Newb with questions

[BarrensChat]

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice. I'm 27yo, about 25kg overweight. I would like to shed that, before working on building some muscle (I'm 5'3 so I'd really like a 'stocky' look eventually). 

 

I'm not quite sedentary, I get several hours of walking a day along with other work-related activity, and combined with having been overweight for years, this probably means the legs are disproportionately strong. I've lost 10kg the past year just by being this active and *not* eating like ten pigs (don't get me wrong - I still gorged frequently), so I'm optimistic. I've also gone down from 100kg to almost 'normal' in the past before I became withdrawn and went back to binging and WoW. Good times but I'd like to actually experience them as opposed to dying at age 45.

 

I'd like to reach my first goal within a year if possible, and have already cracked down on my diet along with setting aside some time to exercise. I live in the sticks, no easy access to a gym and can't really afford gear. General advice is welcome, but these things are on my mind:

 

1. Starvation mode. I was used to two meals a day, heavy on carbs and protein, along with large amounts of sweet stuff for dessert. This is why I'm astonished I lost any weight at all this past year. Good metabolism? Probably, given that two years ago I used to eat a whole liter of ice-cream a day with this level of activity and stayed about the same weight. Looking at the nutritional values now, I'm shocked at just how much I used to eat. My favorite appetizer for dessert was 700 calories. I'm cutting it down to one meal at noon (still protein-heavy and with white bread), very little dessert, and a sweet snack in the evening to close the day. I'm positive I can keep it up. But I've read if the body goes for awhile without eating anything, weight loss is slowed. How much of a concern is this?

 

2. Daily exercise. I read it's wasteful to exercise the same muscles every day. Yet if I'm going to exercise, it has to become a daily habit, not every other day. So I'm working the upper body for 30m one day, lower body the other. Is this viable or do I need a longer workout?

 

3. On 'lower body' days I do squats and lunges. This has no problem getting my heart rate up, making me sweat and making the muscles sore. When on upper body days I lift improvised weights and do tricep dips, I get the burn and sore muscles, but barely elevated heartrate and no sweat at all. Is that normal for this type of exercise? What does it mean? Hey, I told you I'm a newb.

 

4. Push-ups. I hate them, and reason tells me that they'll only get easier as I lose weight. Any substitutes to exercise the chest without equipment?

 

Thanks in advance, I'd appreciate any and all help.

[El Exorcisto]

Ok, starvation mode isn't a thing. Whoever coined the term needs to get shot. In. The. Face. If you want to cut weight then eat less than you need, that is all. Track your calories, step on the scale every week, eat less if the scale isn't moving for 2 consecutive weeks.

 

Heart rate is irrelevant in reference to training for strength. If you are training for conditioning purposes then care about it, but you can effectively raise your heart rate easier with real conditioning work like walking or running, jumping jacks, burpees, etc...

 

Working your chest, especially if you are/were a WoW addict, is likely a bad idea without a lot of balancing work for the shoulders and back. Your shoulders are probably internally rotated and upper back rounded, which needs to be addressed. Check out Strength Unbound if bodyweight is the path you want to pursue, or look into Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 if getting a gym membership is in the cards.

 

Push-ups, like every movement, will get easier as you get stronger.

[The Swedish Ninja]

Hi and welcome!

 

1. I believe starvation mode exists (hope I don't get shot in the face : ) ) but under the following conditions: You hardly eat at all, i mean like <500 kcal a day. If you eat meat, vegetables, nuts etc, you don´t have to worry about "starvation mode"

2. No worries in working out 30 min, that is plenty of time. Just listen to your body. I think you can train the same muscles two days in a row, but perhaps you shouldn't do heavy squats two days in a row….

3. Don't know whats normal, I hardly ever sweat when I workout or run, but I'm not the norm…..

4. Try doing "easier" pushups towards the wall or on your knees. But if you can do like 10 "normal", then you just have to face the fact "no pain, no gain"

[El Exorcisto]

"Starvation mode" is the idea that you can eat so little that you cease burning fat. That is impossible. If you burned less fuel than it required to keep breathing, then you would just stop breathing. Look at pictures of starving kids in East Africa or old pictures of the holocaust. These people are/were literally starved, and didn't stop burning up their own mass until they went into shutdown.

 

Eating inadequate protein when already very lean can cause a consumption of lean mass instead of the small remaining fat stores. This is bodybuilder contest-prep country, or full-on anorexia, not somewhere you can get to by accident.

[El Exorcisto]

Also, metabolic downregulation is a fact of life. As calories are reduced the metabolism will adapt to that by slowing down and becoming more efficient. Conversely, when a surplus is eaten the metabolism will adapt by speeding up and getting less efficient. Someone who is already fat has a hot metabolism, which is why fat usually just falls off in the beginning of a real diet change. It is also why weight loss inevitably slows or stops after some time living in a deficit. When this happens the only options are to go into a deeper deficit through calorie restriction or increased expenditure, or to begin eating at a slight surplus wo get the metabolism heated back up.

[The Swedish Ninja]

El Exorcisto may be right, I have no real knowledge on the subject, so I can't really comment the above.

 

But i read your post again: What exactly do you eat in a day? How many calories does it amount to? If you eat to little, you may lose fat, but you probably will feel weak and tired during the time.

[El Exorcisto]

In my experience feeling weak and depleted requires a really stiff deficit and heavy fasted training. I live on ~1500 cals while on a cut and still feel awesome after training. I've also PRed on nearly every lift while at that kind of deficit, too. When I trained fasted that was not the case.

[tomocalypse]

As far as push ups go, this should give you some good advice on how to work up to them  http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/02/15/proper-push-up/

 

I am somewhat suspicious of your diet, you say you only have one big meal a day, protein heavy on bread (so, a big sandwich? what is it?)... No mention of vegetables, so I'm wondering if you're getting enough proper nutrition.

Maybe consider cutting back on either the dessert or sweet snack (do you really need both in one day?) and eating two medium sized meals with plenty of protein and nutritious veggies in them. Plenty of protein will leave you feeling more full than just eating sweet things in the evening, and vegetables can be so nutrient dense and calorie light that you can eat LOADS. Find some ones you like and add them to your meals, if you're exercising every day you need to make sure you get enough of the good stuff.

Anyway, I'll stop blabbering at you and just leave this here http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/11/10/healthy-eating/

 

Best of luck!

[BarrensChat]

Thanks to both for taking the time.

 

 

4. Try doing "easier" pushups towards the wall or on your knees. But if you can do like 10 "normal", then you just have to face the fact "no pain, no gain"

 

Yeah, 9 in good form seems to be my limit though I am a bit of a p**** when it comes to the burn. Especially when I'm facing the cold hard floor, heh. Guess I'll bite the bullet and make myself do a few every other day.

 

 

El Exorcisto may be right, I have no real knowledge on the subject, so I can't really comment the above.

 

But i read your post again: What exactly do you eat in a day? How many calories does it amount to? If you eat to little, you may lose fat, but you probably will feel weak and tired during the time.

 

Nothing for breakfast. Typical lunch: Pan-fried steak, couple buns of white bread, a boiled egg or two. About 1000-1200 kcal but I could be off. 8-9 hours later, I permit myself some biscuits or croissants 2-3 hours before bedtime, no more than 800 kcal. Certainly don't feel weak but the peckishness and sugar (?) withdrawal can be distracting. More in the afternoon than the morning when I'm more active. I reckon I'll get used to it with time.

 

 

 If you want to cut weight then eat less than you need, that is all. Track your calories, step on the scale every week, eat less if the scale isn't moving for 2 consecutive weeks.

 

Yeah, calorie counting and cardio up the ass worked wonders for me last time. Pretty sure I'll pull through again.

[tomocalypse]

Oh, and if you want to make sure you're heart rate gets up and you get a good sweat on while doing your strength training, you might want to consider doing circuits.

 

I've been doing beginner bodyweight circuits (http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/)

and three or four circuits leave me as sweaty and out of breath as if I'd run 5k.

 

Sorry to bombard you with NF articles, but it's not a bad idea to read a load of them and try and build up a good knowledge base.

Knowledge is power.

[El Exorcisto]

Killing 1200 calories for lunch is a big red flag if you're trying to cut weight. Like I said, I am consuming 1500 in the entire day. Get a real handle on what you consume. If it isn't labelled and you can't Sherlock the information, then don't eat it, at least not until you have a real feel for what calorie density looks, feels, and tastes like.

 

You also need to track everything you put in your mouth. If you are feeling peckish and not getting the results you think you should be, then you are probably putting more in your face than you are accounting for. Get a notebook and track, neurotically, for a full week. This will tell you just what you are doing, and what you need to focus on curbing.

[BarrensChat]

As far as push ups go, this should give you some good advice on how to work up to them  http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/02/15/proper-push-up/

 

I am somewhat suspicious of your diet, you say you only have one big meal a day, protein heavy on bread (so, a big sandwich? what is it?)... No mention of vegetables, so I'm wondering if you're getting enough proper nutrition.

 

Yup, they're usually absent from my meals. I'll see what I can do about that.

[El Exorcisto]

Veggies are severely overrated, but I'm not going to start the clean eating debate.

[BarrensChat]

I'm pretty sure a month ago I was 84kg. Latest measurement in the morning, less than 80. I mean, damn. So what is it, obese people burn twice as many calories thanks to an active metabolism? Haven't seen that on any of those calorie counters.

 

Most difficult part of the day is the afternoon, an hour or two before dessert, and not because I'm hungry. I'm addicted to sugar in a hardcore way, no surprise there. Can barely focus on what I'm doing.

[El Exorcisto]

Obese people do typically have a rockin metabolsim. When you eat at a surplus your metabolsim upregulates. The only way to get obese is to continually up your surplus, and subsequently heat your metabolism up more. That is why obese people tend to have such remarkable success when they finally give up the bullshit and start eating a normal amount.