Question about health/gym, weight loss and nutrition

You're doing nothing wrong. You're gaining muscle at the same time you're losing fat. Keep it up!

EDIT: longer explaining:

You're exercising muscles you haven't exercised in years. As you start using them again they're going to grow quickly, that's your weight gain. All those muscles all over are growing. Don't give up. You're going to find a lot of times where you just don't see the scale move. Stop trying to lose weight, just go for healthier living and the love of keeping active. Go for inches. You'll see far more results in the mirror than on the scale.

Plateaus are easy to break as well, just muscle through them. Chin up.

thanks for that .... will continue the same routine

another question .... I start with rowing, then do the rest of the cardio machines, and end off on the weight circuit machines

is it best to do the weight circuits before cardio?

I'd mix it up. Do it different each time. Do it before some days, do it after other days. Variety keeps the body guessing which leads to better results.

cheers for that!

see if your gym will give you a body fat caliper or resistance reading. you can not gain muscle and lose fat at the same rate.

There is a good chance you are not eating enough. you want a caloric deficit but too much will cause your body to go into a "starvation" mode. I lost 80 pounds in 18 months eating six times a day. 6oz lean protein. 1/2 cup of low GI carbs. and 1 cup of green veggies. breakfast was huge worked up to 12 egg whites and 2 cups (cooked) oatmeal.

work your entire body (depending on serious injuries of any kind). the more lean mass you develop the more calories you burn sitting still. work you legs.

lift first. use your stored energy to move the weight. cardio to burn off whats left. or split it... cardio one day. lift the next. give you body ample time to rest and rebuild. overworking is counter productiv.

Maybe if it doesn't start going down again you are eatiing too many calories. Sign up on one of the free sites on the web that lets you input your food and calculates calories like fitday

I agree with this more protein!

thanks .... I do not go hungry ... i.e. I am not starving myself .

I only used to eat one meal a day (example: had 3 pints of beer, and a large plate of spagetti bolognaise, 2 slices of buttered bread and a mars bar)

I doubt that I would be able to eat 6 smaller meals per day now ... I also have fruit once a day (mango or papaya or banana etc)

when you say more protein, are you refering to foods such as meat and fish?

Muscle weights more than fat.

based on the food intake described i can say for sure you are not eating enough. you need to keep insulin as stable as possible.

its impossible, with out the use of anabolics, to gain as much weight in lean muscle mass as fat loss. you absolutely cannot lose a pound or two a week of body fat and gain that much in lean muscle.

muscle does not weigh more than fat. good god people. a pound of feathers and a pound of gold is still a pound. muscle is more dense than fat.

my friend. do not listen to anybody on this site. find yourself a certified trainer and or nutritionist.

I speak from many years of experience. owning a gym and being persnal trainer.

best of luck to ya.

thanks ... I did speak to the guy in charge of my gym, and he was not 100% sure (but saying that, he never asked me about my diet ... I just told him that I am eating 3 healthy meals per day)

Fastest way to look good and cut fat. These are the closest things to a shortcut you will ever find:

Throw away your scale.

Only use a tape measure.

Throw away your watch.

Only use your breathing rate.

Intensity with cardio and weights is the key.

Weights should be 3 sets, each set should be NO MORE than 8 reps. Your form must be perfect and at the end of the third set, you should be in muscle failure. Very little to no rest between sets and exercises. You should be close to being out of breath constantly.

Cardio should be the same way. Intensity. Only run if your knees allow. Go as fast as you can for 5 minutes. NO MORE. Then walk as long as you must until you catch your breath, then do it again. 4 sets but only 3 reps. Very little to no rest between sets. Again, you should be out of breath at the end of your rep and begin the next as soon as possible.

Before you exercise:

3 hours before - Take a multivitamin, a separate B complex, Omega 3, and CLA. Drink lots of water.

1 hour before - Ingest your creatine and protein drink. Also take two aspirin.

15 minutes before - drink coffee with no sugar or cream

After you exercise:

Take a multivitamin, a separate B complex, Omega 3, and CLA. Drink lots of water.

Rotate days. One day should be cardio. One day should be weights.

DO SQUATS EACH AND EVERY DAY. With or without weights. On days you do weights or cardio, do the squats at the end of your session and do as many as you can as fast as you can until your legs shake a bit. Even if you quit going to the gym, you can do squats each and every day, multiple times per day. You can do them anywhere. I cannot stress this enough. This is your biggest weapon to being fit and weight loss.

When people speak of this, they obviously mean that within a given volume that the same volume will weigh less if filled with fat rather than muscle.

You are exactly the type of so called professional that screws up common sense to sound more intelligent or knowledgeable but in the end, not particularly helpful.

You do not need a certified trainer or nutritionist unless you wish to be parted from your money. You want FAST and fit. They will never tell you these shortcuts and use all kinds of excuses.

You MUST cut calories. As much as possible. This only works if you are working out hard as I wrote above. You MUST drink a lot of water. If you can, your meals should be in protein shakes with multivitamins.

This is how you become cut. It is the only way, unless you want to keep this up and wait for 2 years.

/\ /\ /\

This last post is the closest to what I would say as well. I don't get why you need to take 2 aspirin though?

Sorry I meant the one post before the post above

Aspirin and Caffeine form two of the three things needed for the classic ECA stack. What is missing is Ephedrine.

Since Ephedrine is illegal in some countries or areas, it was left out.

The combination of the two (or three, with ephedrine) is the closest thing to amphetamines that can be bought.

eat some nutrition and do some walkings........

fiber.
fiber.
fiber.
pooping is great for losing weight.

Yikes! .... I have lots to learn from this thread

thanks for the responses

You are correct. But the make up of fat and the make up of muscle are different. Much like a pound cake weighs as much as a pound of fish.

The body with burn the lean protein of the fish more easily than it will the dense and unhealthy white flour and sugar of the cake.

Either way, your body has to lose more calories than it takes in. Muscle helps burn the calories, whereas fat will just keep adding up, if that makes sense.

If you want to lose weight you need to be getting more nutrients. Have you been supplementing at all?

I have not taken any protein shakes or anything else, and have been trying to eat sensibly ...

I will however be buying some multivitams this weekend (Solgar Omnium) ... label states to take 2 tabs per day, but I will only take one tab on gym days

You didn't get fat over night. You are not going to lose that weight overnight either.

Instead of three large meals a day work it to 6 smaller meals a day.

Aim to eat 6-8 servings of fruit and veg a day.

Why? Fruit and veg has less calories per volume. Less than meat, less than grains - definitely less than fats and sugars.

Glaring example:

There are 177 calories in a cup of steamed (fresh) corn
there are 231 calories in lean skinless chicken breast.
There are 720 calories in a cup of sugar
There are 2016 calories in a cup of oil/fat

So which will fill your belly and not be excessive in calories?

A full belly signals the brain that you are well fed. That tells the body that its ok to shed off stored fuel (fat) and tricks the body into staying out of starvation mode.

Starvation mode tends to slow the metabolism down, it also leads to the body converting as much food it intakes into stored fuel (body fat). you need to stay away from that.

Your exercise program is excessive.

You didn't get out of shape over night, that took several months - perhaps years. You need to slowly stack on more exercise and the reality is you should never start a new diet and an exercise program at the same time.

Why? Because most diets mean you are switching over to new fuels. The body needs to relearn how to process the new diet efficiently, it doesn't need the extra stress of an exercise program while its learning how to digest and process the new fuel mixture.

Along with 6-8 servings of fruit and veg a day, start cutting out added fats and sugars. Added fats as in deep fried foods, or using 3 tablespoons of oil when one tablespoon (or less) is all you need. Added sugars as in adding sugar to coffee, or sweet tea.

Few people understand that they can cut their sugar take in half just by using half the sweetener in their coffee and tea - you still get good flavor, but less the calories.

Use less mayo than you usually do, use less butter/margarine. Sure you can have some for flavor, but do you need as much as you currently use?

Wheat is pretty much all around bad since we live in a grain based diet and modern wheat is not like the wheat they had back when I was a kid. Reduce the amounts of wheat you consume and up the amounts of oat, rye, rice and other grains which are still 'healthy'.

Understand that weight is not your issue. Body fat percentage is the issue.

Since you are working out (building muscle mass) you may actually see a conversion of mass from body fat to lean muscle mass. On the scales there is no change since weight is weight.

The scales are the absolutely worst indicator of fitness. You need to get a measurement of body fat percentage which the best method is the displacement method. Weighed on dry land then weighed in water. How much you float determines how much of your weight is fat over muscle mass.

BMI charts are also bad. Arnold Schwarzenegger weighed in at 260 off season. According to the BMI charts he was obese. Yet we all know that his weight came from massive muscles thus the BMI chart was way off the mark, he was fit - very fit.

Water: Stop drinking lots of plain water.

Make 'herbal tea' waters. Take a one cup tea bag seep in two cups of hot water. Then use that tea to make a gallon of 'iced tea'. You end up with a very weak tea or a flavored water.

Add about three tablespoons of honey and 1/8th or a dash of table salt, mineral salt or koshering salt.

Why salt? because excessive peeing because you are drinking excessive amounts of water strip salts from the body. Since you are working out (exercising more) you are also sweating out salts. you need to replace salts.

Why honey? it is readily digested and gives flavor.

The body requires sugars to function properly. Sugar is energy to the body. The sugars in honey are good for you in small amounts.

Also eat a healthy carb 20 minutes before the workout. Carbs are converted to sugars which are trickled into the blood stream over a longish period of time. This will give you more energy thus you will be able to perform those exercises a little longer - run an extra minute, push out an extra rep - etc.

Protein shakes may be bad for you depending on your muscle goals. If you are not seeking to build massive muscles (bulk up) then eat lean meats to get your protein.

Egg whites are another fine source of complex proteins. Three eggs using only one yolk.

No, take 2 tabs daily regardless of your exercise routine.

Each time you exercise you are shredding muscle fibers, immediately after the work out the body starts repairs and requires the materials in order to build up healthy muscle tissue. Denying the body the elements, proteins and other building blocks means that the muscle it builds will not be healthy, and in many cases the body steals from other organs (liver, skin, bones, spleen, lungs) in order to satisfy the needs of the muscles.

Any one a day type vitamin supplement that has all of the complex vitamins and minerals should do the trick. Unless you are packing on excessive muscle, then you need a 'body-builders' mega dosing routine which s tricky (at best) and you should consult a doctor or a certified trainer before getting on that vitamin/mineral routine.

not anything like my setup, but this makes a fuckton of sense. lift heavy, scare your muscles into growing, i dunno about all them multivitamins. but squats build muscle and muscle burns fat while resting.

then all you need is to learn about how your bodies dietary needs work.

Trying being the operative word here!

As a sensitive reader, I can feel your energies through your words and I give you the following sensible advice:


























Book a lipo!!

Great start, keep it up and over time you'll figure out what works for your body. Don't throw yourself into it because it can burn you out, just keep making progress and eventually you'll be pleased with the results.