Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

[Soul Splint]

i've been blessed by Brodin with a super mesomorph build, and the bod pod guy was like "every percent of fat you clear out from here on out will make you look like a different person. It's good to hear that you managed to maintain a lot of lifts, I have a feeling i'll maintain bench and chins, as those are my best lifts, but the other stuff, who knows. I've reduced a but of volume while cutting, and just tried to maintain the weight, which seems to be working well.

Yeah, you'll be fine; adjusting the volume but keeping the weight is definitely the way to go.

you genetically gifted sons of bitches. I hate you all.

Hey, save all your hate for OA, man. I'm an ectomorph like three generations back:cry:. That's why even with such a low bf% I just look like a mesomorph who's been playing around in the gym for a few months, when in reality I've been training hard for quite a while now and eating super clean to boot. It will take me being in single digit bodyfat with a weight of 190 or better before I really start to look like a gym rat.

[zircon]

Good week at the gym Though I can't remember all of my numbers, I'm making improvements in almost every category. Most notably I squatted 280 today - a full set of 10, in fact! Considering I've only been training for about 1.5 months now, I'm pretty proud of that. I should be well over 300 by the end of the summer, and maybe even hitting 400 at the end of the year.

[Soul Splint]

Good week at the gym Though I can't remember all of my numbers, I'm making improvements in almost every category. Most notably I squatted 280 today - a full set of 10, in fact! Considering I've only been training for about 1.5 months now, I'm pretty proud of that. I should be well over 300 by the end of the summer, and maybe even hitting 400 at the end of the year.

Argle, feel free to hate this guy too. That is just ridiculous for less than 2 months training. I would be proud to get a clean set of 10 on 200 pounds right now, and I've been training squats for...a while. Seriously good job. You gotta post some pics of your first four-plate squat.

[kitty]

I just started my first day of doing a new routine. It's a 15 minute circuit of:

10 burpees

20 body-weight squats

10 jumping lunges

15 hand-release push-ups

Holy. fricking. shit. I am totally beat and sweating all over and I only got 2 sets of each in with 7 burpees to start my 3rd set. I seriously pushed myself on this one. Even though it doesn't even seem like I did a lot, I almost threw up several times. I really look forward to when I can ramp up the intensity and get through more sets of this stuff.

I think it really helped listening to some energetic music. The tracks I listened to are:

Sixto Sounds, Steppo, and zircon's Mega Man 3 Passing of the Blue Crown (here)

Otherworld from FFX

Black Mages - Those Who Fight Further

DragonForce - Trail of Broken Hearts

[XPRTNovice]

Even though it doesn't even seem like I did a lot, I almost threw up several times. I really look forward to when I can ramp up the intensity and get through more sets of this stuff.

15 minutes of that is really tough; it's basically the formula that Bodeefit.com uses. It's no joke...you want to die after that stuff.

[kitty]

Yeah I have a hard time keeping the intensity up. I basically start faltering around the second set and I just do my best to keep going without overdoing it.

[Argle]

Sounds like you'll be shedding fat in no time, if that is your goal.

[Thin Crust]

All right guys, it's finally happened. I have said that I would never work out for any reason. It's boring, tiring, and I feel like you don't get anything out of it. I will lose all my weight doing cardio and dieting. I've been trying that for years and I can't get rid of my extra weight and I'm stuck at 210. zero carb diet got me down 20 lbs, but it has stopped working and there's only one thing left to try.

If you look at my figure, my arms and legs are very muscular without any body fat. I can seriously leg press 650 lbs. But if you look at my trunk, there's a lot that I can get rid of. And after years of cardio (running, ultimate frisbee, basketball, DDR) and dieting, it hasn't gotten any better. What I need is an actual exercise that I can use to get rid of torso fat that does not include sit-ups. Please help. I don't know anything about working out.

[Anorax]

All right guys, it's finally happened. I have said that I would never work out for any reason. It's boring, tiring, and I feel like you don't get anything out of it. I will lose all my weight doing cardio and dieting. I've been trying that for years and I can't get rid of my extra weight and I'm stuck at 210. zero carb diet got me down 20 lbs, but it has stopped working and there's only one thing left to try.

If you look at my figure, my arms and legs are very muscular without any body fat. I can seriously leg press 650 lbs. But if you look at my trunk, there's a lot that I can get rid of. And after years of cardio (running, ultimate frisbee, basketball, DDR) and dieting, it hasn't gotten any better. What I need is an actual exercise that I can use to get rid of torso fat that does not include sit-ups. Please help. I don't know anything about working out.

Only thing that I can personally think of for worthwhile torso exercise is swimming. I don't mean a few laps either, I mean several thousand yards/meters (depending on the pool size) a day, 5 days/week. Go heavy on your kicks too, specifically the dolphin kick.

If swimming isn't your thing, then I don't know what to say. Anyone else got any ideas?

Edited April 15, 2014 by Anorax

[kitty]

Sounds like you'll be shedding fat in no time, if that is your goal.

It is, for now. Eventually I want to hit the gym to gain some muscle. Need ripped abs like OA.

[Soul Splint]

What I need is an actual exercise that I can use to get rid of torso fat that does not include sit-ups. Please help. I don't know anything about working out.

You cannot spot reduce fat. Despite what infomercials or training programs might try to tell you about toning certain muscles (by toning they mean building that muscle and reducing the fat around it), it's just not true. All the fat on your body is lost at the same rate, and you drop fat by burning more calories than you consume. Because you're a beginner, I would recommend googling TDEE to find out what your Total Daily Energy Expenditure number is--the number of calories you generally burn in one day. Then, for a couple of days, count your calorie intake (just google your food + the word calories and it will come up) to get an idea of how many calories you're generally taking in compared to your TDEE.

Then, aim to consume 300-500 less calories per day than your TDEE. Although you don't like strength training, the more lean muscle you have, the more fat your body burns at rest, so please give some more serious thought to doing more resistance/strength training.

It would also be beneficial to you to try and aim for certain macros in your eating. Macros refers to the percentage of protein, carbs, and fats your calories are coming from. For fat loss, I typically aim for about 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat, but you may want to tweak those. Feel free to PM me if you have questions or want more info. I'm sure OA, XPRT, Argle (and possibly Ecto, if he's around) can chime in with more info as well.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Soul Splint

[XPRTNovice]

It would also be beneficial to you to try and aim for certain macros in your eating.

I was almost positive this was just short for "macaronis"

[Thin Crust]

You cannot spot reduce fat. Despite what infomercials or training programs might try to tell you about toning certain muscles (by toning they mean building that muscle and reducing the fat around it), it's just not true. All the fat on your body is lost at the same rate, and you drop fat by burning more calories than you consume. Because you're a beginner, I would recommend googling TDEE to find out what your Total Daily Energy Expenditure number is--the number of calories you generally burn in one day. Then, for a couple of days, count your calorie intake (just google your food + the word calories and it will come up) to get an idea of how many calories you're generally taking in compared to your TDEE.

Then, aim to consume 300-500 less calories per day than your TDEE. Although you don't like strength training, the more lean muscle you have, the more fat your body burns at rest, so please give some more serious thought to doing more resistance/strength training.

It would also be beneficial to you to try and aim for certain macros in your eating. Macros refers to the percentage of protein, carbs, and fats your calories are coming from. For fat loss, I typically aim for about 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat, but you may want to tweak those. Feel free to PM me if you have questions or want more info. I'm sure OA, XPRT, Argle (and possibly Ecto, if he's around) can chime in with more info as well.

I'm sorry, but I've done this and it didn't work before. Been doing this for years. Like I described my figure earlier, the area around the muscles that I regularly use have no fat at all yet my trunk which receives no activity holds all my fat.

The simple method of buring more calories then you consume isn't true for me either. I was on a vegetable and cereal diet for a month while doing running and it didn't do a thing. There was the starvation diet, the weight watchers...... none of it ever worked except for zero carb. And that's not good for your health. Besides, zero-carb stopped working for me anyway.

What I'm trying to say is (and don't hate me for it) that the exact oppsite of what you are telling me is what happens for me. Diet and cardio don't work for losing weight and there is no fat around the muscles that I use. But I would be silly if I were to do the same things I did before and hope to get different results. I'm going to start some midsection workouts like tossing an medicine ball against the wall and things like that.

[Soul Splint]

I'm sorry, but I've done this and it didn't work before. Been doing this for years. Like I described my figure earlier, the area around the muscles that I regularly use have no fat at all yet my trunk which receives no activity holds all my fat.

The simple method of buring more calories then you consume isn't true for me either. I was on a vegetable and cereal diet for a month while doing running and it didn't do a thing. There was the starvation diet, the weight watchers...... none of it ever worked except for zero carb. And that's not good for your health. Besides, zero-carb stopped working for me anyway.

What I'm trying to say is (and don't hate me for it) that the exact oppsite of what you are telling me is what happens for me. Diet and cardio don't work for losing weight and there is no fat around the muscles that I use. But I would be silly if I were to do the same things I did before and hope to get different results. I'm going to start some midsection workouts like tossing an medicine ball against the wall and things like that.

Well, what's your bodyfat percentage like? If it's fairly low (10 or lower), then it may that you just don't have much core muscle. There's a billion good ways to work your core, but it's probably best that we first correctly identify what's holding you back right now. Would you be up to posting some stuff to help us help you, such as a sample of your daily diet or physique photos?

And by the way, it is entirely possibly that you are simply the victim of less-than-stellar genetics. It is for this reason that regardless of how hard I try, I will never have a well-developed chest. Shoulders, arms, back, legs, core, all good, but I will be forever boobless compared to other physiques.

[zircon]

I'm not sure why you posted if you're just going to ignore everyone's advice. You SAY that burning more than you ate didn't work, but that's not physically possible. Forget nutritional science and think about basic math. If you eat 2500 calories and use 3000 calories, that means your body needed 500 calories worth of energy, which had to come from SOMEWHERE. There are three possibilities here:

1. You thought you were eating less than you actually were.

2. Your exercise didn't burn as many calories as you thought.

3. Both 1 & 2.

For example, say you were jogging for 30 minutes straight. That's a lot of time, and I don't even know if you were doing it for that long, but let's make that assumption. That only burns a measly 300 calories or so. 300 calories could be a single double-chunk chocolate chip cookie, a couple drinks of soda throughout the day, a small donut, half a bagel with cream cheese, etc. I know when I used to jog, I got hungry after and most likely ate WAY more than I burned.

You need to watch what you eat very carefully. Do you cook for yourself? Or do you eat out and get premade stuff? If you're eating meals prepared by other people, you most likely have little to no idea of the nutritional content. A "healthy" restaurant meal at a place like Denny's or Ihop can have 800 calories, whereas eating two grilled chicken breasts at home with some broccoli and cauliflower might be less than 400. A pasta dinner at Olive Garden could easily hit 1500 calories or more when you factor in the sauce, oil, and bread.

I'm not in the business of telling you what diet will or will not work for you, but I WILL make some suggestions for keeping calories low:

1. Grilled chicken. This stuff is just awesome. Two small-medium chicken breasts have about 40g of protein and 220 calories total, and that WILL fill you up when you add some sides and a nice 16oz glass of water.

2. Broccoli and cauliflower. These have very few calories but immense nutritional benefits. You can cook practically an entire plate in 5 minutes using a steamer on the stove top. Add this to a protein source and you're good to go.

3. Lean grass-fed ground beef, or lean ground turkey. I like meat loaf because it's very easy to make. Throw the meat in a bowl, add spices, an egg, and some almond meal. Then bake it for 45 minutes. You can make a couple pounds at a time and have food for days.

4. If you must have carbs, brown rice is a good choice - cook it with extra water (sticky rice). Lots of fiber here, plus it's filling.

5. Eggs and ham. Nice breakfast food, but works any time of day. Try 4 eggs with a few slices of ham and maybe a little cheese on top if you like that sort of thing. One egg is only about 70 calories, so a big 4-egg omelette with ham will probably clock in under 400.

6. Sriracha. Put it on lots of things. It adds flavor and more importantly heat, which will make you thirsty. Thirsty = more water = more fullness and hydration.

7. Guacamole. Try it with basically any protein - chicken, eggs, beef, etc. It works surprisingly well. I get 100 calorie packs and use it with a little sriracha.

8. Apples are a great fruit to eat. They're filling, low-calorie, fibrous, and have lots of water weight. Plus they're sweet enough to serve in the place of a dessert.

9. Protein sponge cakes. I've been making these lately. Take a standard cereal bowl and add an egg, a bit of light olive oil, a tablespoon or so of almond milk (or whatever milk), and a splash of warm water. Mix that together. Then add a heaping tablespoon of almond butter (or if you can't stand that, peanut butter is OK) along with some baking powder, a scoop of protein powder, and enough almond meal or coconut flour to get the consistency of pancake batter.

Put that in the microwave and cook it for 90-120 seconds. It comes out like a sponge cake. The protein powder and almond butter give it just enough sweetness and it's absolutely chock full of good stuff - especially as far as desserts go.

Lastly, regarding the fat in your torso. I feel you. That's my one problem as well, I have a spare tire. But you have to understand, the body simply does not burn fat in specific areas just because you exercise them. It doesn't work that way - for anyone. Through vigorous exercise, you grow your muscles in a given area. But fat doesn't magically disappear because your muscles get bigger. It needs to be burned up, and that happens by having a deficit in calories (i.e. you didn't eat enough, and your body has to draw from your fat stores).

The explanation for why you only have fat in your torso is because that's where the vast majority of men tend to store fat, plus our waists. Women tend to be more distributed, gaining more fat in their legs and arms. This isn't the case for ALL men of course - some have more even distribution - but it's a pretty common body type.

[ectogemia]

Andrew's post was legit. It's also extremely important to remember that although "calories count," they aren't everything. Hormones dictate the distribution of energy/nutrient harvesting and storage, and your food intake, exercise frequency, exercise intensity, stress level, sleep, etc. dictate your hormone profile. Low carb, enough sleep, low stress, intermittent fasting (google this term), high protein, and heavy lifting is the recipe for body recomposition. If enough hormonal factors are out of whack, your body will, say, preferentially harvest muscle rather than fat to meet an energy deficit. Stack the odds in your favor for muscle gain and fat loss by sticking to those conditions as best you can.

Edited April 15, 2014 by ectogemia

[XPRTNovice]

Andrew's post was legit. It's also extremely important to remember that although "calories count," they aren't everything.

My wife just finished a book on this topic and absolutely loved it. I can't vouch, but I trust her.

[Thin Crust]

I promise I will respond to you guys today. I just got back from the gym and I want to know what this work out is called.

I used the pulley machine with the handle set at mid level and held the handle right at my heart with both hands. Then I would pull by rotating my torso to the right or left.

[Soul Splint]

I promise I will respond to you guys today. I just got back from the gym and I want to know what this work out is called.

I used the pulley machine with the handle set at mid level and held the handle right at my heart with both hands. Then I would pull by rotating my torso to the right or left.

That is called the pallof press; it's good for isolating your obliques, although it's more effective if you have your arms extended.

Guize! My first three-plate deadlift yesterday! Three reps; the last rep I rounded a bit, but I'm counting it. It's my right as a former skinny bastard.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Soul Splint

[OceansAndrew]

That is called the pallof press; it's good for isolating your obliques, although it's more effective if you have your arms extended.

Guize! My first three-plate deadlift yesterday! Three reps; the last rep I rounded a bit, but I'm counting it. It's my right as a former skinny bastard.

Nice work! How tall are you, btw?

[Soul Splint]

Nice work! How tall are you, btw?

Not quite 6'3.

[OceansAndrew]

Not quite 6'3.

ok, i was totally wondering how you could be several percentage points of bodyfat lower than me, and still be the same weight. I'm 5'9, so that's a ridiculously huge difference!

[Thin Crust]

Well, what's your bodyfat percentage like? If it's fairly low (10 or lower), then it may that you just don't have much core muscle. There's a billion good ways to work your core, but it's probably best that we first correctly identify what's holding you back right now. Would you be up to posting some stuff to help us help you, such as a sample of your daily diet or physique photos?

And by the way, it is entirely possibly that you are simply the victim of less-than-stellar genetics. It is for this reason that regardless of how hard I try, I will never have a well-developed chest. Shoulders, arms, back, legs, core, all good, but I will be forever boobless compared to other physiques.

Well, going off of this picture, I would assume I am at 21% but I know that's hardly the most accurate way to measure.

Soooooo diet. At work, I have scrambled eggs with cheese and about twice a week I add a smoked sausage.

Lunch is all over the place but most common is a salad with ham and turkey and other toppings. I use my own dressing which is made with lemon juice, mayo, horseraddish, and pickle relish-basically tartar sauce but it has no carbs.

I eat a lot of meat. I go through a rotisserie chicken every week (mostly put it on salads at home) and I make pork ribs in the slow cooker a lot. Lately I've been frying sauerkraut, bratwurst, onions, and mushrooms together. Another popular one is shrimp and vegetable stir fry.

When I'm not dieting, I eat the same thing but I also include the following items. fruit and yogurt for beakfast, and once every other week or so I'll have biscuit and gravy. Sometimes I get cereal but not too often. I like getting the soup at work and will always get it if it's the crab bisque. I allow one pizza per month. I eat a lot of fruit (Apples, oranges, blueberries, bananas, mangos) I cook all my own food, and I never go out to eat except for subway like once a month. I don't eat sweets, I stay away from bread and potatoes, and I drink a gallon of water a day and that's it. I never drink coffee, soft drinks, alcohol or juice. There is no processed food in my diet.....except for the cereal that I rarely get.

That is called the pallof press; it's good for isolating your obliques, although it's more effective if you have your arms extended.

Guize! My first three-plate deadlift yesterday! Three reps; the last rep I rounded a bit, but I'm counting it. It's my right as a former skinny bastard.

Thanks. I went back to the gym and did another 6 sets with my arms extended in front of me. It really felt like a better workout. I then did a few sets of machine ab crunches..... but I felt like my arms were doing too much of the work there.

But congrats on that milestone!

I'm not sure why you posted if you're just going to ignore everyone's advice.

I'm not. That's why I said: “What I'm trying to say is (and don't hate me for it) that the exact opposite of what you are telling me is what happens for me. “

You SAY that burning more than you ate didn't work, but that's not physically possible. Forget nutritional science and think about basic math. If you eat 2500 calories and use 3000 calories, that means your body needed 500 calories worth of energy, which had to come from SOMEWHERE. There are three possibilities here:

1. You thought you were eating less than you actually were.

2. Your exercise didn't burn as many calories as you thought.

3. Both 1 & 2.

Yes I know this. I work in healthcare and I know more about the body than most people which is why this baffles me so much. But it's not simple math. It's more about hormones like ectogemia would advocate. If you are using more calories than you consume, you are most likely going to go into fat-conservation mode if you aren't doing it right.

Your list of food suggestions is very much appreciated. I'll see what I can work into my diet. After all, variety is the spice of life. The easiest way to ruin a good thing is to make it routine.

[Soul Splint]

ok, i was totally wondering how you could be several percentage points of bodyfat lower than me, and still be the same weight. I'm 5'9, so that's a ridiculously huge difference!

Heh, yeah, I'm a wee bit more stretched out.

Foods

To me it looks like your fat intake may be a little low, and for me, bumping up my fat consumption made some very noticable differences. You're getting some saturated fats in cheese, eggs, beef and pork, but you definitely appear to be lacking in your unsaturated fats. Avocados, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, etc. And if you're doing all the other things right, as you say you are, then it's time to start exploring other options such as High-Intensity Interval Training (especially sprints) and perhaps Intermittent Fasting (which has also helped me).

[zircon]

10x rep 2plate+35lb squat today, next week is 3 plates