Understand the math ~ Diet vs Exercise

[VYBerlinaV8]

Speaking from experience (ie losing 20+ kgs in 8 months), the concept of calorie deficit works very well if you:
1) Consume between 80% and 90% of you daily calorie expenditure
2) Do some sort of exercise daily (30 mins is enough)
3) Drink lots of water

If you can learn to count calories (actually not that hard) and match up your inputs and outputs, the fat just falls off.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Maybe I'm doing to much as I follow that with 3 x 20 on the legpress, then 3 x 20 lunges plus 3 x 20 hamstring curls and 3 x sets pushing the sled with 40kg on top

Then shoulders after that, same deal 3 x 20 x 4.

All preceded with 3 x 3 minutes on the bag (muay thai)

That is high volume.
If you are really going to failure on your sets, CNS destruction and friends are coming your way.
How long have you been doing this routine?

 

[PaulF]

Speaking from experience (ie losing 20+ kgs in 8 months), the concept of calorie deficit works very well if you:
1) Consume between 80% and 90% of you daily calorie expenditure
2) Do some sort of exercise daily (30 mins is enough)
3) Drink lots of water

If you can learn to count calories (actually not that hard) and match up your inputs and outputs, the fat just falls off.

That's exactly it!
It really comes down to calories in and calories out and for 90% of the population its a bout calories in unless you are an olympian burning 8000 calories a day
Water is so important because many confuse hunger for thirst...

One more thing, do not DIET! Change your lifestyle wether its for eating habits or exercise otherwise you are wasting your time.

 

[Sean M]

Agree with Paul. Dieting is the wrong thing. You have to have a good lifestyle because as soon as you stop " dieting" you go back to what you were doing. Therefore all the good work you have done goes down the drain and more than likely you put on more weight.

Also dieting along is not enough. You need to do some form of weight training mixed with Cardio. Muscle burns fat so having muscle is important if you want to loose fat.

Hope that helps

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Muscle burns fat so having muscle is important if you want to loose fat.

Hope that helps

I understand what your trying to say, but it's not always the case.

Take a look at competitive strongman competitors, they are the largest human beings on the planet with the most muscle mass. The majority also have quite a high amount of body fat.
The other extreme, marathon runners, very little muscle mass and low body fat.

This contradicts what you say.
Al least you didn't try pushing some fat burning supplement considering you're in that game.

 

[PaulF]

I understand what your trying to say, but it's not always the case.
...

No matter how you put it, more muscle means more calories burnt even if you are just sitting down and not moving... but it's not too significant as it only affects around 20% of total daily energy expenditure..

Your examples about strong men and marathoners don't stand. Strong men put fat on simply because they eat more than they burn and opposite for marathoners who don't eat enough to keep muscle mass... Much more complicated subject than this but again more muscle means more energy burned no matter how you put it.

 

[D.T.]

muscle tissue has a higher BMR than fat tissue does, is the simplest way to put it.

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

muscle tissue has a higher BMR than fat tissue does, is the simplest way to put it.

Lean muscle has about 20 times the BMR of fat tissue.

Bottom line, if you want to burn fat, build muscle.

 

[perthguy]

I haven't looked into it in detail but

"Fast Exercise: The Simple Secret of High-Intensity Training" Book by Michael Mosley advocates a new revolution in fitness. Lose weight and dramatically improve your health with high intensity training?just ten minutes a day apparently!
I liked his 5:2 diet (intermittent fasting), works for me so I will need to research the exercise part...
Has anyone tried it?

HIIT or 5:2? I have done HIIT, cycling, running and spin bike. I didn't like it on the bike, spin class is not for me, running HIIT is fantastic.

This is the running workout I used to do: 30 seconds each of jogging, slow running, running, sprinting, jogging, walking in that order. Then walk for a minute and repeat for 6 times total. That's not true HIIT because with a warm up and cool down it took 30 minutes. However, it was a great workout for me.

True HIIT would be a bit shorter with a higher ratio of work to rest. So maybe warmup, run 8 seconds, rest 12 seconds for 10 minutes and cool down. With the warm up and cool down, around 20 minutes. I'm not fit enough to do that yet but I am working up to one session a week of proper HIIT.

There is a growing body of evidence to support this kind of training:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ultimate-8-week-hiit-for-fat-burning-program.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at the University of Loughborough, is a proponent of a few short bursts of flat-out intensity. In a BBC Horizon programme in February 2012, he put Michael Mosley on an exercise bike regimen consisting of three sets of about 2 minutes of gentle pedalling followed by 20 second bursts of cycling at maximum effort. This was done three times a week for a total of 21 minutes of exercise per week (3 minutes of intense exercise), plus warm-up and recovery time. Measurable health benefits were reported, including significantly improved insulin sensitivity.

I saw that doco and it was impressive they were able to significantly alter Mosley's metabolic markers in 21 minutes of exercise per week. His exercise doco was called "The Truth About Exercise" and the 5:2 doco was "Eat, Fast and Live Longer". Well worth a watch.

My current eating and exercise program has interval training twice a week (not HIIT yet) and an adaptation of the 5:2 diet.

 

[rizzle]

If I do squats and deadlifts in the same week it plays havoc with the lower back.

Solution: ditch deadlifts and just do squats.

Currently doing 3 x 20 reps to failure. Its a killer.

Science:

 

[WASP]

IMO long distance and endurance athletes such as runners and cyclists look unhealthy

 

[D.T.]

IMO long distance and endurance athletes such as runners and cyclists look unhealthy

Yep, definitely prefer the 2nd pic over the 1st

 

[pinkboy]

IMO long distance and endurance athletes such as runners and cyclists look unhealthy

C'mon now! I did my 12hr WR @ 86kg - hardly 'unhealthy looking'.

Then again, when I did Hawaii Ironman I was 67kg!


pinkboy

 

[redwing]

That picture of you holding the bike overhead looked like your quads weighed 67 kg alone

 

[Colin Rice]

That is high volume.
If you are really going to failure on your sets, CNS destruction and friends are coming your way.
How long have you been doing this routine?

I am into my 4th week and will then cycle to a more traditional 8-12 rep range (hypertrophy) for 4-6 weeks then 5x5 rep range for strenght via compound excersizes.

A good mate is a personal trainer and a general freak of nature and this is his advice to me.

I used to train for amutuer thai boxing bouts and the above routines are like a walk in the park compared to what I used to subject my body to. That was in my 20s and now in my 40s so all relative.

 

[Colin Rice]

Science:

Im just shy of silliness

Good chart btw.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Some articles people might find interesting.

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/201...-the-equation-and-a-camp-nerd-fitness-update/

My opinion on counting calories: what a waste of frakkin' time. Eat natural foods (no processed crap) aka: make all meals from scratch plus intermittent fasting means you'll lose weight with very little to no effort. No need to count calories. Although you'll end up looking like a skinny little dweeb that gets sand kicked in his face at the beach by manly men. Better than being a fat slob, but not ideal.

Note: the guy that wrote the articles below spends less than two hours a week in the gym. Getting lean (reducing BF% to low double digits) plus strength training = you'll look fantastic and get laid like tile.

http://themanthemyth.com/design-physique-part-basics/
http://themanthemyth.com/design-physique-part-ii/
http://themanthemyth.com/design-physique-part-iii-getting-lean/
http://themanthemyth.com/design-physique-part-iv-muscle/

80% of getting lean is monitoring what you consume. Put simply, it means more fat, no sugar. You eat crap, you'll look like crap. Being lean enhances muscle gain.

This is a picture of the author of the blog. Remember - less than two hours a week in the gym.

Sup ladies!

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

IMO long distance and endurance athletes such as runners and cyclists look unhealthy

The broad on the left looks rank. Emaciated, bleh! I'm not a gambling man, but I'd be willing to put some money down that 300,000 years ago we looked a lot more like the broad on the right (dat ***!) than the bag of bones on the left.

The reason she (and most long distance runners) look like that is because they burn through all their fat stores, then proceed to burn muscle. Whereas short distance runners are more closely in line with how most predatory animals live - short bursts of exercise with plenty of rest in between. Also, strength training.

We are not designed for long haul high impact exercise like marathon running or cycling. Come to think of it, we're not designed for the modern lifestyle, either. Which is why most people are growing... sideways. Being fat should be illegal.

 

[perthguy]

We are not designed for long haul high impact exercise like marathon running or cycling.

Ya think?

Mmm... healthy. In contrast, you always know that track cyclists don't skip leg day...

Unfair comparison based on different ethnic backgrounds, but...

 

[pinkboy]

Perthguy, you're only selecting photos to make your point.

Show us photos of Tour de France riders (arguably one of the most significant endurance events) such as Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara, Jens Voight, Bradley Wiggins, Mario Chippolini...........and all team sprinters.

Whilst you can't change genes, you can manipulate your body to adapt to the activity you want it to do (obviously within the bounds your body allows).

pinkboy