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I would say "I'm late posting this thread", but... Even magic space wizards. That said, I'm long overdue to come back home to the NF boards and let this place be the healthy, supportive part of my overall health - physical and emotional - that it was for over five years between 2013 and 2018. 2020 was at least as much a dumpster fire for me as it was for so many others. I have a ton of respect for people who were able to roll with the changes, be productive, and stay healthy over the past year. I'm not one of those people. As of today, I weigh 216 pounds. This is the heaviest I have been since 2013, when I changed my lifestyle (at 45 years old and around 238lbs, down from my 2011 high of 260). I was active, I kept to a schedule, and I had a lifestyle eating change. It was NOT a diet. I got my weight down to 193 by June of 2013, and stayed at or around that weight for five years while becoming the best version of myself. Over the past three years, I've had a couple significant issues come up that have changed my life, permanently. The most significant was the passing of my ex-wife in 2019, which led to my teenagers moving in with me full-time. I've also been dealing with arthritis. Combine those things with a global pandemic and social uprisings against a systemically racist and corrupt police state, and my anxiety levels spiked to occasionally un-manageable levels on a regular basis over the last year. I know how I got here. I also know what I need to do to get back where I belong, which is active and healthy. Goal: Re-establish Healthy Active Habits As recently as last year, pre-pandemic, I was working out at my gym a minimum of three times per week. Prior to that I would also run three to four times per week. I had changed my life from couch-bound in 2012 to perpetual motion when I was not at work. That's not my life now. Now, I work from home and the lack of disconnect has left me sedentary and unhealthy. I'm going to do something, every day. Walk, run, work out, doesn't matter. Do something every day. Log it and report it here. Every day. Goal: Re-establish Healthy Eating Habits For five years, I tracked my nutrition almost daily, and managed to maintain my weight while increasing strength, endurance, and without it affecting my mental health. I learned to track macros and identify good food choices. I need to lose weight - a lot of weight, honestly - but I'm not going to over-correct and try to lose two years of weight gain in just a few weeks. I'm going to set a reasonable goal for calories and macros and track - and report - my nutrition every day. I still won't call it a diet, because I hate that word and its connotations. This will probably be the easiest habit to re-establish. Goal: Re-establish Healthy Emotional Habits After my divorce in 2010 I spent a LOT of time in therapy. This dovetailed with my physical health changes. I established a lot of healthy emotional habits, which helped me cope with the daily stress of life which included an IT job, a volunteer leadership position with my church, and my family (a fiancee, five kids - three adults in various states of independence and two teenagers, a grandson, and two ex-wives). I always have a lot on my plate and stress is constant. Running and exercise were really my outlet. But the pandemic and the resulting isolation has done a number on my emotional well-being. I've fallen out of almost every healthy self-care habit that I had. This will be my hardest habit to pick up because it's a "soft" skill and my brain works best with concrete "I did a thing" goals. I picked up Obstacle Course Racing along the way and I used to have big, main "I'm going to compete in a race" or "I'm going to complete a race" or "I'm going to qualify for" goals. I'm not sure those things are important to me anymore as my life has changed, although I would like to get back to a point where I could do these things again. I know I'm not there now. But the world is round, if I keep moving forward, I could get back there again.

Hi everyone, My Age is almost 22yrs, Height 5'10 - 5'11. i was a bit fatty and never avoided sugar or junk food, the first day when i started to diet my weight was 83.75KG (19 January 2020). Today (20 February 2020) my weight it 79.10 KG, im dieting and avoiding junk foods. Whatever im doing my parents want me to stop it but i am feeling better than ever before by doing diet and going to gym. But one thing is making me feel so uncomfortable (CHEST FAT) My left side have more fat than the right one, right one is not much noticeable but the left one is clearly visible whenever im wearing a Shirt my left side is always visible. i dont know if this is something to worry about? i just want to make sure its nothing serious and how i will get rid of my left side chest fat. also i dont have any gyno or tumor sh*t.

SORRY FOR THE LONG POST; BUT I APPRECIATE ALL INPUT ON WHAT I MAY BE DOING WRONG OR RIGHT. attached are imagines of my weight throughout the years, from 16,21,24 (current, bathroom and hiking pics) http://s1361.photobucket.com/user/ga...?sort=3&page=1i started losing weight about 3 years ago when i was at my heaviest about 290-300lbs, i dropped down too 220 and then stopped and went back up too about 250-260. i then started losing weight again (around late november) too my current weight of 205-210lbs. not 100% sure on my height its from 5'9-5'10 im not sure if im working my body too hard or not pushing my maxs high enough, but i feel like ive hit a platue. my muscles have been getting harder it seems like (probably because of fat loss) , but not bigger. im not sure what i need too do. i feel like my body is starting to become skinny, fat and thats the last thing i want.my goal is not too become swole, but too look athletic and fit. Im not sure what it is but when i was working out before hand 2 years ago and losing the weight i feel like my body looked harder and more fit. im noticing fat in areas that it wasnt when i was working out before. and now that im at my lowest ive been at; i feel like i might be eating wrong or working too hard or not taking enough days off? or something; that could be causing me not too get the results i feel like i should be? sorry for repeating myself; i had too write this post twice.. AS WELL ANY TIPS ON LOSING THIGH FAT WOULD HELP ME ALOT, my thighs have always been massive... below is my workout schedule; i eat about 1500-2000 calories a day, lots of lean meat and veggies, fruits and some carbs throughout the day. as well as usually a cheat meal once a week and a togos sandwhich every now and again.monday - no gym; 1-2 hour hiketuesday - leg day, cardio- treadmill 40 min/ 20min jogging, row machine 6 min, stairs 6 min. 60 squats, slowly adding more weight up too 205lbs (my max roughly) then i use the leg machiens to hit my calfs,quads,hams,inner and outer thighs 40 repswed - upper body - SAME CARDIO AS BEFORE; bicep curl 60 reps up too 130lbs, tricep machine 60 reps, chest machine 60 reps, free weights for bicep,forearm and shoulder, dip machine 60 reps up too max roughly 170 lbs (trying to get my dips stronger for my own weight comfortably) thursday - upper body - ALL SAME CARDIO, bicep and tricep again lightely.; ill benchpress this day (trying to improve that as well) as well ill hit my back and abs (i also hike this day) friday - SAME CARDIO, hit my entire body this day lightelysaturday - SAME CARDIO leg daysunday - upper body day (but its a light day) and i hike as well.

So, I've been coming here for almost ten years. In that time, I've done more than a dozen challenges with the Monks, a few with the Adventurers, one or two with the Warriors, an Assassin run or two, a Ranger run or two... but always coming back to the Monks, due to my interest in MMA, boxing, kickboxing, and all sorts of combat sports. And after ten years, I'm in pretty much the worst shape of my life, and the least parts of me that I never even considered have started breaking down. In no particular order: My beard is more white than black now The old hairline has been thinning slightly for a couple years, but it's now starting to retreat Ear and nose hair jokes are no longer funny, but a sobering assessment of documented reality Dry skin has stopped being periodic and easily treated and is now just my life I can GAIN weight faster than ever before My joints below the waist don't start properly working until I've already been at work for an hour My carpal tunnel wrist brace doesn't seem to be working anymore My left elbow just kinda hurts all the time What the hell seems to be growing next to most of my fingernails? I can't handle spicy food and hot sauce the way I used to, which is perhaps the saddest of all I've been eating my problems lately, and there's a few of them. I stopped going to MMA last summer because I just wanted to have SOME time during the week where I had some time to myself. I stopped going to the gym around the same time because my gym partner (my son) absolutely would not wake up in time to go, and if he didn't go I didn't have motivation. I stopped going jogging, because my dog becomes EXTREMELY upset if I accelerate to anything faster than a walk (she's a husky / German shepherd, but has some deranged urge to try and herd me if it looks like I'm escaping). I set up my weights at home in the garage when it was OK to park the van outside, and all of my weights immediately became covered in home renovation equipment and power tools (thanks, sweetie). I set up my punching bag in the basement once it became too cold to keep it in the garage, but the only time I can use it my daughter is asleep about ten feet away, and it wakes her up. I know this is basically a laundry list of lame BS excuses. I'm owning that. But I just turned 37, and it seems like I've aged more in the last six months than I have in the six years previous. Or more. Without any goals, I don't have any motivation to keep on top of my exercise or diets, and it can't just be the goal of "Weigh X by Y date". My previous goals were all major events. Amateur boxing events, kickboxing events, the Tiger Balm Internationals, road run events, things like that. I missed every road run this year, and I haven't felt remotely capable to actually fight again (and that was BEFORE I stopped training). My first few fights gave me an inflated sense of my abilities, and my last four kind of drove home that I'm clearly not at the level I would like to imagine. I think the final straw this week was my wife's friends all posting "before and after" collages of their significant others, mostly on Facebook, chronicling their weight loss and fitness and how hot they are now. My wife posted two identical and unflattering pictures of me as MY "before and after". An apparently random but related aside: my son has made the decision this week that he wants to try out for football at his school in April. Now, my son is... not sporty. He has (or at least had) a really good excuse for this: idiopathic ANA-neg rheumatoid juvenile arthritis. His legs have never really 'worked right'. He is also a 15 year old who is six feet tall and a solid one-ninety. He is not a runner, he's barely even a sprinter, but he's big and he WANTS to do sports, there's just so few that play to his strengths... but football has some great spots for him, and the football coach and some students have told him that he can pack on a lot of muscle between now and April. Therefore, I'm setting up the weights again, SOMEWHERE, so he can try and build muscle at home, since he acknowledges that there's no way he can wake up in time to go to the gym in the mornings. He barely makes it to the bus in the morning to go to school. He needs sleep... but when he's awake, I want to support him in this. So, there's a lot of stuff happening around me right now. This isn't the right time for me to start to let my health slide. This is around the time where it starts being irreversible. I've managed to avoid any major health problems throughout my life, and my family history is replete with men living to their 80's and 90's. Then again, they were all police, soldiers and farmers, and tended to actually take care of themselves. I sit for ten hours a day for work, then try to sit at home so I can write, and occasionally walk/drag my dog through the snow. I wake up early every morning because there's stuff that needs to be done, but available downtime tends to go towards writing, or more recently, just doodling around on my Minecraft server. If I'm going to be honest with myself, I want to be healthy FOR ME, but I want to look good purely to change how other people see me. My wife laughs anytime I say anything about fighting again, or doing anything interestingly physical. My daughters poke my stomach and laugh and run away. The rest of my MMA gym keeps winning buckets of medals at every west coast competition they go to, but they ask when I'll be back just because they need a heavyweight they can train 'against' for practice (IE, they want a punching bag that moves around). The people in my office make far more food-related jokes and comments to me than they do with anyone else. I've made the commitment (and PRE-PAID) to return to my MMA gym in January. My wife says that she wants to go to the gym at the university, where she has a free membership, but she'll only go if I go with her, so in January we'll be starting that too. She wants to go a few times in December while it's still not very busy, since in December admission is just one can of food for me, and she's still free, so she can try everything out. Food is still going to be the biggest problem, and I am currently checking out intermittent fasting which is something that I think will allow me to eat the things that I CRAVE, but not in enough quantities to pose problems. I am going to figure out some smaller goals, and lay out some benchmarks to help me get there. Small things. A pull-up. A hand-stand. Small, physical things. I just wanted to get this all down here, so I can come back and read all about my failures, and remember why I'm doing this.

Hi all, Below you can see my post of about 1 year ago regarding the fat losing problem of my (now recently) wife Sally Past year she adjusted her week plan to more powerlifting and cardio oriented since we read a lot about the benefits of lifting and eating protein rich food for fat-loss. But this hasn't resulted in any fat-loss whatsoever But Sally can't seem to lose her belly/hip-fat, whatever sport or diet she's doing. We tried Paleo, Crossfit, lifting, no sugars, ... for periods of 3 months each. Without any result. This all began after her miscarriage + surgery to her ovaries 4 years ago. Let me give you some background: Body: Sally Female 28 years old 155cm height (5 feet 1 inches) 54kg (124 pounds) Brown hair Small feet Relevant history: Had an eating disorder when she was 20-22 which damaged her intestines during that time Is gluten intolerant (she can eat gluten but when overdoing she feels really constipated) Had surgery to her uterus/oviduct after a miscarriage resulting in increase in menstruation problems (more headaches, more cramps, ...). This could have messed up her hormones? Current lifestyle (for past 5-6 months): wakes up at around 6:30am Go's to work by bicycle (10-20min ride) Office job for 8 hours a day Smokes 3-8 cigarettes a day (quit smoking and starting vaping with nicotine) Goes to bed at around 22:30-23:30 Enjoys reading Harry Potter books (like the whole series each year!) Food-Drinks 2 years: Breakfast: yoghurt, blueberries, nuts (cashew, hazelnuts, Brazilian, ..) Lunch: Salad = cucumber, paprika, spinach, cherry tomatoes, beans/chickpeas/rice/..., sausage/ham/salmon/Mozzarella/... Leftover from diner day before (see below) Snack: smoothie = avocado, spinach, banana, ... Banana pancakes Diner = Paleo Chicken, pork, beef, salmon, ... Lot's of veggies (paprika, tomatoes, zucchini, egg plant, ...) Rice/potatoes/ or no carbs 1 plate of 500-600gram Exercise 6 months: Monday-Wednesday-Friday = Crossfit Powerlifting Tuesday-Thursday = Running Saturday/Sunday = Crossfit or Swimming Results after 2 years of mixture of crossfit, lifting, running, cycling, swimming, ... She gains muscles (as her weights during Powerlifting increase) She gains overall fitness (her WOD times decrease) Her weight (54kg) is an all time high (probably due to muscle increase) She doesn't lose fat (+- 22-25% body fat) Goal: Be happy Working out Eat healthy Lose body fat Increase strength (she loves the looks of Crossfit athlete Lauren Fisher) Original post Thank you for your feedback and sorry for the long post

I am a 6' 5" man with a very large frame. My BMI is bad, but I was looking at what my goals should be, and my fitness level weight is a terrifying 180 lbs. Is there a better way to figure out safe and healthy BMI/body fat %?

Inspirational as bleep. So I've packed on some weight. It's been a rough couple of months. I can't really complain that much, because in general, my life is really good. It's just been... hectic, I guess is the best word, with all of my time being taken up by my various other responsibilities. My wife is full-time in university, my kids have activities all week, my dog needs walks at 5am and 5pm, and I'm still working full time and trying to make it as a writer. I probably bitch about this every time, but I have ALL of this energy going out into the world, and I have no energy coming IN to my life. I am the nice, sturdy foundation of my world: I'm solid, dependable, blocky, and always there. And like most foundations, you kinda forget it's there and just assume it'll always be there. I've been in my routine, and my routine doesn't leave a lot of room for exercise (outside of walking the dog, which is probably all that's kept me alive so far!). I've been treating my depression with food, as I always do, and an impressive pattern of telling myself I'll stop tomorrow. And just the other week, I noticed, I REALLY NOTICED that I'm significantly fatter and more out of shape than just a few months ago. My back hurts, my knees hurt, my wrists and elbows hurt, and five minutes on the heavy bag was my total limit. So right now, I'm going to start some small steps in order to build some better habits, some better routines. I'm going to be on autopilot, with my daily routines, for the next eight months at least (after which, I'll probably be on another new routine). I can't BREAK the routine... there's too much to do. But I can tweak the routine. Try and shape it to be more productive. Challenge #1 - 30 Minutes With The Kettlebells I'm up early every morning, just because my dog REALLY wants to come in. It used to be she only wanted in when it got light around 6am, and then as the days got shorter she would want in around 6:15am, or 6:30am. But now, she's going backwards, and she wants in around 5am. So I'm gonna be up anyways, and I can't sit when it's that early, because I just stiffen up. So I want my NEW ROUTINE to be making my big morning coffee, hanging with the dog, stretching out, then 30 minutes with the kettlebells, mostly legs and back. Then walk the dog when she wakes up again (she always comes in then passes out for a bit), then home to clean up the house and make lunches before the kids wake up. I'm ALREADY UP, so lets use some of that time better. Challenge #2 - 30 Minutes Bag Work At Night I sleep better if I burn off some energy at night. There's usually some time between when the kids go to bed, and when I go to bed, that I either write or I play a couple video games and try to unwind. Every time I play video games to unwind, I wish afterwards that I'd done anything else. So now I'm gonna do anything else. 30 MINUTES OF BAG WORK. Not power shots, since I don't need a POWER WORKOUT at night, but speed, stance, ducking and weaving and pulling and shifting, and really working the core and throwing fast combinations. Work up a sweat, then stretch, and off to bed. Challenge #3 - Better Eating At Work I need to get back into eating sensible food at work. No getting frustrated and driving around aimlessly until I find whatever fast food joint appeals to me that day. No more going grocery shopping, and throwing a bag of chips or a bag of chocolate almonds into the cart and then leaving them in the van 'for work', rather than bringing them into the house. Sensible food, at work. Bring sandwiches, bring leftovers, and keep a case of soup under my desk again like the old days. BE HUNGRY at work. Not starving, but that level of hunger that tells me to drink more water. I don't need to be full 24/7. Challenge #4 - Self Care This one... I don't really know how to cover. Writing makes me happy, and I have been writing a lot more. I've been prepping two novels, and of course getting ready for NaNoWriMo. I'm still up in the air about working on a web serial, because my writing is inconsistent and I have a hard time writing THE SAME THING for an entire week, let alone every week for a year or two. But I need simple things that make me happy, that make me hopeful. When I figure out what those are, I will try and update this challenge. On the flip side, though, another part of self care is significantly LESS social media. Less Facebook, by far. Less Internet, probably. My only friends are online, though, so I need to find some good habits where I can keep in touch with people, but where I don't need to constantly expose myself to the horribleness that has become the norm. Baby steps in this direction. Find the balance. ... there's not a lot of "Monk-ish-ness" here, but I'll get back there.

I'm male, 16, 259 LBs, and at 34% Body-fat. For fat loss I am considering consuming only 1800 calories (I'd go lower but I'm a teenager) Here are the details. Cal:1,800 Carbs: 90 Grams (Excluding added sugar) Protein: 180 Grams Fat: 80 Grams (Moderate saturated fats and unsaturated fats. No trans-fats) I will also be lifting and doing moderate cardio. Please let me know if this is good or not.

I've decided to embrace the Tropes that rule my life, and in particular this one has been my guiding star for the last few months. I lost about ten pounds since Christmas, though it's still a little bit of an unpredictable roller coaster,and perhaps I've finally made some progress on leg strengthening, but I'm MOVING better at MMA than I ever have. Footwork, shifting, ducking and weaving, and the always-tricky forward switch-kick. I am not lighter, but I FEEL lighter. And a big part of that comes from figuring out exactly what's wrong with my legs and my core, and the specific deficiencies. My hamstrings are tight as steel, my hip flexors are almost non-existent, and my obliques are absent, presumed missing. As part of repairing my mobility, I will be concentrating on these three zones, and the techniques associated with them. Challenge #1 - Hammy I discovered that by doing high forward leg swings, inside and outside, there's a LOT of tugging and pulling in the hips, many of which cross that border from "wow, THAT'S a wierd feeling" to "WOW, that's NOT somewhere I should feel pain!" These are essential for me to perform leaping side squats, high front kicks, high back kicks, and virtually anything that involves LANDING after a jump. These are also important considering I'm trying to up my game from a 5k to a 10k at this year's Storm The Hill. So the routine will be: high forward leg swings, inside and outside, at least 5 sets in the morning and 5 sets at night forward high stomp kicks on the heavy bag (quantity to be determined?) standing floor touches, IE, bring forehead to ankles. Deep breathing, meditate, feel those darn things loosen. Challenge #2 - Hippy The hip flexors are huge for me. I hadn't realized that nearly all of my workout routines completely ignored this part of my body. There's only two real cures for this: stretching and direct manipulation. SO, the stretches will be key to start me off, mostly pigeon pose and... this one I was trained to do but don't know the name of, where I rest my foot on something behind me, between knee and hip height, and then to careful leg bends with the other leg. The deeper I go, the more the leg behind me is stretched. After that, there's two important direct manipulations for me to concentrate on, which directly apply to both MMA and running: knee raises (planning to do walking heel-turn knee raises, to simulate forward roundhouse kicks) and jumping squats (preferably jumping 180 squats, once I get a little better at the landings). I can only do a handful of these before I go from "Hey, this is pretty easy" to "OH GOD THERE'S NOTHING LEFT". These muscles burn out so, so fast. There's a lot of bending and a lot of jumping in this one. Challenge #3 - Belly The abs, especially the obliques, are tremendously important for any ground-fighting, and for head movement. I figured most of head movement was, you know, the head, but the head is attached to the spine, and the spine starts moving most easily at the bottom. Ducking and weaving? The whole point is basically to crunch your abs and tilt to the side, while keeping your eyes on your opponent, your chin down and your neck straight. Head movement is all belly. And that's going to be challenge number three. It's also very important for distance running, because just keeping my body upright and not slouching, my chest open and my lungs pumping, is a HARD ab workout when you're my size. Whew. Fortunately, this one is perfectly manageable, but I need to find somewhere in my house to set strings up. I can do this WITHOUT the sliplines, but it would be nice to be able to link this to what my eyes are seeing. Bonus Challenge - Upsy-Daisy I am bringing back my oldest NerdFitness challenge... doing a gosh-darned handstand. Starting with wall-stands, deep breathing, and... we'll see where we can go from there.

So I learned a lot of things during the last challenge, and got to experience some different kinds of progress than what I'm used to. Namely, I've gone from what I've termed 'milquetoast lifting' to 'actual proper lifting'. Before, I would lift weights, possibly even regularly... but it was never very HEAVY, it was never very HARD, and it was usually on the machines that really impair range of motion and actual progress. More recently, I've been enjoying the fact they moved about 1200 pounds of dumbells up to the track zone of the Sports Centre, where I work out, along with a lifting / climbing / boxing cage with Olympic bars. After some half-assed beginnings, I started to actually see progress, something that I am wholly unused to. So I pushed myself a little harder. Go a little faster. Up the weights more. Show up a little earlier. Add an entire set of lifts. Increase my reps. Go until I'm drenched with sweat and breathing hard and then go even further. My own dog is named Pippi and is about 10x bigger than Punchy. I added more than 50 pounds to my squats, and more than doubled the quantity of overhead kettlebell presses I can do (stuck with the 25 lb kettlebells right now), and my grip and forearm strength has gone up considerably. I've gained eight pounds, but my belt still fits exactly where it always did, and the mirror confirms that I've added some real muscle to my shoulders and arms, and I can only assume to my legs. I've got recovery soreness keeping pace with me, because I'm always trying to push myself just a little harder, and that feeling is what keeps me motivated. That deep, tight burning makes me feel good. And helps keep me warm in the bitter Canadian winter... So that's going to be the focus of this next challenge... or rather, trying to control my diet while maintaining my CURRENT progress is going to be the real challenge. I kind of am... Challenge The First - Gym Lifting Keeping up with my 3x a week at the gym, with the entirety of the focus on squats, heavy carries and overhead presses. My legs feel stronger, my back feels stronger (finally), my arms LOOK better which is pretty hilariously awesome for me, and other than some chronic foot pain (which is probably mostly due to how cold it is and my pre-existing dry skin problems), everything feels pretty great right now. It has, however, highlighted some deficiencies. I also keep making this face whenever I put a toque on my head... Challenge The Second - HOME Lifting This is where I will focus on the OTHER major muscle groups, particularly the chest and core more. That's right... my most hated of workouts. The pushup. I HATE pushups. I suck at pushups. I am a fat guy with terrible upper body strength (relative to my size, at least), and pushups always drove home that I had very uneven amounts of strength. That particular inequality is getting worse as the rest of me gets better, so it's time to make some changes. I don't know what my RULES for this one are going to be. I want to try and figure that out this week. It may be like my September lifting, seeing what works, pushing myself, and seeing how my body responds. Additionally I want to work on lunges and twists, since my hips and knees need a little bit of work outside of just SQUAAAAAAAATING which keeps leaving those areas unnecessarily tight. Sproing! Sproing! Sproing! Sproing! Challenge The Third - The Joey Falcone Diet Plan "Stop eating, you fat bastard!" .... OK, obviously not 'stop eating', but my snacking has been really, really out of control for the last couple weeks... months... pretty much since the entire fiasco with my mom started, coinciding with the entire fiasco with Princess Ninja. Also Hallowe'en, with giant Costco packs of Wagon Wheels left around the house. And my beef jerky delivery from work, which is always tastier with cheese. Also the big bags of protein granola constantly going on sale for 75% off. Also my wife keeps buying bagels and croissants. Also it's hot chocolate season again. Also... yeah, also also also, I've been eating constantly. More healthy stuff, but also more UN healthy stuff. With all my gains from lifting I managed to con myself into thinking I was just helping with recovery! Yeah, recovery, that's what's going on. I NEED to eat this bag of Turkey Stuffing Flavored President's Choice Potato Chips. For my legs! So I will be getting back into portion control, and MORE WATER AT WORK. Those two things are huge. Hyuuuuge. Mark Hunt: Child Murderer Challenge The Fourth - Makin' With Tha Word-Putting Princess Ninja is done. It's available on CreateSpace and Amazon, as well as in person (just drive to my house! Here, I'll give you directions...) NaNo is done. English 205 is one week from being done. My distractions are done... and I can't ignore that what I REALLY want to do with my life is what I actually can do, and keep putting off. I wait until 'the time is right', I wait until 'there's nothing to do at home', I wait until 'I feel like it'... so I wait and wait and wait and then I'm back at work and I waited too long. And that needs to stop. I fixed the plot and world issues with all three of my serials, and now it's time to hit the ground running with ALL of them. RUNNING! Runningrunningrunningrunning... so every week, I want to produce one complete installment of one serial, approx 4000 words. Because once I start, once I REALLY start, I know I'll have the drive to keep it going. I would have way, way too many imaginary friends to thank...

So, how much animal do you consume per serving or in a day? I'm mainly confused because I've read that protein shouldn't be the main source for energy but that 'fat' (olive oil, etc) or 'animal fat' should be our main source of energy. With that being said, how much fat should one typically consume on average? I'm on day 3 of my new paleo lifestyle, so guidance and help is much appreciated! : )

Like many, I laughed at the idea of being "addicted to food" for a long time. But the more I've considered it, the more I've realized: being addicted to certain combinations and kinds of processed foods is quite real. One need only review several Google searches on the topic, as well as statements from physicians and neuroscientists that various combinations of food spike dopamine and serotonin levels pretty high, which, just like cocaine or meth, can lead to tolerance and require more and more of the same to get the same "high". Anyway, I'm here to ask the question: how do you actually BEAT this addiction? I recently finished the book "Fat Chance" by Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD. In addition to citing a lot of evidence and discussing quite a bit of science behind this newly-emerging (albeit slowly) notion of addiction to various combinations of food, he claims that the way to beat it is, basically, "eat right and exercise." Well, gee doc, that's a lot of help. While I loved the science in the book (and highly recommend it; you can even get it on Audible if that's your thing), I found the advice for recovery pointless. "Do the thing that you least want to do to make you want to do the thing you least want to do" is not advice: it's circular (anti) logic. Does anyone have any experience with actually recovering from this kind of addiction? I'm interested in actionable information, like techniques, personal experiences, things that helped (and that didn't), and most definitely any supplements or even prescription drugs (legally acquired only, please) that can help reduce one's cravings for high fat/salt/sugar food(s), making healthy food seem more palatable. Willpower alone doesn't beat addictions this strong, especially when some of us have had that crap shoved into our bellies since before we could walk (see "McDonald's" for example). There's got to be a neuropharmacological system of some kind that we can leverage to "invert" the reward system of the brain against junk food and toward healthy food. Finding some mechanism to do that is THE answer to fixing the obesity crisis. Thoughts, anyone?

I'm going to continue to post my workouts in my BATTLE LOG but might x-post here. I might also post gymnastics fun here, because who doesn’t want to learn about cool shit that I’m doing in gymnastics. 1) HEAL / Do less I have an owie somewhere in the general region of my left hip flexor. It’s been bothering me, I have some stretches and things to do. My friend is massage therapist who is going to try to help me diagnose it. If not, I’m going to see a doctor. To prevent other injuries from happening and to help this one heal, I’m going to · Do my prescribed stretches/therapy 5x/week. · Foam roll 5x/week · Rest if I need to · Heat/ice if I need to This is conveniently timed (I guess?) with my program. As my workout starting tomorrow eliminates all assistance work and is solely big 3! (As I’m running up a peaking program, aka do less) 2) GET BIG This again a rollover goal from last challenge, modified slightly. I've started taking creatine, it’s pretty much habit now. But I’m having issues with it, mainly digestion and headaches. This leads me to believe I’m not drinking as much water as I should be. I’ve ordered a half gallon water bottle that should arrive at some point soon. The goal is to drink at MINIMUM the half gallon of straight up water a day, in addition to any teas, coffees, diet sodas, etc I have throughout the day. Take creatine daily. At least half a scoop, more if I can tolerate it. Drink half gallon of water daily to ensure maximum swoleness. 3) GET FAT My nutrition is still all over the place. If you’ve been following me, you know that this is a thing I've been struggling with. My challenge is finding BALANCE between tracking compulsively, yet still eating enough to fuel my body and my workouts. If I don't track, I don't eat enough or eat in proper ratios. Especially fat, I am ALWAYS low on fat, it's just so much easier to eat proteins and carbs! I also binge eat, so my calories will vary from 1400- 3100 over the course of a week; which is unhealthy, inconsistent and unsustainable! Last challenge the goal was to focus on the weekend, and I didn’t find any real improvement by focusing on that. This challenge the focus will be meal prep and trying to get back to a carb cycling type of diet. Meal prep: Ensure I always have protein sources prepped and available for lunches and dinners (aka meat). 1-2x/week prepping should be sufficient. Do that carb cycling thing again: Track my macros. Aim for P/F/C = >135/~70/[<100/~180/~250] based on that day’s activity level (rest=low, gymnastics or cardio=medium, lifting=high). Doesn’t have to be perfect, just try. The part I will score is on the low carb days: all carbs should be coming from fruits, veggies, beans, etc aka all NATURAL sources. No breads, cookies, ice cream, pop tarts, cereal or other junk on low days! I’m still going to allow them on medium and high days, as I suck at going cold turkey and think that I still need some leeway there. Life Goals for this year will be COMPOUNDING as appropriate. The idea is to produce HABITS! 1) Don't be a hoodrat (challenge 1) Look fabulous. Take selfies. Post here for everyone's pleasure. 2) Don't get too fat (challenge 2) Crushed this goal last time at 1x/week so I’m going to up it! Walk or bike to work. 2x/week minimum. Note: This goal is highly dependant on the progress of my hip. If I am having hip issues, I will nix it. 3) Read (challenge 3) Last challenge I did really well with reading more. I didn’t finish the books like I intended to, but I read more than I was. This is good. Continue reading at least 3x/week. 4) Don’t be a hermit (challenge 4) Weekends I have a terrible habit of laying on the couch watching Netflix and doing housework all weekend. It’s rare if I see sunshine. I need to do SOMETHING that involves leaving my apartment on non-work days. Go to the store, go on a date with Mr. J, go to the gym, nerd meetup for tea, or just go for a walk or bike ride. Just something so I don’t fall into that deep red glow of Netflix that is so comforting. Leave my apartment on non-work days. Other things I’d like to accomplish, but aren’t necessarily goals Finish my cosplay by this weekend Buy presents for my cousins for next weekend. Sell things that need to go Set the April budget (sooner than later)

Okay, I thought I knew a fair bit about nutrition, and then I came to ask myself the title of this post: can you lose fat while gaining muscle? First, you have to have a calorie excess (protein) to build muscle, right? But to lose weight, you need to run at a deficit. So you can't do both at once? Does this mean that if you're doing strength training while trying to lose fat (running at a calorie deficit, eating good quality meals and protein), that you're just maintaining the strength and size of the muscles? If you want to get stronger, can you strengthen muscles without growing their size? Obviously, my goal is to lose fat, and gain strength - as a woman I'm not interested in aesthetically larger muscles, as long as they're stronger (i.e. if they need to get bigger, they do, but that's not my goal in itself). I'd love if someone can help fill me in and explain what I'm sure I'm missing!

My last 6 week challenge kind of kerploded with real life and busy-ness and school and work and all sorts of stuff. Started off great, petered out around the end. Kinda the story of my life. However, as January-February proved, I work VERY good with hard, solid deadlines. And there is a big deadline coming up soon: June 13th. (Also, I feel like a massive idiot, since I thought I had four weeks to train for this, and I have THREE weeks because they moved the date. Aaaargh.) It's a little over 8km, with tons of obstacles (and, of course, mud). My last race was a 5k, and I came in 9th out of 54 competitors, which is pretty awesome for me. The obstacles are a bit of a problem, though, since my upper body strength isn't all that great, and my sprinting cardio needs a lot of work. Consequently, I've changed my gym routine to: pull-downs, wall-assisted handstands, and sprinting laps. This sucks, and my shoulders and arms and back are killing me, BUT I am hoping it will pay off! The other big thing is diet. This is the most muscle I've ever had on my body before, BUT... it's also a lot of fat, and I bounced back almost 20 lbs after my fight. And not the good 20 lbs. The squishy 20 lbs. So with three weeks to go, it's back to Dolce-esque eating for me (lean meat and vegetables ahoy!) to try and reduce my excess. So here is just where I'm going to post what fitness activities I did today, what I ate, and my check-in weights to see what progress I've made there. Day 1 - Saturday, May 23rd 45 minutes at the pool while my daughter was in swim class. Laps, stretching, sauna. Ate a three-egg and piri-piri omlette, and then 1/3 of my daughter's burger and a Diet Coke at the Farmer's Market. Now on to more water! Arm soreness level: 6 out of 10.

Alright so I’ve been pretty diligent about dieting and exercise since January . It’s now 5 months later and I’ve lost close to 42lbs, (yay!) however, I’ve created a horrible habit of eating fast food, and making up for it by eating less throughout the day to create the “calorie deficit†to lose weight. Though I am losing weight, I don’t feel like I’m getting the most of my lift, or my progress. While I am focused on losing weight ( I’m currently 184lbs, long term goal is 160lbs) I feel like my body would benefit a lot more from dropping my body fat percentage, and that’s something I don’t think I’m doing with my current faulty diet choices. I guess my question is, what are some tips you guys have used to wean yourself off fast food? How do you keep your composure? And How have you managed to drop your body fat percentage, in a healthy way?

So, I've been AWOL since January. Before that, I was AWOL for a couple of months. I AM SUCKING AT THIS. So my goal for the rest of this challenge? DON'T SUCK Current Quest: (PART ONE) :: 5/1 - 5/15 Back to Basics :: Don't Suck I've been AWOL for about 4 months... Sigh. I'm lucky that my reason for being AWOL is that I got VERY involved in the play I was doing, made a bunch of new friends, and subsequently did a lot of this: Time to recommit and get ready to rock! GOALS 5/1 - 5/15 NECESSARY SKILLS: I will be focusing on... DEX: Be agile and quick enough to cover rugged, varied terrain effortlessly STR: Fend off zombies with brawn 1:: Go to the Gym 5x :: +1 STR Seriously easy goal, but I NEED EASY. I need to get back on track, so I just need to get my butt in the gym door. That's 5 times i 2:: Get Apocalypse Ready :: +1 STA Walk a total of 15 miles on the treadmill at the gym. (Sounds easy, but...) Current Quest: (PART TWO) :: 5/10 - 5/25 Back to Basics :: Keep on Not Sucking Okay! I've gone to the gym! I'm kind of, sort of, on the path to not sucking! GOALS 5/15 - 5/25 NECESSARY SKILLS: I will be focusing on... CON: Have the supplies and means to bunker down and equip myself properly DEX: Be agile and quick enough to cover rugged, varied terrain effortlessly 1:: Add $300 to Savings Account :: +1 CON Brace yourselves, summer is coming... And for a teacher, that means weird things for money flow! 2:: These Shoes Were Made for Walkin' :: +1 STA Clock another 15+ miles on the treadmill! LET'S DO THIS!

I've posted quite a bit about this topic over the years, as it is something I feel strongly about, it has made a huge difference in my success IMHO. I finally assembled everything into one big post, including everything I've learned more recently: http://strengthunbound.com/measure-body-fat-easily-accurately-home/ I do plan on eventually putting together some general spreadsheets to link to in both google docs and MS excel format, so people who don't know much about spreadsheets are good to go, and possibly even writing a javascrip calculator for each of the formulas that includes the correction factor and the relatively unknown Penrose-Nelson-Fisher formula (I've never seen a calculator for it). Steve's article is a good primer on the subject: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/02/body-fat-percentage/

Ok so what can I say? How about a little fact profile... Height: 5'4 Weight: 10st 4lb Ideal Weight: 9st What I Am going to do to get there: eat more fruit and vegetables, exercise at least three times a week, keep this thread updated every day to keep track on my progress ​Challenge started: 12th March 2015 Well there's my life in a nut shell. Since moving into my own place this year I've gone from 9st 8lb to that and obviously I'm not happy about it! Ideally I want to get fit and loose weight but motivation is an issue. I just come in from work so tired! Oh, I work as a groom on a horse yard and ride most days as well, yet another reason to loose weight so I can ride more horses and fitter so I can ride better. I think most the exercise I will end up doing is running as it's something I rather enjoy but I want to try and find other interesting sporty things as well so all suggestions welcome! Anyway here's what I suppose is basically my diary...

5'11 (1.8 metres) 150lbs (68kg) I currently have a 3 months gym membership and after the 3 months the membership expires and I want to get fit before May. My week goes like this: Monday: basketball training (2 hours) Tuesday: Gym (weights) Wednesday: rest Thursday: Gym (weights) Friday: basketball training (2 hours) Saturday: Gym (weights) Sunday: Rest My workout plan for the gym is a full body workout: Legs - 2 sets each Leg press Calve raises Leg curl Chest 2 sets each Smith press Dumbbell press Dumbbell fly Shoulders 2 sets each Lat pull down Dumbbell incline press Lat raises Back 2 sets each Pec deck Row lat pull down Arms 2 sets each bicep curls machine arm extension dumbbell bicep curls Abs 2 sets each Ab machine Will this workout along with the other exercise I do outside of the gym, help me loose weight and get more muscular? I want to loose fat in my chest and get build more muscle overall. Thanks a lot! I really appreciate any replies or advice given!

So for the last two years, my focus hasn't been specifically on "weight loss", but on general fitness, strength, endurance, diet and exercise, with the faith that the excess flabby-weight would eventually fall off. And even if it didn't, my sturdy mesomorph body type can do just fine below that nice layer of insulation, even if it jiggles more than I want it to. But for the next... four and a half months, approximately, my goal IS weight loss. Very, very specifically, weight loss. In October, I will be arriving in Vegas, at Ellismania 10, as a contestant in the co-main event, the Biggest Loser Bout. Approximately twenty other such individuals, with weights between 270 lbs and 450 lbs, have entered with me, and the TWO BIGGEST LOSERS (which will be significantly easier for the 350+ lb dudes, that's unavoidable) will compete for the year's Heavyweight Title Belt. It might be made out of tin foil, but we don't care... this is a fight for glory. I lost nine pounds pretty fast as soon as I put my mind to it... and over the last three weeks, with my diet and exercise and running and lifting and everything I'm doing, my weight has gone back up by a pound. At this rate, I'm pricing myself right out of the market. I need to lose approx 2 lbs a week until Vegas to be in real contention, and that was happening no problem right up until now. Three days a week, I'm at the gym, doing mostly upper-body exercises (my upper body is very weak), and walking/jogging. I know I'm building some muscle, and some of it is even visible (forearms, shoulders, a little bit of bicep), and I don't want to QUIT that, but I need to change my focus. I do a lot of walking, when I need to go to the store, walking at lunch, walking in the mornings if I wake up early. Weight loss. Cardio. Fat loss. I still have a LOT of weight around the midsection. I'm eating eggs after my workouts. I'm eating tasty soups at work every day. I'm not having seconds at dinner, I've cut desserts and pop almost entirely out of my diet. With my Fitbit and the website, I've got my calories down to ~2000 per day, maybe ~2500 on serious workout days, when I'm burning ~3500 according to the calculations. Once a week I'll have a big dinner with the family, once a week I'll have a restaurant lunch with my office crew, but that shouldn't be completely derailing my weight loss. Just looking for tips. Help. Advice. Focus. Whatever. Cheers!

Well, this is it. The final countdown, do do doo doo doo. Three weeks, and then the Iceman Relay, and then three and a half more weeks to Ellismania. Accounting for buffer zones and recovery zones, that gives me two periods of three weeks to work with, hyphenated by a 10km run in the Northern Canadian winter. December was a bit of a failwhale on my part (and the use of the word 'whale' was not accidental, I assure you). I ate, and I slept, and I got sick and ate some more. I told myself I wouldn't, and... well, I tell myself a lot of things. But I have to focus on the successes. I got an A in my Human Resources course, and a B+ in New Venture Management (which is a small miracle, since that useless waste of a teacher was failing people left and right for no reason any of us could decipher, but probably involved GOD). I got final payment from my home design client (though that's mostly because they essentially fired me and went with someone more expensive... I still consider that a win). I had a good Christmas with my family (despite large portions of that family throwing hissy fits, and presents, and generally being a mob of highly-functioning babies with kids). I had my IPD review at work, and received a slightly larger raise than expected, coupled with the reinstatement of the RRSP matching program (and I may be receiving more paid vacation time as well). I downloaded, read and have mostly memorized the Dolce book, which will be forming the cornerstone of this challenge. Yeah yeah yeah, 'it's a fad', but after listening to him on several Ellis interviews, as well as talking to him once, and actually reading the book and listening to the points and internalizing what works for me, it's still something I feel worthy of following up on. And, a fun bonus: Throkky (the wife) is backing me on this challenge. I think she's not just looking forward to watching me finally get rid of the baby belly, but also being able to assume the culinary high ground and force me to eat like her (she's a nominal vegetarian / ethical omnivore). She's already working on quinoa and broccoli recipes for me (I like quinoa, but she wants to get me to like cold salads and stuff, which I am normally kinda grossed out by, as well as anything where lemon or vinegar is a major flavor). BUT... still looking forward to it. So, on to the real challenges, which in this case will consist of ONE goal, and the METHODS by which it shall be achieved. THE GOAL: LOSE FOURTY POUNDS BY ELLISMANIA X Method #1: Stick To The Diet This is the major one. It should be pretty easy to stick to... the diet is pretty much lean meat, legumes, LOTS of vegetables, and no cheap carbs and sugar. Being asked to live off of meat and veggies is not a big problem, since I love meat and most veggies, but QUANTITY of veggies is always a problem. Blue cheese is allowed, since thanks to the mold it's nothing but fat and protein (yay, cheating! ) The second biggest problem is portion control... there's not a lot of BULK that isn't vegetables, so I'm going to be upping the volume of vegetables I eat by a very large quantity. Which will prove difficult. But I need to do it. Method #2: The Working Out Cardio is going to be the key for this one. Running. Lots of running. I need to work on my endurance, my lung capacity, and very specifically for the run I need to work on my legs, so the running is going to be the major factor. The secondary factor will be MMA, since that's very much a whole-body workout, and I need to work on my boxing. Right now it's three days a week, but I want to work on increasing that. Jogging at night, maybe, or hitting the gym on the weekend. Pushing myself... that's gotta be key. I get tired easily. Method #3: Focusing On What Is Important This one is mental, literally. Over the Christmas break, even with my extra week, I REALLY accomplished VERY little. I got almost no writing done. Nor working out. Nor healthy meal prepping. Nor painting. Nor even music practice. I played a lot of Monkey City and Minecraft, though, so clearly I had some time on my hands... I dream about doing these things, but when it comes time to do them I convince myself I'd rather fritter my time away with frivolities. Which is fun, but not fullfilling. Remember what I want to do with my life. The music, the writing, the art. Princess Ninja (which is going to be incredible, I love my artist so much). Getting healthier, getting fitter, getting better eating habits. Ellismania glory and meeting the Fam. Being happy to see myself in the mirror. Well, that's it. Three things. Three simple, incredibly overwhelming things. Bring it on!

Ok, so off the bat I want to tell everyone that I strength train for weight loss. I hate cardio, hate it with such an intense passion I probably could melt the treadmills if I focused hard enough on them when IM in the gym. Anyway, my question involves the eat more/gain more proposal behind muscle growth. I know powerlifters and bodybuilders feed their faces almost constantly in order to build those super ginormous muscles (on top of heavy weight lifting), but my question is what about those of us who want strength while losing weight? Does eating more simply increase muscle SIZE (ie the appearance of bulging ripply muscles), or does it also build muscle STRENGTH (denser, thicker musculature that might not look big but is super strong)? I want nice big muscles but I need to lose weight too! Always appreciate the insight. P.S. I know you need to sleep well too, but right now Im focusing more on the diet aspect. Like Steve says, you cant outrun your fork

I have been trying to reduce my fat intake, mostly just get it from lean meats and nuts and the small bit in breads etc. But I just looked at my total fat intake and it is pretty high. How important is the fat macro to being healthy and what should I aim for? I try to limit unhealthy fats and processed food, so less saturated and hardly and trans. But I am getting 47g of fat from nuts (40g of almonds and 40g of walnuts) almost everyday. Is this bad? I know they are supposed to be good fats but it is still alot and with my other food I end up at 80-100g a day (eating 2500 cal).

Hi all, question for you about macros from a general health / nutrition standpoint. (In case it matters, I'm a 5'8" woman, 150 lbs, ~25% body fat.) I've been keeping a 1400-1600 calorie diet and strength training for the past several months and am losing weight at a steady pace. I've eliminated most processed foods and limited my carbs to under 120g a day, and I understand the Calories In / Calories Out theory. I recently watched a fairly traumatizing documentary on the impact of the meat industry on the environment and the treatment of the animals, and I would like to try to limit my chicken intake for a while, partly from a sustainability standpoint and partly from an ethical standpoint. I already don't eat red meat and I've been limiting my dairy because cheese is my kryptonite and I know once I start I just won't stop haha. The last week or so, I've been getting most of my protein from fish, nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts), cottage cheese, quinoa, and chia seeds. I'm sitting at roughly 80-85g of protein a day, which I think is just a smidge low if I aim for .8g per pound of muscle (goal is 90g). I feel ok about my total calories and general protein intake, but my calories from fat have been 10-15% higher than they are when I include a serving of chicken a day. Here are my macros for today, for example: Fat: 42%, 68gTotal Carbs: 33%, 120g (31g of this is dietary fiber)Protein: 25%, 86gIs this balance of macros going to cause me any problems, keeping in mind my current goal is really just taking care of myself, moderate weightloss for the next several months, and strength training? Should I try to replace some of the nuts with protein drinks (which I find totally gross and kind of antithetical to the "no processed foods" policy)?