Posts by cookk

Original Post by dowlcao1:

 Have you ever looked at the legs of a serious biker or runner? They have the thighs of thoroughbreds.... 

Do you think they got those legs by only biking/running?  The answer would be no, they also incorporated weight training.  Resistance training in women is essential in preventing bone loss, osteoporosis is no joke.  So do it for your health.  Since you have a dislike for it you would be best doing the complex exercises that incorporate the whole body like Squates, Deadlifts, Bench Press and Shoulder press.  These 4 exercises will work every single muscle in your body, any thing else is just extra and an argument can be made that they unnecessary since very little is gained from isolation exercises.  Now if you feel the need to spot train an area then by all mean add them in once the Majorexercise is done.  But don't do them in place of the complex exercise.  Do these 4 exercise twice a week 3 sets of 10 with one warm up set per exercise.  Not only will you have your weight training done, you will have hit all of your muscles plus prevented bone loss as you age.  Also lets not forget that females do not have enough testosterone in there body to "look like a dude" so don't worry about bulking up it's not going to happen.  It is very hard to do naturally regardless if it is male or female and even harder for females.

I guess define not worth it. Is it a good ab exercise then yes it definitely works out the abs but it wont give you a six pack. It certainly shouldn't used as your only form of exercise and expect to transform your body.  Until you get to around 10% bf you won't see them anyways.  So concentrate on core strength through complex movements like squats and deadlifts and it will produce much better results.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by liswobble:

I've never done those squats before but I can't wait to to try them b/c I'm a total squat lush! However...the form on that vid seems bad. You're not supposed to let the front knee go past the toes, no? Just a heads up for people who might be new to squats.

 I don't think there's any reason you're knee can't go past your toe on any squat.

If you google olympic weightlifting you'll find plenty of pictures of people in an overhead squat position with their knees in front of their toes.

 I think there thinking of Lunges. 

Sure there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat so if you burned say 500 calories that would be .005 ounces/calorie burned( roughley) so that would be 2.5 ounces of fat or .16 lbs of fat burned. 

Original Post by alevin:

yes, but that's ratio, but not total.   cardio burns calories, and that will results in more weight loss if the person's at a deficit.  if someone doesn't lift weights, they'll lose more muscle.

 The study is looking at fat loss only since that is the most relevant part of weight loss. 

Overweight subjects were assigned to three groups: diet-only, diet plus aerobics, diet plus aerobics plus weights. The diet group lost 14.6 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. The aerobic group lost only one more pound (15.6 pounds) than the diet group (training was three times a week starting at 30 minutes and progressing to 50 minutes over the 12 weeks).

The weight training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat (44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively). Basically, the addition of aerobic training didn't result in any real world significant fat loss over dieting alone.

The summary is that by adding cardio to the diet it was 1 pound more lost but by adding the weight training it was 7 lbs.  Also think that it takes 3500 calories for a pound of fat so your typical 300 calorie burn from cardio would take 12 days to reach that pound.  But if you add weight training your 300 burn is coupled with another 100 calories for repair now your burn for the exercie for the day is 700 or 1 pound every five days.

It is not impossible to measure your Body Fat on line, using a measurement based reading is a way of telling what your body fat is and is just as reliable as a bioelectrical Impedance device such as the Tanita scale.  Both have a +/- reading that accompany it, this site seems to be more reliable.  People that know what their BF% is have said it was about 2-3% difference than what they were which is what the error rate is.  If you want to know what it is for sure see your doctor about a bod pod or Dexa scan, but this is free and easy to track results rather than actual BF%.

Original Post by oneis2many:

Now I'm confused.

 

What exercise needs to be done to firm up the upper part of the inner thigh?

For women, it's a difficult area to change, firm, or reshape.  I use those machines as well as considerable cardio and squats.  I find lunges difficult.  More so because I have a weak sense of balance.

I've tried to lunges without weights just to get the feel and balance, and still fall all over the place.

 

 

SO, what else is there? 

 First go to this page, there are a ton of different type of squat techniques out there and each one uses the leg muscle differently.  Secondly keep working with the lunges, just like the squat there are many different types just look at the videos.  It does take time to lean but the pay off will be worth it.  Don't let a weakness keep you from becoming the best you that you can be.

Original Post by hanmick:

I use Met Rx ,  no extra calories,  about 6 scoops a day (over 800 g protein)with a cup of unsweetened frozen fruit in the blender,  in a thermos.  I drink some of the shake every 2 hours to stave off appetite.  Works great,  work out too.

 800 Grams of Protein?  Seems like a lot that is 3200 calories just in your supplements not to mention the other calories that are in the supplement. 

What about an Arm-Peddled Bike?  Also Google paraplegic work out to get some ideas.

How many calories do you burn a day?  Since you have a lot to loose you can have a larger deficit then say some one who is 150 and wants to loose 20 lbs.  What about exercise, any of that going on yet?  You dropped pretty quickly so it is probably is something you need to work through, but try switching things up.  Eat 2000 calories one day then eat 1700, then 1900 just keep switching it up each day to keep the body guessing.  Start exercising if you are not already, walking is a great place to start.  Make sure you incorporate weight training so you can save your bones from all of those awful things happing to them later in life.  Try this site input all the info including your measurements for your hips and waist.  Down at the bottom on the right it will give you a fat mass reading.  Take that number and multiply it times 31, this will give the most deficits you can have before you start to loose muscle.  So let’s say you burn 3500 calories a day, your fat mass is 50lbs * 31 = 1550, so that means you can consume 2000 calories a day and loose mostly fat.  Now this may be too low for you and that is ok you need to understand your limits so you know where to stop at and not go too low.  If you are still breastfeeding then use these numbers after your done, take care of the baby first but if not go full speed ahead.

It really depends on what your needs are this is a Meal Replacement supplement not just a Whey Protein supplement.  If you need the additional calories and you like this one then go for it but if you are watching your calories and just want the protein use the Maximuscle's Promax (going with same company as an example) and mix it with water or milk.  The diet has 228 calories vs the promax at 120 calories and you still got the calories from what ever you mix it with.  Shop around and read labels to see what an actual serving is, a lot of times they will put some exaggerated number on the front to make it look like the best but it is actually two and half scoops.  Some people swear by brand others by taste, it also needs to fit your budget but most whey is created equal.

Original Post by rtsandlin:

if you go over 1000 will you not lose weight or just do it unhealthily?

 It really depends on the situation, assuming that your threshold for loosing fat is say 600 calories any thing over that will probably come from muscle.  So yes you can loose weight for a little while but not in a good way.  A lot of time what happens is people will eat to low for so long then they will stop loosing weight and enter starvation mode.  When this happens you actually reestablish your body's needs at the level you have been eating at.  For example you need 2000 calories a day your deficit should be no more then 300 calories, you eat 1000 per day.  So what happens is your body sends out signals to conserve as much energy as possible so it holds on to all of the fat, it also will start to eat muscle for energy because they are considered expendable since they not only cost energy but can provided energy as well.  Now your caloric need is at 1000 calories so when you eat your normal 2000 calories your body stores it as 1000 extra calories.  You can break this but it takes a long time to get your body to trust you again.  To make a blanket statement that you can have a 500 - 1000 calorie deficit is though since some can have more and some can not even have the 500. 

It really depends on how much fat you have in your body to lose.  The max fat your body can burn a day is 31 calories per pound of fat.  So lets say you are 150lbs at 30% BF, that would be a deficit of 1395 that you could have each day.  That means if you go above that then you start to eat away at muscle(bad thing).  Now a person who is 120lbs and 25%bf could only have 930 caloric deficit.  Those are the limitation in your body, you definitely need to eat the minim and usually above.  Phords calculator can help you calculate what you can have theoretically.  So depending on what you have to lose depends on how deep you can cut but the majority of the deficit should come from exercise.  Also it depends on what you can handle, some people can not take more than 500 caloric deficit.  Remember just because you can doesn't mean that you should, listen to your body and adjust accordingly.

There are varying opinions on this and it usually has to do with growth plates and damage to them.  But like Melkor said form and proper weight are the key.  If this is a real concern your doctor could do x-rays to tell you how much growth there is left for you but proper form will help the most along with a good diet.  Every one is different you might be a freshmen in high school and be done growing.  I have lifted pretty regularly since Junior High (7th and 8th grade for me) and I reached 6' 1" so I wouldn't say it stunted my growth.  Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns on how it would affect you specifically.

Original Post by jasmin3w4:

TO ALL OF YOU-WOW! Thanks so much for sharing your stories and tips! It's always motivating for me to hear success stories.

Did any of you fall of the wagon during your weight loss? Was it an all or nothing approach?

Thanks again for the inspiration!

 Yes I took vacation Three weeks into starting to loose weight, so I gained any thing I had lost at that point.  Essentially starting back at square one.

Start Date: March 24, 2008

Start Weight: 300

Current Weight: 277

# of weeks of healthy lifestyle: 6 Weeks (technically 9 but I had to restart due to vacation)

# of lbs lost since start: 23

Goal Weight: 220

Tip:  Get moving it is the easiest thing to do and any thing counts.  Walk around the block once in the morning and once at night, take the stairs even if it is just down, chase your kids around the house any thing to get moving.  Weight Training works best for me, so I started lifting weights 1st, then started counting calories.  Figured out my deficit to what I can handle vs what is the most I can have vs what I was taking in.  I am now at the point of where I need/want to start caring about where those calories are coming from and try to get the most out of what I take in.  Tip # 2 don't change every thing at once, it will be to much for you to take and you will probably end up failing.  Take the steps necessary to ensure that it is a life style change vs a DIET.  Also have faith in your self you can do it if you want it bad enough.