A few fitness myths.....?

TheOP

Alright folks,

I've been reading articles all over the place about weight loss and how to start a good diet/excersise combination, but each site i read gives contradicitng information which is pretty annoying, especially when your getting started!

just wanna clear up a few things...

i know the idea of weight loss is to achieve a calorific deficit, but some sites say that you shouldnt go under 1200 kcals a day or your body goes in to starvation mode which slows down motabilism... is this true?

also, when i come back from the gym i usually have a glass of Super Milk and one or two pieces of fruit to get the blood sugar back up. some sites say i should be eating carbs & protein when i get home to repair the muscle damage i did in the gym, as they say muscles burn more calories.

is this method effective if i'm trying to lose weight? i'm not really concerned about gaining muscle until i lose about 10kg's! is it better to repair the muscle or not eat anything substantial when i get back from the gym?

and lastly, i dont get this blood sugar thing at all, at what level should the blood sugar be to promote weight loss, and what is healthy over all??



Cheers for all your help, i'm a 2000+ poster already on these boards and i've found this fitness forum to have some of the friendliest users i've come across! thanks for all your help so far!

g'em

TheOP wrote:

i know the idea of weight loss is to achieve a calorific deficit, but some sites say that you shouldnt go under 1200 kcals a day or your body goes in to starvation mode which slows down motabilism... is this true?

it all depends on your current size/ weight. If you're a teeny tiny person who has a basal metabolic requirement of about 1500 cals then dropping to 1200 will be no big deal. But if you're a strapping big bloke who needs about 2800 cals/ day to exist then yes a drop to 1200 will push your boyd into starvation mode. You need to figure out what your needs are according to height/ weight/ daily activity and then create a calorie deficit accordingly (about 10%). Details of how to do that in the stickies.

TheOP wrote:

also, when i come back from the gym i usually have a glass of Super Milk and one or two pieces of fruit to get the blood sugar back up. some sites say i should be eating carbs & protein when i get home to repair the muscle damage i did in the gym, as they say muscles burn more calories.

Milk will have carbs and protein in it, but it just doesn't haave the *best* protein for a after a workout. That's why most people have a protein shake with glucose or a post-workout pre-made drink - it will have a better ratio of carbs: protein (about 2g:1g). But really the key thing is getting something into you after a heavy session to help rebuild the muscles.
is this method effective if i'm trying to lose weight? i'm not really concerned about gaining muscle until i lose about 10kg's! is it better to repair the muscle or not eat anything substantial when i get back from the gym?

TheOP wrote:

and lastly, i dont get this blood sugar thing at all, at what level should the blood sugar be to promote weight loss, and what is healthy over all??

it's all very confusing isn't it?!?!? insulin is a hormone that our bodies have that regulates blood sugar levels and helps keep glucose levels down (it's anabolic). OTher hormones like glucagon and GH help keep blood glucose up. Insulin is also responsible for storage of the fats, proteins and carbs we eat. When you eat high GI foods (which have a lot of simple carbs in them) your blood glucose rises quickly causing a rapid spike in insulin levels. These high levels of insulin encourage your body to store foods.

So... eating lots of sugary foods promotes insulin to store food - if it's not used up through exercise or by your metabolism it's stored as fat. So for weight loss, it's best to keep insulin levels nice and steady, the exception to that rule being straight after w aworkout when you *want* your body to take in as much of hte nutrients you give it to replenish muscles.

Don't worry about your actual blood glucose levels, just eat plenty of fresh fruit/ veg, lean proteins and complex carbs and glucose levels will take care of themselves.

Does that make sense??

hunnymonster

g'em, how many calories (2:1 - although the endurance people tell me 4:1 but they have different goals I guess) would you consider apppropiate after working out. I guess what I'm after, how much is necessary for the growth and repair but without adding excess calories into the diet?

TheOP

its beginning to make sense alright

i'm only 21 so is it better to just stick to the cardio to lose weight? or is a cardio/weights mixture ideal? i read somewhere that the more muscle you have the more fat you burn, but should i just worry about cardio for the purpose of weight loss?

hunnymonster

muslce needs calories to survive so just by having the muscle the amount of calories you burn in a day will rise. Cardio burns instant calories.... Someone explained it to me as the difference between a long affair and a one night stand. The muscle takes time and effort to develop and the cardio is instant gratification. Of course there is a lot more than that going on.... <enter an expert>

rubadub

TheOP wrote:

also, when i come back from the gym i usually have a glass of Super Milk and one or two pieces of fruit to get the blood sugar back up. some sites say i should be eating carbs & protein when i get home to repair the muscle damage i did in the gym, as they say muscles burn more calories.

Well your milk has protein and sugar, many think of milk as having no sugar at all, but in fact it has more sugar than normal lilt! Though still far better to be drinking milk

I have been following this advice that was written and commented on by some members here.
http://teamtest.freeforumsite.com/teamtest-about761.html

Basically telling you to eat lots just before you workout to give you energy to lift, then eat lots after working out to feed & repair the muscles. Then eat less on the days you are not working out. (please do read it all though!)
I find this much easier than eating less everyday, yesterday was an "on" day and I was eating like a pig. I have eaten very little since this morning and find it easy, especially knowing it is not going to last, i.e. I will be gorging in a day or 2.

TheOP wrote:

its beginning to make sense alright

i'm only 21 so is it better to just stick to the cardio to lose weight? or is a cardio/weights mixture ideal?

Do both, it helped me greatly. Yes it is true the more muscle you have the more calories you burn while doing nothing, about 35kcal per day per lb. So if you put on 10lb of muscle and just lie in bed for a day you will burn 350kcal more than if you did not have the extra muscle. BUT also building the muscle itself burns up a lot of calories. So even when you are not working out you are using extra calories EVERY day trying to build new muscle, then burn more maintiaining it. Building new muscle is similar to a growing child or pregnant woman-you need more calories to grow, or supply calories to a growing baby.

And do not focus on "weight" loss, it is fat loss you are after! take measurements of yourself do not just weigh. I was 12 stone for several months but got much thinner, I was gaining muscle and loosing fat at the exact same rate.

t-ha

TheOP, if I could stop people from doing one thing, it would be cutting down the amount they are eating too drastically and running hard to try and lose weight.

Quite simply that is a recipe for disaster. It is so bad for losing fat that only the most stubborn and headstrong will actually ever approach getting slim that way & they will have lost all their muscle and have the metabolisms of snails by the time they get there. It's the perfect way to waste away muscle, which means your calorie needs drop until you stop losing weight.

A weights/cardio mixture is the way to go. Remind your body that it needs muscle while dieting. Transform just posted a thread with a sample programme for beginners (if that's where you think you fit in) that you could try for a few weeks. In the meantime keep reading and you'll soon start to get the hang of all this.

Regarding diet, this is very important for weightloss. A decent meal (protein & carbs) after you've been in the gym is a very good idea as the nutrients are absorbed well after a hard workout. In fact, where alot of people who follow the terrible weight loss plan I mentioned in my first sentence will be especially dedicated after going to the gym and make sure not to eat a pick, this is the exact opposite of what you should be doing. Eat something before working out and again afterwards, however long before & after you need (some people can eat 30mins before training, some need two hours or their stomach gets upset), and then get strict about your dieting the rest of the time. Also, make sure you eat something high in protein at each meal. This will also help to preserve your muscles from being used up for energy. I'm not talking about turning you into the next Schwarzenegger here, but whether you're a bodybuilder or someone trying to drop a few pounds, the fundamentals are more or less the same.