New to the Forum - Bio/Questions

[SipowiczA@aol.c]

Hello.

Bio: 34. 5' 10". Three years ago 209 lbs and no muscle mass, now 162 lbs with a six pack. Atkins saved me. Don't laugh, but the tv show The Biggest Loser motivated me to start lifting 1 1/2 years ago. I remained on Atkins. I know now I could have put on much more muscle with a proper diet. I'm going to go on a bulk when my damn patellar tendinitis goes away (a little apprehensive about bulking...guess it's time to eat carbs).

Questions:

1. I like to do cardio for health reasons. For the last year and a half I've been doing up to three miles on the treadmill prior to lifting. Why is this bad? I certainly can't run after lifting with shot muscles and don't want to go to the gym on off days for cardio or I'd be there six days a week. (Yes, I'll be cutting down on cardio for my bulk as well as to get my damn patellar tendinitis to heal).

2. What's the deal with Natural Peanut Butter? What's wrong with Jiff or even my low carb peanut butter?

3. I'm considering other options for cardio. Can somebody give me some info on HIIT, possibly with jumproping?

4. What does carb cycling mean?

Thanks

[Ruffian]

Ok well.. .Ill address your first question. Cardio is good to a certain extent, if you are doing it a ton then it will affect your muscle growth from doing weights (mostly becausee as you said it exhausts you). Howevre if you are doing it for genetic health issues then there is nothing wrong with that, I would say continue.. But perhaps your best bet would be to change your routine. I for example do a 4 day split wiht one or two days of cardio thrown in. If you are going to bulk then your cardio will have to go down quite a bit becuase it is causing a caloritic deficit which will make it hard for you to put on weight. So perhaps your best bet would be to pick up one of the WBB 4 day splits and throw cardio in. So do weights Mon, Tue, Thurs,Fri and do your cardio on Wed or Wed/Sat. Whatever you feel most comfortable with!

As for the whole Atkins thing, Good on ya for loosing the weight. I understand the wanting to maintain your cardio levels as heart issues are predominant in the women in my family (my grandma has had 5 heart attacks before she was 60- the first when she was 32). You can work around your need for cardio but perhaps this would be one of those times where less is more. Keep in mind when you are lifting you are also giving yourself a cardio workout (although perhaps not as intense as a pure cardio workout).

[Mbaboy]

2. What's the deal with Natural Peanut Butter? What's wrong with Jiff or even my low carb peanut butter?

Well this is one question I have a lot of knowledge in. In peanut butter like Jiff and such, they actually remove the peanut oil and replace it with wegetable oil so they can make a profit off of both seperatly. The vegetable oil is no where near as healthy as peanut oil. They also sometimes replace it with palm oil and other oils that suck.
In ORGANIC (not always natural) peanut butter they do not take out the peanut oil. The peanut oil often seperates to the top and you have to stir it in when you first buy it. It also has to be refridgerated due to lack of unhealthy preservatives. Organic tastes a lot better, and its a lot better for you.
Don't always go by the label, because I have seen natural peanut butters with hydronated oils. Most ones labeled organic are natural though. It'll have under ingrediants peanuts and salt. They actually make some even without salt, but I have yet to taste it. I will when my current jar runs out.

I never knew I could write that much on peanut butter. I hope it helps!

[SipowiczA@aol.c]

Thanks for the info! I have to go run to the grocery store now.

[mrelwooddowd]

Good questions. You obviously read a bit before asking them.

Carb-cycling is planning your carbohydrates around workouts in order to get the energy benefits of carbs. It ends up being a caloric deficit like any other, but you get to have energy for your workouts as well (good for the mind).

Here's a couple articles that outline a carb-cycling diet..

http://www.avantlabs.com/magmain.php?issueID=15&pageID=159

http://www.avantlabs.com/magmain.php?issueID=16&pageID=181

Q&A
http://www.avantlabs.com/magmain.php?issueID=18&pageID=232