OT: Lose Fat/Fitness

[MrBlonde]

Lose fat/training advice thread.

I'm a member on other forums where the topic of losing fat and gaining fitness is quite popular. If you've got ideas or questions about how to lose fat and how to get the most out of running, weight training, cycling, feel free to post up here!

Over the years I've had experience and learning about nutrition, weight training, running and swimming. I'll post up my ideas in this thread and hope that others will contribute in areas where they have knowledge and experience.

I'm happy to answer any questions about fitness or nutrition or related topics if I can. If I donlt know the answer to something or have an opinion I will say so.

I've done reading and research on these topics and hope I can assist others!


Some of my reference books collected over the years.

[MrBlonde]

Anabolic/Catabolic states.

There is a common misconception that you can turn muscle into fat or fat into muscle. It ain't so. Body fat and muscle are completely different kinds of tissue. Fat cannot turn into muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat.

Muscle fibres are dynamic; they are only ever getting bigger or getting smaller. They never stay the same. Fat is totally inert. It just sits there doing exactly nothing. We like muscle. We don’t like fat.

Your body can gain mass (fat or muscle) by using it’s highly complicated systems (including hormones) and this is called anabolic state. Your body can also lose mass and this is a catabolic state.

Because the hormones and enzymes involved in these states are directly opposed, your body doesn't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. And when you lose fat, you will lose some muscle (also when you gain muscle you will gain some fat).

The objective is to lose a high percentage of fat and a low percentage of lean body mass (which includes muscle). But to achieve that takes a lot of attention to detail; what foods you eat, how much of the food you eat and when you eat it. How much training you do, what type of training and at what time.

It is common to use cycles of mass gain and fat loss to progressively gain more muscle than fat and then lose more fat than muscle to move your body closer to your objectives: low body fat percentage and as much lean body mass (including muscle) as you target.

[MrBlonde]

Lean Body Mass.
Fat loss, not weight loss!

The objective should be to lose fat not weight. Your body is composed of lean body mass (LBM) and fat. LBM is mostly water, but also muscle and bones and organs. We like LBM; the more LBM the better. We don’t like too much fat, although there is a limit of fat (about 4%) that the body must have in order to survive.

Women naturally carry more body fat than men.

I read a rough guide somewhere:

For men -
Essential bodyfat%: 1-5
Athlete: 6-13
Fitness: 14-17

For women -
Essential: 10-13
Athlete: 14-20
Fitness: 21-24

[MrBlonde]

Food and macronutrients.

All foods are composed of the three macronutrients:
1. Protein
2. Carbohydrate
3. Fat

All foods are made up of combinations of these three macronutrients. For example, meat is mostly protein with some fat. Pasta is all carbohydrate. Chocolate is fat and carbohydrate.

In terms of calories, carbs and protein has 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram.

[MrBlonde]

You don’t get fat just by eating food with fat!
You don’t get fat just by eating fat. A low fat diet that includes more calories that your body needs will still keep you fat (witness: the lack of success of all the low fat diets).

Most people get fat because they eat the wrong foods (you know what they are) and they eat too much of these foods. Eating too much good food will still make you fat. Eating a little bad food can still make you fat. There are no shortcuts!

All fats are not bad.
Fatty acids are essential to your body’s health. Most people are deficient in the 2 essential fatty acids, Omega 3 and Omega 6. Essential means you must eat in it your diet to get it. Your body cannot manufacture it from other foods. Without these fatty acids you will become sick and eventually die.
Good sources include Flax oil, Udo’s Choice oil. Extra virgin cold pressed olive oil is OK. For more on fats read “Fats That Heal Fats That Kill” by Udo Erasmus.

Saturated fats.
Saturated fats should be avoided where possible, although this is difficult given the foods made available by the food companies. The only nutritional value saturated fats offer you is to provide energy. If you eat well the protein, carbohydrates and unsaturated fats will provide all the energy you need.

Trans Fatty Acids.
Trans fatty acids are fats that are altered by man for various reasons, none of which have your health in mind. These fats will kill you surely and slowly over a period of time (perhaps 10 to 20 or 30 years). These must be absolutely avoided. Check labels for “trans fatty acid” or “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated”. This is why you shouldn't eat McDonalds.

[MrBlonde]

Water.

Water is important to your daily eating plan. I drink 2-3 litres per day spaced evenly throughout the day. I avoid drinking a lot of water before or during a meal because it slows down the rate at which my stomach can process the food, and therefore the clearance time. You shouldn't eat another meal until the previous meal has cleared your stomach.

Note that I don't drink coffee or softdrinks. OK I don't eat sugar, salt, drink any alcohol, use any drugs or smoke cigarettes. So my toxic load is low compared to some. The more toxins, the more water you need to process them out of your body.

If you drink coffee or have a high toxic load, you'll need to drink more water each day. Each cup of coffee they recommend you drink two extra glasses of water to compensate.

Start looking at the colour of your piss each time you go during the day. The first pee will be darker in colour because your body has processed a lot of junk out overnight. From there on in the pee should be almost clear in colour with no odour. If it's still darker in colour then your kidneys and liver are still clearing junk out of your body. If your pee stays dark until you go to bed again then guess what! Your body has more toxins than it can clear in a 24 hour period. That means the toxins start to accumulate in your fat cells rather than be eliminated. You don't have to be a genius to work out that's not good for you. That cellular degradation is part of what causes aging and disease.

Also you should be pissing say once an hour on average. that's a lot of pisses each day. if you aren't then you're not drinking enough water.

[JB4-335]

I wasn't quite sure what this thread was really about but I just worked it out. If you lose weight your car will be quicker. I recently lost just under 20 kilos and car feels like it gained about 2whp. HEHE!!

[MrBlonde]

BMR and calories.

BMR is basal metabolic rate and is the energy expended by your body to merely be alive. In clinical tests BMR is measured after a person has sleep for 8 hours and has eaten nothing for 12 hours and remains in a reclined position. It's the amount of calories you use by doing nothing at all.

BMR is important for both training and fat loss because it's an approximation of how many calories you require each day to stay exactly as you are. Not to gain any mass or lose any mass.

There are online calculators that help you get an approximate value for your BMR. Check out this one http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

If i was a 42 year old male, 5'11" and 71.0 kgs, that would make my BMR 1,992 ~ 2,000 calories per day.

That means if I eat food that contains 2,000 calories each day I won't gain any weight and I won't lose any weight.

Now for fat loss or for mass gain the same rules apply. the recommendation is a 10-20% variance in calories either way. So for an aggressive mass loss phase, I would target to eat 20% less calories than my BMR. 71.0 kgs *(1-.2) is 1,593 calories ~ 1,600 calories. So if I ate 1,600 calories each day then I'd be losing mass (fat and muscle) at the most aggressive rate that makes sense.

[MrBlonde]

Exercise.

However BMR is useful for a completely sedentary person. If you bring exercise into the picture then your body requires energy to complete the exercise. That's why people who exercise a lot have to eat more to stay the same weight.

On the same site as the previous post there are calculators for running, weight training and other forms of exercise that can approximate how many calories you burn.

For example, when I ran 12K around the Opera House and back on Christmas day in 75 minutes, I plug the numbers in .. 75 minutes, 12K, 71.0 kgs male 42 years old ,etc, it tells me I burned 884 calories.

Obviously it's an approximation based on distance for time (and therfore speed) and doesn't take into account weather conditions or the gradients involved (lots of hills). But it's a decent approximation.

With this example, if I ate 2,000 calories and burned 884 on a run, then my calorie balance for the day would be -1,200 calories.

There are 7,700 calories in a kilogram of body mass. So if I ate to my BMR and ran 12K every day, I'd lose a kilogram and a bit in a week over a period of time.

This gives you the basic to work out how you're going with your eating and exercise at a high level.

[MrBlonde]

Runners: MapMyRun and Garmin Connect.

For those interested in running, check out the MapMyRun site. You can use it to save and share your runs with anyone in the world.

An even better source for those with a GPS heart rate monitor is Garmin Connect. This web based system works wirlessly with your Garmin HRM to download the details of your run. have a look at my last run below:

Garmin Connect webpage.

[Jeef Beef]

If you're relatively fit but don't have much time in your week for dedicated gym sessions, try the 'Insanity' workout program. 60 days, an average of 40-60mins per day. It's interval training focused on cardio and plyometric exercises. It's a series of DVD videos which you follow and you can do it anywhere in the house. No equipment required.

Combined with 5 (healthy) meals a day, you will be as fit as a racehorse. Doesn't make you ripped, but nothing beats the feeling of being able to run 15km and not even puffing. I've been doing it consistently since sometime last year, and I rarely feel tired these days. Sometimes you'll even opt for the stairs rather than the elevator cos you know you can beat that motherfucker to the top

[MrBlonde]

Nutrition: what to eat, how much of it and when.

The golden rule about fat loss and training is a dirty secret that nobody wants you to know, least of all people who want to sell you diets or supplements or gym memberships or fancy exercise equipment.

That dirty secret is that 90% of the success is what you shove in your gob. It's that simple really, what you eat, how much and when is vastly more important than any exercise you do.

To that end, if you're serious about fat loss or building lean body mass (muscle) then you need to get really good at understanding what food you should eat, how much and when.

It's all about what you shove in yer piehole!

[MrBlonde]

What to eat.

This is a no brainer, these days everyone has a pretty good idea. Lean meat, fruit, vegetables, etc. wholerain or multigrain bread, pasta and rice.
Remind me later to talk about glycemic index (GI) and insulin response. It's more about what NOT to eat.

Try to avoid or reduce the following: alcohol (king fat loss killer), any toxins (caffeine, cigarettes, drugs), sugar in all forms (sauces), white pasta, white rice, white bread, potato, biscuits, cakes, pies, muffins, etc. High processed white flour based goods (cakes, buns, etc) are to be avoided.

More on what to eat if anyone has more questions.

[MrBlonde]

How Much to Eat Part 1

There are different schools of thought about how to determine how much to eat. Some people argue that calorie counting is just plain wrong. They are usually fat and looking for an easy way out. There ain't one.

Personally I've always kept a food diary and counted calories to lose fat and build muscle. You can use the link in a previous post to get an approximate value for your BMR. For me it's say 2,000 calories. If I eat 2,000 calories a day then I won't gain weight or lose weight. If I ate more, I'd gain mass. If I ate less I'd lose mass.

You can do the same, input your personal details and get an approximate BMR for yourself. If you're a big bugger then your daily calorie allowance will be more. If you're a little bloke it will be less.

Then you need to factor in the exercise you're doing because this also impacts on how many calories you should eat each day. Again the link in a previous post helps you to get approximate values for how many calories you burn doing various forms of exercise (running, swimming etc).

With all this stuff there are variations in human genetics, so treat the approximates as just that. It's a starting point for your personal plan, but your own personal measurements and observations are the last word. You might find you can eat more food each day and still lose weight. Cool! Or you might find your body finds it tougher to shed fat.

Let's say my BMR is 2,000 calories/day and I do two 5K runs a week, each of which burns 300 calories, and one 12K run which burns 700 calories.

They way I'd work it is 7 days * 2000 calories = 14,000 calories. Exercise load = 300 + 300 + 700 = 1300 calories. So total calories should be 12,700 calories a week. And that's 12,700/7 ~ 1,800 calories a day.

You're probably starting to see what I mean about exercise being far less important than getting the food right!

To be continued ..

[MrBlonde]

How Much to Eat Part 2.

Continued ..

So how do you know how many calories are in the foods you're eating? Well all food is composed of the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat and protein. Carbs and Protein each contain 4 calories per gram and Fat contains 9 calories per gram.

Now there are lots of references on the web to look up the breakdown of any food you care to name, but also many packaged foods already have the information printed on them:

Example: McDonalds Big Mac hamburger
Calories: 540 calories total
+ Protein: 25g (100 calories)
+ Carbs: 45g (180 calories)
+ Fat: 29g (260 calories)

There is also other useful info:

Carb breakdown:
+ Fibre 3g <---- All fibre is indigestible carbs, good stuff
+ Sugar 9g <---- The devil's work

Fats breakdown:
+ Saturated fat: 10g <--- To be avoided
+ Trans fatty acids: 1.5g <--- All Trans fats will kill you slowly but surely over time. ask me why and I'll tell you

Just for fun let's add a large fries and a medium Coke to that order.
Large fries: 500 calories
Medium Coke: 210 calories.

So that meal is 1,250 calories. for me that would leave 750 calories for the other 5 meals in that day ... I'm sure you're getting the picture.

Do a Google for a site that lists how many calories are in all sorts of foods. you might have to dig around a bit, they don't like to give free information way, but instead try to make you buy a software program to tell you what's in the public domain. Alternatively you can buy reference lists.

[MrBlonde]

How Much to Eat Part 3.

Continued ..

OK so now you have an approximate BMR, you've calculated how many calories you're going to burn each week in exercise and you knwo how to work out how many calories are in the food you eat.

Now how to plan your meals?

Well if your goal is fat loss, then you want to create an imbalance in calories needed and calories eaten. That's how your body loses fat, by burning up a bit of your fat supply in order to make up the energy deficit.

Because the human body is adapted by the forces of evolution, or because God made us that way, or because Cylons engineered us that way, or whatever you choose to believe, to store excess calories consumed as body fat, you have to be very patient and clever to achieve fat loss. Your body will not give up it's emergency supply of fat without a struggle! It's a survival adaptation and that means it's very stubborn and has multiple alternate paths and negative feedback loops. This is again why it's not easy to lose fat!

That is why the recommendation is to go for a 10-20% deficit in calories and no more. If you create too big an imbalance (by eating to little or exercising too much or both) then your body will switch into "starvation mode" to protect itself from danger. The way it does that is pretty cool but let's just focus on what it mean to you. It means your metabolism hormones will downregulate, slowing your body down to conserve energy. That means your BMR will change, becoming much lower. your body shuts down to stop you from putting yourself in "danger".

In practice this is fairly easy to detect. The first thing you're going to do each morning is take your temperature while you're taking your first piss. Then you're going to write that temperature down. Your body temp first thing is a great indicator of metabolism. If you suddenly notice your temp drops and you feel sluggish and wooly, then you might very well have tipped over the edge. You can also use this to detect if you are overtraining.

The solution to this problem is easy .. eat more. It's a fun time because you eat more and start losing more fat. Ah great for a chuckle! your boyd kicks out of starvation mode as soon as it senses there's enough calories around. take note and adjust your BMR estimate accordingly.

So using my example above, if I wanted to be as aggressive as possible with fat loss, then I'd take my 12,700 calories per week and reduce it by 20% to get 10,160, which is ~ 1,450 calories per day.

Bingo! Plan set .. then the trial and error starts.

[MrBlonde]

When to Eat.

One factor I've ignored about BMR and your metabolism is the "thermal effect of eating". It actually takes some energy to eat and digest food. I ignore this when calculating the goal calories because the value is relatively small and it just gives a nice loading to make life a tad tougher, which is gonna bring you better results.

Now the best way to eat your food is to evenly space your meals out over six times in the day. This gives your stomach the chance to digest and clear before the next meal is due. Meals should be eaten at least say 2 hours apart. And you want to avoid eating anything 3-4 hours before you go to sleep each night.

In practice this can be quite difficult at first because we're used to eating three big meals a day (or less) and usually with a large dinner. You want to eat the same AMOUNT of food, but spilt up into 6 meals. If you eat 6 meals the same size as before you're gonna eat about double what you were eating previously! This is not good!

You will get this six meals a day thing right over time, sometimes it's even good to get a normal sized meal and just divide it into two parts, to be eaten 2 hours apart.

This will mean people tell you "you just eat all day". You can add that to the comments about how you piss all day and how you're a namby pamby for avoiding bad foods. I find it really gets to me a lot coming from fat slobs ;-)

Sample daily eating plan

Meal 1: 0800 Breakfast at home
Meal 2: 1000 Morning tea at work
Meal 3: 1300 Lunch at work
Meal 4: 1600 Afternoon tea at wok
Meal 5: 1800 Dinner at home/work
Meal 6: 2000 Supper at home

[MrBlonde]

Measuring Progress.

Part of losing fat is building and maintaining motivation. To do this I have the following approach:

+ Weekly measurements
+ Monthly checkup and photos

Each week at the same time on the same day I step onto a set of those fancy electronic scales that tell you how much you weigh and also give you an approximate measure for bodyfat %. I also put a tape measure around my navel (the bit that gets fat on me around my tummy). And I record that and compare to previous weeks to see how I am going.

The motivation is good for me. I find myself tempted to eat something a bit naughty, but thinking .. hang on .. I've got to weigh in tomorrow. Also the kick you get when the fat starts coming off is good. The way your clothes fit is not so reportable, but is the best way of measuring your true progress.

Once a month I do detailed measures, taking my blood pressure, getting my missues to run the tape measure around all sorts of body parts, etc. And I also strip down to my undies and get her to take photos of me front on, side on and from the back. Again the motivation when you see your body transforming the way you want it to in photos is really good for me.

Use those or use different motivators that suit you, it's all good.

A good site if you want to count calories www.calorieking.com.au

[TimMc]

I'll have to exercise more. I'm not giving up chocolate, coffee, beer or wine!

[MrBlonde]

Beginner's Running plan.

If you're interested in adding running to your weight management/fat loss/exercise program but you're a rank beginner and don't know where to start .. then read on!

The program I'll outline below takes you from doing no running to doing a 5K run in 12 weeks. This is a realistic program that anyone in reasonable health can achieve.

Many people want to try running and give it a go, only to find they are puffing like a steam train after a minute or so. They usually persist and slog it out for a while, then go home. The next day they are so stiff and sore they either throw in the towel right there and then or give it another few tries with the same result. Of course they end up giving it away as a bad joke. Here's how to avoid that.

First up you don't need a whole lot of equipment to run. However it is REALLY important that you go get yourself a great pair of running shoes and socks before you even start. I'd recommend you go to one of the big places like Athlete's Foot where they have sales people who know what they are talking about and have a good range of shoes to suit all different people.

You want a pair of running socks like Thorlo's that are designed for running. They offer padding and protection, etc. Get a few pairs, they make a difference.

You will need a watch to time yourself, or if you're into gadgets or are a bit more serious about running and training, get yourself a heart rate monitor (HRM). A lot of people use Garmin or Polar brands but there are other good HRMs out there too.

There is a lot of wank around running clothes. You see runners wearing those silly little race shorts and fancy mesh singlets, etc. It's just common sense, if it's hot you wear clothes to suit and if it's cold the same.

Personally I've worn any old pair of shorts and a t shirt during normal weather. In winter I wear lycra tights (full leg) and long sleeve top with a rugby jersey on top (Go Wallabies!) and a baseball cap with fingerless gloves (it gets cold where I live). If you've got a shit hot body then you could go without a top in the hot months, it's totally up to you. My point is that you can wear whatever you please, don't think you need to wear little running shorts in winter, etc.

Once you've got some new running shoes and a decent pair of socks and you've got your watch or HRM on, you're ready to rock and roll.

[MrBlonde]

Zero to 30 minutes run plan.

I've used this plan myself numerous times to go from zero running to 30 minutes run in 12 weeks. If you stick to the plan you'll be at the goal at the end of the program. The idea here is to finish each run and think to yourself "That was a piece of piss, I could have gone heaps harder." This is MUCH better than finishing a run and thinking "I never want to run again I feel awful".

So for each week in the plan you should run 3 or 4 times a week with at least one day's rest between each run. You pick which days suit you and what time of the day suits you. Personally I run first thing in the morning (0530).

You will hear experienced runners tell you that you should run every day of the week or 6 days a week, etc. They will tell you you're soft for taking day off between every run. They will tell you the plan I'll outline is too slow, too easy, not aggressive enough, weak as piss. Ask them how many injuries they are carrying and how many weeks they've sat out exercising since they started running and watch them shut the **** up.

As with all exercise, listen to your body. There is no point in going for a run if you are still sore from the last run. Just take an additional day off and re-evaluate. Your body needs time to rebuild and recover before it can benefit from more exercise. be smart and pay attention to what your body is telling you.

After each run you should spend 50% of the run time in stretching. So if you do a 30 minute run, you spend 15 minutes stretching. This will prevent injuries and reduce soreness. If you don't know how to stretch then ask someone at your gym or someone you know to show you. if you ignore this as something that's too hard or couldn't be bothered you will regret it!

When you return from your run it's a great time to get some food into you. A carb rich meal will help your body to recover faster. Your body requires carbs to rebuild and repair.

Beginner run plan.

[MrBlonde]

Once you've reached a 30 minute run three times a week you might want to try cycle 2.

Cycle 2 running plan. Go from 30 minute run to 90 minute run in 12 weeks.



Then there's Cycle 3 to go to 150 minute run if you want to do a half marathon race or the like.

Cycle 3 running plan. Go from 90 minute run to 150 minute run in 12 weeks.