OT: P90X/Health and Fitness Thread

[ReasonablySober]

What are some cheap, easy sources of protein? I'm extremely lazy and my 3 favorite meals are cereal, tuna, and pizza. I see canned chicken breast but have always been afraid to try it due to this forum posting pics like this:

Is just regular canned chicken breast any good/good for you?

Wow, that looks nasty.

Grocery stores around here always seem to have boneless, skinless marinated chicken breasts in the deli. A no hassle way of making sandwich or soup or rice meat for the week is putting four or five breasts on a tinfoil covered sheet, tent it, and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes or so at 400 degrees. What little fat there is renders off and you can do what you like with the chicken.

If you don't even want to go through that, buy a rotisserie chicken and just pull the meat off the bones and skin. Put it in a ziplock bag and you've got enough for a week.

[Mags FTW]

If you go to the salad bar at a Pick n' Save they should have grilled chicken breast there. Otherwise, I've bought these:

[JoeyMorgan619]

What are some cheap, easy sources of protein? I'm extremely lazy and my 3 favorite meals are cereal, tuna, and pizza. I see canned chicken breast but have always been afraid to try it due to this forum posting pics like this:

Is just regular canned chicken breast any good/good for you?

lmao wow. I have never seen that nor did I know it existed. I would recommend just buying boneless skinned chicken breasts from the poultry section at Wal Mart. I can get 6 for like $10. Just wash it, throw it on a foiled cookie sheet, and cook it at 375 for 35 minutes. That will last you a little while depending on how much you eat.

[jimmybones]

How does the body decide to burn muscle instead of fat?

Well it's impossible to lose 100% fat. The idea is to give your body a reason to keep the muscle so it's more likely to go to fat stores for the energy needed from the caloric deficit you create(from dieting). You do this by lifting weights and eating enough protein. Weights cause a stress that signals your body the need to keep the muscle to handle the workload, essentially to survive.

Protein is "muscle sparing" meaning when you break down your muscle fibers from working out, protein comes in and repairs those fibers and helps you keep your muscle. When you're dieting, the energy has to come from somewhere, so if you're protecting your muscle then it's a lot more likely to come from fat stores. You lose fat, maintain the muscle you have, you look better, you feel better, you perform better... profit?

[jimmybones]

Protein sources:

-meat: boneless skinless chicken breast, lean ground beef, steak (be aware it will be higher in calories due to the fat content)). Try canned chicken if anything. By the tuna, they have cans of chunked chicken that actually isn't that bad. Less frigthening in appearance than that cxreature above.

-fish: If you go to pick n save try the ocean eclipse brands. They have tilapia, salmon, pollock in smaller packs, usually on sale for a buck. Two of them and you got like 50 grams of almost pure protein.

-eggs/egg whites: The yolks have fat in them which isn't neccessarily bad for you but just something to watch if you're shooting for a certain amount of calories.

-greek yogurt, double the protein of regular yogurt

-skim milk:comes with carbs though

-whey protein powder: cheapest and most convenient way possible. Cheapest online but you can get at supplement stores, even target and walmart these days. Get whatever brand. Optimum Nutrition usually taste ok and isn't too pricey. I'd never get my protein if it wasn't for protein powder.

[Mags FTW]

Joining the fit group on the OTB.

viewtopic.php?p=27783592#p27783592

I'm in.


Little history:

At my heaviest I weighed around 230. I probably got around to about 220 just by living a little healthier. Then about a month and a half ago I decided to get serious about losing weight. Started eating just fruit and salads, bought running shoes and started running 3 miles every other day, got a scale, etc. Got down to 209. I got a little too pumped up about the weight I was losing and decided to push it and tried to run 2 days in a row. Unfortunately I sprained my knee because of it and had to sit out over a week and let go of my diet. Gained a pound back. Monday I ran 3 miles again and the knee felt fine. Going to mix in weight training as well. Hopefully I'll return to my pace of 2-3 pounds a week of loss.

[LUKE23]

Been scuffling on working out lately between work, family, and working on a side project. This board helps me stay motivated, which is cool. Currently trying to fit in lifting between two nights of basketball and two nights of volleyball, my wife will probably kill me this summer.

I just could not keep up with P90X. I also got very sick three times when doing it in a span of two months. Don't know if it was pushing myself too hard, not eating enough, or what. Now I'm using a slightly toned down version of my brother's college BB weight program.

[Mags FTW]

I'm doing the 100 push ups and 200 sit ups programs as well as some free weights.

http://hundredpushups.com/

http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

[Newz]

I'm losing weight right now and focusing on my core more than I have. Using Ab Ripper X big time.

Monday: Workout
Tuesday: Basketball or 30/60 minutes of cardio
Wednesday: Workout
Thursday: Basketball or 30/60 minutes of cardio
Friday: Workout
Saturday: Basketball or 30/60 minutes of cardio
Sunday: Rest (Basketball or 30/60 minutes of cardio if feeling good)

Cardio:

Play Basketball
Ride the Bike
Take a Run
Do 'Indoor Cardio'

Workout: (All sets done until failure)


Pushups
Lunges
Pushups
Lunges
Pushups
Wall Squats
Pushups
Wall Squats
Bent-Over Row
Military Press
Curls
Bent-Over Row
Military Press
Curls
Bent-Over Row
Military Press
Curls
Ab Ripper X

Going to do that until I cut off the fat I built up over the winter. Then I am going to start eating at a calorie surplus and cutting out the cardio while mixing up workouts to try and put on some muscle.

[emunney]

Bah, cardio. HIIT ftw.

[Mags FTW]

Going to do that until I cut off the fat I built up over the winter. Then I am going to start eating at a calorie surplus and cutting out the cardio while mixing up workouts to try and put on some muscle.

QDOBA

[jimmybones]

Oh, quick tip for cooking your meats lulz, and veggies when you're pressed for time or just feeling lazy. Go over by the sandiwich bags and I think it's zip loc that makes steamer bags. I've been using them for broccoli, carrots, asparagus, etc for a long time but I've recently discovered how well they cook fish and chicken. Super convenient! Just make sure you slice your chicken breasts thin and they will cook all the way through in there. I don't even season my chicken a lot of the time, just throw it in one bag, veggies in the other. Melt some no fat cheese over the top of both and it's a pretty good proteiny meal. My favorite condiment is Frank's hot sauce, no calories of pure deliciousness. Franks, chicken and veggies FTW.

Oh and if you're trying to gain weight. Same meal plus brown rice or sweet potato/yam for the extra carbs. Winning.

[Newz]

Going to do that until I cut off the fat I built up over the winter. Then I am going to start eating at a calorie surplus and cutting out the cardio while mixing up workouts to try and put on some muscle.

QDOBA

Qdoba will definitely be back on the menu when I need the calorie surplus.

[jerrod]

chipotle's better.


in terms of cooking chicken though, nothing beats my george foreman grill

[Mags FTW]

chipotle's better.

You shut your damn mouth!

[emunney]

I mentioned this routine really early in this thread, but when my surgeon clears me for sports, I'm going to jump right into this weight routine, which is easily the best I've ever done. I did this phase:

http://www.surviveall.net/size_surge_ro ... ne_fiv.htm

for 8 weeks. During that time I gained 20 lbs of lean muscle mass and doubled my squat. The complex motions all translated really well to athletics, too.

This explains how the sets work:

http://www.surviveall.net/step_five.htm

[jimmybones]

If you truly gained 20 lbs of pure muscle then that is amazing progress. I'd assume you did that after a period of not lifting for a while. But to be fair, if you gained 20 lbs, there's a 0% chance it was all muscle. Good progress regardless considering your lifts improved. Even if that were half muscle and half fat it's still good progress as it's easier to cut that 10 pounds of fat off than it is to gain that 10 pounds of muscle.

[Newz]

Emunney, are you a really skinny guy or do you have some bulk to you?

I have a really small frame and when I was eating surplus of calories as well as taking down enough protein, I put on 5-10 pounds of muscle in about 6 weeks. (Then I got sick, my drive to work increased, etc. and I shrunk right back down)

20 pounds in 8 weeks is impressive if you are a smaller guy. 20 pounds in 8 weeks is ridiculously impressive if you are already bigger.

[emunney]

If you truly gained 20 lbs of pure muscle then that is amazing progress. I'd assume you did that after a period of not lifting for a while. But to be fair, if you gained 20 lbs, there's a 0% chance it was all muscle. Good progress regardless considering your lifts improved. Even if that were half muscle and half fat it's still good progress as it's easier to cut that 10 pounds of fat off than it is to gain that 10 pounds of muscle.

It was my first lifting program in two years. I didn't gain 20 lbs, the 20 lb of muscle figure was based on a calculation I did considering the total weight I gained and my body fat % measurements before and after. I suppose I could have gained some bone.

[emunney]

Emunney, are you a really skinny guy or do you have some bulk to you?

I have a really small frame and when I was eating surplus of calories as well as taking down enough protein, I put on 5-10 pounds of muscle in about 6 weeks. (Then I got sick, my drive to work increased, etc. and I shrunk right back down)

20 pounds in 8 weeks is impressive if you are a smaller guy. 20 pounds in 8 weeks is ridiculously impressive if you are already bigger.

I was pretty skinny and before I started the routine, I had a month of really intense bicycling where I dropped a bunch of weight. I wanted to get my wind up because I didn't want to puke on myself in the weightroom. Which I almost did anyway in the first week; it's a really intense routine.

Also, I was 6-5.