In the end of the 24 hour day, all that calorically matters is the law of energy balance: Whether you Maintained an approximate balance, surplus, or deficit. When we are talking Gain or Loss of Tissue weight.


Doing cardio is okay, but this depends on your goals:

The Diet is the fat burner first and foremost and without question. If the diet is messed up---you can do cardio until the sun goes out (or even HIIT), and the fat will not come off.

The correct way (or one way to say it) is: To burn fat one has to be in a caloric deficit (created through exercise, or just diet, or a combination of both diet and the exercise complimenting the diet).

Cardio by itself DOES NOT get rid of fat---UNLESS, the diet is on the up and up. (example:

For sake of argument you burned calories AND the body used your fat as a fuel source during cardio---okay GREAT!----BUT, if you overeat or have a surplus in calories, this surplus can and it will erase the calories and fat burned during cardio, and thus the efforts in this sense were for not.)

Once the diet is straight, THEN cardio could assist in the fat burning process--dependent on several bodily factors.

But, you do not need cardio to lose tissue weight, but it can be factored in to a good benefit in weight reduction if used properly within the diet, but if you are going to decide to gain tissue weight, then could be a different matter.

Just some extra thoughts.......for the brotha


More coming...........feel rooted.......yet?

ROOTER:

I do want to apologize, all of the information I provided was written by me in one form or another throughout the forum (and I added some new text today), but it gets asked so much by new members, I saved the information in Microsoft OneNote, to be used to help new members: so its not necessarily in chronological order or sequence and its sort of long, BUT ITS GOOD BASIC INFORMATION for the BROTHA! . So most of it was a copy and paste but not all of it.

Get back with me.

I want to discuss the matter of whether to bulk or cut in relation to the equipment you have, and get a bit more in depth with diet.

I am here to assist you as much as feasibly possible, but it is going to take you to set up what I and the others provide you.


I couldnt wish more luck in your personal quest

Good links:

http://training.fitness.com/wellness...-21-25737.html

http://training.fitness.com/weight-l...ate-27164.html

http://training.fitness.com/weight-t...1-a-17439.html

http://training.fitness.com/weight-t...les-24334.html

ROOTER:

I also suggest starting a diary here on the forum in the correct section: You could impart your diet information, your weight training information and progress, post pics of progress, ask questions. Alot of members view these and it could get some beneficial feed back and boost your motivation and interaction with members.........GIVE IT A SHOT, brotha! I for one, get lose lips.....in them sometimes......LOL.....(at least I admit it, LOL)

Best regards,


Chillen

Hi there, Chillen!
Thanks for all this, I read through all of it and worked out my MT is 3078 and that's with the "Moderately Active" equation but I expect I'll sign up to the Gym at my College soon so I have something to do in Lunch Breaks besides walk around the green with mates (which will soon stop as the cold British winter kicks in!) so that'll mean exercise pretty much every day, I think for now Moderately active is correct though.

Well about whether I'd like to get cut or bulk I think the best way to describe my target is "Bigger and Toned", What do you think of the idea of me lifting for 40 mins each night (I get in late from College and doing more than that could be tiring in the bad way) and on Wednesdays and Saturdays running 7 miles in an attempt to keep my body fat down?

The thing is I hate the idea of gaining fat as you can see from this post from a while back:

http://training.fitness.com/weight-t...ore-24648.html

In terms of Diet I always count calories and I eat all of the things you listed! .. except for the Proteins! but I have plenty of eggs and marmite as I just discovered it has 0.6gs of Fat per 100g and 47.5gs of protein! pretty damn good aye I also have protein shakes. I really should put emphasis on the fact that I am very careful with my diet.. as in I've been inside Mcdonalds two times in my life and they were both to use the toilet! I last had chips about 3 months ago and I felt sick after and I last had Crisps over a year ago, Junk food simply doesn't interest me, not that my diet is perfect though

I did use to be a bit chubby, I think just because I didn't do pretty much any exercise!! I.e Computing is a big part of my life but these days I will do anything to keep/be fitter.

Annnnnnnnnywayy enough of me going on.
I'll try out the Deadlifts amongst a few others you mentioned now as I've never done them before!
oh and about the Diary thing yea I'll do that soon!
Cheers, mate!

On the surface, I do not like the idea of lifting 40 minutes PER night.

Im glad you decided to start a journal!

How about: Rotor Rooting the JuicyRooter LOL as a name.

Haha yea I might actually do that .. I mean what else other than "Diary" could I call it?!

About the workout, I expect I'll have days where I don't do it but is a good rule if my muscles don't hurt then it's ok to workout?

Also about protein, I had around 100gs today but am I correct in thinking my body will only take in 38.5gs or whatever? or will it gradually adjust?

cheers.