discussion 🏋️‍♂️ Fitness Thread 🏋️‍♂️do u even lift bro?

[Kern]

1 minute ago, Ichinaru19 said:

What would be the correct amount? Trying to do a lean gain right now

I'm on a cut and I eat about 170g of protein, 40-60g of fat and 190-200g of carbs. I guess that ratio but with more grams for each would be good enough

[Ichinaru19]

6 hours ago, Mordecai said:

Hi resident fitness bros 

 

I'm looking to get into weight training but I have NO idea where to start. I've been apprehensive and put it off for so long because I've wanted to use a personal trainer to help ease me into things but I'm in the final months of my degree so don't have a job, meaning my financial situation atm doesn't allow for me to take on PT rates which are quite expensive. I'm willing to get a job to make that financial investment but realistically I probably won't be able to land anything until the new year with the holiday season approaching

 

I'd start weight training on my own without PT help but I'm worried that if I do so I'll fall into bad habits, develop bad form and become more injury prone etc. I know there are a ton of resources out there that I can use to my advantage, so is it worth waiting until I can get a PT or should I start on my own? And if anyone did start weight training without professional help I'd love to hear your experiences

 

This is the last time I want to 'start over' my fitness journey which means I have to be all in and accept that I don't know what I'm doing

Start on your own, it's okay not knowing what to do, just try to learn on the go (watch videos to see the overall form). You need to be consistent by keeping track of your daily workouts on an app or book, start off with lighter weights and then progress slowly from there. PT may not be really worth it, it is a lot of money. I thought I wanted to get one at first too, now I'm glad I saved the money <3

[Kern]

Personal trainers are only good if you have money for long term 

[DanyelP23]

So I started getting back into eating avocado and eggs and while they taste delicious and are super easy to prepare, I do not get satiety from them at all.

I ate today 1 avocado and 3 boiled eggs (after eating earlier in the morning a bagel, a protein bar and 2 bananas).

I feel like rice and chicken ultimately remains the best thing to curb my hunger

By the way, has anyone here tried/done body re-composition instead of bulking and then leaning?

[AlanRickman1946]

55 minutes ago, DanyelP23 said:

So I started getting back into eating avocado and eggs and while they taste delicious and are super easy to prepare, I do not get satiety from them at all.

I ate today 1 avocado and 3 boiled eggs (after eating earlier in the morning a bagel, a protein bar and 2 bananas).

I feel like rice and chicken ultimately remains the best thing to curb my hunger

By the way, has anyone here tried/done body re-composition instead of bulking and then leaning?

Yes i can't get satiety with a keto diet.

[ithinkheknowsoutsold]

On 11/29/2024 at 12:22 PM, DanyelP23 said:

So I started getting back into eating avocado and eggs and while they taste delicious and are super easy to prepare, I do not get satiety from them at all.

I ate today 1 avocado and 3 boiled eggs (after eating earlier in the morning a bagel, a protein bar and 2 bananas).

I feel like rice and chicken ultimately remains the best thing to curb my hunger

By the way, has anyone here tried/done body re-composition instead of bulking and then leaning?

How long have you been training? I feel like you're really overcomplicating things for yourself based on your posts here, bulking is the easy part.

 

Spoiler

Speaking from someone who gained over 30 pounds earlier this year through a lean bulk and has since lost 20 pounds as part of a cut.

 

[DanyelP23]

1 hour ago, ithinkheknowsoutsold said:

How long have you been training? I feel like you're really overcomplicating things for yourself based on your posts here, bulking is the easy part.

 

  Hide contents

Speaking from someone who gained over 30 pounds earlier this year through a lean bulk and has since lost 20 pounds as part of a cut.

 

I started in March-April this year.

Spoiler

at 138 pounds and now I am at 163. I kind of got stuck for more than 3 months at 155-158 pounds. I know I should be eating more, but if I eat "healthy" food I feel like I have to stuff myself with too much so I have to compensate myself with foods high in fat to add up the calories (like low sugar deserts). But foods high in fat kinda ends up being lowkey addicting to me so I ended up putting on more fat than muscle. I'll try to focus and gain at least 10-15 pounds before doing a cut. It's so annoying because when I was losing weight (I lost like 80 pounds before being 138) and not going to the gym was somewhat easier for me.

Anyway I'll keep trying to eat above my TDEE and do my best. I started doing cardio more seriously besides strength training and at least I feel mentally better.

[ithinkheknowsoutsold]

6 hours ago, DanyelP23 said:

I started in March-April this year.

  Hide contents

at 138 pounds and now I am at 163. I kind of got stuck for more than 3 months at 155-158 pounds. I know I should be eating more, but if I eat "healthy" food I feel like I have to stuff myself with too much so I have to compensate myself with foods high in fat to add up the calories (like low sugar deserts). But foods high in fat kinda ends up being lowkey addicting to me so I ended up putting on more fat than muscle. I'll try to focus and gain at least 10-15 pounds before doing a cut. It's so annoying because when I was losing weight (I lost like 80 pounds before being 138) and not going to the gym was somewhat easier for me.

Anyway I'll keep trying to eat above my TDEE and do my best. I started doing cardio more seriously besides strength training and at least I feel mentally better.

A few questions:

How tall are you?

Have you always been a skinny person or were you more skinny fat?

Do you track how much you eat? If so, how many calories do you eat?

How much protein do you take in?

 

Building muscle is a more strenuous and a more rewarding process than losing fat haphazardly, since the former ensures you keep the weight off whilst in the latter you're just shaving the fat without any insurance for the future.

[DanyelP23]

2 hours ago, ithinkheknowsoutsold said:

A few questions:

How tall are you?

Have you always been a skinny person or were you more skinny fat?

Do you track how much you eat? If so, how many calories do you eat?

How much protein do you take in?

 

Building muscle is a more strenuous and a more rewarding process than losing fat haphazardly, since the former ensures you keep the weight off whilst in the latter you're just shaving the fat without any insurance for the future.

I'm like 5'10-5'11. 

Skinny up until middle of high-school then skinny fat for like a decade then I lost like 80 pounds in 9-10 months before going to the gym (I've never been a sports-y/active person, so while I was skinny fat I was mostly sedentary).

Yes, I've been tracking mostly accurate ever since I started losing weight. Right now I'm attempting to do like 2750 kcal. (some days I go over it, other days I stay under to compensate

I eat at least 160 grams of protein on average per day. 

I have a cheap-ish smart watch that tells me how many calories I burn in a day from phyiscal activity (so not accounting my BMR teoretically and I try to be at at least 500). 

Edited December 1 by DanyelP23

[ithinkheknowsoutsold]

29 minutes ago, DanyelP23 said:

I'm like 5'10-5'11. 

Skinny up until middle of high-school then skinny fat for like a decade then I lost like 80 pounds in 9-10 months before going to the gym (I've never been a sports-y/active person, so while I was skinny fat I was mostly sedentary).

Yes, I've been tracking mostly accurate ever since I started losing weight. Right now I'm attempting to do like 2750 kcal. (some days I go over it, other days I stay under to compensate

I eat at least 160 grams of protein on average per day. 

I have a cheap-ish smart watch that tells me how many calories I burn in a day from phyiscal activity (so not accounting my BMR teoretically and I try to be at at least 500). 

I would guess your maintenance is somewhere around 2500 calories a day, and eating just 250 calories over that is probably what has caused the bumps along your way. If you were eating like 3000 calories instead, I think the freedom and flexibility allowed by that would really help smooth out your bulk. The protein amount is perfect, some would recommend going higher but most studies imply that anything over 1 gram per pound is overkill. I think you would benefit from adding some healthy fats to your diet, why don't you fry or scramble your eggs in some olive oil instead of boiling them?

 

Do you make protein shakes? They're a great way of packing on easy calories and personally keep me satiated for a while, and I'm not even making them in a way that's optimal for bulking. Satiety might not even be a problem for you, I've noticed often that I'm not hungry but just want to have a little snack out of boredom and cutting that down helped me curbed down extra calories a lot. Also, I read in one of your earlier posts that you go to the gym 3 times a week. Whilst that is great, I would recommend bumping that a little because the bulk probably grants you a lot more energy to do a workout and it's best to utilise that now by really exerting yourself in the gym.

 

Do you track your progress through any measurements i.e. bicep size, chest size, quad size etc.? Keeping note of that would be a great way for you to help yourself keep sight of a bigger goal and see where you're faltering and if you the bulk is resulting just in fat gain or also in increments to your muscle mass.

[DanyelP23]

1 hour ago, ithinkheknowsoutsold said:

I would guess your maintenance is somewhere around 2500 calories a day, and eating just 250 calories over that is probably what has caused the bumps along your way. If you were eating like 3000 calories instead, I think the freedom and flexibility allowed by that would really help smooth out your bulk. The protein amount is perfect, some would recommend going higher but most studies imply that anything over 1 gram per pound is overkill. I think you would benefit from adding some healthy fats to your diet, why don't you fry or scramble your eggs in some olive oil instead of boiling them?

 

Do you make protein shakes? They're a great way of packing on easy calories and personally keep me satiated for a while, and I'm not even making them in a way that's optimal for bulking. Satiety might not even be a problem for you, I've noticed often that I'm not hungry but just want to have a little snack out of boredom and cutting that down helped me curbed down extra calories a lot. Also, I read in one of your earlier posts that you go to the gym 3 times a week. Whilst that is great, I would recommend bumping that a little because the bulk probably grants you a lot more energy to do a workout and it's best to utilise that now by really exerting yourself in the gym.

 

Do you track your progress through any measurements i.e. bicep size, chest size, quad size etc.? Keeping note of that would be a great way for you to help yourself keep sight of a bigger goal and see where you're faltering and if you the bulk is resulting just in fat gain or also in increments to your muscle mass.

I used to do protein shakes then I switched to protein oatmeal and now I get instead a protein bar a day. My problem is consistency and I'll try to work on that.

I'll try to go more than 3 times a week. The hardest part is getting out of the house and I feel like the cold outside didn't do me any favors.

I did keep track of my waist size which went up like 2 inches since I started going to the gym back in March, but doing more sets of measurements and then checking them periodically sounds like a good idea!

 

Thank you for your advice!

[Ichinaru19]

14 hours ago, ithinkheknowsoutsold said:

How long have you been training? I feel like you're really overcomplicating things for yourself based on your posts here, bulking is the easy part.

 

  Hide contents

Speaking from someone who gained over 30 pounds earlier this year through a lean bulk and has since lost 20 pounds as part of a cut.

 

On 11/28/2024 at 9:32 AM, Kern said:

I'm on a cut and I eat about 170g of protein, 40-60g of fat and 190-200g of carbs. I guess that ratio but with more grams for each would be good enough

If you're doing a lean bulk, the goal is to gain 0.5 lbs per week right?

[ithinkheknowsoutsold]

9 hours ago, DanyelP23 said:

I used to do protein shakes then I switched to protein oatmeal and now I get instead a protein bar a day. My problem is consistency and I'll try to work on that.

I'll try to go more than 3 times a week. The hardest part is getting out of the house and I feel like the cold outside didn't do me any favors.

I did keep track of my waist size which went up like 2 inches since I started going to the gym back in March, but doing more sets of measurements and then checking them periodically sounds like a good idea!

 

Thank you for your advice!

A good way to make a high protein, high calorie shake would be to add full fat milk, a scoop of whey protein, the protein oatmeal, some kind of fruits (bananas are great for both taste and calories), a little bit of oil, and some peanut butter. That could go up to 60 grams of protein and 1000 calories depending on how much you of each ingredient you put in. Can be as satiating as a meal whilst also going down super quickly because it's mostly just a thick liquid. 

 

The reason I would go more than 3 days is because that really ups the volume of exercises you get per set. Let's say you do 3 sets of incline curls, Bayesian cable curls, and preacher curls for your biceps on the day you work out your biceps. That means you get around 9 sets for biceps for the whole week at your current rate. Doing that on one more day per week bumps you up to 18 sets per week, which puts it right in the optimum range (10-20 sets per week) for solid muscle growth. 

 

Individual body measurements are really great for seeing your progress and they can tell you both your strong and weak points. For instance, since the start of this year I have grown my arms by almost 3 inches (including by more than half an inch on my cut), even though sometimes I look at pictures of myself from last year and feel like I haven't made any progress at all. If you were to track your gains using measurements,  you would be able to ascertain if you're just putting on fat or not, and probably feel a lot more secure about your bulk.

 

Anytime, I hope my advice can be of some help 

[ithinkheknowsoutsold]

8 hours ago, Ichinaru19 said:

If you're doing a lean bulk, the goal is to gain 0.5 lbs per week right?

I wouldn't personally define it in those terms since you can't really control the weight you lose per week. Instead a lean bulk is best defined as being in a caloric surplus of 250 to 500 calories per week (something actually under your control), and some quick calculation tells me that a surplus of 250 calories would result in a gain of around half a pound a week, so that is indeed right.

[Kern]

anyone having hard time dealing with full time job and working out 3 times a week?

 

Diet is not a big problem for me but finding time and energy to work out is hard

[Terrielle]

7 minutes ago, Kern said:

anyone having hard time dealing with full time job and working out 3 times a week?

 

Diet is not a big problem for me but finding time and energy to work out is hard

I don't know how people do it. I can only squeeze in 2 workouts a week on my off days.. completely neglecting leg day. 
 

Spoiler

Probably why I haven't seen any significant gains eventho i been working out for almost 2 years now nnn

 

[Ichinaru19]

On 12/1/2024 at 6:39 PM, ithinkheknowsoutsold said:

I wouldn't personally define it in those terms since you can't really control the weight you lose per week. Instead a lean bulk is best defined as being in a caloric surplus of 250 to 500 calories per week (something actually under your control), and some quick calculation tells me that a surplus of 250 calories would result in a gain of around half a pound a week, so that is indeed right.

Do you mean per day? Because I've been aiming for about 300+ day

[Comedor]

Here to recommend Apple Fitness+. The trainers are great and the workouts are fun. Pretty incredible app if you need motivation to move your body!

[ithinkheknowsoutsold]

15 hours ago, Ichinaru19 said:

Do you mean per day? Because I've been aiming for about 300+ day

Yeah, my bad. I did mean per day.