could forget to eat or be too upset to eat. This is a type of anorexia that has nothing to do with body dismorphia or compulsion. I still don't have the same desire to eat a lot that other people do. I eat when I am hungry and I like my food to be tasty, but I…

Why 120? You are focusing on an arbitrary number. If you were tracking your weight in metric, you'd be half a kilogram away from 50kg...another arbitrary number!

I depends on what your goals are and what else you are doing. A body builder has different goals than someone who wants to become generally healthier.

I just wanted to add: last week I posted about feeling inexplicably weak while working out. Just fatigued and unable to lift quite as heavy. Someone said I may be ill. It was only a few hours later that I actually noticed the scratchy throat I'd had was worsening. I ended up with a bit of a chest cold. However, I…

No, you need to rest. If you feel achy and sore and tired then working out will only make things worse. You will not make any gains while you are sick and you risk weakening your immune system. Studies on mice have shown this very clearly: mice that exercise intensely are significantly more likely to sicken and die when…

I decided to eat a bunch today. I am probably over 2000 calories for the day, now, (which would be maintenance) but I don't care. I think if I take tomorrow off from the gym, I should be feeling good by Friday (leg day.) I may try to come up with a three-day weight workout, or maybe go back to four day. I used to split it…

I'm trying to lose weight! I have to have a deficit. And I already said that I'm wondering if calories is the sole reason.

Yes, I'm thinking I may need a break. I've worked out 5-6 days a week for almost six weeks and my throat is slightly scratchy. So I think I will cut the cardio until Monday, skip my second "pull" workout of the week tomorrow, and just do legs on Friday.

Hmmm... I do have a slightly scratchy sore throat! I don't otherwise feel ill in any way.

Because I'm lifting five days a week, I have to do my cardio on the same days. Sometimes I have to go back to the gym for a second visit to accomplish that. I'm hoping it's just a calorie thing. I'm only two pounds away from my goal and I can start adding calories soon.

Are you doing things you really enjoy doing? Some things we make ourselves do because they're good for us, and that's great. But if you find an activity that you truly love, that is easier to stick with. I am like you - bursts of dedication for weeks, then sloth for months. I find that a variety of things will get in the…

Are you going to lift weights at home or use a gym? If you're using a gym, you can look up weight lifting basics in books and online. Enthusiasts will tell you that you need to do squats and deadlifts. This is not true for a beginner without anyone to help them. You can start very easy - even using some machines and very…

Mild pain is normal after any new exercise. It's also normal when you do an exercise that is meant to become progressively harder (like lifting weights where you increase the weights gradually so to gain strength.) There is nothing wrong with feeling this pain, although you may find it annoying. Believe it or not, many…

It is unsustainable. And it will mess up your metabolism. To do it for a very short time I guess is OK, but you will gain it all back unless you find something sensible to do, instead. You can't net 800 calories for a very long time and function.

Could you be more specific? Have you taken measurements of your hips and waist?

I'm not sure I understood all of that, but it seems you're saying that people shouldn't eat back their exercise calories. I don't record exercise calories because I don't think I can count them accurately. However I use a particular calculator that gives me a fairly accurate idea of what I burn in a typical day and then…

I go to a Pure Gym in Manchester, England Likes: The price (£19.99 a month with no contract, and you can "pause" your membership if you go away) It's very clean The staff are all nice and friendly They have lots of spiffing new equipment, like sandbags and big heavy tires and other things I haven't yet used It's very…

Thought I would update: My bum is still sore two days later. I went on a hill walk yesterday (the day after leg day) and my legs did feel a bit tired. So, I guess I am doing *something.* But I will try to increase the intensity of my leg workouts, anyway. I still think that failure means "can't maintain good form" but I…

Oh, I do lift progressively heavier. I aim for a weight that I can life 8-12 times. Sometimes I will lift a weight that I can only do 4-6 times, just to try out a heavier weight and see if I'm ready for it. I've outgrown the weights in the general area of the gym and have moved down into the weight room where I never see…

Exactly! I will probably never be able to deadlift 2x my bodyweight, but I ran 5k in 27 minutes shortly after finishing the C25K program. And no matter how long I lift heavy or train for running, I will probably never be good at swimming laps. LOL

Stretching doesn't help DOMS: http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7362/468 Massage does seem to help (which is what I guess the foam roller does.) I think light exercise the next day does help - like someone said above about walking on a treadmill.

Ideally, it would involve scrambled eggs. In real life, it's often a banana, a slice of seeded whole grain toast with peanut butter, and a glass of milk.

Oh, OK. That makes sense. I thought you were going to tell me that it would destroy my spine or something. I guess I could give the elliptical a try (but I sure do hate it!) It would be great if I lived a life in a climate where I could actually do sprints outdoors regularly. I may revisit the stair climber - although it…

Although they say you can't spot reduce, there does seem to be evidence that HIIT cardio actually does target abdominal fat in ways that ordinary cardio does not. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991639/

The elliptical makes me feel like a zombie puppet - I cannot get the hang of that thing. What's wrong with the recumbent bike?

Oh, I sure do hate the stationary bike! Upright is pretty painful for my bum and even recumbent just makes me wanna die because it's pure quads doing all the work. Ugh. I hope I get used to it.

Yes, I have noticed that there's a wide variety of what sort of intervals are prescribed. I just thought I'd try to do something after my weights that meant I was still getting cardio in. Ideally, I would do both - like go back for continuous cardio later. I couldn't do 90% for 10 minutes, by the way. All I know is that…

Well, I'm going to totally replace my regular gym cardio with HIIT four times a week, now. Ten minutes or so each time. But I am going to have to really be strict with myself that I'm truly going all out. I'm not sure the stair climber is the right machine for it - a stationary bike is better because you can move as fast…

I read that you go hard for 20-30 seconds then rest until your heart rate is back to nearly normal (which for me is about 90 seconds.) The rest interval may shorten in time - I don't know yet how I will react to this new thing.

Yeah, I know that it's not ideal to do them together, but I'm hoping to compensate for it a bit by doing HIIT *after* weight training (after all, if you're tired, you can still get out of breath) and also by not doing it on the day I work my lower body. (I do Push x2/Pull x 2/ and then Legs on Friday.) However, I may be…