pcastagner Member

I actually never accused you of lying. I did imply it was entirely possible you worked your arms and ate enough to have a positive energy balance. that said, get in there and start squatting, deadlifting, overhead pressing, doing assisted pullups, and bench pressing, and you will feel like a different person after 6…

Being strong is not a good reason not to train. Just start with heavier weights, problem solved. I have the opposite problem. I solve it by lifting less weight. Don't want to get big? eat less. that's the other problem solved. I really hope you conclude all the reasons not to lift are silly, and the reasons to lift are…

If just one curious woman reads this and realizes being afraid to lift because it will make her bulky is a sort of running gag around here, That's enough for me. You're right, I know nothing about you. Because you won't provide details. When I ask, I am accused of something awful for questioning your conclusions. But since…

No lol I'm just using my BS detector. In my mind I replace all the unverifiable statements with blank ones and it exposes just how little usable information is actually here. OP is highly motivated to steer things to a particular conclusion, IMO, and should just get to the point of complaining about how the world works.…

Whoa! Idk though, do you look the same? I haven't made half your progress on strength but I'm definitely putting on some mass (eating for that purpose though). I'm starting to think I got a ****ty genetic hand dealt to me. Or that I've personally pushed the limits of low strength:bodyweight for a healthy male.

Not uncommon, eh? Because all the people I know who don't measure food are overweight. In fact most of the people I know are overweight. Where are all the not uncommon people located, and are they really not uncommon, or are they really just more remarkable?

5'7", 155 lbs and doing 7 chinups? loading 100 lb shells overhead? that would put you in a very small group of women who have that kind of upper body strength. I would indeed expect some nice guns on a girl like that! (sexy as hell, btw)

Yeah for some weird reason I prefer to believe in things when I have some evidence they actually happened.

yes

gym is closed but im doing pullups and chinups

I can't wait! I was one of them last year, and this year I get to be the guy they watch in the squat rack before halfheartedly imitating in the smith machine.

Mmmm... Male dominating... Always wanted to experiment with that. Not sure if it's my thing but they have cool outfits.

I use the portable bar from rogue fitness. Anything you can get two straps over will work. I put eye hooks in the ceiling for doing it inside, but any tree branch or whatever will do. Doesn't have to be level.

You are not gaining muscle, sorry. And the increased metabolism from muscle mass claim is so exaggerated by trainers and bros at the gym that it may as well be completely false. We are talking a few pounds over the course of a year. Enjoy your extra half ounce of chicken breast.

No, seriously, I was being sarcastic. Vague stories aside about how 20 years ago you accidentally had bulging biceps, but don't remember a single other detail about your physique, nobody gets accidentally ripped. There were tons of cameras in 1993. Let's see these bulging biceps. My bet is: either they never existed, or…

Pull-ups involve a higher degree of reciprocal strength than pull downs. It's really not the same move so your experience makes sense.

Lifting has a profound effect on quality of life in almost every population. The longer you do it the greater the benefits. There are no drawbacks, other than those embarrassing biceps bulges.

I notice whenever we have someone claiming it's all or even partly about metabolism, it never comes with any numbers showing HOW MUCH. We tend to just get this vague "higher" or "faster", or "slower" and "lower". Well, how much? 20%? 2%? 0.2%? All three of those options could be true, and the truth or untruth of most of…

You can determine that the earth is round using simple observation and some math, with the observer at any point on the surface of the earth. Believing in muscle gain in a negative energy balance requires a bit more, shall we say, trust. As in, you have to trust the special snowflake you are talking to isn't mistaken or…

Just read that book! He makes a pretty good case in the first chapter. According to Rippetoe, strength training is not a luxury, but rather a therapy designed to return your body to a more natural state of functioning. I too started this process more concerned with muscle mass (preserving or building), but as time went on…

I can guarantee you don't need that many cals. let's just start at the beginning, by knowing how much you eat for the next three weeks. wwe will weigh you every day until then. after, by comparing your net change to your accounting, we will know if you had a negative, positive, or neutral energy balance over the three week…

anecdotally speaking, usually when I hear about clean eating it's from the lips of the fat guy next to me in the sauna, whom I've probably know for a year. In that time I've gone from fat to fit, and he's, well, still eating clean and handing out diet advice. over the past year I've pulled this off while most who started…

squats and deads made my waist ever so slightly wider, but the circumference didn't increase. it looks better than before, like my body is tied together by muscle. it looks more.. solid.

only problem is, it doesn't work and there is no evidence to suggest it does. other than that though, good idea. show me clean eaters and I will show you a group of people with a low likelihood of achieving and a high likelihood of preaching.

eating clean means instead of using knowledge of nutrition science to establish your diet, you reach out to your cohort and use tribal association to establish a dichotomous tautology that tells you which foods are tribe-approved. it's pretty much the same as any other religious dietary restriction.

sigh... this is seen all too often around here. If you don't weigh your food, it's not even possible to know if you are eating more or less the next day. The problem with telling you that eating less to lose weight is a myth, is that it isn't. If you put people in a controlled setting, the more you feed them the more the…

Concur with concurring

Your job is an awesome reason to pick up the book starting strength and follow that program or one like it

(drooling respectfully)

Skin fold measurements.