Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread

Solace

royal flush
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
i'm looking for a little advice on how to get started on Living The Healthy Life™. i'm trying to lose like ~20 lbs but also get a little muscle definition (which may come from just working out and losing weight probs). i've done stuff in the past where i worked with a trainer and had visible benefits but once i'd get back to school my motivation to continue would drop to 0.

what are some things you guys have followed to get started and keep on track?

also what are some healthy eating choices you recommend for a student that can't always cook her own food?
 
To the poster above me, start with small changes. The first thing I did when I wanted to get in shape was quit soda. Start by drinking water and switching your fries to a salad like I did and you can make progress, then slowly get cleaner with the eating as you can. College can make it difficult.

I'm popping in here because I'm happy I've got my 3-plate deadlift back after falling off the wagon for a bit in january. The last two months have gone really great for me. Christmas vacation really took me off the wagon through January and I started training really seriously again after the Super Bowl.

Now that the bragging is over: A Little about me: I've been a martial artist almost my entire adult life. Five or six years ago I started to take the food and fitness aspects of it a little more seriously. I started strength training a little more a couple of years ago to balance my fitness a little bit more and I've been doing okay considering that I have no desire to put on weight combined with the high volume of cardio I have to do. I'm roughly 6'1 and I generally weigh around 175 so it's not like I have to lose a ton of weight, I'm just working on smaller things to make myself feel a little better. For example, I've drastically reduced my red meat intake and I've cut alcohol altogether for like three months. I've never had a drinking problem or anything but like going out for drinks even once takes a toll on my fitness gains so I've decided to cut it out.
 
I would like some advice as well. I started a new job and sometimes we need to carry some big sailcloth rolls into the printer, they're huge though, we need 2 people per roll (4 for the bigger ones) and me being a skinny 5'6" am having trouble carrying the weight (I can do it just fine at the start but if the workload is too much by the third roll my arms feel like noodles) were would be a good place for me to start? I've always been a runner but never done much in the way of upper body strength. Thanks in advance.
 
Aussie football players must be tiny if you're big enough to play Stallion Stay the fuck away from those kiwi studs :))))) just kidding old friend wish you the best of luck. Glad you're still at it. :) Much respect

I didn't enjoy lifting even tho I stuck with it for a little while.. I got my exercise from training traditional muay thai (the art of eight limbs!) and more bodyweight stuff but I was never scientific about it. I spent the last 2 years in the adult world stressing and not exercising and have gotten very out of shape and developed a big tire around my waist. Height is 5 ft 10 178-179 cm. When I was in decent shape I would weigh anywhere from 80-85 kg and the weight would vary due to not measuring anything and eating whatever I wanted. I just liked training and kicking ass ;) The training was grueling enough to where I got (nearly) a full body workout 6 days a week. Had a little belly but felt strong as a bull and had good cardio for once. Had tons of fun training MT. I lifted for a while before starting muay thai which helped pack on the weight (not all good!) but gave up lifting heavy in fear of damaging my back and general laziness to be completely honest.

But now I've become a heavyweight fuck at 220 lbs (got stretch marks -.-) and while I can still move like a big cat it's definitely noticeable. Starting off easy with yoga, light lifting, running etc to get my fatass back in action but will lift more serious (not heavy tho) as I personally didn't like it., it felt like I was risking my body for gains I didn't really need. If I competed or was a real athlete I would have to do compound lifting and explosive exercises because that is where the real strength is but for me it's not something I like due to having issues with my lower back and fear of injury. I never lifted heavy and even after quitting lifting altogether was never overpowered by any sub 100 kg dude in MT training and was often the stronger guy. Thank those eastern euro genes for having natural strength (back and ass) and wide shoulder frame. I am now determined to get back into (normal) aesthetics and will live off greens until I am down to sub 180! Giving up beer, caffeine, weed (i know I know), meat, bread, sugar, and anything else necessary. Exercise will be mainly body weight exercises which includes all of the traditional stuff plus going to a rock climbing gym (cool right lol), starting boxing lessons from ground up and lighter weight lifting. I want the exercise to be a part of my lifestyle and not feel like another job. The weights are for looks and to take advantage of the weight gain. I am too lazy to ever have a true six pack but I am determined to get back to having a smaller than ever waist, well developed shoulders, some chest and good back muscles. For those obsessed with shoulders and back muscles, body weight exercises and boxing are key. Weight lifting scares me because of so many people having to get surgeries for unnecessary gym injuries.
 
To the guru Lee ;what are your thoughts on huel? I am really struggling to gain because I must burn way more calories than I eat. I still take in my lbs to g in protein no worries but the caloric total still comes to <3000. I am currently aroud 13 stone and 6 ft 1 in a fairly lean state. I balance work, voluntary work, sleeping, training, and eating seems to be the hardest thing just due to time. If I could incorparate this huel do you think it would be helpful, I really am struggling to consume enough calories.

To everyone else, I consider Lee the expert but please help me if you think you can. Lets even tag Floppy see if he will grace me a response.
 
To the guru Lee ;what are your thoughts on huel? I am really struggling to gain because I must burn way more calories than I eat. I still take in my lbs to g in protein no worries but the caloric total still comes to <3000. I am currently aroud 13 stone and 6 ft 1 in a fairly lean state. I balance work, voluntary work, sleeping, training, and eating seems to be the hardest thing just due to time. If I could incorparate this huel do you think it would be helpful, I really am struggling to consume enough calories.

To everyone else, I consider Lee the expert but please help me if you think you can. Lets even tag Floppy see if he will grace me a response.
Ay, ignoring the actual question about Huel because I haven't looked into it a whole lot, a lot of people that are taller have trouble meeting their caloric needs at first because they tend to be higher. If the concern is a time crunch, the best advice is usually to drink more calories. It's easy to be on the go and grab something like milk or juice to add an extra couple hundred calories (or more) a day to your intake. Obviously you don't want to overdo it, especially on juices, since they're essentially pure sugar, but most of the people I've known in your situation have had success by adding liquid calories to their diets.

As far as Huel goes, the ingredients look generally okay as long as you're only using it as a supplement to your diet. If you're considering replacing a large portion of your food with Huel, I'd say it looks pretty high in sodium, which is a concern for a lot of people, and very, very low in sugar, which again is good as a supplement but not as a complete dietary replacement.

And for what it's worth, the "1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight" metric is a little outdated, and as far as I know was just a word-of-mouth / rule-of-thumb thing from earlier bodybuilders. The scientific value for optimal protein intake tends to be much lower, so if you're straining to get the extra protein in your diet, it might not be necessary - proteins also tend to fill you up much more than fats or carbs, which is another reason some people have trouble hitting calorie goals - they stuff themselves full of excessive amounts of meat and other filling foods and can't bring themselves to eat more. The extra protein isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you aren't way overdoing it, but I wouldn't worry about going out of your way to include 1 gram per pound of BW.
 
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BenTheDemon

Banned deucer.
Hello Cong. It is your mortal enemy, BenTheDemon.
Recently in Firebot, I made the announcement that I've started going to therapy, as my anxiety and depression have become too much to bare, but here, I wish to share my next ambition so I will be more motivated.

As many of you may know, my ass is fat. I weigh about 230 pounds, and I am extremely dissatisfied with that. It's not uncommon for me to feel absolutely terrible simply because I don't feel beautiful, and my fat ass is the most obvious factor.

At one time, I weighed 260 pounds, but I suffered terrible depression during that time and lost 30 pounds because eating made me sick to my stomach. I'd prefer not to repeat that, but I'd really like to know the other "secrets" to weight loss that are much less self-harming.

If anyone has any tips to losing weight, please share.

Hopefully I make progress, so I'll try to update this OP periodically with my progress.

______________________________________________

April: 230lbs
 

Stallion

Tree Young
is a Tiering Contributoris a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
To the guru Lee ;what are your thoughts on huel? I am really struggling to gain because I must burn way more calories than I eat. I still take in my lbs to g in protein no worries but the caloric total still comes to <3000. I am currently aroud 13 stone and 6 ft 1 in a fairly lean state. I balance work, voluntary work, sleeping, training, and eating seems to be the hardest thing just due to time. If I could incorparate this huel do you think it would be helpful, I really am struggling to consume enough calories.

To everyone else, I consider Lee the expert but please help me if you think you can. Lets even tag Floppy see if he will grace me a response.
Peanut butter, nuts, liquid foods like mass gainers. Fuck, even throw the odd fast food meal in depending on how undersized you are.
 
Hello Cong. It is your mortal enemy, BenTheDemon.
Recently in Firebot, I made the announcement that I've started going to therapy, as my anxiety and depression have become too much to bare, but here, I wish to share my next ambition so I will be more motivated.

As many of you may know, my ass is fat. I weigh about 230 pounds, and I am extremely dissatisfied with that. It's not uncommon for me to feel absolutely terrible simply because I don't feel beautiful, and my fat ass is the most obvious factor.

At one time, I weighed 260 pounds, but I suffered terrible depression during that time and lost 30 pounds because eating made me sick to my stomach. I'd prefer not to repeat that, but I'd really like to know the other "secrets" to weight loss that are much less self-harming.

If anyone has any tips to losing weight, please share.

Hopefully I make progress, so I'll try to update this OP periodically with my progress.

______________________________________________

April: 230lbs
A goal of some sort is the first step.

Doing my service as of now, I weighed around 290 pounds when this started. Now I'm around 230 (I'm also 6'7 so I dont look like a complete fatso but still wanna get some extra blubber off). What I've noticed is that nutritious, healthy meals do wonders. Sure, the rough excercise is a big factor, but with it being less and less common now that theres only two months out of 12 left, I have kept losing weight through the meals.

We eat three warm meals, around 5 hours apart. It might sound extremely little, but when you have stuff to do, you won't really notice it. Sitting and not doing anything is the biggest obstacle for the basic food schedule, as I have also craved for junk a lot during weekends when during weekdays it's just eh.

Also, cycling is a good and easy way to start doing active weight loss. Helps a lot for me since my feet are literal shit if I try to run or even walk bigger distances.

Good luck man.
 

Ash Borer

I've heard they're short of room in hell
Hello Cong. It is your mortal enemy, BenTheDemon.
Recently in Firebot, I made the announcement that I've started going to therapy, as my anxiety and depression have become too much to bare, but here, I wish to share my next ambition so I will be more motivated.

As many of you may know, my ass is fat. I weigh about 230 pounds, and I am extremely dissatisfied with that. It's not uncommon for me to feel absolutely terrible simply because I don't feel beautiful, and my fat ass is the most obvious factor.

At one time, I weighed 260 pounds, but I suffered terrible depression during that time and lost 30 pounds because eating made me sick to my stomach. I'd prefer not to repeat that, but I'd really like to know the other "secrets" to weight loss that are much less self-harming.

If anyone has any tips to losing weight, please share.

Hopefully I make progress, so I'll try to update this OP periodically with my progress.

______________________________________________

April: 230lbs
I can help you with this. I know how to lose weight, and I've done it more than once in my life. Went from about 250lbs to 200 over the last 6 months of 2016.

There are two things you're going to have to do if you want to lose weight.

1. Counting calories
2. Managing hunger

Number 1 is simple. Losing weight is simply a function of eating less calories than what your body burns in a day. Simply by keeping your heart beating, your diaphragm forcing air in and out of your lungs, and various other bodily functions, you are burning calories. This is called your "basal metabolic rate." Any activity you do in the day that burns calories in the form of exercise or work are added onto this. This total of your BMR and exercise/work is called "caloric maintenance." It's the number of calories you have to eat everyday to maintain your weight. IF you eat more you gain weight, if you eat less, you lose weight! Simple as that.

So to lose weight you NEED and I mean NEED to count those calories. Im dead fuckin' serious here, you will fail at weight loss without counting. The human brain is so outrageously biased, inaccurate, forgetful, and delusional when it comes to estimating things like this. "Oh I can have this food.. it's only 300 calories!" Your perception of 300 calories is flawed, and you end up overeating. I have done this myself, and I learned that yes counting calories is needed.

Fortunately we live in an age where chances are there's a fucking good piece of software to help you. There is. I personally use "cron-o-meter" because it has a nice browser based and android based app. Lots of people use "myfitnesspal." They're the same thing. You put your sex, bodyweight, and whatever into it, and it gives you your caloric maintenance. You then use the app to log every single thing that you eat. They both have EXTENSIVE food databases that you can search up dang near anything.

So make a calorie goal that's under your daily maintenance. A lot of people do about 500. It's not a terribly difficult number to achieve, and 1lb of fat is equal to 3500 calories, therefore you lose 1lb/week with a -500 calorie deficit. You can do more, or less, just do go crazy. You'll make progress at -300, and it will be easier and slower. Youll make faster progress at -1000, but it will be more difficult, and you might just fail.

Then, log everything you eat! You will have to measure things, this can be tedious, and takes effort but it's NECESSARY and not all that hard. Get a measuring cup and pour your drink into there first, then into the cup you intend to drink it out of. Get a kitchen scale, they're very cheap, and super easy to use. Put your plate on the scale, hit the zero button, then put your food onto the plate, and then use the weight to log the food you ate into your calorie counter app. Not hard at all, and you'll get very efficient at it.

So that's counting calories. You set a goal, and record your food into your log, making sure you stay under that goal number!! I know what you're thinking. That's it? I can eat whatever and just be under the calorie goal, no problem right? Well there is one thing standing in your way and that is hunger. Hunger is an emotion, it is a drive in your brain to make you eat. People are no in control of their actions when influenced by strong emotions, that is just a basic fact of us that we know and deal with every day.

You have to manage hunger with a few simple dietary rules.

1. Avoid sugar like it is poison. AVOID AVOID AVOID ADDED SUGAR. Im serious. Any food that has sugar added as an ingredient will just make you hungrier! There is legitimate physiological research and some evolutionary logic behind this. When you eat sugary food your body does not release the hormones that make you feel full. Sugar is a form of carbohydrates that get turned into energy super fast. They are very easy to digest and were rare to the primitive man. Your body tells you to keep eating because it can handle a ton of sugar and make good use of it really fast. You have to avoid sugary foods, because they will just make you hungrier, and you will fail to eat under your caloric maintenance. Cut out soda, candy, chocolate, pastries, nutella, and everything that's super sugary. Soda is the absolute worst, it's just PURE sugar. At least a cake has some protein and more complex carbs in it.. All of this stuff will kill you and make you hungry, but soda is the worst. Foods that naturally have sugar in them like fruit and milk are much, much less deadly to your hunger management, they have different kinds of sugar (lactose, and fructose as well as glucose), fibre, protein and other more satiating molecules.

2. Simple carbs, Sugar part 2. So you know how sugar is really bad for losing weight. Well, here's a shocker. Sugar and Carbs are the some molecule once broken down. Carbs are just glucose (sugar) molecules chained together by a single bond. While there are other sugar molecules like fructose, the previous sentence is a good concept to know. So what the hell, how do you avoid sugar? Simple, carbs have a thing called "glycemic index." The higher the GI, the faster the carb breaks down in your mouth and stomach, and the faster it can make your hormone levels go crazy. Foods that are still "carbs" but not labeled as sugar on nutrional labels like white pasta, white bread, white rice, and potatoes are still pretty damn close to sugar. They are not as bad as sugar, but again, try and keep your consumption limited.

3. Keep high fat foods on the down low. Fat is not nearly as bad as super sugary foods. First let me get this straight a zero fat diet is a BAD idea your body needs those fat molecules to produce hormones, and other important molecules. However, the thing with fat is that it is DENSE. 1 gram of protein or carbs is 4 calories. 1 gram of fat is 9. That means that high fat foods can be deceptively small! Your stomach has a limited size, it responds to the volume of food that gets put into it. You can get a lot of calories in very fast by eating super high fat foods. Bacon, adding oil to food, fried foods. Avoid these. Like I said, don't completely cut fat out, and you can definitely can get away with foods that are reasonably high in fat concentration, because they don't make your hunger hormones go as whack as sugar, but still, generally avoid greasy foods.

So those are the things to avoid, here's what you should be eating

1. Protein. Protein digests very slowly and makes you feel full. While I don't know all the physiological processes behind this, this is "common wisdom" among those who lose weight, and I've experienced the effect myself. A diet that's higher in lean protein will keep you feeling full and make it easier to achieve your caloric goals.

2. Complex carbs, keep that GI low! Beans, lentils, whole wheat anything, VEGETABLES, oats. These are the kinds of carbs that make you feel damn full. Make these kinds of foods a staple of your diet and you will find weight loss much easier!


So to summarize
- Use a calorie counting app, and set a number of calories to eat every day that's below maintenance
- Measure your food and log it all! Don't think you can get away with not doing this.
- Avoid very high Glycemic index and very high fat foods. Cut these foods out ENTIRELY.
- Don't go crazy, you can still have sugar and fat. Focus more on foods that have these molecules without the need for them to be added though.

If you do these things, I guarantee youll have success in losing weight. IF you are struggling, the advice I can give you is to start slow. Make changes to your lifestyle that are so small that it's almost like nothing changed, keep doing that over time, and eventually you will achieve your goal. If you do a -100 calories/day diet for long enough you will get used to it, then you can go to -200, then -300, and so on. Your body will adjust to a lesser food intake and your cravings for super fatty/sugary foods will decrease as you ween yourself off them.

If youre wondering why I typed all this shit for you, I think it's that truthfully I hate how pervasive obesity it is. It is a sickness, and I dont suffer from it, but I live in a society that does, so it affects me.
 

BenTheDemon

Banned deucer.
I'm a bit of an oddity here.
I'm an obese vegetarian. So I don't get fat from meat, but rather from how much alcohol I consume.
Pizza is also quite a weakness.
I work at a restaurant that gives me free food, but I stopped taking the free side of ice cream, and I'm hoping that helps significantly.
I also walk a lot because I have a lot of stress and I like to listen to music and walk around the house.
I will certainly try counting calories. I'd like to get down to 200 pounds.
 
With spring finally ramping up and exams finally being over, I can invest more time into staying in shape. This past semester at school and winter in general cut down on my time and energy to exercise so I've been feeling a bit lethargic recently.

Starting this week I've been biking for 5-10km per day and spending about an hour swimming laps. The nice thing is that my bike route is very pretty with all the trees in bloom and swimming is easy on my knees (which matters a lot because I have very flat feet). I guess what I'm saying is to do exercise that you're gonna enjoy, not necessarily the activities that burn the most calories or develop the most muscle mass. It's much easier to commit to something you actually enjoy!
 
I managed to bulk up to 166 lbs by the end of the semester (early May) and hit a 315 deadlift PR which I am pretty proud of.

Taking a bit of break from lifting from now because no gym access for another 1-2 weeks, but gonna try to bulk up to 180 by the end of the calendar year. Hopefully by then I will consider myself lean as opposed to just skinny.
 

BP

Beers and Steers
is a Contributor to Smogon
I'm a bit of an oddity here.
I'm an obese vegetarian. So I don't get fat from meat, but rather from how much alcohol I consume.
Pizza is also quite a weakness.
I work at a restaurant that gives me free food, but I stopped taking the free side of ice cream, and I'm hoping that helps significantly.
I also walk a lot because I have a lot of stress and I like to listen to music and walk around the house.
I will certainly try counting calories. I'd like to get down to 200 pounds.

I could help you out if need be. I have a plan for starting your own workout if you are at all interested in that. I frequent the Health and Fitness Room on Showdown! if you want to check me out.
 

Stallion

Tree Young
is a Tiering Contributoris a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
I went for a 440lb dead the day after doing weighted pull ups, missed it completely. Got 420lb halfway off the ground but missed it too, only got 400lb which I was a little disappointed with. Trying for 420 later in the week.

Bench and squat max's are coming up this week too. I'm aiming for a 290 bench and a 350 squat. (130kg bench, 160kg squat, 190kg dead lift for all my fellow metric bros).
 
Very motivating from everyone here! I myself lost everything I put on and haven't been to the gym for a good 15 months now. I been practising boxing for quite sometime now and its hard to get back to lifting weights to be honest and my weight has dropped to 51kgs from 61kgs. Eating has become hard once again but its understandable once you stop lifting heavy. Anyhow you all are freakin beasts so keep on motivating us smaller fellas

 
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Beat my all-time squat PR this morning by hitting 260 for one. I will have to dial it back after missing my triple last week, though.
 
I have bulked up all the way up about 93 kilos, with a height of 184cm. Just got my bf% measured and its pretty high at 25.3%. I may bulk up to 100 kilos and then cut from there.
 

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