Workout/Nutrition Help Thread

Quinoa and sweet potatoes are great.

 

like someone else said, just watch a ton of videos. Also, don't be shy starting with a lighter weight and don't push yourself too hard until your form is right. As you add weight and/or number of sets, as soon as you feel your form start to go downhill...just stop. It's a great exercise but also one of the ones that can mess you up the most.

 

isn't quinoa a grain?

 

It is a seed and is very high in protein and is a complete protein. It is botanically similar to spinach and beets.

 

what were your stats again? height/weight?

Posture matters a lot, as well. if your spine and other areas are compressed, it'll make the fat you have look like it's more. Good posture basically stretches you out some and therefore can improve your midsection's appearance.



Mobility, activation...two things that haven't really been talked about much in this thread. If you're lacking both or either, then you're never going to maximize your athletic potential, which will affect gains and appearance.

 

Nothing. About every 3 days I'll eat sweet potatoes covered in butter with cinnamon or a bowl of oatmeal with coconut milk. That's about the only starchy carb I have in my diet other than vegetables. I don't like to go too low carb, but definitely no grains and no sugar 90% of the time. We'll have a cheat day with a creme brulee about once per month

I have a super heavy fat for breakfast. Usually 7am ish. It's usually butter/Coconut oil blended in my coffee but any high fat breakfast will do like an avocado, even bacon is OK but I don't like to do protein in the mornings... This keeps inflammation at bay and sends your body a signal to start burning fat for fuel instead of Glucose (carbs). And kills hunger.

Around 1pm I'll have my lunch which is a big plate of steamed vegetables. I put frozen brocolli, cauliflower, frozen kale, spinach in a pan and steam it for about 10 min, then cover it in grass fed butter & sea salt. Good stuff.

From 2pm to 9pm I eat whenever I'm hungry. Usually my wife will make some grass fed ground beef with some vegetables mixed in and we add some organic tumeric indian madras spice to it most of the time. I'll eat avocados covered in MCT oil with some lime, some almonds, fish - we do sockeye salmon baked and we eat sardines for a snack. High omega 3 and good fats in there and it's quick. I have some grass fed whey protein and I'll make a shake and sometimes mix in a banana if I feel like I need some extra carbs... and at night I take collagen protein -but that's mainly for tissue repair and healthy skin.

I'm not working out much right now because I'm working too much on the computer on a big project... I was 217lbs when I started eating this way back in August and now I'm 188lbs with perfect Blood pressure, cholesterol is a bit high but my HDL to LDL ratio is outstanding.... so it's nothing to worry about. My doctor recently asked me how my HDL (good cholesterol) was so damn high... I told him it's all the mct oil, krill oil, fish oil, sardines, etc...

Basically the more fat I eat, the more weight I lose. It's crazy but true. Grains/wheat inflame me and I look puffy/bloated if I eat them.

 

Not that i think intermittent fasting doesnt work, but are you in support of it mainly based on your own progress? I don't know how tall you are, but at that weight, couldn't your improvement have come from simply improving your diet? You say you eat whenever you're hungry, but you're eating pretty healthy stuff, with a low calorie content. It sounds like your progress is a result of the content of your diet and not a certain feeding schedule.

And is that still considered fasting, when you eat from 7am until 9 pm?

 

Hmm...that's not even overweight. What are they now?


For posture, you need core work, activation work, mobility drills, soft tissue massage....

 

Do you know for sure that those extra pounds are muscle and not fat? If you weren't lifting...


Activation work just means movements/exercises that primarily activate a certain muscle. It's away to target muscles that aren't firing well. You can google examples, primarily for muscles like the glutes, obliques, serratus anterior, and mid and lower traps. Those are some of the more common muscles that lag behind because of bad posture.

Mobility drills aim at making sure you're using full range of motion...ideally you want to activate muscles and then use the mobilty drills to get them completely "awake" in all the directions they cover.

Soft tissue massage, like with foam rollers, also helps with the previous two. Your body's tissue can stiffen up, in the areas that aren't getting moved/used. Think of it like glue. If you're moving around and exercising, stretching, etc, then the "glue" never dries out...but if you're someone who's a couch potato or just never really pushed your movements with training/exercise over the years, then your glue is probably drying up. The massage helps to break adhesions up and free up muscles, so they can activate and work through their full range of motion.

 

I eat similarly to SacTown, but I don't intermittent fast. I do carb/protein/fat ratios of about 10-20/15-20/60-70. The idea is to eat the least toxic, most nutrient dense foods. Going down the list that's: organ meats, shellfish, grass fed red meat, fish, vegetables, pork, eggs and dairy, poultry,..and skipping a few, and way down that list is grains. High calorie intake for fractional nutrient value, coupled with the fact that grain based foods cause you to gain weight and can wreck gut health.

So for breakfast I do eggs, bacon or sausage, sometimes a veg smoothie and coffee. Lunch is whatever, salad, brawtwurst and sauerkraut, bun less burger. Dinner I go for salmon or other seafood, or any delious grass fed meat cut, Brussels sprouts, broccoli--that kind of stuff. Oh and the holy sweet potato with butter and maybe a squeeze of lime.

The way I eat is basically paleo, and that's crazy to me because a year ago I dismissed the movement as a silly fadish, restrictive diet. But the nice thing is, that even if you ignore the ideological part and the cave man worship that is out there what you still have is a nutrient dense, whole foods diet that is supported by current science pretty much every health issue you can think of.

I feel a lot better overall compared to my former way of eating, that was still good by most standards (mostly whole foods, low junk, low sugar). I used to spend most days in one of two states: super hungry, or bloated from my last meal. No more, I'm never desperately hungry, and never bloated. My energy level is much improved. I was telling my wife the other day that I feel like I'm cheating at life, because I am feeling good most of the time as opposed to being in some degree of recovery mode. My only issue was digestion for about two weeks after the change, and it had me pretty worried. I have worked that out, though, in large part due including fermented foods and sweet potatoes (soluble fiber feeds healthy digestive bacteria).

If anyone wants more info, book, website recommendations, etc. just say so or email and I be happy to oblige. I am kind of surprised this topic is not more often discussed at cf actually.

 

Weird seeing this post coming from a donut.

 

Damn, missed 3 workouts (not counting Sunday). Went a little too hard partying in SF this weekend.

 

If you don't think there's any progress, it's not your workouts, it's your diet. Also, you're probably higher than 13% if you still have a 'gut' to lose (in your words)... and I mean that in a completely non-dick way. At 13% you should be able to easily see top 2 abs, most likely the top 4... and maybe some obliques. Just tighten up the diet and you'll get there.

 

I agree. The food quality is great. Sweet potatoes, eggs, lots of veg.

The only "unhealthy" thing is bacon, but not because of the fat content, but rather the questionable nitrates and non "organic-ness" of it. But that's a guilty pleasure one can keep if they can live and sustain off the diet Sactown described.

As for details, I would introduce almonds/nuts/cashews for snacks and fruits in the morning for both vitamins/antioxidants and much needed sugars.

Eating healthy is a conscious choice not to eat processed food, which has for that last half century been the staple of choice for most Americans. That's the hardest part and it becomes a lifestyle change because of the prep and planning involved.

But the gain to this is that weight loss is 70% food and 30% exercise. It's no surprise that Sactown can maintain weight when he eats that kind of food (less processed, the better)

 

This. People with 13% BF don't have "guts". Are you drinking alcohol? Cut that out if you are.

 

Yes, pretty much don't do anything I just did this past weekend. brb ruining 2-3 weeks of strict dieting lol. damn, my last 2 posts are pretty hypocritical