Anyone pretty into exercise and nutrition?

[lisab]

Three years ago this Jan 30th or so I went Atkins and lost 70 pounds over the next two years. The last year has been mostly maintenance with a little focused progress here and there - relatively light weights with lots of reps. But now I have started bulking up and lifting heavy. I lift weights or swim 4-5 days a week and have modified my diet to accommodate the muscle growth and increased physical demands. I am starting to feel like a real athlete again!

Being a nerd I also found it necessary to calculate the amount of work done during a workout. This is interesting to consider. By decreasing the weight by about 15% I can double the number of reps. It is funny how quickly we go over a cliff on total work done [lifting only] based on a relatively small change in the weight being used.

The other night I did about 75,000 ft-lbs of work [again, this only considers the lift, not the release]. I thought that sounded pretty impressive! But I did it in 45 minutes. So that works out to about... 5% of a horsepower.

My daily diet typically includes a lot of broccoli, spinach, kale, cauliflower and a wide assortment of vegetables. I always start my day with a V8 and finish with a protein drink after working out. I have found that I needed to add more red meat to my diet for the iron. I had been eating mostly white meat but found it difficult to get enough iron each day even with the high-iron vegetables. One interesting option for iron is liquorish! If I can get sugar-free liquorish I may add that as part of my routine.

Swimming is great for endurance and range of motion. I wish there were more public pools around here. I also wish I could like V8, but for me, the V is for vile.

I go swimming few times a week and rest of the exercise comes from working as a chef in a hectic place. Not into weightlifting or pure muscle power or something along those lines, more so endurance and sense of balance.
Diet - I don't look for where it says "Y kcal per X units" when I buy something. I have always eaten what I wanted to.

A chef, really ? What kind of food?

Lately my exercise routine has been, erm, less than acceptable. My one-hour-each-way commute makes it difficult but I need to make it more of a priority.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Swimming is great for endurance and range of motion. I wish there were more public pools around here. I also wish I could like V8, but for me, the V is for vile.

You might try adding Vodka. I hear that helps.

Lately my exercise routine has been, erm, less than acceptable. My one-hour-each-way commute makes it difficult but I need to make it more of a priority.

Convenience is sooooo important in order to stay motivated and keep it up. Luckily I have easy access to what I need now. But you look awesome so you have some room for off time.

The other night I was lying here trying to sleep and couldn't because I kept wanting to run down and do some bench presses! I have never actually craved weight lifting before but that's exactly what was happening. I wanted to run down and lift weights as if I was having a late-night jones for ice cream.

 

[lendav_rott]

A chef, really ? What kind of food?

I deal with mostly making and preparing cuisines, but sometimes they make me do the desserts. It's like our native hostility at the work place. We know the desserts taste great, but you can't take any, and if you have to be the one to prepare them, it's like punishment. :D
My own two favourite to make are filet mignon and cordon bleu and there are ridiculously many people per night that order these. All in all I don't really like our regular menu, the foods are so fat-rich , but the job pays nicely.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oops, make that licorice. And I would imagine that is actually a brand name.

Does anyone have any thoughts wrt fast-twitch vs slow-twitch exercises. I believe Bruce Lee always did fast lifts to activate the fast twitch muscle fiber. We were always trained to alternate daily between light and heavy. But it would also seem to make sense to lift fast when doing the lighter weights in addition to increased reps. That way both fiber types get activated. The most immediate concern that comes to mind for me is possibly an increased potential for injuries. Based on my college health class the logic seems sound enough but I'm not sure of that either.

 

[phion]

Buy a door pull-up bar. Best $25 investment I ever made.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Does anyone have any thoughts wrt fast-twitch vs slow-twitch exercises. I believe Bruce Lee always did fast lifts to activate the fast twitch muscle fiber. We were always trained to alternate daily between light and heavy. But it would also seem to make sense to lift fast when doing the lighter weights in addition to increased reps. That way both fiber types get activated. The most immediate concern that comes to mind for me is possibly an increased potential for injuries. Based on my college health class the logic seems sound enough but I'm not sure of that either.

I was always told that you should push against gravity as fast as you can (with any amount of weight; when it's a lot obviously as fast as you can is going to be quite a bit slower), and then to move the weight with gravity as slowly as possible.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was always told that you should push against gravity as fast as you can (with any amount of weight; when it's a lot obviously as fast as you can is going to be quite a bit slower), and then to move the weight with gravity as slowly as possible.

Are you aware of there being any increased risk of injury either way? Fast lifts just seem inherently problematic to me wrt injury. I did a full set of fast lifts the other night and that left my entire body buzzing for hours... more so than is usual. So I definitely noticed a difference.

For lung function I have found that swimming laps underwater seems to help. So now I do that using a dolphin kick [good core exercise] in addition to the crawl, back, Rside, Lside, and breast strokes. I am even developing a half decent butterfly stroke! Even when I was swimming competitively my butterfly stroke sucked.

Since I started this program three years ago I have only been a little sick once. I didn't get the full-blown flu like everyone around me had but I felt down for a few days. Prior to starting this, I normally got sick twice a year. So far it looks like I may make it through another flu season without getting sick. I was directly exposed recently but never got it. Also, I'd been on antacids since I about ten years of age. But I haven't used antacids for two years now. My lifelong reflux problem is gone.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I ate late and as a result am going down for a late workout. So if you don't hear from me again, this time I pushed too hard.

Honestly, in the beginning I worried about dropping dead from a heart attack every time I picked up the weights. I gave it a 50/50 chance that I would get healthy before I overdid it and dropped dead.

 

[gravenewworld]

I'm very into nutrition and exercise regularly. When I was younger I would lift heavy amounts of weight and do power lifts. Bulking up wasn't a problem. Now that I'm a bit older, I mostly focus on cardio (intense interval training, not long distance). My favorite cardio work is just simply doing 3 x 10 hill sprints with 30 seconds resting time between each time I go up, 3-5 minutes rest between each set. Hopefully aiming for 5 x10. I do a lot of resistance work with just body weight, since after a bad back injury I'm just too scared to lift heavy weights anymore (pull ups, push ups, dips, other calisthenics).

85% of losing weight is diet alone. I've lost tons of weight before just through calorie restriction and no exercise. I strive everyday to eat as much deep color as possible--red, blue, yellow, dark green, purple, orange--from plant sources. A very handy investment is a scale so that you can track your calorie intake from meats. You'd be surprised at how large something like a steak or chicken breast is, and how much a standard serving size *should* be. I used to never care about calories and would just exercise. True, you can manage to still be fit and keep off weight, but 99.9% of us are not olympic athletes that burn 3000 calories per day training. Even if you work out a hour per day, it is still extremely difficult to burn off that burger, fries, and milk shake you ate yesterday. Ever since I started tracking calories, I've gotten down to a very lean frame I've never achieved before, even when I was lifting all of the time (but didn't care about calories). I eat almost no food from a package or can (or at least try my best most of the time), except for a rare few items like yogurt. It does get a bit tedious at times having to go to the store more often, since I can not buy too much at a time or else food will go bad since it is a lot of produce (don't like freezing either since I prefer fresh as possible and also don't always want to make soups that can be frozen).

I really want to try something different in the future when I get more time, like Muay Thai.

 

[turbo]

I have started eating mostly Mandarin oranges and bananas recently. I really don't need to be feasting on Spanish rice or American chop suey. I love those dishes, but they do my body no favors. I don't go to a gym, but if you have to heat with firewood, there is no need, as long as you eat/drink in moderation.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have also added Metamucil to my daily routine. Originally I started taking this because of the soluble fiber; in particular because it helps to regulate blood sugar levels. But soluble fiber is so helpful in lowering cholesterol levels that blood sugar almost becomes a secondary issue. I thought it would be good daily supplement to help ensure that I got enough fiber each day. And the insoluble fiber is a bit of help as a mild laxative, which isn't a bad thing either.

 

[gravenewworld]

I also highly recommend investing in a decent food processor. A good food processor can almost do anything you can think of. You'll never need to buy any canned sauces, marinades, dressings, etc. etc. after you get one. That way you can control exactly what you consume and get rid of a lot of food preservatives, excess salt, and decrease the amount of sugar you intake from your diet. It also makes making things like bread, pastry dough, or grinding up your own meat a cinch, so it'll save you money too. Making bread is very easy after you practice a few times.

Some people avoid veggies because they take a long time to prep if you need to do a lot of chopping. With a food processor you can chop up you veggies for something like a healthy stir fry or to make some ratatouille in literally about 10 seconds. Good instruments in the kitchen go a long way just like they do for you in lab.

 

[mheslep]

Team competition in sports has been my motivation to exercise and eat right for years. Has nice side effects.

 

[mheslep]

While the quote is inspiring to some degree and I understand where it's coming from, long term, that's a recipe for disaster.

That I think depends greatly on the goal. Focused commitment to shallow goals (popularity, money) may well lead to a disaster. And I observe that even commitment to shallow goals focuses the mind which quickly reveals them to be what they are, as opposed to casual efforts which can continue indefinitely. But to rise to high levels in sport or scholarship or entrepreneurship or ...? Too many stories that end well.

 

[JorisL]

I started playing football (soccer for americans) again last year after stopping for a year since I got 5 minutes of playtime a game. With one practice and a game a week I lost 15 kg. What also helped was that I stopped ordering take out with the guys whenever they did. Every once in a while is ok but at times it was multiple times a week.

Recently I started having (a minute) breakfast which seems to decrease hunger during the day as well.
Also I'm thinking of starting to exercise towards a triathlon. Biggest problem: running.
I know I can build up the swimming part pretty quick. Once a week would get me from 20x25m to 80x25m in a month or so. Also I always liked to swim so that's not big of a problem. Cycling should be okay as well I suppose. Don't have a good bike for this at college though, got one of those rusty old bikes.

I don't really pay attention to my overall eating habits, although I try not to each too much cookies and stuff like that.