mrsmole's Journal, 12 May 14

There is no transforming fat to muscle unless you're simply looking at it as energy used. What most people do is far too much when they go to the gym. I've seen competition natural bodybuilders in and out of the gym in 25 minutes. The body needs time to recover. Nothing over an hour - that's my motto unless I know I will be away from a place to workout for three or four days. When you know you'll be gone that long, it's about the shock treatment. People who workout an hour and a half to two hours, unless they're just fooling around, are the people who end up doing things like straining a hip, or putting themselves out of commission for two weeks to a month. Most people tear down more muscle than they should and then don't give it time to recover. Weight lifting is catabolic. It destroys muscle tissue. The only muscle gains you get are during rest, so learn to rest. --- What we tend to notice most when we exercise or lift weights is a change in shape. I believe it's for two reasons. 1.) The muscle strengthens and begins lifting the fat to a slightly different location, and 2.) Fat is actually fluid and moves from cell to cell. While fat may be used from one are of the body because it's convenient, the body will shuffle the fats from cell to cell to get it where it feels it's most necessary. Some people will actually find that, while their losing weight, some of their measurements go down and others will go up. It's not 'wrong'; it's the body adjusting storage locations. --- Canada is a nightmare when it comes to weights. Bad enough that you have all these various combinations of weights and measures: a cup isn't necessarily 8 ounces (it's close if it's fluids), ounces and troy ounces, and then you have a ton, a metric ton (2204 pounds compared to an imperial 2000 pounds). Add into the the whole metric system which is more logical but which many people are still not using, and nobody really knows what anything is. Of course you can always convert everything. I use grams to weigh one thing (talking foods here, not body parts) and ounces to weigh others. I have no idea why. It's just the way I roll. 

Having thought the tape measure was my only true friend considering I don't get along with the beast, I discovered it also lies. Or so I thought. My waist size went up an inch. Glad to see this information. Also noticed that since I've begun this trip, the squishy fat cells are shrinking. They felt like bb's, now they're hardly noticeable. Now, that I like.  

Yep. Once you start getting to where you can feel muscle under the fat it's very common to feel it as a series of small lumps. I'm not sure why this is. --- I had an email asking about time in the gym from my above post. With the 'under an hour' rule there is a caveat. Cardio is a different issue. It can be used to burn a few extra calories and to accelerate the metabolism a bit. For weight lifting, particularly intense weight lifting, over an hour is too much. 

There's also something I've noticed with people I've been consulting with on diet. They seem to think that 'eating healthy foods' and 'exercising' means they don't need to watch their food intake. (I'm not saying you, Dom, I know you don't believe that.) Consider this. I'm 175 pounds. If I work out for 1 hour I will burn approximately 250 calories. That's one cup of ice cream. It's about a 2/3 of a donut. You can also think of it this way. That one hour of exercise burns as many calories as my body burns by simply sitting on the couch for about 3 hours. Poor eating will sustain your exercising goals, but it will not make you lose weight. Lifting weights and exercising is not enough to get rid of a 2000 calorie excess. Look at power lifters. Many of them are definitely obese.  

Thanks for answering the questions I had and was going to write about. You didn't need to bring up donuts. :~) 

I'd love to see that paper. I struggle to think how the body would choose fat up to a point and then start using muscle tissue instead. What is different about muscle that allows it to be 'metabolized' instead of fat, the bodies natural energy storage unit. Is it supported by data, or is it a theoretical calculation? That's whopping huge in any case. 800 calories a day my body can use? Oddly, that's just over 1.5 pounds per week, which is a figure I've seen before. I like the idea of a calorie use per body fat. That seems to make perfect sense since everyone seems to see a weight loss slow down. It also means, if you take it to the edge, that you really need to be serious about recalculating your calorie deficit every 5 pounds or so. Leave it for 10 pounds and you're eating 300 cals per day that you could be cutting. I'd love the link. 

I actually mean why would it burn muscle instead of fat when it has been burning fat.  

Dom... congrats on the breakthrough.  

I looked that number up. I think it sounds fairly reasonable, but it was from a study in the 1940s. Anything more recent I wonder? 

I always look for the 'outs'. "Keep in mind the specific foods and macronutrient ratios consumed by the subjects were far from optimal for fat loss, and that “moderate activity levels” is not the same as regular, high intensity strength training. The maximum rate is most likely higher for someone eating adequate protein and not overdoing carbohydrate intake and strength training would also contributes to maintenance of lean body mass when calorie intake is below maintenance level." This is likely where the whole 'you'll lose muscle if you lose weight to fast' philosophy comes from. I'd be more inclined to believe people think they have gained a certain amount of muscle but when they cut it's not there so they think they lost it on the diet. Bodybuilders and people who lift are rarely short of protein for muscle maintenance. "I'm Bruce and I'm an iconoclast. No I won't go to your meetings. It's not a problem." 

It's important to realize this calculation came from a project know as the 'starvation project'. They were not doing anything to attempt to ensure people's health, though they did release some when they saw it was too damaging to them. Sorry for all the posts. 

Congrats on your workouts and your weight loss!  

Progress! Yes!! 

a ahlf a ound is a half of pound ! Yea you ! 

@NM i'm sure msmole didn't mind, and i found them very interesting!!! thank you.