any fitness freaks or gym junkies on here?

[slothpomba]

I've just been doing hammer curls and thats it haha....

I know you need to loose weight to be able to see the abs at all but surely doing ab exercises can't really hurt all that much, i saw one guy who had an insane regimine of heaps of different exercises that seemed pretty stupid to me since bicycle crunches have been proven to be awesomely effective. So for any of you looking for ab exercises i reckon that is the way to go. (no surprise the ab machine in there (forgot what its called) is the shittest exercise)

[shinny]

Yeh I'm not saying it'll hurt. Obviously it doesn't. It's good to have it either way as it's good for back support and general core strength. But for the six-pack look I guess, you need to trim off that fat. And thanks for the link. Good to know that I'm no longing blindly just following a mate's advice on doing bicycles every day

[slothpomba]

Haha its alright, i try to find stuff thats proven to work by some study or another. Don't like wasting my time.

Haha if this chart is right its ironic people try to loose weight by giving it their all when they just need to keep it around 60%

[shinny]

That's why you see a lot of people wanting to lose weight just walking on the treadmill in the gym. It's not that they're unfit or lazy; it's just that that's the way to do it.

[Cianyx]

Walking on a treadmil shouldn't get your heart rate up to 120. Even if it does, that would be just the minimum threshold of losing weight. Have fun walking all day brah. here are some Zyzz approved tips of losing weight

http://www.gethenchnow.com/prescription-for-fat-loss/

Below are the seven rules that need to be followed in order to achieve maximum permanent fat loss along with increased muscle tone.

Fat Loss Rule #1:

[ Consume less calories than your body burns for five days a week. ]

You need to consume approximately 500 calories less than what your body burns (maintenance amount) as if you do not create a caloric deficit, no matter what you do, you will not lose fat!

However, it is important that over the weekends you increase your calories by 700 over the maintenance amount. This is necessary in order to prevent the metabolism from slowing down.

Fat Loss Rule #2:

[ Watch the mirror and pictures, not your weight scale. ]

Be more concerned with the way you look in the mirror (or in pictures) and your waist size rather than with your total body weight in the scale as such measurement does not distinguish between the amount of fat and muscle that you have.
Most of the time, the trainees asking the questions tell me that they need to lose anywhere between 20-40 pounds. However, I would not be nearly as concerned with the weight as I would be with the way you look in the mirror and your waist size. The reason for that is the fact that as you begin your weight training you will start gaining muscle mass.

As you gain muscle mass you will put weight on. So what will happen here is that while your scale will tell you that you are still overweight and that your weight is not moving, you are actually making progress as you are losing fat and gaining muscle.

Therefore, just concern yourself with the way you look (pictures are a great way to track this) and stop obsessing about your weight.

Fat Loss Rule #3:

[ Concentrate on weight training exercise for losing fat. ]

Yes, you heard right. Even though I constantly hear the line “I will lose the fat first by doing cardio and then gain muscle after all of the fat is gone”, this is not the best way to lose fat! The reason for this is that by using cardio as your sole source of exercise you will lose equal amount of fat and muscle. The end result will be a smaller fat version of yourself with a lower metabolism (due to the muscle loss).

Gaining muscle is really the secret to permanent fat loss as the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest on any given day. In addition, gaining muscle is the key to achieving the firm good looking body that everybody wants but dieting and cardio alone will not give.

Fat Loss Rule #4:

[ If possible, attempt to exercise first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. ]

I really love exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach as I always get the quickest fat loss results that way. The reason for this is that your body’s glycogen reserves have been exhausted due to the overnight fast, so the body has to rely on burning fats for fuel. Besides, that way I have the rest of the day to eat, recover, and grow.

However, if you do not like to weight train first thing in the morning at least try a quick 15 minute intense aerobic activity (this could be a quick stationary bike ride or a vigorous walk) as well as 5 minutes of abdominal exercise done in superset fashion.

That gives you a total short 20 minute aerobic workout that jumps starts your fat burning mechanisms early in the day.

Fat Loss Rule #5:


[ Eat smaller more frequent meals throughout the day. ]

The first thing that most dieters do is that they start a crash diet where they only eat once or twice a day. Again, this is a sure fire way to lose muscle and lower your metabolism. As we already know, less muscle and a lower metabolism is not the way to get to your goal.
In order to keep the metabolism going at full speed and the blood sugar levels under control in order to keep energy levels high and cravings away, 4 to 6 small balanced meals a day is the way to go. By balanced what I mean is that each meal should contain all of the macronutrients (carbs, protein and fats) in a specific ratio.

While metabolisms differ, I have found that a ratio of 40-45% Carbs, 40-35% Protein, and no more than 20% Fats is generally the best way to go. This ratio is optimal for keeping insulin and blood sugar under perfect control. In addition, this ratio creates a favorable hormonal environment that leads to muscle growth and fat loss.

[Note: If you need help with what foods provide carbohydrates, which ones provide protein and which ones provide fats, please visit my article Characteristics Of A Good Nutrition Program! .]

Fat Loss Rule #6:

[ Let water be your main beverage. ]

Time and time again I have noticed that dieters start their diets with a sincere effort and even count all the calories of the foods that they consume. However, most totally forget about the fact that fruit juices, sodas and other beverages contain calories as well.
Therefore, avoid any type of drink that contains calories and concentrate on drinking plain water instead.

By doing this you will get the following benefits:

Your appetite will be suppressed as water helps control your appetite. Sometimes when you feel hungry after a good meal this sensation indicates a lack of water. Drinking water at that time would take the craving away.

You will get a metabolic boost as cold water increases your metabolism.

The fat loss process will be operating a full peak as water is needed in order for fat loss to occur.

You will not be drinking unnecessary calories as water has no calories.

Fat Loss Rule #6:

[ Be prepared: Pack your meals in advance. ]
One thing that totally kills dieters is going to work. Work, however, is not the culprit. The culprit is the lunch hour. If the dieter does not pre pack his/her food, lunch comes along and the person ends up going to the nearest fast food joint and exposing themselves to temptation that probably nine out of ten times they succumb to some fast food joint.

Therefore, the best way to stay on the diet (and also avoid losing meals) is to pre pack everything in such a way that when a meal time comes, it is relatively easy to have access to the food. Another advantage of this is that since the food is pre packed, you will not be adding extra food to the plate.

Fat Loss Rule #7:

[ Go to bed early. ]

Two reasons for this:

Lack of sleep increases your hormone cortisol, which is a hormone that stores fat and burns muscle (in other words, it does the exact opposite of what you are trying to accomplish), and decreases your testosterone levels (which need to be high in order to keep your fat burning/muscle gaining processes going at full speed). While sleep requirements vary, seven to nine hours of sleep is generally a good rule of thumb.

The probability of succumbing to late night cravings increases exponentially for every late hour of the day that you stay awake.

I'm trying to reduce my body fat myself to get abs. Yes, a lot of it is dependent on how much body fat is obscuring the muscle, but sit ups help a shit load as well. You're building muscle whilst burning fat in the abdominal region.

[Cianyx]

Bro science is cool

[lexitu]

^ You people saying that low intensity exercise is the best way to lose weight could not be more wrong (I'm restraining my anger, not at you but at the people who spread these myths, and even the treadmill companies that encourage it). Consider this:
- Total energy expenditure is higher at higher intensities (total fat catabolism is higher too).
- CHO depletion means it needs to be replaced - some from diet and some from adipose tissue if you aren't overeating.

Please understand this, I really hate this misinformation.

[Cianyx]

Low intensity exercises are boring anyway

[slothpomba]

Walking on a treadmil shouldn't get your heart rate up to 120. Even if it does, that would be just the minimum threshold of losing weight. Have fun walking all day brah. here a

Idk man i put up the incline heaps and it was a bit faster than walking speed but i got it over that

Haha i guess wikipedia lied to me lexi, thanks for the info.

"[ If possible, attempt to exercise first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. ]"

I don't know about that... isn't your blood sugar already kinda low from not eating all night, then you go and exercise with low blood sugar as well. Isn't it kind of bad to have extreme bounces in your blood sugar level..

[shinny]

^ You people saying that low intensity exercise is the best way to lose weight could not be more wrong (I'm restraining my anger, not at you but at the people who spread these myths, and even the treadmill companies that encourage it). Consider this:
- Total energy expenditure is higher at higher intensities (total fat catabolism is higher too).
- CHO depletion means it needs to be replaced - some from diet and some from adipose tissue if you aren't overeating.

Please understand this, I really hate this misinformation.

I had thought about that, but I always thought it was due to the additional length of which they can actually exercise at low intensities since the energy consumed per unit of time is obviously higher at high intensities. Consider at the extreme for someone who's actually obese. I severely doubt they have the aerobic ability and muscle strength to run even moderate distances. However, most people could probably walk on a treadmill almost indefinitely and hence burn more calories this way. That's just how I saw it.

[slothpomba]

Wikipedias rationale for that decision was it uses a lower proportion of anaerobic metabolism since you don't need as huge bursts of energy, so you're using you're aerobic metabolism more of the time and burning more fat. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense though, i mean if you exercise harder you''ll be burning more calories in total anyway *shrug*.

All things considered it is terribly slow, i tried it at the gym the other day on the bike, it has this thing where it adjusts the resistance to try keep your heart rate within a certain range (it asked for weight and age, i think it was using one of these formulas, it spat out ~140) it was easy...too easy infact. Took ages as well to get to what the bike said was 50 calories, like 10-15 minutes, after that i gave up and went as hard as i could and got 50 in like 5 minutes.

Apparently High intensity interval training works rather well. You burn less calories while you're doing it but it says your body uses more energy afterwards reparing itself and things like that. Might be a bit hard for an unfit person though..

[lexitu]

^ You people saying that low intensity exercise is the best way to lose weight could not be more wrong (I'm restraining my anger, not at you but at the people who spread these myths, and even the treadmill companies that encourage it). Consider this:
- Total energy expenditure is higher at higher intensities (total fat catabolism is higher too).
- CHO depletion means it needs to be replaced - some from diet and some from adipose tissue if you aren't overeating.

Please understand this, I really hate this misinformation.

I had thought about that, but I always thought it was due to the additional length of which they can actually exercise at low intensities since the energy consumed per unit of time is obviously higher at high intensities. Consider at the extreme for someone who's actually obese. I severely doubt they have the aerobic ability and muscle strength to run even moderate distances. However, most people could probably walk on a treadmill almost indefinitely and hence burn more calories this way. That's just how I saw it.

Yep that's definitely fair enough if they're exercising long enough to surpass the energy expenditure they would have under higher intensities and shorter times. As you said that's pretty realistic for someone that is overweight. What frustrates me more is the normally weighted people that do it (fact - mostly girls). They barely extend their sessions, if at all.

Wikipedia's rationale sucks (it's true, but who cares if you're burning more fat). What source did they give?

And yeah interval training is pretty cool