"Super Size Me", coming to an (art house) theater near you..
 

http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/...px?news=151686

This looks movie really interesting, IMO.
I have just embarked upon a 'lifestyle change', that has me eating healthier and exercising more. As a computer nerd (and the world's 2nd laziest person), I have all too often succumbed to the lure of fast food. Once upon a time I was a skinny fella. I've gained 60lbs in the last 3 years. Horrifying!

Recommended reading: "Fast Food Nation"

Good for you yellow. I recently went through the same thing about 7 or 8 months ago. I eat mostly a strict vegetarian and seafood diet now, but occasionaly will eat meat. I think in the last 8 months I have eaten red meat once and poultry maybe 4 times. I also quit smoking and work out 3 times a week. I don't do it for any reason other than health.

Just don't buy into that adkins diet stuff, in the long run its not good for you.

Right on. Basically I'm just eating leaner protiens, low fat, low(er) carbs, smaller portions, lowered calories, but the key is exercise. Cardio every day and weight lifting every other day. I'd forgotten I could sweat that much! Eww!

The weight training in particular is good if you're starting to carry more weight as you get older. I was starting to gain more and more each year as well. Low volume weight training can actually reverse the metabolic slowdown that comes with aging, so you're burning more calories 24-hours a day, and it becomes easier to keep the weight off. Got a cheapo compact weight machine about a year ago, and immediately started losing about 5 lbs per month. Now I'm not much heavier than I was in High School (back in the dark ages); lost about 45 lbs quite easily.

I didn't really think about changing my diet, but exercising seemed to cause my diet to change on its own. That junk/fast food just didn't sound good anymore.

As tlarkin said, good for you, yellow. Stay with it!

I personally feel better eating less meat though. I get less stomach aches, heart burn, and indigestion from eating way less meat. However, you can still be healthy and eat meat as long as you eat the right kind and right amount.

I mostly do calistenics over weight training, but both work in getting you back in shape.

Thanks. All this is because we decided to get married at the Sandals Royal Bahamian Restort. I've been fat-bodied for long enough!

Good for you for quitting smoking Tom. I'm working on it..

Here's an excellent resource with a wealth of information on aerobic and anaerobic exercise, nutrition, and whatnot, in case you haven't already discovered it. Might want to check it out when you need some inspiration. I found it very useful for getting started on an exercise program again; answered many of my questions.

ExRx.net

Best advice for anyone (esp. the older among us) seeking to change their diet and excercise habits: see your doctor first to rule out any problems you might have before they present themselves at an inopportune moment, ie. having a heart attack during your first workout.

EDIT: Here is similar advice from the above linked ExRx:

• If you are male and older than 35 or female and over 40 or have any preexisting health concerns please see your doctor to receive medical clearance to participate in exercise. There may be a valid reason why you should limit your participation or not exercise at all.

Bah I'm still in my twenties so I am still invincible!!!!

Great tip! Thanks!

Exactly! I no longer eat fast food hardly at all

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

One shouldn't really lower the amount of fat, but change the kinds of fats one eats (fast food has the worst kind of fat you can eat). Do eat your PUFAs; if you want to read up on this, Elzi Volk has some great articles (a bit dense):

Part 1.
<http://www.bulknutrition.com/?articleID=21>
Part 2.
<http://www.bulknutrition.com/?articleID=35>

Get some fish oil in your diet, by eating fish (salmon is good, don't get farmed) or by supplementing with fish oil. If you don't like the taste, make sure it's micro-filtered or deodorized.

You may also want to check out enova oil:

<http://www.enovaoil.com/>

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Make sure you get enough protein (especially those of you on vegetarian diets). If you don't get enough protein you can't sustain your muscle. You will need between 0.5 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of muscle, just to maintain the muscle you have. More if you want to gain muscle. So do the numbers and figure out how you're going to get that much protein.

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Do consider weight lifting. The benefits of having an extra pound of muscle on you are great (which distributed among your body will never make you look bulky if that isn't your goal). For every pound you will burn aproximately 40 more calories a day, plus the calories you burn while working out. Plus it will strengthen and thicken your bones (important for when you get older).

I wouldn't recommend lifting weight every day. I'd say if you're going to follow a protocol, check out HST:

<http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html>

Don't be turned off at how it's aimed at body builders. Basically the same techniques will allow you to gain more muscle per workout. There's no way you'll ever get that large unless you take _years_ of religious training (and maybe some anabolic help).

---
Don't buy supplements, they're all crap. Just get a nice multivitamin. If you want to supplement protein or carbs or whatever (remember that protein and carb supplements are just food, nothing else), don't buy stuff from stores, they have thickeners (so it's like a shake) and you can't chose your sweetener, so it might even have sugar or nutrasweet. Just go here:

<http://proteinfactory.com>

Chose splenda if you don't have a favorite sweetener.



v

Vonleigh-

Good info, thanks. I eat a non strict veggie diet with seafood. I still eat poultry every now and again but not red meat. I eat sushi every now and again and get some fish oil that way.

As for protien goes what about beans and soy. Protiens that aren't from red meat. How do they differ? If you know, I would like to as well. If you don't I can always just look it up.

I was actually eating a burger and fries while reading all this.--not kidding, really was. Good links and information, folks.

Yeah, well I started training again and this time I am much more serious about it. I even quit smoking because of it. A healthy diet of course does nothing but help me reach my goal faster. A healthy diet is 100% needed to be in good physical shape, but it definately helps a lot.

I think after I hit my next plataue in training I will move from calestinics to some weight training to isolate and build a few muscle groups.

Anyways, thanks again for the info.

If you're dieting it's a very good idea to get about 5g of fish oil a day, that's why I suggested supplementing it. Lots of information on omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids if you care to look it up, don't have any links handy.

In general terms a protein is a protein, I don't believe there is evidence to the contrary. It's still a good idea to mix them up just in case.

Go here to figure out how much soy, fish, chicken, etc. you need to eat daily in order to get enough protein.

<http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl>

Let's say you weigh 200 pounds and are at 30% fat, that would mean you have 140 pounds of lean body mass. You'd need between 80-180g of protein (I wouldn't do less than 100g).

Considering that a half pound of chicken has 70g of protein, if you're cutting back on meat you might want to supplement. I haven't run the numbers with soy and beans, but I wouldn't guess they're terribly high.

Oh, and if you really want to track your progress, get a fat reading. Nothing will tell you better how you are reaching your goals than knowing your fat percentage. Do not trust those electrical impedance scales, they're useless. You need a bodyfat reading with a caliper (some universities do it with buoyancy for a fee, you might want to try that if you can).

Good luck.

edit: I'm not sure what you're planing with weight training to isolate a few groups. I'd recommend you go with a full body workout (hence the HST recommendation).

Remember that it's impossible to spot reduce (reduce fat in just one area). Fat burns off like a snowman, the deepest fat deposits will burn off last.

Atkins here. I lost 20 lbs. and my cholesterol and triglycerides fell to an acceptable level. I feel healthier, have more energy, and sleep well.

Whatever works, I guess . . . and by all means, cut the allergenic foods. I had mine tested here and was greatly helped by eliminating several basic foods (onions, cabbage, grapefruit, for example). Great place! And nice web site, don't you think? :D (I created the templates and overall style for them years ago.)

Thanks again for the links and info, I am still at work so I can't browse them yet but will later on.

Yeah building muscle is what I want, but I don't want to build mass. I also train conditioning as well like endurance type stuff, mostly now stance training but will do some more cardio when its nicer outside.

Flexibility is also a new thing for me as well. I found yoga helps increase flexability, endurance, and health which also really helps my training. I'm not sure exactly what my main goal in training is yet, if its competitive or just about bettering myself. Thats something I'll figure out later I guess.

Oh, btw phil, good job on that site. Its very functional and easy to navigate which is very important IMHO in relation to websites that are very informational and factual based.

Sorry to keep harping on, but there are many widely held misconceptions about diet and exercise.

There is no way of building muscle without building mass. Try to trying to build the most muscle possible. Even if you went all out (rigorous weight lifting, very little cardio, supplements, etc) it would take you years to gain any significant amount of muscle.

You don't want to push yourself too far and injure yourself obviously, but train as hard as your body (and doctor) will allow you.

There is no such thing as "toning" versus "building". You're either gaining muscle or burning fat. If you're heavier[1] it gets easier to do both at the same time (because of leptin and other factors), but once you start getting lean you have to chose between burning fat or gaining muscle; if you try to do both you will do it very slowly[2]. Of course if you're happy with your weight, then it's no longer about gaining or losing, it's about maintaining, unless your new goal is to get ripped.

If you plan on getting into competitive endurance training, I'd recommend you get into it once you're at a weight you're happy with. The reason is that if you get into it now it will be detrimental to your fat loss.

By doing endurance training, you're making your body burn it's resources more efficiently. Notice how even though most marathoners are very skinny, they are usually not ripped. Try to keep cardio at most at I'd guess an hour or so.

Oh, and try to eat something as soon as you finish working out, that way you'll lose less muscle.


v


[1] In fact if you're fairly heavy any diet will work, you will have plateaus though.

[2] Reason is that you're either anabolic (building) or catabolic (losing). If you're lean it's fairly hard to lose fat and gain muscle, so it's better to chose and do cicles of building/dieting (this is why bodybuilders do it this way).

Um, about the movie. I think McDonalds is concerned about it. I read that McDonalds is going to stop using the words "Super Size."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...ss/8088696.htm

McDonalds is trying to spin this as a health move, and it may be. Still I think it's a reaction to the movie. I suspect that, although the words Super Size will be phased out, the large portions wil not be phased out for long.

I have a great deal of respect for those of you changing to healthier eating and living habits. It's not always easy. If you start to backslide, here's a web site that will help:

http://meatrix.org/

devil's brother's cousin's advocate
 

always choose the blue pill

i'd rather have 50 years on this planet with steak than 75 without! -- Bubba Sparxxx

Re: devil's brother's cousin's advocate
 

LOL! :)

That's why I like Atkins!

-------

Thanks for the compliment, tlarkin.

Re: devil's brother's cousin's advocate
 

Right on.. but I'd rather have 75 years of not sweating when I eat :)

Re: Re: devil's brother's cousin's advocate
 

ROFLMAO!

Yeah well I guess its different for me, I train martial arts and being healthy and in shape is not needed, but man does it really help. If I wanted to start competing at an advanced adult level I would probably need a lot of cardio, endurance, and strength building exercise. I am not out of shape right now per se, but there is huge room for improvement definately.

The way you exercise from my understanding is they way your body will build muscle. When you do ab work you are suppose to suck your gut in so your abs get worked in that manner. You are getting your body "in shape" and by shaping them that way when you work out it will build the muscle that way.

Atkins diet is good short term answer, not a good long term answer. So be careful and consult a doctor or nutritionist about cautions.

Nothing wrong with steak at all; it can be part of a healthy diet. In fact many studies show that we were mainly meat eaters (occasionally fruits) for thousands of years. It is just with the agricultural revolution that we started eating other things. Notice how most people don't like veggies when they're children: it's an acquired taste.

About the sucking up your gut to exercise, I wouldn't count on it re-shaping anything (the reason to suck it in is for proper position). For example many people do obliques, but by doing those the love handles actually get larger (because the muscle underneath gets larger).

Nothing wrong with low-carb diets per se. They can be as healthy as any other diet if done correctly. I personally don't like the Atkins diet at all, because I think that a CKD is better. The last diet I did was the UD2. You can buy that book online here:

<http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/>


v

Re: devil's brother's cousin's advocate
 

“Admirers of politics and sausage should never watch either being made.” - attributed to Otto von Bismark.

"I love the smell of Brats in the morning." -me

I found myself to be quite fatigued lately, barely having enough energy after working all day to do 30 minutes of cardio at night. I think the problem is not enough carbs. Apparently my fruit intake hasn't provided enough? So last night I made myself a little bit of pasta and had some bread and I can feel the difference today! Much more 'normal' energy.

I don't think I could survive a no-carb diet.

good news for those of us who feel like eating a box of pasta sometimes! :) yummmmm ... pasta ....

That is somewhat debateable. People have been farming crops for 1000's of years the egyptians harvested many crops.

Look at our life expectancy nowadays compared to how it was several hundred years ago. Its due to our diet and advancements in the medicine field.

There have been documented cases that when people have died they carry many pounds of meat in their entrails. That meat has been there for years and years. So eating an excess of meat is not good for you no matter how you word it or study it. Meat in moderation is not bad for you.

Fish is real good for you because you get all the protien with less fats and cholesterol compared to red meat or poultry.

Eating meat will not kill you. If you want to be really healthy you should just eat less of it. It probably won't be the end of you just like smoking. You can use the same argument Merv used, why worry about living past 50 or 60, I mean who wants to be in their 70s? That is totally up to you. Towards the end of your natural life all the bad things you do to your body catch up with you pretty quickly, if that is not a concern of yours then you shouldn't worry about being healthy.

I think what he meant was in our <= hunter/gatherer years as a species. Theories abound that one of the reasons our hairier distant relatives were able to grow larger brains and evolve was because of all the fats and protiens that they were getting from eatting a steady meat diet. Who knows. Personally I'll never be able to give up red meat, though I have done an admirable job of cutting down on it. As the recipient of a recent colonoscopy, I can tell you, there was no undigested meat in my entrails. :)

A quick look at my teeth confirms that I'm an omnivore. :D

Heh.. got eyestalks, eh? I can't even touch my nose with my tongue! :)

Yeah I still eat meat myself just way way less than I used to. I have only eaten red meat twice in the last 8 months and poultry probably 5 times in the last 8 months. The rest of my diet has been veggies and seafood, and of course Indian food which is one of my favorites.

Anyways yellow your main concern should be quitting smoking. Being an exsmoker myself I understand what you are going through. I quit cold turkey, because I am stubborn like that. Not everyone can do that though heh.

I can't afford daily sushi, so I can't switch to an all fish diet. For some bizarre reason (surly linked to my formative years), I cannot stand cooked fish. For now, lean protiens in the form of poultry, soyburgers, and the occational fish (blech) will suffice.

You're totally right I should quit. For so many reasons that I shant bore anyone with. Definitely not cold turkey though. I used up all my reserves of willpower years ago. :)

awww come on Yellow, you can quit cold turkey bro, I have faith in ya.

This is actually the third time I have quit smoking, 1st time was for like 8 months or so, 2nd time I quit for about a year, and now I am on my 3rd month of quitting for the 3rd time LOL

So looks like I quit quitting every time.

I found a nice sushi bar where you can get a whole sushi meal for about 5 to 7 dollars, and its in a local grocery store. I would spend about that eating out everyday anyways.

Good food I have found is red beans and rice. Its super cheap, tastes good, and its good for you. I usually have it with a side of steamed veggies or something. Just watch out for the sodium sometimes they jam pack it in those boxes of beans N rice.

Anyways, good luck on your diet and may the handsome monkey king bring you good fortune this year of the monkey.

Instead of pasta, I rely on Lundberg brown rice for my carbs, I can buy it in bulk at Whole Foods. Yummy stuff, last batch I made I mixed in some black beans, raisins and chopped pecans. I make about 6 servings worth and store it in the fridge and then jazz it up with spices or hot sauce (a whole door rack of the fridge is dedicated to them) just before eating.

yellow -- Harris Teeter sushi is not all that bad! yummmmie! :)

>I think the problem is not enough carbs. Apparently my fruit intake hasn't provided enough?

Fruits don't have a lot of carbs, the carbs in fruit are mainly fructose, which is not a good source of energy.


> I don't think I could survive a no-carb diet.

That's why I don't like atkins (or a TKD). CKD (the c stands for cyclical) IMHO are better because you do have an intake of carbs every X days. Without carbs it's hard to do a good workout. In the UD2 you actually do a heavy carb load that lasts a day and a half, and that gets you through the heavier workouts.

Having said that one can adapt to a lowcarb diet and start deriving most energy from ketones. During the adaptation you might feel slugish though; but afterwards many report being more mentally alert; since you don't get the carb slowdown (turkey dinner syndrome).

---
>That is somewhat debateable. People have been farming crops for 1000's of years the egyptians harvested many crops.

Exactly, the agricultural revolution. On the grand scale of the presence of man on the earth 4-5k years is nothing. Before that we were mainly meat eaters.

>Look at our life expectancy nowadays compared to how it was several hundred years ago. Its due to our diet and advancements in the medicine field.

There's no evidence to conclude it's because of the diet. There's too many factors: how we wash our hands, cook our food, waste disposal, education, how we live better than kings did 1k years ago, etc. In fact, if you want to live longer, it's better to starve yourself (but then we get into the whole quality vs quantity of life), but there are several studies that conclude that heavy calorie restriction leads to longer life:

<http://www.calorierestriction.org/>
<http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art13114.asp>


>There have been documented cases that when people have died they carry many pounds of meat in their entrails.

Reference? Even so, it's not an indicator that this is normal for a majority of the population.


>Fish is real good for you because you get all the protien with less fats and cholesterol compared to red meat or poultry.

Actually some fish has a lot of fat (think cold water fish like salmon), the thing is that fish oil since it's heavy in omega-6 fatty acids is much better for you. It's not the amount of fat but the kind of fat. In fact fat is what sends the signal to your brain to indicate you're full. Testosterone is derived from cholesterol. Fat is not bad, it's just the kind and the amount; a good 20-30% of your diet can be fat no problem.

The inuits before the westernization of their diet ate mostly fat (whale blubber and the sort), yet they had the lowest incidence of heart problems. Once their diet got westernized, they started developing heart trouble.


>If you want to be really healthy you should just eat less of it.

I'm not exactly sure what you base that on. I think in the end it just boils down to calories in and calories out. This holds for most foods (except for example sugars). If you intake more calories than you expend, you gain weight, if you intake less than you use you lose weight.

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Wholefoods is great, I'd shope there more if I could afford it, we call it wholepaycheck : ) I do try to buy organic as much as possible. Even though there's no evidence that the hormones, etc. affect humans (there is the correlation of girls getting to puberty earlier), I prefer not to be chocked full of cow hormones thank you very much.


v

Having said that one can adapt to a lowcarb diet and start deriving most energy from ketones. During the adaptation you might feel slugish though; but afterwards many report being more mentally alert; since you don't get the carb slowdown (turkey dinner syndrome).

Exactly. Atkins is very low carb only in the beginning, and the tough first few days are largely about withdrawals from glucose, especially as delivered by today's highly processed carb foods (including all kinds of "low fat" stuff). As you lose weight, you add the carbs back until you find the amount where you neither gain nor lose. Furthermore, it is suggested that you get your carbs from foods with a high glycemic index--they don't break down into glucose quickly. So a whole food diet with complex carbohydrates along with a varied regimen of proteins is recommended. I think this probably approximates the hunter-gatherer diet around which our physiology developed through thousands of years. It's surely feels right for my wife and me.

Heh, same here. Good food, high prices! I'll stick with the Teeter :)

I saw a show on TLC saying that youngster (boy and girls, girls much more) hitting puberty early was due to the amount of super fatty foods that they are exposed to by early (and constant) forays into McD's and such. People are getting fatter, younger.