I don’t want to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I just want to look more in shape. Should I read this?
Yes you should. This guide was intended for the fitness beginners. If you’re a bodybuilder or serious athlete you probably know all these already.
If you are a new fitness enthusiast and have no idea where to start out or simply don’t have a personal trainer to guide you, this article is for you. It will attempt to give you a slightly better understanding of how health and fitness works.
Yes you should. This guide was intended for the fitness beginners. If you’re a bodybuilder or serious athlete you probably know all these already.
All of it applies to be frank. The principles of diet & exercise is the same for all humans. Don’t worry about becoming a manly she-beast. Most women can’t gain muscles anywhere close to the level men can. Female bodybuilders lift very seriously and probably eat twice the amount of a normal person with additional male hormones to boot. There are a few female specific notes in this guide but they are minimal as general fitness usually applies to both male and female.
Methods for improving overall fitness are actually very well understood. In fact, there hasn’t been any “astronomical” or “groundbreaking” discovery like you would expect in a physics lab. Very little has changed in the last 30 years or so. Most of the contradictions are usually arguments over details that the beginner need not care about. There is almost universal consensus among professionals about what works and what doesn’t. That’s what this guide is based on. Unless you are obese or aiming for professional extremes (both cases not covered in this guide), fitness only boils down to 2 things: Diet and Exercise.
Note: There are many female fitness magazines that tend to be really idiotic and gimmicky, fixating on things like “spot reduction” that were disproved 50 years ago, and trying to sell whatever their advertisers are pushing that month. If the magazine shows a skinny girl doing curls with 500g dumbbells, you should probably throw it in the trash.
The short answer is no. The so called “spot reduction” is a myth. You can’t exercise one part of your body and make the fat at that area alone disappear. The only thing you can do is reduce your overall body fat.
If you want to get a 6 pack or have a defined body, you have to reduce all the fat in your body. There is a saying that goes, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym”. If your abs are covered with a layer of fat, you will not be able to see a 6 pack regardless of any exercise you do. If the fat remains, your one pack is here to stay. To get visible abs, you need to get your body fat down with diet and exercise. Abs generally become visible around 12% body fat but it can vary from person to person. Although abdominal exercises rarely make a difference in how you look, they can be beneficial for other reasons such as having A STRONG CORE. Exercise makes you strong. Low fat gives you the 6 pack look.
This guide assumes that you are a normal person. If you have a medical condition, you should follow your doctor’s advice on what activity level is safe for you. If your doctor’s advice doesn’t match what this guide says, don’t follow this guide! The dietary advice here is quite universal but there may be specific medical conditions that call for different diets. Don’t ignore qualified medical advice based on something you read here (or anywhere on the internet). With that being said, most General Practitioners are not experts on health and fitness. Consult a nutritionist or exercise/sport doctor for the best advice.
The short answer is “yes“. The science of the human body remains the same regardless of gender and age. But the general rule is that teenagers should not be subjected to the extremes of an adult.
The leading misconception concerning teen doing weight training is that it will stunt growth. But to clear the air, this claim is simply not supported by any scientific evidence. In fact, research has shown that properly supervised resistance training have numerous benefits such as reducing their risk for sports injuries, boosts bone density and strengthens tendons. A word of caution: Teens that are working out should always be under supervision of a trained adult. Weight training does not stunt growth, but injuries definitely will. If your teen is being groomed to be a high performance athlete, they should have expert advice from proper coaches and dieticians.
Teens should train for the right reasons – that is to increase their strength and improve their physical fitness, body composition and sports performance while reducing their injury risk. Weight (resistance) training is different from weight lifting, bodybuilding and power lifting. Weight training focuses on improving musculoskeletal strength and total fitness. Weight lifting, bodybuilding and power lifting are competitive sports involving high-intensity training and are not recommended for adolescents. The goal of a teenager should be to grow up healthy. This goal may be totally different from an adult who is trying to pack as much muscle mass as possible into their body.
A note on nutrition: As long as the things consumed does not affect their hormones significantly, any additional supplement will most likely be safe to consume. Teenagers do have slightly more specific diet requirements but the consumption of things like protein will usually not be an issue. In fact it may be a good source of additional nutrient for a growing teenager.
General health and fitness applies to everybody – even vegetarians. But being vegetarian means you will encounter some problems obtaining the nutrients you need. Humans are omnivorous and there is a reason for that. There are certain nutrients we cannot produce naturally such as the 9 essential amino acids, and must be obtained through dietary means such as meat and eggs. Lucky for us, we now live in an age where nutritional supplements can greatly fill that gap. There are many protein supplements that will give you the necessary nutrients missing from a vegetarian diet. The amount of dietary supplement will vary from person to person and would best be discussed with a dietician.
Diet is the most important factor in your health, body composition and overall appearance.
This is true regardless of your metabolism, genetics, body composition, or whatever your friends tell you. Your body must obey the laws of physics and biology. In the end it’s all about calories in vs calories out. If you eat too much, you will get bigger.
This also applies to muscles (Surprise! You thought it only applied to fats didn’t you?). If you don’t eat big, you can’t get big muscles. You can lift 1000 times a day but if you don’t eat more calories than you expend, you won’t gain a single milligram of muscle mass. Exercise and your choice of food plays a big role in determining whether that extra weight becomes fat or muscle. But strictly speaking, the weight comes from food.
The picture below tries to describe how your body would look like with a different fat-muscle composition. Those who are interested in looking good should strive to be somewhere in the middle of the chart. The extreme ends on the left and right side are very bad. Most of us are just somewhere in between.
Now that you know diet determines how heavy you get, we can talk about changing your eating patterns. This sounds like a big deal but it’s really simple.
The obvious culprits: Fast food, carbonated drinks, ice cream, sweet stuff. These should all go. These type of food are high in saturated fat and trans fat, very calorie dense and has little nutritional value.
Focus on: Meals that are traditionally cooked. Eat whole, naturally occurring foods. As a general rule of thumb, if your food is naturally occurring or you can make it by hand yourself, then it is good.
Eating the unhealthy food once in a while in reasonable portions is ok. But only if the rest of your diet is already in order.
Carbohydrates, fats and protein are known as macronutrients. All are necessary and none are exactly evil (yes, even fat is not evil).
Carbs provide energy for your body. They are the main source of energy. The problem is that people over consume carbs usually from soda and sweets, or from starch (like white bread) etc. If you have to cut down on 1 macronutrient, cut down on carbs (yes I said carbs, not fat). Carbs provide 4 calories per gram.
Protein is formed by amino acids. Protein is necessary for your body to maintain and repair muscles. Most people get enough protein but once you start heavy workouts, they generally require more for optimal results. Protein helps you:
Since we are talking about protein, let’s talk briefly about some myths. There are claims that protein is bad for your liver. But really it isn’t [1][2][3][4]. You may also have heard that the body wastes protein if you eat more than a certain amount (usually 30g or more) at once. Again, this is not true. There simply isn’t enough evidence for this to be conclusive. Unless you have liver complications, any normal person should not have problems with proteins. There are medicines out there that stresses your liver more than any amount of protein can.
A good rule of thumb is to get about 1.7 – 2.2 grams of protein per Kg of body weight [1][2][3][4][5]. If you workout more, you should eat more. If you cannot get enough protein via natural foods, protein powder can be used. Proteins provide 4 calories per gram.
**Do take note that you do not need to get all your protein from supplements. Most normal people will get some protein through their daily diet such as from fish or eggs.
Fats are not evil. Eating fats doesn’t mean that fat will instantly appear in your belly or ass. The body doesn’t work that way. You don’t have to go crazy and replace your diet with everything “no-fat”, “low-fat”, “skim” etc. Fats are quite necessary to perform body functions. We generally classify fats as good or bad. LDL cholesterol is bad. HDL cholesterol is good. The main problem is people over consume saturated fats and trans fats (which raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol) and under consume healthy fats like monounsaturated fats (olive oil, canola oil) and omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish, flax seed oil). As long as you consume healthy fats, then it is not bad. Fats provide 9 calories per gram.
Many diets talk about an “ideal ratio” of carbs, protein and fats as a large component of their philosophy. However the bottomline is: the body doesn’t care about ratios. It cares about how much protein you are getting irrespective of total calories. If you’re interested in the debate between carbs vs fats, you can click on the link to read them. But it should be stressed that this topic is less important than most think. The best advice is to get enough protein and vegetables, then see how much carbs and fats you want to add to fill up your energy tank (calories).
Finally, fad diets (keto, zone, no fat, no protein, your village elder’s mojo diet) are mainly about carbs vs fat balance. Others are about specific foods. You should know by now, there is insufficient evidence that any of these are better than others. If you choose to believe in any of these, just remember that in the end, it’s all about proteins and calories. If you get your protein and calories right, your dieting plans will work – if not, it won’t.
Vitamins and minerals – Micronutrients are nutrients your body needs in small quantities like vitamins and minerals. If your diet is optimal, you would usually not need to worry about this. However, most people do not have optimal diets. You can get these from supplements at the pharmacy. Just remember to always put diet, training and rest before supplements. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) is a minimum value for preventing nutrient deficiency – not for optimal amount of performance. Taking a multivitamin supplement that gives you a flat 100% RDA dose is not necessarily the best way to go, but a reasonable baseline.
Keep in mind that men will want a multivitamin without iron, while women will want one with iron. In fact, 11% of women between the ages of 20 to 49 have an iron deficiency.
Sodium is generally something that most don’t need to be concerned about. Your body needs a small amount of sodium to function. However, an excess of sodium can cause major heart problems down the line if your kidney can’t filter it fast enough. Stick to the dietary guideline of no more than 2300mg a day of sodium (see this article for more information).
Omega 3 fatty acids. One supplement that is extremely beneficial and is backed with lots of research is Omega-3 fatty acids. This is most commonly found in fish oil, flax seeds. If there is one supplement everyone should take, it would be this one. Don’t focus on total mg of fish oil. Instead, take enough fish oil to get a total of approximately 720mg of EPA and 480mg of DHA a day.
Vitamin D is created by the body naturally when it is exposed to sunlight, so if you don’t live in an area with a lot of sun, chances are you’re deficient in it. Supplementing with Vitamin D strengthens bones, prevents cancer, and raises testosterone levels. It’s actually quite hard to poison yourself on Vitamin D unless you take more than 10000 IU/day[1][2][3]. Make sure you buy it in Vitamin D3 form (cholecalciferol).
Creatine is a safe and effective supplement which will help a bit with strength[1][2][3].
Note that the list below does not account for condiments and toppings; it just lists good food items. For instance, turkey breast is very good for you. Turkey breast covered in heavy cream sauce or deep fried in lard is not. Use your brain here.
**Notes for vegetarians
Not eating meat or animal products means that you have an imbalanced diet. You will have to supplement your diet somehow with the necessary nutrients. But everything else is the same. Eat a variety of foods, eat whole grains, limit your saturated and trans fat intake. Dairy, protein powder, eggs, and tofu can help with this. Vegans have it the hardest of all: pea, hemp, lentil and soy protein are all available, although studies have shown these forms of protein are inferior to milk proteins[1][2][3]. Some of the things you may have to take note of is Vitamin B12, Omega 3 fatty acids (especially DHA), Calcium, Iron. You can find out more at the Vegetarian Resource Group.
You want to cook in a way that keeps as much nutrients as possible while adding little to no unhealthy fats. Learn how to cook so you can control your diet better. It is actually very easy to do, and is guaranteed to impress potential mates. Any number of beginner-oriented cook books can get you started. It is hard to not improve your diet just by cooking your own food.
In the end, losing the fats really boils down to getting the right amount of calories and getting the correct protein intake. As far as the other macronutrients are concerned, eat more of them if you want to gain muscle and eat less of them if you want to lose fat [1][2][3][4][5]. You cannot gain muscle and lose fat at the same time – unless you’re a total beginner (for a short while), using steroids, or willing to wait a decade to see significant changes. The body just doesn’t work that way. If you want to stay lean while maintaining muscle mass, you need to eat a lot of protein and exercise.
To gain muscle, go for [35 to 40 * (current bodyweight in Kg)] calories per day, every day. For example, if you’re 70Kg you want to aim for [35 to 40*70], so 2450-2800 calories per day. You should aim to gain about 9Kg per month, any more and you’re just getting extra fat, any less and you’re not building muscle fast enough; so adjust calories accordingly, upwards to ensure growth, or downwards to prevent excessive fat gains. Yes, you may gain some fats along the way; that’s the way things are. Yes, you will probably have to eat way more than you are comfortable with. Remember – you can’t gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. Most people will “bulk up” first and then “cut down” later.
To lose fat, go for [22 to 27 * (current bodyweight in Kg)] calories per day. For example, if you’re 90Kg, aim for 1980-2430 Cals/day. Make sure to keep protein high to keep as much of your hard earned muscle mass as possible, and reduce your carbs and fats. Yes, you’re going to lose some muscle; that’s the way things are. Yes, you will still need to lift weights 3x per week.
To maintain your current bodyweight, aim for [30 to 33 * (current bodyweight in Kg)] calories per day.
Source:[1][2][3]
A good tool to calculate these numbers is the Fat Loss Calculator from Scooby’s Workshop. Fill in your data there, and then look at the “Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE)” box. Use that number to set your goal. If you’d like to lose about 2Kg (~3500 calories) per week, subtract 500 calories from that number. For example: If I need to eat 3000 calories a day to maintain my weight, I will lose about 2Kg a week eating 2500 calories a day. Conversely, I will gain about 2Kg a week eating 3500 calories a day.
Finally, a quick note about counting calories:
If you follow the numbers exactly, there’s no way to fail. That’s science in action!
It doesn’t matter. Many will claim that you can speed up your metabolism by eating more meals a day, however studies reveals that this is not true. Common sense says three meals a day should be fine. If you are trying to force yourself to eat more so you can gain weight (e.g. for bodybuilding), you probably need to eat more big meals per day just to get enough calories into your body. Remember – your mass is a direct relation of calories in vs calories out. As long as you get your necessary calories in by the end of the day, you’re okay.
The same applies to meals late at night. If you eat a huge meal you may have problems falling asleep, but that’s about it. The idea that the body will store more calories if you eat after a certain amount of time is a myth.
When it comes to workouts, keep it simple. Have some protein and carbs ~1 hours before workout, and some protein and carbs within 30mins after. Even if you’re trying to lose weight, you want to eat protein and carbs for your workout. Eating some before will allow you to train harder, and you want to eat some afterwards because working out induces both protein synthesis as well as breakdown, and to inhibit this, some carbs and a good serving of protein are needed.
By now you already know that weight loss is all about calorie in vs calorie out. So logically if cutting 500 calories a day will make me slimmer, cutting 2000 would be even better right?
Not really… When the amount of calories goes below a certain threshold, your body will think you are one of those starving refugees that you see on TV and the your body’s survival instincts kicks in – doing some things that will hurt your long term weight loss plan.
Read that again: Starving is a bad way to lose weight!
Why is that so?
You want a tolerable calorie deficit to sustain weight loss over the long term. Be safe and stick to about 500 fewer calories a day than you can burn. That’s about 2kg loss a week. More info about bad dieting: ExRx – Why Low Calorie Diets Fail
Women’s nutrition are 99% similar to men’s. However there are some things to take note:
Before we begin, a short word about…
So how is exercise important? Why would I need to exercise? Here’s why:
So exercise makes it easier to lose weight, and plays a big role in the composition of your body. There are two main kinds of exercise, cardiovascular (aka cardio, aerobic, etc.) and weight lifting (aka weights, lifting, resistance training, etc.)
Are you trying to lose weight?
Lift Weights! Lifting burns tons of calories, and lifting weights while dieting will cause you to retain more muscle and lose more fat than just diet and/or cardio. Because the name of the game to looking AMAZING is FAT LOSS, not just purely weight loss. Do you want to be that person who loses lots of weight and still looks flabby and useless? Of course not.
Are you just trying to “tone up”?
Lift Weights! “Toning” is kind of a nonsense term, because you don’t actually “tone” anything. You can only lose fat and gain muscle, and lifting weights helps you do both, by burning calories and promoting muscle growth. As mentioned before, you get huge by eating huge, not lifting weights; lifting just determines how much of your weight is muscle vs. fat.
Are you a woman?
Lift Weights! because we already explained why lifting won’t turn you into a she-man, and all the other benefits still apply to you. And if you are a 1 in 1,000,000 woman who can pack on muscle mass like a man, just stop working out as hard and it will go away.
Lifting weights makes you stronger and healthier, improves your posture, makes you less injury prone, and strengthens your bones (making it especially important for the elderly and for women). Additionally, it speeds up your metabolism even while you rest – more than cardio by itself.
But what about cardio? Cardio is good for everyone because it improves your overall endurance and ability to exert yourself over an extended period (aka stamina). It promotes cardiovascular health and contributes to increased bone density. Additionally, it pretty much makes everything else function better: cardio helps stabilize hormone levels (increasing testosterone and increasing insulin sensitivity), improves endurance and recovery, helps the body fuel calories away from the fat cells and into the muscle, helps with weight maintenance/preventing the “yo-yo effect”, generally keeps you healthy, and finally burns calories.
Cardio is neither required for burning fat, nor prohibited when building muscle – that’s just an excuse by lazy people. All in all, resistance training (aka weight lifting) is more important for looking pretty (yes, even for girls and pretty boys), but for general health, cardio is essential. Oh, and doing cardio in a fasted state provides no benefit, contrary to popular belief.
A suggestion is to alternate weights and cardio, for instance doing 3 days of weights, 2 days of cardio, and taking the other 2 days off. Doing both on the same day tends to cause one or the other to suffer from reduced effort, and generally burns people out.
Pick any one. It really doesn’t matter, as long as you stick to it. Work up to 30 minutes of it at a time, and do it fast enough that you’re breathing hard and working up a sweat. From there, constantly try to increase the intensity of your workout. This can be done in a number of ways:
Always start with a warm-up where you spend a few minutes working out at low intensity, and then gradually work up to full speed and/or resistance. This will make you feel better during the workout, and reduce the chance of injury.
An example of an excellent starting cardio plan is the Couch to 5Km plan, which starts from couch potato level and will transform you into being able to run a 5Km without stopping in just two months.
If you have bad joints, try swimming or an elliptical machine, or biking (real or stationary). These will let you get a serious workout without pounding your joints to bits.
There are many good weightlifting programs out there. It really does not matter which ones you pick, provided that you do them properly. You will notice that the good ones all have several things in common.
Firstly, they are based almost entirely on compound movements. Compound movements are simply weight lifts that involve the movement of 2 or more different joints. For instance, a bicep curl only involves one joint (the elbow). A bench press involves two kinds of joints (elbows and shoulders). Compound is much better than isolation (1 joint), especially for beginners, for several reasons:
Examples of compound movements include:
Isolation movements aren’t evil or worthless, but they are a poor choice for beginners interested in overall muscular development.
Secondly, good programs work out the entire body. You will never get the results you want just doing your arms or chest; it doesn’t work that way.
Thirdly, good workout programs make you move a substantial amount of weight. Doing some program where you do a huge number of repetitions with tiny weights won’t do you much good (this applies even if you’re a girl). To stimulate muscle growth, you have to place a substantial load on the muscle. That means using enough weight that you can only do 5-10 repetitions of a compound lift before needing a rest. The exact number of repetitions or sets you do isn’t important, but you can’t get results without placing a real load on your muscles.
Fourthly, good programs have you using barbells and/or dumbbells, not machines. Machine exercises are inferior to using free weights in almost every situation. One exception you might consider is a lat pulldown machine if you aren’t strong enough to do chin-ups and don’t have an assisted chin-up machine available, but even here the real exercise is markedly superior. Further reading: Why weight machines are bad for almost everyone.
Any workout regimen that works the full body 2-3x per week using a few sets of low repetition compound movements, adding weight periodically is optimum for beginners. You will gain a load of strength and size which is great for a beginner aiming to look better and stay healthy and in shape.
Track your progress in writing!
Write down how much you lifted & how many times you lifted it every session. Every week, focus on beating your numbers from last week. If you cannot do this, it’s time to analyze your diet and your sleep habits, because you may have hit a plateau. As a famous mythbuster said “The only difference between science and playing around is writing it down”.
Don’t be afraid of barbells or dumbbells
The key to safely using them is good technique (form), and to increase the weight you are using gradually. Only do the exercise for as long as you can properly control the weight. If you can’t control the weight, reduce the weight until you can.
Do a good warm-up
A few minutes of light cardio is a good general warm-up. Then before you do each exercise, do 8-12 reps with very light weight. Many weight lifting workouts have a built-in warm-up, where you start with a light weight and then increase the weight gradually with each set. See this link for further information about warming up.
It is not important what weight you start with, but where you end up
Be conservative at first, but from then on constantly try to add weight or increase the number of repetitions for every exercise from workout to workout. If you do this, you’ll be working very hard soon enough. 2.5% more weight per week is a realistic goal, and at first you may gain something like 5% per week. That sounds small, but it adds up to a huge strength improvement in a year.
You have to push yourself to get results, but don’t be stupid. Soreness and stiffness are normal; genuine pain is not. If you hurt yourself, give yourself plenty of time to 100% recover from an injury before you start again, or you’ll just re-injure yourself.
Most barbell exercises can be substituted with their dumbbell equivalent, or vice versa, and achieve the same training effect. As a beginner, you may find it easier or more comfortable to work with dumbbells, and this is fine. The only exceptions are squats and deadlifts, because it can be difficult to get enough weight on dumbbells without making it very awkward.
You need days off from lifting. Do not try to lift on off-days in a lifting program in an effort to make faster progress; you’ll over-train and start doing worse, not better.
A final note on resting between sets: many programs have different philosophies on this, but it generally doesn’t matter how long you leave between each set. 3-5 minutes rest has shown to be just fine for strength gains. [1][2][3][4][5]
The following are good, proven programs to follow for weight lifting. Don’t get put put off by the jargon-heavy articles. Some of the programs are more bodybuilder-oriented or athlete-oriented, but in truth they all do the same basic things and work on the same basic principles. For a normal person working hard at them, they’ll produce the results a normal person would want: more strength, more muscle and less fat. Keep in mind that you won’t be dieting or taking supplements like those guys, and you’ll be starting with weights you can handle and working your way up gradually. So there really is no problem for a normal person – male or female.
Simpler beginner routines:
Good beginner routines:
Good intermediate routines:
For those still unsure about which program to follow, Rohit Nair has written a great web application called the Fitness Program Picker, which recommends a program for you based on your desired goals.
Common terminology:
Repetition (rep): Doing an exercise 1 time properly.
Set: A group of repetitions. If you do 5 repetitions in a row and then stop, that is one set of 5 repetitions.
Intensity: The amount of effort you are expending.
Form: How correctly you are doing the exercise. Strict form is important to prevent injury & get the most benefit from the exercise.
Barbell (BB): A long bar you put weights on, meant for two-handed exercises
Dumbbell (DB): A short bar with weights on the ends, meant for one-handed exercises
The same principles apply to both men and women. Seriously. You can follow a “super power lifter manly program” as hard as you can for years and never get big, just leaner and stronger and better looking.
If you somehow start to get visible muscles you don’t want, reduce your calorie intake, or reduce the intensity of your weight workouts and make up the difference with more cardio. Without continued heavy lifting, the extra muscles will go away. Remember that gaining muscle is a slow, gradual process.
There is an excellent article on women & weight lifting here: T-Nation – Fun With Women!
Stumptuous is a brilliant dedicated site for women and lifting that closely aligns with the principles covered in this guide.
A couple of quick notes about stretching, because it’s a common beginner question and there are a number of myths associated with it.
Firstly, static stretching (any stretching done in place, holding for X number of seconds) should never be done before exercise. It can cause muscles to tighten rather than relax, putting the body at a greater risk of injury and limiting the muscle’s capacity to perform. Instead, perform active movements simulating the exercise you are about to perform (see here for a sample warm-up protocol). Before a weightlifting session, perform the lifts you are about to do with little or no weight. Before a run, perform a light jog. Before playing sports, do some quick plyometrics or active warmups.
As far as stretching after a workout, this is is the best time to perform static stretches because the muscles are warm. A reader suggested the Runner’s World Complete Guide to Stretching.
If you have posture issues, a combination of stretching, strength training, and maintaining proper posture can correct them. MobilityWOD provides great daily workouts for those with posture issues, joint problems, or simply people who want to improve flexibility and performance.
Your body weight isn’t everything – composition is more important – but it is certainly good to know. What follows are tips for tracking your weight.
A common pitfall in tracking weight is to weigh yourself at different times of the day. You body weight can easily swing 2Kg based on how hydrated you are, when the last time you ate or had a bowel movement was, and so on. For most consistent results, weigh yourself first thing in the morning, preferably after doing your big business. Incidentally, this is also a lower weight than any other time of the day.
Don’t weigh yourself every day, you’ll see too much random variation to know if anything is going on, and the overall change you are looking for is only going to be a few kg a week. So weigh yourself once a week.
The thing about your weight is that it doesn’t tell you what you’re made of, just how much of you there is. The name of the game is losing fat, not muscle.
So what happens if fat goes down and weight stays the same or goes up? You made up the difference in lean mass, of course. You shrink in areas that were full of fat, because muscle is more dense than fat. People on good programs often see larger changes in clothing sizes that their weight change would suggest. This is a good thing, because your real progress in terms of appearance is better than the scale is telling you.
The best way to track your overall progress appearance-wise is by measuring yourself with a tape measure in areas you want to get bigger or smaller, and by taking pictures of yourself at regular intervals. This way you can see how your body composition is changing for the better. Here is a short guide on how to take body measurements.
As noted earlier, for lifting weights you should always track your progress in writing. Really, you can’t effectively implement a good weight program – even a simple one – without doing this.
The answer is maybe. This guide only covers the basics. Fitness and nutrition are big subjects. If the program is for beginners does it look similar to the other beginner routines mentioned above in this article? If it is, then it’s probably good. If it’s not for beginners, have you started with a beginner routine and worked your way up? If so, you’re probably at a level where you can decide whether said program is good or not.
Here are some signs someone is trying to rip you off:
All else being equal, to stay at 280 pounds takes more calories than it does to stay 180 pounds, even if the difference is all fat. So if you lost a lot of weight, this may be a contributing factor.
You might be experiencing what bodybuilders call DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness, and it is most commonly experienced after working a new muscle group for the first time, or after a long time without training. This type of soreness can be unpleasant, but is best ignored, as it will go away after repeated training of that set of muscles. If it is nagging you, you may want to take an extra day off or do a reduced version of your regular workout until it improves.
Ibuprofen is the over-the-counter painkiller of choice for muscular pain. You shouldn’t ignore the instructions on the label, but prescriptions of 800 milligrams for minor pain are commonplace (the over-the-counter dose is 2 tablets of 200mg each). You can also alleviate soreness with a foam roller or any other types of deep tissue massage. If you’re unsure, consult a professional or prolong your rest period. Just don’t end up prolonging your rest for 1 month :P.
**IMPORTANT** Don’t confuse soreness with pain; outright pain is often a sign of an actual injury. If you injure yourself, stop working out the injured area until it is 100% recovered. If you experience severe pain and/or loss of range of motion, see a doctor.
Probably nothing more than a “side stitch”, a fairly common complaint of runners, especially new runners just getting into shape. Curiously, there is no good scientific explanation for this pain, but it will go away on its own. As your fitness improves, you will generally stop experiencing them.
Probably “shin splints.” This is just caused by straining or overworking the muscles to the side of the shins. Taking a break from running until the pain goes away is generally all that is necessary. Normally the muscles adapt over time and you quit getting shin splints. If not, the problem could be caused by flat feet (fallen arches), which can be treated with insoles that help overpronation. A physiotherapist can aid with this part.
A1: You may have simply over-trained and need a rest. Take a few days off, and then go back at it again.
A2: Your body may have adapted to the workout you are doing. You can’t keep doing exactly the same workout all the time and continue to get impressive results, at some point your body gets used to it and you start to have diminishing returns. To change things up, you can:
A3: At some point you will need to eat more to continue making rapid strength gains. Of course, if you don’t want to get bigger anymore, you will have to accept some limit on your strength gains. We explained this in the diet section above. You need to eat bigger to get bigger. If your calorie in = calorie out, you won’t gain a single milligram of muscle mass.
Unless you severely burn them, cooking protein-based foods or supplements does not affect their nutritional value. There’s no reason to drink raw egg shakes unless you like the taste or the convenience, or you want to feel like Rocky.
First, refer to the general principles in the diet section and understand it.
If your ketogenic diet consists of eating clean, healthy food with a calorie deficit, it’s going to work. Some people claim that ketosis is inherently better than a carb based or carb inclusive diet. While it is true many people consume too many carbs and need to cut back on them, and while some people simply feel better on a low carb or even ketogenic diet, others do not. Ketogenic diets do not burn more fat or spare muscle better than non ketogenic diets. Any claimed benefit of ketogenic diets that would work for everyone is mostly mediated by the higher protein content in comparison to regular diets; and obviously, you can also eat a low fat, high carb, high protein diet, and many people are doing just this and benefiting from it.
In conclusion, different diets work for different people. Many people trying to lose weight feel that the strictness of many ketogenic diets helps them stick to their plan. It doesn’t hurt to try it and see if you like it.
This article has been partially reproduced and edited with permission from Liam Rosen – whose original article can be found here. Many thanks for allowing us to use your material to spread good information about fitness!