Hello, I am in a bit of a quandary and do not know who to ask, so I thought I would bring it to the teemings.
I need to start excercising, eventually I would like to join a gym, but to start, pushups, situps, running, general cardio stuff is what I will be going for.
The problem is that for the past 5 years or so I have been struggling with depression. One side effect of depression can be overeating or undereating, in my case, it is undereating. I am now on medications, which also have a side effect of reducing my appetite.
To date, as best as I can remember, the most I have ever weighed is 140, I am 6 feet tall, so I have always been of a very slender proportion. My current weight is a unhealthy 115, I have been told I should probably weigh about 150 or so.
My question is, aside from how in the heck do I keep my pants up is should I excercise or not? Excercise I have been told turns excess body fat into muscle, in my case I would say I have little to non of this excess body fat, so what would happen, would I get muscle breakdown, or perhaps it would increase my appetite.
I am guessing, but I imigine after 5 years of eating only half a meal a day my stomach has shrunk and I will literally have to force feed myself. Any suggestions on a workout routine as well as supplements and ways to put on massive weight are appreciated.
ScottHaneda – fellow depressive, here. My advice would be to go to your doctor and together work out an exercise and nutritional programme that would suit your situation. I’d be wary of accepting advice about supplements and exercise over the Internet, if I were you.
Exercise does not turn fat into muscle. It turns protien and carbs into muscle. It will just burn fat and use it as energy. You WILL get muscle breakdown if you do not consume enough protien to maintain what muscle you do have. At 115lbs your minimum protien intake is very low so you really don’t need to worry about that.
Also, even though you are very skinny, you may be suprised to see what your true body fat percentage is. You can be “skinny-fat” which is a skinny guy who has distributed fat throughout his body. The only way to know this is by getting your BF% measured. ALOT of guys who are very skinny will stll have 14-18% body fat and are suprised to see it.
Anyway, this is the program I have been on for 6 months or so www.skinnyguy.net . It really does work and is worth the money for the books. It is specifically geared towards hardgainers but works for anyone. The books are very nice and well written and cover everything you can imagine. It comes with a scale to measure your portions and calipers to take your bf%. There is also a members only forum for really skinnyguys to support each other during the program. There are ALOT of VERY skinny guys on there. Several over 6 foot and around 120lbs. Not an advertisement but you should check it out. I guess I was not really that skinny to begin with, but I started out at 5’9" 150lbs 13%BF and after 6 months I am 175lbs and only 9% bf. I have seen several guys put on almost 30lbs of muscle in a year, though that is somewhat rare.
Covert Baily, my hero, well, one of my hero’s, states in one of his books that if exercise came in a pill, he would prescribe it to everybody, but since it doesn’t, get out there. He also promotes real activities instead of the scaled down aerobic activity, i.e. riding a bike instead of a stationary bike.
I’d also second riding a bike, even though I’m not depressed or underweight. A gentle ride gets you outside and gets the wind in your hair, whilst a brisk ride gets the heart racing and the endorphins flowing.
This won’t cure depression, but it might alleviate the symptons for a few hours and might make you peckish.
Also ditto Stinkpalm – working out burns away fat, and builds muscle using protein and carbs. If you are dramatically underweight with little to no body fat, your body could start breakind down muscle in a desperate attempt to get a source of energy.
However, you really should check with your doctor about a workout regimen before starting one because if you are excessively underweight or dehydrated because you haven’t been consuming enough food or liquid there can be significant health risks to pushing yourself too hard. (Some ballet dancers who developed eating disorders such as anorexia have develop irregular heartbeats and other bad nasties – remember the heart is a muscle and when the body starts breaking down muscle…).
A benefit of exercise is that it also tends to help with depression too. It helps a lot! The hard part is forcing yourself to actually DO the workout because the symptoms of depression can make you lose motivation. When affected by seasonal depression, I’d sometimes loathe dragging myself to the martial arts club and couldn’t imagine actually going through the motions of a workout. But afterwards I’d feel tremendously great, upbeat and really glad I went.
Starting with a very light regimen, you may find that your apetite increases a bit too as some of the depression symptoms symptoms of apathy are tempered. Post-workout endorphins are very nice.
If you’re worried about muscle breakdown, stay away from the aerobic exercise. Get yourself a pair of adjustable dumbbells (probably about $70 to hit every weight between 5 and 60 pounds) and start lifting. You’ll find that your depression becomes better and that your appetite will spike. Not only that, but you’ll put on muscle, and be in better health. Check out the program that Stinkpalm mentioned.
is should I excercise or not? Excercise I have been told turns excess body fat into muscle, in my case I would say I have little to non of this excess body fat, so what would happen, would I get muscle breakdown, or perhaps it would increase my appetite.