aroundhky

In general....you'll want to do resistance training (lifting weights) in addition to a few sessions of cardio each week. Usually the best types of resistance training are compound lifts with free weights, kettlebells or some body weight lifts once you progress. There are SOME machines that are beneficial and actually may be a good way to ease into it, learn your technique, then progress to more difficult / technical lifts as you will eventually stop progressing with many machines. Usually you'll want to aim for 2-3 sets of each lift starting out, with about 6-10 reps each set....depending on the lift. You'll probably be fine starting out with two lifting sessions a week (one upper body, one lower body), then several months down the road you may want to go up to 3-4 lifting sessions a week. Make sure to get lean Protein and some complex carbs (veggies, oats, etc). High protein and low carb is fine for maintaining strength and muscle while lifting, but to build it, you need some carbs. How many carbs depends on your personal sensitivity to them. Wish you the best and keep us posted on your progress!

"familyguy"......I think that indirectly I was trading fat for muscle. It's a cycle thing really and we cannot turn fat INTO muscle. But yes, it took me nearly 2 years to get to goal weight and I have since gone up about 10+ pounds. But duing that 2 years, even when the # on the weight scale wasn't dropping, my body fat % would VERY slowly getting lower each time I measured it. So in the end, yes, I think that's basically what I did. I guess it's really a matter of priority.....is muscle & body fat more important than the number on a scale......or vice versa? Not that there's a wrong answer.....it's really just personal preference and everyone has their own reasons for having the surgery. Sounds like your goal of losing slowly and preserving muscle go hand in hand. Good luck!

RH Chili Peppers, Metallica and Pearl Jam for me, but certainly not for everyone. I can't listen to music during all of my lifts due to my ear buds falling out of my ears on power cleans and a few other explosive type lifts. I need to try Pandora soon....been meaning to.

Being just a little below cal maintenance is key to retaining muscle and still be able to lose fat. Being drastically below maintenance (like the first few months after getting our sleeve), is going to deplete a lot of our muscle. Losing muscle is almost unavoidable those first few months. But as you are able to eat more, try getting in enough Protein to preserve it and stay around 200-500 cals below maintenance, and hopefully you will not lose too much, if any, muscle. Good luck!

You got this "rmubvashrink"....you can do it!

I couldn't agree more about the statement from "abetterme" about switching it up. Once I stop getting results, I'll switch up the TYPES of lifts or number of REP, SETS. Our muscles tend to adjust and stop responding.....kind of have to wake them up.

You crack me up Butter....always interesting reading your posts. I'm guilty of it at times too. Mine are more like the mornings after my deadlifts days. I used to beat myself up for doing this telling myself I have to stop pushing it so much at the gym. It also doesn't help that I have a cracked L3 in my back from an old sports injury years ago. But then there were times (various surgeries, vacations, etc) when I just didn't work out for a while...sometimes a couple of weeks at a time. What I found out was my joints and overall body aches were just as bad when I rested for more than a day or two at a time and I felt awful in other ways as well. I came to the conclusion that if I'm going to ache and feel bad, I might as well do something and get strong/stay strong if I'm going to ache anyway. I just need to be smarter doing it and that has helped me some.

Guys and gals.......looking for some honest feedback here...... I'm at the gym at lunch today and I'm doing upper back (pullups, bent over rows, seated rows & rear delt flies). I usually do them in that order as well. So while I'm doing my pullups and bent over rows, I see this guy doing some stuff with dumbbells in the dumbbell section using several different sets of dumbbells while bouncing around all over the gym doing other things (different lifting stations, talking, etc). Every 5 minutes or so he would circle back to the dumbbell section and do a set or two and leave to use something else in the gym and come back. Anyway, by this time I'm well into my seated row sets. About my 2nd set, I can still see the guy is away from his dumbbells and for a long time now....10-15 minutes they've just been sitting there on the floor, not re-racked, but also not being used. I look around and he's nowhere to be seen and I know that my rear delt flies are next and some of the dumbbells he has left lying out are the ones I'll be using on my rear delt flies that are next. Another 5-10 minutes pass and I finish up my 4th set of seated rows. He is still nowhere to be found...I'm guessing "Elvis" has left the building. So I go over there and start in on my first set of dumbbell flies with a set of the dumbbells he left lying on the floor. While I'm pushing out my last couple of reps all of a sudden he appears and I see him with my peripheral vision looking at me very anxiously. I finish up and look at him and just nodded my head acknowledging him, but not saying anything. He told me was using those dumbbells. Going on instincts.....I'm wondering if we have a problem here and I'm measuring him up. He's fairly big and muscular, but kind of short and looking not all that flexible. I have the reach on him, but he's younger....probably 30 or so. But I want to allow for due diligence before getting into whatever he may be seeking. Thinking I have to at least try and seek out diplomacy, I replied back that they had been laying on the floor for about 20 minutes and since my time in the gym is limited (I'm on my lunch break), I needed to use them as I didn't have a lot of time to spare. He seemed to be going through some type of roid rage by this time. So I'm trying to compromise for us both, probably more than he deserved, and I offered him to work in with me if he wanted. I've been seeing that the dude had been trying to piss all over so many stations at the gym in an apparent attempt to mark his territory or something and thinking he can claim several different stations and implements, while at the same time holding everyone else in the gym hostage and expecting us to wait while he goes and does something else. I'm thinking, I'm not going along with this and I'm not going to be a full on enabler, so I'm not leaving "his area" like he wanted. But I do offer a compromise and offered him to work in with me. He then gets all loud talking saying...."Well I was in the middle of using this but you know what....I can just go do these on the cable machine" like he was all put out and making sure everyone heard this and knew about it. It worked, I could see people stopping and looking. I just shrugged my shoulders and went about my business after telling him that I don't mind him working in with me. He acted all butt hurt and was really loud on the cable machines a few feet away trying to cause a scene or something. I do another 3 sets of rear delt dumbbell flies and leave to go back to work. It's guys like this that think the gym is theirs that really chap my a$$! Everyone else there is paying for their membership and have as much right to the equipment as he does. No wonder so many people who genuinely want to workout...don't.....because of people like this dude. Anyway......was I wrong to go and use the precious dummbbells of his that were left lying in the floor for 20 minutes not being used..... and with him nowhere in sight? Should I have given it more time for him to show up and start using these again..... risking me not being able to do the rear delt flies due to running out of time? On my way back to work, I thought to myself that maybe I was a little harsh or too confrontational. But the more I think about it, I think I gave him more than enough time. Not that he deserved it. I feel that his approach of trying to save 4-5 stations and expecting everyone else to steer clear of all of them while he's there is a little absurd. Seems comparable to grabbing 4-5 pool chairs at a pool when there are not enough for everyone.....just so he can have them all to himself in case he needed them. Just wondering if I'm seeing this the wrong way........... Perhaps I should've posted this in another forum instead of the exercise section.........? Not sure.....

If they are hovering around implements or squat racks, etc and not doing anything but socializing, I now cut in as well. Just because someone is standing near something doesn't reserve it for them. Unless of course they are there using it and just resting in between sets. If so, they were there before me and I wait my turn. If not and I see they aren't doing anything, I'll shuffle them along out of the way.

I hear ya! And I'm not fully convinced of the validity of their statement anyway. Sure, exercise will help with burning fat and with one's physique, but the scale often doesn't move a lot when someone is on at least a moderate exercise routine. Reason being.....they are adding muscle. Just tell them......."I got this".

Exercise can definitely slow down weight loss.......but not fat loss. That is if you are at a calorie deficit and still getting in enough protein. You're retaining/gaining muscle and almost all of any weight loss is more than likely going to be fat.

You're welcome. There's some debate on the "pre-workout meal", but most are in general agreement that you'll want to consume lean Protein within an hour or so after exercise for recovery. Everyone is different and responds differently, but usually you'll want some kind of protein (whey, cassein or solid protein like chicken, eggs or fish) in that first meal or two after your exercise. I tend to have a protein shake followed by some oats or some other complex carb. Then my next full meal, I'll have a lean protein like (chicken or egg whites) along with a complex carb like broccoli, green Beans, carrots or oats. For me, I LOVE to workout on an empty stomach! I've tried both.....eating before a workout and not. I used to eat before a workout and most times I was sluggish, lacked focus and my performance was not optimal. About a year and a half to 2 years ago, I started skipping any kind of "pre-workout meal". I found that if I workout on an empty stomach, my exercise sessions are so much better. I'm more focused and not nearly as sluggish as I am if I eat within a couple of hours before my workout. I make sure to not consume anything within two hours of a workout, and for full on meals, no more than 3 hours before my workout. But that's me and some people may not be able to do this, especially if they have sugar issues. My guess.......if we eat a meal an hour or two before a workout, our bodies are focused on digesting that food. Our bodies pump a lot of blood to our stomach and intestines to make those organs work to digest the food, which leaves less resources for our muscles to use. I don't have any scientific evidence to back that, but I'm guessing there's something to it. Trial and error has taught me what works best for my body. You should try different approaches, be observant, tuned into your body, see what works best for you and go from there. Wish you the best!

Haha! Pun intended I'm sure.

"Breastfeeding wars"? I'm going to need a little more information about these please. When & where do these occur? Seriously...there is such a thing? What is the objective.....is it a volume thing? Just don't understand how this is made into a competition.