Help a teen

[GOOBE]

I'm 14. So heres a bit of background:
I have played football for 6 years or so and I have finally started lifting weights. (3 days a week for 2-3 hours, 30 minutes of cardio plus one hour of lifting and one hour of additional cardio.) Recently, due to educational trips, summer camps, and visits to family I have missed my weight lifting for almost two months now.

I have always been bigger than most kids, but as I have heard, that is becoming the "norm" in our country (USA). Personally, I'm tired of this crap. I am no nutritionist, nor have I or do I want to consult with one. But here is everything I think you need to know; I work out 9 hours a week, I have 3 meals on average per day. I make one large fruit smoothie per day to replace lunch. It consists of: 16 oz skim milk, one 25g serving of protein powder, one banana, 6-7 whole fresh strawberries, 20 or so blue berries. I drink it all. For dinner I will have some sort of veggies, skim milk, chicken (grilled with no sauce) or fish.

With that being said, I have lost about 7 pounds in 5 months. (I'm 5'7 and 210 lbs, down from 217)


Additional notes***
I don't eat out very often, but I think that while I have been away I have been eating out more often ( I avoid fried foods, but sometimes I cave in).
I don't enjoy veggies (unless they are in the Spicy chicken salad from Panera's). Actually I take that back, it is not that I don't like veggies but as I said, I don't like salads or leafy greens ( I still like like green veggies). Not sure why I don't like salads, perhaps because dressings are usually high in sugar or fat and are empty calories. I drink at least 2 gallons of water a day when I'm on my average routine.

Sometimes I stay up late and sleep in so I miss breakfast. I don't drink soda unless it is diet. I avoid foods with empty calories. But like the majority of teenagers I fall victim to the occasional sweet craving. I usually avoid keeping sweet foods (and any sodas for that matter) in the house. But I have been away for the past month so I haven't been sticking to my diet too strictly.

My key lifts are: Smithing Squat, Dead lift/ Hex, Bench. I do additional work on my arms and legs using machines and dumb bells.




I feel some muscle tone (mainly in my arms) but my question is: What am I doing wrong, what should I change, what should I get rid of or add in?


With my best regards,
Jacob Coyne.

 

[Taras]

Is your goal to lose weight primary? I could be wrong but most people I know who have protein powder supplements are trying to gain muscle/weight vs losing it. Start a journal, everyone says it but it will help you make better choices in the future when you see what your habits are out on paper.

I personally think if you are trying to lose weight you need to do more cardio. Weight training is great but it could be counter productive. You may have lost more weight then you realize but some of it most likely came back as muscle and you won't see that information on a scale

Also good on you for taking steps at your age to be healthy

 

[dh2909]

Eat more frequent meals, try to aim for 6 meals a day but keep ur calories the same, smaller more frequent meals will increase metabolism!

maintain high protein this will aid muscle development, and muscle metabolises fat, u may not be losing weigth but ur gaining muscle and burning fat, to test this u could get some skin calipers and just do weekly measurments.

what kind of cardio are u doing? if its constant intesity eg a constant running speed, u would be better changing to High intensity intervil training, a quick google search will provide details on this.

also count calories and drop a few hundred below maintenance everytime u dont lose for more than 2 weeks

DONT MISS BREAKFAST! a high protein breakfast will get ur metabolism going for the day!

 

[JackedJoey]

Eat more frequent meals, try to aim for 6 meals a day but keep ur calories the same, smaller more frequent meals will increase metabolism!

No! This is a HUGE fitness myth! Frequent meals absolutely do not increase metabolism.

There have been tons of studies done that prove a person metabolic rate is not altered unless they are in a long term fasted state (24 hours without food).

To OP:

Stick with three meals, but know your goals. If you are trying to strictly lose weight then all you need to do is maintain a calorie deficiency. Do not take this as if I eat 300 calories a day, my weight loss will be insane! It will be insane, however that hard earned muscle tone you mentioned will be gone with the fat. Use a slight calorie deficiency. (100-200 calories) If you are stepping on the scale and dropping 5 pounds a week, I will bet, you are losing a great deal of muscle.

maintain high protein this will aid muscle development, and muscle metabolises fat, u may not be losing weigth but ur gaining muscle and burning fat, to test this u could get some skin calipers and just do weekly measurments.

High protein will definitely aid in building muscle but it does not metabolize fat. Definitely get calipers or get a scale. These are awesome weight loss tools.

what kind of cardio are u doing? if its constant intesity eg a constant running speed, u would be better changing to High intensity intervil training, a quick google search will provide details on this.

also count calories and drop a few hundred below maintenance everytime u dont lose for more than 2 weeks

All great advice. Remember that lifting heavy will force your body to repair damaged muscle. This effect can last 1 hour and up to 48 hours and in the process of it, you are basically burning calories to building muscle!

DONT MISS BREAKFAST! a high protein breakfast will get ur metabolism going for the day!

Breakfast is overrated!

And OP: I applaud you for squatting. There is no greater lift! Make sure you are going deep.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

JackedJoey... I honestly disagree with everything you said in that last post.

1/Meal frequency does help and it isn't a matter of doing it just to boost metabolism. Your body only needs so much nutrition at once; when its stores are replenished you know what happens to the rest? Converted to fat. Higher meal frequency allows you to break your entire days nutrition into smaller portions so it is all efficiently used and metabolized.

2/A high protein diet will not be the direct cause of stored fat being metabolized but your body is less efficient at storing protein(s) as fat. That's why high protein diets really do work.

Calipers are only good in the hands of someone who has experience using them. Scales are a great way to measure weight but measuring weight is an ineffective way of determining how fatloss is progressing. How clothes fit, how your body looks, and how you feel are far better indicators of fatloss

3/How to properly stimulate muscle fibers, how they repair, and the amount of time it takes for them to repair is far more complicated than your letting it on to be. Nothing you said there was correct. You don't "burn calories to build muscle" ...you metabolize proteins and they help your tissue repair. unless you're calling a protein source "calories". That is misleading because any newbie reading that would not understand where the calorie is coming from. It is coming from a protein source.

5/Breakfast is overrated? False. Wrong. Crazy. wow......

 

[JackedJoey]

JackedJoey... I honestly disagree with everything you said in that last post.

1/Meal frequency does help and it isn't a matter of doing it just to boost metabolism. Your body only needs so much nutrition at once; when its stores are replenished you know what happens to the rest? Converted to fat. Higher meal frequency allows you to break your entire days nutrition into smaller portions so it is all efficiently used and metabolized.

2/A high protein diet will not be the direct cause of stored fat being metabolized but your body is less efficient at storing protein(s) as fat. That's why high protein diets really do work.

Calipers are only good in the hands of someone who has experience using them. Scales are a great way to measure weight but measuring weight is an ineffective way of determining how fatloss is progressing. How clothes fit, how your body looks, and how you feel are far better indicators of fatloss

3/How to properly stimulate muscle fibers, how they repair, and the amount of time it takes for them to repair is far more complicated than your letting it on to be. Nothing you said there was correct. You don't "burn calories to build muscle" ...you metabolize proteins and they help your tissue repair. unless you're calling a protein source "calories". That is misleading because any newbie reading that would not understand where the calorie is coming from. It is coming from a protein source.

5/Breakfast is overrated? False. Wrong. Crazy. wow......

Thanks for the reply:

1- Frequent meals has no greater effect on metabolism than a traditional three meal diet or even two meals. Please read a study titled, 'Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet.'

Another study is: 'Meal frequency and energy balance.' This study can also be found with google and was conducted in 1997.

2- As far as saying high protein diets work because a higher proportion of your diet is made up of calories from protein, I agree 100%. I however disagree with the notion that consuming MORE protein on top of an already balanced diet will allow you to burn more fat.

3- I agree 100%. Calipers are not going to give you a very accurate measure if you are using them yourself, and in the hands of a pro they will just give you a ball park. I am a guy who needs hard data. I measure my arms, waist, legs, ect every month. I also weigh myself everyday after I pee in the morning. I am a habitual data gatherer.

4- I think you are misunderstanding what I am stating. There is a something called TEF (the Thermic Effect of Food), this is basically your body burning calories to digest and process food. Can you believe we are burning calories by eating?! Crazy, right? However, in almost all foods there is a net gain in calories (Ice water and celery being examples of exceptions). Now use this principle with muscle building. I recommend you do some research on something that is known to bodybuilders as the Afterburn Effect!

This is the theory that when you stimulate muscle growth by exercise your body spends calories removing lactic acid, replacing glycogen, and repairing tissue. Even if you body requires some protein in the next 24 hours after a good workout to repair damaged muscle fibers, it will still burn calories turning amino acids in to new muscle tissue.

Please turn to these studies: "Knab et al.
A 45-Minute Vigorous Exercise Bout Increases Metabolic Rate for 14 Hours.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Feb 8."

This study basically says that in a high intensity training session, participants burned around 500 calories, however in the next 14 hour period subjects burned an additional 190 calories on average than their pre-workout measurements.

There are other numerous studies describing the long term calorie burning effect of working out.

5. Breakfast is overrated. Breakfast does not 'rev' the metabolic fire or any of that. You body sleeps in a fasted state unless you are a great sleepwalking chef. I typically eat my last meal around 8-9pm and my first meal is lunch at noon. This eating schedule gives me wonderful benefits of high levels of glucagon, growth hormone, and insulin sensitivity.

If I missed anything or you have further questions, please let me know. I will do my best to answer them.