rackham

Please don't feel obliged to say anything remotely truthful.

thehunk, are you out there?

dp

So if I understand you correctly, a person should eat enough calories to gain muscle weight, and at the same time burn enough calories to lose fat weight? Also, can you explain what you mean when you say muscles weigh less than fat? One more question: is it possible to lose weight without exercising?

If you want to lose weight, you have to take responsibility for what you eat. There is no way around that. No magic exercise, no "stomach-trimming" diet... just you, the calories you eat, and the calories you burn. Period. That applies to everybody, not just bodybuilders.

It's not that hard. If you eat something out of a box, the calories are right on the back. If you cook for yourself, you just choose recipes where you know the calories. The only tough part is eating out, but I only eat dinner out on weekends, which are cheat days for me anyway. So it's not hard at all... if you care about being lean, which some people do. If you don't -- more power to you.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION. SoBe diet, Atkins, Weight Watchers, sticking a plunger up your ass... none of these things will make you lose weight specifically on your stomach. Short of liposuction, you have to lose weight all over, or not at all. THEY ARE LIARS AND THEY WANT YOUR MONEY. For homemade food, you can enter the ingredients in Fitday to find out the calories. Or, you can cook recipes where you know the calories. http://www.allrecipes.com has a lot of recipes with the calories provided for you.

I always had success by actually counting my calories -- just write it down on a piece of paper, or use something more fancy like http://www.fitday.com. Start by aiming for 12x your bodyweight per day in calories. Keep working out the way you are currently. Weight Watchers might work, too, though I never tried them so I can't really comment. You should be able to lose about 1-2lbs per week this way. If you lose weight too quickly, add more calories. If you don't lose weight, take off calories. But give it time before adjusting -- at least a week. From now to June 22 is a bit more than 5 weeks... you should be able to lose between 5-10lbs by then by following this advice. You could lose more, but it would be more likely to come back. Good luck!

You can't lose weight unless you eat below maintenance. That doesn't mean starving yourself, it just means eating less. Diet should be your first priority, not the elliptical machine. Feel free to attempt to prove otherwise.

It's very simple: 1) Somebody puts food on the table in front of you. 2) You push it away. Repeat as needed. Talking about "which machine is best to burn fat" is misleading. There is no such thing as a machine that targets fat. You burn calories when you exercise, and your diet handles the rest. Lifting weights helps you to minimize muscle loss while cutting.

Table pushaways.

Sorry, they do not disappear overnight (don't we all wish, lol). Even if you were to follow a crash diet and lose 5lbs or more in a single week, you would most likely gain the weight back very quickly. Do yourself a favor: eat right, train right, lose the weight slowly, and enjoy the long-term benefits. Your body will thank you, believe me.

Oh, the irony. You just keep attacking me personally, and refusing to answer a simple question about the advice you gave. You say the advice "became" incorrect, but you have not explained how it was "correct" in the first place (which it wasn't). smokesum, here are a couple informational links (GLopez might want to read these too): http://www.trygve.com/mfw_faq.html#getasixpack http://www.trygve.com/mfw_faq.html#eattoloseweight

I didn't call YOU ridiculous. I said that recommending 5 exercises per bodypart for a beginner is ridiculous. That's not what you meant, so it's not worth arguing over anymore. I'm not quite sure why you keep bringing it up... Again, you're avoiding my question: how does training obliques help to lose love handles? P.S. I'm leaving the computer for the night, so I look forward to reading a well-stated reply tomorrow...

1 exercise or 5, it doesn't matter. You're avoiding the question.

Okay, that's semantics. You still haven't answered my question: how will training obliques help lose the love handles?

The guy wants to lose his love handles. Why would he want to increase muscle mass in that area? It would just make the area larger. latate was saying that if cardio and diet failed, these exercises would help reduce the love handles. I'm asking how that could be -- do you have an answer? Again, the guy asked how to lose his love handles. Latate's post did not offer a single piece of advice on losing fat. I agree that ab exercises are important for core stability. But that's not what this thread is about. If GLopez isn't already doing strength training, then I would absolutely recommend doing some. I would start with a very simple full-body routine, no more than 6 exercises, no more than one of them an abs exercise. Recommending 5 exercises for a single bodypart to a complete beginner is ridiculous. Compound movements should be the cornerstone of *any* routine.

Really? What is "tone"? How do those exercises increase "tone"? I admit I may have come on too harsh. That doesn't make latate any more right.

So... why DID you recommend all that ab training? I mean, you might not like me, but since you're giving out advice, I'm sure people reading this will want to know more... so please share!

If you're going to give advice, you'd better damn well be prepared to back it up.

Fats found in fish and nuts are healthy fats. If you're worried about your diet, go here: http://fitday.com/ It's free to sign up and I think you'll find it very helpful. lalate, what articles was your advice published in? What awards did it win? There is NO substitute for proper diet. NONE. If you're not burning more than you eat, you will not lose fat. If you've adjusted your diet and still aren't losing weight, you need to adjust your diet some more. And you have yet to explain how training obliques would help at all. Do you think that it would help to lose the love handles? If so, please explain HOW (with all your award-winning, I'm sure you're capable of giving a very good response...)

I wasn't even going to post in this thread until I saw this... You could, but it would all be wrong. Running and low fat has nothing to do with it. This is the only true statement in your entire post. Wrong. Wrong. Please do not give advice if you don't know what you're talking about. Weight loss is ALL about calorie expenditure. Even the most sedentary person in the world can scale back their food intake and lose weight. Meanwhile, you can train obliques until the cows come home, but if you're eating too much, your love handles ain't going anywhere. If you disagree, please feel free to share with the group the magic process by which oblique exercises reduce fat. I'm sure we'd all be very interested to hear it. GLopez, try aiming for about 10-12x your bodyweight in calories every day, and let us know what happens. After a couple weeks, adjust your calories up or down depending on your results. You want to aim for no more than 2lbs a week. It will be tough to cut back your calories, but including a good amount of healthy fats and protein in your diet will help you to curb your appetite while cutting.

You can always return it.

You can use free weights at home. Look, I found a rowing machine for $85 on Craigslist! I'm sure it's not as good as your $2000 Bowflex, though. There are many rowing exercises that can be done with free weights. There are many triceps exercises that can be done with free weights. A power cage would be just as tall. Look man, if you really love the Bowflex, go get naked and do triceps pushdowns to your heart's content. Just don't expect to convince anybody. Why? Because you're wrong.

Liar. Dorian didn't use Bowflex. He had a black belt in pilates.