scrittrice Member

This was invaluable for me: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/902569/barbell-routines-when-you-only-have-dumbbells/p1

I eat a lot of restaurant meals. Sometimes I try to find something similar and then I may quick-add 100 or 200 or 300 calories, and sometimes I just quick-add 1,200 calories (for a full meal with a glass of wine) and call it a day. After logging for a while, I'm a good guesser. If there are a lot of entries for something,…

That does sound fast, but I remember my first few 5/3/1 workouts were pretty quick, because he has you start relatively low, so you probably don't need to rest much between sets. Also, I didn't add accessories at first--just did the AMRAP at the end. Now I do Boring But Big, so there's more volume/time involved. It's still…

@ninenines I use Wendlerized and enter accessories manually. I like the app, but I do wish it had the ability to copy the accessories from workout to workout or cycle to cycle. Then again, it's free. I go through and enter a bunch at a time when I have a moment, then adjust on the day if I need to. Wrote the above and was…

I use Little League "bat donuts" that were cheap and weigh 1.25 pounds each. Fit the end of a barbell perfectly. http://www.amazon.com/Baseball-Weight-Donuts-Little-Softball/dp/B00I58DJ7U

Ditto. I don't exclude when cutting, and I don't look at maintenance as a time to add "forbidden" foods. The difference between cutting .5 pound a week and maintaining is 1/2 cup (tiny!) of vanilla ice cream or a generous handful of almonds. Not life-changing.

No expert, but my advice would be to stick to the program as written for the first few months. It seems easy in the beginning, but it will get challenging and time-consuming very quickly.

Now I want pancakes.

Today was DL day, and after writing that I did 5x10 deadlifts (and biked home veeeeery slowly). It was fine, actually. There's also a variation of BBB that calls for doing the 5x10 squats on deadliest day and vice versa (and press and bench). That way you'd do two different lifts each time.

P.S. It may be boring (as noted above, I like boring in the gym), but the "big" part isn't happening to me.

I do it, but on deadlift day I do other things, as it seems like way too many deadlifts. It is good for cementing the form in my brain, and I like something utterly mindless (and still have to check my phone 4,000 times to see what comes next). For presses, I've been doing z-presses (seated on the floor with legs in a V so…

This is the sentence that caught my eye.

FitBit + MFP has been freakily accurate for me.

@Deena_Bean Ow! Can you lift your arm over your head? I always think I'm fine, and then I try to wash my hair...

On-line calculators/MFP have proven to be almost eerily accurate for me.

I have been lifting heavy for a little over a year now and was more or less at maintenance when I started. In the beginning, I was hungry in a way that I have never been hungry before. Indescribably hungry. I often went 100 calories or so over my goal. It has definitely gotten much better/less intense, and I've learned to…

Same here. I was glad to see it mentioned in the comments, if not the article.

P.S. Started reading the comment (articles on weight loss always get a lot of comments) and wondering how long it would take to find an MFP recommendation. Second comment I read is from someone who lost weight slowly and steadily on this site.

Wanted to add now that I've read the article that I've seen bits and pieces of the show but never watched a whole episode, and it sounds horrible! I can hardly believe it's legal, though I'm sure contestants sign some kind of iron-clad contract. This is what someone did post-show to weigh-in in order to win: "Mr. Cahill…

I just wanted to say hooray for you. There will never be a reality television show about people who lose weight sensibly and slowly while implementing lifestyle changes, because it's just not as exciting to watch, and that's a shame, because you are a better role model.

I also don't see "so much fat." You need some amount of fat on your body, and since you're female, it likely will be in those areas. If you like and trust your trainer, do what s/he says, at least for a while. After 6 months, reevaluate. As @sijomial said, there's no rule that says you have to do what you're doing now…

Let's call it a bulk-and-cut cycle. That sounds scientific and productive!

@Isca_1 Didn't mean to make you feel guilty! I will be thrilled if/when I hit 70 on OHP. Sometimes it just won't budge.

If 70 pounds OHP is the pits for you, I'm glad you don't see me lift! My OHP progress is torturously slow.

I read Starting Strength cover to cover when I got it, then went into the gym and stood in the rack and didn't know what to do at all. I tucked my tail between my legs and left. That was when I hired a trainer for a few sessions. Now that I'm in the groove, though, I frequently go back and check what he said about grip or…

I did three sessions with a trainer when I started and found that to be the perfect number. You could probably even get by with two. You can also video yourself at home (I used a broomstick in place of a bar) just to make sure that what you're doing looks like the videos you see on-line. Finally, I heartily recommend…

In addition to setting fitness goals (watching the numbers go up as you get stronger is just as satisfying as watching the number on the scale go down), as everyone has mentioned here, I like to look in my closet and remind myself that everything fits. That might sound silly, but for years getting dressed meant thinking…

I do the same thing, and I never knew what those square plastic thingies were until just this minute. Sometimes I stack plates just because I know I'll be using them on the bar eventually.

I think 2 lifts per session would be a good happy medium. Or you could do each lift once but do more than one just on Fridays with the trainer, depending on what the rest of your schedule is like. I know it's supposed to be a 4 day/week program, but I only do 3 days/week (see above re my lazy and noncompetitive nature).…

I switched from 3x5 to 5-3-1 in July of last year for similar reasons and also to save a little time, as workouts were starting to get so long. I switched all at once. Pluses are that everything is in one place in one app on my phone (Wendlerized, highly recommended), and that the workouts aren't as time-consuming. With…