Fitness And Nutrition General

well, that is definitely his opinion and take on things. I really hope no one is stupid enough to accept his flapping gums as word. All people are different, all have different needs, and different ways of achieving those needs.

The three stages of starvation are just basic physiology. There's no opinion about it.

No, I don't think that's his opinion, it's not an opinionated show. He just researches basic facts and reports it on his channel.

When I see it begin with a dude wearing hipster glasses I cannot continue to watch the video.

I guess everyone is different. I eat when I am hungry. It keeps me from eating to much at one setting.Plus, I feel like I have no power if I am hungry. Cause I'm a MFing beast, lol.

Aman's keys to fitness:

1) Set goals for yourself and don't keep them a secret. Write it down and tell someone else. Set a long term, very out of reach goal say like drop 50 pounds. But along the way set smaller more reasonable goals that you can achieve along the way, for instance doing 20 consecutive pushups at a time you can only maybe do 5. Meeting goals is inspiring and it will keep you motivated. I urge you to not put a time constraint on your goals especially not in terms of strength goals or weight loss. Let the changes happen gradually but let them happen.

2) Learn the difference between these two feelings a) feeling hungry and b) wanting to eat. If you have allowed yourself to become very out of shape and overweight over the years (not judging I'm speaking from experience) then you know the selfish voice inside your head that cries like a baby to get what it wants. Food is a vice, it is an addiction and that voice will always be there. Learn to recognize it. Let it out to eat once in awhile, pick your cheat day and make that selfish part of you earn it through healthy diet and discipline all the other days.

3) Learn the difference between these two feelings a) being too tired to continue and 2) wanting to stop. Same reasoning as above.

4) End every workout with a cool down to the song "Babe" by Styx. Just shut up and do it.

No offense taken, Onorgul about the beef/turkey comment.

Its actually very true, though. I remember reading an article about Oscar Meyer's turkey bacon being more healthy than regular bacon. I believed it.

They did a side by side comparison and found that the regular bacon was not even nearly as bad as people said it was, and the turkey bacon strips was loaded with sodium! Unlike you, though, most people don't read the labels or do research, so as a general rule of thumb, when people hear turkey as opposed to pork, they get the idea its generally healthier (which in most cases it tends to be).

I have no beef with Beef, though (no pun intended).

Anyone wanna break down sugar alcohols for me? I started using myfitness pal to count calories and watch my nutrition facts. I knew I ate too much sugar already but that just puts it in writing for me. So I've been looking at the 0 calorie 0 sugar substitutes for stuff like soda/monsters/sweets. I know I should probably drop them all together but that's not plausible at this time, I've tried lol

I'll defintely try this because at this moment I can only do 5 push-ups at a time. Thank you for your advice.

Don't forget Styx.

I'll give it a listen though I've never been a fan of Styx.

I had problems with that at first too just felt like I was dying but my heart rate was barely 150 when running. So if I wasn't hitting 175+ I won't take a breather. I hate when I'll feel like I got a good workout in then 20 minutes later when I'm almost home I feel like I could go for another round.

I dont know man. If I were to choose between those sugar substitutes and the real the real thing, gimme the damn sugar every day of the week.

There's just too much I don't like about these sugar alternatives, most of which have aspertame in them, that end up actually messing with your mood and appetite. So I'll kind of not offer any advise on taking those. Water with lemon or something similar is just as good, with none of the side effects.

They're sugars that have been converted. The body converts them back into normal sugar, but the process costs almost as much energy as you get back. Manufacturers are allowed to lie by saying "zero calorie" if the serving size keeps the calories under 10. Most sugar-substitute sodas, for instance, have 5-10 calories per 12 oz. can.

You don't want to overload on them, but most science presently available says not to worry. Most diet-types argue that eating sweet things without calories will reinforce or even worsen cravings. I am less than convinced (in part due to other research -- e.g., calories consumed via beverages during a meal do not have any effect on calories consumed via food in that same meal, whether sugared, substituted, or pure water is drunk), but it may be an individual thing.

Speaking personally, even though I am used to most sugar substitutes having grown up with a diabetic father, I do hate them. Outside of sodas, they tend to have unpleasant notes in their flavors. Be especially careful of things like sorbitol, a popular sweetener in sugarless gum and hard candies, as even small amounts can have a strong laxative effect. I once made the mistake of eating a few mint Lifesavers with the stuff and after several hours of intestinal distress, I connected the two elements and google filled in the rest.

On the other hand, if you really need a laxative...

99% of every news report you read regarding aspartame is twaddle. The stuff has been tested and analyzed to death because of the media hype and no verifiable problems exist except in those rare people who cannot process phenylalanine (and phenylalanine is in a LOT more than aspartame, what with it being an amino acid).

Compare this with the media hype that has surrounded eggs for most of our lives (I'm going to assume you were born in the early 90s at the latest). Eggs have been denounced for a dozen different reasons, generally focusing on cholesterol (dietary cholesterol is an irrelevant statistic) and fats. I assume most people in this forum are well-informed that fats are good and eggs are a particularly good source of both fat and protein. Talk to the average uninformed pleb, though, and they're convinced eggs, especially yolks, are hell on wheels. Aspartame has been subjected to the same hoop-la ever since someone fed some rats the equivalent of feeding a human several POUNDS of aspartame per day.

Start off easy and climb from there. I have just recovered from a shoulder injury myself. I went from a 475 bench to a 135 bench with some pain. I am back to repping 315 clean and smooth with no pain. He is some advice. Don't judge yourself by others or pine away for past glories. Focus on the here and now. Focus on what you can do to make your life happier and better. A little chunck at a time.

Yeah because I know what I can't do much. And I don't let it bother me. I just concentrate on my goals and move on. Baby steps throughout the week adding maybe 5-10 more to the rep I can do. And add 5-10 lbs every week.

That is the way to go. Make constant improvements with no injuries bro.I will be honest with you guys. I went from being " The Man", to feeling like "The Woman", lol. Had to bite my pride and check my ego. Now I am back a gaining.

I notice that when after lifting and going to bed later that night I wake up with my left bicep/elbow killing me. Like to the point where I can't extend my arm out straight without excruciating pain. I sleep in a position where my arm is tucked under me since I can only sleep on my stomach. I'm guessing that's why. But it gets so annoying since the pain lasts for a week or so.

Do I take anything or just nut up and keep going? I can't for the life of me ever fall asleep on my back. I just lie there staring at the ceiling till morning. I don't know why.

Use a extra pillow. I use to wake up with shoulder pain myself. Now I use a extra pillow to brace myself.No more issues.

Don't be in a hurry to add weight to the reps that you do especially on isolation exercises like bicep curls. I have suffered through much elbow pain over the years by adding too much weight to fast on bicep curls and I still to this day continue to do them relatively light but very high rep. The strength will still come without constantly adding weight to the exercises but increasing the reps you do with the same exact weight over time.

In any particular lift that you do there are a lot more smaller parts involved than the muscles you are specifically targeting and everything doesn't necessary improve in strength and endurance at the same pace. Keeping that in mind is a good way to avoid injuries when using major joints like your shoulders and elbows.

Ah okay, thank you so much guys I'm so glad I found this thread with people who know enough to help me as I'm starting.

I'll lower the weight and up the reps of my curls and I'll rest it on another pillow.

I second this for all the past questions and future questions ^^ about to switch it up and start trying to gain weight soon so I'm sure I'll be around with more questions

So question/suggestion about my bulk cycle:

I'm at 3k calories a day with my current macros.

I went to get my body fat% done today and I went down in body fat....

I'm at 9.3% bodyfat now and at 162lbs. I was at 12.8% bodyfat and 156lbs about 2 months ago...

How is my bodyfat going down with a caloric surplus. I'm also not super-setting my workouts or doing any cardio. I'm concerned if I should increase my macros or keep them the same?

Also I am on creatine now not sure if that effects bodyfat% readings.

This may be dumb but we're can you get your body fat % done?

There's a couple different methods.

The easiest option is probably to find a gym with a few competent trainers and see if anyone knows how to do a skin-fold caliper exam. Alternatively, you could buy some calipers and find a guide online, but it's less accurate.

If you're in a large enough city, there may be a place where you can get a water-displacement test done. I wouldn't count on it and I don't think it'd be worth the money.

Some gyms have a device that can test electrical resistance and estimate from there. I think there are some commercially-available home scales with similar functionality. They're not impressively accurate.

The US military (specifically the Navy, if I recall correctly) has a formula for estimating body fat percentage based on a series of measurements that you can make with a tailor's tape. It's only an estimate. Here's an online form for it: Navy Body Fat Percentage

Some people really obsess about body fat percentage. Unless you're a competing bodybuilder, boxer, or an Olympic athlete in a weight-controlled event, it's really not very important to have a super-accurate number. If you just want an idea of how much adipose you're carrying, I'd recommend the Navy equation since it is cheap and fast. If you want to be more accurate, call around to local gyms. I can't imagine it would cost more than $20 to have a trained trainer measure you with calipers.



@Baconwrap: I'd be curious to know how you are getting it measured. There are a multitude of factors that can introduce significant errors into pretty much everything except the water-displacement (and some really fancy and expensive method that I'm presently forgetting and don't feel like googling to find).

That said, putting on weight while losing body fat is fairly normal. Creatine will add water weight by increasing the moisture held in your muscle fibers and the mass of food in your gut can make the scale tip several pounds in either direction between measurements.

I just did the math and it looks like the change in percentage amounts to something like 3-4 lbs. of adipose tissue if it was fairly accurate. It would not be hard at all to shift 3-4 lbs. of fat when physically active without realizing you were doing it.

It was done with the electric resistance method using the palms of my hands. Shifting 3-4lbs of fat isnt my concern, it's that I've increased my caloric intake by 1000 calories daily since 12.8%BF/155lbs.

I was expecting my bodyfat% to be going up.

Your gym should have a scale or the handheld device that measures bodyfat%.

Those resistance testers can get thrown off by levels of hydration, sweatiness, and electrolyte balance.

Assuming it is accurate, however, you said you've started with creatine. That will cause you to gain about 5 lbs. of water weight, so that covers the weight difference. It also contributes to having a lower percentage of body fat. The rest of the variation is no doubt a bit of added muscle and a minor reduction in body fat.

Are you trying to put on some fat?

Well I wanted to see how my bulk cycle was coming along and if 3000 calories was sufficient or if I needed to recalculate my macros.

Protein:167g Carbs:451g Fat:67g

How do you calculate how much water weight creatine adds, approximately?