2017 Health and Fitness Thread

[House of Wax]

So, resolutions and all that......

Thought it could be helpful to have a thread to discuss fitness and diet plans/goals/progress for the year. Curious to see what everyone is doing

The wife and I are pretty much starting from scratch. I need to drop about 25 and just don`t want to feel like garbage anymore. Think we`re going to start out with the Stronglifts 5x5 program. It`s just 3 days/week and seems like a pretty good program to get back in the game and build some strength. May look to incorporate some yoga/pilates a couple days/week as well. The benefits of the added stretching and flexibility would help immensely.

And then there`s the diet......need to clean that up big time.

So has anybody tried the stronglifts? Any good diet plans ya`ll have had good luck with?

[jrock645]

I did stronglifts years ago. Good plan, but most say Starting strength is better- similar just a bit less volume. Either is great if you have access to free weights, racks, etc and want to learn to squat. I don`t quite have gym membership time and my back won`t allow for squats and deadlifts but I miss that stuff.

As for diets, it goes against everything you`ve ever been taught but drop he carbs. Check out the Dash Diet to get started. Basically, fill up on veggies at every meal and get a few ounces of lean meat plus a fat source like cheese, nuts, or oils(like MCT or olive oil), or opt for a fatty meat like salmon or certain cuts of beef. Give it a bit of time, let your body adjust to it and you`ll drop weight like you couldn`t believe, you`ll feel better, have energy like you never dreamed and your cholesterol and triglycerides will plummet.

[jrock645]

My own goals are to get dialed back in on the low carb lifestyle. Easy to get off track but when I`m "on" I quickly question why I ever allow myself to deviate in the first place.

As for exercise, I do a USMC calisthenics routine most mornings before work. Takes about 20 minutes, builds functional strength and conditioning, and can be done at home with minimal equipment. Good full body workout. If it`s good enough to get these warriors in shape for battle, that`s good enough for me. I also ride the stationary most nights after work.

[pgp]

jrock645, sounds interesting, i should look into the dash diet. I could use more energy

[zmcgovern45]

Carbs aren`t necessarily the enemy... I aim for about 300g of carbs per day and I am at 10% BF, so clearly carbs don`t just make you fat.

Understanding the different types of carbs (glycemic index - slow digesting (complex) vs. fast digesting (simple) carbs) and when to eat them can make a big difference.

As for dieting, the concept should be simple... the first step is understanding how many calories your body actually needs. Use an online tool to calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) to help give you a ballpark for your maintenance caloric intake. If you want to gain weight, you need to eat in surplus of your maintenance level. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat in a deficit relative to your maintenance level. That is the basics of dieting... you can eat 5,000 calories of lettuce and still gain weight.

Since the birth of my son I have sort of fallen out of my fitness habits, but I followed a "flexible dieting" mentality where no foods were off limits. I simply set my caloric goals and broke my calorie intake into macro nutrient goals (proteins, fats, and carbs). As long as I stayed within my macro goals and continued to train, I could technically eat whatever I wanted to. I`m no physical fitness model lol, but I always felt like I was in good shape.



Bottom line is this... do some research and find a fitness program and nutrition program that seems doable for you. If it sounds crazy, and seems like something you would never want to do, then the odds of you sticking to it are pretty low. Whether you`re trying to gain mass or lose body fat, you have to find a program that you won`t get burned out on in 6 weeks. Fitness can be an incredible amount of fun! I need to get back into it myself

[jrock645]

Carbs aren`t necessarily the enemy... I aim for about 300g of carbs per day and I am at 10% BF, so clearly carbs don`t just make you fat.

Understanding the different types of carbs (glycemic index - slow digesting (complex) vs. fast digesting (simple) carbs) and when to eat them can make a big difference.

As for dieting, the concept should be simple... the first step is understanding how many calories your body actually needs. Use an online tool to calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) to help give you a ballpark for your maintenance caloric intake. If you want to gain weight, you need to eat in surplus of your maintenance level. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat in a deficit relative to your maintenance level. That is the basics of dieting... you can eat 5,000 calories of lettuce and still gain weight.

Since the birth of my son I have sort of fallen out of my fitness habits, but I followed a "flexible dieting" mentality where no foods were off limits. I simply set my caloric goals and broke my calorie intake into macro nutrient goals (proteins, fats, and carbs). As long as I stayed within my macro goals and continued to train, I could technically eat whatever I wanted to. I`m no physical fitness model lol, but I always felt like I was in good shape.



Bottom line is this... do some research and find a fitness program and nutrition program that seems doable for you. If it sounds crazy, and seems like something you would never want to do, then the odds of you sticking to it are pretty low. Whether you`re trying to gain mass or lose body fat, you have to find a program that you won`t get burned out on in 6 weeks. Fitness can be an incredible amount of fun! I need to get back into it myself

Insulin sensitivity has a lot to do with it. Some people, like yourself, react a lot better to them. Others, like me, they go straight to the love handles. Activity level has a lot to do with it, too. 300g`s a day, I`m guessing you spend a lot of time in the gym. It`s not an apples to apples benchmark for everyone.

Obviously, the biggest goal toward weight loss is caloric restriction, right? Well, the bottom line is there is nothing in a carbohydrate your body actually needs. There`s essential fatty acids and essentials inos but there`s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. With that established, every weight loss diet starts with limiting carbs, just depends how far you want to take it.

[House of Wax]

Woof. Want to get down to the 185-190 range and maintain there.

After doing some more research I think I`m going to go with the Starting Strength program.

Looking forward to the lifting, not so much the diet portion lol

[Ronkh]

I did a sit up today
(I got out of bed)

[Nautical]

Zach pretty much said said what I was going to. A couple things I will say are, a diet that works for one person may not work for another. It takes some time to figure out how your body reacts to different foods so don`t get discouraged, it`s not something that can be rushed. Also, if your following a strength program, make sure you`re supplementing your body properly to take advantage of the routine. And one other routine I`d recommend is AllPro`s Beginner Routine A Simple Beginner`s Routine - Bodybuilding.com Forums

Obviously, the biggest goal toward weight loss is caloric restriction, right? Well, the bottom line is there is nothing in a carbohydrate your body actually needs. There`s essential fatty acids and essentials inos but there`s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. With that established, every weight loss diet starts with limiting carbs, just depends how far you want to take it.

Not necessarily, carbs aren`t as bad as people make it out to be. Now, some people can`t lose weight without doing low carb, but I can eat 200g+ of carbs a day and not gain any weight, even without working out. Also, carbs may be necessary for someone to help keep up energy through a workout. I tried doing low carb and eating other foods to try and fill that void, but I couldn`t get through a session without falling flat and not hitting my goals while lifting. Again, everyones body will react differently.

[Accumulator]

Ah, glad to see this come up again!

Regulars here know that I`m pretty serious about being in-shape. Age 56 (for a little while longer), serious about exercise for decades. I haven`t been unable to clearly see my abs since, well...forever, my bodyfat never gets close to being double-digits.

My basic viewpoint- If you`re not staying in the exact shape you want all the time, something is wrong. Whatever exercise/diet regimen you follow, it either works long-term or it`s no good.

I don`t try to burn calories by exercising, but rather I exercise in a way that makes my body burn calories 24/7.

I`ve actually made additional good progress in the last year while doing *less* exercise. I`m doing less-frequent and briefer workouts and actually *gaining muscle and losing fat* that way. Kinda surprised me (especially at age 56) as I`ve been doing this stuff for decades and would`ve considered additional progress unlikely.

I made my cardio *much* briefer and less frequent, but considerably more difficult and that`s worked *great*. The trick for most people is probably sustaining the motivation to do it hard enough, but I`m just like that and can accept that "it`s not supposed to be fun; I don`t have to like it, I just have to do it".

Last time I kept track, I averaged ~25 minutes/day doing cardio/resistance training. I can go hard, or I can go long, but I can`t do both and hard is more productive.

Different diets seem to work/not for different people and as jrock645 and zmcgovern45 said, insulin sensitivity and the glycemic index seem to be a big part of that and can sure vary between people (my wife and I are very different in this regard). I`m still eating thousands of calories worth of food daily, including plenty of carbs and good fat, having found this simply necessary to fuel the machine. It often seems like I`m eating all the time, but that`s what works for me and I don`t eat much [crap], but I don`t deny myself something I feel like having either.

I know people *my age* who can no longer do stuff that they used to...No Thanks! I`ve known plenty of elderly people who stayed fit and active right to the end of their days and I plan to do likewise.

[jrock645]

Accumulator- what type of routine are you doing, that you`re able to fit it all in 25 minutes? I used to do that HIT stuff, highly controversial, with good results but it`s easy to burn out on it.

[Accumulator]

Accumulator- what type of routine are you doing, that you`re able to fit it all in 25 minutes? I used to do that HIT stuff, highly controversial, with good results but it`s easy to burn out on it.

That "25 minutes" comes from averaging...a result of my *NOT* exercising very much/often; I only do the minimum required to get the results I want, and if I do *more* I don`t get those results anyhow. A given workout might take a while, but then I`ll go days before the next one. And most of the w/o are awfully brief.

Oh man, this`ll be LONG...I could write a book

[INSERT disclaimer that what works for me might be all wrong for others..]

[INSERT note that I`ve studiously evaluated my workouts for over 30 years and I continue to study this subject in pretty great depth. You name it, I`ve read/tried/evaluated how it works *for me*]

Note that I`m spoiled- I have a fully-equipped gym in the basement. I train alone, at home (shades of Clubber Lang ).

Cardio: High Intensity Interval Training, 2:1 (work:rest) intervals, target is >90% my (actual, not "age-adjusted") max heart rate during the work intervals.

I alternate between the StairMaster and the AirDyne, doing two SM sessions then one AD. Each session leaves me *utterly* played and yes indeed I can understand why people burn out on it (I just don`t, been doing this for a long time now).

I do two, *maybe* three cardio sessions/week max. Each is short, that`s all I (or anybody else...check the original Tabata studies) can handle if I truly max out the work intervals while keeping the rest intervals short. My warmups are 3-5 minutes; my Workout is 3-10 minutes; my cooldowns are 2-5 minutes. I do this first thing that morning, before breakfast.

I walk the dogs briskly cross-country (hiking, really) frequently, at least several times weekly, but I don`t really consider that "cardio", more like "recovery work".

Resistance Training: Basically a variation on the Heavy Duty approach, tweaked towards what works best for me long-term.

I`ve found that *FOR ME* it`s best to split up my bodyparts into numerous fairly brief workouts. I wish that approach weren`t the best for me, but it is, so that`s what I do.

Each body part gets worked directly each 10-18 (not a typo) days as *I* need a lot of recovery time. No more than 6-7 work sets per bodypart (that`s for back and I usually do far fewer), some bodyparts only need one. The split is basically:

-Cardio day, Upper Legs (2-7 sets), abs (abs are always 1-2 brief, ~low-rep sets max)
-Cardio day the next week, Lower Legs (2-4 brief, low-rep sets max), maybe abs
-Back, biceps (1-3 sets), brachialis or rear delts (one set of either every other w/o)
-Chest, triceps (3 sets), mid delts (one set every other w/o)
-Forearms (4-6 sets max)
-maybe an extra ab day now and then at the end of some other w/o

That`s it.

"But you can`t gain on one work set every couple of weeks". Bull.

The targeted muscles get very sore *every* time (except my biceps, which hardly ever get sore). Other related muscles also get a little sore (e.g., work back = chest gets a bit too).

I do very little warming up/cooling down, maybe two light but strict sets of the first exercise. I do every rep fairly slowly and with strict form, only loosening that slightly for occasional additional inroad. I rest as long as I feel like between sets, even if that`s a long time. I do every single work set to absolute concentric failure, sometimes even adding eccentric and static failure at the end of the set.

I give *a lot* of thought to things like:
-gravity pulls straight down but most muscles don`t move straight up/down
-many forms of resistance are constant/linear, but most muscles don`t work that way
-some muscles benefit/don`t from holding the peak contraction
-the understanding of what specific muscles actually do, which isn`t always obvious

Again, this is just what works for me. And/but I`m 100% satisfied with my results and I expect to be able to keep doing this indefinitely. Have *never* had a significant injury/issue, and haven`t had *any* for many years. Long layoffs (e.g., surgical recovery) have very little detrimental effect, I bounce right back in no time. I can eat as much as I like of whatever I like with no thought to getting fat. Totally dialed-in

[jrock645]

Accumulator-

Thats very Arthur Jones type approach to your workout. Makes a lot of sense. If it works, it works.

[Accumulator]

Accumulator-

Thats very Arthur Jones type approach to your workout. Makes a lot of sense. If it works, it works.

IMO it`s more Mentzer than Jones, but yeah ol` Arthur first got my thoughts headed in that direction.

Just as I`m all about preserving clearcoat thickness and maintaining my vehicles (very) long-term, my diet/exercise stuff is all about the long haul.

All that "once you get older..." [crap] that people used to say to me just never happened. Gee, guess why

[JSFM35X]

Joined the gym. Now I just need to go. And I need to go. Got my 25 lbs of winter survival gear on st the moment.