Weights and Diet
sfuller
Posts: 628
in General Chat
Hello All,
I dont include any weights in my weekly workout and Im starting to feel I should, do any of you?
Also, I eat quite alot, at least 2500-3000 cal a day but keep losing weight and my girlfriend thinks im getting abit skinny.... does anybody know any high cal food that I can add to my diet that is good for you too. Im not a big choc eater, prefer good quality food with health benefits.
Thanks
I dont include any weights in my weekly workout and Im starting to feel I should, do any of you?
Also, I eat quite alot, at least 2500-3000 cal a day but keep losing weight and my girlfriend thinks im getting abit skinny.... does anybody know any high cal food that I can add to my diet that is good for you too. Im not a big choc eater, prefer good quality food with health benefits.
Thanks
0
Comments
Maybe you'll find something there.
On the food thing: doesn't everybody just love peanut butter (if you dont include that already).
I normally swim twice a week for an hour, bike twice for an hour (normally about 35k each) and run 3 times ( normally 2x 5-7k and 1x 10-15k), these are my main aims but in every session I will run or bike for 10-15 mins just for warm up/down.
So to add weights in I dont know what Id do??
Loss of weight usually suggests you are not meeting your energy demands, liquid carbohydrate meals or sipping 6% carbohydrate isotonic solution while you train maybe helpful in restoring energy balance without the hassle of having to consume more bulky foods.
Also make sure you are taking some form of carbohydrate straight after you have trained especially if training has been longer than 90 minutes this will help speed up restoration of muscle glycogen stores which endurance athletes depend on.
If you are wanting to improve muscle mass adding some Branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) eg leucine/ isoleucine and valine with carbohydrate to your meal after you have done weights can also be helpful. BCAAs can be found in cereal, milk, soy and meat. Provided you have a good diet which consists of about 15% protein and your diet is meeting your energy demands there is no need for other forms of protein supplementation.
Remember as an endurance athlete you dont want to bulk up too much as this will increase the perfusion distance for blood into muscle. Most the triathletes I know do some type of resistive weights programme but dont go overboard.
The australian institue of sport has good tips on nutrition for endurance athletes on their website.
If your weight loss continues it might be a good idea to get a few tests from your doctor to rule out any other possible causes.
Hope this helpful
One must be careful to not confuse skinny with low body fat.I would suggest doing a few tests from the basic BMI,and pinch tests to more comples ones to assertain your body makeup.the body requires a certain amount of fat to protect the essential body organs from damage either through impact or cold,if you look at the results of races that have taken place in unseasonably cold weather and note the high dropout through illness in both thre pro ranks or amateurs,also skinny does not neccessary mean light either,muscle being more compact than fat.
I blame the Government from banning competitve sport in schools and not allowing people to fail now ,they just have 'deferred success'.
At least the cyclists are showing the rest of the world that there is one sport that the UK can win at.
Some good points raised - it is all about balance - cals in versus cals out - but you need to know where that balance lies!! sfuller for the amount of training that you're doing i don't think that 2500 - 3000 cals a day is lot at all, but then again i don't know you're age, weight, height etc... but the fact that your still losing weights suggests a negative energy balance... as a basic guide stick "basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator" into google and there are plenty of sites that will work your BMR out for you - but don't forget to add in your exercise index (how many times you train) and for what you're doing in a week i'm sure you'll be surprised. You only need a 500 cal defecit each day and you'll consistantly lose a pound a week (3500 cals in 1 pound of fat)!!
As for weight training, personally yes, 2 times per week... but only compound exercises (multiple joint) and "core" (which i class as any muscles that affect lower back and pelvis).. no need to fanny about with exercises such as bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curls, leg extensions etc... hit the big muscle groups with squats, lunges, deadlifts, hang cleans, pull ups etc and some work on the stabilty ball. But do not neglect the core, if the core is like a ball of jelly then any power/strength gain made cannot be transfered either form lower to upper body or vice versa!!
Treefrog, totally agree about the obese state of this nation... very embarrasing whilst away on hols and taking a look at the beached white tattooed whales everywhere, usually with their husbands as well!!! However, words of warnings need to be given about becoming too skinny.. as jon.E quite rightly pointed out, we need a certain amount of fat for health purposes and as a human your body, through the process of evolution, is actually geared to storing fat and once it drops below a certain level then your body will get it's energy from somewhere else.. ie your natural carb and protein stores AKA your muscles, which inevitably lowers your metabolism, which ain't a good thing especially for endurance athletes, and also has a nasty effect on your immune system!!!
The correct balance is KEY
Sorry to waffle guys - i'll get off my high horse now!!
I think competitvely some forms of resisted training can be helpful, however you must realise you are only increasing the power capacity of muscle, and the ability to do more work over a smaller time . An increase in weight whether it be muscle tissue or fat tissue is going to increase the amount of work you have to do so will negate the effect of increased power of muscle. Ideally you want to do a resistive programme that increases muscle power but does not increase weight too much, I am sure there are some trainers out there that would be able to comment on how this is acheived.
This is a good thread and i am enjoying reading the opinion of others.
I digress,back to weight training,take your pick low reps high weight,or high weight low reps,both have benefits,some recommend only using the basic exercises such as bench,lat pull down,squat,or others that are more muscle discrimitive,common misconception is that playing with weights will automatically turn you into a muscle bound freak.
Weight training will strengthen and tone.
Weight training + increase in calories particularly protein will strengthen,tone and increase in muscle mass and size.
As painis pleasure said it is down to balance and what YOU want.
As for the topic that seems to have arisen inside this topic, its interesting and please more people should comment!
Thanks for all the replies
I have 3 kids (8,6 +4 years old) I went to one of their 'sports' days a few years back (when I was still living with the former mrs samutri and the three wee samutri's) and was stunned to find there were no competitive events at all. I had a word with the head teacher immediately who really wasn't keen but evently relented and introduced a flat race at the end of the day. The kids didn't have a clue what to do and they all ran to their respective parents!! What the hell...!!
There was a dads race (not a dads half marathon as I suggested..) my greatest victory to date!!
On the subject of calorific intake - 2500 - 3000KCal seems very low - I'm a scientist by training and love the science involved in our sport. When the training is really heavy, I can get through 5,000KCal a day. Probably harder work than the training!
If anyone's particulary interested (and bored) I could start a thread on " what ridiculously large meals have you had today" !!
I find I can fit 3 weights sessions into my week quite nicely. I do 2 sessions a day, so that gives me 12 a week, but this is all based on periodisation. I.e. I am currently doing alot of technique work, including 5 sessions of swimming a week, as my races dont start till july so I want to build up technique and stamina before getting into a period of increasing speed closer to the races.
In terms of what I do for weights on monday I do legs and full body stuff, such as squats, deadlifts, clean and jerk, kettleball stuff. This is designed to increase overall body strength and I find its very effective.
On wednesdays I do a chest and tri routine that is aimed at increasing muscle endurance, so I do pyramids of press-ups/dips or bench press. i.e. 8 pressups/8 dips, 7 pressups/7 dips etc. until down to 1 each, then 1 min rest, then back up again, starting with 1 of each.
I find these exercise help me increase overall body tone, reduce fat, increase my strength to weight ratio.
And on fridays I do a similar routine but based on back, bis and shoulders. - so pull ups and chin ups etc.
I combine this with a very carefully constructed eating plan, so as to NOT put on excess bulk. The gains in strength are not as large as if i was bulking up, but im also only 70 kg and can bench over a 100, so my strength to weight ratio is pretty high.
It doesnt sound like you will have a problem with putting on muscle bulk, if u already have a problem putting on weight.
BUT BE WARNED! Weights sessions cause your metabolism to shoot up, and if you do not eat the required food, i.e. protein, and lots of it, ure body will breakdown more muscle than it puts on, therefore you will get weaker. Ive seen it happen, and its not good!
hope that helps a bit
http://snagwiremedia.com/24fitclub/fitness/