merv243 Member

You can lie on a bench and do leg raises - that way you don't have to leave the weight area. You could also sit on it and do Russian twists. Once your grip strength catches up, you could do side raises. But good call not straining your wrists.

Unsalted, unbuttered popcorn. Fruit is better than chocolate but veggies would be better - they have almost no calories. My trick to avoid snacking is to chug water.

In order to gain weight, you have to eat more calories than you burn. You will add fat - there's no avoiding it. The key to minimizing fat gain is to do weight training and eat at just a small calorie surplus. Note that weight training will NOT make you bulky (some women are scared of that) - there are people who…

Yup. I think the best approach is to do it at the same time and situation every day - in the morning, after you use the bathroom, before you eat, wearing the same thing. Even so, you're going to find fluctuations of 1-2 lbs or more day to day, so you should track your progress more week-to-week. But still weigh yourself…

I slightly disagree. The TDEE (daily calories you burn) calculated by MFP already incorporates the general activity level that you specify (e.g. moderately active). Unless you chose "not active", then that activity level already includes your calories burn during your weekly exercise. If you log a workout, you are…

The trick is definitely to stay busy. When I'm "in the zone", sometimes I realize I'm hungry but still don't even bother to eat (which can be bad if it happens too often or for too long, of course). Get rid of your go-to emotional eating snacks so that if you must eat, it's at least something healthy. There are several…

I'd be up for mentoring. Mike, 26/m. My main fitness activities are weight training and sports. At various times I have trained for strength and size with success. I have also had several successful cuts. I maintain a fairly rigid diet and workout routine and would be happy to share tips I've learned for a variety of…

Don't do HIIT while cutting carbs. You will be at serious risk for injury (true HIIT is brutal). That said, HIIT is amazing for burning fat. But you need the carbs to perform well and recover afterwards. You can get stronger while burning fat if you don't have much lifting experience, but this is different from muscle…

Not a direct answer to your question, but if you calculate your daily calories using MFP or another calculator and select an activity level other than "not active", then your workout calories are already implicitly included in your daily intake, and if you log them they'll get counted twice (and thus you'd be overeating).…

I second Jen. You may be at your target weight, but if you have very little muscle that still may not look like you think. As far as I know, 29% is not at all a high or unhealthy BF%, but it is also not that really low either. The solution is to build muscle by lifting weights, and eat a high protein diet at perhaps a…

I'd switch biceps and triceps - triceps and chest generally go together (e.g. dips), and biceps and back generally go together (e.g. pullups). You can hit both with more compound movements that way. Also, I'd consider hamstrings to be a part of leg day.

Careful when logging exercises in MFP and using it to calculate calorie needs. When you use a calorie calculator and want to factor in workout calories separately, then you need to select an activity level that does NOT include workouts. For example, I work out five times a week, but outside of that, I am lightly active at…

I have trouble sprinting on the treadmill, but I do similar on the cross ramp (except instead of stopping I just slow down, and I do 45 sec fast/30 sec slow). In the summer I sprint outside and do 30/30. Other good interval-training type workouts that I like are 4 Minutes of Hell (youtube it) and general conditioning…