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Did 3 minutes of proper squats yesterday -- tore my legs UP!! I had never done squats before. I could barely walk afterwards. No pain, except the correct and expected 5-10 minute burn of having torn many muscle microfibers in my quads -- ones that my body was used to relying on in order to walk smoothly, so I almost fell down when I tried to walk afterwards! Still today, walking feels a little awkward. I'm making sure I'm getting enough meat protein though, so there's no pain, and they should continue rebuilding quickly.

Only burned 25 calories for doing that, too, according to the internet! Maybe more calories will be burned in the rebuilding process -- I'm not quite sure about that.

Squats without weight? Yeah that sounds like, fairly hard, 3 continuous minutes. But strong legs is the key to having a strong deadlift, and your deadlift is imo your most important lift, as it's the one that helps you when carrying groceries, furniture, all that.

ALSO, deadlifts help build your abs, like a lot. They're your stabilizing muscles, so they keep your organs from getting crushed. But, with the deadlift, you gotta lift really heavy.

Really, lifting heavy for low reps is much more fun than a bunch of high reps.

I deadlifted two days ago. I need to get my lower back muscles used to the exercise, then I'll increase the weight. There's a very stiff pull in my lower back when I do it. I followed the instructions exactly in the video, so I'm not doing it wrong. Just need to train the muscles.

Also, squats without extra weight is with some extra weight when you're overweight, as I still am. Again, as with the deadlifts, I first need to accustom my muscles to the exercise, so they can do their initial strengthening-up toward those exercises. Then I can increase the intensity. Injury is always best avoided above all.

Valentine, have you tried Ani Phyos stuff? Its all vegan and wheat free.

http://aniphyo.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Anis-Raw-Food-Des ... 583&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.com/Anis-Raw-Food-Kit ... 583&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Anis-Raw-Food-Ess ... 583&sr=8-1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gvrEj2H36w[/youtube]

Eh, being overweight has pretty much nothing at all to do with your ability to squat. I wasn't dissing you for doing them without weight, though, it's a good exercise regardless. If I can recommend one better exercise, overhead squats. Squat with just a broomstick or something over your head, and go down, and keep your elbows locked. Then, I don't know what you can do for weight, maybe tape stuff to the broomstick? But most people start with just the broomstick or at most the bare Olympic bar (where I'm at) it's a pretty killer exercise. It'll lead up to snatching, an Olympic lift.

But really, just try to find an Olympic bar and do some compound lifts, they're simply the best. Isolation exercises are only good, imo, AFTER doing compound exercises, to strengthen specific body parts for specific purposes. Like for skating, to build bigger jumps, I use the calf press machine at my gym. Also, for specific body parts, look into isometric exercises.

I'm a bit overweight now 190, 5'9, but I'm pretty sure I'll be less overweight if I eat less crap. I'm fairly sure I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20% bodyfat, but I can still see my obliques and now faint outlines of abs, just from skating everyday and now doing some compound lifts for only 2 months.

Honestly, while I think it's cool that you're dieting and all, I just don't know if the path you're taking is really sustainable. You're really best off finding a healthy diet, and doing athletic things you actually LIKE doing, and do them often, that's my opinion. So if you do "crash" from maintaining calorie journals and whatnot, just remember.

With the squats, I wouldn't terribly believe calorie counters for stuff. Different skill levels burn different calories. I remember when I first started skating, I'd feel like I was dying at the end of the session at the rink. Now, to skate the same speed, it takes like 10% of my effort, I've gotten stronger and more skilled, that's all. Like just from skating with sorta minor diet changes, I think I dropped like something crazy like 5-10 pounds in a week or two. So, if you were to measure my calories now, it'd probably be less than before, just due to my body adapting. Like now skating barely feels like a workout at all, whereas before I used to feel like I was dying everytime I got off the ice.

Another example, my gym has a basketball court, and this really cool 8 pound basketball/medicine ball (it bounces like a basketball and they let you play basketball with it) I used to barely be able to shoot layups with it, and now I can shoot 3 pointers no problem with it, and it doesn't feel like much effort anymore. My body's simply adapted to it, so when your body adapts, yeah. That could partially be the theory behind "muscle confusion" and whatever, your body doesn't adapt. However, I think the more practical solution than muscle confusion, is just upping the load effort on your body, rather than being all elaborate like that. Like, if I just stayed shooting layups with that ball the entire time, I wouldn't be stronger, but I gradually got it to 3 pointers over a couple months a few days a week for a couple minutes at a time. So while calorie counters are cool for general reference, that's all they can do, for those reasons, that they don't "know" the intensity it takes on your particular body. Also, more lean muscle mass will simply burn calories to keep the muscle like, around. It'll burn them while you're on the computer or sleeping even, so you gotta remember that, too.

Good info, thanks. Well, I'm at 168 pounds now, and I'm only going down to like 150 before I begin to bulk-up with muscle. I know, they say bulk-up THEN lose weight -- because your new and bigger muscles will help burn off your fat -- but I'm practically done burning my fat anyway.

To keep my skin staying as tight as it can (don't want loose hangings), I'm following advice on the internet to lose slowly, so... I'm taking a break from weight loss for a couple weeks, to let my skin get a little more snug around the size I've just shrunk too. Then, I'm resuming, and getting down to ~150, at just 1 pound per week. (Quite an easy diet really, now that my system is used to it.) I want to minimize the final looseness of my skin. I read from several sources that your skin, as a live and dynamic organ, slowly re-sizes to your body size, but that the key part of that is "slowly". If you lose weight fast, either it won't totally re-tighten as much as it should, or it will simply take longer (not sure which, but either way I don't want flabby skin -- either permanently or temporarily). The mirror is all motivation I need right now to keep going -- I'm excited at being thinner than I have been in 5 years! (Which is where I am at right now.) Can't wait to be where I was 8 or 9 years ago!

The clean and jerk Olympic lift is pretty much my favorite weight exercise. It's sweet. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUl7UqbL3uc[/youtube]
The clean and jerk is the one where they bring the bar from the ground to their chin, then push up. Snatching is cool, too, but I can't snatch too well, it requires a lot of speed and technique, which is unfortunately a bit hard to just "wing" technique. The clean and jerk, imo, is a bit more "wingable." My snatches suck, though, like 95 pounds, whereas my clean and jerk I just got it to 135 yesterday. Olympic lifting, is really cool from what I see, as it builds your upper back muscles, and also, your shoulders. But, besides that, it's simply really really fun. The feeling of having the bar go over your head, and just successfully executing the lifts, it's amazing. You get a feeling of adrenaline and "YES!" when you successfully complete them.

the OP should remember to not overdo it, to train, not strain. injuries will set back your goal of buffness and frustrate you, so take care to be careful at all times and not just "tough" through pain.

Ya -- as my fitness-freak brother told me, the popular saying "No pain, no gain" applies to properly-pursued muscle growth, not to injuries.
It applies to the unavoidable pain of building muscle -- but obviously, there are all kinds of avoidable pains, like cartilage-tearing.

I got some Christmas money, so I bought a 25- and a 30-pound dumbbell. I tested 'em in the store to make sure they were the right weight for me at this stage. I reached failure after three sets of 10 with the 30, so that seemed about right. My arms haven't grown yet, but their strength has: it used to be very difficult to lift my 20-pounders when I didn't train regularly, but now the 30-pounder feels a little easier than the 20-pounder used to.

Oh, and here's a little fitness humor for the thread:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X918ewyHSUE[/youtube]

Fellow dieters, I apologize for the turn this thread took into another subject altogether. I'll stop discussing weight lifting in this thread; I'll start (or join in) another thread if I want to keep talking about it.

So, let's consider that recent detour over with, and bring this thread back to dieting and weight loss, which is a major subject and life-goal in itself.

Who else did a swan dive off the wagon during the holidays?
In the interest of confessing sins:
gobs of Italian potatoes
sugar cookies
chocolate
ice cream
and Mexican food

I'm not sure how much fallout has been sustained- I've been afraid to attempt to apply my skinny jeans.

I'm back on board though- have gone walking two days in a row, and don't want to lose progress by skipping today.

Came across this interesting video actually:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo[/youtube]

That's a cool video, and I believe it. I have found that I feel good after a 30-minute walk, but not twice as good after walking 60 minutes.

And I too chose to slip on my diet for Christmas -- once I figured out that gaining even just a pound in a weekend is actually pretty hard to do, unless your regular diet is already a weight-gaining one.
Think about it: a pound of body weight is 3,500 calories. Over a three-day weekend, you'd have to eat 1,166 more calories per day than whatever amount you break even at, just to gain that pound. Of course, fat is a factor too, but it's the same basic minimal increase. I say all this because I think there's a myth that one can gain 5 or 10 pounds by letting themselves go over the holidays -- but that doesn't add up, unless you're making it your personal mission to eat the entire Thanksgiving turkey and the entire multi-person Christmas dinner. So ya, like you implied, holiday binging isn't any kind of reason to figure that you've "ruined your diet", and that you might as well give up.

I figured out with my activity level I either need to eat like 2-3 pounds of meat everyday or go with protein powder. I've been really irritable lately, and having enough protein seemed to instantly solve that. Some of the bodybuilder kinda estimates of 2-3g per 1 pound of bodyweight are a bit high, but I figured out I need at least 1 gram per pound. For a runner or whatever, you need a gram per kg, but yeah, 1 hour of ice skating a day, and then weight lifting 3-4x a week, I believe that would warrant going up to a gram. I bought some soy protein, and it's not bad. So yeah, need more lean meat in my diet, and a lot more protein in general. It's hard, cuz my mom doesn't understand nutrition in relation to working out, so it's hard to get her to buy stuff, so on my end I just stop trying, and sorta eat garbage. With more protein in my diet, I already see improvements in my mood and stuff.

As far as numbers, well, I've gained weight from muscle, but also from fat, so if I can just get rid of some body fat, regardless of the weight number, I'll be happy. I just don't particularly want the "powerlifter gut" I have now. It's not really a huge gut now, but it's still there. The main challenge is keeping strength and power while losing weight, as even at 190 with bodyfat I can like, boxjump relatively high and stuff, so losing weight is in most ways just for aesthetic purposes, but yeah. Now that I got some soy protein to make up for lack of cooking correctly, things should be go a lot smoother. That, and since I derailed it and made the topic about lifting, I figured out I should also tape my wrists for lifting, too. So that's a cool thing I figured out too, hopefully with protein and wrist tape I shall be powerful enough to conquer the world.

Funny you mention protein, as I just bought some protein powder this morning. You're right that one's protein intake level is important. It's the latest thing I've starting keeping track of when I eat. First I had to master keeping track of calories, then I added fat tracking, and finally protein. I make sure I get about 90g per day, since I'm trying to build muscle. But ya, being protein-deficient makes me tired and irritable as well. So, getting that level right is important.

I use a protein formula I read that goes: body weight (in kilograms) multiplied by 0.8 = protein grams that a sedentary male should have -- while a physically active and/or muscle-building male (like me) should use 1.2 or 1.4 as the multiplier, depending on the intensity of the active lifestyle. And, too much protein can lead to unwanted weight gain.

I only bought the powder because, as with your situation, there isn't always enough low-fat protein sources in my kitchen, so whenever I am unable to get the 90g protein I need from low-fat food, I've decided to supplement the difference with the powder. (I mean, what's the point of doing a muscle-building routine, and then starving your muscles of the very building blocks they need to grow?)

EDIT: Whoa! Don't listen to my protein formula above -- more research strongly suggests it's wrong. Like my protein powder container says, 1g of protein per pound of body weight per day is about right for the average person who is trying to build muscle.

1,166 is nothing! A big bowl of my favorite lentil soup equals that.
2 slices of cake
one of lasagna
etc
Here's a coconut cake similar to my mother's recipe:
CoconutCake-AllRecipes.com
a single serving = 600+ calories

It's happened to me before, just eating a similar amount to everyone else. Probably less, calorically, my being vegan. I gained around twenty pounds in three days, over Christmas, a few years ago ('09?)...I had to go buy some new cheap-o jeans to wear home because I literally couldn't get the others past my knees.
I thank the same slow metabolism that causes me to battle weight in the first place.



I hit 117.2 today, though.