Flytch

'Healthiest' is perhaps the wrong word, I'm trying to find out which methods of cooking both meat and vegetables are most beneficial for someone trying to lose weight. I understand that frying meat is pretty bad, although I'm not sure why. My main question is with regards to boiling vs roasting with both vegetables like carrots and potatoes, and meats like chicken. As far as I'm concerned, food that has been roasted tastes much better, and I'm consequently more inclined to eat it. However, anything that tastes good is typically worse for me, so is this the case? Or can I continue gleefully roasting my carrots?

N.b. Oats is a strange word to type more than three times. I'm back at university for spring term now, and once again attempting to live off around £4 a day. While I would love to eat chicken breasts for breakfast, it just isn't practical. While I was at home, I found myself eating warm oats with milk for breakfast, and not getting hungry until much later than if I had a sugary cereal or skipped breakfast. I did a quick Google search, and the consensus seemed to be that oats are actually pretty high in protein and fibre. I know they aren't paleo, but I was wondering where oats ranked as a breakfast idea. I'm going for fat loss, but I'm also going to be swimming every day of the week and lifting weights for four of them.

Crikey, that's an astonishing transformation. If I didn't have so much faith in the people on this forum, I wouldn't believe it was real. Congratulations.

I've finally started regularly going to the gym and swimming which is just awesome, but my diet still needs some work. I know that paleo is super-awesome and all that, but I was raised on chips and baked beans which means that I have a serious dislike of salads and many vegetables. I've ended up in a sort of food limbo. I'm eating lots of meat in the form of chicken breasts, fish fingers (Fish sticks to the Yanks) and battered cod. I've eliminated junk food like chocolate, biscuits, crisps and chips, and I drink only water. I also eat a lot of fruit. particularly apples and grapes. I can't drop this feeling that anything less than full paleo is a failure on my part, but surely any positive change will reflect in my long term development? My second question is whether or not having a calorie deficit of about 500 calories a day will still result in weight loss, despite still having some unhealthier diet elements. P.S. I'm a student in the UK, which means that buying two packs of chicken breasts destroys half my weekly food budget. For some reason, it is cheaper to buy frozen southern fried chicken breasts than fresh ones.

I did my first stronglifts workout two days ago and lifted some pretty heavy (for me weights). Notably, I did 5x5 dumbells at 20k which was pretty tough. Yesterday I was hurting a bit but nothing unusual. Today I've hurting more, but I have this strange pain on the side of my ribs towards the back which is making me feel a little nauseous, which is unusual. I couldn't even make it to my the gym today for the second workout. Has anyone else encountered this?

Yeah, I'm on something of a thread rampage this week In your experiences, how short can a workout be while still being effective? I did my first bout of 5x5 stronglifts yesterday and the whole thing took maybe 30/35 minutes including ten minutes on the cross trainer as a warm-up. This felt pretty short at the time despite being fairly intense. I compensated by doing some rowing and additional free weights which just made the whole thing feel a bit disjointed. Have any of you had similar experiences, or used the stronglifts 5x5 program? Ben

Wow, this guy and his plan seem too good to be true . I know that it is all about making progress and charting the progress, but how do I know where to start in terms of weight? Do I start with a low weight, even if I suspect I could do it with a slightly heavier weight? Edit: Scratch that, I'll just go with the weights suggested in his free spreadsheet and take it from there

I do intend to buy Steve's book when my next student loan installment comes through, but I need to get started now. My aims were to burn fat and gain lean muscle - as opposed to bulking up - with a really simple and difficult workout that I could crank out in about forty minutes with minimal cardio and maximum free weight usage.

I'm finally in the Gym. Well, I went for the first time yesterday The problem is that I spent most of the forty minutes without making any real progress, I just indiscriminately flitted between different free weight exercises and rowing. I've tried searching the internet for workout routines, but I'm being bombarded by '10x3x5' and other complicated phrases and words Can anyone just describe a workout for someone of middling ability and build that focuses almost entirely on using free weights? Something that I can actually measure progress in and derive goals from. Thanks Flytch

The swimming is part of the membership Thanks for all the advice guys, I had been feeling nervous until now

I have my gym induction tomorrow I've been telling myself that bodyweight exercises in my room are enough for the past year, but I've not seen any improvement and it is so easy to sit down and play on Skyrim instead. I figure that if I'm paying for a gym membership, failing to go would be a literal waste of money. With bodyweight exercises in my room, I don't actually lose anything when I end up playing Skyrim for five hours straight. I do have a quick gym related question; I hate cardio with a passion and I was largely intending to alternate gym and swimming each day with a break on sunday. I was planning on doing almost exclusively free weight exercises whilst in the gym with little or no cardio or assisted machines. Would this be a bad idea?

Everyone is playing Skyrim

I've signed up for an MMA class as part of my whole 'improve everything' plan. The only issue is that I suffer from an almost paralyzing lack of self confidence. Giving talks in front of classes has reduced me to a quivering wreck in the past and all my past experiences with martial arts have been tainted by it. I just feel awkward, clumsy and have a palpable pain in my stomach from the nerves. I've improved my self confidence in this past year by changing my appearance and I've managed to moderate my speaking to the point that I can actually be understood, as opposed to burbling constantly but the prospect still terrifies me. The class was scheduled for tonight but it was postponed. So I have something like 24 hours to somehow feel more confident so that I can do in there and learn, as opposed to being a crippled little sphere of self doubt for the whole two hours. Have any of you guys had similar experiences, or found ways to feel more confident? Ben

Should I do this every day, or day on/day off?

The title basically sums it up. I need suggestions for what to include in a workout that can be completed in my own room with only my body, the floor and two six kilo dumbells. I'm looking to lose weight and increase strength while keeping actual muscle gain to a minimum. All ideas are welcome

Thanks I tend to drink protein shakes with breakfast, should I discontinue this?

Can anyone give me a template for a bodyweight/dumbell circuit workout that results in 'lean', as in, I don't really want my arms to bulk up anymore and I mostly want to lose weight to give the 'lean' appearance.

Specifically, this one http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/categories.asp?cid=141 A few people in my household have been drinking whey protein shakes as an alternative to breakfast and I personally found that they made me feel full for an impressive amount of time when I tried them. I've been looking into whey protein because I will need a quick breakfast when I start University again in a few weeks, and I also understand that it is beneficial with regards to weight loss and muscle gain. However, as I stated in another post, I don't want to become 'bulky' and I intend to be doing high intensity - heavy weight training when I've bought my own weights. Has anyone else had any experiences with whey protein or know of any websites that discuss it properly, all I can find are sites trying to sell me some

I was intending to buy a bunch of weights/workout bench and do almost exclusively weightlifting and bodyweight circuits, with swimming when I want a break I figure that it will set me back £200 to get a bench, barbell and dumbells which is equivalent to ten months at a cheap gym.

Thanks Spezzy My diet plan is basically to go as near to Paleo as possible, working up to full paleo by Christmas, so basically just meat, vegetables and fruits. I was raised on junk food so it is taking some time to develop a taste for nearly anything paleo

I've finally started eating healthily and I am preparing to begin exercising properly when I get back to university. I'm 5"10 and of middling build, a bit of muscle and a bit of flab. I want to get stronger, fitter and better looking, but I don't want to train the wrong way and end up excessively bulky because I don't have the height to pull it off. I'm not sure if 'lean' is a real thing, or if it is just a case of body fat/muscle ratios, but I would like to achieve it. I don't particularly like cardio or find that it works for me; I'm fond of free weight training and body weight exercises. Is there a certain type of exercises like low reps at high weight/ high reps at low weight that can be utilised?

Well said.

I'm wearing boots with arch support things in right now The physiotherapist was horrified when she saw my arches....

http://www.cracked.com/article_19130_6-fitness-tips-everyones-heard-that-dont-work-at-all.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage Just read this and though I might repost it here, given that it addresses some topic that I've seen popping up on these forums.

I've always taken to overestimating the calories in whatever I eat. Just by a slight margin. I hate calorie counting. It's just tedious and makes you feel like crap for slipping up even once.