Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler -- Albert Einstein
Lately, things are so complicated around here. Only they're not... Things can be simple again, just try it.
Here are some things to consider...
1. Fat loss happens because you're burning more than you are taking in.
I realize that getting lean or leaner isn't always 1+1=2, but it usually does come down to some sort of math. If fat loss isn't happening, it's unlikely that you're encountering some phenomenon that requires you to do something spectacular to get things moving.
You're probably eating too much.
You don't think you are, because your spreadsheet says you aren't, but you are. The math in your formula has changed because you changed something in your life, likely it's your activity level. You're probably moving less, despite your insistence that you're still firmly at the 1.35 activity level multiplier.
Eat less or move more. ...or both. You have to TRY, because your noggin is subconsciously telling you to move less to compensate for the eating less part.
If you don't understand the difference between conscious and subconscious, I don't know what to tell you...
If you go out and buy another book on nutrition, diets, or training to break this "plateau," you're just looking for the easy way out, consciously or subconsciously. For some reason you don't want to eat less or move more, so you look to another book and its dietary principals, instead?
I'm going to recommend one book for those of you who are making things so complicated. Leigh Peele's Fat Loss Troubleshoot.
It's not that Leigh's book is the be all, end all of fat loss books, but before you ever buy another fat loss book because you're stuck at 29% body fat, buy this one OR read it again.
2. A lot of people lost fat using The New Rules Of Lifting.
Why it's suddenly too intense for fat loss is a mystery to me...
You have to match your dietary levels to your activity levels. NROL is intense compared to many other programs, but it sure worked for lots of people here. So did Turbulence Training, Afterburn, Afterburn II, TNT's training program, etc.
These programs seem to work best for people who are relatively untrained or unconditioned, since that population will end up using weights that are fairly light, and most of their gains will be from practicing the movement and getting good at and getting used to lifting weights. The more trained you are, the more "muscle" you use to lift, and the hungrier and/or wiped out you are going to be. Ronnie Coleman would last two days on TT before a binge, Fat Bastard from Austin Powers should be able to do the whole program.
3. Yes, you probably do need weight on the bar to keep from losing muscle.
But, there have been studies where people lost NO muscle with NO resistance training on a mere 800 calories a day... What's up with that?
I don't think anyone know exactly why we gain and lose muscle tissue, but there seem to be multiple ways to achieve either. There are pushpup guys with big chests. They never go near a 10 rep max, much less a 1 rep max. They crank out 50 because they can. They get bigger (those are muscles).
Our best guess is that lifting heavier and heavier over time encourages our muscles to adapt. That doesn't always mean bigger, but it means stronger. What else? Time under tension? Fatigue? A combination? I'm sure it's a lot of that.
Over the years, a lot of people have lost fat and little muscle doing sets of 15, 25, etc. Yet, suddenly you have to do 5 reps or less to retain LBM. Interesting.
I'd hazard a guess that if you dieted down for two months, while lifting weights, and lost a lot of muscle, that you didn't have the muscle that you thought you did.
4. You know you can just eat foods, right?
"I'm getting tired of eating porkchops and applesauce, what else can I do with porkchops?"
A. Cookbook
B. Porkchops and anything. It's just meat. It's just food. "Dishes" are only dishes because someone liked the combination, shared it, and that combination became popular. The other day when you had steak and ____? Try porkchops and _______. Mmm....
C. Don't eat porkchops right now. It's just meat. It's just a food. Eat beef, cheese, eggs, milk, etc instead.
5. You can design your own training program.
It's fun, but until you've read (and done) several all the way through, you probably shouldn't try it.
Reading is not enough. Read and try, and see what it does or doesn't do for you. Then do another program after reading that book.
When you think you're ready to do your own, use a book/program that is modular and/or walks you through your choices.
No matter what your goal and training experience is, you'd probably do best starting out with a full body generalized program for strength and/or moderate growth. Pure hypertrophy programs are tough to design. Lots of variables and room for error, pain, overuse injuries, and wasted time. Wait on this one. Fat loss programs need to be balanced with your caloric intake, rest, etc. Too much volume and intensity, too little rest and recover, too little food, time for a crash... Wait on this one, too.
Baby steps to designing your own program... Two modular ways to try your hand at doing your own programming.
6. This thread isn't trying to be about negativity, but about pulling in the reigns and resetting things.
It's not that hard. We make it hard. I've overanalyzed myself and spun my wheels for months, wishful thinking my way to a further lack of progress. I've been here for a while, so many of you know the crap I've tried. It almost always came down to simple being better.
Comments and additions are welcome, as are disagreements. I'm not always right.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler -- Albert Einstein
Did Albert Einstein have the dyslexic?
Quote:
Lately, things are so complicated around here. Only they're not... Things can be simple again, just try it.
That's what my drug dealer said
Quote:
Here are some things to consider...
1. Fat loss happens because you're burning more than you are taking in.
I realize that getting lean or leaner isn't always 1+1=2, but it usually does come down to some sort of math. If fat loss isn't happening, it's unlikely that you're encountering some phenomenon that requires you to do something spectacular to get things moving.
You're probably eating too much.
No, it's because the electric scooter doesn't fucking register on the GoWearFit.
Quote:
You don't think you are, because your spreadsheet says you aren't, but you are. The math in your formula has changed because you changed something in your life, likely it's your activity level. You're probably moving less, despite your insistence that you're still firmly at the 1.35 activity level multiplier.
Dude. I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was on four nights a week. What the fuck am I supposed to do?
Quote:
Eat less or move more. ...or both. You have to TRY, because your noggin is subconsciously telling you to move less to compensate for the eating less part.
Dude, you want me to eat less, but then I end up going to the fridge less. Fucking pick one, ok?
Quote:
If you don't understand the difference between conscious and subconscious, I don't know what to tell you...
It's because I'm on a different astral plane
Quote:
If you go out and buy another book on nutrition, diets, or training to break this "plateau," you're just looking for the easy way out, consciously or subconsciously. For some reason you don't want to eat less or move more, so you look to another book and its dietary principals, instead?
That Barnes and Noble membership doesn't pay for itself.
Quote:
I'm going to recommend one book for those of you who are making things so complicated. Leigh Peele's Fat Loss Troubleshoot.
That's not a book. That's an e-book. And I heard Leigh's a whore. I'm not doing the STD diet, ok?
Quote:
It's not that Leigh's book is the be all, end all of fat loss books, but before you ever buy another fat loss book because you're stuck at 29% body fat, buy this one OR read it again.
Motherfucker, it's not a book!
Quote:
2. A lot of people lost fat using The New Rules Of Lifting.
Why it's suddenly too intense for fat loss is a mystery to me...
Because I tried it and it's too fucking hard, ok? Fuck. Just because I don't have the balls to do it doesn't mean you can fucking jump all over me. Go fuck yourself, I'm gonna do what I want to do.
Quote:
You have to match your dietary levels to your activity levels. NROL is intense compared to many other programs, but it sure worked for lots of people here. So did Turbulence Training, Afterburn, Afterburn II, TNT's training program, etc.
So now I have to eat more? What the fuck????
Quote:
These programs seem to work best for people who are relatively untrained or unconditioned, since that population will end up using weights that are fairly light, and most of their gains will be from practicing the movement and getting good at and getting used to lifting weights. The more trained you are, the more "muscle" you use to lift, and the hungrier and/or wiped out you are going to be. Ronnie Coleman would last two days on TT before a binge, Fat Bastard from Austin Powers should be able to do the whole program.
But I want to fucking grow my gunz an inch and gain strength all while getting six pack abs that will blow your mind. That's why I want to do a 5x5 routine with some volume to focus on my middle biceps and rear deltoids to make them pop. And doing legs more than once a week gets me too bulky.
Quote:
3. Yes, you probably do need weight on the bar to keep from losing muscle.
But, there have been studies where people lost NO muscle with NO resistance training on a mere 800 calories a day... What's up with that?
Because they didn't have any muscle to start with. Point me.
Quote:
I don't think anyone know exactly why we gain and lose muscle tissue, but there seem to be multiple ways to achieve either. There are pushpup guys with big chests. They never go near a 10 rep max, much less a 1 rep max. They crank out 50 because they can. They get bigger (those are muscles).
Our best guess is that lifting heavier and heavier over time encourages our muscles to adapt. That doesn't always mean bigger, but it means stronger. What else? Time under tension? Fatigue? A combination? I'm sure it's a lot of that.
Over the years, a lot of people have lost fat and little muscle doing sets of 15, 25, etc. Yet, suddenly you have to do 5 reps or less to retain LBM. Interesting.
Dude, I said it earlier. I fucking want to put 30 pounds on my bench right now too. All my muscle mass just turns to mush if I do more than 10 reps. Fuck, I'm losing muscle just thinking about it.
Quote:
I'd hazard a guess that if you dieted down for two months, while lifting weights, and lost a lot of muscle, that you didn't have the muscle that you thought you did.
Shut the fuck up. I'm going for a 10 mile run.
Quote:
4. You know you can just eat foods, right?
"I'm getting tired of eating porkchops and applesauce, what else can I do with porkchops?"
A. Cookbook
B. Porkchops and anything. It's just meat. It's just food. "Dishes" are only dishes because someone liked the combination, shared it, and that combination became popular. The other day when you had steak and ____? Try porkchops and _______. Mmm....
C. Don't eat porkchops right now. It's just meat. It's just a food. Eat beef, cheese, eggs, milk, etc instead.
Bro, I'll let you in on a little secret. NO-Explode and Designer Whey. A pump that lasts for hours and I get protein. Who the fuck eats real food anyway?
But stay away from the creatine. That shit gets me too swole too soon.
Quote:
5. You can design your own training program.
It's fun, but until you've read (and done) several all the way through, you probably shouldn't try it.
Reading is not enough. Read and try, and see what it does or doesn't do for you. Then do another program after reading that book.
I'm really liking my six day split right now. I've got it timed right so that the inner head of my triceps is at peak recovery time for shoulder day.
Quote:
When you think you're ready to do your own, use a book/program that is modular and/or walks you through your choices.
No matter what your goal and training experience is, you'd probably do best starting out with a full body generalized program for strength and/or moderate growth. Pure hypertrophy programs are tough to design. Lots of variables and room for error, pain, overuse injuries, and wasted time. Wait on this one. Fat loss programs need to be balanced with your caloric intake, rest, etc. Too much volume and intensity, too little rest and recover, too little food, time for a crash... Wait on this one, too.
But I'm different. Fucking different. I know what works for me. Who the fuck are you to tell me that I don't know how my body works?
Quote:
Baby steps to designing your own program... Two modular ways to try your hand at doing your own programming.
6. This thread isn't trying to be about negativity, but about pulling in the reigns and resetting things.
It's not that hard. We make it hard. I've overanalyzed myself and spun my wheels for months, wishful thinking my way to a further lack of progress. I've been here for a while, so many of you know the crap I've tried. It almost always came down to simple being better.
Comments and additions are welcome, as are disagreements. I'm not always right.
Fuck man, we should get together and try the new mass-builder from Flex. It looks brutal. 30 sets for your biceps, followed by a 100 rep set on the lat pulldown.
__________________
Quoth David Banner: "Like a pimp"
It's not a beer belly. It's a gas tank for a sex machine.
Good post Roland, thanks for putting that out there.
Reminds me of something Dan John wrote in his excellent Never Let Go, where he was once given advice by an Olympic discus champion who told him "when things go wrong, and they will, you must simplify."
If that holds true for elite athletes then you don't have wonder if that advice might help joe no pack that gets lost in a myriad of training advice.
I see it at the gym all the time. People that can't even squat their bodyweight get wrapped up in hitting their medial delts and how many sets of skull crushers they need to be doing. If they stuck to pressing, pulling, chin-ups, squats, and some plank variations and gradually got really good at them body fat tends to decrease and muscle mass increases.
I've been training a 50 year old guy that was 50lbs overweight that just today hit a 315 deadlift, 13 chinups, and 200lb bench at a new 180lb bodyweight. He's never done a bicep curl, skull crusher, fly, lateral raise, or crunch to get there. He is extremely disciplined with his eating and in showing up to train, so he should get all the credit. Then we keep it simple in the gym. No easy, but simple.
Funny how that works.
__________________
Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
__________________ 'I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. ' ~Frank Sinatra
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher,
smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
That depends on the intensity of your reading regimen. Soaking your eyes in a carefully balanced protein solution can help protect them from any catabolic tendencies.
__________________
"Time and patience are the 2 elements that most people don't include in their plans."
-Alan Aragon
"The scale simply tells you how much the earth loves you on a particular day."
-Ogedei (Keith)
That depends on the intensity of your reading regimen. Soaking your eyes in a carefully balanced protein solution can help protect them from any catabolic tendencies.
But make sure that you use the solution within 30 minutes of mixing. Otherwise the protein will denature.
Roland, please don't take my minutia away. It's all I have to talk about!
It's fun, but until you've read (and done) several all the way through, you probably shouldn't try it.
Reading is not enough. Read and try, and see what it does or doesn't do for you. Then do another program after reading that book.
Well said.
__________________
The reason you don't have big arms is because you're weaker than a baby's fart, not because you don't do enough arm curls. -- Tony Gentilcore, via thefitcast.com
[Your] biceps [comprise] just 3 percent of the amount of muscle mass in your entire body. Remember that number: It's a good way to keep a perspective on how much you train your biceps compared with your other muscle groups. -- from menshealth.com
I'd hazard a guess that if you dieted down for two months, while lifting weights, and lost a lot of muscle, that you didn't have the muscle that you thought you did.
x10
Then they want people on this board to tell them why they lost all this mysterious muscle mass.
Don't know how I missed this earlier - great thread.
What I did learn from NROL was squat, deadlift, push, pull, lunge (unfortunately no longer in my vocabulary), and crunchies. Not exactly a workout, but close.
Good post! I think it's amazing how perspectives can change. I used to obsess over almost every detail until life got too busy to do that. And then I realized that I still stayed in good shape without the obsession, as long as I worked hard and managed my calorie intake.
As far as groupthink on forums... hasn't it always been that way? When I first found the Men's Health Forums in the Spring of 2002, everyone was doing the Testosterone Advantage Plan. The big thing was macronutrient ratios, and everybody was obsessively calculating their daily percentage intakes of protein, carbs, and fats on Fitday. Not that some of these obsessions are bad things. I don't scrutinize percentages anymore, but doing that taught me to make sure that I get a good variety of foods in my diet.
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