| Archive for Active No-Carber Forums A veggie-free zone |
| Carnation |
Five and five challengeI can hear the blackbirds outside of my office window this morning, and it reminds me that spring is just around the corner (so what if it snowed last night?). I am at a truly happy weight of 132 right now. However, I would still like to change my body composition. Over the course of the spring, I would like to lose 10 lbs. of fat, and gain 10 lbs. of muscle.But for this month, my challenge is going to be a 5 and 5 exchange. I will be concentrating on increasing strength with my weight lifting, and doing lots of stairclimbing workouts at our massive outdoor staircase at the local rec center. I want to be in really good shape for hiking season this year. Anybody else want to join the challenge? Lose five pounds of fat, and put on five pounds of muscle? |
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| Carnation |
Here's my new workout buddy, the staircase, 9 flights of 12 stairs. I've been doing the stairs in my house for a few weeks, but now I've moved on to the big boy. Today, I started easy by walking the 1/2 mi. loop, followed by 2 sets of stairs, 4 times.
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| ReddyMcMeaty |
omg i am so jealous! I love stairs as a workout!! | ||
| adwred |
I think I'm taking a break from challenges for a couple of weeks...  They seem to be doing no service for me, except to make me feel inferior. 
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| Carnation |
I'm a little sad that nobody wants to join me.  I thought it sounded like a very do-able goal for a whole month. Oh well, I'm still going full steam ahead. I figure that losing five pounds of fat and adding five of muscle will end up FEELING like 10 lbs of fat loss. I know I don't have any real way to measure my progress, but I think my clothes should fit differently.
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| Puma |
I don't think 5 pounds of fat would be a really good idea for me LOL...I doubt I can put on 5 pounds of muscle in one month, but we'll see.  Getting really good progress with my squats.
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| ReddyMcMeaty |
I would totally join you if I could sleep at night! I'm working out.. and trying to lose fat, hopefully more than 5 lbs... but doubt I'll gain 5 in muscle. I'd want them all on my back and shoulders, yum. And calves, they're a little small. | ||
| adwred |
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| LOOPS |
HIya -
I would join you but I have no idea what is going on with my weight! HOWEVER, I am finally fully recovering from my tennis injury after a whole friggin year, so I am starting to do some serious tennis training again, so I bet I will put on the muscle. Won't we need a body fat monitor for this??? |
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| Kristi31 |
I love playing and watching tennis. Ever since I stepped onto the court with my wooden racket (back in the days), I couldn't keep away. 
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| Avalon |
I'm running. Not much, but enough to feel some lung burn- consistently, which is new for me. I've been good at starting and then going- oh what's that over there and then I lose focus. I want to keep losing weight, but not gain yikes 
Count me in for the exercise part though. I'm riding my bike a lot more also. Race you to the top! hey, what's thatover there 
AND GO! |
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| Carnation |
I'm not sure how to measure muscle gain. I was just kinda thinking my clothes would be significantly looser from the change in body comp. I don't know if it's possible to gain 5 lbs. of muscle in a month, but since I'm stepping it up with my lower body and big muscle groups, I hoping... | ||
| adwred |
OK, I've changed my mind! I'll join you. There's no harm in trying to build some muscle. I don't know I'll make it to 5 and 5, since I'm no longer weighing myself. But my goal will be to drop an inch in my waist and an inch in my thighs!
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| Carnation |
Yay! Muscles are delicious! Oops, didn't mean that in a cannibalistic sense. Muscles are beautiful and sexy and they make me drool.
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| Avalon |
Just one question, how will you know if it's muscle you gained?
And how will you... Two Questions- never mind
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| Carnation |
I'm thinking, gained fat = tight clothes, gained muscle = looser clothes? I don't have any real scientific method for measuring at home. I asked a few weeks ago, and everyone said those body comp scales stink, so I dunno. | ||
| ReddyMcMeaty |
Mmm you're already active right? If you were sedentary your muscles would shrink, becuase you'd be losing intramuscular fat or marbling ;) But as an already active person, if you build muscle you would not shrink unless you also lost fat. You know? It's growing, so you get bigger. But you look better anyway. | ||
| Carnation |
See, I was thinking that since 5 lbs. of muscle would be more dense than 5 lbs. of fat, the net would still feel like a loss, measurement-wise. 
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| ReddyMcMeaty |
well if you lost fat then YES the overall size would go down. But if you only gained muscle then you would increase in size in some areas. However, you're going to lose fat too so you'll shrink. | ||
| ecrivain |
If you've got a tape measure, you can get an estimate of your body fat using the DoD method. So long as you pick one method and stick with it (tape measure, gadget, or caliper), it doesn't matter how accurate it is - you're more interested in the changes day to day, or week to week. And muscles are delicious!
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| Carnation |
As long as I look foxy.... 
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| Johnny Ace |
Re: Five and five challenge
Five pounds of muscle is doable for most healthy men, but women don't put on muscle as quickly. Five pounds sounds pretty unrealistic unless: 1. You were once more muscular than you are now. 2. You have a large bone structure. If you're running stairs in addition to weight training, it's extremely unlikely that you'll put on 5 pounds of muscle in a month. Endurance training tends to break muscle down (check out the disgusting bodies of marathoners and ironmen). If you're serious about weight training, I urge you to read this Rippetoe FAQ and follow it. You'll be stronger than most of the bench and curl weenies in your gym pretty quickly. 
Good luck! |
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| Carnation |
Thanks Ecrivain. I got out my trusty tape measure, and according to the formula, I'm at 26% body fat. That seems pretty accurate to me. I'm at a good weight, but still feel a little overfat. I'd like to get down to 23% by summertime. | ||
| Carnation |
Well, I'm wrapping up this challenge. I have to say it was a success. My weight remained the same, but I dropped a dress size! | ||
| Avalon |
Proof is in the pudding, C! You did good
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