Spicy food and ice water. That'll burn all the calories away!

Wow, great discussion. This is a really tricky subject, and one I really want to get a hold on as getting real knowledge in this area is going to equal better efficiency and more results.



First, just one thing I disagree with. The consensus online seems to be that cardio will never build muscle. I don't think there are any examples of people building muscle mass from cardio, no matter how intense it is. Even sprinters go to the gym to lift weights in order to build muscle mass. Cardio has tons of benefits, but none in terms of building new muscle. However I'd love to get some disagreeing facts (I'll have to go research some real articles as I'm just spouting off opinions without any references).



My current HIIT routine lately has been to run a mile as fast as possible (6-7 minutes) to get my heart rate maxed out, then run a couple more miles at about 11 minutes each (cycling between walking and sprinting). After that I go aerobic for 30-40 minutes on either the elliptical or slowly jogging. Hopefully this gets the best of both worlds in terms of aerobic and anaerobic activity (with weight training being the focus).



Scientifically, it seems like calories used has to map directly to energy burned. One way to use energy is your body heat output. This seems to relate directly to heart rate (when my heart rate is high, I get really really hot and sweat). So that definitely is burning calories. The rest of the energy spent has to map to the work expended. So the energy taken to move your body a certain distance. The trick is how do you account for these 2 things for differing body weights, cardiovascular fitness, and body makeups.



Researchers have been studying this stuff for years so I'm sure there is a definative answer out there. However theres so much estimates and fuzzy info (based on large samples of people), its tough to sort out the real scientific data from the marketing and stuff dreamed up in order to sell books.



Any good resources on this topic (tracking calories burnt) would be greatly appreciated

I've been talking to some friends who have been really successful at building muscle over the last 2 years and they tell me exactly what Nathan said. However one thing to mention is, as you build up the muscle, it starts to get really easy to lose fat as your metabolism goes up. Both of my friends currently eat 3500 - 4000 calories a day with no fat gain at all. They dont even do cardio anymore. After building muscle for a long time, eventually your muscle takes all the work out of staying lean.



Of course my one friend said the biggest problem is eating so much every day or he feels he starts losing weight (muscle) really fast and going back on the progress hes made. It costs a fortune to eat that much healthy food.

Thats true, but I dont think any of those ingredients are consumed at the same insane level as HFCS. The average american consumes 19.2 kg of HFCS a year. I would wager Ephedra (the largest example you mentioned) was consumed on average (all americans) maybe .01 grams a year, considering a very small percentage of the population took it.



I mean.. we're talking 5 or 6 orders of magnitude. Literally a million times more HFCS is ingested on a daily basis.



I'm actually glad you brought up Ephedra. Because this is a prime example as to the lack of sound reasoning by Americans. Millions of people took Ephedra and got positive results. I took it and it seemed to helped. I understood the stuff wasnt benign, so I took it in cycles and in general saw a boost to my energy during cardio days, and lost more weight.



But because it harmed a few people (a few dozen at max), it is banned for everyone and all the potential benefits are wiped out for good. But typical of the line of reasoning that if something harms a handful of people, it must obviously be harmful to everyone. I think emotions tend to get the better of people when dealing with health products.



It sounds so much better to say "let's all just exercise and lose weight the natural way", and thats great but many people don't mind taking calculated risks to their health for a potential benefit. We do this unconsciously every day when we get on a plane, drive on the freeway, etc. But as soon as someone pops a pill to lose weight that might have a .000000001 chance of killing them, people get irrational and decide we need to ban it altogether.

Hey RaeVynn. I agree with you. And you're right, the problem is *currently* HFCS. But do you think if they switched everything to plain old sugar it would help? It's not the HFCS thats the problem, its just the demand for sweet, tasty foods, and the overconsumption of them.

Yeah, I have a polar m61 and it is kind of a pain to set up. But once its done, it only takes a few buttons to work every time i work out. I dont like the chest band though... not the most comfortable thing in the world, but i guess its needed.



I don't really believe the calorie counts though. Here's my reasoning... it bases the calories on your heart rate. Thats the only information it has. However, as I've become more "fit", my heart rate stays the same or lower for a greater amount of work done. Does that mean I'm losing less calories per unit of work?



I know it has a "athlete / normal" setting, but how do you turn that into a one or the other equation?



Whole thing seems fishy to me. I still like using it to keep my heart rate though as I need to train in different "zones" for my cardio program. I just wish I could figure out how to accurately track calories burnt. There's so much disinformation out there thats based on estimating over large samples of people.

HFCS is fine. In fact, given that its consumed by the United States probably more than any other ingredient, means its field tested quite well. If it was causing harm, we'd know it by now.



Besides the obvious fact that it has calories in it and spikes your blood sugar. But keep track of what you eat, burn more calories than you take in, and you'll lose weight and be healthier.



Theres too many demagogues out there pushing scare tactics on foods. Its a waste of life energy to worry about a random ingredient in food that has been consumed by the billions of tons.



The simplest explanation tends to be the right one. It's the simple over consumption of calories that'll hurt you not HFCS.

Seems like a common solution for plateaus that I've read online is to increase your calorie intake for a few days. Try doing a 2000 calorie day. Either way it wont completely derail your weight loss, and may get your body back on track.



Try lifting some weights too. That might be a really good shock to your system hopefully triggering it to adapt.

I have the same problem. One thing that helps is having a big dinner salad (light on lettuce, lots other stuff - cabbage, carrots, snow peas, all prepackage d) and shaking it up with some Ken's Steakhouse Italian Basil dressing. Have that a half hour before your real dinner. It'll only add about 100-150 calories, and should get you extremely full after eating a reasonably sized dinner portion.

Ipod headphones work great for me on everything but the treadmill. Almost smashed my video ipod a few times as my arm hits the cord and the thing goes flying.



Just bought these wireless ones. They stay on good, have no wires but are pretty damn uncomfortable. Anyone know of any other good wireless headphones?



http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details /GB/EN,CRID=103,CONTENTID=10679

I'd say get some Grilled Frozen Chicken Breast Strips (I buy the Foster Farms packs). 2 minutes in the microwave and they taste awesome. I usually shake them up with some buffalo sauce (pretty low calorie). Throw them on anything (salads, sandwiches, tortillas).



20 grams of protein for only 3 ounces and about 100 calories.

Heh, I actually thought the machine was underreporting. It takes so much friggin effort just go burn a few calories.

I just got one of those Polar M61 heart monitor devices, got it all set up, and did my normal cardio machine. Turns out I got some bad news... I'm only burning about 75% of the calories I thought I was (the reading that the elliptical machine was telling me).



I'm really glad I found this out as I need to change up my food intake and workout routine to reflect this. I'll probably start doing more treadmill too since it gets my heart going way better than the elliptical does.

Cool. I just joined. Thanks Beth

Wow. This is the longest thread I've ever seen. I wish there was a way to search it individually (is there?).



How has people's success been so far? As anyone been doing body fat analysis testing with calipers or electronically? How have your percentages changed since starting the diet?



Thanks

I use the Omron handheld body fat analyzer too. It was actually really inexpensive (25 bucks) and works great. I take a reading every morning when I wake up and track the trends.



It's actually really good about showing progress and I have been using it as motivating tool. When I work out consistently and hit my calorie targets, I can always see the reading go down a few tenths of a percentage point. Last weekend I went a little crazy with the booze and food, and by monday I was up half a percentage point on the reading.



VM... do you just use excel to chart and smooth the reading? I have it on a pad of paper but probably will migrate the readings over to my computer at some point.

Actually this link does make a strong case:

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcoh ol.htm



An occassional beer isn't going to hurt but biweekly friday night drunken stupors might...

Hey Ben. Thanks for the advice. The dehydration thing sucks, but I drink coffee too and that has the same effect. I'm sure I can make it up by drinking some extra water. Plus doesn't beer have a lot of water in it? So it can't be that much of a net loss .



The testosterone and estrogen thing is concerning. I'll have to research that a bit. I'd be surprised if it really causes that much of a difference but I won't rule out the possibility.

Adara... you're going to have to focus your main energy on eating right. That's the most important component, along with some exercise.



Don't skip meals or starve yourself. This WILL slow down your metabolism. Just eat enough of the right kinds of food. It'll take some learning and trial and error, but it'll be worth it.



Find good habits that you can live with (lots of fruit, whole wheat everything, lots of lean protein). Cut out the bad habits (absolutely no fast food, pizza on rare occasions, only drink diet soda). At your age, if you keep these habits up for three months or so, you'll see a difference. Find activities that are fun for you (bike riding, roller blading, etc) and enjoy them regularly. Don't exercise to lose weight, exercise to have fun.



Oh and I agree, gym teachers tend to hate everyone. With their job, I guess I don't blame em

Yeah, the beer is probably overkill but I just can't enjoy sushi without some sapporo.



Beer is just high glycemic carbs though right? Along with the small amount of alcohol.

Heh, I started a personal trend that I really seem to like. Next door to my gym is a fantastic sushi bar and after weight training the last couple nights, I been stopping by for 3 tuna rolls and a pint of sapporo. Given that immediately after resistance training, Body for Life and hussmanfitness.org recommends to eat high glycemic carbs (to boost blood sugar) and protein (to repair damaged muscles) it seems like a good fit. Plus the fat content on ahi tuna is nearly zero according to calorie king.



Of course I'm still tracking all the calories and trying to hit my daily calorie deficit, but if any time is a good time for high glycemic carbs (rice and beer) and protein, it seems like it would be right after a heavy lifting workout.

Ken's Light Italian with Basil is my personal favorite. 50 calories for 2 tablespoons. Can be found at most supermarkets.



http://www.kensfoods.com/kf/products/productView.s ervlet?consumerProductId=16

Got an Omron handheld electronic body fat analyzer and so far really like it (was only 25 bucks). Every morning I can take a reading and seems really consistent. Will be a great tool to monitor progress over the next few months.



It says I'm at 14.5% which is about the estimate that the Accumeasure calipers gives me (13%-15%). Hopefully I can get the reading down less than 10% by the end of summer.

Yeah, I wasn't able to get this to work which is why I had to switch to a paid service (calorieking). I didn't like to have to enter the details every food I ate.

Yeah, eating 1250 a day will be tough. You'll be hungry all the time no matter what you eat. Better to set sights on 1800-2000 calories a day. Even then you'll still be pretty hungry unless you really focus on eating the right foods. I'd suggest having lots of protein shakes (even slimfast) on hand in the event you get desperate.



Running an hour (at moderate pace) burns about 1000 calories for me (5 10" 165 pounds) so it'll probably burn even more for you depending on what shape you're in. That plus lifting weights and eating (2000 calories a day), you'll probably have a calorie deficit of more than 1500 a day. Thats a pound lost every 2 days. At that rate you'll need to be very sure that your body doesn't eat away all its muscle.



I'd scale it back a bit. Maybe shoot for 3-4 pounds a week. CalorieKing has a nice (not free) tool where you give it a date and your desired weight, and it'll tell you how many calories to "net" every day to meet that goal. Then you can track everything (eating and exercise) and just focus on hitting the calorie deficit every day to hit your final goal.



It's all just a math equation. Once you figure it out, it's really simple (though definately not easy) to change your body. I really like this chart

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TSCalDeficits.h tm and how it shows the close relationship between weight and calories lost.

The last 2 days been with family, eating (and drinking) 4000+ plus calories a day. No problem, I'll make it up over the next couple weeks... right?



Well, this sucks. Today I'm following the same eating habits that I've been doing successfully (and happily) for the last few weeks (around 2000 calorie a day, frequent meals, low glycemic carbs, lots of protein ). But I've been starving the whole day. My body got used to enjoying refined carbs, sugar, and alcohol in mass amounts and it wants more. A lot more.



Anyone else having post holiday hunger?

The first phase of South Beach diet has the most potential for issues. Low carb diets put a lot of pressure on the kidneys in the first few stages and some people have bad reactions. I wouldn't say that its impossible for the diet to have a direct effect on certain people. That said, a high protein / low carb diet is generally considered safe on the kidneys if you accompany it with a lot of water.



Phase 2 and 3 of South Beach are completely healthy and nutritionally balanced and there's no way anyone would argue that following the diet's advice here has any risks. It's definitely only the first phase thats controversial.

6 seconds is way too long for an ab workout. Though I have an idea for a much better one - the 5 second ab system. Patent pending

I recently ordered one of those Omron handheld things (should arrive next week). My main worry (from the amazon reviews) was they would be too inconsistent. I don't think it just does a BMI calculation, though you should try it on someone else (with the same input settings) to see if it gives a different results.

I would really recommend tracking all your calories for a few weeks to really see if you are maintaining a healthy calorie deficit. fitday.com and thedailyplate.com have a good free ones, and there are several others.



The key is not to eat too little either. Just find your lean body mass (in pounds) and use a calculation to figure out how many calories you need to eat every day to lose weight at a healthy rate (2 pounds a week max). This page has all the info you'll need to calculate your daily intake goals: http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TSCalDeficits.h tm



Overall, it sounds like a healthy diet. Fruit is great, and maybe throw some cottage cheese or deli turkey breast in there so you have a healthy mix of carbs and protein.



Just make sure you make your diet one that you enjoy and can stick too, and give yourself a free day once every week (or every couple weeks) so you don't get fed up and quit the program.