If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Options
Essential support for under 25s
Essential support for under 25s
Take a look around and enjoy reading the discussions. If you'd like to join in, it's really easy to register and then you'll be able to post. If you'd like to learn what this place is all about, head here.
Comments
Im trying to make my abs come through, not been successful though its annoying really, I just gets so bored when doing situps and crunches. A 2 pack is the first step to getting a 6 :yes:
Cardio has really helped though. Even my boobs have shrunk, and they were always more glandular than fatty :yippe:
Well - you could have the most amazing abs on the planet.... But without burning the layer of fat off, you're not going to see them! Crunches won't burn the fat... You're gonna have to get some interval training in to really shift it, or start with some fat cutting supplements
I haven't really got much fat there! I just find it hard to work my abs through. Maybe im not doing enough, i do try and not to do cardio though because i don't want to loose anymore weight or all the lifting will be a waste of time
Interval training won't make you lose weight though - it's short and sharp bursts that strip the bodyfat, not long sessions of calorie burning cardio which burn a mixture of fat and muscle tissue.
Perhaps it not a case of not doing enough, but that you need to take a different approach to your abs work. If you pick up a copy of Men's Health or Men's Fitness, they have a monthly Abs section. Your body learns and gets used to the same workout, week in, week out. You need to change your approach a bit every month or you'll stop making gains.
In one of your earlier posts, you mentioned you were in a 'cutting' phase...
Check out www.t-nation.com - they have some superb articles on there which may be able to help you out
Hmmm - what supplements are you taking?
What I would say is that you should carry on taking them. Even if you're not working your upper body, the lower body/core/cardio exercises you are doing will still be working your body hard, and so the supplements will still be effective.
Your not going to waste away with 6 weeks no training on the upper body. For what reason are you taking protein powder?
I don't know how the protein does that. Your better off not having that and having a good diet consisting of alot of fruit and veg plus your vitamins and possible a good blend of amino acids to increase endurance. Protein powders are expensive for how long they last, only really beneficial for muscle growth with the correct diet in place. And 6 meals and your a lass? what are you eating?
Also, if somebody is looking to increase their muscle mass, often there is a physical limit to the amount of food they can eat. "Healthy" eating doesn't necessarily contain sufficient amounts of protein to promote nor sustain muscle growth. Fruit certainly doesn't. Amino acids are certainly essential though - and if you buy your protein powders from the States, I guarantee you will save a packet. These products are another example of 'rip off Britain' in action.
I find that 4 'meals' a day, plus 3 x protein shakes + pieces of fruit as another 3 'meals' is about right for me.
The benefit of the protein shakes is that they contain very little of the fats and calories that, for example, you are eating - and so they don't promote unnecessary bodyfat.
As a side note, protein in itself doesn't aid recovery specifically...
From t-nation:
Nutritional supplements basically enable us to amplify the relative anabolic signaling strength of our nutrient supply. Thus, if you normally had to eat 500 extra calories per day to gain muscle, through the use of proper supplements you might be able to eat maintenance or even below maintenance calories while still maintaining a good muscle building state.
If you were to eat over maintenance calories, supplements would enable you to gain muscle just that much faster.
Consider that muscle isn't really built by protein ingestion, but rather the breakdown of that protein into individual amino acids, which then build the muscle. Some of those amino acids are more important than others at building muscle. The really important muscle building aminos are the BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
I have three small meals a day, and 3 snacks in between.
A typical day would be:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs on wholemeal seeded toast/porridge with fruit
Snack: piece of fruit
Lunch: wholemeal pasta with vegetables or salmon and vegetables
Snack: raw veg dipped in hummous
Dinner: chicken/turkey/fish/lean beef/lamb and vegetables
+ protein shake after the gym.
I agree with 6 meals a day can be for any sex because if eating smaller portions it can increase the metabolic rate hence loosing weight alot easier. However high amounts of protein from shakes + food is not needed for females, most women are thinking of toning, buying protein shakes are a complete waste of money. All the nutrients needed can be obtained in foods. Really you shouldn't consume more than 35G's of protein at any one time as anything in excess in converted in the body. Typically most protein shakes are 50G's of protein per serving, which is why i half my shake scoops but take more of them in a day.
I don't think i get ripped off for my protein, i pay £30 for a 5Kg tub of protein + complex carbohydrates from a new health shop that has opened in my area, alternatively you can buy cheap from www.myprotein.co.uk
Oh and protein shakes should never replace a meal
Ok, a few points on this:
1. To 'tone', you still need to build muscle. go_away seems to have some fairly clear goals. Not all women are just after the whole 'toning' thing.
2. Protein going part way to 'replacing' a meal is perfectly acceptable in my mind, and to the mind of many trainers/lifters out there. A lot of the time it's just not possible to either find the time to prepare nor actually physically consume the amount of food necessary. I know I find it pretty much impossible to eat 6 meals+ a day. Eating like this isn't just for losing weight - it's better all round!
Sounds like you have a decent source for your protein - Maximuscle, Met Rx et al are certainly not cheap though.
From my experience though, there are few protein shakes that are 50g per SINGLE serving - most are around 20-23g/scoop with 3 scoops per DAILY serving. Often the labelling can be quite confusing.
When Gavin Henson was told to put on 6kgs, yet keep his speed, his diet was split up as follows by his nutritionalist + trainer (:
Breakfast
Couple of hydrating drinks
Shake + fruit
Lunch
Shake + fruit
Early dinner
Later dinner
Shake + fruit
I'll get the exact details when I get home and grab my copy of the magazine (Men's Health).
If pro atheletes are using them for gains, specified by their trainers, I tend to find it's good enough for me.
Well done if you can keep that up. Do you ever drink alcohol or eat a choccy bar?
Out of interest what are your goals? Have you lost weight/toned up significantly?
My own goals are to reach a shape where I have decent muscle mass for me, with low levels of body fat. What most people would call 'toned' I suppose, think Evangeline Lily (hello!).
I was a size 10 a few months ago, but I had a lot of body fat, a 'skinny fat' as it was, small doesn't equal lean, sadly. So far (I started in Jan), my arms have much more definition, especially in my tricep and bicep areas. I've lost a lot of fat in my trunk, where most of it was, and even my breasts have shrunk a little bit. My stomach is now flat, but there's still a bit of fat to shift before I start seeing the muscle underneath. My legs have got smaller/leaner, and they don't wobble when I walk, I can actually see the muscle moving when I do so. My size 10 jeans are now loose on me, when at my heaviest I was carrying a muffin
Takes a while to see progress in terms of a changing body shape, but I do feel it when I'm able to up the weights I'm using, and I have a lot more energy and feel generally better about myself than I ever have been.
Anyway, I'm heading off to a fitness test tonight. Bleep-test, press-up test, and sit-up test.... First time I've done maximal testing in a long time, so I don't hold out much hope for a good performance. I'll report back tonight
Good luck
Good plan!
Just remember to give it some welly. See the links in the other thread I posted for some advice
Now the real question... join a gym thats quite close to my workplace or join a gym further away where i know fit men will go :chin:
If you want to lose body fat, and improve muscle definition i.e. tone, then short bouts of intense cardio is effective at burning fat and not muscle, and of course, le weights
Damn right, now drop and give me 10