Got a fitness freak or health nut in your life? Or maybe you want to become one.
What are you waiting for: Learn the following by heart.
You can’t spot reduce. If you could, people who chewed gum would have skinny faces and Jillian Michaels wouldn’t have “kankles”.- Stop telling us that all fat isn’t bad like you just discovered penicillin.
- Calories matter: They always have, they still do and they always will.
- Creatine is still the best performance supplement on the market. The “next creatine” is still creatine.
- Dear gym guy: Please stop doing the following;
- Bicep curls in the squat rack
- Any exercise other than the bench press on the bench press
- Resting for 8 minutes between sets and not letting others “work in”
- Leaving your weights all over the floor
- The “secret” to fat loss is good nutrition and hard work. That’s it.
- Don’t ask me about intermittent fasting, macro-patterning, cyclical ketogenic diets or meal replacements if you aren’t eating enough vegetables.
- Learn to prioritize… if you can do 45 hard minutes on the elliptical while still easily belting out every song on your iPod but crumple under the weight of mauve-colored dumbbells – focus more on weight.
- If you can bench press 350lbs (or could in high school) but can’t walk up a flight of stairs without coughing up radial snow tires – mix in a bike ride or a hike in place of your 4th “chest day” of the week.
- If you can put your knees in your ears – quit stretching and build some strength and stability.
- If you are “bench press guy” from above and have posture that would make Quasimodo cringe, add some mobility and postural work.
- (Sorry to pick on bench press guy again but…) if you can bench press small buildings but can’t deadlift your birth weight – try deadlifting.
- You won’t likely be able to out-exercise a poor diet.
- If you are losing weight by diet alone – you will look like a different kind of crap.
- Your way isn’t the “best way” it just may be the best way for you.
- You can live a very healthy life eating both vegetarian and Atkins and most things in between provided you are eating healthy, mostly un/minimally processed foods that provide adequate nutrients.
- The most likely reason you aren’t getting results: Trying to “fix” something that requires a lifestyle makeover that starts with changing habits.
Have a beef about health trends? Rant away!
Quoting Spectra: “Even if you’re a great athlete, you still have to watch what you eat if you want to maintain your weight.”
You say “watch what you eat if you want to maintain weight”, do you mean if you want to stop it falling too low?
I’m a person with a fast metabolism and always have to eat enough so I don’t lose weight. I can always eat as much as I want and never gain weight, so that is an advantage to me. I don’t use it as an excuse to eat junk food though.
I don’t know exactly how many calories I am burning a day but it must be 3000-4000 because that is what I eat and I’ve never weight a pound over 137lbs, in my life. Yet I never “watch my weight”. Unless it’s to stop it going too low, of course. In which case I add another 1000kcals a day or so until it’s about 137lbs again.
Dr. Atkins died from slipping on ice and hitting his head. He bled around his brain and spent two weeks unconscious until he suffered organ failure. I thought every one knew that…
The American Heart Association is a not-for-profit organization that says the Atkins diet is not healthy. Dr. Atkins is a for-profit businessman who went into cardiac arrest. Dr. Atkins was in the business of money-making. Telling people they should have steak and whiskey for dinner sells books.
Since I USED to be a very active person who gradually and steadily gained another whole body over the decades following some serious injuries sustained during those activities (being a nurse and training horses, running) I agree with a lot on here but also disagree with a little. I’ve had two knee replacements, need an ankle replacement (but as yet there are no mechanical replacements that I’d ever allow to be placed), and also acquired a host of autoimmune disorders, I feel pretty confident saying: You can lose a significant amount of body fat by eating patterns and choices ALONE. I am physically unable to engage in much physical activity due to the above and a recent additional knee surgery. However, since I stopped thinking of 2 or 3 ‘balanced’ meals a day and began eating every two to three hours a part of my daily intake (portion control, eh?) and stopped eating ANYthing with gluten in it (Celiac disease, too), I’ve dropped thirty pounds in three months and have been slightly hungry only two or three times, when I forgot to eat something. No pain, no strain, and I’ve given away half of my wardrobe already because the items were simply too big to be altered to fit. I am only 5 feet tall, so 30 pounds off makes a visible difference. The appearance is NOT what keeps me motivated: I feel like a new person, like the one I used to be mentally as well as physically. I will never be able to run (even in moderation) or kneel down on my (artificial) knees, but I can walk with ease now, versus being so crippled up that I was going to have to use a cane or sometimes a walker.
When I can make it work for my circumstances, I will add an indoor pool to my routine, taking advantage of the ‘arthritis’ exercise program in the water at a local educational facility. The thing that triggered this eating plan makeover? My new cardiologist encouraging me to ‘go ahead and eat your egg…eat two eggs,’ rather than overdoing the oatmeal as I had been, thinking I was doing my heart a favor. We had talked long and seriously about my health history, family history, etc., and about what I had done to try to control my uncontrollable weight. He LISTENED when I told him post-hospitalization for rule-out ‘heart attack’ that something was different about my heart and that I could feel it, following a bad bout of respiratory infection. His diagnostics showed I had acquired a ‘stiff heart’ (dyastolic dysfunction) even though my coronary vessels were essentiall clean as a whistle. Some of the autoimmune disorders increase my risk of this and of other types of heart disease. Having this cardiologist (who also has a subspeciality in lipidology) validate my gut instincts about my body and what had been good or unacceptable for/to it was the key event in my turnaround. I am not on a diet. I have simply made an EASY change in my eating habits. I don’t crave anything, but I enjoy some very dark chocolate occasionally. I set aside one day a week (mentally) to have a ‘treat’ meaning something a little no-no such as ice cream (1/2 cup…and yes, that now satisfies me). Some weeks, I simply forget to have my little deviation because I just don’t have the taste for it. I eat nothing that is empty calories or artificially ‘enhanced.’ I eat BUTTER if I want to, and use some for cooking. I have half-and-half instead of commercial coffee creamer, but now find myself having just black coffee and enjoying that. At one point I had to simply stop beating myself up emotionally about being fat because I knew I was not ‘a glutton’ and that there had to be a reason…while there were, in fact, several contributing factors in the weight gain. When I stopped feeling bad about my appearance and body (lots of surgical scars, too), and began concentrate more on appreciating all the good things about ‘me’ such as being able to still get out of bed alone, walk, feed myself, write novels, enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, etc., I began to heal my body; more accurately, I began to help my body heal the damage done to it mostly by myself and medical professionals who did not listen when I kept trying to tell them something was wrong…and it was not my “over-active elbow” that lifted the fork to my lips. I so appreciate my primary doctor, my cardiologist, and my rheumatologist who did listen; it took years/decades to find this trio of physicians but I’m so glad I kept trying and kept fighting back when ignorant ‘educated’ people put me into their small, narrow ‘box.’
Mystie, you’re right, despite what all these guys are saying (besides, who really goes by their username??) Eating a preponderance of protein is not good for you s far as your liver and especially your kidneys. Kidneys don’t do well on a mainly protein diet. They get overtaxed. Also, your brain can ONLY use glucose for fuel. If you don’t get enough, your body can’t make it out of protein or fat. You just become what we call in medicine ketotic. Wreaks havoc with your liver and kidneys, but hey, if you don’t care about your internal organs, what do I care??
This is probably the snarkiest thing I’ve ever typed…but… Mystie, if you want people to take you seriously, get rid of the stripper name.
I have to say that I agree with some of the tips you have pointed out above. Especially where no one knows the answer to lose weight because what may work for me or you may not work for some else. I have to say my husband and I have tried all different diets and nothing has worked. Here recently we have started eating healthier and exercising 4 times a week and we can already tell a change. I have to agree if you want to lose weight the best way is that you start dieting and exercising. The is no magic pill or anything for that matter gonna make you skinny and fit.
I’ll just cease the cliches and eat the cheese!