Quote from: SamUntil you reach 30

Aint that the truth lol  Luckily you can just about get through uni before your body slows down.  I used to be able to eat and drink absolutely anything.  25 changed that hehe

Well truth be told Ive gone up two waist sizes to a 34 since I was working with Dave, but I eat kebabs, kebab pizzas, other takeaways, KFC etc at least once a week and do literally no exercise, so Ive got it coming to me to be honest. I dont look so skinny now though and I feel healthier at a 34 waist than I did when I was a 28.

I want to gain muscle myself and gain a bit of weight, but muscle weight.

It might sound silly, but when I started getting public transport after I sold my Volvo last December I started to get fitter, because I had to walk to the bus stop where as before Id try and get as close to work with the car as possible.

I would walk for up to an hour some days so it really does help and I think youd notice a difference in a month if not sooner.

My guilty pleasure was 2 litres of coke a day and 4+ pizzas a week hehe.  Considering I play sport 5 times a week...

I only knocked the crappy diet on the head in September but it makes such a big difference.  I still drink half a bottle of wine and 4-7 pints on a Friday and Saturday out in London but thatll probably never change lol

Quote from: Walrusbonzo

Quote from: White GiantSo basically lots of walking to begin with, dont eat sh*t, and try and do some form of weights?

Whats gonna be the best thing for weights? Cant afford to buy anything, maybe doing starjump type things with big bottles of water in my hands? Or doing the walking with a heavy backpack?

Youve got the right idea, look how Rocky did it!

Weights can be anything thats heavy, but just start lifting it to see how much you can do, dont bother with star jumps initially if you arent fit. If a single bottle in each hand isnt enough then try taping two, or eventually three together and add a handle from rope.

Doing weights wont reduce your weight much though, what it will do is convert some of the fat to muscle, which then needs feeding. There is a difference between being a 240LB lump of lard and a 240LB Greek god look alike.

Surprisingly overweight people have a bit more muscle than skinnies, they need it to carry around the excess. Of course this isnt the be all and end all of it, it also depends on the types of muscle you have. Some muscles burn fat much better than others.

245lb lump of lard actually.

As things have changed (http://www.tekforums.co.uk/posts/list/11686.page) I will now have access to a push bike and lots of spare time.

I assume biking is pretty good?

Except it does work like that.

You cannot target fat loss.

I started working out doing chest exercises and in fact my moobs got bigger. To the extent that although I could wear jeans smaller than my usual (4 inches in fact I had to wear my normal large tops. Things even started to hang off of my manboobs... Was rather disturbing to the extent that I no longer trained my chest muscles when I worked out.

also...

QuoteThe last bit of advice would be do not eat carbohydrates before bedtime. Your body has nothing it can do with them so it will just store them as fat. So if you normally have toast, cereal, pasta, whatever before bed t hen youre simply feeding fat. No bread before bed - tuna, chicken, ham, etc would all be better.

Would say that is nonsense. It takes 4 to 8 hours to digest a big meal. Your body will not store just carbs as fat, but will in fact store EVERYTHING as fat. Sidenote also: Eating a protein heavy meal means your digestive system will be working overtime whilst you sleep. Its roughly twice as difficult to digest as fibre/carbs.

If you are that anal to avoid bread why not turn your average day around.

Eat a your tea for breakfast, a lunch, and for dinner have a bowl of cereal.

Quote from: White Giant245lb lump of lard actually.

As things have changed (http://www.tekforums.co.uk/posts/list/11686.page) I will now have access to a push bike and lots of spare time.

I assume biking is pretty good?

For overweight people Id put it as follows.

1. Swimming - Best exercise out there for anything!
2. Cycling - For overweight people this is a godsend, no impact on your joints, and its great cardio, perfect for HIIT and also offering both a good cardio (high cadence) and resistance training (low cadence... hill
3. Walking

Running isnt in that list purely as I found out, running for any decent distance (5k in my case) completely shafts your knees.

1. Swimming - haha, not done that for 6 years, the day I get the confidence to take my Tshirt off in public will be met with fireworks!
2. Gonna be doing tones of that soon.
3. Not as much as I had planned, most of it replaced with cycling.

Quote from: White Giant1. Swimming - haha, not done that for 6 years, the day I get the confidence to take my Tshirt off in public will be met with fireworks!
2. Gonna be doing tones of that soon.
3. Not as much as I had planned, most of it replaced with cycling.

Dont go for a "free for all" swim session. Go when they have lanes out, they typically are quieter then and those people there are more concerned on what number length they are on, rather than your body.

Best of all... no kids, so no "whos the fat man mummy" crap from the little runts.

Quote from: M3ta7h3adExcept it does work like that.

You cannot target fat loss.

I started working out doing chest exercises and in fact my moobs got bigger. To the extent that although I could wear jeans smaller than my usual (4 inches in fact I had to wear my normal large tops. Things even started to hang off of my manboobs... Was rather disturbing to the extent that I no longer trained my chest muscles when I worked out.

Yup your pecs will change shape and if you have a very high body fat content they will probably tend to perk up at the bottom and outside a little.  This shouldnt be a problem for someone doing general workouts and eating properly as the fat will drop faster.  The case where they would grow like youre describing sounds more like a bulking issue.  That is what would happen if you didnt change your diet (i.e. were still eating far too many carbs, exceeding your calorie threshold and probably only doing one form of exercise.  In your case it sounds like you were doing only straight/flat bench presses and not eating properly.  That would give rise to the bottom of your boobs sticking out more.  Eating clean and doing incline, decline, military and flat presses shouldnt have that happen...

Quote from: M3ta7h3adWould say that is nonsense. It takes 4 to 8 hours to digest a big meal. Your body will not store just carbs as fat, but will in fact store EVERYTHING as fat. Sidenote also: Eating a protein heavy meal means your digestive system will be working overtime whilst you sleep. Its roughly twice as difficult to digest as fibre/carbs.

If you are that anal to avoid bread why not turn your average day around.

Eat a your tea for breakfast, a lunch, and for dinner have a bowl of cereal.

Not quite, eating carbs before bed will tend to be stored as fat and protein will tend to be used to maintain muscle mass. This is because your body converts foods differently.  Basically carbs go to fat or energy supplies (glycogen).  Protein goes to muscle, fat or energy supplies.  Fat goes to fat or energy supplies.  Theres some changeover and your body can mix and match a bit but its probably close enough to negligible you dont have to worry about it.  When you go to bed you will not be using the energy supplies so we now have carbs->fat, protein->muscle and fat, fat->fat.  During the night your body will eat away at fat and muscle to keep you alive.  With protein in that final meal it will eat that protein instead of your muscle mass.  With a carb final meal it has no choice but to take the muscle.  I must admit I thought carbs before bedtime was well known way of adding fat to your body...

Quote from: M3ta7h3adFor overweight people Id put it as follows.

1. Swimming - Best exercise out there for anything!
2. Cycling - For overweight people this is a godsend, no impact on your joints, and its great cardio, perfect for HIIT and also offering both a good cardio (high cadence) and resistance training (low cadence... hill
3. Walking

Running isnt in that list purely as I found out, running for any decent distance (5k in my case) completely shafts your knees.

Id very strongly disagree with that list.  I totally disagree with swimming being the best exercise.  The 2 big problem with swimming (other than the fact its a bit boring so you probably wont stick it out for 45 mins) are:
i) it drops your body temperature.  When your body gets cold it becomes hungry.  When you get out of the pool youll be very hungry and you will eat more food to compensate.  Go try it, 30 mins in a pool doing even the lightest of swimming and youll be hungry.  Say you burn off 600 calories and then overeat by 300 then youve only achieved a 300 loss.  Walking for the same amount of  time would have burnt more than that and you wont have to overeat after it.
ii) you cant swim properly. Breast stroke for example does very little as its very low resistance and a slow movement thing.  Front crawl/butterfly are awesome exercises but you simply wont be able to do it properly in a public pool because people will get in the way without a very big pool and proper training lanes.  If you have that youre probably not a beginner in fitness.

Swimming is definitely better than nothing as its great for toning but you will overeat as soon as you get out the pool.

Cycling is a lower body workout only and does not involve your upper body at all and if you sit on the seat instead of standing on the pedals throughout it wont really use your core muscles.  Youll probably go out of the LISS heart range which is optimum for fat burning.  People overdo it on bikes and running machines.  Walking is tricky to overdo.

The best of the biking/walking type options is probably a cross trainer with arm handles so youre moving all your body.  The best overall is unlikely to be swimming but itll almost certainly be rowing.  Id put it as:

Rowing
Elliptical/Cross Training HIIT
Elliptical/Cross Training LIIS
Cycling HIIT
jogging
incline walking
Cycling LIIS
swimming
flat walking




I really do not rate swimming as a good casual option simply because of the overeating that comes with it.  The main reason its popular is people can hide under the water so dont have to be seen by other people in the gym (know a lot of women who swim instead of use the cardio machines for that reason and suspect a lot of men do it for the same reason).  Also, you just go red but dont visibly sweat in a swimming pool which again is a nice thing for someone with low body image.

Carbs before bed I believed to be a well known myth.

Swimming is awesome exercise. You get full body exercise. You are right with regards to working out properly but the only way you will learn is by trying it out, so at first returns may be crap... but as you get into it you will get better returns than if you put the same amount of effort into walking, or cycling.

Lower body temp... maybe but considering my next stop after a swimming session is the sauna/steam room for stretching Ive never really noticed any hunger pangs. If you are that concerned about hunger pangs, mix it up... use the swimming pool, get out, change, drink a bottle of isotonic stuff if thats your thing, then walk at a brisk pace home, voila... failing that swim, then gym afterwards. Great idea to be honest as youll have warmed up all your muscle groups by doing various strokes, then go into the gym to do a proper workout.

With reference to my moobs, my diet changed from eating take aways to eating salad and chicken breast for most meals. The meals I didnt, were typically pasta and tuna. As for balanced workout, Cant really get more balanced than 3 different workouts, 1 x lower body 1 x upper body 1 x cardio. Fact of the matter was, I was losing weight on my legs and waist, but my chest size expanded, I vaguely remember having to wear a suit jacket open as I could do it up but it pulled and looked horrible.

Edit:

Note about training lanes in pools. They are quite common if you check the schedule of most pools most "non-lane" sessions are labelled as "free-for-all" or "free swim", lane sessions are often any other time than that.

Example my local pools... before 6pm... its training lanes, after 6pm it switches to free for all where carnage occurs.

Well probably just have to agree to disagree I guess

Ask someone at low enough body fat to see their abs how their abs look in the morning if they eat tuna before bed or the same calories of pasta, etc.  Theyll almost all say that their muscles look softer after the carb intake.  thats because the carbs have gone to fat and on a man theyll tend to be on your stomach.  I dont think its a myth.

Swimming is an awesome exercise (not compared to rowing etc tho as the water is holding up your body weight and the water isnt very high resistance).  If you could do the swimming without the drop in body temperature it would be awesome.  But personally I have to eat more after swimming and think thats a biological response to being submerged in water.

Quote from: M3ta7h3ad

QuoteThe last bit of advice would be do not eat carbohydrates before bedtime. Your body has nothing it can do with them so it will just store them as fat. So if you normally have toast, cereal, pasta, whatever before bed t hen youre simply feeding fat. No bread before bed - tuna, chicken, ham, etc would all be better.

Would say that is nonsense. It takes 4 to 8 hours to digest a big meal. Your body will not store just carbs as fat, but will in fact store EVERYTHING as fat. Sidenote also: Eating a protein heavy meal means your digestive system will be working overtime whilst you sleep. Its roughly twice as difficult to digest as fibre/carbs.

If you are that anal to avoid bread why not turn your average day around.

Eat a your tea for breakfast, a lunch, and for dinner have a bowl of cereal.

ERr, no. Tuna, chicken and ham all have low carbohydrate content, usually minimal fat and lots of protein. Fat and protein are difficult for the body to digest and burn so they give you a lot less energy than the sheets say. For excess protein your body needs to convert it into sugar and then into fat, which it isnt efficient at. For carbs like white bread though its easy to digest, giving you a quick hit of glucose and upping your insulin, which will quickly send it off to storage. The human body is excellent at converting sugar into fats.

Oily fish, like salmon, might be even better, or eating some fruit.

Got to say Im with Rich on the swimming - awesome work out and personally its never left me feeling hungry. Thirtsy maybe if Ive worked really hard. I dont find it boring either but then I do LOVE swimming!!

Sadly I do have WGs problem that I no longer feel I can take my top off in public - and yes mat eI too will be hiring a fireworks display team to celebrate when that day comes!