absolutelypathetic

Whuups. Not thinking.

Thanks folks. I'll start posting elsewhere in the forum.

Regarding the Malt o meal ............ duhhh. I of course was not doing my math correctly.

There is less than 700 calories in an entire cup of the stuff.

I need more rest.

Supposedly I was born like this. One side of my body didn't form quite the same as the other.

My parents didn't have money to try and fix any of it.

Anyways... so what would you recommend as a before and after workout meal ? How long before and how long after should you eat ?

What about while you workout ?

I would think having coffee while you workout would be a big no-no. Is that true ?

I also wanted to add that my scale ( digital ) is crap ! It flutuates so badly that I can step on the scale, have it say a certain weight, and then grab one of my barbells and step on it again, only to have it say the same weight.

I'll be getting a traditional dial scale.

I have lost around 4 lbs in the last three days. It has taken around two to three months to gain what little I have ( between 6- 10 lbs depending on the accuracy of the scale. )

Thanks again everyone !

Here is an x-ray of my spine ( I bumped up the contrast and sharpened some areas) You can see it's a real mess in there !

I have an extra vertebrae that is shaped like a wedge and pushes the whole thing over. My neck bones are completely fused.

Also my ribs and clavicle area are jacked.

Note how one side of my neck is higher than the other ? Is it actually possible to work one side of your body to compensate for flaws like this ?

( I didn't think so either ... but I'm giving it a try anyways )

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2026/2927145789_25d2b649d5.jpg

Welcome!

 

Good to see you put some effort in your introduction.

 

It was a little "woe is me / I'm going to go jump off bridge now " now that I re-read it.

 

I don't think 1 cup of Malt-O-Meal with 3 cups of soy milk can contain more than a couple hundred calories. It's more like 250 kcal rather than 2500kcal. You easily get mixed up with kJ and kCal.

 

What is kJ and kCal ?

 

I'm just going by what it says on the box : serving size : 3 Tbsp = 130 calories.

16 tablespoons in one cup makes that 2080 calories plus the 130 calories ( * 3 cups ) of the soy milk. = 2' date='470 calories ?

( and a total of 98 grams of protein )[/color'] I fully expect something to be off with the above calculations. Does Tbsp stand for tablespoon ?

Hello everyone again and thank you for the advice !

I have a lot of questions, but I know you folks get tired of answering the same ones over and over, so I'll try and keep them to a minimum.

I'm mainly confused about 'quality' calories vs. junk calories.

What is the difference ? Is there some food that gets absorbed better by the body than others ?

What is the difference between 'whole fruit' and fruit juice ( without sugar ) from a nutrition standpoint ?

Yet another question that I had was if you can work out the same muscle group more than once per week ( like the next day ) if you aren't sore the next day.

( From what I understand, you should be sore the next day after a workout - otherwise you are doing it wrong ... right ? )

I just have some dumbells to work with - not even a bench. Can I make progress with just dumbells ?

I have dumbells that range from 15 lbs on up to 50 lbs. I try and lift the weights to the point that I have trouble lifting them, set them down and continue with the dumbells that are next in line, set those down and continue till I get to the really small ones and then start over. ( I'm too weak to do curls with the 50, but I'll get there someday. )

Next question - and the one that you folks hear several times a day : how do I determine how much protein I need vs. calories ?

I have been keeping off of the scale for a while now, but weighed myself this weekend. I have gained around 8 -9 lbs of ... something.

They have a scale at my job, and me and the guys weighed ourselves. I didn't realize just how small that I was untill one of the guys that is exactly my height outweighed me by 28 lbs ( yet looked what even I would call 'skinny' )

I notice that my gut looked thicker, and I had been worried because I could not see my " six pack" below my navel. After looking at some pictures I realized that the 'six pack' actually starts above the navel

( I actually have a twisted looking six pack because of my messed up rib cage - it looks more like a 'four pack ' )

I now have what I guess people call 'love handles', I have bulges above my hips like you see on Michelangelo's David sculpture.

(I don't have a six pack like the David sculpture, but I can sort of count the bulges of the muscles )

I measured my arms just for laughs. No change since I last measured them.

I think my ego has also increased along with my weight ( gut ? ).

I'll post an image of an X-ray of myself so you folks can see what I'm working with. How do I do that on this site ?

Thank you everyone for the replies. I will reply more in depth when I have more time.

Hello everyone.

I'll tell it like it is :

I am a 35 year old male 5'6," and I weigh in at 120.4 lbs. ( That .4 is important ! )

I have horrible genetics. Everyone in my family besides my parents and I eats meat ( and lots of it ) , yet everone is skinny as toothpicks.

The number one problem that I face is ( ...well my face. As the saying goes, no amount of excercise can fix ugly.)

( I have been told that I look like a cross between a monkey and the kid that played Spanky on the Little Rascals movie. )

Other than this problem, I was also born with scholiosis ( twisted spine ) and since the bones in my neck are fused, it looks like I have no neck.

I have what a doctor refered to as 'webneck', and one side of my body is slightly asymetrical.

Still, I'd like to try and work out because it feeds the part of my ego that has to overcompensate for my shortcomings.

I look in the mirror and part of me says " damn that looks pretty good ! ", Then reality sets in and slaps me silly.

I think the mirror lies.

What I have to trust is the scale. When I look at other folks my height that are 30-40 lbs heavier than me, yet look skinny, I know I must look horrible. But to me I look normal.

In the last month, I have begun to try and eat more than usual and lift some dumbells that my neighbor gave me when he moved. Since I am old and my metabalism has slowed, I thought I'd give a weight gain a try.

I have been forcing myself to eat more, and I now eat between 2,500 to over 6,000 calories per day, yet I have not seen any change in my weight.

How long does it usually take to see a change in weight when eating like this ?

My diet consists of two veggie patties and a medium avacado ( approx. 600 calories combined ) for breakfast, One cup of MaltO'Meal with three cups of soy milk twice a week ( over 2,470 calories ) Half a box of pasta for lunch along with another avacado and a package of some junk food crackers ( 1,487 calories ) several glasses of no sugar fruit juice ( over 600 calories ) and for supper two veggie burgers with more chips ( over 1000 calories. )

I work at as a stocker at a store, and I am constanty on the move lifting and pulling, as well as walking ( a fast walk ) from one side of the store to the other ( around a football fields length )

Am I just burning more calories than I consume ?

I notice that now when I get off of work, I am tired ( sleepy ) whereas before when I only ate 800 - 1200 calories a day I was not. Is this normal ?

Thanks !