[bblost]

Originally Posted by prashant.dinkar

Half KG Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast : 566 Cals
10 Egg Whites : 170 Cals
2 Whole Eggs : 130 Cals

Remaining 300 comes from Veggies , Oive Oil , Cottage Cheese , Dark Chocolate etc

Are the proteins steamed, poached or boiled?

Also:
I am not sure if 500 gms of chicken breast is just 566 cals.
Google calorie site shows this would be amost 900 cals.

But seriously, unless you are planning on living topless in a baywatch situation, why would you do this man. Eat healthy*. Work out as hard as you can.

*Your diet is healthy. But too much stress on counting cals.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by prashant.dinkar

I have always been told that I need at least .8 grams of protein/lb of body weight in order to minimize the muscle loss while on a cut. And thats what I have been trying to do.

Q: Will you lose existing muscles and strength?
A: Well are there visible bulging muscles today?

Do you get the context now? I had already anticipated what you will write about x grams of proteins.

My original question was - Have I calculated my maintenance calories correctly? But never mind.

The brutal honest thing is that at 1600 kcal of intake, if you ain't losing fat, it means that your body metabolism is very low. (TSH, T3 and T4 tests may reveal that). Perhaps it has become slow after the "diet"?

I suggested the "neolithic" thing to get you to increase the carb intake dramatically. I may be wrong in recollecting, but read somewhere about carb intake linked to metabolism. Perhaps increased carbs may reduce the TSH and kickstart your T3 and T4 levels?

High Estradiol (created by the body from the testosterone) levels will also cause body to hold on to fats and water, even though you are on severe calorific deficit.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by alpha1

High Estradiol (created by the body from the testosterone) levels will also cause body to hold on to fats and water, even though you are on severe calorific deficit.

At times body becomes insulin resistant which is why I was asking the OP to go visit a doctor. Its not that uncommon and I had a live example in my family when my mom was working out twice as hard compared to my father and she barely lost 1 kg over 2 months on an almost starvation kind of diet.

My father on the other hand lost about 7kgs in 2 months but my mother got a little frustrated. Then a test revealed that her body was insulin resistant. The doc said its pretty common and most people don't get diagnosed because the moment they start with a weight loss plan and don't see a significant needle movement they simply give up.

She was put on medicine and the moment she got better, took about 3-4 weeks though, she started losing weight and since then has lost 8+ kgs.

So metabolism dysfunction is a very common factor for those who are on a calorie deficit diet and still not losing weight.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by fine69

At times body becomes insulin resistant which is why I was asking the OP to go visit a doctor. Its not that uncommon and I had a live example in my family when my mom was working out twice as hard compared to my father and she barely lost 1 kg over 2 months on an almost starvation kind of diet.

My father on the other hand lost about 7kgs in 2 months but my mother got a little frustrated. Then a test revealed that her body was insulin resistant. The doc said its pretty common and most people don't get diagnosed because the moment they start with a weight loss plan and don't see a significant needle movement they simply give up.

She was put on medicine and the moment she got better, took about 3-4 weeks though, she started losing weight and since then has lost 8+ kgs.

So metabolism dysfunction is a very common factor for those who are on a calorie deficit diet and still not losing weight.

Do you remember what medicines were used to counter the effects of Insulin resistance?

Also I am not able to understand why would Insulin resistance make it difficult to lose weight. Insulin is the hormone that causes our body to drive amino acids and fats into the cells. So a resistance would mean that body has become inefficient in storing these. Therefore a person should have a difficulty in gaining muscles and fats. But why the difficulty in the losing process?
Can you please ask the doc once again

[fine69]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Do you remember what medicines were used to counter the effects of Insulin resistance?

I don't remember the medicine but can ask my parents.

My dad said that insulin resistance as explained by the doc was the state when the body was not able to convert & absorb food properly. Excess glucose buildups in blood stream and ultimately all this extra energy (which isn't extra really) gets stored as fat.

I remember reading up on the net and there were plenty of cases where insulin resistance/metabolism dysfunction was a vaild cause for not being able to lose fat while being on a very lean diet.

[prashant.dinkar]

Originally Posted by fine69

If one consumes lesser calories than what they are burning during a day and still not losing weight then that's not normal. Also, one might not always lose weight at the pace they expect but not even moving a kg in 2 months raises some questions.

So its either that 'calories consumed' > 'calories burnt', which means your calorie counting process is flawed or something else. My advise on seeing the doctor was based on the assumption that 'calories consumed' < 'calories burnt' for you.

EDIT:


Lot of broscience exists on the web. Start with a sustainable lifting & eating process and see how your body reacts before your conform to what most say.

I think I am not counting the calories right.

Usually I try to "listen" to my body. The only change I can feel after I started following this 1650 Calorie diet is that I have lost some strength when it comes to weight training. Mostly on bench the press.

I have decided to eat my maintenance calories for at least 1 week and then plan accordingly.

Originally Posted by bblost

Are the proteins steamed, poached or boiled?

But seriously, unless you are planning on living topless in a baywatch situation, why would you do this man. Eat healthy*. Work out as hard as you can.

*Your diet is healthy. But too much stress on counting cals.

Eggs - boiled.
Whey in cold water.
For chicken, I usually get it grilled.

What you searched for is only Chicken Breast.
I eat it without skin and bones.

I started working out when I started learning Boxing at 14 years of age. I was very consistent with my workouts till the time I pursued it (12 Years).

Even after leaving the ring I continued to workout but it was very On and Off and I stopped doing cardio altogether. That is how I started gaining weight.

Till the time I was in ring I used to weigh 62-68 Kgs. Now my weight is 78 (I started my cut at 83 around 2.5 months back)

Even when I was representing my state in boxing I was never "ripped to the bone" even during the peak season when I used to be in top physical and mental form. Heck, I didn't even had a visible 6 pack.. a blurry 4 pack at the max.

Now I am 32 and sick and tired of the way I look and feel about myself so I decided to change a few things.
I am not new to the world of fitness but a lot has changed since the last time I stepped in a gym (6 years back)

Sad part is I am not sure that whether this is right thing to do or not. That is the reason I posted here. My initial question still remains unanswered.

Maybe I have to figure it out by hit and trial so I will do that.

Originally Posted by alpha1

Q: Will you lose existing muscles and strength?
A: Well are there visible bulging muscles today?

Do you get the context now? I had already anticipated what you will write about x grams of proteins.



The brutal honest thing is that at 1600 kcal of intake, if you ain't losing fat, it means that your body metabolism is very low. (TSH, T3 and T4 tests may reveal that). Perhaps it has become slow after the "diet"?

I suggested the "neolithic" thing to get you to increase the carb intake dramatically. I may be wrong in recollecting, but read somewhere about carb intake linked to metabolism. Perhaps increased carbs may reduce the TSH and kickstart your T3 and T4 levels?

High Estradiol (created by the body from the testosterone) levels will also cause body to hold on to fats and water, even though you are on severe calorific deficit.

Thanks Man. Now I got it.

I have decided to eat my "Maintenance" calories for atleast 1 week or so and decide accordingly.

There is no doubt that my metabolism is messed up. Apart from that I have water retention problem as well.

On Friday, I had 2 Aloo Paranthas with Butter and full fat yogurt for lunch and in the evening I went out with friends and had around 6 glasses of drought beer and 6 tequila shots. No unhealthy "chakhna" nothing. I just had some chicken wings with my drinks.

Saturday morning when I woke up my weigh machine showed that I have gained 1.7 Kgs in last 24 hours!!

I will report back with my results after 1 week.

[fine69]

Just yesterday I decided to follow a different workout routine than what I'd been doing for the past few months. Now the problem is that I'm supposed to be doing Cleans and Cleans with Overhead Press as part of this program.

I have a wrist injury and don't want to aggravate it with any workouts which involve jerky movements, not to mention that I have a home gym and dropping the barbell on the floor is not an option for me (remember the Delhi Belly scene ) in case something goes wrong.

What would be a good alternate to Cleans? I'd be doing major compound movements such as bench-press, deadlifts and squats with the barbell but does Clean really add something that'd otherwise be missing.

In fact I tried the dumbbell benchpress yesterday and the heavy weights took a toll on my wrist when I was either picking them up or putting them down (even when I was taking the help of my legs to get in & out of position). The wrist pain that was gone for a month came back again yesterday so wouldn't want to put them at risk anymore.

[TheDesertRat]

Originally Posted by fine69

Just yesterday I decided to follow a different workout routine than what I'd been doing for the past few months. Now the problem is that I'm supposed to be doing Cleans and Cleans with Overhead Press as part of this program.

I have a wrist injury and don't want to aggravate it with any workouts which involve jerky movements, not to mention that I have a home gym and dropping the barbell on the floor is not an option for me (remember the Delhi Belly scene ) in case something goes wrong.

What would be a good alternate to Cleans? I'd be doing major compound movements such as bench-press, deadlifts and squats with the barbell but does Clean really add something that'd otherwise be missing.

In fact I tried the dumbbell benchpress yesterday and the heavy weights took a toll on my wrist when I was either picking them up or putting them down (even when I was taking the help of my legs to get in & out of position). The wrist pain that was gone for a month came back again yesterday so wouldn't want to put them at risk anymore.

A couple of options:

1. Use wrist wraps. My wrists are weak and I used to struggle on front squats (with Olympic style grip). However, wrist wraps made the difference.

2. Use dumbbells instead of the barbell.

Additionally, you can try barbell snatches.

Regards,
Saurabh

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by fine69

Just yesterday I decided to follow a different workout routine than what I'd been doing for the past few months. Now the problem is that I'm supposed to be doing Cleans and Cleans with Overhead Press as part of this program.

I have a wrist injury and don't want to aggravate it with any workouts which involve jerky movements, not to mention that I have a home gym and dropping the barbell on the floor is not an option for me (remember the Delhi Belly scene ) in case something goes wrong.

What would be a good alternate to Cleans? I'd be doing major compound movements such as bench-press, deadlifts and squats with the barbell but does Clean really add something that'd otherwise be missing.

In fact I tried the dumbbell benchpress yesterday and the heavy weights took a toll on my wrist when I was either picking them up or putting them down (even when I was taking the help of my legs to get in & out of position). The wrist pain that was gone for a month came back again yesterday so wouldn't want to put them at risk anymore.

I am quite confident that you intend to do cleans to improve your "explosive" strength. It does very little to increase your maximal strength, and it does absolutely nothing to getting swole.
But explosive strength - oh yes it does.

Now you have to make an assessment on your own: have you been truly proselytized and are now afraid of "not doing the program" (YNDTP), or perhaps you still retain your individuality and are OK with messing around with it.

If latter thenyou can drop it safely, and instead do pullups/chinup or rows as a more productive endeavor ...? Or, heavens forbid, bicep curls! ;-)

If you are bent on doing cleans or even better snatch - you need to remember that the barbell should be a weightlifting one with free rotating collar (the ones that allow the weights to spin freely). Otherwise you stand to mess up your wrist. And you need to have a weightlifting coach honestly, contrary to what many may write over the internet.

Now, if you don't have these, and you can't bend your wrist the way it happens on cleans - you have safer options:
a) Push press (behind the neck) - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...ehindNeck.html
b) Jerk (behind the neck) - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...ehindNeck.html

In all these explosive movements - you need to understand that all the power has to be developed from quads, hamstrings, gluteus only - it is very similar to JUMPING up.

In fact I believe the above two movements are far superior to cleans or snatch (unless you have a coach) since they are easy to learn.

[pramodkumar]

This is my first post in this thread, I have a severe Lower back issue, L4S1 is not in the best of health and I might need a surgery, I don't wanna go that way so I decided to hit the gym. I was a regular in gym during my college days and what I want to do now is strengthen my lower to reduce the stress on my spine, I would also be planning to get back to shape.

Gurus, Kindly let me know the things I should avoid outright and things I should do more often to improve strength, I want to take baby steps into the world of fitness.

Pramod

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

Gurus, Kindly let me know the things I should avoid outright and things I should do more often to improve strength, I want to take baby steps into the world of fitness.

No offense, but shouldn't you be asking this rather critical question to a professional physiotherapist, rather than on an online forum?

Cheers,
Vikram

[fine69]

Originally Posted by TheDesertRat

1. Use wrist wraps. My wrists are weak and I used to struggle on front squats (with Olympic style grip). However, wrist wraps made the difference.

2. Use dumbbells instead of the barbell.

Additionally, you can try barbell snatches.

I already have a broken wrist so have been using wrist bands. I'm planning to get wrist wraps now which go around the thumb, it looks more ergonomic than the velcro based ones that I have.

The pain in wrists came back when I used dumbbells for bench press very recently. I started with dumbbells pressing 15kg. I'm moved to 45 kg now and dumbbells aren't practical unless I have somebody helping me to get in position.

Originally Posted by alpha1

I am quite confident that you intend to do cleans to improve your "explosive" strength. It does very little to increase your maximal strength, and it does absolutely nothing to getting swole.
But explosive strength - oh yes it does.

Well you would understand what happens when somebody starts strength training just like things that happen when somebody is new to bodybuilding. The bodybuilding keeda is long over, we all know we aren't going to look like international fitness models unless we eat clen and tren hard.

You all took a little longer to reply and I figured a lot of things around these jerky movements myself. Honestly I don't really intend to go the explosive way anytime soon. I mean its not practical for me. I'm not planning to haul heavy loads and neither would I be competing in any strong man/powerlifting competitions. Whatever advantages these jerky movements have (not that they have too many), they are insignificant for my goals.

What I've realized is that strength training is making me much happier than I ever was with bodybuilding, not that I got anywhere with it.

I intend to go the strength training way and almost all of my lifts are compound now. My lifting session is done within 35-40 mins and I spend 20 mins on HIIT which is way better utilization of my time & sweat. Earlier I used to train for 1.5 to 2 hrs thinking that all those spot hitting movements (isolations) would really get me somewhere. Well, I'm a learned person now.

I really wanted to start with 5x5 and few other similar programs that I found interesting but the cleans and snatches of the world didn't allow me to shortlist them. I started with something that's more of a my program. I'm going to continue for 8-10 weeks at least before concluding whether it works or not, just like I concluded that the typical bodybuilding routine doesn't really work for me.

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

Gurus, Kindly let me know the things I should avoid outright and things I should do more often to improve strength, I want to take baby steps into the world of fitness.

As somebody who's had severe & prolonged injuries with knees, shoulder, ankle, wrist along with a few other embarrassing issues, I'd strongly urge you to rule out that physio isn't helping you anymore. I also have a brother who's had even more severe knee (complete ACL tear) and shoulder (rotator cuff tear) injury but the way he's come out of it by religiously doing physio is commendable.

Once your physio isn't helping you improve anymore, get yourself some resistance bands and after you have spent a few months with them is when you would want to experiment with free weights. I know the temptation but a lower back issue, which if aggravates further, would be really really frustrating.

EDIT: Would like to quote @alpha1 here, don't let an injury convert into a disability!

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by fine69

we all know we aren't going to look like international fitness models unless we eat clen and tren hard.

GOLDEN WORDS

... they are insignificant for my goals.

What I've realized is that strength training is making me much happier than I ever was with bodybuilding, not that I got anywhere with it.

And what would be that goal (now)?
You are the happiest, usually, when you don't have any goal.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by alpha1

And what would be that goal (now)?
You are the happiest, usually, when you don't have any goal.

Hahaha True that!

Well the goal is multifaceted now but its also not really like a "goal" goal -
1) Not let training take over other important things in life (family, friends and doing other silly stuff). Basically I don't want to overdo, overthink or over<insert apt verb> and let this take over my life! It almost did!!
2) Not spend more than 1 hour daily on training (or things related to training). Only I know the amount of time I've wasted watching (youtube videos) & trying those bicep/tricep/chest routines which were to add 1 inch in 1 week with just 1 simple exercise
3) Have a sustainable training routine, something that I can do life long
4) Enjoy the occasional indulgences without feeling guilty
5) Get stronger in the process (better looking or not) and enjoy the new found strength (which I hopefully would acquire) in day to day things. You know, like lifting my wife effortlessly the way heroes do in movies (it takes a lot of strength right now!!), pick up that heavy furniture without worrying about my back etc.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by fine69

5) Get stronger in the process (better looking or not) and enjoy the new found strength (which I hopefully would acquire) in day to day things. You know, like lifting my wife effortlessly the way heroes do in movies (it takes a lot of strength right now!!), pick up that heavy furniture without worrying about my back etc.

Warning you: don't get fixated by this.
Just as the musculature (after a limit) is beyond one's natural control, so is the strength (after a limit).
(the natural strength limit can be stretched by getting sumo fat though)