Fitness and Exercise

[Buffalobiian]

I've been introduced to burpees.

Damn they're hard.

[Sapphire]

I've been seeing this burpees thing around. Having fun?

-

Working out on M&W is hella hard (nonstop stuff from 8a-6p). But if I skip, it totally throws me off.

My only resolution is to wake up at 5am?! T_T.

Also, defeating my cravings is a challenge. What do you guys to do stay on the straight and narrow and eat clean?

[Animeniax]

Right handed, can`t say i`ve noticed if i do.

Is your right side any denser than your left side? It may be smaller, but have more lean muscle since it's been used more throughout your life than the left side.


I work at an office with a bunch of overweight slobs. Meanwhile during breaks I go shadowbox and do pushups/situps and they think I'm weird for it. One such person who saw me eating mass quantities for lunch credited my metabolism, completely disregarding the work and effort I put into not being a fat slob. Fucking fatties suck.

[Sapphire]

Though, your metabolism probably IS better from exercising so much (compared to previously mentioned 'fat slob').

Just sayin'.

[Animeniax]

Yes but he attributes my metabolism to my supposed youth because I look/act young for my age, without giving credit for the work I put in to maintain a decent metabolism.

[Sapphire]

He was probably just trying to compliment you, and then you tore him down.

Shame on you!

PS—So you look/act 42?

[Animeniax]

Nope, he was definitely making excuses for his own lack of discipline, work ethic, and fat gut. I took it easy on him though when I explained to him how often I go to the gym and little ways I work out even at the office.

[Buffalobiian]

I've been seeing this burpees thing around. Having fun?

They're certainly not a "fun" exercise, but they're quick and don't require much space. Doing 1 min burpees and 1min break really kills me though. I was supposed to repeat 10x, but I took a shower after the 6th.

I think I might start doing lunges now instead of the leg raise machine for some free-weight exercise.

Also, defeating my cravings is a challenge. What do you guys to do stay on the straight and narrow and eat clean?

Chew gum, drink water, keep up the fibre (vegies).

Tell yourself you're a lesser person if you lose to the cravings.. and fuck the cravings.

Or just sing a song.. like this:





I wanna be a twelve percent, so fucking bad
Grab all of the chicks I never had
I wanna be on the beaches of Los Angeles,
Smiling next to Trisha and Louise~

Oh, every time I close my eyes
I see my name in shining lights
Yeah, a different girlfriend every night
Oh, I meant ya gals better consent
For when I'm a twelve percent~

[Animeniax]

Wow looking at that picture I'm definitely 20-25% body fat, same as what my bodycomp scale says. I'd like to get it down to 15-20% but in the absence of muscle gain to replace the fat mass I'd be way too small.

@Sapphire: I'm still of a mind that you can eat whatever you want, you just have to put in the work to get rid of it. Of course, that's why I'm at 20-25% body fat, but I just don't think life is worth living if you can't enjoy some delicious fatty foods whenever you want.

[Sapphire]

Mhm. I -could- technically eat what I want and just burn the calories, but it's much easier to just refrain. 160 cals is a cup of yogurt, or a couple miles on the treadmill.

It's amazing what cutting calories can do. I've already (supposedly) dropped 8 pounds (in a few weeks) since I started taking the calorie counter on My Fitness Pal seriously.

In combination with eating poorly, I think I know why I wasn't really losing weight for the first month of Insanity. From what I understand, when you begin a vigorous workout after living a life of laziness, your muscles respond by swelling with glycogen. Each gram of glycogen is attached to 3 grams worth of water, which is where the term "water weight" comes from.

This causes the initial weight gain when beginning a vigorous workout. You're still burning fat during this period, but the amount of weight you put on from glycogen/water swelling may overcome this at first. When your muscles have swelled to accommodate your level of fitness, the weight you lose through fat oxidation/burning starts to shine through.

I could be wrong on this but I'd have to refer to my Biochem textbook, and exercise science is sketchy anyway.

[Buffalobiian]

By the same logic, there's argument that a good percentage of the weight you lose when you go on a low carb diet is due to water, since you're depleting your body of glycogen stores.

It's not really something to worry about because you'll lose fat long term, but it does help contribute to the initial "wow, look at the weight loss" observation at first, as well as the "OMG, I gained 500g overnight" scare people get when the water returns due to the reintroduction of carbs when they're phasing out.

[Animeniax]

Mhm. I -could- technically eat what I want and just burn the calories, but it's much easier to just refrain. 160 cals is a cup of yogurt, or a couple miles on the treadmill.

Yes but the enjoyment of that nutritious, delicious yogurt and then the satisfaction of running on the treadmill are both worthwhile rewards. You shouldn't look at it like a zero-sum situation where it's one or the other. You still have your BMR to consider, in that you need to feed your body a certain amount to keep it functioning at peak.

Wouldn't you prefer to eat yogurt and run, than not eat yogurt and sit around some more?

[Buffalobiian]

Wouldn't you prefer to eat yogurt and run, than not eat yogurt and sit around some more?

I would prefer to eat a moderate amount of yoghurt and do a moderate amount of running to either of the following:

1) Eat shitloads of yoghurt and do shitloads of running
2) Eat no yoghurt and do no running.

If anything else, the latter option might be more appealing as long as no yoghurt doesn't mean no meal.

If I ran batshit crazy, I'd like to think that it did extra to reduce my weight, not that it's simply punishment for my gluttony 2hrs before.

[Sapphire]

I would prefer to eat a moderate amount of yoghurt and do a moderate amount of running to either of the following:

1) Eat shitloads of yoghurt and do shitloads of running
2) Eat no yoghurt and do no running.

If anything else, the latter option might be more appealing as long as no yoghurt doesn't mean no meal.

If I ran batshit crazy, I'd like to think that it did extra to reduce my weight, not that it's simply punishment for my gluttony 2hrs before.

This.

When I say a cup of yogurt vs. a couple miles, I mean an -extra- cup of yogurt that would either affect my daily caloric intake by going over it or otherwise wasting calories (perhaps I chose to eat yogurt because it's easy, rather than something more filling with the same calorie count and stayed hungry... thus being forced to eat something else and waste even more calories). Either one would cause having to run extra to compensate (like Buff said). I'd rather run to go into the negatives than to go back to zero.

Technically, yogurt, skittles, etc. is "fine" to eat for losing weight as long as it's under your daily caloric intake, but eating food with low calorie:volume ratios, more protein (filling), and/or less sugar (lower glycemic index to reduce insulin spikes) is more efficient.

Why is efficiency important/preferable? Because achieving results is also a game of time/energy management.

[Animeniax]

That's fine, but referring to it as "shitloads of running" says a bit about how you feel about exercise/fitness in general. You can do other things to work off calories/weight so that your workout isn't isolated to the 2 hours you spend at the gym a few times a week.

[Sapphire]

Not really. Running (perhaps rowing) is the most efficient way to burn calories.

I also do other stuff I previously mentioned in the thread (and some other stuff I'm not mentioning. SEX. Just kidding. ).

The 50 pushups and 40 leglifts (or whatever) you do during lunch burns... 20 calories? You should really invest in MFP.

[Animeniax]

Programs like MFP work for some, but I don't feel the need to use it.

I think discounting lunch hour workouts is a mistake, it all adds up to calories burned and endorphins released. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk instead of taking the bus (within reason), stand at your workstation and do calf raises... these little things add up and make fitness a part of your life instead of a chore you can skip. But different methods work for different folks, so whatever it takes, as long as you're trying.

[shinta|hikari]

I like to keep my workout time on a minimum. I laze around all day in the office and at home, then do a 5 minute warm up/stretching followed by 4 minutes of Tabata burpees and I am all set.

[Animeniax]

So where are you on your fitness goals? Keep in mind that being scrawny isn't the same as being fit.

I'm working a lot of OT right now so it's hard to maintain a workout schedule. Luckily I think I've made it past some threshold where I don't lose all my gains if I take a couple days off between workouts. My last leg workout left me limping for 4 days, since it had been 2 weeks since the previous leg workout.

[shinta|hikari]

Well, I don't really go to the gym and mainly work out at home. I am about 150 lbs right now at 5'7". My occasional muscle maintenance workout for my upper body is 50x6 pushups and 30x6 crunches. I also do 12x3 bicep curls with a bag filled with books and stone paperweights, but I am not sure how heavy it is. My personal best pushup record in one set is 100. I stick with the Tabata burpees for my lower body workout.

I was a bit lighter before, so I am lightly dieting to get to 146 lbs.