Question On What's Going On

[Tenacity]

Espi and BB,

I wanted to go back over your post to ask some additional questions. I want to lay everything out here on this thread, I'm just very confused.

My problem is that I have a 4 pack with a fairly okay upper toned body, it's toned enough to where women don't have an issue with it. I'm trying to complete the process and get the full 6 pack and finish out the toning. I can't for the LIFE OF ME, find the damn answer to the problem because I can't seem to even diagnose what the PROBLEM is due to the inconsistent information across the board.

I'm motivated, I have the money to invest and I'm willing to invest the time in whatever to get this done, but I need to know what the HELL to do to get it done. I have been told all types of inconsistent things from various "sources" of the Fitness Community, there's no consistent damn information anywhere, it's confusing as hell. Let me break all this down....

- "Tenacity, you should eat less and exercise more"
How, in the hell, do you maintain this for the long term? How can I continue to eat hardly nothing, or eat "less" and exercising like a MAD MAN all the time? I totally understand doing this for a short term period of 2 - 6 months to achieve a "goal" of losing XYZ pounds, or looking like XYZ, but then how do you keep doing this for the rest of your life? If I stopped exercising like a MAD MAN all the time wouldn't the weight come back? To add to this, you also hear conflicting advice from people that say they DON'T exercise as much because you have to let the muscles rest, and to only exercise no more than 5 times a week. Then you have people say they don't exercise that much, they just EAT very proper. Then some people say they don't do CARDIO at all, just lift weights 3 times a week, which isn't exercising "more" or like a Mad Man at all. You see....inconsistency all across the damn board. What is the right fvcking answer??

- "Tenacity, eat totally 100% clean"
Somebody, please tell me, what in the hell is considered clean? When you look up what is considered "healthy food" it's inconsistent all across the board. One source says, CORN IS GOOD. Another source says, DON'T EAT CORN. One source says, DON'T EAT BEEF. Another source says, EAT BEEF. One source says, PORK CHOPS ARE GOOD. Another source says, DON'T EAT PORK CHOPS. One source says, Multi-Vitamins and Omega 3 Fish Oil is GOOD, another source says, THEY AREN'T GOOD! One source says, having a cheat day once a week is good, another source says NEVER EVER HAVE A CHEAT DAY. Once source says, it's okay to eat a little bit of junk food just as long as it's in small portions and the majority of the time you eat HEALTHY, then another source says, NEVER EAT JUNK FOOD. I ask these questions...and I get NO answers, thus, I'm left still confused.

- "Tenacity, you need a better eating routine"
What is considered a proper eating routine is inconsistent all across the board. One source says you should eat 3 solid meals a day, which has been the STANDARD way of eating prior to the early 2000s fitness industry boom of eating 6 meals a day. Then, of course, another source says you must ONLY eat 6 small meals a day. For those that say eat 6 meals a day, they say grab meal replacement bars if you can't do it, but then ANOTHER SOURCE says that the meal replacement bars aren't good for you and you should only eat REAL MEALS and 3 good meals a day is okay....so damn it, which is it??

I understand that in a lot of things in life, everything isn't cut and dry, but seeing as though we are talking about SCIENCE here, it would seem as though there wouldn't be as much inconsistency. If we are discussing how to succeed in business or grow a business, I would understand varying ideas and ways of operation because that's not so cut and dry.

I don't comprehend how there's so much INCONSISTENT information on fitness and weight loss.

 

[Bible_Belt]

It's confusing because the diet answer depends on your activity and exercise level.

If I were training you for an mma fight, you could eat whatever you want and still have a 6-pack. That's because we'd train 3 hours every night, sparring and grappling. We'd do things like make you grapple for ten consecutive 2-min rounds, rotating in a fresh, rested opponent for each round, within the instruction to try to tire you out. You might start each round with the other guy sitting on you. Often he would outweigh you. When we're done, we'll run laps around the shopping mall next door or maybe interval sprints in the parking lot while dragging a weighted sled.

With an activity level like that, you could live off of beer and Subway, and your body fat percentage would still drop well down into the single-digits.

That's one extreme. Your typical American who never gets off his ass is at the other extreme. For that guy, just about every carb he eats will go straight to his gut. A strict diet is everything at a low activity level.

Most people fall in the middle somewhere, although I think most guys tend to overestimate their activity level. Unless you've been an athlete and trained for serious competition, your perspective is probably going to be too optimistic.

 

[Tenacity]

BB,

Okay, now that makes sense.

When I was 125 - 135 lbs in HS on the wrestling team, we did crazy workouts like that. It wasn't totally ALL of that but we would do the sprints around the school (running inside of the school hallways and then on the track), then we would come on the mat and do the cardio stuff around the mat, THEN we would do the wrestling related drills. So that was a very stimulus workout. And before I did the wrestling thing in HS I was fat, I didn't lift ANY weights in HS, just that wrestling related activity.

I work in the office (our Executive Office and then at days my Home Office, I live right down the street from our Executive Office) so I would say that the vast MAJORITY of the time every day I'm sitting down because my job doesn't involve hardly any physical activity.

I don't do any cardio right now, just the weight training.

Maybe I should do the weight training every day? That would increase the activity levels. You think that would work? We have a gym at my Apartment Complex I use, it has most of everything you would have at a regular gym, it comes with my rent so it's great. I use the things in there and I also use the BodyLastics Resistance Band Workout Programs (www.bodylastics.com). This allows me to run in there and run out, then get back to my work. I don't have to drive to a gym or wait around for guys to get off the equipment, etc. because our gym is only for our residents.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I don't want to pretend to know anything about weight training. Other guys can help you with that. I think it's a good idea, but I'm not sure how much it will offset bad diet, especially when you want a 6-pack. For that goal, high-intensity cardio is what you want. It makes your metabolism turn carbs into muscle instead of fat. That's what you were experiencing as a high school wrestler. I wrestled, too. It seemed like the longest 6 minutes of your life. You need cardio of that intensity if you want your workout to burn fat and get you a 6-pack.

 

[guru1000]

Tenacity, you are convoluting the issue.

It's quite simple: expend more calories than you ingest--whether through diet, exercise, or both--to lose weight. Keep protein intake high, so weight loss comprises mostly fat, and less muscle. This is how you drop bf.

Once you reach 10% bf, you will reveal a 6-pack.

That's it.

 

[Rubirosa]

I've been on a kick lately to give up all refined carbs. I want this last 20lb or so of fat on me to disappear. It's either cut carbs or run sprints. As much as I like beer, I hate sprints more. I've seen almost every former fighter I know gain fat after they stop training. It's hard to go from requiring no discipline to eating a strict diet. I walked at about 165 when I fought at 155. At six-two, that's skinny, but I was ripped as hell. I would catch women staring at me the way we drool over a big pair of t!ts. After I quit training, my weight got as high as 220. Now I'm back down to 185. I've been drinking apple cider vinegar: http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=217017

Right now I'm having coconut oil in my morning coffee instead of sugar...and it's not bad at all. It's a lot easier on the stomach than black coffee with nothing added.

I remember in the 80's when it came out that coconut oil was high in saturated fat. It used to be in coffee creamers. It was a giant health scare, and all manufacturers rushed to replace it...often with trans fats, which we now know are the absolute worst. Cold-pressed virgin coconut oil is still very high in saturated fat, which raises bad cholesterol, but science is just now discovering that the lineolic acid in it also raises the good cholesterol substantially, so it balances out. It also aids weight loss: http://thyroid.about.com/cs/dietweightloss/a/cla.htm Pacific Islanders who eat a lot of coconut don't have more heart disease. It's also great for skin. Soldiers deployed to fight in jungle environments often noticed that the natives did not get skin diseases like they did; coconut consumption could have been the reason.

Not to steer this informative thread off on a tangent, but you mentioned something that made me curious

When you said that women were checking you out when you were at 155 lbs, was that fully dressed, or walking around in a swimsuit....?

6'2", 155 is VERY lean (I'm assuming you were built like Thomas Hearns though)

For the record, I would rather be skinny, but strong, as opposed to Arnold buffness (Which I'll never reach anyway)

 

[Bible_Belt]

165 really, the last ten pounds is water. But yeah, fighters tend to be skinny. This is me at my last fight, five years ago: http://i.imgur.com/3Bpp0Si.jpg I actually probably had a little more muscle the first year I trained, because new guys don't know how to grapple and put too much muscle into it when training. This is me about a year and a half before the other pic: http://i.imgur.com/BX7uuYE.jpg After I quit training, I ballooned up to 220 at one point, but am back down to 175 now.

Obviously, I'm no powerlifter. It's a lot easier for me to be ripped than to be big.