Any sttetches or specific warm ups before starting? How much resting time in between sets? Do you guys do some type of cardio after finishing? I used to do bodybuilding before and I'm barely starting 5 x 5 which is totally new to me and I'm kind of lost in terms of strength training
I feel like I'm going crazy - this morning, as I was getting ready for the day, I saw a thread titled something like "Hey, /r/fitness! We over at /r/music put together a list of the best/most energetic/uplifting music for workouts!" I made a mental note to check it out later today when I had more time, and now I can't find it at all. I've searched both this sub, and the music sub, but it's no where to be seen.
Did I make it up? Am I blind?
Its not something new sadly, being massively overweight my entire life. Bullies have been something I have just had to deal with, especially when I was still over 500 pounds. Progression Pictures
Since losing 240ish pounds I can honestly tell you that I am starting to stand up for myself. Oh the haters still try, even in this subreddit my last post I had more than a few haters try to drag me down. Lots of negative feedback left on the thread as well as on my videos because I choose to have weight loss surgery to save my life. (Don't like my choices, not your life... so its not my issue move along)
So with that said... Here is what recently happened at the gym.. I walked into the locker room, a ton of woman in there between classes. When I walked into the restroom portion there were three girls (early twenties) standing at the sink and one of them blatantly exclaimed as if I wouldn't hear ..i just don't know how people even let themselves go like that. (the others start laughing and responding) So I decided enough was enough, I yelled as loud as I could from my stall... Well I used to be a bully who made fun of people... And refused to mind my own business and next day I woke up like this... Karma man... it's a b*tch.. I have never seen three sets of feet leave so fast .. My Response Video (skip past workouts if you like)
As i went out for my workout I decided to continue my routine none of them would even look at me. I am sure they didn't expect me to say something back either. I could have choose to sit in fear and cry, wait for everyone to leave and sulk home. BUT HELL NO i am saving my life here, you don't know me, or how hard its been i am NOT leaving. And i won't allow anyone to talk down to me like that again. If you don't stand up for yourself NO ONE will!
You never know how hard it was for me to even get to this size, or how long I spend in the gym each week. I work out 5-6 days a week 2 hours minimum, I count every morsel of food that enters my mouth. I work harder than most people even dream of, because I want this. I have seen death and choose to beat it and well NO ONE is going to take that from me. I don't give two half's of a sh *t if you don't like how i had to change my life.
If you are being bullied online, ignore them (hate only begets hate) feel sorry for them. (everyones a tough guy when there is a screen between you and them) It is easy to get wrapped up in it and let it bring you down. Don't give them that power, stand proud of your accomplishments. Because you are changing your life and trying to become a healthier you. If you are bullied at the gym stand your ground, be fierce and stand up for yourself. Let them know you won't take that from anyone! (Im not saying go grab a barbell and smash their faces in, as tempting as it could seem) But report them, stand up and make your presence known. You are wonderful, beautiful/handsome and unique. Your journey matters damn it!!!!
This is a huge deal. I feel skinny for once. And one of my weight loss goals was to have my chest stick out more than my gut, and my chest is bigger than my gut now too! I could probably maintain this weight and be happy, but I've set a goal and am only 8lbs away now, so I may as well keep going.
The impossible is possible! Stay strong, stay awesome!
I've found that different scales may give slightly different results, such as my home scale vs Doctor vs gym. So I almost always just use my "official" weight from my home scale, the one I have the easiest access too. I don't know if it's 100% accurate, but at least it's consistent.
I travel on occasion for my job, and this week I find myself in a nice hotel in a different part of the world. This hotel room has a scale in the bathroom, which is unusual. It had been a few weeks since I had weighted in, eating about mostly calorie deficit, with a few days of "maintenance" eating a week. I got on the scale, and it gave me my weight in kg. I did the ol' 3 - 4 time until I get about the same weight each time. I then converted it to lbs because I'm an American dang it.
The number was much lower than I expected, about 5 lbs lower.
Do I trust this new scale in a hotel in a far off distant part of the world or should I wait until I get home to check my "official" weight?
Around the holidays, I stopped trying to lose weight. I would attempt to track (most days) and stay on-track when I wasn't around holiday-esque foodstuffs. I was doing pretty good until around Christmas. Then, I just started not caring as often. Basically: I maintained without any real effort for a couple of months. Now? I've gained back ~4 pounds and I'm beating myself up for it.
I've been trying for the last month to get back into "I'm on a diet, no exceptions" mode where I actually listen to myself, but it's been slow-going (about a 50% of the days are successful).
I'm having some real issues with boredom-binging lately.
I'm also having a hard time dealing with the fact that I'm 5'6" and to actually lose weight at an acceptable rate (1#/week) I had to maintain a strict 1200kCal/day diet last time. (I guess that just should make me proud that I have only gained back 4# so far, since my daily requirement seems to be lower than many people.)
Anyhow, it's time to get serious again (I made it to my lowest weight that I can ever recall being and then gained back the 4 pounds) and get to the lightest/healthiest I've ever been!
Who's with me?! ;)
Does anyone have a source for the nutrition facts of chicken breast with the fat removed?
I just spent a fair amount of time in search of an answer and couldn't find anything definitive.
Hello Fitness,
I've been lifting on and off for a couple of years now and I was wondering are belts worth it? I have a few friends who are sworn by the belt so it would be great to get different views. Is it worth it to get an expensive belt or are you just paying for the brand? Nylon or leather? Do you guys recommend any belts? Favorites? No belts? Opinions? Thanks!
A lot of people say volume kills you during a cut and to just lift as heavy as possible and keep your diet in check.
Should I focus on keeping my lifts as high as possible on my compound exercises and not worry so much about adding weight or having to lower the weight on my assistance exercises?
Here’s the answer from Dr. Eric Westman, possibly the world’s top expert on LCHF. This is the first of his five-part series on LCHF, and it’s now available for free.
All five parts can be watched on the member site (free trial available).
The post Who Benefits by Eating a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet? appeared first on Diet Doctor.
I never thought I would but I finally did it. First 8th grader in my school to dunk. http://ift.tt/1RYfT1K
i'm coming up to a year of working out and i've come across the fact that "if you eat at too much of a deficit", "if you're losing strength", or "if you don't get at least 1g protein per lb of bodyweight" then you're losing lean body mass.
is this necessarily true for everyone's physique? take me for example. i went from 145 to 170, and i got pretty fat, but i got a good amount of muscle in the process. i was already at 15-16% body fat when i started and ended around 20% after 8 or 9 months. i've been cutting for a month so far at 1500 calories, which is a 500 calorie deficit from my 2000 calorie maintenance.
however, my diet is anything from spot on, and my consistency has been sloppy. it's just really discouraging to see all my strength going down and being tired all the time at the gym. i suspect i'll have to do this for another month to hit the 10-12% body fat mark. while i'm worried that my loss of strength is related to a loss of lean body mass, i'm also skeptical because of how "big" most people who state this are.
i'm still small, i have no doubt about it, but my goal right now is to get a 6-pack. i want to hit 140-145 which is a reasonable weight for my height. i don't care that i'll look like justin bieber afterwards, i'm about to turn 20 and i've never had a 6-pack in my life. i'm cutting down to a low body fat then bulking up to 15-16 then repeating the process, i never want to hit 20% again, it was just miserable.
so i guess what i'm trying to say is, most people who are really meticulous with their eating and training schedule are pretty big people, probably with years of experience and a crazy amount of LBM. i can see how the body could end up burning muscle instead of fat when you have that much muscle. but me? if my calculations are correct, my LBM is at a measly 130 lb of my 150 lb overall mass. so my question is this: will i actually be losing muscle if i skip a training day or if i don't keep my deficit accurate in macro ratios?
also, if it's relevant, my lift numbers have fallen quite a bit, but i suspect it was from the leverage of the extra fat i had, not actual strength.
overhead press and bench have stayed the same (3x5 105, 3x5 155), squat has gone down from 3x5 225 to 3x5 185, deadlift has gone from 4x5 225 to 1x5 205. i'd also like to note the fact that when i'm at the gym, it's a huge toss-up between me being tired versus being pumped. my training is not in a vacuum, these numbers are just the worst i've experienced lately.
edit: thanks for the information guys, i was starting to think the cut wasn't a very good idea haha
As a 68-year old man Bibbe carried some excess weight, suffered from high blood pressure, felt fatigued and his vision progressively got worse and finally he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Quite common.
Here’s what happened when he tried low carb.
Hello Andreas,
Here’s my happy success story. I am a 68-year old man, who for the last 20 years has been about 20–35 lbs. (10–15 kg) overweight. I am on medication for high blood pressure and have long had a slightly elevated blood sugar.
In the fall of 2015, I felt tired and experienced foggy vision. In mid December I saw my family doctor, and I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with a fasting blood sugar of 153 mg/dl (8.5 mmol/l) and a HbA1c of 10.6% (92). I was prescribed Metformin. My blood pressure was 160/180. I weighed 206 lbs. (93 kg) and am 6′ tall (183 cm), and was about 20 lbs. (9 kg) overweight.
I had already previously read up a lot on LCHF, among other places at Diet Doctor, and decided to begin a low-carb diet.
It has worked very well for me and I have eaten a relatively strict low-carb diet. My numbers after six weeks on low carb are as follows:
- Weight: 185 lbs. (84 kg)
- Blood pressure: 138/78
- Fasting blood glucose: 86 mg/dl (4.8 mmol/l)
- HbA1c: 6.0% (42)
The nurse was just as surprised as I was and wanted to award me a big gold medal. I can add that I have exercised very little. The nurse had no objections to my diet, but they need to stick to the official guidelines. One more thing – all this time I have practiced intermittent fasting according to 16:8, which has worked nicely for me.
I also want to take the opportunity to thank you for the health work your doing.
Low-carb greetings,
Bibbe
Congratulations on reversing your diabetes! Thank you for sharing your story, hopefully it will inspire others to do what you’ve done.
Do you have a story to share? Here’s how to do it.
Do you want to try a low-carb diet yourself? Use these resources:
Women 0-39
Women 40+
Men 0-39
Men 40+
The post “The Nurse Wanted to Award Me a Gold Medal” appeared first on Diet Doctor.
Ivor Cummins is a well-trained problem solver. And when blood tests showed liver problems – the very common issue fatty liver – Ivor Cummins set out to find the solution to the problem. And he soon found it. Soon he had lost lots of weight and his liver problems were totally gone.
It all begged the question – why did an engineer quickly understand how to get healthy again, when the doctors did not?
I interviewed Ivor Cummins a few weeks ago and it’s a truly interesting and insightful story. Above are a few minutes from it.
You can watch the full 13 minute interview and more than a hundred other interviews, video courses, presentations and movies on our member site with a free trial.
Ivor Cummins’ blog The Fat Emperor
The post The Engineer Who Knows More Than Your Doctor appeared first on Diet Doctor.
A big deal for me.
I've been working up to it for 2 months. It's something 94kg me wouldn't have dreamed that I could ever do. Child me would have also been sceptical, as I was packing a massive set of tonsils preventing me from being able to breathe properly... but I did it!
It's been 5 weeks since I've started lifting with the SL program. My progress has been going up ever since then but most recently I've noticed I had trouble squatting 105lbs.
I'm eating at around a deficit of 1700 calories. Should I be bumping those numbers back up to my maintenance to help with my lifts.
I'm 15, 175lbs , 5'5
I don't really know how to elaborate on that question, I feel like it's self explanatory here.
Ideally I'd like to get as best of a leg workout as I can in as few moves as possible. I think I'd be more likely to stick with a leg routine that was as few moves as possible than one that may be better but is composed of like 6 different exercises.
Any tips?
Hi there, I started my journey 4 months ago today, on 19th of November 2015 at 103 kgs with 185 cm. I am a guy. Now I am at 89,6 kgs as of this morning. I have slowed down the process of losing weight because life keeps me busy, but I still manage to lose weight. I am now 0,6 kgs from being halfway to my goal weight of 75 kgs and 4,6 kgs from being from a healthy weight. Thanks for reading
Title pretty much says it all, I have and still am struggling with binge eating/emotional eating, and today, I had a thought as I was eating my 3rd cookie (surrounded by 10 more that I had planned on eating). I thought, "Hey, you aren't really hungry, you don't have to finish these." and it worked. I finished the 3rd cookie, packaged up the rest, and put them away. I have never been able to do this before, despite knowing mid-binge that what I'm doing isn't healthy and is counter-acting all my progress, I still keep eating. BUT NOT TODAY!! Nope, today I was able to listen to my body, and stop a binge before it really even had the chance to get going. Feeling pretty happy with myself right about now, granted those 3 cookies didn't fit into my calories today, but I figure ~300 calories over is better than ~1300 calories over. Small victories!!
For the past 2 and half to 3 weeks I've been at 328. I weigh myself as soon as I wake up and after I use the bathroom like instructed. I weigh and accurately (to the best that I can on MFP) track all of my food.
I'm eating consistently at a deficit of 1000-1300 calories but no weight is coming off. Is it possible that the TDEE calculator is way off for me somehow making me eat at maintenance? If that's the case the calculator is off by a thousand calories or more. I put in everything correctly.
I usually go over on my sodium by almost half every day. Could it just be water retention? I don't think that would cause the same weight for 3 weeks though.
My Transformation
Hey Reddit, my name is Agustin Juarez and I’ve decided to finally post my transformation. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4TuiGQLPoQ
Writeup:
When I was 14 years old, I finished middle school as one of the smallest guys in the class. I was average height, but I was not involved in any sports and I spent most of my free time watching tv or playing video games. I mostly played WoW and pokemon at the time. I enjoyed school and had a few friends, but I wasn’t what anyone would call popular. I had some popular friends and occasionally hung out with people outside of school, but usually I would head home and play WoW with my cousin. I wasn’t teased about my size, but I was definitely not very confident and wouldn't really have been able to defend myself if I had.
When I started high school, I made some new friends and lost some old. But going from being the oldest to the youngest in the building, as well as realizing I was actually underweight made me somewhat self conscious. All of the popular guys were fit, and nobody would really take a second look at my physique. So that summer I decided to start working out with a friend who had been on the football team.
Summer of 2012 was spent in the school weight room with two of my friends. We mostly used very poor form on a few exercises and yet due to noob gains we actually made pretty good progress. On my first days in there, I was actually pinned under 95lb bar on the bench press. When we got back from the summer, I successfully benched my first plate. I was still quite underweight, but I had achieved my first goal. My diet was shit, my programming was shit, and yet I was actually growing.
Fast forwarding to 2013, I was obessesed. I was reading about bodybuilding every day, and I was trying out all sorts of supplements. I was desperate to grow, and I actually began to learn about how calories worked. I realized I had been undereating and decided to push myself to eat more. My parents were not happy, and at first they let me have a bit of extra food but only because I was still somewhat underweight. I think around this time I might have eaten about half of what I eat now. In october, I posted my first 1 year progress picture. I had gained about 25lb since i started and I was very proud of myself. People’s reactions were mixed, with most of them being somewhat impressed but understandably, going from super bony to barely bony wasn’t that interesting. Word was starting to get around, and people at my school knew that one of my hobbies was working out.
In 2014 I met a wonderful girl named Taylor. My newfound confidence led me to talk to her and we started going out very quickly. She gave me confidence and always told me she liked me for me, however she first saw me through some videos a friend of her had taken at a party that I was at, making a fool of myself and flexing for the camera. I had gained another 15lb and was considered “strong” for my size. I was also in gr11, so being on the older half of the school I was actually getting to be one of the stronger guys at the school.
In 2015 I had been making great progress. I was in the 170-80 range throughout the year and graduated probably being 3rd or 4th strongest in my school, and most likely strongest in my weight range. People told me I was big, asked for workout advice, etc. I still gamed every single night and I was still not one of the popular kids, but people knew me. I had a close group of friends, one of them being my best friend and lifting partner, and life was great. After my mexico trip later in the year, I realized that I had done well for myself in highschool, but after watching all these fitness celebrities make money off their passion I decided that I wasn’t happy simply keeping this a hobby. I wanted to turn this into my lifestyle. So I really got my shit together. I started packing down the calories, I increased the intensity of my training and started focusing on my weak points. During december of 2015, I made more gains than I had in 4-5 month spans during the previous years. My strength, once stagnant, was soaring. I also got my first full time job.
I started off 2016 with a 40 hour work week, which turned into a 42.5 work week in february. I had a lot less time to train and see my girlfriend, but instead of giving up I made sure to prioritize my time. I trained on every single day I didn’t see her during the week, and saturdays. I was in the gym for 10 hours a week across 4 training days. I prepared my meals every night for work, and made myself extra oats to take to work.
On an average day, I will have breakfast at home, rolled oats with milk at work for a second breakfast, and 2 lunches. Then I will go home, have some carbs such as a poptart and then head to the gym. I will have a shake when I get home, dinner an hour later and then most likely a snack before bed at midnight. I do this every single weekday, with no excuses. This is how I changed my physique, and my life.
I’ve never done one of these before so I’m not sure if I’m missing anything, but if I am do let me know. I’d love to answer any questions you guys might have. I know I’m no pro yet, but I guarantee you if you keep checking on me you will be surprised by what I still have left in me.
Check out my instagram: @shakeandflex
I need to lose some weight and one of the biggest challenges has been energy. For the past 15 years (since I was a 15 year old kid) my routine has been to wake up and drink 20oz of coffee before I even get dressed. I usually will have another 16oz in the afternoon. I feel like I wake up tired, and like I never have energy. I also think the only reason I poop is because of my morning coffee. LOL Sorry for the TMI. I have tried to quit coffee once before but the headaches and fatigue were crippling. I have a friend that said I'm so tired because I drink coffee. I have always heard that coffee is actually good for you. So, I'm wondering, is there any proof that stopping could help my adrenals, or is it a waste of time?
A week ago I wrote:
Plateaus do happen, but when they do I just tell myself to "trust The Program".
Since then I haven't lost or gained anything. 226.6 lbs every morning when I step on the scale. I'm eating the same things and carefully tracking everything like I did for the first 12 lbs, taking the same walk each day, drinking the same amount of water.
I know the plateau can't last forever, but it's so easy to write what I did when you're on a losing streak (in a good way!)
and what kept you going? I stopped going to the gym and counting calories because my sister got sick and I started school. However, I want to get back into it but I feel unmotivated. What made you start your journey towards weight loss?
