SamG's Log

[SamG]

Guys, thanks again for the support and advice. It's extremely motivating. Really.

I'm not nearly as sore today as I thought I'd be. (I'm sore, but not "OMG I can hardly walk" sore.) Not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I'll definitely be able to hit the gym again tomorrow.

One question about diet:

As I mentioned before, I still have a bit of a gut, and I want to lose some fat. My understanding is that you need to create a caloric deficiency to burn fat. I've also read that you need to eat -- and eat a lot -- to build muscle. So what if you want to do both? I don't know what my calorie targets should be.

Before I started working out, I calculated my caloric need at about 2200 calories. I subtracted 500 from that to lose 1 lb / week, and that was my goal. How does weight training change this picture?

I worked hard to lose the weight... I'm a little paranoid about getting fat again eating 6 meals a day and drinking protein shakes.

Btw, I was combing through the archives this morning and thought this post was really good:

Strength Training

- Sam

Edit - Forgot to mention: I'm pretty sure I miscounted the weight on the bar for my squats, and I was only doing 105. Not a huge difference or anything. Just want to start with an accurate baseline so I can measure my gains.

[mattnxtc]

You generally dont struggle at the beginnign because you "cant" lift the weights...its more you need to wait on your CNS to adjust to this new activity...Thats why beginners move up so quickly in weight generally.

[dethgrind]

[ QUOTE ]
As I mentioned before, I still have a bit of a gut, and I want to lose some fat. My understanding is that you need to create a caloric deficiency to burn fat. I've also read that you need to eat -- and eat a lot -- to build muscle. So what if you want to do both? I don't know what my calorie targets should be.

[/ QUOTE ]
At your stage you should be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time for a couple months.

[SamG]

[ QUOTE ]
At your stage you should be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time for a couple months.

[/ QUOTE ]
Cool, so how much should I eat? I went to a caloric need calculator and plugged in moderate activity level instead of light. It spit out 2940 to maintain my weight. Should this be my target?

[dethgrind]

There was some discussion of this in my thread "my fitness goals and tentative plan, please advise". You're in a similar boat as me in that you're pretty much skinny fat. If you bulk you'll get fatter, if you cut you'll be freakishly small. I decided to just eat clean at near maintenance calories.

[thirddan]

agreed, find your maintenance cals by actually eating healthy food for a while until you reach a point where you arent gaining or losing, use the calculators as a guide...simply increasing protein and eating healthy will probably show you some body comp changes after a coupe weeks...then worry about increasing or decreasing cals...

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
simply increasing protein and eating healthy will probably show you some body comp changes after a coupe weeks

[/ QUOTE ]

[SamG]

OK, I'm going to target ~3000 cal/day and do my best to eat clean (7 habits / food that makes you look good nekkid). This might be tough because I eat [censored] all the time. Even when I dieted, I ate terrible -- I just ate less. Also I don't know how to cook.

My scale measures body fat. I'm not sure if the results are accurate, but it seems to give consistent readings when I step on it first thing in the morning. Maybe I'll put some tape over my weight and just watch the body fat number to gauge how I'm doing.

Incidentally, does anyone have any opinion on stuff like Lean Cuisine microwave meals? Good, bad, or meh? I practically lived on the stuff when dieting. Also any opinion on Fuze Slenderize drinks?

[thirddan]

the body fat measurements on home scales suck and vary a ton based on hydration...rely on your weight/mirror/clothes to tell you if you need to go up or down w/ the cals...

recipe thread...
http://www.t-nation.com/tmagnum/read...geNo=23#bottom

[SamG]

2nd workout today, and it sucked. I should have given my body another day or two to rest.

Squat:

45 x 3 x 5

This morning I couldn't even do the motion with no weight (too sore), so I'm actually happy to complete three sets, even with only 45 lbs.

Bench:

115 x 1 x 1 (decided I couldn't do 5)
105 x 1 x 3 (failed on 4th rep)
95 x 3 x 5 (failed on last rep of last set)

This just sucked. No improvement. I am weak.

Deadlift:

Trying to gauge how much I should lift. I did a set of 5 fairly easily with 125 lbs, but afterwards my neck and back hurt. I decided I was probably doing them wrong and stopped. I'm a little paranoid about hurting myself because I don't know what I'm doing.

Cardio: 20m elliptical

Drank one protein shake before the workout and another during cardio.

Stupid question: What do you do when you fail? If you're really doing your 5 RM, at the end of the 3rd set you should be pretty close to failure, no? Do I need a spotter?

Fortunately there was a guy there to help me.