Physical & Mental health

[Leif 6,006]

Woke up this morning 1lb closer to my weight goal (probably water-weight, but it's something!). 15 or so more lbs to go... and then I get gynecomastia (the most embarrassing thing EVER) surgery. 6 weeks rest following that. Then time to build some lean muscle for the first time in my life. My life is going to completely change. Excited.

[Korea 734]

what position did you play?

RB, DB/LB.

[SinineUltra 1,170]

Woke up this morning 1lb closer to my weight goal (probably water-weight, but it's something!). 15 or so more lbs to go... and then I get gynecomastia (the most embarrassing thing EVER) surgery. 6 weeks rest following that. Then time to build some lean muscle for the first time in my life. My life is going to completely change. Excited.

I admire you for your mature approach, setting mini goals and being motivated to actually follow through - and you're only 17. RESPECT, very big inspiration for positivity.

[dumps 284]

Whats everyones methods with dealing with muscle soreness?

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Whats everyones methods with dealing with muscle soreness?

P90x recovery drink........lmaoooo

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

Whats everyones methods with dealing with muscle soreness?

It's a body's way of saying thank you, enjoy every bit of it!! Though I must say, I usually only get soreness for chest workout, other worksouts tire me out, I couldn't do more but I don't get the soreness, just feeling exhausted.

[dumps 284]

soreness is quite a major part of my dissertation so ive read so much research on it, and ive tried most methods (conventional ones... im not jumping in a bath of ice cold water thank you very much!) and i have noticed it can reduce it and speed up the recovery so it doesnt last as long, but you can never eliminate it. and even then, there are some sessions where i really push myself, and i get full on 100% muscle soreness even if im doing everything to avoid it.

Things i do to reduce it: drink berry juices daily - cherry, blackcurrents, cranberry... stuff with anti-oxidants in, they really do help. I also wear a compression garment during and after exercise. the research shows wearing a compression garment for 12+ hours after is best, but im not going to sit around all day in compression clothing! so i wear it during and for an hour or so after. I consume a very sugary drink as soon as possible after a work out and also try to eat something with at least 10g of protein in asap. those are the things i tend to do based on what ive had to read in the research but to be honest these are just things to stop you from being sore for ages! the rule i follow is to not exercise the same muscle without a 2 day gap in between. even though i may be a bit sore on th third day still, i know for a fact im good to go, ive been fortunate enough to test myself in terms of soreness, strength and power after muscle damage to know im pretty much back to normal after 2 days rest.

I also stretch. it does nothing, but it eliminates pain short term. same with exercise. the best way to get rid of muscle soreness is just to exercise! but then as soon as you stop it comes back but a stretch helps if you are in a fair bit of discomfort.

[Korea 734]

First swim in a year.... My arms are aching

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

First swim in a year.... My arms are aching

Wish I could say that, stable -5 (daytime) to -20 (nighttime) here... though the sun already feels warm, love it! One of the reasons I envy places like Spain, Brazil and so on, year out relatively nice weather

Back from the gym, kickass workout... on last exercise barely managed supersets, feels great! One thing that I hate in gyms are so called dick-gazers, just staring and staring - you work at the gym not watch others, or?

[Rmpr 8,977]

Wish I could say that, stable -5 (daytime) to -20 (nighttime) here... though the sun already feels warm, love it! One of the reasons I envy places like Spain, Brazil and so on, year out relatively nice weather

Last year, Sao Paulo's winter made 3 degrees, it was the coldest winter of the last 40 years...

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

Last year, Sao Paulo's winter made 3 degrees, it was the coldest winter of the last 40 years...

3 degrees right now in Estonia would feel like summer because we've had this -5...-10 (daytime) and -15...-25 (nightime) since start-mid December pretty much... so thats 4 months of winter already plus counting

[Korea 734]

Wish I could say that, stable -5 (daytime) to -20 (nighttime) here... though the sun already feels warm, love it! One of the reasons I envy places like Spain, Brazil and so on, year out relatively nice weather

Back from the gym, kickass workout... on last exercise barely managed supersets, feels great! One thing that I hate in gyms are so called dick-gazers, just staring and staring - you work at the gym not watch others, or?

I live in NYC. It's freezing here!! lol

Haha, at "dick glazers," when I use to go to the gym I use to try to one up the guy next to me, whether it be curls or plain dumbelll lifts... Than I started to get fat and did that to females since they all they did was cardio machines all day long.....

[Leif 6,006]

Just had a fry up... well, without frying anything apart from the egg & black pudding. Beans, 1 square sausage (grilled), 1 egg (fried), 1 black pudding (fried) and (oddly perhaps), broccoli.

590 calories.

33g Protein.

Still got around 800 calories to play with for the rest of the day. Heh.

[Korea 734]

Just had a fry up... well, without frying anything apart from the egg & black pudding. Beans, 1 square sausage (grilled), 1 egg (fried), 1 black pudding (fried) and (oddly perhaps), broccoli.

590 calories.

33g Protein.

Still got around 800 calories to play with for the rest of the day. Heh.

I haven't eaten meat (dark or white) since Lent began....... LOL

[dumps 284]

anyone ever taken a nitrate supplement? Im on one at the moment and its disgusting. i know beetroot and rhubarb are where they commonly extract it from.... it tastes horrible. i threw up in my own mouth this morning when taking it.

my ass is on fire as well. Im constantly farting and they smell horrific. and my piss smells just like the stuff Im taking. anyone else get those side effects? just farted right now...y up that's AIDS in the form of smell. Christ.

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

anyone ever taken a nitrate supplement? Im on one at the moment and its disgusting. i know beetroot and rhubarb are where they commonly extract it from.... it tastes horrible. i threw up in my own mouth this morning when taking it. my ass is on fire as well. Im constantly farting and they smell horrific. and my piss smells just like the stuff Im taking. anyone else get those side effects? just farted right now...y up that's AIDS in the form of smell. Christ.

hahaha, I personally haven't taken it. Only things I take are portein powder and creatine monohydrate. Work very well. Hope you're back to normal soon though!!

Donated blood today (in total I've only done it 4 times, started last year), doing it again in 2 months and so on and so on

[SinineUltra 1,170]

anyone ever taken a nitrate supplement? Im on one at the moment and its disgusting. i know beetroot and rhubarb are where they commonly extract it from.... it tastes horrible. i threw up in my own mouth this morning when taking it. my ass is on fire as well. Im constantly farting and they smell horrific. and my piss smells just like the stuff Im taking. anyone else get those side effects? just farted right now...y up that's AIDS in the form of smell. Christ.

Why'd you take it if it brings so many woes with it? Feel sorry for you mate, but the way your wrote this made me laugh in a good way! Brings back memories from the army and its standard NATO packages. After eating the whole package, my urine was green and had the smell of artificial preservatives.

[Leif 6,006]

Help

I seem to have stopped my weight loss. It's not coming off. Stuck at 152lb again. 5'4" is my height. I believe my ideal weight is around 135lbs.

I'm trying to figure out how many calories I'm supposed to be consuming. I assume I'm supposed to be eating at a calorie deficit, yes?

I used one of those calorie calculators and I'm currently eating with zig-zag calories meaning I eat the same total amount each week (while keeping a deficit) but eat a different amount each day. This is apparently only suitable if I exercise 3 times a week. Am I supposed to do that exercise on the higher calorie days while limiting exercise on the low calories days such as Tuesday/Friday? I don't get it. Here's the calorie chart (I'm following the "Fat Loss" column):

Am I perhaps not burning enough on the days I am exercising? I remember hearing lots of times before than 1lb a week of fat loss is considered good - but I don't seem to be managing even a fraction of that.

[dumps 284]

Why'd you take it if it brings so many woes with it? Feel sorry for you mate, but the way your wrote this made me laugh in a good way! Brings back memories from the army and its standard NATO packages. After eating the whole package, my urine was green and had the smell of artificial preservatives.

At my uni they are doing research on a variety of supplements, (creatine, anti-oxidants or nitrate) the easiest exercise protocol was the nitrate one so i volunteered for that one!

got 2 take 2 gel packs a day from monday - wednesday, then just one 1 hour before i do the exercise protocol on thursday. It really is horrific. They sell beetroot shots which gives you more nitrate, tastes bad, but it goes down easier. this gel is just really hard to swallow fast.

Nitrate dilates your blood vessels more, so in theory, when you exercise more blood goes there and therefore more oxygen is available to the muscle - helps endurance athletes mostly, i think it can also help in intermittent stuff as it helps with the brief recovery. it also attempts creating world war three at your ass. I've done smelly farts before, but not consistently like this. ever since about 7pm yesterday every fart i have done has been a nightmare. every single one. id say im parping at least once every half an hour. in its peak im guffing once every 5 minutes.

It is funny and i can literally run up to a mate, drop it and run. and i do enjoy that aspect of it. but then theres times when im sat in a lecture and my belly is making all sorts of noises because im holding it all in. Also ive had to open a window in my house because it literally smells like the sewers in here.

Welldone to metsaj for donating blood. Im yet to do it. scares me! but i think i will eventually get round to doing it.

Oh that urine story you told, that reminds me. Last year we did a little study involving urine. so we all walked in and were given lots of different dirnks. at the end of hte session we all pissed in a cup and measured out hydration on those urine charts. One guy had bright blue wee. ive forgotten the name of it, but for a joke they had a bottle which had this stuff in that just makes your wee go bright blue. he was a bit scared till he realised they'd just given him a dodgy drink.

[dumps 284]

Help

I seem to have stopped my weight loss. It's not coming off. Stuck at 152lb again. 5'4" is my height. I believe my ideal weight is around 135lbs.

I'm trying to figure out how many calories I'm supposed to be consuming. I assume I'm supposed to be eating at a calorie deficit, yes?

I used one of those calorie calculators and I'm currently eating with zig-zag calories meaning I eat the same total amount each week (while keeping a deficit) but eat a different amount each day. This is apparently only suitable if I exercise 3 times a week. Am I supposed to do that exercise on the higher calorie days while limiting exercise on the low calories days such as Tuesday/Friday? I don't get it. Here's the calorie chart (I'm following the "Fat Loss" column):

Am I perhaps not burning enough on the days I am exercising? I remember hearing lots of times before than 1lb a week of fat loss is considered good - but I don't seem to be managing even a fraction of that.

that 1700 is about right. maybe even lower.

Ive never heard of this zig zag method. i dont know wether its one of those websites trying to sell you something, or if is a tip someone has managed to have success with but at the end ofh te day, if you consume less than you spend in terms of kcal, then youre going to lose weight.

The most common problem is mis counting calories. and its not your fault, sometimes oyu just forget, or sometimes the packet lies (which is scarily quite common!). You seem to have been doing really well on this so just try and keep it up. maybe increase the frequency of your exercise now, maybe even drop another 100kcal to 1600 a day instead (that seems quite low though).

Be sure you havent started to change eating habbits. like eating before bed. i know you can get groggy when only having 1700 kcal and it may be tempting to satisfy your hunger before you sleep. but you really wnat to avoid eating late in the evenings.

My advice would be, to think back to when you were losing your weight a few weeks ago, and try and identify anythign you are doing differently now that may be slowing down the process.

but my advice would be to pick up an extra session of exercise if you can. it will really help.

dont let this stumble scare you though, it could be down to something simple and irrelevant like water retention. or the environment you are in (if its hot or cold) or the time of day that you've been weighing yourself.