who are the fitness buffs here?

[fiveohpatrol]

I've never seen a post like this, and I had a few questions so here I go.

Who are the fitness/health buffs on mustangworks? Who REALLY knows their stuff, like exercising techniques, healthy meals to cook, etc...

The reason I ask is because I have my own apartment and I'm in my second year of college. Last year I lived on campus and ate there but this year I have to cook for myself and I find myself eating food that is just easy to cook or fastfood instead of taking the time to make more healthy food. Is there a good website to go by that could give me step by step instructions on healthy meals?

Another thing, I've been offsetting my bad eating habits by running about 3 times a week. I've been doing it for a few months now so everytime I do run, I go between 3 and 5 miles. So I run about 10-12 or so miles a week. I'm not really seeing any improvement in muscle tone or weight. And I'm sure its mainly because of my eating habits.

can help me find some healthy/good/easy/fairly quick meals and/or let me know if I need to change my excercise or not?

thanks everyone

[HiFlow5 0]

Running won't really gain muscle tone or make you loose a lot of weight, its more of and endurance and stamina thing. eating healthy and exercising is the best way to loose weight. if you like to run, try something a little different. carry small weight dumb bells and work you arms as you run. i really like free weights and work great when you get a routine going. weights combined with Mt. biking seems to help a lot as well.

As for meals moderate starchy foods and mass amounts of carbs and sugars. carbs turn to fat when not worked off properly. Protein is great, bean burritos are good as long as you don't cake on the crap. Snack on unsalted peanuts, raisins, fruit, etc., hope this helps some!

[OnMy3rdStang]

All I do Is eat fresh steamed veggies, Pasta, Lean meat w/no fat cooked well done, I jog everyday or every other day or ride a bike, Drink lots of water milk and sports drinks to keep my blood sugar up, and do relaxing streching exercises
I'm not a health expert or nutritionalst but It works for me

[69fastback]

Well being in the army i am forced to stay in pretty good shape. Although i have done it all my life before this. some things u can do. Say like when u are just looking for a snack and not a whole meal instead of throughing in a microwave burrito each some furit or something like that. It makes a huge difference. Also some little things to remeber that salad dressing has tons of fat usally about 25% or u daily allowence. so go with low far or non fat dressings. Another good thing is to eat ur chicken without the skin. Chicken is very good for u when u leave the skin off. ON MY THRID STANG made a good point with the water and sports dirnks also. They fill u up and are way better than any sodas.

As for working out to get the muscle tone and stuff go to a gym and lift some wieghts. U can lift weights without out getting huge muscles. When u just want to tone up ur muscles u do only a couple of sets with lots of reps. For example do like 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps. That will give u a great balance between getting muscle tone and ganning some strenght also. Be sure to mix up ur rutine muscles like new stuff and never lift the same muslce two days in a row they need time to recover. When ur muscles are recovering is when they grow. Ur running regiment is good and i would not change that at all.

[fiveohpatrol]

ok, but I'm not wasting my time running am I?
Doesn't running help bring up metabolism?

I'm not looking to lose alot of weight, just a little (10lbs or so) just to feel a little better and healthier.

thanks for the help so far

[blue00gt]

Building muscle helps you burn more calories with anything you do. I wouldn't worry too much about lifting weights and getting grotesquely huge in a short period of time unless you have insane genes. I work out for about 2 hours 4 times a week and it has taken me about 8 years to gain 60 pounds of muscle.

[7000rpmisheaven]

I agree with blue00gt and 69fastback. I think that resistance training is the best exercise. Many people think that if they lift weights they will get really huge like body builders. The truth is that you are not going to look like that unless you try really hard to look like that. In fact you could try to look like a body builder and not succeed.

He is an article from an online magazine.

"Aerobic Exercise vs. Weight Lifting for weight loss"
http://www.physicalmag.com/index.cfm?p=1&a=2635&s=1

[playahata]

Don't be afraid of the gym because fortunately (or unfortunately in some cases) muscle doesn't grow overnight, even for those of us hitting it hard everyday. Cardio 3 times a week is a good starting point, but add onto that a workout program than utilizes all bodyparts over 3 or 4 days with sets varying between maximum reps of 8-12 per set with an occasional heavy week where sets of 5 and 6 reps are used. Most importantly whach what you eat. Your body needs fuel and protien to grow and get healthy and all that fatty fast food will waste most if not all your time in the gym as it will suppress testosterone prduction and leave your body "satiated", but hungry for the real nutrients not found in that kind of food. "You are what you eat" is so very true and is the key to any healthy lifestyle. You also might wanna check out off-topic.net, they have a fitness forum where you can pose specific questions and it's full of knowlegable willing to give advice.