The Fitness thread

Stick with what you're eating. If you need more carbs you'll soon know about it (you'll basically fall over and be unable to get up - actually that will happen in month 2 anyway).

If you find you aren't losing weight after 2 weeks then eat less. If you're losing weight, are always tired and fall over a lot then eat more. If in doubt, less fat is good.

Can you tell I'm not a doctor?
 
Phil Young said:
Jake,

A really easy way (and usually quite accurate) is to multiply your weight by 22 for women / 24 for me and from that figure subtract however many calories you think you can adjust by.

For exercise, adding calories to the total day is pointless - you need calories that are dedicated to your workout.

If your workout is tough (breathing really heavy most of the time) then eat 1g carbs per minute of intended exercise.

If it's only moderate intensity, consume 1g.

I'd look to eat this (in addition to normal meal) around 1.5hrs prior to exercise so that it's ready for energy at the time you start.

*don't eat protein befire you workoutout - this will hold everything else in your stomach and your pre workout carbs will not be available for your workout.
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Okay Phil, that kind of makes sense. Below is what I'm currently eating with the breakdown of carbs, protein, fat. At the moment I'm generally exercising either between 'brunch' and lunch or after 'mid afternoon' and before 'dinner'. Both of these are fairly high in carbs (around 0.75g/per kg) but they are also high in protein. If I was to exercise between 'mid afternoon' and 'dinner' and move the feta to the chicken wrap and drink the milk straight afterwards would this be better?

View attachment 3749
 
JonathanRyan said:
Stick with what you're eating. If you need more carbs you'll soon know about it (you'll basically fall over and be unable to get up - actually that will happen in month 2 anyway).

If you find you aren't losing weight after 2 weeks then eat less. If you're losing weight, are always tired and fall over a lot then eat more. If in doubt, less fat is good.

Can you tell I'm not a doctor?
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This is what I would think and according to the Insanity book my diet is already much better this time around, less hungry, less achey but last time I lost 1/2 stone in 10 days so it seems counter intuitive to eat more this time around, hence why I wanted to check this stuff out.
 
I've highlighted a few things. Remember - any unused calories will be stored as glycogen first (then fat if glycogen stores are full) which you're then burning as energy, which makes excess food on a weight loss mission a waste of time.

Remember with nuts: most of the fat isn't "good fat" it's just less bad than trans fat or animal fat...but it's still stored for energy.

Other times, you are just having too many carbs and or protein in one go and storing glycogen (which brings fat burning to a slow pace since there is readily available energy there already).

Based on what I've highlighted, you could probably knock off 400 calories at least from that and burn more fat in the process since you're not storing as much excess food as energy.

Hope that helps!
 
Phil Young said:
I've highlighted a few things. Remember - any unused calories will be stored as glycogen first (then fat if glycogen stores are full) which you're then burning as energy, which makes excess food on a weight loss mission a waste of time.

Remember with nuts: most of the fat isn't "good fat" it's just less bad than trans fat or animal fat...but it's still stored for energy.

Other times, you are just having too many carbs and or protein in one go and storing glycogen (which brings fat burning to a slow pace since there is readily available energy there already).

Based on what I've highlighted, you could probably knock off 400 calories at least from that and burn more fat in the process since you're not storing as much excess food as energy.

Hope that helps!
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That's great thanks, I'll have to give that a go and see if I notice any difference. just a couple of questions

1) Is the pasta alteration 30g or 80g? I can't quite work it out
2) Is there anything I can eat to snack on if I get hungry which would fit in with all this?

If it is 30g, here are the updated figures
View attachment 3755
 
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30g.

If you're getting hungry then you haven't got it right but if you work towards 80kcal per hour / 240kcal per 3hrs, you shouldn't be really getting hungry and that's probably all you need (adding in more for any exercise).

An ideal meal would be something like an apple and half a chicken sandwich. That's enough to sustain your eneegy for 2.5-3hrs or so before you jeed to eat again and then a similar size meal would be great.

Anything you add over that will be stored and used, putting your stored fat on hold.

If you were to eat meals like that, you'd probably achieve your goal in 4-6 weeks. More food = more time to achieve goal unless you're hitting maintenance calories, which effectively nullifies the entire day...
 
Oops just realised I uploaded the wrong pic. So by my calculations I need to eat 1200kcal over 5 meals to stave off hunger for a 15hr day + 400-500kcal for insanity that means I need to be eating 1600-1700 calories per day (320kcal per 3hours), is that right?
 
jacob12_1993 said:
Oops just realised I uploaded the wrong pic. So by my calculations I need to eat 1200kcal over 5 meals to stave off hunger for a 15hr day + 400-500kcal for insanity that means I need to be eating 1600-1700 calories per day (320kcal per 3hours), is that right?
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Mostly right.

Exercise requires a lot more energy than when sedentary. You must have this energy ready for your workout so eating all of what you need for the workout must be consumed prior to the start so it is readily available for you.

Based on what Jon's said, I'm going to assume insanity to be around 85% max heart rate as an average. That means around 85% of your energy will comes from carbs. So an hour's workout that burns 500 calories means you need to eat 105g's worth of carbs BEFORE you start - these carbs will be stored as glycogen which can be easily broken down and used as energy.

If you don't do that, all that will happen is you'll create a glucose debt because you can't provide it as fast as your demands, which means;

A ) you won't workout as hard.
B ) you'll lose muscle for energy.

I was sparring yesterday for an hour and I ate a 150g bag of sweets an hour before. There would have been no point workout out then spacing out extra calories afterwards because I already made the energy, it just came from fat and muscle amino acids - if you find yourself in this position, more protein would be a good idea to rebuild any lost proteins.

Basically just eat a couples of handfuls of sweets an hour or so before training and keep the rest to eating small when you're hungry :)
 
I just remixed some of the P90X3 videos. Fewer jokes from Tony, better music.

Yeah it's heresy. But I have Final Cut and I ain't afraid to use it :)
 
Struggled today and it was down to CVS as well as muscle fatigue. Barely managed the first 8mins and managed only 4 mins of the second run.
 
Also, try not to concentrate too much on any particular part of the body . . .

Strongman_zps9dc8a6e0.jpg
 
Although the pic is funny, I've seen a few guys at the gym with impressive upper bodies and puny legs. It's amazing how ridiculous they look.
 
omens said:
Although the pic is funny, I've seen a few guys at the gym with impressive upper bodies and puny legs. It's amazing how ridiculous they look.
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There was a guy like that who used to work at my place...... Looking at his pictures on FB he's put on some serious muscle in the last couple of years. I'd estimate he's gone from about 12st and he is reportedly 15st now and benching over 200KG (if you believe his FB statuses). He's also just landed a job as a PT at the local David Lloyd gym.

Upper body is massive but his legs look like they could struggle to support the top half :lol:
 
That's very interesting - I wonder what advice he'll give to his clients! I've seen guys who have arms wider than their legs!
 
What I have noticed are two Eastern European guys (at least they look so to me, apologies if they're not), who are probably the biggest guys I've ever seen in that gym (it's Virgin so not just an iron gym) religiously work out their legs. Never seen them use the squat rack but definitely seen them use the hack squat and leg press machines.
 
I had to google that and then "fudge that!". Will have to try it at home with bodyweight only first.
 
I should mention this. I have a pull up bar at home. One of those metal dealies that fit in the door frame. I first fitted it around ten years ago when I was into lifting. I've never been able to do a chin or pull up - at the best, I could hold onto the bar to do a chin and hold my arms at a 90 degree bend. Last night, after doing a Pull day at the gym, I decided to give it a go for the hell of it and surprised myself when I managed a single chin. 1RM of 84kg right there.
 
omens said:
I should mention this. I have a pull up bar at home. One of those metal dealies that fit in the door frame. I first fitted it around ten years ago when I was into lifting. I've never been able to do a chin or pull up - at the best, I could hold onto the bar to do a chin and hold my arms at a 90 degree bend. Last night, after doing a Pull day at the gym, I decided to give it a go for the hell of it and surprised myself when I managed a single chin. 1RM of 84kg right there.
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Nice work :)

If you want to get better at these (and it seems to impress people in a gym) then try RubberBanditz - http://rubberbanditz.com/info-center/pull-up-bands/

I used one of these when I was learning levers and they work really well.
 
I've been doing machine-assisted dips and wide-grip pull ups for a few months now. The only new thing I did was switch from wide-grip lat pulldowns to V-grip instead. I now plan to switch from machine assisted pull ups to chins and see what happens.
 
omens said:
I've been doing machine-assisted dips and wide-grip pull ups for a few months now. The only new thing I did was switch from wide-grip lat pulldowns to V-grip instead. I now plan to switch from machine assisted pull ups to chins and see what happens.
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I find chins really satisfying and rewarding to progress at, only up to sets of 4 so far (with decent range of moment) but much better than I could do until recently! Let us know how you get on with the change.
 
Yes I do for bench and deadlifting days Phil, as long as schedules match up it I've found it to be very motivational - and a decent spotter for benching never goes a miss!
 
jeff127 said:
Yes I do for bench and deadlifting days Phil, as long as schedules match up it I've found it to be very motivational - and a decent spotter for benching never goes a miss!
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You folks should have a few weeks of just eccentric training (negatives). Your gains will be much more than the normal pushing. You'd need a partner since you would need to train at or above your 1RM.

*warning of severe DOMS*
 
Phil Young said:
You folks should have a few weeks of just eccentric training (negatives). Your gains will be much more than the normal pushing. You'd need a partner since you would need to train at or above your 1RM.

*warning of severe DOMS*
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Interesting. P90X3 has 2 eccentric workouts. People who have done them tell me they are brutal. From what I understand they are a fast explosive concentric followed by a slow controlled eccentric.

Can't wait.......
 
JonathanRyan said:
Interesting. P90X3 has 2 eccentric workouts. People who have done them tell me they are brutal. From what I understand they are a fast explosive concentric followed by a slow controlled eccentric.

Can't wait.......
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If it's body weight - the concentric and plyo will be used to pre-fatigue, making the eccentric phase effective with little to no added resistance.

Should be fun ;)
 
Phil Young said:
Anyone train with a partner??
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I've not had a training partner for years. I use to when I first started lifting, but now because of the short periods between sets I now take, I wouldn't be able to do it. I could probably do with someone to spot for me from time to time on some heavier weights and I could go heavier than I dare without someone to spot or help lift the weight to a starting position. I resort to using a machine instead where I don't need a spotter instead.
 
I train alone now. Means you have to be careful with a weight and try and avoid failing too early. I had one workout where I benched something like 8 or 10 reps of a given weight, and on the second set, started fine until rep 5 after which I couldn't push the bar up! Very embarrassing.
 
omens said:
I train alone now. Means you have to be careful with a weight and try and avoid failing too early. I had one workout where I benched something like 8 or 10 reps of a given weight, and on the second set, started fine until rep 5 after which I couldn't push the bar up! Very embarrassing.
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Chances are, at some point during that 2nd set, you thought to yourself you could only manage 5 reps and 5 reps is all you managed. Sounds daft but that happens a lot, especially on something like bench press. Even when using a bench press machine, I've been unable to even start a set and that is with just one more 10kg plate on compared to the previous set where I'd just done 8 reps.
 
Unlikely. The first five reps went fine just like the first set of reps. I used to have this problem with biceps barbell curls - I could pump out reps with equal ease and then suddenly struggle to life without any warning. Ordinarily if I'm on my last few reps I can feel the body part tiring.
 
Nilagin is bang on the money here and I tried to make the point with outdoor running vs treadmills.

Your brain only activates as many muscle fibres needed forba given task. You can subconsciously over ride that by effectively telling yourself you can only manage 5 or only run for 10mins for example. Most people are stronger / fitter than they subconsciously believe.
 
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