jjplato Member

I'm confused -- are you trying to lose weight? In your profile picture, you look pretty thin. It's hard to make any specific recommendations unless you open your diary, but you might try foods that have a high satiety score (meaning they make you feel full longer). In general, protein has a high satiety score, so chicken,…

That's way too much of a surplus, especially for a woman. At that rate, she'd gain a pound a week, or 52 lbs in a year. Almost all of that would be fat. There is no way that even a beginner is going to gain 52 lb of muscle in a year.

Very misleading, especially if you're gaining lean muscle. BMI was developed in the 1830s as a tool for estimating obesity in populations, not individuals. It only takes height and weight into consideration, not body composition. For example, my body fat is 8.5%, but my BMI is 23.5 -- just below "overweight". To get to the…

A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. You're burning 600 calories per week on the elliptical (assuming the calorie count is correct). Therefore, your elliptical workout is contributing roughly 1/6 lb per week in weight loss.

Can you cite something to back that up? I've never seen a scientific study that draws that conclusion. Not saying it isn't true, but it sounds like broscience.

Studies have suggested is probably a better way to put it, since there's always room for further study and debate. Here's a discussion of the McMaster University studyt; although this does not cover a long time period: http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/you-don-t-need-to-lift-heavy-to-grow-muscle (I've read…

Here are a few things I would try: - Do fewer sets and work the muscles to VMF (volitional muscle fatigue) -- basically, muscle failure. For example, for bench press, I do one set of 8-10 reps to complete failure, and that's it. When I can get more than 10 reps, I add weight. It's been working for me. I spend less time in…

Like the previous poster said, definitely get carbohydrates prior to lifting, to replenish glycogen stores. Some other suggestions: - Make sure you're getting adequate recovery time between workouts. I only lift 3 days per week, with cardio on alternating days - Try negative reps or forced reps to break through a plateau.…

Yes, when I can't get a clean shot.

Negatives for sure. I still use them, to increase the number of clean pull-ups I can do. Currently, I can do about 15 clean, and then I'll finish off the set with 4 or 5 negatives, using a stool to raise myself back up.

This was pretty good: I was at Sky Zone this morning (indoor trampoline park) and there were only a few people in there. I was on one of the trampolines and there were two employees (guys, mid-20s) there, and after a few minutes, one of them said, "Hey man, let me ask you a question -- how'd you get so cut?" It's not a bad…

There's not an accurate statement. Both proteins and carbohydrates cause insulin levels to rise, and the amount varies by type of food. Some carbohydrate foods have low insulin scores. To control hunger, it's best to look for foods that have a high satiety score -- satiety is the feeling of fullness after a meal. Meats in…

Dodgeball on trampolines is a lot of fun! Be prepared though -- some of those guys are really good, even the kids. The basketball dunking is great, too. They even have daily "skyrobics" classes. I haven't done it, but my wife did a few times and she said it was a a lot of fun.

If there's a Sky Zone near you, give that a try. It's an indoor trampoline park, and I take the kids there all the time. After an hour of jumping around on trampolines like a ten-year-old you'll be sweating like crazy, and you'll probably burn 800 calories, but never for a second will it feel like a "workout".

It's all relative. In France, if you had a glass of wine with lunch and another with dinner each night, you'd be considered a light drinker.

For me, cutting out alcohol is a really easy way to eliminate calories. Not sure what you drink, but if it's cocktails like margaritas or vodka/cranberry, those have a lot of sugar as well.

The Navy body fat estimation technique is supposed to be pretty accurate (not as accurate as hydrostatic weighing, though). For men, it uses three body measurements: height, neck circumference, and waist (around the belly button). For women, it adds a fourth measurement: hips. You can Google "Navy body fat calculator" and…

You don't have to lift "heavy" to build muscle. The keys to stimulating muscular hypertrophy are: lifting to volitional muscle fatigue (VMF, in other works, until you can't do another rep), and progressive overload (progressively adding more weight and/or reps over time). Equally important is getting proper nutrition. As…

I agree. Get your form right first. Jumping right to "heavy" without learning the proper form is a recipe for a painful injury. I'm 5'10", 163 lb, 8% bf, 31" waist. You can look lean and very muscular at 155-160 lbs. I lift 3X a week, for about 30 minutes, with cardio on alternating days, and one day off entirely. It…

Butternut squash and acorn squash. I usually mix either with an equal portion of cooked sweet pototo, and mix in enough chicken broth to get to the consistency of mashed potatoes, and heat in a sauce pan. Add a little garlic powder and onion powder, and spoon back into the sweet potato skins. Very filling, and very…

5'10, 155 lbs:

What do you mean by "low carb"? Are you going to do something like Atkins, or are you just going to limit your carb intake? You can be successful doing either, but if you're really going to do a highly carb-restricted diet like Atkins, you should read up on it first. It involves forcing your body to switch to a metabolic…

Absolutely! Men try to be problem-solvers. I have this problem with my wife occasionally. She'll explain something that upset her, and I'll think she's looking for advice on what to do, so I'll offer up a solution. Then she says she's not looking for advice, she just wanted somebody to listen to her problem. Men:Mars /…

Your sodium is through the roof. Yesterday, you were 1200 calories over your goal. A few days before that, you were over 500 calories over goal. You are using "quick add calories", which is usually an indication that you're guessing rather than weighing. A few days ago, you estimated 700 calories burned for 45 minutes of…

My point exactly. Bodybuilders generally aren't the ones looking for body composition advice on the MFP forums. So for the guy who has 15-20% BF and wants to know if he can lose BF while gaining LBM, the answer isn't necessarily, "No, you have to bulk then cut. It's impossible to gain LBM while in a caloric deficit."

Exactly. You can always point to the corner case and say, "Well, it doesn't apply to the guy with 2% body fat." Of course it doesn't. Almost nothing that would apply to everyday people would apply to bodybuilders when it comes to body composition.

Not sure that's supported by evidence -- just because the study made "no mention" of gaining LBM doesn't mean it doesn't happen, and the study I cited does make mention of LBM gains in a caloric deficit, so I'm going to go with that unless presented with something definitive to the contrary. But to your point about…

This is supported by scientific research. I posted this earlier in the thread, by I'll repost it, since it speaks to the low-deficit / high-deficit issue: This study, published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2011, studied two groups of subjects on hypocaloric diets: one on a…

That's funny - I see the same thing all the time. There's a lot of "conventional wisdom" on these boards that is not supported by any scientific evidence, yet it gets repeated all the time, and there's a popular notion among some here that putting calories in your body is no different than putting marbles in a jar. It…

Good articles - thanks for posting. I think a lot of people on MFP confuse "losing weight" with "losing fat". It's true that you can't gain weight on a caloric deficit -- that would violate the First Law of Thermodynamics (excluding the gain of water weight). However, you can lose fat and simultaneously gain muscle while…