BF2S Forums Workout Programs & Diet

6'1 (e: 29) and 234 lbs. Time to exercise more. Walking ain't cuttin' it.

Great lift today. Went easy on the legs (2 plate reduced motion leg press) to ease the groin back into functionality, but easily did 4x6 of 140 bench press and 70 pound dumbbell row. Definitely going to have my upper body back to where it was in a week or two.

Also lol Jaekus, everyone has muscle even if they never lift; how else would they walk?

Good points, Kmar. If I may elaborate a little, eating protein also keeps you fuller for longer, thus curbing your appetite a little more. Try to get the bulk of your fibre from vegetables rather than grains, this will help keep the calories down too. Water is great for flushing your system and your body needs it for digestion - the more the better.

Just on the eating late thing, studies have shown that it does not matter when or how often you eat, the only one single thing that matters is how many calories you consume in a day. In fact, the ONLY thing that matters for weight loss is caloric deficit:

Fat loss depends on energy deficit only, independently of the method for weight loss.
This study divided its subjects up into 2 groups, and had them both create the same sized caloric deficit. HOWEVER, the difference between them was the manner in which this deficit was created. One group did it by eating less total calories (diet alone), but the other group did it by eating less total calories AND burning more calories by doing cardio (a combination of diet AND exercise). But again, the total weekly caloric deficit was the same for both groups. Guess what happened? They all lost the same amount of weight and body fat. Why? Because a deficit of X calories is a deficit of X calories regardless of whether you burned those calories off via cardio or just didn’t eat them in the first place. Fat loss isn’t about how you create the deficit, it’s just about the deficit itself.

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/how-to-lose-fat/

Kmar wrote:

Jaekus wrote:

Just consistently eat less calories than your body burns. Exercise burns more cals and improves fitness, among a whole range if benefits, but if your primary goal is to just lose body fat (ie. weight) then eating less cals is about 90% of what you need to do. I'd elaborate and provide links, but I'm on my phone atm.

Drink lots of water as well. It's the not-so-secret sauce. Increasing your fiber intake will make you feel fuller longer. Don't eat late, and if you can (maintain your energy) workout first thing in the morning. When you've fasted all night your body will tap in to its fat reserves, since there is little in the way of calories to support your exercise. When done make sure you're getting your protein to rebuild. This is the simple stuff that has worked for me over the years.

Water and protein.. not exactly late breaking news, but I can't even begin to tell you how often it is neglected. For dropping fat and gaining lean mass this is I recommend.

If I remember reading something correctly, the optimal method for combining fat loss with muscle gain is eating a banana/energy bar before the workout (otherwise on an empty stomach), going through a full lifting routine, then tacking on 30-40 minutes or cardio/HIIT, then eating the standard post workout protein. The idea was that the banana combines with latent carbohydrates in your system to give you the immediate energy to power through the lifting, and then the protracted exertion of the cardio is powered primarily by fat burn because your body doesn't have as much of its preferred option (the immediate carbohydrates) to deplete.

Oh, I meant strength gain, not muscle gain. Naturally it's impossible to add bulk and cut fat simultaneously because the basic macronutrition principles underlying then are mutually exclusive.

nukchebi0 wrote:

Kmar wrote:

Jaekus wrote:

Just consistently eat less calories than your body burns. Exercise burns more cals and improves fitness, among a whole range if benefits, but if your primary goal is to just lose body fat (ie. weight) then eating less cals is about 90% of what you need to do. I'd elaborate and provide links, but I'm on my phone atm.

Drink lots of water as well. It's the not-so-secret sauce. Increasing your fiber intake will make you feel fuller longer. Don't eat late, and if you can (maintain your energy) workout first thing in the morning. When you've fasted all night your body will tap in to its fat reserves, since there is little in the way of calories to support your exercise. When done make sure you're getting your protein to rebuild. This is the simple stuff that has worked for me over the years.

Water and protein.. not exactly late breaking news, but I can't even begin to tell you how often it is neglected. For dropping fat and gaining lean mass this is I recommend.

If I remember reading something correctly, the optimal method for combining fat loss with muscle gain is eating a banana/energy bar before the workout (otherwise on an empty stomach), going through a full lifting routine, then tacking on 30-40 minutes or cardio/HIIT, then eating the standard post workout protein. The idea was that the banana combines with latent carbohydrates in your system to give you the immediate energy to power through the lifting, and then the protracted exertion of the cardio is powered primarily by fat burn because your body doesn't have as much of its preferred option (the immediate carbohydrates) to deplete.

I don't think anyone is going to argue against getting some potassium in before you workout. I realize energy is needed to maintain intensity, that's why I said if you can. But some people are capable of bringing it on a relatively small amount of calories in their system. As said earlier in this thread, certain elements of any workout/diet need to be adjusted to accommodate different energy levels, biochemistry, and lifestyle habits.

Like I said this is what has worked for me, over two decades of working out.

Jaekus I'm pretty sure sitting on unused calories will become fat reserves. Now, this typically happens 24 to 72 hours after consumption. You're not going to eat, sleep, and weigh yourself in the morning finding that you gained three pounds. But once the process of fat development (visceral in particular) has begun it is hard to stop.

Jaekus wrote:

nukchebi0 wrote:

Oh, I meant strength gain, not muscle gain. Naturally it's impossible to add bulk and cut fat simultaneously because the basic macronutrition principles underlying then are mutually exclusive.

Oh. Well it's still possible to gain strength and lose fat, I did it myself.

As have I. Really it depends on what type of calories you are consuming. Some feed muscle development whilst others are relatively empty.

Kmar wrote:

Jaekus wrote:

nukchebi0 wrote:

Oh, I meant strength gain, not muscle gain. Naturally it's impossible to add bulk and cut fat simultaneously because the basic macronutrition principles underlying then are mutually exclusive.

Oh. Well it's still possible to gain strength and lose fat, I did it myself.

As have I. Really it depends on what type of calories you are consuming. Some feed muscle development whilst others are relatively empty.

Oh I'm with you 110% there. Protein, protein, protein

Jaekus wrote:

Kmar wrote:

Jaekus wrote:

Oh. Well it's still possible to gain strength and lose fat, I did it myself.

As have I. Really it depends on what type of calories you are consuming. Some feed muscle development whilst others are relatively empty.

Oh I'm with you 110% there. Protein, protein, protein

ion exchanged whey, right in the magic bullet..lol

btw, I did my bi's the other night. I generally don't focus just on my arms. They are hit with most push/pull exercises. But I tried something new. I did hammer curls, regular curls.. and then this thing where you kind of hold your arms out to your sides slightly and curl.. real slow and controlled. You're getting just a little bit of a shoulder w/o, but the point is really to hit them at a different angle. I was fine the day after, today I felt like I had needles in my bi's.

nukchebi0 wrote:

Kmar wrote:

I don't think anyone is going to argue against getting some potassium in before you workout. I realize energy is needed to maintain intensity, that's why I said if you can. But some people are capable of bringing it on a relatively small amount of calories in their system. As said earlier in this thread, certain elements of any workout/diet need to be adjusted to accommodate different energy levels, biochemistry, and lifestyle habits.

Like I said this is what has worked for me, over two decades of working out.

I was simply adding to what you said, not contradicting it.

In my case, I perform much better when I have so energy before the exertion. When I ran track, I'd be incapacitated with nausea for ten minutes after a 200m if I forgot to eat a couple apple slices 20 or 30 minutes before the race, but would be perfectly fine if I did. I like to apply the same principle to my lifting since the nature of the work is similar.

Don't get me wrong. If I'm on a heavy day I will make sure I have something powering my routine. But if I'm stripping I won't eat much before I get started.

Kmar wrote:

btw, I did my bi's the other night. I generally don't focus just on my arms. They are hit with most push/pull exercises. But I tried something new. I did hammer curls, regular curls.. and then this thing where you kind of hold your arms out to your sides slightly and curl.. real slow and controlled. You're getting just a little bit of a shoulder w/o, but the point is really to hit them at a different angle. I was fine the day after, today I felt like I had needles in my bi's.

Must've hit areas of your bi's that aren't used to being worked I'd guess?