Getting in Shape & Eating Healthier

[DrP]

I need to stay away from certain fruits and vegetables: Broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, spinach, radishes, turnips, peaches and pears. They all suppress thyroid function and since I have hypothyroidism. Problem is, I actually like eating some of the things here.

So I have to rely on other things to get certain nutrients.

Aside from the main components everyone looks for (fat, protein, sugar), I forgot to mention that sodium can play a HUGE role. No one really looks at it and it can have a huge effect if you normally consume 3x the daily amount.

[blueflower999]

Most meats contain protein.  Although I heard broccoli was a much better source of protein than meat haha

Most everything that people eat contains protein. It's just some have more amino acids that humans need than others.

[Sebastian]

Broccoli is my favorite vegetable

[FireArrow]

Spoiler

Let's get to the stuff FireArrow said:

1. Eat Lots of calories.

This advice is just as helpful as saying "gain some weight". Basically there is no information in it. You don't know Noc's eating habits, nor do you know his weight. You just say "eat lots of calories". While it is completely impossible to EAT calories, since they are just a value calculated by the ingredients of a product (meals don't CONTAIN calories, they HAVE a certain calorie-value).
So since we do not know Noc's eating-habits, we cannot know how much he actually has to eat to reach his (not really precisely defined) goal. Overall we can ASSUME, that he would probably need to eat more, since we need a calorie surpluss for getting weight, especially building muscle.

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Yes, usually when you quote half of what someone says it will contain less information. You, for some reason, decided to leave this out:

Use this to help figure out exact numbers.

I'm going to assume you agree with using this calculator to help NoS develop a plan?

Making people angry chapter 2:

Spoiler

2. Make sure you're getting your daily dose of protein. ~50g is a good rule of thumb.

I already mentioned in my previous wall-of-text post, how much protein you need to build muscle. If you want to gain fat, you do not need protein at all. Since at this point, we do not know, what kind of weight Noc wants to gain, this advice just makes no sense at all and the number is just completely random.
50g of Protein would be sufficient for (I did not calculate this, it is just my guess) a person of 40kg, if his goal is to build up muscle. For details... See wall of text...

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As you just guesstimated, so did I. The purpose of this point was "Make sure you're eating enough protein" not "Here's an exact number." Hence the "~" and "rule of thumb."

Making people angry chapter 3:
Well... At this point, we assume, Noc took notes and now knows what nutrition it takes to get to his goal. Now he is wondering how to actually make his body transform all the stuff he eats into some nice new muscles (technically not new muscles, but bigger muscles).

Most people know basic strength training from P.E. Given his goal, all he really needs are the basics. Remember, NoS is trying to become the average size for his height, nothing too complicated.

Anyway, I know very little about exercise routines, so it is not my place to suggest anything fancy.

"Not necessarily weight lifting, but something to give yourself muscle."
This sentence is so full of truth, yet contains zero information. Yes, if Noc wants to build up muscle, he needs to do something to get himself some muscles!

Answered this previously.

"It'll also make all that extra protein go to your kidneys, which isn't fun."
At this point I assume that Noc is some (kinda) healthy guy, who has no kidney-disfunction or other really weird illnesses, that dramatically change or influence the usual behavior of his body.
I don't know why people are always so dramatic... There is actually no reason to be afraid of kidney-damage, if you do not eat like WAY too much (I would guess... 3x or more the value that we calculated from your bodyweight) protein and just drink like 1 liter a day.[/spoiler]

God forbid I warn him not to eat too much protein right!

"What about toxicity?

We deal with this in our book (p 25). At a protein intake of 230 g/day (920 calories), the body's ability to convert ammonia to urea is saturated. [3] This means the nitrogen from every additional gram of protein lingers in the body as ammonia, a toxin.

Clearly marginal dietary protein is toxic, via ammonia poisoning, at this intake level. A reasonable estimate for where toxicity begins is between 150 to 200 g/day."

Source.
This number will probably be lower for NoS, given how little he exercises.

Is NoS gonna break this limit? Probably not. I'm just warning him not to over do protein supplements, which is a really common mistake. How the hell is this "insulting" or "incorrect."

Helpful tips: Peanut butter is god. Dairy products/meat are pretty good as well. Don't try to rely too much on fast food and sweets, you don't want to clog up your arteries/get diabetes in the process. Those nutrition shakes (boost, ensure, etc.) are great crutches. You can make your own weight gain milk shakes if you want:
Ice Cream + Whole Milk + Instant Carnation Breakfast/Muscle Milk + Whatever flavoring you want (peanut butter goes well here!)"

Well, we already talked about the peanut butter long enough (not sure if we called it a god, though...)
Dairy is pretty awesome, regarding the stuff it contains. Bodybuilding without dairy is hard, but not impossible, since there are also successful vegan bodybuilders. If you have problems with dairy products, you should limit the amount, or cut them out. If you haven't then they will make your life much easier (Also much tastier!)!
Of course you want to avoid fast food and sweets... (@Noc and others)If you don't know why, then you can ask, but I will just assume you know it, or if you read my posts so far, you can figure it out by yourself.

So what exactly is your issue?

"Those nutrition shakes (boost, ensure, etc.) are great crutches. You can make your own weight gain milk shakes if you want:"

I don't know what a crutch is. Especially in this context. If someone explains, I can probably say something about that...
Yes, you can make your own weight gaining shakes.

Meaning they are an easy way out if he's lazy and doesn't want to add solid calories.

"Ice Cream + Whole Milk + Instant Carnation Breakfast/Muscle Milk + Whatever flavoring you want (peanut butter goes well here!)"
Wow... Wait a second! This is one hell of a weight-gainer! Yes, you will get weight, when eating this. You will also get weight if you drink dextrose mixed with olive oil. Does that make it a good idea? Probably not!
People seem to think, that if you want to increase your weight, you need to eat stuff that usually leads up to increased weight like fast food or ice cream. While it is true that this WILL lead to an increase of weight, it does not help you with your goal of building muscle at all. You can get some fat really fast like this, if this is your goal! But it is also really unhealthy and can lead to diabetes. There are better ways to build up fat!

...EVERYONE RUN FOR THE HILLS. IT'S A RELATIVELY HEALTH SHAKE THAT CONTAINS *GASPS* ICE CREAM.

Replace Ice cream with yogurt if you don't want all the added sugar.

Climax:
"A good baseline is 3 500 calorie meals and 2 300 calorie snacks, then add extra calories as needed (based upon the number you got from step 1.)"

If you say calorie, I assume you are talking about kilo calories (kCal)? Since this is a help thread for new guys to this topic, we should try to be precise and not confuse them more by mixing things up.
Again... As I said before... We do not know Noc's weight, so 3500kCal meals are completely random. This advice does not make any sense and does not help him at all. Also if you say... Add calories as needed... You do not make clear what these calories should consist of. Is it fat? Protein? Simple carbs? Complex carbs? A combination?!
Oh and btw... 3500kCals is more than a 100kg bodybuilder (if he does not do any kind of sports) would need while building up muscle PER DAY! NOT MEAL! PER DAY! This number is so off, that I almost fell off my chair! Jesus!
This number is SO off, that I went to the kitchen and got some stuff for a simple demonstration what we are actually talking about:

A glass of peanut-butter (no sugar added)... You hear me? A GLASS of 250g peanut butter (45g fat per 100g, that is as fat as it gets!) contains:
roughly 1500kCals. So regarding your advice... This would not be even a snack! Not even A SNACK! For a MEAL (let's assume 3 meals a day) we would need to eat 2,3 whole glasses of these per meal and ~7 per day! Have fun!
But wait! There is more! I also grabbed a glass of sausages! A 250g glass (550g if we count the water). It says... 590 kCal, if we eat all the 5 sausages.
Alright... I know you love numbers, so here comes the math(really complex):
So 4 glasses of sausages (20 sausages) are roughly 2390kCal, so basically a snack. One hell of a snack.
Now... Try to make a full meal of that.... Yeah... Let's do it! Just for the lols: 29,66 sausages. Dat meal.
So over a whole day... Let's assume we take 3 meals and have 2 snacks inbetween. That would be... 15100kCal oh and "then add extra calories as needed".
Let's put this down to sausages and peanut-butter. I feel like everyone here loves peanut butter!
10 (250g) glasses of peanut-butter (100kCal missing, but we can look over that... Since we do not want to get fat!) per day.
Or ~25,6 (250g) glasses of sausages, which would be 102 sausages. Of course that is digusting. So let us just mix it up and say 5 glasses of peanut-butter and 52(let's just round it up here, since we lacked some calories from the peanut-butter anyways!) sausages a day. Make sure to add extra calories if needed!

Lol. 3 individual 500 calorie meals. Not one 3,500 calorie meal.

In the US, we use the term calories on product labels rather than kilocalories. Remember the most basic rule of all forms of weight plans:

Calories in > Calories out = gain
Calories in = Calories out = No chance
Calories in < Calories out = loss

Spoiler

If you still do not understand why it makes me rage when you guys give these kind of advice to people that ask for help and that actually believe every word you say, then there is nothing I can do for you anymore. And maybe now you can even understand why I feel completely INSULTED when you throw around stuff like that.

I am always open for counter-arguments and discussion. You can also flame me hard if you did not like what I wrote.
I would also go through DrP's post, but you see how long it already takes to talk about this one...

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You mostly seem upset over misunderstandings or giving general advice. The former is exactly what it is, a misunderstanding. The latter is just plain ridiculous. NoS doesn't want a work out plan + diet plan + molecular biology. He just wants some advice to put on a couple pounds.

On the topic of proteins, meat is one of the only few ways to get all your essential amino acids. Don't look into vegetable alternatives unless you're a vegan/vegetarian.

[DrP]

^This I agree with. FireArrow's suggestions and arguments are substantiated.

I love that calculator!! I looked at the weight-loss one! It tells me how many calories I need to eat to lose 2lbs and tells me the minimum I need to eat per day to avoid starvation mode!

[ZeldaFan]

I've heard that trying spot reduction doesn't work.
For example if you wanted to get rid of some extra pudge around your stomach, doing crunches and planks all day won't help, and you should do all over weight loss training. Is this true?

[mikey]

um FA your calculator thing won't let me enter 16 in the age thing

[FireArrow]

^yeah I know >_>
put 18

[mikey]

it seems like there'd be a big difference between 16 year old me and 18 year old me

[FireArrow]

As long as you've finished your pubescent growth spurt you'll be fine. That's the reason they don't include pediatrics, because they aren't accounting for puberty.

[SuperFireKirby]

Lots of veggies contain proteins your body can use, believe or not. And ALL meats do(unless you're eating meat that is 100% fat, but then it's fat, not meat).

Also, I can tell you from personal experience that weight gainers do jack shit. Mostly bought the stuff because I was out of whey and was trying really hard to get over 170lbs, because my 3500-4000 calorie a day meal plan wasn't doing it. 0/8.1 would not recommend

[FireArrow]

Holy shit your metabolism is insane.

[Xaoz]

I've heard that trying spot reduction doesn't work.
For example if you wanted to get rid of some extra pudge around your stomach, doing crunches and planks all day won't help, and you should do all over weight loss training. Is this true?

There is no such thing as spot fat removal. If you want to lose fat at a certain point, you have to decrease your overall bodyfat, so you will also fat at your arms/legs/whatsoever.
Doing crunches and planks are not a way to lose bodyfat.... If you want to lose bodyfat, you need to do cardio, not a workout.

(...)trying really hard to get over 170lbs, because my 3500-4000 calorie a day meal plan wasn't doing it.

170lbs is not really much weight (even though I do not know your body-seize) for 3500-4000kcal a day. Either you are doing much sport and that is why you burn lots of energy, or your body is not good at processing the stuff you put in.
People considered "ectomorph", maybe even others, sometimes have a problem of processing carbs. You probably hear the word "hardgainer" a lot, since everyone is like "I cannot get weight, I am a hard gainer!". This is mostly an excuse for a bad workout/nutrition, but for some people it is actually true. I would consider myself a hardgainer. I can eat a ton of sugar and not gain any weight(curse or blessing, dependant on your goals), because my body cannot process carbs as good as he can process fat and protein. This can have different reasons for everyone and you might get it checked at a doc, if you are interested.
Independant of the reason, the reaction should always be the same: Switch the macro-percentage of your food! Try less carbs and more fat. You will see that even though you consume less calories, you will probably still get more weight.
When I started, I ate like chicken and brown-rice all the time and it was really distgusting how much I had to eat. I calculated it and my consumption was like WAY too high, even though I did not gain any weight. Then I started to use lots of fats (mostly cold-pressed oils) in my meals and reduced the overall carb-percentage. And even though I easily consumed 1kCal less per day, I still got my weight increased.

If this sounds like your problem, should give it a try.

[ZeldaFan]

The eating:

Spoiler

You should just make sure to let every meal contain atleast 20-30g of protein.

For one week, write down EVERYTHING you eat. Check the nutrition labels at the back of each product and write down EVERYTHING! I know, it is some work, but you only need to do it for one week!

[close]

Alright, so I did what you suggested and wrote down everything I ate for a week. I just used averages to make it easier. So here are the results:
Over 7 days
Avg. daily calorie consumption: 1,700
Avg. daily protein consumption: 50g

And just a little extra for reference
Week high for calories: 1,961
Week high for protein: 62g
Week low for calories: 1,240
Week low for protein: 43g

What might you suggest about adding calories?

[Xaoz]

Alright, so I did what you suggested and wrote down everything I ate for a week. I just used averages to make it easier. So here are the results:
Over 7 days
Avg. daily calorie consumption: 1,700
Avg. daily protein consumption: 50g

And just a little extra for reference
Week high for calories: 1,961
Week high for protein: 62g
Week low for calories: 1,240
Week low for protein: 43g

What might you suggest about adding calories?

Nice! After all I did not expect anyone to really do anything or even read my posts.
What you should change always depends a bit on your plan. Let's just pretend you go the following one, since your goal is to just get a bit better in shape overall.

Workout:

Spoiler

I have to admit: I am not really experienced with bodyweight-workout-plans, especially since I cannot find a really good exercise for legs. Usually you do not really need to do isolation exercises for your abs, since you already use them during complex movements. So I am not a hughe fan of isolation for abs, but for you I would still suggest them.
This should do the work for you:
Workout 2x a week for ~30 minutes
Best thing would be to make it fixed days(to avoid procrastination), with atleast 2 days of rest between each workout.

Exercises:

I found a YT-channel of a guy, that explains some exercises in a really good way and also shows what to NOT do! He also has some good advice on nutrition, as far as I can see... So I think he might also be a good source of information...

Chinups
The video explains both chinups and pullups. For your workout chinups are what you want to do and they are also easier to learn. You should still stick to the workout-plan and execution I suggested, but you can use some of the techniques from the video to help before you can do your first real chinups. Just make sure to always use good form and not rush (this goes for all exercises).

Pushups
Again the video shows good and also bad execution, so you get an idea of how a pushup should look like. You do not really need to do them on your fists or buy that thing he uses. As long as your wrists do not hurt or feel bad, you should not have to worry too much. But always keep in mind to not put them in an awkward angle!

Crunches
Same guy again (I start to like him!). There is not really much to do wrong here, I think.

Ohhh.... I have an idea now.... You could add one leg squats to also workout your legs. I think that might be the best exercise!
I will try to find some videos showing how to do these exercises with good form lateron and add them.

So how are you gonna do these? How can this take 30 minutes?! In your workout, you will do these exercises one after another for 8-12 reps. After your are through with every exercise you just start over again, till you have your 30 minutes. Of course the time is just a guideline and you do not need to stick to that exactly. Especially in the beginning you might make it a little shorter to just get into this and extend the duration to 30 minutes after your first few workouts.
So you might not be able to do 8-12 reps of especially pullups right from the start. To be honest: Doing 12 pushups is already pretty good! So what can you do? You use a technique that is pretty common in bodybuilding: You just do the negatives by just doing the eccentric movement!
So what da fuq is that supposed to mean?! In case of pullups: Get a chair under the pullupbar and lift yourself up till your chin is over the bar, then step forward and let your legs hang in the air and slowly lower yourself until you reach the lowest position of a chinup. Repeat.

How to do the same thing with pushups?!
Well... here you would use a different method. I don't even know if there is a good name for it. Basically you do not do the pushups on the ground, but while leaning forward and having your hands on the edge of a table or sth. Since this makes your pushing against gravity a way better angle, you will be able to perform more reps. As you get better, take lower objects or get on the floor.

edit:
I forgot to mention a really important thing: Rest between sets! There is not really a specific number of how long a rest should be... I would suggest around 1-2 minutes(Just to throw a random number in. Your rest-time can be shorter or longer! This is just a suggestion!), but after some time you will develop a feeling for it. Just don't rush the exercises. If you feel like you are almost dead, then take some time before starting the next set.

You should not only use these techniques when you just start working out and lack the strength to complete the 8-12 reps, but also lateron when you get exhausted during the workout and still need some more repetitions.

[close]

Nutrition:

Spoiler

Now back to your nutrition question:
What to change?!
Ok, you have ~1700kCal to maintain your current weight, if you did not eat different than before this week. So the trick is simple: We increse your calorie-consumption (more than 10%) and add some protein, since you lack that a bit. And how can we actually achieve this pretty easily? It is simple: Before going to bed (or if you prefer, you can eat it earlier, too) eat ~200g low fat curd with some berries or whatever you like. Just make sure to add something that has a few calories (just not TOO much sugar, since we want to keep it healthy!).
That meal would add like 150-200 calories and provide you with a nice protein boost, so it would do everything your current nutrition lacks.
Of course, there are many other ways to achieve that goal, but this seems to be the most simple and healthy one to me. If 200g is too much for you to eat or you don't like curd or there is another reason you cannot eat it, just write and I will suggest something else.

[close]