OhTwadi

Precisely the problem with this method of training.Oh and muscle isn't everything. As you get older, what will matter is your flexibility and cardiovascular fitness, not how much you can bench or squat

I had gotten medicine from babaji for my back issues, it had no impact

Khalistani-Lion, as you are a beginner, these are probably the best things you can do. 1) fix your diet 2) sleep well 3) stick to basic, body weight movements first * * Body weight exercises include, pushups, pullups/chinups, body weight squat, lunges, Single leg deadlift, dips. There are many more of course, but these will give you a decent start. You can build a decent level of strength using just these basic movements. Once you are doing 15+pushups and 8+ pullups/chinups, its time to add extra weights. Highly recommended. +1 to that! That is certainly impressive strength gain in a matter of quick 4 months. However, while a 310lb deadlift and 270lb squat certainly makes you relatively strong compared to the average population, it certainly does not make you, as you put it, 'mad strong'.

Firstly, I'm not sure why you have taken my comments so personally, I was merely trying to get a general point across. Secondly, I will have sholey poori this weekend Thirdly, I will finish it off with more besan di barfi :biggrin2: Edit: FOURTHLY! I will have a fun time eating all this food with my family :happy2:

It's all fine and dandy that folks want to eat healthy but don't let it take over your life. A vast majority of folks best serve themselves and others by keeping things in balance. I have been through a phase where I was on a super strict diet and became the fittest I have even been in this life yet. (Being able to sustain an average heart rate of 165bpm for 50mins is fairly high on the fitness scale) However, I realized that it was impacting my relations with parents, siblings and friends as they did not follow as strict of a diet as myself. Mind you, they eat fairly healthy but do indulge a little from time to time. After giving it some thought, I came to realize that those relations were quite important. I concluded it was silly for me to put a strain on them because of my strict diet. So now I do indulge with them and keep my exercise routine up. I am just as healthy as I was before all the while enjoy bonding with people close to me. No one needs to tell me that indian sweets are extremely unhealthy, I know full well what I am eating

You folks are nuts! I had 3 samosey and besan di barfi for lunch yesterday :biggrin2:

Well, prevention is better than cure.

^ Point taken. Perhaps I was not clear, the diet I posted is not for S1ngh specifically but rather what I have followed in the past to reach my fat loss goals. I simply thought of sharing it with others. For S1ngh, a balanced diet with regular exercise would be step # 1. We can then take it further from there. So I guess your estimate of 3 months to loose 20lbs is likely true for most I am only sharing my own experience with fat loss. It goes with out saying that not everyone will have the same experience. When I did this, I only needed to loose about 10 lbs, I lost that in 5 weeks flat. I probably would have reached my goal in 4 weeks but I was sick for 4 days in the middle. So I do believe that if you stick to a good diet and exercise regime without a break, then you can loose 20 lbs in 8-10 weeks. I know of others who have done this. So I do not believe it is unrealistic, a bit optimistic perhaps for some. Having said that, by no means is an easy diet to follow, I had tough times myself when I did this. PS. I think I should start writing a disclaimer in all my posts from now on. "These are simply my experiences and opinions, please do not assume you will have a similar experience. Please consult with your physician before embarking on any fitness program"

Let me also add that you dieting does make the body weak so you probably do not want to do this for more than a 4-6weeks at a time. It might work better for you to give it a test run, do it for a week and so how you do. I highly recommend that you consume a multi vitamin when following this diet.

If you have any questions, please PM me as I would like to keep this thread clean and devoid of any bickering. Thank you I have used this diet in the past to loose 2lbs per week consistently. 2lbs/week is considered to be on the safe side of things. Note that this diet is an adaption of a somewhat complex diet I read on bodybuilding forum a few years ago. I seem to have lost the link to the original source however. Needless to say there are a lot of foods listed which are not suitable for vegetarians, however, I have tried to provide options for vegetarians as well. Also note that when talking about consuming protein, I am assuming that you are doing some form of resistance training. I highly recommend that you do resistance training as part of your exercise program. You do not need to use additional weights, body weight will suffice for beginners. Goal of this diet is to lose body fat while minimizing muscle loss. Here your exercise routine will contour to the diet plan. There are three types of days while on this diet: High Carb Low Carb No Carb Days - Assume 5 meals/day - 1/5 of total protein intake per meal (32g/meal for me @ 162 lbs) - (can have lots of extra protein, if needed) - a "lean source" is one that has no more than 10% of its calories from fat - keeping dietary fats on the low side, with the majority of fats coming from supplemented EFAs (essential fatty acids)-specifically fish oil (high in long chain omega 3 fatty acids -- EPA/DHA). - you will be supplementing with fish oil at 10 to 20 grams a day HIGH CARB DAY: -------------------------- - 3 meals can have as much carbohydrates (only from the 'Approved Carbohydrates' list). You must eat the minimum amount of protein at each meal as discussed above - each one of those meals must include a small piece of fruit, between 50 and 100 calories worth - can choose which meals (3 of 5) will have carbs and which don't, but the meal preceding and following your workouts must be a carbohydrate meal. I will have carbs for breakfast, and carbs for post workout meal. Pre-workout meal will have a few carbs, maybe yogurt, to give me enough energy for the workout - eat until you are satisfied. eat clean, good quality carbs LOW CARB DAY: -------------------------- - two meals may contain carbs - at least the meal following your workout must be a carb meal. I will have carbs for breakfast and post-workout only - eat approximately one gram of carbohydrate (only from the 'Approved Carbohydrates' list) per pound of bodyweight per low carb day. (I will have 160g total carbs for 2 carb meals) - don't forget your small piece of fruit, at these carb meals - simply learn general portions of the carbohydrates you choose to eat, so you don't have to measure everytime, which is a royal pain in the behind for me! NO CARB DAY: ----------------------- - only carbs you can have is the fibrous type - green leafy vegetables, dark colored ones - only consume protein (and some fats); again from the list Veggies: - green leafy, low calorie, fibrous vegetables - salad (no dressing), cabbages, escarole, broccoli, spinach, zucchini, squash, and kale are appropriate. Generally, any vegetable that contains less than 50 calories per cup Each and every day, whether it be a high, low, or no carb day, at least three meals, each and every day should include one cup of green veggies. It can be with or without your carb meals. You may find it more pleasing to the palate to consume your vegetables with your no carb meals. POST WORKOUT NUTRITION: --------------------------------------------- - Assuming you are lifting weights, recommend, at a minimum, between 30 and 50 grams of whey protein. If you are only doing cardio, you probably do not need a protein shake but try to have as much protein from your food intake as possible - can be a protein only meal, and then followed by a carb meal on carb days, or can be taken with oatmeal (or another carb from the list) on carb days - On no carb days, obviously you'd just be having the whey protein MEASURING PROGRESS: --------------------------------------- - you are likely to look and feel bloated at the end of, and the day after, your high carbohydrate days. This is normal and not an indication of lack of progress - measure/weigh yourself once every other cycle is more than sufficient; so you are measuring every 6 days; keep it consistent, measure after the same cycle every time; I recommend measuring after a high carb day Approved Carbohydrates: Brown rice Oats (Slow Cooked Preferred) Sweet potatoes or Yams Fiber One (All Bran) Cereal Starchy Veggies (corn, peas, etc.) Beans/Legumes Approved Yet Limited Carbohydrates** Whole-wheat pasta Whole grain breads, pitas, etc. Approved Lean Protein Sources (A) Cottage Cheese (0 or 1% fat) Tofu and skimmed milk Chicken (white meat) Turkey (white meat) Tuna Fish (can) Fish (flounder, tuna (fatty or not), salmon, shark, etc.) Shellfish (all types) Protein (preferably whey post workout, and casein before bed; MRPs must be low-carb) Lean beef (including lean cuts of steak) Egg whites (egg beaters) Approved Higher-Fat Protein Sources (B) Cottage Cheese (Whole Milk) Chicken (dark meat) Turkey (dark meat) Eggs (half whites, half whole eggs) Steak and other meats (not exceptionally high fat cuts) TO PUT IT ALL INTO ACTION: ---------------------------------------------- Try not to put two no carb days back-to-back Certainly do not put two high carb days back-to-back Maintain what amounts to (roughly) a weekly ratio of 1:1:1 of the three types of days; and error towards the lower calorie side rather than the high calorie side heaviest, hardest, and highest volume workouts on high carb days. Put your off days on your no carb days. Or, use these days for cardio work or you lightest low volume days. active recovery workouts would be ideal here (stretching, core) recommend, at a minimum, 30g of high quality whey protein - can be a protein only meal, and then followed by a carb meal on carb days, or can be taken with oatmeal (or another carb from the list) on carb days - On no carb days, obviously you'd just be having the whey protein

I would disagree. If you are spot on with your diet, you can safely loose 2lbs per week. This can be done in phases where you follow a strict diet for 4-6 weeks, loose 8-12 lbs. Then you follow a 'good enough' diet for a couple of weeks where you maintain your current weight. Then you do another 4-6 week session of the strict diet and loose another 8-12lbs.I am not just saying that by reading articles etc. I have tried this myself and it worked quite wonderfully for me. I did loose 2lbs per week consistently. Granted the diet itself was quite tough to carry out, but the results were there. I used the concept of carb cycling in this diet. I think I will open a new thread and post the diet here for others to see. Edit: Posted. http://www.sikhsangat.com/Index.php?/topic/66456-carb-cycling-diet-i-have-used-in-the-past-to-loose-fat/

My Butt! Guess I was wrong

Just reading the first page of that PDF, I must say that this is certainly a good program for hypertrophy purposes. Given the parameters in page 1, you can easily build your program

Just stop doing your jorra really tight. I have done a relatively loose jorra for as long as I can remember and do not have this issue. My brother on the other hand use to do tight joora and he has lost much of the hair on his forehead area.

This is something beginner trainees should avoid like a plague. If you have been training for 2+ years on a regular basis and can squat more than 1.5 times your body weight, then yes drop sets are okay occasionally.As far as Smith machine is concerned, if you do not know what you are doing, you can easily injure yourself or quickly develop muscle imbalances.

You can make with little sugar. Yeah they won't taste as good but hey if you really want to eat healthy then taste is something you will have to get over. They can be made with little gheo as well. Again, taste might be a problem though.Gheo has gotten a really bad rep, it's actually quite beneficial to you, provided you don't sit on your butt all day and do nothing. Have some gheo but then go an get your butt kicked in the gym (or outside) then it is okay to have. Another desi food that is very good for you is auley. I have no clue what it is called in English though. We should be careful to eat exactly what our grandparents ate. This is primarily because our lifestyle is absolutely nothing like theirs. They used to do manual work all day and used up all the calories they ate. Now a days all we do it sit on our butt. If you do this, you can eat healthy but still have all sorts of issues. There is plenty of research now available which states that sitting for long periods of times alters body's hormone levels. Specifically, it increases the amount of coritsol in your blood stream. Cortisol is a stress hormone "Its primary functions are to increase blood sugar through glycogenolysis; suppress the immune system; and aid in fat, protein and carbohydrate metabolism.[1] It also decreases bone formation". Exercise is body's natural way of detoxing. We do don't nearly enough of it. You get fresh air and all your organs get massaged as well. Oh I almost forgot to mention, COLD SHOWERS! Take freezing cold showers, it also massages your organs.

I would have to disagree with this statement. In my experience, when doing heavy lifting, you need to eat lots to keep your energy levels up and help the body recover. If you cut your calories and keep lifting heavy at the same time, chances of getting injured go up significantly. Weight training can definitely assist in one's fitness goals but it does not need to be heavy. Circuits work best when it comes to loosing weight. You use light weights but are doing lots of work, using all big muscles of your body, for 50 or so minutes, keeps your heart rate up. :wow: 3 litres of water in one go?! Typically 3 litres is what is recommended for the whole day lo l

Hanji. Right off the bat I can say that your diet needs overhaul It's a really bad idea to skip breakfast. Your body has been starving for 8+ hours, that first meal of the day really is the most important one. Consider buying fruits and have plenty of those as you drive to work in the morning. You are not kidding when you say it's a big lunch. Let's do some calculations here to figure out how many calories you are ingesting for lunch - 6 inch veggie delite is 230 calories. x2 = 460 calories - diet coke or pepper = 150 calories - personal pizza with cheese = 680 calories TOTAL = 1290 calories using nutrition information from Taco Bell website. 1 7-layer = 510 calories. x2 = 1020 calories + 1 bean burrito = 370 calories TOTAL = 1390 calories If the high number of calories is not concerning to you, consider that both are very high in salt. It extremely tough to figure out how many calories this will be. But I would say it since it fills your stomach and you eat ~1400 calories when eating outside for lunch, this meal at home will likely have similar number of calories.As per Health Canada, for sedentary individuals between 19-30, 2500 calories should be consumed. Do keep in mind that this is on top of the recommendation of eating healthy calories full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains etc. http://www.hc-sc.gc....e/1_1_1-eng.php So right there, your lunch takes up 55% of your daily calorie consumption. That is too many calories for one meal, especially considering that we are likely going to be doing a lot of sitting through out the day. 1500 calories/day just seems too restrictive. Something like this, if done long term, will likely damage one's metabolism. I think I have written about how low calorie diets are bad for you in the past somewhere. Will post it here if I find it. First thing I would recommend is that you start incorporating regular exercise along with the other things I mentioned in my previous post. It is always better to increase activity than cut calories. As far as exercise is concerned, start with walking 30-60 mins, 3 days a week. Do this for a couple of weeks and then we can revisit this. Stay away from those commercial diets, if they do work, they are too expensive. I have a carb cycling diet that I have used twice and achieved very good results without breaking the bank. I can post that later, but first lets get you moving

Diet, diet and diet singh jee. Diet is about 75% of the effort and exercise the remaining. A few pointers. - eat 5 meals per day, eating every 3-4 hours. This will feel tough initially but the trick is to have smaller meals so that you will be hungry in 3 hours or so - lots of water, 3-4 litres per day - exercise of course, if you already exercise then consider adding HIIT style training once a week If you are already eating decent and exercising, post your diet here. Perhaps there is room for improvement.

LOL This feels like an interview. You need both cardio and strength training. I have my own program which suits my needs. My workout never exceeds 50 minutes. I used to be very strict with my diet but not so much anymore. I believe in regular works. Supplements are definitely beneficial but if you structure your diet correctly then there is very little need for them for most people. I adapt my workout to what is available at the Gym. Yes, you can workout for free or relatively cheap. Diet + exercise + dedication.

Bhaji, just wondering how things were going with you.

Unless Steroids are being taken for medical purposes, they should be avoided. Typically people who train with weights take steroids for one reason: to get big muscles and get strong. While one can argue that strength and size gained by using (or abusing) steroids can be useful, one can not escape the fact that the potential for them to cause damage to the body is quite large. Most people do not know how to safely use steroids anyway. You can get plenty strong just by adding high quality whey protein to your diet.

Congratulations on beginning your journey toward being a fit individual.Unless you are doing a decent level of weight training, protein shakes are not required. Protein shakes are suppose to supplement your diet. First and foremost, consume as much protein as possible through solid, natural foods. Typical Punjabi diet does have a decent amount of protein. Things are daal, sholey, raajmah are full of protein. Good quality whole wheat flour (with germ) will have some protein in it as well. If you do decide to start consuming protein shakes, stay away from soya. Get whey isolate protein as it is milk based and very high quality. But it will be expensive. Here in Canada a 5lb tub can cost around $100. It is considered to be the highest quality protein powder you can get. Please drop this idea. Muscle only grows or shrinks; only gets stronger or weaker; there is no 'toning' of a muscle. The amount of 'toning' you will see will depend directly and only on the amount of fat you have. Less fat = more muscle visible = more 'toned' look.The general rule of thumb is - if you want to build maximal strength then stick to 3-5 rep range - if you want to put on muscle mass then stick to 8-10rep range - if you want to build stamina then stick to 12-15 rep range (or higher) 8-10 rep range is generally sufficient for most. You will gain strength as you go and stamina as well. Muscle mass will increase naturally as a consequence. Genetics also play a big part in all this. Some people have a tough time getting very lean and some have a tough time gaining mass. As long as you are exercising and keeping a decent level of strength, that's all that matters. Training should be functional, meaning that it should makes things you do in your daily life easier. Avoid training for looks (although I have been guilty of this at times myself)

idn qy phr phr qy GrIAW Awv GtY qnu CIjY ] dhin thae pehar pehar thae ghareeaaa(n) aav ghattai than shheejai || Day by day, hour by hour, life runs its course, and the body withers away. kwlu AhyrI iPrY biDk ijau khhu kvn ibiD kIjY ]1] kaal ahaeree firai badhhik jio kehahu kavan bidhh keejai ||1|| Death, like a hunter, a butcher, is on the prowl; tell me, what can we do? ||1|| so idnu Awvn lwgw ] so dhin aavan laagaa || That day is rapidly approaching. mwq ipqw BweI suq binqw khhu koaU hY kw kw ]1] rhwau ] maath pithaa bhaaee suth banithaa kehahu kooo hai kaa kaa ||1|| rehaao || Mother, father, siblings, children and spouse - tell me, who belongs to whom? ||1||Pause|| jb lgu joiq kwieAw mih brqY Awpw psU n bUJY ] jab lag joth kaaeiaa mehi barathai aapaa pasoo n boojhai || As long as the light remains in the body, the beast does not understand himself. lwlc krY jIvn pd kwrn locn kCU n sUJY ]2] laalach karai jeevan padh kaaran lochan kashhoo n soojhai ||2|| He acts in greed to maintain his life and status, and sees nothing with his eyes. ||2|| khq kbIr sunhu ry pRwnI Cofhu mn ky Brmw ] kehath kabeer sunahu rae praanee shhoddahu man kae bharamaa || Says Kabeer, listen, O mortal: Renounce the doubts of your mind. kyvl nwmu jphu ry pRwnI prhu eyk kI srnW ]3]2] kaeval naam japahu rae praanee parahu eaek kee saranaa(n) ||3||2|| Chant only the One Naam, the Name of the Lord, O mortal, and seek the Sanctuary of the One Lord. ||3||2||

Having just one food that is really good for you wouldn't do the trick. There are multiple factors at play. 1. good food on a daily basis, rich in fresh vegetables, fruit and whole grains 2. lots of exercise, farming and/or other physical activities like kabaddi, kushti which build a lot of strength and running which builds stamena 3. less vikaars (sexual desire specifically) + simple life i.e. low mental stress I remember my dad telling me one day that my par dada ji was so strong that he could pull a gadda (the thing that an OX pulls) by himself. If I tried, I couldn't move it an inch even! Another relative in our familiy at the time could stomp a rabbit. These things are feats of great strength and speed. Most jobs these days involve sitting for long hours and thanks to heavy use of machinery, we do not do house chores which require strength and stamina. As a consequence, the body sheds a lot of the muscle, simply because it does not need it. My generation still did/does some physical activity, we used to play outside a lot. But the current generation is not doing that even, they rather sit inside to play games or use MSN etc. This is extremely bad in the long run. Impact of this is already been seen with obesity fast becoming an epidemic in kids under 10 yrs old! Another big factor is that the amount of kaam in our society has gone through the roof over the past few decades thanks to popularity of media, primarily things like television/movies. Kids these days are hitting puberty much earlier than the previous generation. As Guru Sahib has clearly warned us by saying 'kaam krodh kaya to galey' (Desire and anger rot the body, both the physical one and the emotional one). Combine this with the fact that external factors are causing kaam to show its ugly head earlier and earlier. It's not just that the kids are not ready for such things emotionally, their bodies are not developed enough to handle it either. I personally feel that this is one of the bigger factors in making this generation and the previous quite weak.