I'm a trained Fitness Instructor, any questions on exercise or simple nutrition? :)

[EndlessSleeper]

Hey Cpt.Caveman, I was wondering if you could tell me how many calories I should be consuming a day? I need to lose a lot of weight.

I am female, 179cm and weigh around 70kg.

I do Taekwondo 3 times a week for an hour. This is very intense cardio work. I also do 4 hours of bike riding a week. I'm going to start running again also, probably once or twice a week.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Cpt.Caveman
To tell you the truth I don't really aggree with the method of losing weight by eating less calories than your body needs to function. Doing it this way is really depriving your body of the valuable food that it needs. Its pretty hard to gain fat from eating healthy foods and carbohydrates.

Fat is a fuel source when you use your bodies aerobic energy system (running, cycling, high intensity endurance stuff) independant of how much food you are eating.

My advice is to keep up the high amount of exercise that you are doing and make sure that you are eating healthy foods low in sugar and fat. Instead of lunch try eating snacks as you need them and space out your meals. Of course a good breakfast as well. Try to avoid drinking alcohol with food as well.

If you stick to this you will definately lose weight while eating a healthy amount of food.

I don't mean to hijack Caveman's thread, undermine his advice or make off with his mojo but I disagree. I am not a qualified trainer, but I am currently studying fitness and you may choose to take Cave's advice over mine because he is actually qualified I do however consider myself pretty cluey when it come to all things fitness, and if you were to come to anyone in my class for advice I would recommend you come to me. This may just be my ego but I do think it's justified.

I think some of his advice here is accurate- eat foods low in sugar and fat for example is good advice, so is keeping up high exercise levels. I disagree with his stance against eating at a caloric deficit though. Deiting to loose weight is a simple sum- calories in minus calories out. Fat is stored energy and while Cave is right and it will be used most prominently during endurance type exercise, if your caloric consumption outweighs your caloric expenditure you will store the excess energy. If your caloric consumption is less than your caloric expenditure your body needs to get energy from somewhere else- your fat stores.

It is not hard to gain fat from eating healthy foods, if you eat healthy foods in an amount that has a caloric value outweighing your caloric expenditure you will put on fat. Calories in vs calories out I don't know anyone who can eat at a caloric deficit without loosing weight, nor do I know anyone who can eat at a caloric surplus without gaining weight.

Note: When I talk about a change in "weight" I'm talking about a change in body composition, total body weight is not an indication of how fat you are.

---

Ok, so given all this there are 3 methods I have at my disposal for determining the number of calories you need, and once you have that number I recommend you subtract 200- that's how many calories you should eat to loose some body fat.
The best method I have requires further information-

Firstly, your age. Secondly I need you to rate your daly activity level, the options are 1) Bed Rest, 2) Very sedentary, 3) sedentary/Maintenance, 4) Light, 5) Light-Moderate, 6) Moderate, 7) Heavy, 8) Very Heavy. I also need to know how long you do your taekwondo for each session and if you could relate it in intensity to another activity that would help me out as well. If you are "growing" (probably only applicable if you are still a teen), pregnant, or breast feeding I need to know. If you tell me all that I can give you a good estimate on how many calories your body requires.

One of the other methods isn't really worth mentioning, it simply claims that if you are between 18 and 35 years old you will need 2250 Cals... that's bollocks.

The last method I don't have acess to because I lent the book to my mum... So let's go with the first one.

Sorry for taking over Cave, hope you are not bothered by it.

 

[ez_555]

Thanks for the replies.

I've just been on a site which can figure out how many calories I burn. In a 1 hour session of Taekwondo (at moderate intensity) I burn 495 calories. The total hour of bike riding (at moderate intensity) burns 410 calories. If I start running it should burn 296 calories, supposedly.

I'm not sure whether this is a good guide because I do consider some sessions to be more intense then others etc.

Maybe I should outline my weekly routine?

Monday: 1 hour bike
Run

Tuesday: 1 hour bike
1 hour TKD

Wednesday: 1 hour bike
Run

Thursday: 1 hour TKD

Friday: 1 hour bike

Saturday: 1 hour competition training for TKD (more intense)

Sunday: Nothing!

Also, I'm almost 19, I'm a vegetarian and I think I've stopped growing. TKD is both aerobic and anaerobic. You seem to develop muscles simply by kicking and doing the arm techniques; we don't lift weights. It involves a lot of jumping and moving around.

Thanks for your help!

 

[~*geNeRaTiOn E*~]

i don't know if you still post but hopefully you do so you can give me some pointers. anyway, i had a baby a little over 6 mos ago and was wondering what i can do to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 120 (or even less would be good...i weigh about 128 right now). i don't want too much muscle, i just want a toned body so i look good in a bathing suit this summer LoL i'm still breastfeeding (sorry guys) and am a HORRIBLY picky eater (i don't eat seafood and don't like vegetables...except carrots and potatos). i do snack A LOT and eat only 1 meal a day because i don't have time. maybe i'm asking for a miracle but anything would help. also, i'm extremely lazy and need motivation, any tips for that would be greatly appreciated as well. i have a few things in mind but could use a set routine. so far all i have is going for a brisk walk/slow jog while my daughter is in her stroller (i figure it's a good time since the weather here in cali is warming up) but that's about it. thx

 

[Cpt.Caveman]

I don't mean to hijack Caveman's thread, undermine his advice or make off with his mojo but I disagree. I am not a qualified trainer, but I am currently studying fitness and you may choose to take Cave's advice over mine because he is actually qualified I do however consider myself pretty cluey when it come to all things fitness, and if you were to come to anyone in my class for advice I would recommend you come to me. This may just be my ego but I do think it's justified.

I'm only repeating what I was taught in my course. I know making the calories in less than the calories out is a way to loose weight but my teacher said that he doesn't recommend that method. He didn't go into his reasons but he is an exercise scientist so it would have a scientific basis.

Its actually quite hard to gain weight from over-eating carbohydrates, you need to really over-eat them for 3 days running for them to start getting converted to fat. From this, I think that if you are exercising very regulary, eating well but normal moderations, then you will definately be loosing weight.

Me for an example: I'm 5'11", 82kg so I'm quite stocky so I have a high metabolism. I exercise about 3 times a week but when I do its usually high energy exercise. I eat very healthy foods, the occasional icecream and I eat a massive amount of food. I haven't put on any weight for 6months or more.

I would try the regeime without restricting your calories first and see if you loose weight after 3 months, if not then try restricting your calories a little. Thats my personal opinion anyway.

I also think that its easy to get compulsive with restricting your food when you know how many calories you are supposed to eat in a day. "I really need to loose weight so I'll eat even less than what he said" etc.

 

[Cpt.Caveman]

i don't know if you still post but hopefully you do so you can give me some pointers. anyway, i had a baby a little over 6 mos ago and was wondering what i can do to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 120 (or even less would be good...i weigh about 128 right now). i don't want too much muscle, i just want a toned body so i look good in a bathing suit this summer LoL i'm still breastfeeding (sorry guys) and am a HORRIBLY picky eater (i don't eat seafood and don't like vegetables...except carrots and potatos). i do snack A LOT and eat only 1 meal a day because i don't have time. maybe i'm asking for a miracle but anything would help. also, i'm extremely lazy and need motivation, any tips for that would be greatly appreciated as well. i have a few things in mind but could use a set routine. so far all i have is going for a brisk walk/slow jog while my daughter is in her stroller (i figure it's a good time since the weather here in cali is warming up) but that's about it. thx

To tone up you need to lose weight. No strength training is necessary.

There are a lot of general weight loss tips in this thread, sorry I don't mean to be rude but I've type them all a number of times now.

You basically need to do cardiovascular exercise about 4-5 times a week, 30-60mins in duration. On the days that you don't exercise try and walk for 30mins. When you start do less than that, however much you think is a good starting amount, then work your way up.

On top of this, eat a diet low in sugar and fat. Have a big nourishing breakfast, snacks through-out the day as needed then dinner.

As far as motivation, you want to ask yourself how much you really want to be toned and why. Once you know what you want (to be toned) + how to get there (regular exercise and eating healthy) then it will make the initial part a little easier. The hardest part I think is starting out because the exercise feels challenging and tiring but once you get into a rythm and start to feel fitter you start looking foreward to it.

Another thing is, becoming physically fit is a good health investment. Its around this time that most people should start being exercising and food wise to reduce the amount of blood lipids (cholesterol etc.) and strengthen the heart to reduce your risk of a cardiovascular disease. Exercise also has proven benefits on mood, stress relief, immune function, sleep quality, glucose metabolism (to prefent the onset of type2 diabetes), bone health in later life, daily living etc. Its not just about looking good, its about preventing disease.

 

[markusgoneawry]

I'm only repeating what I was taught in my course. I know making the calories in less than the calories out is a way to loose weight but my teacher said that he doesn't recommend that method. He didn't go into his reasons but he is an exercise scientist so it would have a scientific basis.

Now I have had this conversation with caveman before and this is what I determined:

1) Caveman and his teacher obviosuly support living a healthy lifestyle.

2) If you are NOT healthy, and then follow Caveman's advice and start to live a healthy lifestyle, you WILL lose weight. This is what Caveman preaches, and is generally true.

The problem is that Caveman never explains why this is the case, I mena what the science behind it is. To me it strikes me as exercise sicence using rules of thumbs or something.

Anyways, to sum up, Caveman's advice is good for general advice to lead a healthy lifestyle. However it would falter in a situation where the person is already healthy, but needs help losing the last 10 lbs, or a high performance athlete, etc.

This was just my opinion. Overall I think he is a good guy.

 

[Cpt.Caveman]

Its only because it was a college course where they train you up to be a qualified worker in the field that knows the overall guidelines to follow but not the science behind it.

I'm studying health and sport science and uni right now so I'll probably be able to elaborate on it all after a couple of years or so...but until then I'm just repeating the information that I have been trained with.

 

[Cpt.Caveman]

Okay, I'm back, defending the healthy lifestyle again

From a large range of information I've had to gather basically being thin alone does not have any health benefits if you do not posses cardiovascular fitness.

Having cardiovascular fitness (and going through the process of attaining it) has heaps of health benefits, the major ones being:

- Strong heart muscle (lower risk of cardiovascular disease no matter what your genetic line could have in hold for you, if you already have an abnormality then it reduces your risk as well).

- Lowering blood cholesterol by raising HDL cholesterol levels. You have to burn 2000kcal/week to really get a good increase in HDL though. This reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease from thinning of the arteries. They actually did studies on young people between 20-45 that had been unfortunately killed and found that people can have a buildup of cholesterol in the heart risk range even when theyre very young, like 20. Another study put someone on a 2year running plan and it only really reduced their blood cholesterol around 0.25mmol/L and only raised their HDL levels by a relatively small amount as well...Highlighting the need for constant exercise to fight cholesterol levels back into a low range and to keep it there.

- Increased utilisation of oxygen by your body, again taking the strain off the heart. Better lung function.

- Improved blood glucose management and reduction of insulin sensitivity if you're a diabetic.

- A reduction in the risk of a number of cancers such as colon cancer, lung cancer, a few others i forget.

- Better immune function. Exercise doesnt actually make your immune system operate higherwhile under rest (not exercising), it gives you a boot of immune cells while exercising. In that time you are fighting any infections or abnormal cell growths better in that time.

- In stregth training in particular but for walking and running, basically any exercise which puts some level of force on bone structure, you get a reduction in the risk of osteoperosis when you're older.

- Reduction in the risk of stroke.

I really cant remember them all, theres more.

Studies done on body composition, heart disease and risk of mortality found that being thin is only of use to your risk of death if you posses cardiovascular fitness as well. People who were classified as fat but were also fit has less of a risk of dieing of any type of disease than people who were thin and unfit.

The only area where being thin really has an application is to reduce your risk of getting late onset diabetes. A combination of a very inactive life and obesity puts you in a risk there.

The amount of overweight people is on the increase and I think its because of the lifestyles we're starting to live. It is a health risk but because people work a lot and may not have much of a psychological tolerance to physical work its easy to let their fitness and health slip.

Some countries are even thinking about putting being sedentary (inactive) as a higher health risk than smoking.

I think another area where this falls is that people will only go to the gym, work hard and deprive themself of a lot of good food if there is a deep motivation to do so, such as being thinner to have more confidence. If you don't really have much of a motivation to look thinner and lose some weight, and you're healthy at the time, I think it can be really hard to motivate yourself to do hard physical work to be "healthy".

There are immediate benefits of exercise I find though, but to get there and maintain it is the big problem that peoples motivation faces I think.

This is the biggest problem. The evidence is there, just convincing yourself that it is a priority is the big mission that more people fall through with. Even the health section of the government, etc. There needs to be free gyms and health advice around the place and stuff like that...

Anyway, thats the end of my rant. I can answer more complicated questions now

And yes, one of our lecturers said the way to lose weight is energy in vs. energy out as said above..but if you exercise 4-5 times a week doing good cardio, and on the other days walk for 30mins then you're clearing an energy defecit easily if you eat normal or just very slightly smaller portions of food.

 

[markusgoneawry]

^^^Good post Caveman!

 

[redgiant]

Last 10-15

Hey there all - trying to lose this last 10-15 pounds around the gut- I've dropped 35 since Jan (keeping my new year's resolution!!!)

Anyway - I ride my bike around this lake close to my house - been going about 100 miles per week + 2 days of weight training (don't want to get huge, just maintain).

Normally, I'll just wake up around 5:30am, get on my bike and it usually takes me about 1:20 minutes to go 20 miles -I don't normally eat much before I go, just take some vitamins and maybe a bite of some leftovers from the night before (fish or a couple of strawberries).

I was told by a friend that if I don't eat before I work out, then my body will use muscle instead of fat and that its actually more helpful to eat something substantial before going on my rides. Is there anything to this? I'm normally not hungry right when I wake up so I just take my vitamins and ride (no coffee or anything)

Also, my diet is sort of a modified South Beach - all organic, whole grains, fish, limited red meat etc...

I do like the beer though - and not the shitty coors light stuff - I like real beer (Guinness, Bass, Shiner, Local Micro Brews etc..) and don't really feel like giving those up since I only drink on Friday and Saturday - 3-4 beers tops.

So, how the fuck do you lose the last 10-15 pounds. I've been stuck here for about a month now after a continual loss over the past 5 months.

Thanks!

 

[markusgoneawry]

Not to steal the thread but I would suggest that you try switching up your cardiovascular exercise, redgiant. Your body can and will adjust to repeated exercise....another thing to try would be to increase the amount of weight lifting. An increase of muscle mass may drastically help burn the last 10-15 lbs of fat.

Finally regarding the exercise during a fasted state...it really depends on your goal. Some poeple say you can burn fat more efficiently exercising in a fasted state (3+ hours of no food or drink other than water), like 30% more efficiently. However, you are exercising for 1 hour and 20 minutes, which is a long time relatively so I dont think it would hurt to have some nutrition either half way through your ride or before. This may put your performance over the edge and allow you to work harder than before, therefor buring more calories.

You can find informaiton regarding this stuff all across the internet and in books.
Cheers!

 

[induced nirvana]

has anybody heard of the rule of"specifity"?By the way dude,its good advice your giving on the whole,where did you get your qualifications?

 

[newskin]

I have a question about squats. The main way I see squats being done is with a bar being held above the shoulders. I can't really do it this way outside of the gym because there's no way for me to safely get the weight back down when I'm done.

Is it any less effective or safe to do squats while holding dumbells in each hand?

 

[induced nirvana]

Try it on a"smith" machine,stand straight under the bar then move your feet about a foot further away from you.This will form a natural"plane"keeping your back nice and straight plus the added safety of self spotting...

 

[newskin]

No gym membership here. All I've got is an incline bench and free weights.

 

[EndlessSleeper]

Okay, I'm back, defending the healthy lifestyle again

From a large range of information I've had to gather basically being thin alone does not have any health benefits if you do not posses cardiovascular fitness.

Having cardiovascular fitness (and going through the process of attaining it) has heaps of health benefits, the major ones being:

- Strong heart muscle (lower risk of cardiovascular disease no matter what your genetic line could have in hold for you, if you already have an abnormality then it reduces your risk as well).

- Lowering blood cholesterol by raising HDL cholesterol levels. You have to burn 2000kcal/week to really get a good increase in HDL though. This reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease from thinning of the arteries. They actually did studies on young people between 20-45 that had been unfortunately killed and found that people can have a buildup of cholesterol in the heart risk range even when theyre very young, like 20. Another study put someone on a 2year running plan and it only really reduced their blood cholesterol around 0.25mmol/L and only raised their HDL levels by a relatively small amount as well...Highlighting the need for constant exercise to fight cholesterol levels back into a low range and to keep it there.

- Increased utilisation of oxygen by your body, again taking the strain off the heart. Better lung function.

- Improved blood glucose management and reduction of insulin sensitivity if you're a diabetic.

- A reduction in the risk of a number of cancers such as colon cancer, lung cancer, a few others i forget.

- Better immune function. Exercise doesnt actually make your immune system operate higherwhile under rest (not exercising), it gives you a boot of immune cells while exercising. In that time you are fighting any infections or abnormal cell growths better in that time.

- In stregth training in particular but for walking and running, basically any exercise which puts some level of force on bone structure, you get a reduction in the risk of osteoperosis when you're older.

- Reduction in the risk of stroke.

I really cant remember them all, theres more.

Studies done on body composition, heart disease and risk of mortality found that being thin is only of use to your risk of death if you posses cardiovascular fitness as well. People who were classified as fat but were also fit has less of a risk of dieing of any type of disease than people who were thin and unfit.

The only area where being thin really has an application is to reduce your risk of getting late onset diabetes. A combination of a very inactive life and obesity puts you in a risk there.

The amount of overweight people is on the increase and I think its because of the lifestyles we're starting to live. It is a health risk but because people work a lot and may not have much of a psychological tolerance to physical work its easy to let their fitness and health slip.

Some countries are even thinking about putting being sedentary (inactive) as a higher health risk than smoking.

I think another area where this falls is that people will only go to the gym, work hard and deprive themself of a lot of good food if there is a deep motivation to do so, such as being thinner to have more confidence. If you don't really have much of a motivation to look thinner and lose some weight, and you're healthy at the time, I think it can be really hard to motivate yourself to do hard physical work to be "healthy".

There are immediate benefits of exercise I find though, but to get there and maintain it is the big problem that peoples motivation faces I think.

This is the biggest problem. The evidence is there, just convincing yourself that it is a priority is the big mission that more people fall through with. Even the health section of the government, etc. There needs to be free gyms and health advice around the place and stuff like that...

Anyway, thats the end of my rant. I can answer more complicated questions now

And yes, one of our lecturers said the way to lose weight is energy in vs. energy out as said above..but if you exercise 4-5 times a week doing good cardio, and on the other days walk for 30mins then you're clearing an energy defecit easily if you eat normal or just very slightly smaller portions of food.

We are on the same page then I'd like to see the motivation for people to exercise to be more along the lines of getting healthier rather than to address their body image issues. I agree that for most people if they start exercising 4-5 times a week and walking 30 mins on other days they will be creating a caloric defecit for themselves but you will find very few people are willing to do this much exercise. Most people will probably find time to exercise 3 times a week, but some might only exercise twice (or once...) and what about the week when the kids get sick and the car breaks down and the fridge freaks out... there's a week gone that people aren't going to be making any ground. I think the answer is somewhere between what the two of us are saying. If you eat at a caloric defecit you will loose weight, but if you aren't eating healthilly and exercising you will be thin but won't look healthy, which I don't think will solve any body image issues for anyone. On the other hand your method seems a little demanding, I wouldn't expect someone who arrives at the gym for the first time eager to loose weight to be all that thrilled if I told them they had to work out 4-5 times a week and eat perfectly. Ideally yes, I want people to do this, but realistically I would expect most people to give up after the first few weeks.

Being thin is beneficial to your CV system in that a) thin people do not store as much fat on their artery walls and b) an unfit heart in a thin person does not have to work as hard as a heart of exactly the same "unfitness" in an overweight person. If there is less body to pump blood around there is less work for the heart to do. But that's not to say that being thin and unfit is Ok, just that it is slightly better than being fat and unfit. Being thin and unfit is also going to put people at risk of oesteoporosis... This applies to all you tweakers especially.

newskin- I have a question about squats. The main way I see squats being done is with a bar being held above the shoulders. I can't really do it this way outside of the gym because there's no way for me to safely get the weight back down when I'm done.

Is it any less effective or safe to do squats while holding dumbells in each hand?

Just hold the dumbells by your side. Overhead squats is a fairly advanced exercise, where are you seeing it done?

induced nirvana- has anybody heard of the rule of"specifity"?

Exercise needs to be specific to the desired result. Eg- If the desired result is to be better at running over a hilly track it's not that useful to be running over a flat track.

 

[induced nirvana]

I see what our getting at but thats not what i mean.Im talking on a training method platform which is generic.That wont work for EVERYONE,especially when it comes to weight training.In other words what works for me might not work for you,so when someone says"give me a weight training program"a lot has to be taken into consideration.For some less is best,usually the ectomorph,were endomorphs seem to benifit from doing slightly more.Then you get the mesomorphs who usually get good results from most anything they do(grrrrr!)
so in other words no one way of training is specific to all.... As for weight loss,i think people would be better off spending thier money on educating themselves in this field instead of going to jenny craig8(

 

[CrazyAustralian]

I have a question about heart rates and heart rate specific training. I own a heart rate monitor (the kind that straps to your chest and has a radio signal to a watch worn around your wrist) and would like to find my 'fat burning zone'.

Im 23, 75kg, and 180 cm. I live an active lifestyle, but also a party lifestyle. This means that the average week contains:
4-6 hours highspeed cycling
3 weight sessions per week
1 boxing session (on my own bag, not at a gym)
1-2 hours of high pace walking.
BUT ALSO
~12 beers, ~60 cigarettes, and other assorted smokables/consumables

1. How do I find my maximum heart rate easily / cheaply?

I've only seen the recommendation to go to a specialty place to get this checked out. I am concerned because even though I have always lived an active lifestyle, I've also always lived a party lifestyle. Therefor i don't know what shape my body is in. I've got a fair amount of muscle, but also a bit of flab.

1a. Should I get my blood pressure etc checked next time im at the GP?
1b. Would running and increasing the speed of a treadmill while wearing my monitor be a safe way to test my maximum HR?

Assuming I can figure out my maximum HR;
2. how should I train to burn flab?

I hear the 'fat burning zone' is something like 60-70% of your Max HR? So, assuming my max HR is 190 BPM, I should be aiming for 114 - 133 BPM?

I ask because at the moment, I can maintain exercise at 130 BPM for hours. At 160 BPM, I can maintain this for bursts of 5-10 minutes when cycling, and have only peaked above this (EG if I start sprinting on a treadmill and get to 170 BPM, I can only maintain this pace for about 60-90 seconds before i get tired) I have never really tested above 170 for fear of hurting myself (i really don't know a lot about the heart).

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me about HR training.

Thanks for all the great posts in this thread as well - its been a great read.
CA

 

[Cyrus]

Gettin' in shape

Lately, i've been quite dissapointed in myself. I've let myself go, so to say. I wan't to get in shape, gain strength, tone, etcetera, and basically want to get it before the next school year starts.

But I have no clue as to where to start.
im about 5'10, 140 lbs, and i'm not the strongest person in the bunch. Weight training wise, i can bench about 100 lbs 10 times repeatedly. ( I am in no way, excermicisin' smart.)

So my question is, where should I start?

 

[se7en]

man your so skinny. stop the drugs dude lol (jk). its easy to start working out but hard to keep going. easier if you have a partner. but once you start going often for a few years, its not as hard. good luck