Quote :

"mix them together in a huge beer stein & drink it with a straw. i will do this for dinner and i find it very satisfying & delicious. "

Satisfying and delicious?

Definitely a Stein.

5/23/2010 1:22:30 PM

Quote :

"i use a magic bullet"

Epic. Me too. I love the thing... it's only really good for drinks though, although I did make the chocolate mousse and it was pretty good.

5/23/2010 1:24:12 PM

I had one and the stinking power cord blew up (literally) on me and I cant get it to work anymore.

not to mention the warranty on those things isnt that great.

5/23/2010 1:31:23 PM

i use a cuisinart immersion blender.

i go 1.5 (200calories per 8oz) cups vanilla yogurt and maybe 1/3 cup strawberries. i try to buy the oldest strawberries at the farmers market for best taste.

i can drink 3-4 of these things. i do it for easy calories. i think i may have overdone it here lately though. i was getting 1200+ calories from nothing but yogurt strawberry smoothies. something pissed my stomach off good but I blamed the double whoppers!

if you guys cant get any hard gainers to do this i may reconsider. i think it would be interesting from just a diet perspective. Looks like most everyones goal is to simply lose body fat.

5/23/2010 1:35:56 PM

^Substitute greek yogurt for regular yogurt (if you've never tried it, get Chobani vanilla or strawberry). Strawberry has 140 calories and 14g protein while vanilla has like 120 calories and 16g protein. Chobani plain/original has 100 calories and 18g protein.

Also... add whey protein. I like Designer Whey or Body Fortress. You can get 2 lb. Body Fortress at Wal-Mart for $16 (2 scoops = 52g protein). If you want to get mass, you can use the mass builder formula, which is loaded in protein but has a shit ton of calories... 1 smoothie/shake can give you the 1200 calories you want.

5/23/2010 1:56:30 PM

I appreciate your input. The problem with it is that I will not continue to eat things I do not enjoy for a long enough duration for it to work. The best weight gainer i ever found was a superbowl party .


I did 8-10 servings of on whey for one and a half weeks to see if it was just a protein deficiency holding me back(3500 calories total with the food I ate as well). I'm just an extreme ectomorph. 6.25" wrist (6' tall). Like I have stated in the chitchat workout thread I am perfectly content being lean and in the 150's. My goal is to dunk a basketball at this point.

[Edited on May 23, 2010 at 2:21 PM. Reason : .]

5/23/2010 2:17:03 PM

i wish i had taken before and after pics from last fall. my friends and i did a biggest loser comp. some people based it on weight, on dist running, pushups, and diet. not every one was after losing weight but it was fun and motivational. we did 12 weeks and i dropped 39 lbs. i am sitting at 240 now and am going to shoot for 215 by labor day. all i did was pack my lunch, ride my bike and lots of pushups. today my own personal challenge started again.

5/23/2010 2:39:40 PM

If you try Body Fortress' whey protein, I think you'll like it... just get chocolate. I don't eat ice cream any more because I can make protein shakes that taste just like milkshakes.

5/23/2010 2:42:53 PM

ok here we go

Im not in BAD shape right now but Ive slacked off in the past 2 months.

what I want to do is maintain and firm up my current muscle levels and size...im not a BIG guy but I have enough size that Im happy with.

what I want to do is get rid of the fat that I have in areas, mainly my lower stomach. overall I wish to decrease my body fat %.

my plan is to do cardio everyday in the form of insanity and then do some weightlifting about 3-4 times a week to maintain muscle levels.

to get rid of the fat, Im going over to a low/no carb thing for a while. thats the best way I know of. if anyone knows a better way please let me know

so here goes.

5/23/2010 3:51:58 PM

I saw that in the bookstore and thought about buying it for iheartkisses.

5/23/2010 3:55:48 PM

Quote :

"Also... add whey protein."

Why the specific requirement for whey? My opinion is that there are better choices for general use (just stay away from soy). Whey is good for immediate post-workout use.

5/23/2010 4:03:39 PM

got in a quick chest and tricep workout today at the gym...just gettin the muscles to start firing again.

is cardio my best way to lose body fat?? and low/no carb

5/23/2010 5:24:11 PM

alright. ive been bad the past two days

but its on tomorrow (and no i am not a procrastinator that says that lol, im being serious. today is an excellent lazy day :beatup )

i shall keep yall informed

5/23/2010 5:33:31 PM

I use a good amount of whey protein, because soy is shitty (estrogen, etc.) I don't eat red meat or pork because it's also wicked shitty. I eat 2 scoop of whey protein, chicken/turkey, and seafood every day.

5/23/2010 5:47:50 PM

no, I'm saying that if you're going to supplement, and if you're not serious enough to stock two different types of protein, why not use a whey/egg/casein blend?

5/23/2010 6:06:12 PM

i have a little body fat measurer thing i got for $30

i am going to check my body fat in the morning tomorrow before i eat or drink anything

i used to track it, i think i should track it for this too since i may not SEE results, numbas dont lie!

i just did it and it says 26.4% body fat & 22.9 BMI (a lie number but whatever, its on the screen, i'll track it)

oh and for those unfamiliar with the device, it asks for height (to the quarter inch), weight (to the half pound), age & sex

[Edited on May 23, 2010 at 6:16 PM. Reason : laddkfj]

5/23/2010 6:15:38 PM

Like I said. I am 6ft 3 180. I want to be 6ft 3 205. 25 pounds of muscle would be awesome for me. Like I also said I start working an 8-5 job so I will have to workout around that and also I will finally be able to afford to eat the way I want to, buy the supplements I want, etc. Any advice would be great.

[Edited on May 23, 2010 at 6:48 PM. Reason : I hope this works. ]

5/23/2010 6:45:39 PM

buy a sams club membership (for bulk cheap food)

seriously...LOTS AND LOTS of protein...eggs, meat, protein supplements

whatever...its a lot cheaper at sams club and you can stock up.

Gaining muscle is a lot harder than losing weight, beleive it or not.

HIGH HIGH WEIGHT and LOW rep will help you build lots of muscle...and most importantly...sleep/rest.
I wouldnt recommend anymore than 6 reps per set and remember form is the most important.

I used to be 5'10" 135 and now im about 5'10" 185...my buddy is a NATURAL bodybuilder and told me all that would help me put on muscle...and it worked for me, you may be different. but yea...thats what I would say

[Edited on May 23, 2010 at 7:31 PM. Reason : c]

5/23/2010 7:30:43 PM

As you can see, I need to burn a ton of calories and work on my obliques. But I'm a work in progress

5/23/2010 7:58:30 PM

Drinkin 3-4 beers tonight in celebration of Lost...

My diet will have to start tomorrow

5/23/2010 8:03:11 PM

just finished a 10mi ride around the neighborhood

it was a relaxed pace but i burnt 340 calories... that helps subsidize the chicken tenders & fries i ate at the astros game this afternoon

5/23/2010 8:28:59 PM

i dragged my brother out for a 5k run, literally, although, he's not a runner

diet was not spot on this weekend, never is when i go back home, so i allowed myself a few cheat meals

GG, everyone looks like they have their own issues ITT, me included, but GG anyway

5/23/2010 11:25:01 PM

hitting up the gym for chest.... my spotter just called and said he was to sleepy to make it, oh well

5/24/2010 5:11:17 AM

Weekend Recap:

Saturday Workout: 5-mile run, about 20 minutes of wakesurfing and 3 hours of dancing
Saturday Diet: Lots of almonds, artichokes, fruit, veggies ... plus 3 glasses of wine, a birthday shot and a jack and diet

Sunday Workout: 5-mile run, about 30 minutes of wakesurfing
Sunday Diet: Egg whites and lean sausage for breakfast, fruit and nuts on the boat throughout the day, a quarter of a slice of cheesecake, a sashimi salad and 3 glasses of wine

WAY too much booze, but birthday week is always dangerous.

BTW, what's the impact of marijuana when you're dieting? Munchies/food cravings aside, does pot impact your metabolism?

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 8:24 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2010 8:23:52 AM

so, since one of my major goals is to slim down my thighs i thought it only appropriate to measure them:
22.5 inches.

i just got off the phone with cody and im about to switch up my routine:
cardio in the morn and weightlifting in the afternoon. iver been wanting to switch it up like this pretty bad for a while now.

5/24/2010 9:39:16 AM

If you want to make your thighs smaller (I think they look great, fyi) then you should concentrate on endurance activities. Cycling, running, etc. Avoid any heavy weightlifting with your legs.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 9:44 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 9:44:41 AM

but won't weightlifting burn fat quicker?

5/24/2010 9:48:12 AM

Yes but it causes hypertrophy which will expand the muscle.

What you need to do is cause muscle atrophy. If you don't "work" the muscle by squatting large amounts of weight, it's going to decrease in size.

Look at the difference between an olympic sprinter and an olympic marathoner. A sprinter has huge quads, where a marathoner has lean quads.

Or if you want to do squats, do bodyweight squats with large amounts of reps.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 9:53 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 9:52:56 AM

wont that lead to skinny fat legs though?

i was distance running for a hile and did, in fact, get slimmer though....much much slimmer, but they looked horrible! like ridden with cellulite

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:00 AM. Reason : i just found a bodybuilding.com forum thread that answers my questions thanks though]

5/24/2010 9:59:00 AM

Quote :

"wont that lead to skinny fat legs though?"

Only if you have no muscle to begin with.

Like, say someone has large thighs that are 50% fat and 50% muscle. And they decide to jog to train.

So, they're going to burn fat, and since they're not causing muscle hypertrophy, the muscles are going to deteriorate also.

So, once they get down to a lower overall body fat, their thighs are still going to be fat over a small layer of muscle, because they never developed that muscle to begin with.

Since you did a lot of weightlifting and have a low overall body fat, your thighs are almost all muscle. This means that if you keep exercising, but instead do cardio or high repetitions instead of hypertrophy, you're just going to decrease your lean muscle amount and not add any fat.

EDIT: This is a hard thing to do, by the way.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:08 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 10:06:42 AM

I'll do this, but I think I'll do a before and after shot, too... I notice a lot more seeing it weeks apart than every week back to back, ya know?

I eat lots of fruit, a wide variety of veggies, whole wheat bread (every now and then whole wheat bagels), lots and lots of protein (fish, steak, chicken, lamb, etc etc etc), quinoa, beans, nuts, tea (mostly black or green tea with honey!), CHEESE...

My downfall is that I have a ridiculous sweet tooth... and I need to learn to say no to things that are easy to get for lunch at work. I think I'll have to give up beer as well, unless it's Mich Ultra.

I'm trying to modify my diet right now to get my fat intake under 20%... Right now it's usually around 25-30% - it's just annoying because the things that seem to make it spike are when I have my peanut butter or cheese.

ANYWAY, I'll do the picture later

5/24/2010 10:18:29 AM

I'm in. Will post info/pics later tonight or tomorrow.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:24 AM. Reason : V same. I was eating way too little fat for a long time and noticed big improvements when I upped it]

5/24/2010 10:22:41 AM

is there a reason youre trying to get your fat intake under 20%?

when my fat is a little higher i have more energy and i tend to bun more cals. i mean, everyone's different so i shouldn't compare you to me but i am curious.

Quote :

"the muscles are going to deteriorate also."

thats what i want to avoid

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:24 AM. Reason : rtrftr]

5/24/2010 10:22:41 AM

I will agree that achieving muscle atrophy is a very difficult thing to do when working out. Especially if you're a mesomorph. At a certain point, you just can't fight your body type.

And honestly, distance running really might not help. Other than wakesurfing, I only do distance running ... and my legs are extremely muscular.



And dude, you don't have to restrict your fat intake very much if you're eating the right types of fat. Fat is not the enemy (always), but sugar is.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:28 AM. Reason : .]

5/24/2010 10:24:30 AM

When I was training with begonias that was part of my goals... to have a lower fat intake to help with weight loss. I think we decided on keeping it around 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat.. but always less than 20% fat. When I get to the size I'm happy with, I really won't care if it's always under 20% but I think it'll help me get to that size ya know?

5/24/2010 10:25:20 AM

I already lost 25 pounds this year and I didn't really do much other than cut out the really fatty foods, eat smaller portions of stuff, drink a lot of water... and I ran/walked for about 30 minutes every day

5/24/2010 10:25:32 AM

fair enough.

20% is the lowest i try to let my fats get.

otherwise i tend to crash :/

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:27 AM. Reason : but imake sure my calories stay the same!]

5/24/2010 10:27:42 AM

Quote :

"thats what i want to avoid"

but look at you, there's not a speck of fat on you. it would seem that the only thing on your thighs is muscle, and to decrease this you have to let them atrophy

(or is there fat on your thighs? I can't tell. maybe your thighs are the equivalent of lucy's "stomach pooch:" the only thing you and her cant lose)

5/24/2010 10:27:44 AM

Ahh, see I crash if I have too low of protein or way too many carbs - that's the ultimate killer for me

5/24/2010 10:28:29 AM

Quote :

"there's not a speck of fat on you. "

you made my day



after looking it up a bit more i am going to switch around my routine and see what happens.
im gonna do one day of lower body a week. one really, really heavy day.
the other days i will substitute bicycling and flat terrain running


we'll see how this progresses

Quote :

"http://I crash if I have too low of protein "

me too!!!!!
carbs dont affect me that much, usually

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM. Reason : serere]

5/24/2010 10:30:18 AM

Quote :

"If you want to make your thighs smaller (I think they look great, fyi) then you should concentrate on endurance activities. Cycling, running, etc. Avoid any heavy weightlifting with your legs."

Cycling is not going to make legs any smaller. In fact, it will probably do the opposite.

5/24/2010 10:33:19 AM

^i have heard cycling would make them smaller too.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM. Reason : maybe it depends on the resistance?]

5/24/2010 10:33:45 AM

I'm going to bury the hatchet here. Just keep us updated, Joice.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:36 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 10:35:58 AM

lol. i will

5/24/2010 10:36:22 AM

i'll do this as well. i'll post a picture as soon as i find my camera.

stats:
height: 5'4
weight: 147lbs
workout routine: i run a little over 3 miles a day and do about 20-30 minutes of resistance training with bands
typical diet: breakfast varies...right now i usually just eat a banana and a cup of coffee but it's not keeping me full for very long so i'm going back to 2 eggs and green tea, snack will be a banana, lunch is normally chicken and quinoa and i'm going to add an avacado half, snack is greek yogurt, dinner is normally some sort of meat (chicken, pork, fish) and a veggie (sweet potato, asparagus, corn)
diet pitfalls: well this is the most frustrating - even with working out and eating healthy, i can't get my weight to go down. so then i get annoyed and eat crap. i also drink about 1-2 glasses of wine 3-4 days a week....i need to quit that and go back to 1 night a week. i've had my metabolism checked, my thyroid checked, diabetes checked, everything is good.....but the weight won't go anywhere.....so if anyone has any suggestions of what i could do, that would be swell.
goal: lose these last 12-17 pounds and get back to around 130-135 lbs.

5/24/2010 11:48:25 AM

first setback to the day!

mom's coming over YAY!
but we're going to the cheesecake factory! boo!!!

http://calorielab.com/news/2007/07/28/calorie-pusher-comes-to-town-the-cheesecake-factory-hits-rochester/

i wish they had the macros on this calorie content.
so far im thinking either ahi carpaccio or grilled mahi


when it says "serves #" do you think thats how many servings are in it? or are the calories for the whole thing?



[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 12:30 PM. Reason : yuytuy]

5/24/2010 12:27:18 PM

^^

Diet is probably an issue. What do you consider "eating healthy?" Sometimes what some people think is healthy isn't the case.

Also, you say you run 3 miles a day. How long does this take you? Intensity is the most important factor in exercise. There's a huge difference between running 3 miles in 21 minutes and running 3 miles in 36 minutes.

5/24/2010 12:34:40 PM

Quote :

"when it says "serves #" do you think thats how many servings are in it? or are the calories for the whole thing?"

Not sure what you're talking about, as I did a search on that page for "serves" and it didn't find anything.

Normally in a recipe when it says "serves #," that means it serves that many people. "Serves 4" means 4 people each eat one serving with none left over.]

So a recipe with 500 calories that "serves 4" would give each person 125 calories (UNLESS it says "500 calories per serving")

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 12:38 PM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 12:37:57 PM

healthy = lean meats, fruit, veggies, water, avoid sugar and a lot of processed carbs, eat healthy fats - avacados, salmon, nuts. i was told once before by a nutritionist that i wasn't eating enough but i dont think that's the problem.

i can run about 3.25 miles in about 35-40 minutes. i go out to lake johnson so i end up going slower around the hills, otherwise i would be running a bit faster.

5/24/2010 12:38:35 PM

^Often it is, actually. Do you know that Michael Phelps eats 6,000 calories per day?

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080813/the-olympic-diet-of-michael-phelps

If you don't eat enough, you're not giving your body enough "fuel," and so you can't develop properly.


And on the running, 35-40 minutes is about 10 minute miles, which is rather slow. I would concentrate on improving that instead of focusing on your weight.

Think of it this way, how fit do you think you'd be if you could run a 25 minute 5k? What about a 20 minute 5k?

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 12:42 PM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 12:42:00 PM