Bodybuilding/Workout/Diet thread

[Sgt PSN]

It's either that or a chipped fingernail. You decide!

[rjs246]

After three months of doing literally nothing active I just finished six weeks of loading. That's the easy part, now I have to start watching what I eat and running and shtein to cut all this down. Anyone have any suggestions for making the 'cut' part of the load and cut process less annoying?

Maybe I'll just let it go and get fat. At 35 I'm finally starting to see the appeal.

[rjs246]

^^^^^ Dillen, Z, PPinDC... I'm basically looking to you here ^^^^^

[Dillen]

Loading = working out and eating whatever you want?

The main thing to cutting is eating stuff that is healthy, but you actually enjoy. I don't think you're entering a bodybuilding competition and trying to cut down to 5% body fat, so don't bother with anything close to the 'only eat grilled chicken and vegetables' bullshtein because then you're likely to be miserable and eat bad food anyways. You like eggs or fried egg sandwiches? When you eat them, pull the yolk out of some. Like I'll use 3 eggs to fry and put on a sandwich. Use only one whole egg and two egg whites, since the yolk contains all the egg's fat and LDL cholesterol. Barely notice the difference in taste, they're filling, good for you, and you actually enjoy them so you shouldn't feel the need to eat shtein food. 

Make a lot of thick shakes. Protein, fruit, whatever. You could find a lower-fat or lower-sugar ice cream and toss half a scoop into a protein shake if you want every now and again. If you are active most of the time, half a scoop of ice cream won't kill you especially if you don't do it much. Ice creams w/ really low fat or sugars per serving are around, you just need to look. Or throw in low-fat and low-sugar yogurt into a shake. If the shakes are thick they'll fill you up, and they should control you wanting sweets, whether making a shake w/ a shtein ton of fruit or chocolate protein powder + peanut butter or something.

A problem w/ most meats is that they suck plain, and then the bbq sauce, frying oils, or whatever you use to make it taste good is horrible for you. My girl's Peruvian and introduced me to all the crazy different shtein you can do with fish. Basically, steaming, adding spices, onions and light sauces (all which have little to no calories) makes fish taste good.

Still have some beef once in awhile. I have 90/10 or 93/7 ground beef like once a week. Get any leaner than that and it tastes like wood.

Also, obviously eat whole grains or wheat instead of refined rice, pasta, bread, etc but I think you know that. Best exercises for fat burning is high-intensity interval training, which you probably already know too. Start playing lacrosse again or some shtein. Just running long distances sucks ass. Fat burners and thermogenics work really well, although I've only tried each for about a week and felt like my heart is going to explode. Curbs your appetite too.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Dillen you have joined the bang a Peruvian club, eh?

The women and food and beer are top notch.

[rjs246]

Loading = working out and eating whatever you want?

The main thing to cutting is eating stuff that is healthy, but you actually enjoy. I don't think you're entering a bodybuilding competition and trying to cut down to 5% body fat, so don't bother with anything close to the 'only eat grilled chicken and vegetables' bullshtein because then you're likely to be miserable and eat bad food anyways. You like eggs or fried egg sandwiches? When you eat them, pull the yolk out of some. Like I'll use 3 eggs to fry and put on a sandwich. Use only one whole egg and two egg whites, since the yolk contains all the egg's fat and LDL cholesterol. Barely notice the difference in taste, they're filling, good for you, and you actually enjoy them so you shouldn't feel the need to eat shtein food. 

Make a lot of thick shakes. Protein, fruit, whatever. You could find a lower-fat or lower-sugar ice cream and toss half a scoop into a protein shake if you want every now and again. If you are active most of the time, half a scoop of ice cream won't kill you especially if you don't do it much. Ice creams w/ really low fat or sugars per serving are around, you just need to look. Or throw in low-fat and low-sugar yogurt into a shake. If the shakes are thick they'll fill you up, and they should control you wanting sweets, whether making a shake w/ a shtein ton of fruit or chocolate protein powder + peanut butter or something.

A problem w/ most meats is that they suck plain, and then the bbq sauce, frying oils, or whatever you use to make it taste good is horrible for you. My girl's Peruvian and introduced me to all the crazy different shtein you can do with fish. Basically, steaming, adding spices, onions and light sauces (all which have little to no calories) makes fish taste good.

Still have some beef once in awhile. I have 90/10 or 93/7 ground beef like once a week. Get any leaner than that and it tastes like wood.

Also, obviously eat whole grains or wheat instead of refined rice, pasta, bread, etc but I think you know that. Best exercises for fat burning is high-intensity interval training, which you probably already know too. Start playing lacrosse again or some shtein. Just running long distances sucks ass. Fat burners and thermogenics work really well, although I've only tried each for about a week and felt like my heart is going to explode. Curbs your appetite too.

Holy shtein that was a lot of words.

So, 'loading' in this case basically means max-lifting, taking Creatine and NO XPlode and eating more of what I usually eat, which is already a pretty healthy high protein, low carb diet. I've put on about 8 pounds of muscle and I'm just looking to cut down on water weight (creatine) and fat (beer). You're right that I'm not looking to have 5% body fat, but 10% would be nice. So basically, here's what I got out of your post... there is no shortcut and I need to drink less booze and do interval training if I want to make noticeable improvements from where I am. Both of those steps towards a healthy existence can eat my ass. So I'll just play lacrosse once the weather gets better and accept the fact that I'll always have a little soft spot in the middle.

[SunMo]

Also, obviously eat whole grains or wheat instead of refined rice, pasta, bread, etc but I think you know that. Best exercises for fat burning is high-intensity interval training, which you probably already know too. Start playing lacrosse again or some shtein. Just running long distances sucks ass. Fat burners and thermogenics work really well, although I've only tried each for about a week and felt like my heart is going to explode. Curbs your appetite too.

The pasta and bread thing is my toughest thing to do yet.  I'm so focused on calories, that when I see wheat pasta actually has more calories than white, I don't want to use it.  Add that to the fact that wheat doesn't taste as good as white and I don't make the chance.  Intellectually, I know that your body doesn't process refined flour like it does wheat and while the calories may be higher, there are many more health benefits to wheat.  I have to really make an attempt to do that.

I feel like I've plateaued with my weight loss.  I've been in the same weight range since Christmas and I'm beginning to get frustrated.   I do interval training, and I track my heart rate from workout to the workout and I'm being consistent in my work rate, if not increasing it in the past two weeks.  Not sure what else I can do, except eat better, which sucks.  I lost most of my weight by not changing my diet too much, just eating less calories.  On a day I don't work out, I eat around 1600 calories.  When I work out it usually goes up to 2200 or 2300.  I'm thinking that I need to focus more on what I'm eating, just not the calorie content, the wheat/white pasta being an example of that.

[Dillen]

Dillen you have joined the bang a Peruvian club, eh?

The women and food and beer are top notch.

Yeah. Want to get down there soon, she hasn't been in like 10 years. I think a vacation to Hawaii is in the cards in like a year so Peru's going to have to wait.

You're right that I'm not looking to have 5% body fat, but 10% would be nice. So basically, here's what I got out of your post... there is no shortcut and I need to drink less booze and do interval training if I want to make noticeable improvements from where I am. Both of those steps towards a healthy existence can eat my ass. So I'll just play lacrosse once the weather gets better and accept the fact that I'll always have a little soft spot in the middle.

If you're already running, you might as well do interval training. The worst way to burn fat in cardio is doing it at a comfortable pace. Say for example, you run 2 miles over 16 minutes on a treadmill at steady pace. If you do the same distances over the same time in interval training, you'll get better results. Try it a couple times, you'd be surprised the difference.

You'd definitely have fun with fat burners. If nothing else, give those a shot for like two weeks and change nothing else. The stuff they do to your body is hilarious.

The pasta and bread thing is my toughest thing to do yet.  I'm so focused on calories, that when I see wheat pasta actually has more calories than white, I don't want to use it.  Add that to the fact that wheat doesn't taste as good as white and I don't make the chance.  Intellectually, I know that your body doesn't process refined flour like it does wheat and while the calories may be higher, there are many more health benefits to wheat.  I have to really make an attempt to do that.

Keep in mind the wheat and whole grains usually have significantly more fiber than the white kinds, so you're shteinting out a lot more and the net calories is lower.

[hbionic]

Sunny, you answered your own question. Literally, you are what you eat.its not like you are packing 2000 calories worth of fruit and vegetables. A friend I know eats baked sweet potatoes instead of a standard potato. Also, she uses honey from Agave plants instead of syrup. It's all about alternatives and choices.

1600 calories is not low if they are from good sources. Otherwise, you're fooling yourself.

[Sgt PSN]

I feel like I've plateaued with my weight loss.  I've been in the same weight range since Christmas and I'm beginning to get frustrated.   I do interval training, and I track my heart rate from workout to the workout and I'm being consistent in my work rate, if not increasing it in the past two weeks.  Not sure what else I can do, except eat better, which sucks.  I lost most of my weight by not changing my diet too much, just eating less calories.  On a day I don't work out, I eat around 1600 calories.  When I work out it usually goes up to 2200 or 2300.  I'm thinking that I need to focus more on what I'm eating, just not the calorie content, the wheat/white pasta being an example of that.

It's not uncommon to reach a lul in weight loss.  When you first start dieting/working out/etc you tend to shed weight fairly quickly because your body is more or less in shock.  It's like WTF?  Then it adjusts to your new routine and diet and the weight loss starts to slow down or maybe even come to a complete halt.  Not to mention that you're also starting to turn fat into muscle now and muscle weighs more than fat.  So the scale says that you're not losing any weight, but you are still losing fat.  And that's way more important than the number on the scale, imo. 

You might want to consider lowering your calorie intake on workout days a bit, too.  Try a higher carb, lower calorie diet on your work out days.  When I needed to lose some weight last year, that's what I did and it seemed to work like a champ.  Carbs = fuel.  Fuel = energy.  Energy = better workout.  Better workout = higher calorie burn.  Higher calorie burn = improved weight loss. 

If you haven't done so already, find out what your ideal BMR (Basal Metobolic Rate) is and plan your diet/workout around that. 

Example:  Lets say your BMR is 2000 calories a day.  That means your body needs 2000 calories a day to keep you alive.  So if you consume 2000 calories during the day and your workout burns 500 calories, that leaves you with a total of 1500 for the day.  So this would result in weight loss.  But if you increase your caloric intake to 2500 calories on workout days and still only burn 500 calories during the course of your workout, that leaves you with 2000 calories for the day and no weight loss at all.  Obviously if you took in 3000 calories and only burned off 500, you'd be left with 2500 calories and would gain weight.   

[SunMo]

Sunny, you answered your own question. Literally, you are what you eat.its not like you are packing 2000 calories worth of fruit and vegetables. A friend I know eats baked sweet potatoes instead of a standard potato. Also, she uses honey from Agave plants instead of syrup. It's all about alternatives and choices.

1600 calories is not low if they are from good sources. Otherwise, you're fooling yourself.

yeah, i get that.  it worked for about a year and for losing 60 lbs but i want like 15 more.  but i'm also not going to turn my diet upside down to do it because i know i won't maintain it. maybe i'm as far as i can be with what i'm willing to do.  if that's the case, so be it

[rjs246]

My go-to guy for hilarious ways to take shortcuts with changing your body is Tim Ferriss. He insists that taking one day a week to 'cheat' (translation, gorge on anything and everything) actually helps keep your body from getting used to the diet regiment that you're on, which allows you to continue losing weight beyond the point where your body would normally adjust. I see a down side to this, which is that part of changing your diet and lifestyle is psychologically detaching yourself from certain foods. Granting a 'cheat day' means that you're never totally getting away from those foods and you're never too far from just falling back into eating them all of the time. Anyway, if you've hit a plateau and don't want to totally give up the foods you love it might be something worth trying. If I remember correctly SD did it for a while and it seemed to be working.

[Sgt PSN]

When I train, I have a cheat day too. Sunday is my cheat day since I'll be hitting the gym the next day and don't have to worry about the food clogging up my system over an entire weekend.  I'll never fully give up the foods I love.  Sorry, but life without stromboli or chocolate jr's simply isn't a life worth living. 

[PhillyPhanInDC]

My cheat has always been steak. I'll go get a big ass steak to reward myself, but I don't go nuts with dumbness - not buttered rolls and stuff like that. I usually get a sweet potato and some steamed vegetables. I also reward myself with a good solid beer, no light shtein.

[Zanshin]

When I'm serious, my body doesn't tolerate cheat meals, let alone days. It'll respond to being good consistently, but even a cheat meal puts a serious dent in the non-cheat efforts. Everyone is different, and that's just the luck of my draw. No biggie.