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1) How much of a difference does eating right make? I don't dedicate my life to eating properly, but I stopped eating fast food, I stopped drinking pop, and I don't eat junkfood anymore either.
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Eating right makes almost all the difference. Losing weight is 85% nutrition and 15% exercise. Without proper nutrition, you will make little to no gains whether that be weight loss or muscle building.
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2) Is it normal to lose that much, that fast?
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Yes, you lost a lot of water weight. You started eating a lot less crap foods (which definately cut down on your sodium intake) and you are retaining less water. Great job on the loss!
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3) Does it matter that most of my workouts are short? For example, today we ran six 200's, all at 19-20 seconds. Is this better or worse than say, 5 miles?
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There are two types of training you can do. HIIT (high intensity interval training) and long duration cardio (ex. jogging, walking, etc. for 30 mins to 1 hr.). It all depends on what you like to do, but if you are doing the HIIT, you should be going 90-100% effort for 1 minute, 50% effort for 1 minute and repeat for a duration of 15-20 minutes (there are actually several varying methods to do this). To do HIIT, you should be in very good shape otherwise you most likely will not be able to get through a session. I would reccomend you do medium pace cardio for 30 minutes a session until you are in better shape to push yourself to do longer sessions and/or HIIT.
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4) If I do upper body weight training, will that have any effect on my running?
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NEVER neglect your lower half. If you train your legs you will have overall body improvement due to the insane hormonal release that training legs provides. Remember... each pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day. More muscle = higher metabolism = less fat
. Oh, and to answer your question, training upper body shouldn't have any effect on your running unless you are going to run right after working out your upper body (which is a no-no to do cardio after a weight training session).
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5) Should I take any suppliments, and if so, what kind?
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The supplement you should be taking is glutamine and protein. You will want to be eating a lot more protein during your fat loss period so that you will not lose precious muscle. The glutamine aids in protein synthesis as well as helps retain your muscle during dieting, and also has a lot more benefits to your body as well (do a search on L-Glutamine to read more about it).
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6) I eat a LOT of cereal. I've heard people say it's bad cause of the carbs, but since I work out a lot, aren't I correct in that I need the carbs? Same with bread.
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UGH I HATE WHAT DR. ATKINS' FANS HAVE CONVINCED PEOPLE INTO BELIEVING!!!
They have made carbs into a bad thing, WHICH THEY ARENT! /rant off. Carbs are necessary and very good for you. Just make sure to know what type of carbs that you should be consuming. 99% of Cereals are a bad source of carbs because they tend to be high GI (glycemic index). Switch to oatmeal or cream of wheat in the morning. It should be your staple breakfast. You want to stay away from the simple carbs and consume the complex carbs (once again do a search on complex & simple carbs to read and understand the differences). Oh... and don't eat anymore white bread. Whole wheat just replaced it, and I don't want you to stick any more pieces of white bread of any kind into your mouth!
Bottom line, when losing fat, you need to aim for a caloric defecit; about 500 calories less then your BMR to be exact. At this rate you will be losing 1-2 lbs of fat a week which ensures it is only fat you are losing and not precious muscle. To give you a great ratio of what to eat, shoot for having a 40/40/20% protein/carb/fat ratio. I suggest, if you are serious enough, to go buy a book to help you look up calories/fat/carbs etc. which you can order online or find at any bookstore. A good one would be calorie king, and they also have a website
www.calorieking.com . Hope I helped you a tad, and please keep us posted on your results or shoot me a PM if you have anymore questions.