The Fitness Thread

[Reincarnate]

As per the comments in another thread, I figured I'd start a thread dedicated to people who want to talk about keeping fit, working out/training, cutting/bulking, nutrition, motivation, etc.

[Reincarnate]

I may as well start with myself:

Right now I'm about 236 pounds or so, just a bit under 26 years old, and 6 foot 2 inches tall.

(I'm the guy playing on the right -- kmay's on the left):

I don't *look* hugely overweight or anything but it's all in the midsection (which I get tired of hiding) and I'm probably 35% bodyfat based on a 48-inch waist (gachhhh). As you can see, I get winded easily.

So, I'm going on a cut (-1000 deficit from calculated maintenance). Unfortunately, no weight progress so far, so I'm likely doing something wrong. XD

[iironiic]

Good thread. To start, I am trying to gain weight for my size. I have been doing pullups and pushups each day since I am focusing on my upper body strength first.

I currently weigh 125 lbs (~56.7 kgs) and I am 5'6'' (~1.69 m). Ideally what weight should I aim for and how do I gain weight? Thanks!

[yo man im awesome]

Originally Posted by iironiic

I currently weigh 125 lbs (~56.7 kgs) and I am 5'6'' (~1.69 m). Ideally what weight should I aim for and how do I gain weight? Thanks!

Wait, I'm nearly identical to you lol.

Currently 5'6'' and 120 lbs.

I have yet to really "work out" before, but I have always wanted to start and build up muscle. The closest thing to working out that I've done is play soccer, which I do a lot of.

The large majority of my muscle lies in my legs (soccer obviously) and I have a considerable amount of stamina.

I know I need to work on my upper body, but I never could find the right way to start. Reading through this thread has given me a general idea, but I'm still not entirely sure what I should start with.

Also: I don't have any weights/workout related items in my home, nor do I have any gym memberships. What household items would be good substitutes (because I'm too lazy to buy weights)?

edit: I've been cutting down on the amount of junk food I eat, and I never really eat that much to begin with. I have that mentality of feeling full faster.

[SCWolf]

yo man im awesome, iironiic

To both of you, sounds like you're like me. I started off at 120lbs 5'8, eating about 2800 calories a day and doing Greyskull LP. It will help you put on size and strength. Really good program for people like us. After about 2 months, I switched to a more body building oriented program but kept the progression of Grey Skull on the major lifts (Overhead press, Bench press, Squat).

So basically, aim for about 100g protein a day, 350g carbs. In order to build muscle, your body needs .6g protein per every 1lb you weigh. I just put 100 because it's a good number to aim for. If you're eating meat daily like I do, chances are it will go over. This isn't bad, it just won't benefit you really. If you're on steroids, the more protein the better, but if you're natural, your body can really only synthesize so much. Carbs are high because eat a lot of carbs. 2800 calories to start off with, if you feel you need to up the calories, move up in increments of 100 until you find that sweet spot. Don't over eat, you will get fat. Fat doesn't speed up muscle gain, it just makes cutting harder. Keeping track of fat is just as you would think it would be. Just look in the mirror, grab, etc.

Just google Grey Skull LP, you should be able to find it. It's good for people with a small frame and light weight such as myself because it's more slow progressing and has a variety of exercises. Starting strength is also great, but it's quicker progression.

That's just what I did though. It may be considered wrong to some, but it got me where I am now, so I'm not complaining.

EDIT: If you want to, pick up some Whey/Casein protein. The difference between the two is; Whey is fast release, Casein is slow release. I prefer Whey for my diet.

[Senip]

Originally Posted by SCWolf

yo man im awesome, iironiic

To both of you, sounds like you're like me. I started off at 120lbs 5'8, eating about 2800 calories a day and doing Greyskull LP. It will help you put on size and strength. Really good program for people like us. After about 2 months, I switched to a more body building oriented program but kept the progression of Grey Skull on the major lifts (Overhead press, Bench press, Squat).

So basically, aim for about 100g protein a day, 350g carbs. In order to build muscle, your body needs .6g protein per every 1lb you weigh. I just put 100 because it's a good number to aim for. If you're eating meat daily like I do, chances are it will go over. This isn't bad, it just won't benefit you really. If you're on steroids, the more protein the better, but if you're natural, your body can really only synthesize so much. Carbs are high because eat a lot of carbs. 2800 calories to start off with, if you feel you need to up the calories, move up in increments of 100 until you find that sweet spot. Don't over eat, you will get fat. Fat doesn't speed up muscle gain, it just makes cutting harder. Keeping track of fat is just as you would think it would be. Just look in the mirror, grab, etc.

Just google Grey Skull LP, you should be able to find it. It's good for people with a small frame and light weight such as myself because it's more slow progressing and has a variety of exercises. Starting strength is also great, but it's quicker progression.

That's just what I did though. It may be considered wrong to some, but it got me where I am now, so I'm not complaining.

EDIT: If you want to, pick up some Whey/Casein protein. The difference between the two is; Whey is fast release, Casein is slow release. I prefer Whey for my diet.

I actually hit 1 gram per LBM of protein, and most people say to build muscle you need to do 1.25/1.5. Your body can synthesize something like 50-60 grams a meal if you space it out, so I tend to do 40 grams a meal with 5 meals a day. I used to try to do the 6 meals a day thing but its really difficult with changing schedules, etc.

Another good thing you could do is a 5/3/1 style format. http://www.jimwendler.com/2011/09/531-for-a-beginner/ Most of my friends do something like that, and elite powerlifters do it as well. Get strong, and the muscle will follow.

[SCWolf]

Originally Posted by Senip

Another good thing you could do is a 5/3/1 style format. http://www.jimwendler.com/2011/09/531-for-a-beginner/ Most of my friends do something like that, and elite powerlifters do it as well. Get strong, and the muscle will follow.

Yeah, 5/3/1 is really good as well. Jim Wendler is the man.

[Poison-]

I'm 5'9, 155 pounds. 11% body fat.
Currently just focusing on getting my stamina back. In about 2 weeks I'm going to focus on bulking up.

If anyone would like some advice with workout routines, diets, etc. I'd be happy to help.

[iironiic]

Nick, please enlighten us! I'd like to hear advice from anyone haha.

[Poison-]

Wilson, if you want to gain weight/bulk up, you're going to want to workout your entire body. You're also going to need to eat about 500 calories more than you burn, with lots of protein throughout the day. This is just really general, I can go into more detail if you PM me or something.

[iironiic]

Originally Posted by Poison-

Wilson, if you want to gain weight/bulk up, you're going to want to workout your entire body. You're also going to need to eat about 500 calories more than you burn, with lots of protein throughout the day. This is just really general, I can go into more detail if you PM me or something.

Alright, in that case, I need to go out for a run/ work on my abs more often. Thanks for the small advice. I'll PM you if I need more information.

[Poison-]

Originally Posted by iironiic

Alright, in that case, I need to go out for a run/ work on my abs more often. Thanks for the small advice. I'll PM you if I need more information.

Don't forget your legs! Very important part. A lot of people just focus on their upper body, and end up having a really disproportional body.

Also, Marcus, checkout this workout plan. If you follow it I guarantee you'll see the results you want.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/guides/m...fat-loss/intro

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Poison-

Don't forget your legs! Very important part. A lot of people just focus on their upper body, and end up having a really disproportional body.

Also, Marcus, checkout this workout plan. If you follow it I guarantee you'll see the results you want.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/guides/m...fat-loss/intro

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately everything mentioned (especially in the nutrition section) is already taken into account in my above post (and with greater precision as opposed to just multiplying weight by 15).

[Poison-]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately everything mentioned (especially in the nutrition section) is already taken into account in my above post (and with greater precision as opposed to just multiplying weight by 15).

You could go with your more detailed stuff, but if you use the same food and workouts, it should still help a lot.

[Reincarnate]

For me, at 48 inch waist, 74 inch height, neck circumference 16 inches, that puts me at 35% bodyfat or so using the equation:
(495/(1.0324-0.19077*LOG10(2.54*(waist circumference at the navel-neck circumference)) + 0.15456*LOG10(height*2.54))-450)/100 with all units in inches

So at 236 pounds that puts me at about 152 pounds lean mass, 84 pounds body fat. Using the Katch-McArdle formula for calculating BMR, that means basal metabolic rate is 370+9.79759519*152 = 1860 calories.

I am aiming to lose 2 pounds of fat per week. Right now I'd like to get down to 15% bodyfat, which means a target weight of 152/(1-.15) = about 180 pounds, which means I need to lose about 56 pounds of fat. A pound of fat is 3500 calories, so two pounds a week means 7000 calories which means 1000 deficit per day.

Problem is I have little muscle mass, which complicates things a bit.




Anyways, my problem:

I'm not sure what exercise routine to follow or how to adjust BMR to account for caloric expenditure. For sedentary people like myself who have a desk job Monday through Friday, the multiplier to BMR is typically 1.2 -- i.e. without working out, my daily caloric output (maintenance calories) would be 1860*1.2 = 2232 calories.

Problem is that a deficit of 1000 from this number puts me at eating 1232 calories a day, which seems quite low. Of course, I'd need to work out.

I don't know the best way to work out and how to calculate the correct caloric output from that. I am figuring that if I lift weights 3x/week and do cardio twice, that brings the multiplier from 1.2 to 1.4, thus a maintenance of 2604 (and eating 1600 calories each day doesn't sound outrageous).

I don't know if 1.4 is too aggressive an estimate or what. I'm not sure what goals to set currently, since right now nothing seems to be moving the needle.

Also not sure how to determine the macros. I figure a gram of protein per lb lean mass is adequate, but I'm not sure if this is optimal (let alone how many carbs/fats I should be taking in). Always hear about the 40/40/20 rule but that sounds a bit outdated, especially for those with high bf%.


EDIT: As you can probably tell I am a bit obsessed with the math. I need the math to make sense but I don't know enough about the underlying biophysics to gauge certain things.

[Cavernio]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

For me, at 48 inch waist, 74 inch height, neck circumference 16 inches, that puts me at 35% bodyfat or so using the equation:
(495/(1.0324-0.19077*LOG10(2.54*(waist circumference at the navel-neck circumference)) + 0.15456*LOG10(height*2.54))-450)/100 with all units in inches

So at 236 pounds that puts me at about 152 pounds lean mass, 84 pounds body fat. Using the Katch-McArdle formula for calculating BMR, that means basal metabolic rate is 370+9.79759519*152 = 1860 calories.

I am aiming to lose 2 pounds of fat per week. Right now I'd like to get down to 15% bodyfat, which means a target weight of 152/(1-.15) = about 180 pounds, which means I need to lose about 56 pounds of fat. A pound of fat is 3500 calories, so two pounds a week means 7000 calories which means 1000 deficit per day.

Problem is I have little muscle mass, which complicates things a bit.




Anyways, my problem:

I'm not sure what exercise routine to follow or how to adjust BMR to account for caloric expenditure. For sedentary people like myself who have a desk job Monday through Friday, the multiplier to BMR is typically 1.2 -- i.e. without working out, my daily caloric output (maintenance calories) would be 1860*1.2 = 2232 calories.

Problem is that a deficit of 1000 from this number puts me at eating 1232 calories a day, which seems quite low. Of course, I'd need to work out.

I don't know the best way to work out and how to calculate the correct caloric output from that. I am figuring that if I lift weights 3x/week and do cardio twice, that brings the multiplier from 1.2 to 1.4, thus a maintenance of 2604 (and eating 1600 calories each day doesn't sound outrageous).

I don't know if 1.4 is too aggressive an estimate or what. I'm not sure what goals to set currently, since right now nothing seems to be moving the needle.

Also not sure how to determine the macros. I figure a gram of protein per lb lean mass is adequate, but I'm not sure if this is optimal (let alone how many carbs/fats I should be taking in). Always hear about the 40/40/20 rule but that sounds a bit outdated, especially for those with high bf%.


EDIT: As you can probably tell I am a bit obsessed with the math. I need the math to make sense but I don't know enough about the underlying biophysics to gauge certain things.

I see your problem. You could probably have had an intense 20 minute workout in the time it took you to make that post.

My bf went gluten free and dairy free with me and he lost 20-25 lbs and is still losing daily, although at a much steadier pace now. We're still eating plenty of carbs and lots of fat and sugar. I lost 5 lbs so far, lol. I'm hoping it is helping out his thyroid though, he's got hypothyroidism but isn't on medication for it yet. He's got blood tests coming up, so we can see if his TSH has changed at all.

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Cavernio

I see your problem. You could probably have had an intense 20 minute workout in the time it took you to make that post.

Hehe, while I can't tell if this was said in jest or not, I do think there's some validity to this.

"Eat less, move more" is probably good enough for most people:

However, I think it's important to work out smarter, not harder. IMO it's good practice to understand the calorie-counting math/underlying physics of how the body processes things like fats, carbs, proteins, and nutrients, because then you have a better idea what to adjust/tweak if something isn't going the way you want it to. Of course, I'm still in the process of learning a lot of this stuff, so ehh.

Originally Posted by kmay

i hope you can achieve everything you want to. i feel the same way as you considering how close we are in size and weight. as you already know. and some day i will get to motivation, and income, to start getting in shape. hard to make money when you only work 2 days a week. =/

but yea. seeing you get in shape would definitely star to push me in the right direction. seeing the shape you can build and how it would look. would most likely make me want to look the same way for when you attend another meet-up

Yeah, definitely -- it's always a lot more fun when more people are progressing together.

However, I do want to point out that it's actually been cheaper for me to eat healthy. What I did (as much as I didn't want to) was go back over the past couple of months on my debit card statements and add up how much money I was spending on food. It was atrocious. Now I am spending a very small fraction of that.

[25thhour]

210 pounds 5'11, muscular, I have a tad bit of fat in my midsection but most of my mass is muscle mass. I'm going to try to bulk up to 225 in muscle then start to tone.

[Reshiram]

I'm 5'11", 180.2 pounds with a 34" waist. I'm sitting on the 17.8% mark of body fat.

I've lost 16 pounds in about a two-month span, as well as two inches off my waist. I've logged both my food intake and exercise in an online journal, and it has done complete wonders for me both physically and mentally. I'm sure I can lose at least another inch or two off my waist, because I still have lots of visible fat down in my midsection. It's a long road, but I know I'm gonna make it there.

If you're interested in the idea, here's the website. It's free to use and has a built-in community for it.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

[Reach]

I was getting out of shape because of university. I used to bodybuild back in highschool and university, so I decided to get back into it in January.

Started at about 165 lb, 5'11", bodyfat at about 17% (I measure with calipers).

Bulked up to about 177-179 lb, bodyfat actually dropped to about 16% at that time.

I've been cutting now for the past few months and I'm down to about 160 lb and my bodyfat % is down to 8%. Have gained over 10 pounds of lean body mass. Waist is down from about 35 inches to 28.5 inches. At this point, I'm going to start clean bulking again.

Benchpress went from 110x10 to 180x10 during the process, squat went from about 155x10 to 250x10.


I just started using www.fitocracy.com to track my progress and I really like it. Would recommend. I was using a word document, but an RPG is a lot more fun haha.

Can also give routine/dieting advice to anyone interested.

I'm not sure what exercise routine to follow or how to adjust BMR to account for caloric expenditure. For sedentary people like myself who have a desk job Monday through Friday, the multiplier to BMR is typically 1.2 -- i.e. without working out, my daily caloric output (maintenance calories) would be 1860*1.2 = 2232 calories.

Problem is that a deficit of 1000 from this number puts me at eating 1232 calories a day, which seems quite low. Of course, I'd need to work out.

I don't know the best way to work out and how to calculate the correct caloric output from that. I am figuring that if I lift weights 3x/week and do cardio twice, that brings the multiplier from 1.2 to 1.4, thus a maintenance of 2604 (and eating 1600 calories each day doesn't sound outrageous).

I don't know if 1.4 is too aggressive an estimate or what. I'm not sure what goals to set currently, since right now nothing seems to be moving the needle.

Also not sure how to determine the macros. I figure a gram of protein per lb lean mass is adequate, but I'm not sure if this is optimal (let alone how many carbs/fats I should be taking in). Always hear about the 40/40/20 rule but that sounds a bit outdated, especially for those with high bf%.


EDIT: As you can probably tell I am a bit obsessed with the math. I need the math to make sense but I don't know enough about the underlying biophysics to gauge certain things.

What are your goals? I highly recommend weight training to anyone that plans to lose a lot of weight, because it will help you maintain muscle mass, but depending on your resources and goals it might be easier to simply adopt a cardio routine.

By my calculations, your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is about 2500 calories. That is how much you would need to consume to maintain your bodyweight.

I would start someone like you off at a fairly large deficit to get the weight off fast. Definitely under 2000 cal/day. So, try 1700-1800 a day for starters.

Make sure you log these calories somewhere. Add them up. Only eat foods for which you know the caloric content. The biggest mistake people make is trying to estimate this in their head and doing it completely wrong.

Make sure you weigh yourself every week when you start this, and when you do weigh yourself, do it first thing in the morning. The night before, do not eat any food after supper, and keep supper relatively light. Try to minimize how much water/fluid you drink in the evening as well. The goal of this is to determine your dry mass that is not influenced by fluid retention.

From there, track your weight over time. Someone your size should safely be losing 1.5-2 pounds a week. If you're not losing enough, try cutting back your intake *slightly*. If the weight is literally falling off, increase intake *slightly*, unless you're not hungry at all, in which case keep going!

Do NOT worry about macros or how to compensate for working out if your goal is weight loss. These are advanced concepts. Learn to walk before you run. Just workout and eat the same amount that you planned to eat.

The only macronutrient you should even take into consideration is protein, if you are doing resistance training. At that point, I would keep it over 100 grams per day. Otherwise, just worry about your calories.