holothuroidea Member

If your problem is the calories, it doesn't make sense to sub with other oils. Just use less if you want fewer calories. If you're sauteeing, you can get away with using some cooking stock but the texture won't be the same. In a casserole type dish like the tuna helper, you need to increase the amount of liquid you use if…

There is absolutely no way that your shoulder muscles will ever be "big muscle." I know girls who can strict press 90lbs and they look like swimsuit models. Big muscles just do not happen for women. Your shorts are going to feel better when you lose the fat. If you keep working out the way you're supposed to, keep upping…

You really want to work on lowering your BF%, and at the weight you're currently at that means building some muscle. The good news is that because of your gender and age you have the potential from seriously fantastic results! Here is what I would do if I were you: -Eat a small excess of calories (10% more than your TDEE)…

Yes, it's normal. Your muscles are retaining water for recovery so they'll swell. Since the muscles in your legs are the largest in your body they have the most storage capacity and tend to be the first muscles you notice this in. Your shirts probably don't feel any tighter because the muscles in your shoulders/chest…

It depends on your body's water-storage capacity and also how depleted you were when you started. Generally the bigger you are and the more muscle mass you have, the more it will be. The only number you should be worried about right now is your BMR, and making sure you NET at least that many calories a day. Seeing a lower…

Bulking is eating an excess of calories while strength training (usually for hypertrophy in 8-12 rep sets) in order to gain muscle mass. While you gain muscle you will also gain some fat. Cutting is eating a small calorie deficit while strength training in order to lose fat while maintaining the muscle mass built during a…

As long as you're satisfied and you can easily build meals you like within those macros, they're good. You may want to increase your protein a bit if that fits into your lifestyle. However, you should really be eating a smaller deficit for the amount of fat you have to lose and you should reset to lose only 0.5lb a week.…

Your daily deficit is probably pretty small because your BMR is low because of your size, it's probably only around 250 calories. That means when you go over one day by more than 250 you're just breaking even and if you go over by 500 you've lost 2 days worth of deficit. Looking at your diary in the last week you have gone…

I'm going to echo that the weight you are gaining is water and glycogen, not fat. Increase your calories slowly until you can net at least your BMR on most days. No, this isn't true. A well balanced meal will have a good portion of all three. I'd worry about the above advice excluding a lot of really nutrient-rich whole…

This actually isn't entirely true. Your body still does triglyceride anabolism even when you're in a calorie deficit and losing weight, and some fructose will be converted to fat regardless of whether you haven't met your energy requirements. When you're in a deficit, the rate of catabolism exceeds the rate of anabolism,…

Gluconeogenesis is for non-carbohydrates, and has nothing to do with fructose. Fructolysis is very similar to glycolosis, the main difference is that the former happens nearly exclusively in the liver. This is a GOOD thing because your liver stores the glycogen your body uses to maintain pretty much every extra-muscular…

The transition from jogging to swimming will be fine for your weightlifting, just make sure your activity intensity doesn't increase too much right off the bat or you'll find that your performance on the weights may temporarily suffer. The water provides some resistance and for untrained people will probably improve their…

Running is higher impact than rowing. You should ease into running even if you're used to cardio exercise, just to give your joints and ligaments a chance to adapt to the higher impact. As far as working the abdominal muscles, if you're rowing with proper form you will use more core strength than in running. Running,…

We should get this put in big bold letters at the top of the MFP page. It's the most common mistake people make here.

BW is Body Weight, or doing a squat with no barbell, dumbbells or other weight added. The hero pose is a good test for knee and ankle flexibility. See if you can do it. If not, you need to work on those areas and doing the pose a few times a day will probably help. Proper form is to keep the weight centered over midfoot.…

If you're following MFP's suggested calorie amount, yes you do need to eat your exercise calories. MFP already gives you a calorie deficit for weight loss, don't try to add to that deficit or you're going to end up in the pool of "why is this going so slow? why am I so tired? what am I doing wrong?" posters.

The only way exercise is really good for weight loss is that it gets your heart rate up and burns calories. Doing longer sets with more reps can keep your heart rate up longer, but you should do it at a lower weight than you do lower reps at. So if you do a 5 rep set at a certain weight, a 15 rep set should be at about 80%…

I never said she shouldn't "work her legs." The OPs original question was whether or not any exercise would help her calves to be smaller, and the answer is no. She already has an exercise routine that she's content with, no reason to mess with it. Adding a few BW leg raises to an exercise routine is not going to give…

If you add muscle to the muscle you already have, they will get bigger not smaller. Muscle tissue doesn't directly feed on adjacent fat tissue when it grows. Muscle tissue generally doesn't grow when you eat a calorie deficit unless you have a very high BF%, and when it does your body metabolizes fat stores from it's…

I'm sorry to say that exercises probably won't help you loose circumference in your calves. You really should focus on diet and eventually the fat will come off of there. I'm sure you've already got some fantastic muscle in there! I've known a few people who have complained about having calves that are too big when they're…

Are you doing this more times/week than you used to? MFP has already calculated a deficit for you, you should strive to MEET your calorie goal not come under it. You need those calories!! Also you should eat back your exercise calories if you're following MFP's guidelines.

The weight should be centered over midfoot, and should stay that way through the entire movement. If you're lifting the balls of your foot off the ground, the weight is too far back. It's a problem because you're not maximizing your lift potential and because you risk loosing the weight behind you, and you'll notice these…

Caffeine is a fairly weak diuretic, and it's been pretty well debunked that the diuretic effect of caffeine in coffee comes even remotely close to offsetting the amount of water in coffee.

The OP has expressed that she has had medical issues due to dehydration in the past.

If you took two people with the same BF%, weight, and fat distribution pattern but were different heights, yes the taller person would appear to have less fat. This usually isn't the case, though, as taller people in general weigh more than their shorter counterparts and would therefore have more fat at the same BF%. Most…

In addition to what's already been said, my advice would be to eat a lot of water rich foods. Soups, fresh fruits and vegetables, and grains and legumes cooked in water are all good choices. Also it's better to sip water than to chug it, in terms of hydration, because your body will just flush out the excess water without…

Maybe your not thirsty because you don't need water. Not everyone's water needs are the same, and for the most part the "drink more water!" campaign is a bit overblown. Do you have symptoms of dehydration? Is your urine dark in color and infrequent? If not, I wouldn't worry.

I think you should eat what you want, but make sure you log everything and hold yourself accountable. I recently recalculated my TDEE and calorie expenditure and found out that after weeks of hard work I was just breaking even and that I needed to lower my calories. I had a minor tantrum over this and overate by 500…

-You need to eat fewer calories than you expend in order to loose weight. If you want a loose a certain amount of weight per week, you'll need to restrict your diet to a certain number of calories. -Starvation mode exists, but it will not prevent you from loosing weight in a deficit. -If you calculate your TDEE as…

I remember we had to use yellow onions, we couldn't get white ones 'cause of the war.