Eating after a workout

Oh: Two more things on the mystery sprint. Never underestimate the effects of dehydration. Not having water in your system (note: in your SYSTEM, not your belly. A gut full of water would be even worse) will wipe you out in no time. Related to that, low blood-sugar would kick your butt too.

One legal "cheat" I'll do if I'm doing a mid-range run is pop a cough drop in my mouth. It gives me time release sugar and the saliva it generates helps keep from having my mouth dry out during the run.

Had cereal an hour and a half before the workout. Worked like a charm, I ran another 22 minutes and it was easier this time. I had some energy for some swimming after

I try to have a piece of fruit 45-90 minutes before a workout. Usually a large apple. It helps a bit with hydration, and the sugar converts quickly to energy.

Bananas are another good option for right before or during a workout.

What kind of cereal?

Some of them are notorious for being really high in sugar, and it'll spike your blood sugar, and then you can crash afterward.

Natural foods don't do this. Even if they do have high sugar amounts(fruit).

I think you might find that if you take walk breaks at intervals, say 1 minute walking for every 3 minutes walking, you might be able to push that to 45 minutes to an hour.

I think my jeans have mis-shapen my middle. I'm not kidding, I am lean (and even a little muscular) everywhere except my belly. Right where my jeans go up to, it's thin. Then there's this little muffin top. My belly's still as squishy as day 1 of workouts. I haven't actually added ab work to my routine, so I've started that this week. Will this get rid of the belleh? Or do I have to diet to lose 3-5 more pounds and lose it that way? I've never understood how to get solid abs, but at this point it's definitely a goal. {Help me out!}

It is just a case of that being the last bastion of where your body stores fat.

When I let myself go a bit I start to get the "love handles" thing and I also get a little belly from the bellybutton down. Finally out in Hawaii I tried that Dexatrim stuff. I hate the way it tastes and it feels a bit like cheating, but that, combined with sticking to my diet and exercise plan diligently, was enough to pretty much wipe it out.

My "fighting weight" was around 155. A month or so ago I was up to 170, but now I'm back down to around 163 with careful diet, moderate exercise, and the occasional Dexatrim.

The solution is to walk around naked as often as possible, to allow your waist to recover its natural shape.

Oh, and a couple ab routines I do:
"Pyramid" Crunches. I like to put up into an armchair to help fight the temptation of using them as a lever. Then I'll put a small pillow under the lower part of the small of my back/tailbone to get a slight incline/extension. Then I do sets of 5-10-15-20-25-20-15-10-5 reps. For the even numbered reps I'll do them as crossovers. Actually I just upped it to multiples of 7 and that was torture. My abs cramped up later in the day and I was miserable, so they must be working.

"Planking". Get into a pushup position, only with your forearms on the floor. Hold it. Sounds simple, but your gut will be quivering uncontrollably after about 45 seconds. You can do it to each side as well, but I haven't tried that yet.

All that said, building ab muscles is only half the job. Burning away the belly fat is the other half. Otherwise you get a six-pack--with a down comfortor thrown over it.

Ab routines will help you tighten up around the belly, but they won't get rid of the fat.

Gotta drop a few more pounds for that.

Belly fat is ALWAYS the last to go, first to come.

That's me, right there. You could probably park a greyhound bus on my gut, but you'd never know it by looking at me.

IT IS DECIDED! I will drop 3-5 more pounds and see if that fixes it. I've also successfully extended my routine to include some ab work, including the GODAWFUL SUCK that is the planking Volpone mentioned. Oh my stomach. Oh my arms.

Planking is awesome.

Just keep at it and you'll notice the effects down the road. Stronger core makes it easier to do basically everything in life that involves physical movement.

Took my heart rate during weights (after each set), goes anywhere from ~100-120. Is this good?

I'd say it indicates strenuous physical activity without being high enough to cause alarm or qualify as sustained aerobic exertion, but don't take my word for it.

Not even a concern. At your age you should be able to easily hit 160-180 barring any heart problems.

Rule of thump is 220-age, but that isn't always accurate.

I've hit 200 before. Its insane.

I think the highest I've seen when I bothered paying attention is like 190. That was on an elliptical machine with a heart rate monitor, after probably 30 minutes at a pretty brisk pace. I don't even want to know what it was last night in that humidity.

I recently realized that I don't just eat. Oh no, not just eat. I pig out! Lots. And snack constantly like a fatteh because my metabolism allows it. However, I'm curious to see what happens when I keep a food log and cut out everything I don't need. So I started that today. Hopefully that also means dropping 5lbs this summer without dieting.

Your resting heart rate is way more important.

Also I find dieting by cutting out fat just makes my boobs and butt smaller, but not my stomach. Doing as you are doing is what finally cut my stomach fat down. Doctors say your body needs some fat in it's intake or it keeps storing it in your stomach.

Yeah, there is some truth in the idea that you need to idea dietary fat in order to lose body fat because of the way your body retains it.

It is physically impossible to make the 'boobs' smaller, in so far as the actual tissue of the breast because its not made of 'fat' or any physical substance that you can get rid of by dieting.

But, nearly every single person in the world has some sort of body fat, and doctor guidelines call sub 15% decent enough, so chances are you might be trimming off some of that fat around the breast area. Also, women tend to store body fat to the hips more, whereas guys store it in the stomach area.

If you have a low body fat, and you want the 'trim' look in the stomach area, in other words 6 pack type of deal, you have to be anal about your diet/exercise, macros and stuff like that.

Its easy enough to get to healthy body fat levels, but not as easy to get the 6 pack to show up.

When I didn't eat food and had an underweight BMI, I still had 18% body fat. Women need a LOT more than men. My BF at the time was around 0%, the machine would actually give him an error when it tried to read him. Sub 15% for a woman is crazy.

Also, it's a LOT harder for women to get a six pack to show. Like, almost impossible unless you're a professional athlete.

I'm sitting at 22% body fat at the moment, and that's 3/4 of the way up the "normal" section of the graph. At least according to the trainers at my old gym.

I think I've figured out what I can eat before a workout to feel good. Pretty much what you guys said to do, OR, anything that's fairly light about 3 hours before the actual workout.
Any shorter time before the workout and I tend to do worse than if I wait three hours.
Granted, I'm hungry afterward but that just gives me more reason to chug some chocolate milk.

My first post ever.

Can anyone direct me to a site that looks at taking vitamin supplements either immediately before or after a workout?

If the question has already been answered please excuse me.

Hmm, seems I can walk/jog (interchanging 5 minutes of each) for about an hour now no problem. Now every time I go to the gym, I do about 3 miles.

That's... 2.5 miles better than what I could comfortably do back in April!

And srsly on this guy's question, do vitamins actually help? I'd love to know!

My perception is that a good multivitamin gives me a slight edge that i wouldn't otherwise have. A little better energy and stamina. But it's all part of a whole day of planning that goes into a couple of hours of exercise in the evening. Making sure I'm hydrated...a little caffiene, but not too close to the workout...small meals all day..plenty of fast-burning fruit sugar, but at least an hour before so I don't blow chunks. Maybe it's all in my head and I dont' need any of it, but I decided long ago that anything that makes me more likely to get off of my arse and excercise is a worthy pursuit.

What kind of vitamin supplement?

Right after a workout you should be focusing on stimulating your insulin response. Protein/carbs work best.