Being self conscious is pointless for the most part.

Okay -- I read through the FAQ but I still have a few questions/thoughts.

I was looking into starting strength; do I need to buy/read the book or is there outlined workouts? Also, being completely new to weight lifting, where should I start? Will SS cover this, or is there some preexisting knowledge that the author assumes I know?

I was also contemplating whether or not I want to do SS or just do a cardio-based regime. I'm much more interested in just becoming healthy/fit. I really don't care much for building muscles. What would work better for my given interests?

Also, while I know this is a broad topic, what are some things I should be eating? I really want to change my diet but I want to make sure I have enough things to eat. Vegetables, fruits, meats, and lots of water are all things I'm willing to do, but I feel like that just isn't enough. What should I eat for breakfast? What are good "snack" foods for throughout the day?

Thanks for putting up with the noob questions. Looking very forward to changing my lifestyle by working out and drastically changing my diet.

Oh, well then, I just won't be....

Def do starting strength. SS will cover everything you need to know, it's highly recommended to get the book. You can always add in cardio, but getting stronger=looking better if that's all you care about anyway.

As far as eating goes, just keep it simple, stay away from sugar, get lots of protein, and keep track of a rough estimate of calorie intake.

Start on this and fine tuning comes into play later.

hey hey_porter,
You will get so much stronger so quickly that it doesn't matter much where you start from. We all started weak ('cept for milesdyson), it's just part of it, you'll get over it.

Porter/carbolic,

if you fall off the wagon, I'll steal all your care packages in MF2!

Seriously: Do the SS stuff to stop being a weakling. And if you do decent excercises in the gym and put your best efforts in it, you will always be respected by the big dudes. At some point, they will actually start wondering, how it can be that you squat so much weight so deeply when all they can do is quarter squats with less and then spazz it out in the leg press.

No idea about your injury. You should probably try very slowly and carefully and see how it goes. One can train around a lot of bad stuff.

youarewet,

diet recommendations really depend on your goals. Are you 140 lbs looking to get big, or 300 lbs looking to slim down? In the first case, the answer is "stuff your face, make sure to get enough protein", in the second case it's way different.

Quick question about diet. I had a thread about this but I'm still a little unsure. For someone getting 25-30 hrs a week of rigorous exercise, what's the best way to lose fat while still having energy? Lots of protein, carbs and moderate deficit? I'd estimate my body fat percentage in the 25-30% range.

25-30 hrs a week?!? And a BF% of 25-30%?!? How do you manage to do that? Seriously. That's like 3.5 to 4.5 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Are you doing sports professionally and got fat somehow? You'd need massive calories just to maintain, imo. For "energy", you'd probably need a good amount of carbs. And you need a lot of protein to regenerate and avoid muscular injuries. Then you need all kinds of vitamins and minerals. And you can't leave fat out of the equation completely.

Loading trucks at UPS. I just started back, but I did this for a few years before so fortunately my body is quickly remembering how to do this even though I'm not in the greatest shape. I'm probably around 22 hrs/week right now but that should go up in the next few weeks as I get longer hours and pick up extra shifts (part time job). I plan to eat at maintenance for a few weeks as my body gets used to this but I would eventually like to lose fat.

I probably should never have started a thread and just posted here instead. Whoops.

This question probably fits here:

What to do when a bench press has stalled completely? This is not for me, but for a middle aged athletic woman. Which auxilliary exercises are recommended?

Theres a lot of variables, whats her routine, recovery, diet and technique like? It could be any combination of those things. What do you mean by athletic? Intermediate strength or just someone who looks kind of skinny for their age?
Chances are technique will gain at least a little. You can't really prescribe auxillary stuff until you have the big picture. Chances are she doesn't need to use them unless shes an advanced powerlifter.

Should have been more exact: Many years as a track and field tripple jumper, so most of her power is in her legs. Trains at least 6 days a week, probably more, so recovery is likely less than perfect. Don't know how often she bench presses, though. Very slim (or skinny, actually).
Will look into improvements in technique, there is probably something to be found there. But I'm thinking that stuff like shoulder press and various tricep exercises would still result in some gains on the bench, while mixing things up a bit, or am I off base?

This is maybe still too general, and impossible to answer without knowing the complete program. Any ideas/opinions appreciated, though.

Bobber,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh3t6T-nqP0

training 6 times per week + skinny = very likely not recovering, and being a skinny woman (with woman being worst) she prolly eats way too little. Shoulder pressing/pull-ups help with the bench.

Thanks. I'll try to teach her how to ****ing bench!

Those things are definitely true, but unfortunately those are some of the things I won't be able to fix (knowing her, nor will anyone else for that matter). Thanks a lot for the advice.
I'll try with technique first, then some shoulder pressing/pull-ups, as there is probably some mental part to it, where she has to feel that she's "training through it".

Well without eating enough (which varies based on n00bity obviously) and recovering fully, she will in all likelihood continue to stall. I know most women will refuse to acknowledge the food part, but that's how it is.

True. I think there are still some gains to be found, percentage-wise probably even somewhat significant, but she'll never be able to lift "a lot" of weight without fixing those things. I don't think that's the primary goal though, so that's fine.

6'2" 190~ pounds. Obviously not fat or anything, but just want to slim down and most of all change my horrible diet that consists of fast food and soda.

Then eat at a slight deficit at first and do SS. Make sure to keep protein high. Eggs, veggies, meat, fish, fruit. Get some protein powder if you need to.

100% you will feel better by adding some muscle rather than just losing some body fat.

This happened to me for the first time (surprisingly, maybe) the other night while I was ****ing covering enemies coming in. REALLY wished that friendly fire was turned off. Next round, made it my goal to kill him as many times as possible.

Part of my apprehension (maybe most of it) also involves not knowing what I'm doing or my way around the gym. I'm going to try to alleviate that this weekend by going mid-morning on Saturday (pretty dead) and getting to know my way around.

Worried about the MCL. Did squats without any weight and had quite a bit of popping in the knee.

YouAreWet specifically said he does not care about building muscle and just wants to slim down. He also said he wants to be generally healthy/fit. Isn't cardio the best type of exercise for these goals?

And here's a question of my own. Which type of exercise is generally better at making people feel better (better mood, more energy, etc): lifting heavy weight, or cardio?

No. Why would it be?

Isn't cardio better at burning fat?
Isn't cardio better at lowering the incidence of heart problems?
Isn't cardio better at increasing circulation efficiency and reducing blood pressure?
Isn't cardio better at strengthening the muscles involved in respiration?
Isn't cardio better at strengthening the heart?
Isn't cardio better at improving mental health? (sort of my question above)

I'm pretty certain 90% of guys who comes in with some variation of slim down/tone/gain some definition actually would prefer a slightly more muscled body. It's not like getting to intermediate strength levels by doing SS will make you into Ronnie Coleman. Also cardio is obviously good for health reasons as well.

From my own experience, re: cardio vs weights, weights >>>> cardio by far.