Skinny guys with guts . . . what’s the plan for us?

Factual Questions
21

You got it. Just do it more.

Dont listen to

  • “Dont eat fat, carbs, whatever.” It all converts, its just stupid.

  • “Do crunches” Why? This just gives you more muscle on your stomach, under the layer of fat. (If it does anything. I have to take a lot of reps with those, and thats not good for building muscle.)

About adding muscle to legs:

Slortar got it right. Do squat and deadlift, with as much weight as you can handle. Here you should not underestimate how much energy it takes to build muscle, so you should eat even more than normal, probably, if you want to make a difference you can see.

22

I would concur. For body shaping, muscle-building exercize is nothing without fat loss. Otherwise, you’re larger muscles will just grow under the fat.

From what I understand, cario is the best at burning body fat, so start there.

23

Sorry to seek such prosaic help-- I need to make every entry in a FileMaker database a different font. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to select all. The actual select all button doesn’t do anything, and I can’t find anything in the help file. Any ideas?

24

I’d just add the caveat that if your knees bother you while squatting/deadlifting, then you probably have some form/flexibility issues and should probably see if you can dig up a trainer to troubleshoot what’s happening.

Leg press is a pretty good exercise, too, imo.

Oh, and after the first couple of months,* I wouldn’t try gaining muscle/losing fat at the same time. The human body really just doesn’t work that way. You can do one or the other or a half-assed and rather ineffective middle-ground.

  • Newbies and people who are coming back to lifting from a long layoff are exceptions. The newbie effect will only last you a few months, though.
25

This is known as “spot reducing” and I know of no credible medical data that says it’s possible.

26

Abdominal exercise is very important, but don’t forget your abdomen goes all the way around! Back muscles are critical if you want to loose the gut.

Start easy! Do five reps, ten or so exercises. Isolate and target every muscle group around your midsection. Increase reps and keep your technique flawless. I mean letter perfect every rep, never a single rep beyond what you can do without error. Do not continue any exercise that causes pain. This is a two year program, unless you have a pretty long history of exercise.

Do each exercise immediately after completing the first. Ideally it would be one long set, just changing from one group to the next in a flow. Add repetitions about once a week, to each exercise. Keep it at a level where the entire set leaves you aerobically challenged, but not spent. After you reach a reasonable level of reps, say twenty five, or so, start adding a pound or two at a time instead of reps. Keep it under twenty pounds even when you are at your peak.

After a year, you will have a pretty good habitual technique, twenty reps with five to twenty pounds, ten or twelve exercises, and you will be able to do it all in about half an hour. Slow down! Never move fast enough to gain momentum. The same exercises will do more good if the routine takes you an hour, as long as the thing you increase is the time under effort, not the time resting.

Your arms and legs will gain some mass, as well, but not really pack on the muscles like a weightlifter routine. If you get the urge to add more effort, add an entire routine at a different time of the day, cutting back reps, and building slow. More that two half hour to one hour periods is really not going to be all that beneficial. A rest day is very good for you, two or three times a week.

Don’t tell anyone outside of your exercise community, if any.

Tris

27

And unsed fat gets converted to what?

28

I’ve been told that when your heart rate is in the “cardio” range (i.e. higher on the meters on exercise machines) you are burning sugar and not fat (please forgive my ignorance on the topic . . . I know I may be waaay off) so you don’t lose any weight. If your heart rate is lower, in the “fat burn” range, you’ll burn more fat that way.

That never made sense to me, I figured if your heart rate is higher, you’re working harder and burning more fat. Is that the case?

29

Talk about your out-of-context postings!!

Mac or PC? Command-A or Control-A (after you’ve entered the field) should select the contents of the field.

You can also do it via script:

Set Field [TableName::FieldName, TextFont ( TableName::FieldName ; fontName) ]

or even

Set Field [TableName::g.GlobalTextField, “”]
Show Custom Dialog [“Name a font, any font” / Allow field Entry, TableName::g.GlobalTextField / “OK” “Cancel”]
If [Get(LastMessageChoice) = 2
Exit Script
End If
Set Field [TableName::FieldName, TextFont ( TableName::FieldName ; TableName::g.GlobalTextField) ]

30

If I didn’t answer your question to your satisfaction, I suggest you post it again as a new thread. No one who does FileMaker is going to find it in here except by accident.

31

I’m not a guy, but AHunter3 speaks sense. The only change I’ve made to what I eat is in general to cut out most carbs - breads and pasta etc - not served to me, and specifically switched to skim milk and eat things like fruit and string cheese for lunch instead of sandwiches (bananas are pretty filling, IHO). I’ve been doing some more exercise that usual, too, but not that much, just a couple hundred crunches a day and 30 minutes on the step glider once or twice a week. In two months I’ve lost two inches off my waist and have gotten a lot of comments about “noticable” weight loss. but obviously, right? they wouldn’t comment if it wasn’t noticable!

32

Your body composition is the result of your lifestyle. If you want to change your body composition, you need to change your lifestyle. It seems obvious and simple, but it’s easy to forget. Don’t use genetics as a copout. Just because your genetic predisposition is to be skinny doesn’t mean you have to accept that. If it takes eating 5000 kcals a day for you to put on muscle, then eat 5000 kcals a day. If it takes eating 1200 kcals a day to lose fat, then eat 1200 kcals a day. Do what you have to do.

It isn’t normal to count calories. It isn’t normal to figure out how many grams of carbs, proteins and fats you’re eating every day. It isn’t normal to plan your meals. It isn’t normal to eat six times a day. Then again, it isn’t normal to be lean and muscular. You have to do extraordinary things to achieve extraordinary results.

Forget “Dieting” and think nutrition. You should always be eating in a healthful way and that means a diet of carbs, proteins and fats. You can fiddle with the percentages and amounts to achieve specific goals, but you should be eating some carbs, some protein and some fats with every meal. Any diet that wouldn’t sustain your health if you followed it exclusively for the rest of your life is a bad diet.

Do the math. There are plenty of resources to help with this (here’s one)

There is a lot of nonsense being touted here as well as solid advice. Take the time to do the research and decide for yourself the right course of action for you. You’re playing with your health here. If your health matters to you, then you owe it to yourself to educate yourself about the issues. There is plenty of good information available from reliable sources for anyone willing to look for it. The main thing is that there are very few one size fits all answers and so you have to know the big picture to be able to make the right choices.

Lunch? You eat lunch? I’m at just dinner every day and still am in the same situation as the OP.

No offense intended, but eating once a day is a seriously misguided way to diet. It actually promotes fat storage!! It spikes your blood sugar, which spikes your insulin and high insulin promotes fat storage. Eating once a day is the perfect gain fat and lose lean body mass diet. Seriously. Don’t take my word for it. Google - insulin levels and fat storage - and see for yourself. If you were to take those same calories that you eat for dinner and spread them out over six meals every three hours, I guarantee you would have 10 times better results! Just try it for one week and you’ll see! Even just spreading them out over three meals a day would make a huge improvement in your dieting results. You don’t need to eat less; you need to eat smarter.
*
What’s the deal with breakfast? If you skip it, doesn’t that work AGAINST you in terms of losing weight since it screws up your metabolism and your body starts burning muscle or something?*

I eat six times a day and I consider a skipped meal as “going off my diet.” Skipping meals is a very bad dieting strategy. You want to keep your blood sugar and insulin levels as even as possible. Figure out your calorie needs for the day and divide by six and then eat every three hours. It isn’t hard to eat a healthy 300 kcal meal if you plan ahead and 1800 kcals a day is a seriously calorie restricted diet for most active people.

I wouldn’t try gaining muscle/losing fat at the same time. The human body really just doesn’t work that way.

Want to bet? It isn’t an easy thing to do; it takes a very serious commitment to diet and training but I’ll put money on that any day. I’m doing it right now. My body fat percentage is going down and my lean body mass (in pounds) is going up. Here are some case studies of others who have done the same thing.

Triskadecamus - good advice.
*
I figured if your heart rate is higher, you’re working harder and burning more fat. Is that the case?*

My post in this thread explains the situation.

The “gladiator” remark was just for fun. I was thinking along the lines of the old sword and sandal Hollywood gladiator movies or maybe Brad Pitt in “Troy.” Buffed but not huge.

Getting serious about nutrition and training changed my life and so I’m a bit of a fanatic about it and I’m the first to admit that I’ve taken it to something of an extreme. But I went that way because it was fun for me and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Keep your training fun and you’ll be more likely to stick with it. Measuring results is also a good way to generate positive feedback and keep yourself motivated. Get some Body Fat Calipers and watch that fat melt away. Read the advice of training professionals like Ian King. Set some reasonable goals and work to achieve them every day. Don’t set goals like “I’m going to add 15 pounds of solid muscle this year.” Set goals like “I’m going to put maximum effort into tonight’s workout.”

33

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge on the subject with us, it’s very helpful and much appreciated!

34

Sounds as though you’ve gotten some good advice here. Changes in diet, more exercise.

But, in the meantime, PLEASE don’t tuck your shirt into your jeans & cinch that belt tight! If you wear suits, keep the jacket on. If not, a shirt or sweater that goes over the belt will help smooth things out.

Good Luck!

35

Thankfully, my gut is not that far along . . . I’m trying to be proactive and knock it back before I start disgusting people (right now I really only disgust myself).

But thank you for the wardrobe suggestions . . . I have one for you as well. PLEASE don’t bother wearing a shirt next time you go out. Shirts are so passe . . . :cool: