ectogemia

So since this contest has started, I've had to close on a house, paint it, move some stuff over, deal with a broken car, buy a new one, get through projects and class in school, study for one of our once-monthly mega exams in dental school this coming Friday, and write a remix for the FL Studio Remix Gauntlet. Damn, life, you scary. But somehow, I have 3 minutes of tunez written for Mines of Narshe so far. Man, I hope I can find the time to finish it. I'd be *ecstatic* if I placed in this compo! Shreddage II in my body...

This thread is dead. Trash talk revival: You're guys remix are bad.

Tabata sprints (developed by a Japanese physiologist named Tabata -- check out his research some time) are a type of HIIT, and studies have shown them to be the most effective protocol out there at the moment. Basically, 20 seconds of maximum effort, 10 seconds of dead rest -- repeat for 8 reps, a total of 4 minutes effort. Yep, 4 minutes of effort twice per week nets you greater VO2 max increases and fat loss than 45 minutes of steady state 5 times per week. Love this stuff. Haha, awesome about the pants. I can't wait to get back to that feeling. I lost all my gains last year after I succumbed to frustration with a bout of insomnia and accepted a prescription for Ambien like an idiot. 6 weeks later, I was hooked on the shit, and I quit cold turkey and embarked on a month of withdrawal which was INDESCRIBABLY FUCKING INSANE. I lost over 20 pounds by the time I got my mind back and was so bummed out about it, I didn't work out for like 7 or 8 months after that and just kept dropping muscle. I've only recently gotten back into the gym, and a month later, I'm already up 6 pounds. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I did Crossfit for a couple of weeks, if that counts There's nothing special or mystical about it. Its secret is its structure. It tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. On top of that, it has a built-in progress metric in its "for-time" system. If you're the type of person who isn't very proficient in developing your own long-term plans and sticking to them, Crossfit's WODs are a good method to ensure that you'll make some progress. Otherwise, you could plan for yourself a more efficient and safe course to total fitness. There's also the Crossfit culture and community which some people are really into, so that's a perk if it's up your alley. Also, Crossfit isn't for everyone. My goal at the moment, for instance, is to maximize muscle gain rate being that I already have a low body fat %. Crossfit would be a poor choice for me because it is fairly aerobic, and aerobic adaptation/recovery activates a cell pathway which inhibits muscular strength adaptation/recovery, among cortisol and overtraining concerns. If your goal is fat loss, again, there are more efficient ways to go about losing the fat than Crossfit, but as I said, Crossfit done sensibly will do the job eventually. I guess the moral of the story is that Crossfit is one approach to fitness, but it certainly isn't the best one in an absolute sense. In a relative sense, though, specifically with respect to those who struggle to develop and maintain a routine, it's a winner. It does the planning and makes the decisions for you and even measures your progress in a simple manner.

Yes, generally you just do the Crossfit WOD. They aren't all so short. Also, pure Crossfit is dumb. The injury rate for Crossfitters is astronomical for many reasons, perhaps the chief of which is that the time-based "personal best" system of progression encourages you do sling around heavy weight as quickly as possible, not necessarily as mechanically soundly as possible. And let's not forget that daily intense workouts leave no time for recovery, so there's the very likely outcome of overtraining and chronic fatigue on top of chronic cortisol release which will lead to fat gain AND muscular wasting over time. Only the genetically gifted are the ones who look like beasts after years of Crossfit. Every other loyal Crossfitter I've ever seen looks like they've hardly ever touched any iron. Bad, cortisol. Bad. So Crossfit is a great idea in theory, I guess (maybe?), but doing it in the pure WOD sense with the ideal Crossfit progression isn't a good plan if you like tendons untorn and bones unbroken. It's an excellent supplemental way to exercise from time to time or to add some variety, but I don't believe it lives up to the hype it has created for itself. Heavy compound lifts with low reps are the way to go for pure brawn with minimal risk of injury, assuming you know how to execute the lifts properly. Tabata-style sprints are the way to go for cardiovascular fitness with minimal risk of injury. Don't believe me? Check out the death knell of steady state cardio. God, I love it when "common knowledge" is actually bullshit. And now I leave you with perhaps one of my favorite videos ever. Such technique, such creativity. edit: lol, I'm sorry, but the pull-ups in that video get me evry tiem. editedit:

*feels old*

The brass was a sample out of Smoker's Delight which I processed and did some chopping and repitching to get the melody and rhythm I wanted while still keeping all the unique articulations of a recorded human performance 'n' stuff. A lot of the sounds in this track are samples I've treated as such.

I'm in. I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay prefer writing originals.

Yo. I'm not sure in which subforum this goes, so move it if it needs to be moved. This seemed appropriate enough, I guess Anyyyway. I need a male voice actor who is capable of a gruff, growly, menacing, police-type voice. I'm writing a remix for the FF6 compo, and I'm doing the Mines of Narshe. The angle I'm approaching it from is creating a sort of a lengthy, cinematic intro with lots of audio samples and ambience to simulate the bleak, martial atmosphere of Narshe and rule under the Empire. I want to tell a story in the intro of a "treasure hunter" being captured by the authorities and marched through the streets to a prison transport, and on his last march through his hometown, he finally sees Narshe for the dismal pit that it is. Then he'll be sent off the Kefka, there will be a drop of some sort, music will play him out, etc., etc. Where you come in is I need a few spoken lines acted out as the arresting officer catches the thief and again when he tosses him in the transport to be carted away. Anyone have any expertise here?

DOCTOR SENSES TINGLING. Yeah, pancreatitis... shit. That sucks man, sorry. Any idea how you came down with it? It's a relatively rare one.

I use the shit out of them, but you could use edit events, I suppose, to accomplish the same thing.

VOTE XENOBLADE 2013! Why, you ask? Enjoy.

Woo, 1 minute in, and this is sounding fantastic! It really captures the vibe of my source tune Just hope I can finish strong...

Time to upgrade to Xarnax43. Enjoy your new life.

Kirby, wtf... your music is too good. Like, it makes me sick to my stomach how jealous I am of your tunesmithing. Amazing track last round.

LINKU Here's a tune so smooth that some experts would agree it is, instead, smoov.

LINKU I wrote this tune over the past couple of days for the FL Studio Remix Gauntlet here on our very own beloved OCR forum <3 As per the limitations of the competition, it was written using only FL Studio 10 DEMO version synths and samples and plugins. I think it turned out quite well. Y tu?

voat'd 10charmadness

What the... You played through it with the keyboard? Bravo, sir, bravo.

Touching children there.

God damn it. Just when I was almost all caught up with music... I'm in. Now's my turn to shine

Tell me why you think this is. Also, do you have any evidence suggesting most people consume lots and lots of calories, irrespective of the macronutrient ratio? This is false. In an energetic sense, all the macronutrients are interchangeable with one another. Read more on gluconeogenesis, de novo lipogenesis, beta oxidation, and alpha-ketoglutarate. Again, false. You are correct in assuming that glycogen is a ready reserve energy, but you are missing the fact that, in an absence of carbohydrates in the diet, glycogen is STILL replenished. Gluconeogenesis is perfectly capable of generating all your body's carbohydrate needs; in fact, there is no such thing as an essential (unable to be produced by the body) carbohydrate. Any carb your body needs can be produced from fat or protein precursors. The important point, and the one you're really speaking to, is that the RATE of glycogen replenishment is greater with direct carb intake instead of waiting on gluconeogenesis to do its work in the liver... ... and this is important for recovery between workouts. Most athletes perform at an extremely high (read: too high) level which almost requires that they take in a fair amount of carbohydrates. They deplete their energy stores so much that without a high-rate replenishment method like direct carb intake, they would suffer a lot of systemic energy deficits which would not be fun to live with. Gluconeogenesis is not sufficient on its own to keep up with their workload. Being that most people do not perform at this level -- even those who just "work out" -- lots of supplemental carb intake is not usually necessary. That being said, most people who work out intake a lot of carbs before, during, and after workouts because that's simply what they've been told to do by conventional wisdom. It's not because ONLY carbs are effective at replenishing glycogen. I know of marathoners who take coconut oil or butter with them on runs, both of which are rich in medium-chain fatty acids. Medium chain fatty acids, especially lauric acid, are converted to useful energy VERY quickly in the liver. And all those workout supplements you mentioned are carb-based because 1) fats aren't water soluble or stable on a shelf for long periods of time, so they wouldn't make a good drink and 2) carbs are cheap and sweet, so people will buy them and companies will profit immensely. There's a societal explanation, not a strong biological one. Again, though, I will grant that carbs replenish muscular and organ energy the fastest, but they are only necessary in high-performance athletes or those seeking to build muscle quickly. I have no idea what this means. Which myths do you mean? This much is true. If you are sedentery, carbs hardly need to be consumed at all. Scale them up as you exercise with more intensity to ensure your organs are being energized sufficiently. --- The sad part is that I'm 2 years away from being a doctor, and I can tell you that maybe 2 of my 103 classmates have a clue when it comes to nutrition. It's amazing how little doctors are taught about nutrition, and when we are "taught" about it, it's outdated and mis-contextualized information (e.g. "Insulin causes fat deposition, so just eat less fat!" instead of a logical alternative like ("Insulin causes fat deposition, so just eat fewer carbs!). The last person someone should trust about nutrition is a doctor. We just don't have the training. I'm fortunate that I'm super interested in nutrition and biochemistry, so I sought out information myself. It's made all the difference in my life.

Totally. Actually tracking what you eat for a while to get a real, objective handle on the composition of your "average" daily food intake speaks volumes and would make it EXTREMELY clear where improvements can be made to achieve your goals. And to clarify, Thin Crust, it's not that calories DON'T matter, it's that they are of SECONDARY IMPORTANCE to your macronutrient (protein, carb, fat) intake ratio. A 2500 Calories/day diet of 100% carbs will NOT lead to the same fat loss/retention as a 2500 Calories/day diet of 100% fat or 100% protein. That is a fact, and it alone is sufficient to debunk "calories in = calories out." That being said, in light of everything I put forth about insulin leading to fat retention and storage, eating 5000 calories a day of 100% fat -- being that fat does not lead to insulin production -- does not mean you will not gain any fat. I oversimplified it to some degree to keep things short-ish, but the take home point is that if you control the carb-content of your food, you don't really have to concern yourself TOO much with calories unless you have 1-digit body fat % and are trying to cut a little more fat or if you're trying to build muscle quickly. Or if you track your diet and find that you're eating 4000 Calories per day or something a little out there like that.

OH BRANDON. But seriously, don't buy that fucking rigatoni. Why thank you, sir <3

Everything I said in my other post. And also don't buy more rigatoni.

False. Breakfast doesn't jump start your metabolism. In fact, "jump starting your metabolism" is a meaningless aphorism. Ask any biochemist what the hell that means. You'll get no concrete response. There are so many reasons you are hungry soon after breakfast but not when you skip it. So... skip it. Fasting is extremely beneficial, especially with weight loss. Insulin, not calories, is usually the most important factor to control when seeking to lose fat (this does not always apply; diabetics or those with an adrenal disorder are exceptions, for instance). High insulin = high fat retention. Fasting increases your cells' sensitivity to insulin which means you will need to produce less insulin to get the same blood sugar regulation as you would in an insulin insensitive state. Again, insulin leads to fat retention. So, simply put, fasting leads to decreased insulin which leads to decreased fat retention. As an aside about breakfast, carbohydrates do little to bring about satiety. Protein is the strongest satiety signal to the body with fat coming in at a fairly distant 2nd place. If you eat lots of carbs for breakfast, as almost everyone does, you're sure to be hungry soon thereafter. To your gut, brain, and endocrine system, eating a meal of only carbs -- especially simple and refined carbs -- is interpreted almost as though you've eaten no meal at all. There are many reasons for this, and I can go into it if you're interested. Moving on, though... Sugar on top of sugar on top of sugar. Again, it's insulin, not calories, which you need to control first. Calories come second. What triggers insulin release? Carbohydrates (sugar) do so strongly, protein does so weakly, and fat does so hardly at all. So in order to minimize insulin secretion, you have to minimize carbohydrate intake. This is why the Atkins diet works so well for fat loss (although its allowance of processed foods doesn't make simple 'lo-carbing' via Atkins conducive to total health). This meal alone is sabotaging almost all of your weight loss. Salad certainly isn't bad for you, but it's not very filling except in a bulk matter sense, and that does count to some degree as far as satiety signals go in the intestines -- the intestines and stomach respond to the degree of "stretch" caused by food -- but they respond most strongly to the macronutrient chemicals in the food -- the proteins, carbs, and fats. Salad is pretty devoid of any of those in a digestible form, so it's rather calorie-sparse and poor at satiating you. It's just an average choice for a diet food. You could do worse, sure, but you could do a whole lot better. There's nothing healthy about avoiding fats unless you're avoiding excessive polyunsaturated fats (AKA excessive omega-6 fatty acids). The most obvious exception is if you have familial hypercholesterolemia which you probably do not. If there's a VERY high incidence of heart disease and type II diabetes in your family, then perhaps you may have it and avoiding fats could be advisable. Again, fats are reasonably effective at satiating you. They also do not mobilize insulin, so, ironically, if you want to lose fat, it doesn't hurt to eat fat. And no, just because you eat fat does not mean you will store it as fat. Every cell in your body has the ability to transform fat into carbs or amino acids, although it is primarily the liver's responsibility to do so. It is insulin's responsibility to regulate when dietary fat is retained as stored fat. High insulin (high carb intake) leads to high dietary fat retention and high conversion of dietary carbs to stored fat. Sugar, sugar, sugar. Can't really complain here about anything but your fat phobia unless I get picky about bread and processed foods, but I won't go down that rabbit hole. Me, too, but I don't eat it because I like being lean more than I like eating cookie dough Eat butter. The medium chain saturated fatty acids in real butter (not this "vegetable spread" bullshit like Smart Balance) are VERY good for your energy levels, immune system, and satiety. Do NOT cook with olive oil. It is extremely rich in monounsaturated fat (omega-9 AKA oleic acid). This is important because omega-9 (along with omega-3 and omega-6) are HIGHLY reactive in heat and will oxidize to form those dreaded FREE RADICALSSS you hear about everywhere. Cooking with vegetable oils ensures you're getting a nice, big dose of free radicals to ravage your intestines and cardiovascular system. Eat red meat. In fact, make it a staple. There's nothing more satiating, and it is very nutrient-dense. I would discontinue the milk entirely. If you're not getting it from a farm directly, it's probably ultrapasteurized, and that has the same effect as cooking olive oil. It sounds like you're fixated on "cutting." You mentioned that you feel like there's nothing else you can remove from your diet, yet you still aren't losing weight. Doesn't it seem like the popular paradigm of "calories in = calories out" is sorta bullshit? If it were true, would you not have lost a lot of weight by now instead of having GAINED 10 lbs. since you started exercising and dieting? Calories are secondary to hormones. Energy (calories) do not dictate to your metabolic enzymes what to do with the fats, proteins, and carbs you take in. Instead, it is hormones which tell your cells what to do. There is no calculator in your body that will store a little fat if you are 1 calorie over your "calories out" limit. Instead, there is a balance between competing hormones like insulin and glucagon which determines fat storage. Control this balance, and you control the path your calories take through your metabolism -- do you want fat storage or fat release? If you want storage, chow down on the carbs; if you want release, avoid them. So yeah, I know a lot of this sounds contrary to conventional wisdom, and it is. Don't let that scare you. Extraordinary methods lead to extraordinary results. I just sorta touched the tip of the tip of the iceberg of my dietary philosophy, so I'm sure I left a lot of things insufficiently explained, so if you aren't convinced yet, I'm not surprised If you have questions or problems with any of my claims, ask away.