Q about supplements, crappy food, six pack and cardio

[Coloss]

Guys I have a few questions. At the moment I'm 6 ft (185 cm) tall and weigh 170 pounds (77 kg) with about 15% BF. I was training swimming, box and thai box for a loooong time up until 6 months ago, and I was not concerned with what I eat (except when I was training for a match), it didn't bother me at all, because all that I eat gets burned up on training (I have hard times gaining weight, and I eat like a MAD man !).

As I said I stopped training for 6 months (grrrr :cuss: ) and I'am slowly gaining weight but unfortunately not muscle . It's mainly because I haven't got the chance to eat good food. Eating junk food and not training is a bad combination and I see the results in the mirror. I have gained about 3-4 kilograms (8 pounds). So I wanted to ask if there is a supplement, that can maintain or improve my protein balance/intake or balance this crappy eating somehow.

At the moment I do about 30 minutes of cardio exercises in the morning on empty stomach (rope jumping) and crunches ... I try to eat fruits, eggs and meat as much as possible and stay away from fuzzy drinks and chokolate. So will this do the trick with the little fat that I have gained ? I think this fat that I have gained may be because I eat a lot of bred. What do you guys think about this ?

And one more question - I am trying to get my six pack again but this time not just a lame small six pack ... I will work on it very hard , so how often should I do exercises for it ? I know that the abdominal muscles are like every other muscle and shouldn't be overtrained and need rest bud I always thought these muscles have great endurance. I do crunches 6-7 days a week, is that too much ?

Thanks in advance and sorry for my grammar.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I was not concerned with what I eat (except when I was training for a match)

Not that this is answering your question, but how did you eat differently when preparing for a match?

 

[Coloss]

well most of the times I needed to drop some kilograms to get into certain weight category, witch was very hard to do since I haven't had any fat at all ... at one point I couldn't even pinch my own leg !

Not to brag but in Bulgaria we train really intense before any competition. Bulgaria will be the host of the next world muay thai (thai box) tournament. 1 month before the match it was all like - morning (~ 2.5 hours): running 8-10 kilometers altering sprinting and jogging, push-ups and pull-ups on empty stomach, midday : go to school and immediately after school go training, witch in this case was very hard and included at least 1.5 hours of tough sparring at minimum 50% (~2.5 hours) .... I was on like 5 apples and honey as much as I could eat for the whole day. But IMO sparring was waaay to dangerous to be done every day, once or twice a week is better. Because of it there were always 50-60% (or more) of the guys in the team that couldn't compete because of injuries.

So since I stopped training I feel like I'am not in good shape and besides, I think I can gain a little muscle mass instead of scratching my ass all day

 

[Coloss]

oh c'mon guys ... you are either all too lazy to read the whole post, or nobody can answer ?

 

[wolf116]

Dude, why are you asking a question you know the answer to?
You are getting fat because you eat like sh!t and have stopped training.
How about lift some weights, do some cardio and eat clean (no bread).
No there is no magic pill or everyone would be on it.

 

[Throttle]

there are no magic supplements to counter crappy eating. the closest thing is fish oil, if you can get a hold of it & are willing to cut out trans fats and other crap.

you're right that "the abdominal muscles are like every other muscle and shouldn't be overtrained and need rest"... so 6-7 days/wk is definitely way too much. try weighted decline sit-ups no more than twice a week, and consider lifting 2 or 3 times a week to add muscle. see 'where to start' in the vault sticky

 

[Coloss]

lifting 2-3 times a week Isn't that too little ? In the past I have tried lifting for 3 months (too boring IMO) and I was 4 days on 1 off (rest) and it worked very well for me. I don't pretend that I know anything about fitness but can a man gain with only 2-3 times a week lifting ?

And another thing - what do you guys think it will happen if I take protein, and do cardio every day ? Or is the cardio also too much to do every day ? I don't understand **** from lifting, so .... I will be very thankful if you guys can give me a hint. I also wanted to mention that I started reading throughout this forum and I have a lot to read ... but nevermind I learn very fast ...

 

[Throttle]

you could gain only lifting once a week, but you get more from 2 or 3 days. some guys can get away with more, and it depends a lot on your goals. if i understand you correctly, right now you're not doing anything at all. adding anything would be of benefit to you right now.

why all the cardio? if you're trying to take off fat, working on your diet will have more effect than every-day cardio.

 

[EFFORT]

lifting 2-3 times a week Isn't that too little ? In the past I have tried lifting for 3 months (too boring IMO) and I was 4 days on 1 off (rest) and it worked very well for me. I don't pretend that I know anything about fitness but can a man gain with only 2-3 times a week lifting ?

And another thing - what do you guys think it will happen if I take protein, and do cardio every day ? Or is the cardio also too much to do every day ? I don't understand **** from lifting, so .... I will be very thankful if you guys can give me a hint. I also wanted to mention that I started reading throughout this forum and I have a lot to read ... but nevermind I learn very fast ...

Starting to get hard giving guys like you advice. Theres endless stuff i could do for you (write all sorts of different routines, diets, supp plans, GPP work, etc) but what i can't do is go in your brain and make it so you do it. Based on what you've written so far in this thread it doesn't sound like your going to make much progress if any. You'll probably won't get your diet together, probably miss meals, probably do too much in the gym and jump from routine to routine, waste money on sups, etc. I'm not saying this to insult you, its just something i've noticed a lot with guys getting into this whole gaining muscle/losing body fat, looking good hobby.

With that said my advice would be to start with the where to start thread and simple starting diet thread. That plan isn't some miracle either. The whole purpose of it is just to spend that time being consistent with eating and lifting (more so eating though since most guys show up to lifting), so once its over you now have all the tools in place to be successful. You'll be able to move on to other routines, diets etc because you have the basics down.

So those are my thoughts on it do what you want

 

[Coloss]

most of you guys take yourselves too seriously that's why you don't successed, and if you have any success, then you are not just serious, you are dedicated, your whole life is about the next meal. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but if you just want a nice looking body then that's a different story from becoming a bodybuilder. Nobody likes people that take themselves too seriously you know.

And about the guy with the super serious and deep nickname EFFORT you should first learn to read right dude ... where the hell did you get the idea that I am going into lifting ? I asked simple questions that have a lot to do with the functioning of the body and that's why I posted the thread in this forum.

@Throttle : First of, thanks for the replies man. About your question why all the cardio - you see, before, only the cardio allows me to eat whatever I wanted, and now as I said doing a diet is just not working for me (multiple reasons but that's not the point). Of course I am watching what I eat most of the time but that's far from diet. So if I am not able to do a diet at this time, then the cardio will theoretically restore my previous regime. Btw you haven't understood me correctly, at the moment I am doing cardio and crunches every morning, I just don't want to loose time by doing wrong tings and that's why I ask you - the vets. So again :

- What effect will taking a protein with doing cardio in the morning have (any guesses) ?

- What will happen (again theoretically) if you overtrain the abdominal muscles (in my case - doing crunches every day) ?

PS : Honestly, I don't know how you guys do it without bred, I will starve without eating it

 

[Throttle]

careful insulting guys who want to help you... effort knows his stuff.

if cardio works for you, that's fine. but a balance of lifting, cardio & careful diet takes most guys farther along with their goals. as a relatively skinny guy, if you think you can eat whatever you want when doing lots of cardio, imagine what lifting could do for you.

you probably can't 'overtrain' your abs (what we mean by overtraining around here is overwhelming your body's recovery system). but 2 days of weighted work (plus squats & deadlifts) will do more for building ab muscle than hundreds of crunches every day. the abs aren't any different from your other major muscle groups in that sense.

think about it this way: guys disagree as to whether you should just warm up & then do a few heavy sets or try to hit things from several different angles, rep ranges & weights, but nobody (with any sense) would try to build biceps by curling a gallon of milk 100 times twice a day. 100 crunches a day (or whatever) is roughly the equivalent. you're doing more cardio than muscle building with all those crunches.

 

[EFFORT]

most of you guys take yourselves too seriously that's why you don't successed, and if you have any success, then you are not just serious, you are dedicated, your whole life is about the next meal. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but if you just want a nice looking body then that's a different story from becoming a bodybuilder. Nobody likes people that take themselves too seriously you know.

And about the guy with the super serious and deep nickname EFFORT you should first learn to read right dude ... where the hell did you get the idea that I am going into lifting ? I asked simple questions that have a lot to do with the functioning of the body and that's why I posted the thread in this forum.

@Throttle : First of, thanks for the replies man. About your question why all the cardio - you see, before, only the cardio allows me to eat whatever I wanted, and now as I said doing a diet is just not working for me (multiple reasons but that's not the point). Of course I am watching what I eat most of the time but that's far from diet. So if I am not able to do a diet at this time, then the cardio will theoretically restore my previous regime. Btw you haven't understood me correctly, at the moment I am doing cardio and crunches every morning, I just don't want to loose time by doing wrong tings and that's why I ask you - the vets. So again :

- What effect will taking a protein with doing cardio in the morning have (any guesses) ?

- What will happen (again theoretically) if you overtrain the abdominal muscles (in my case - doing crunches every day) ?

PS : Honestly, I don't know how you guys do it without bred, I will starve without eating it

good luck to you man