The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Had a fat holiday, enjoyed it.
Getting back on the train now though.

 

Big turnover, talked over this with @cartter469 a bit too, I found a subreddit /r/volumeeating which has opened up a lot of cool recipes I just hadn't thought of. A lot of sus stuff too like 18 chemicals deep to be "high volume, low calorie" like artificial sweeteners, etc - but a lot of good stuff. Big one being: potatoes. Potatoes are not "healthy", per say, but they're "more healthy" than pastas. Throw a bag in the instant pot, 1 cup of vegetable broth (or chx broth, but my wife is vegan and might want some), and they're done in 20 minutes.

Going on vacation next week, so that might throw me steady for a week, but then back to it when I get back. This morning was 207.6, I'm officially (relatively safely) under my BMI limit for "obese" at 208.4, goal being I think 160? 173.6 is my BMI limit for overweight, after that I don't actually have a goal weight that I'm trying to get to.

 

Potatoes carried my cut from 188- 155 in 4 months. I still eat about 6-7 pounds a week. And about 18-20 eggs with some whites too.

just don’t make them/season them the same way 2 days in a row and you’re golden. I eat like a “big back” so I need to feel full. Apples too recently have been a large portion of my diet. Although I think I’m getting the cheap GMO filled ones from Walmart that are abnormally large but big enough to actually be a filling snack

 

Meh, 2 days in a row is fine, doing it for the week - that's where it gets rough.

As it is, I just do them plain in the instant pot and then zhuzh them up however I want. I made a chicken pot pie option the other night with leftover breaded chicken patties. They're ready to go in the fridge plain, and then will be used with whatever I want.

Apples are a good one too.
The volume eating subreddit is funny. This is one of the posts.



I have done Keto before, and this draws on a lot of that kind of idea, but it isn't strictly keto. So, I'm a fan of it thus far. It's not a strict diet method, just an idea for eating more volume with less calories. Shiritaki noodles are a good one too. I made a heaping bowl of "pasta" with them and the noodles were like 40 calories. That much "real" pasta would have been 800+.

Hearts of Palm spaghetti is a big solid meh at best, but the shiritaki (branded: Skinny Noodles) noodles are great. Those and potatoes are going to be my next few months of life

 

I don’t follow a specific diet method but agree with these takes and think generally work for most people. I find that if I mix eating for volume and tweak meal timing I can often get away with eating way less calories but not suffering from any unbearable hunger cravings.

My go-to if I can’t shake the cravings or just want something ‘sweet’ is about a cup of Greek yogurt mixed with a scoop of protein powder, topped with some fruits for texture (strawberries, blueberries, or apple usually). Something about that just absolutely crushes my cravings and makes me feel almost uncomfortably full.

 

Keto I feel like ruined me. I like caloric dense foods and not eating tons of food. High volume eating has been an issue for my gut.

Gotta experiment and find out what works for you. All methods are just tools in a toolbox. Some tools work some don’t.

 

I'm recently adding in stuff to my normal training focused around the Navy PRT requirements. As I'm trying to go pilot/NFO through OCS and studying hard for that test.

I've had a solid physique and decent strength to bodyweight over the last year or so. But holy hell 50 pushups straight, if you never train pushups or very very high rep lifts, is super tough.

And at work I'll run 12-15 miles in a 6-8 hour shift, but no more than 1/4 mile at a time then get at least a 75 second rest. Running 1.5 miles sub 11 is tough as hell. I'm at 4500 feet elevation so I've got same time thresholds as sea level guys(they adjust times over 5000 feet :/ sucks for me) 11 min 1.5 mile gets me a 75 or 80 for that segment I believe.

And 3 minutes of planks holy shit. I usually do 1 minute planks in my core circuit that I do for the sake of normal gym routine.

Very humbling lol. Also kinda been stagnant on my eating. Can't make up my mind if I bulk, cut, or what. also more focused on those numbers than my physique right now. Been eating too much peanut butter on apples for snacks though I can tell... I lack self control with the quantity of peanut butter cus its so damn good.

 

I feel like these are pretty reasonable goals. The push-ups, run, and plank should progress relatively quickly if you’re already in shape and focus on them.

- Push ups is all about upping the volume. The greasing the grove method works well if you’re familiar. Or alternatively, try doing 20-25 push ups every hour on the hour for your entire work shift (if you miss any, you owe them on the next hour). Before you know it you’ve accumulated a couple hundred push ups in a day.
- As far as the run goes, I’ve been able to apply simple progression methods to get coworkers running sub 7 min mile paces but I would defer the running expertise to someone more experienced like @PackCon
- Planks I would probably tackle by doing 1 max effort attempt each day. Within 2 weeks you should be well on your way to multiple minutes.

 

yea within the matter of 2 weeks I got from 30 to 50 pushups and 1:45 to 2:40 plank. Pretty sure most of it’s the mental tbh. Did a 6:50 mile last night. Learning what different paces feel like and what I can manage for 1 vs 2 vs 1.5 at a time


It’s just not stuff I coulda easily done 0 effort compared to my normal “body building” style training

for the Mile test my recruiter did say he just takes people up to a track above 5k feet so the times are bumped about 1-1:15 per score range. Since bottom of Reno is 4500 and most is 47+ he said that’s more logical than using sub 5k feet times lol

 

I can’t help with being a fast runner. I’ve never been one.
I don’t care to run fast. For me it SUCKS can’t stand the feeling of not being able to breathe. Fastest mile like 6:40? I think.

I tell people if you want running/walking to be apart of your life. Focus on volume.

Its better to run a little everyday, than more less days. Its less load, less strain.

Build that aerobic base first. Run at a pace you can pretty much breathe through your nose at. Your speed at that effort will go up. Then once you get that habit down. Throw in some speed work.

After I had my knee surgery I returned to running 4 months later than I was before surgery. All because of constant hiking, walking, and eliptical at low efforts.

A lot of weight training can qualify as anaerobic training so you need actual little fast running to add to what you clearly already do.

You mostly need to train your mind to maintain that 7:15ish per mile pace. I would think if you could even get consistent at 7:15 pace at 8x400m repeats with 200m walk breaks in between and 4x800m w 400m walk breaks between youd be fine for the run test.

Just be well rested before test day.

You are right its very much mental. Most people wig out before their first marathon having not run the distance before they show up on race day. They never fully appreciate the 1,000 miles put into training before that. You got this.

 

Anything sub 10 for me is "fast". BUT I am not running for fun, I am running because it's (kinda fun) exercise with the dog, and for the effect of weight loss. The daily lunch runs with the dog are nice and quick for me - being 1.5 miles from home at the office. I go home, throw on some running shorts, run for 2 laps around the neigborhood, jump in the shower, and back to work within my lunch hour. Winters can be harder because of layering, and running in layers is not my go to, so this winter has been a lot of walking instead of running (not to discount a 2.25 mile walk as being nothing!)

@cartter469 when you go to the gym, switch from the typical 3x10 sets that almost everyone does and go for lower weight 3x(to failure) sets. This is building endurance in your muscles vs power. I used to do just the preacher curl bar for 3 sets to failure, it was at least 100 reps each set. This helped my push ups too, because I was benching 45 (sometimes 95) for 3 sets to failure, once I flipped over and did push ups after a couple months of that, it was a world of difference.

That's a HUGE issue he's going to face. You don't just get told "run fast", you get told "run fast, BUT after you do 1 minute of a lot of push ups and situps and planks" (depending on the test and branch he's doing). A lot of people can do that run in a decent nick, but it's hard when you thrash yourself for 20 minutes ahead of that (and get zero rest ahead of time, for obvious .mil reasons )

But you aren't alone on the track, so you have the vibe of others also pushing themselves, which brings you up in speed too.

 

Coming back from a week long vacation of doing next to nothing for activity, sitting on my rear end and drinking WAY too much wine.





So, weaning myself back onto reality this week and then next week back into it full time

It wasn't all laziness and nothingness though, to be fair...

 

Anyone try the carnivore diet along with exercise? This is my 60 day result

 

Heck yeah man, puttin in the work!

I'm a bit cynical. The big part of any diet is calories in vs calories out. I can eat 1700 calories of twinkies in a day, and still lose weight. You'd feel like garbage, which is the other part of it. A balanced diet in caloric deficit, and you're going to feel good and be losing weight.

So, subjectively, it's all about what works for you. If South Beach works for you, heck yeah. If Paleo works for you, heck yeah. If Keto works for you, heck yeah. If it reaches a point of being UNHEALTHY, then that's an issue, but a healthy caloric restriction - yee haw!

You're killing it with the carnivore diet, and it's not unhealthy/dangerous, so congrats and heck yeah my man!



To be egotistical and bring it to me:
What's working for me is a volume eating approach. In the winters, I used to eat pastas and calorie-dense foods still, just eat less. Summers I am more laissez faire on the food approach, because I typically burn off a lot more - running, walking, biking, just being outside more.



Now I'm pivoting toward less calorie-dense foods as the approach, and hot damn, this one's working - not only that, you can feel when something clicks in your brain and is something that you can commit to, vs suffer through for a few months. I am confident that this will be something I can maintain this time.

Potatoes at a big part of it. Firstly, you can throw them in an instant pot, and 25 minutes later, baked potatoes. A whole instant pot full of them. Secondly, have you ever had a ragu meat sauce over potatoes? If you're like me, the answer was no until a couple weeks ago, but now, I am a potato fiend

Cucumber salads. Throw some cucumbers and a red onion in the food processor, a big ol' bowl of vegetables, and it's actually pretty good. Sometimes I get cheeky and throw some fried chili crisps in there. Tajin is pretty good to dash on there too.

"Wait, it's all vegetables?"

 

Calorie history only goes back 8 weeks now, so I matched them up.

Wife's in on it now, and we have team goals. For example, last week we did 10 days - if we met our goal over 10 days, then we'd get cookies (and I hit a weight loss goal, so hence we made pizza, and ate cookies....not a good weight weekend but it's a marathon not a sprint).

Over 3 months:





Reading this book now - and it's kind of getting at what I got at on my own this go around, this is a diet but also I need to hold this into a lifestyle change/reset. Which, this time, I think is doable - mentally, physically, etc.

https://www.worldofbooks.com/produc...iliano-9780739316566?sku=CIN0739316567G&gQT=0

If your library has it - it's a good read. It's a LITTLE contradictory in that it starts by saying that it's effortless, but then you need to think about it - the point is that at the END of it, you're able to "not think about it" - but it's not an overnight flip of the switch in the brain to go from a weight loss to not thinking about food and restrictions. Anyway, other than that little opinion, I won't say any more vs letting y'all read it yourselves.

 

165 as your goal weight? That’s pretty big swing from over 220. Were you that light in the past?

 

5'10", I used to be in the 170s-180s with more muscle.

I've always been a bit either overweight or obese, depending on how much you trust BMI. In '23 I kicked it for a while, the winter got me back and then in '24 I didn't maintain well. Lowest I got in '23 was a shade over 175.



My cutoff (on BMI scale) from being overweight to normal weight is 173.6, I picked 165 as a random goal weight beyond that. I'm not really attached to 165, I am attached more so to not being overweight anymore - weight aside (IE if it's muscle mass vs fat).

 

Gotcha. Wasn’t judging per se, just curious. People discussing their fitness goals with me always seem to be attached to specific body weight numbers, but I’ve never considered that for myself so am always curious where the numbers come from. But I see now that wasn’t your intention.

I’m not familiar with the tracking program you’re using- does it require you to select a goal weight so I can calculate calories/macros in order to hit that goal in a chosen time frame?

 

Nah no worries - the body weight is just an easy to measure thing right now. I used to be more muscle mass, now I'm kind of bog standard muscle mass, so weight/BMI is a pretty good rule of thumb. I picked 165 just kinda because

Cronometer.

https://cronometer.com/



I'm using the free version, too. You can set your own goals for everything, it's a pretty good app.
Daily journal keeps track of a bunch of nutrients and such. I don't use them that much, though. There is a weekly report on the free version, paid model you can do 14, 30, 3 months, etc and see how you're looking long term trends on nutrients and vitamins and such to see if you need to adjust to take in more iron, greens, proteins, calcium, etc.



I landed on it because the free version has barcode scanning, when MyFitnessPal took it behind a paywall.

 

Awesome. I’m always looking for fitness apps to recommend so I’ll keep Chronometer in mind. I’ve used FitGenie for about a decade now, I abandoned MyFitnessPal pretty early because I didn’t like the social aspect to it. FitGenie is decent, though they have been slowly putting the best features behind a paywall as well.