Fitness/Crossfit/Diet

What is your height, weight, and BMI?

One word of caution, you know your BMR, but that is only what your body needs to at rest with no physical activity. If you start an exercise program, you will need to adjust your calorie intake accordingly. The suggestion of subtracting 500 kcal from your BMR is a good start, but could be unhealthy. This is really disheartening for most people to hear, but you need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 lb of fat. Not easy by any means, but with the right diet you can do it. Also, portion control is a must if you plan to lose any fat while still maintaining muscle mass.
 
What is your height, weight, and BMI?

One word of caution, you know your BMR, but that is only what your body needs to at rest with no physical activity. If you start an exercise program, you will need to adjust your calorie intake accordingly. The suggestion of subtracting 500 kcal from your BMR is a good start, but could be unhealthy. This is really disheartening for most people to hear, but you need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 lb of fat. Not easy by any means, but with the right diet you can do it. Also, portion control is a must if you plan to lose any fat while still maintaining muscle mass.

Height: 5'9
Weight: 177lbs
BMI: no idea, will need to measure
 
If you want to gain strength, you need to lift heavy ass weights to stress your muscles (strength training). If you want to gain size, you have to do high volume of lifting moderate to heavy weights - aka lots of reps (bodybuilding). If you want to lose FAT (not weight - that number does not matter. Looking good and being fit is what matters.) and really increase your cardiovascular capacity, check out Bodyrock or interval cardio training. And most importantly, all of these must be performed with proper form or you will injure yourself and end up getting fat again. I like to lift heavy ass weights for 1-2 hours MWF, and do 12-20 mins of a bodyrock type routine TThS.

Keep your diet as is, but cut out the McD's, Ho Hos, and flavored drinks - water is your new best friend. You don't want to shock your body with a strange diet because you are going to hate it and likely quit the diet. Just listen to your body. If you've been good all week, treat yourself to a few beers on the weekend if you are into that. Try this for a few weeks and if you aren't seeing any results - and I mean visually not numerically - then incorporate something else into your diet like cutting carbs or caloric intake, increasing veggies, etc...

When weightlifting, stay off the machines please. Use the barbell / dumbbells and proper form.

Also, if anyone claims to know everything about diet or everything about exercise, take it with a grain of salt because 99% of the time they are grossly misinformed. You will learn what works for you by trial and error, if something seems wrong - it probably is wrong.
 
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That aside, don't particularly like the look of Crossfit to be honest - most of the exercises seem like a good way to throw your spine out of alignment and do yourself some injury.

As far as diet is concerned you can eat anything and lose weight as long as you monitor calories - Scott is the most on the button so far with this, aim for a decent amount of protein, the calories you need to lose or gain and then do the work - it's not really anymore complicated than that, I got down to a 6 pack eating mostly a litre of chocolate milkshake a day and energy drinks with some tuna, oats and protein shakes. If you calculate your BMR as being 15x177 that gives you what should approximately be your maintenance calories for the day - deduct 500calories from that for 1lb a week fat loss and double that for the 2lb a week fat loss - losing weight is easy, it just takes a while. To preserve the muscle make sure you get the protein in and do the lifting - you won't gain size, or that much strength, cutting, you're just aiming to preserve it so you don't look like a malnourished waif.
 
If you want to gain strength, you need to lift heavy ass weights to stress your muscles (strength training). If you want to gain size, you have to do high volume of lifting moderate to heavy weights - aka lots of reps (bodybuilding). If you want to lose FAT (not weight - that number does not matter. Looking good and being fit is what matters.) and really increase your cardiovascular capacity, check out Bodyrock or interval cardio training. And most importantly, all of these must be performed with proper form or you will injure yourself and end up getting fat again. I like to lift heavy ass weights for 1-2 hours MWF, and do 12-20 mins of a bodyrock type routine TThS.

Keep your diet as is, but cut out the McD's, Ho Hos, and flavored drinks - water is your new best friend. You don't want to shock your body with a strange diet because you are going to hate it and likely quit the diet. Just listen to your body. If you've been good all week, treat yourself to a few beers on the weekend if you are into that. Try this for a few weeks and if you aren't seeing any results - and I mean visually not numerically - then incorporate something else into your diet like cutting carbs or caloric intake, increasing veggies, etc...

When weightlifting, stay off the machines please. Use the barbell / dumbbells and proper form.

Also, if anyone claims to know everything about diet or everything about exercise, take it with a grain of salt because 99% of the time they are grossly misinformed. You will learn what works for you by trial and error, if something seems wrong - it probably is wrong.

Yeah, I cut out almost all junk food so that isn't a problem. Sugary drinks and soda were never a problem either really. The snack I crave most is a couple of slices of bread and butter, hah, or some high % dark chocolate but that's about it.

I'm glad I didn't get too deep into this Paleo diet. Part of my problem was adjusting to this lifestyle in general. Following a strict Paleo diet contributed to this.

Cheers for the advice.

Joe
 
Öwen;10233165 said:
TooBO.gif


That aside, don't particularly like the look of Crossfit to be honest - most of the exercises seem like a good way to throw your spine out of alignment and do yourself some injury.

As far as diet is concerned you can eat anything and lose weight as long as you monitor calories - Scott is the most on the button so far with this, aim for a decent amount of protein, the calories you need to lose or gain and then do the work - it's not really anymore complicated than that, I got down to a 6 pack eating mostly a litre of chocolate milkshake a day and energy drinks with some tuna, oats and protein shakes. If you calculate your BMR as being 15x177 that gives you what should approximately be your maintenance calories for the day - deduct 500calories from that for 1lb a week fat loss and double that for the 2lb a week fat loss - losing weight is easy, it just takes a while. To preserve the muscle make sure you get the protein in and do the lifting - you won't gain size, or that much strength, cutting, you're just aiming to preserve it so you don't look like a malnourished waif.

Dude I am dying from that gif, holy shit. :lol:

Yeah, I think I am on track (without knowing it) so far, so perhaps some small tweaks here and there will give me the best results.

Joe
 
Crossfit is neat in principle but most of the affiliates do a terrible job of the programming.

If you want to just do cardio with barbells and feel dead after every workout, Crossfit is great. But feeling like you are going to puke because they just run you into the ground doesn't mean you are necessarily getting a good workout. You are using a lot of energy, and thus burning a lot of calories (as well as training your cardiovascular system) sure, but you won't get very strong.

Crossfit works because anything works for someone who is brand new to training. You will build some muscle and get a little stronger because you are doing something but once you adapt to the stress that Crossfit provides, you won't really get much further without some dedicated strength programming (which is what a lot of the good affiliates use to supplement the WODs.)

I don't really like Crossfit because the "programming" is kind of ridiculous. I don't know if you saw the Games Open WOD from a few weeks ago where you had to work up to a 210 snatch for max reps in like 12 minutes, but that sort of thing is insane and a good way to hurt yourself. Olympic lifts aren't meant to be performed for as many reps as possible for time, especially at heavy loads. I also am not a big fan of the elitist attitude that Crossfit seems to promote. It's funny because the people who win the Crossfit Games are never people who actually follow Crossfit's "programming", so Crossfit doesn't even win at it's own game, let alone at making people "good at everything".

It can definitely be a good environment though with the right coaches, and it's great for motivation. It just really lacks the strength component, and all physical activity relies on strength. The WOD yesterday was like 225 pound squats for 21-15-9 reps, supersetted with 36kg KB swings for the same rep scheme. You have to be fairly strong to get through that workout in a reasonable pace, and you aren't going to get strong without training to be strong. If your max squat is 275, that workout is damn near impossible, and you have to move slowly because you aren't strong enough to make the reps, so you don't get the conditioning effect that Crossfit is intended to provide. For someone who can squat 500, the workout is a lot more reasonable although still a ball buster, but form breakdown doesn't become an issue and the weight is not heavy enough to hurt that person, whereas it could seriously injure a weaker person.

What affiliate is it that you go to, got a website? Would be interested to look at their programming. If they have open gym times (not common for Crossfit gyms but some do) you can always go in and work on building your strength individually while still doing 3 or 4 metcons per week for the group experience.

I train with a couple of friends in a garage, one is a huge Crossfit nut. But we focus primarily on strength and use barbell complexes, the Prowler and hill sprints for conditioning. If it helps for perspective, strength training is actually a way bigger hobby to me than music, haha... At the last meet I did in December I squatted 473, benched 330 and deadlifted 512 in the 220 weight class. I've since deadlifted 550 but haven't attempted to beat the other numbers.

Also, Crossfit is fucking expensive.
 
Crossfit is neat in principle but most of the affiliates do a terrible job of the programming.

If you want to just do cardio with barbells and feel dead after every workout, Crossfit is great. But feeling like you are going to puke because they just run you into the ground doesn't mean you are necessarily getting a good workout. You are using a lot of energy, and thus burning a lot of calories (as well as training your cardiovascular system) sure, but you won't get very strong.

Crossfit works because anything works for someone who is brand new to training. You will build some muscle and get a little stronger because you are doing something but once you adapt to the stress that Crossfit provides, you won't really get much further without some dedicated strength programming (which is what a lot of the good affiliates use to supplement the WODs.)

I don't really like Crossfit because the "programming" is kind of ridiculous. I don't know if you saw the Games Open WOD from a few weeks ago where you had to work up to a 210 snatch for max reps in like 12 minutes, but that sort of thing is insane and a good way to hurt yourself. Olympic lifts aren't meant to be performed for as many reps as possible for time, especially at heavy loads. I also am not a big fan of the elitist attitude that Crossfit seems to promote. It's funny because the people who win the Crossfit Games are never people who actually follow Crossfit's "programming", so Crossfit doesn't even win at it's own game, let alone at making people "good at everything".

It can definitely be a good environment though with the right coaches, and it's great for motivation. It just really lacks the strength component, and all physical activity relies on strength. The WOD yesterday was like 225 pound squats for 21-15-9 reps, supersetted with 36kg KB swings for the same rep scheme. You have to be fairly strong to get through that workout in a reasonable pace, and you aren't going to get strong without training to be strong. If your max squat is 275, that workout is damn near impossible, and you have to move slowly because you aren't strong enough to make the reps, so you don't get the conditioning effect that Crossfit is intended to provide. For someone who can squat 500, the workout is a lot more reasonable although still a ball buster, but form breakdown doesn't become an issue and the weight is not heavy enough to hurt that person, whereas it could seriously injure a weaker person.

What affiliate is it that you go to, got a website? Would be interested to look at their programming. If they have open gym times (not common for Crossfit gyms but some do) you can always go in and work on building your strength individually while still doing 3 or 4 metcons per week for the group experience.

I train with a couple of friends in a garage, one is a huge Crossfit nut. But we focus primarily on strength and use barbell complexes, the Prowler and hill sprints for conditioning. If it helps for perspective, strength training is actually a way bigger hobby to me than music, haha... At the last meet I did in December I squatted 473, benched 330 and deadlifted 512 in the 220 weight class. I've since deadlifted 550 but haven't attempted to beat the other numbers.

Also, Crossfit is fucking expensive.

Yeah, I often do feel dead after each workout, hah. My very first WOD almost made me puke (was holding it back), but nowadays I am just drained and sweating like a pig at the end. I did yesterday's WOD (with a dramatic scaling/reduction in weight because I'm still pretty weak from years of neglect).

I do often wonder if being that exhausted every time is really optimal...

I actually have not watched much of the game footage or looked into the winning athletes. What do you mean by them not following the crossfit programming? Supplemental strength training?

This is the affiliate that I go to: www.crossfitsoar.com

Good bunch of guys and it is very small, so not many egos. I think they mainly follow the daily WODs, with their own creations added in for rest days.

Those are some impressive stats man! Again, I am very open to other sorts of training. I feel that Crossfit is giving me a good jump start, but I also want to make sure I'm working out safely and avoiding injury.

Joe
 
And yes, it is fucking expensive. That is one of my main gripes. I guess it pays off somewhat with the instruction that is included...but yikes!
 
I think you have some very good suggestions to go with from reading the posts. Most of the trendy diets may work for some, but really are not sustainable. The diet that will always work is a well balanced diet with whole, nutritious foods. As mentioned, do what works for you, because everyone is different. I think you could really benefit from strength training because you sound like you are not extremely overweight or your diet is shit. You will lose a small portion of fat from strength training, but you will gain the strength you are probably looking for.

If you do strength training, just don't look like you've been to prison.......big upper body with little ass legs.
 
I think you have some very good suggestions to go with from reading the posts. Most of the trendy diets may work for some, but really are not sustainable. The diet that will always work is a well balanced diet with whole, nutritious foods. As mentioned, do what works for you, because everyone is different. I think you could really benefit from strength training because you sound like you are not extremely overweight or your diet is shit. You will lose a small portion of fat from strength training, but you will gain the strength you are probably looking for.

If you do strength training, just don't look like you've been to prison.......big upper body with little ass legs.

I've been on and off the wagon for the diet. I have not been eating sweets at all, save for some dark chocolate, but DAMN I'm craving pizza tonight. Cheat night, perhaps? Hah.

Yeah, I honestly cannot see myself sustaining a trend diet for very long.

I will look into more strength training. The gym doesn't have very many open days, but there are many cheap gyms in my area that I can use.

thanks guys

Joe
 
Pretty much what Adam said. Do StrongLifts or Starting Strength if you want to have a really good foundation in strength.


And yep, modern metalcore mostly does jack shit for me, but 7A7P are fuarking awesome.

Nice, do you remember Prayer for Cleansing?