Michael569

HGH does not only build muscle, it is anabolic, that's true but not just to muscle cells. HGH builds everything, it repairs cells of the gastrointestinal lining, bones, hair, nail, it stimulates skin cell replication. It's like a systemic handyman repairing everything. Even if you have an increase of it, it may not translate into more muscle, you need to be in excess of calories to gain muscle. A body in starvation is not going to waste resources to gain muscle (from the biology standpoint, carrying excess muscle is a useless trait anyway and during a period of famine your metabolism switches to low maintenance mode) then start focusing on muscle mass building and you may lose that belly fat as a side product. Wasting, in general is a yo yo weight loss strategy. You stop eating, you lose weight but you shock the body so once you start eating you gain it back. Not to mention the overload of stress hormones flooding the body during prolonged fast. Also, I guess, make sure you are not trying to shortcut a process that takes a decade (building a muscular body) by finding a "hack" such as extended fast because someone said it gives you more HGH. It does but HGH is a bottleneck anyway. You can only use so much of it in a day. You can't be both in a catabolic and anabolic state at the same time. The same way you can't be awake and asleep at the same time (well, maybe there are certain trans states which put one halfway in, but most people can't do that) yes but what quality of training? They can do yoga for 15 minutes, sure and then spend the whole day meditating and sitting because they have no energy for everything else. And don't forget that not everything you hear on youtube is true. Also, how are you going to extend effort in the gym and push hard to stimulate an anabolic state if you are running low on glycogen, low on sugar and depleting your fat stores too? Where will you get the energy? The only remaining way to obtain glucose is through gluconeogenesis of your own muscle tissues. So not only will you not be making gains but you'll be breaking down the existing lean mass. The exact opposite of what you want to do. I seriously doubt there are people out there who are making big gains while doing 40 days on water fast, or they are full of shit. The most realistic depiction of what extended water fast does to a human was the case of Tim Shieff, the ex-vegan ninja warrior competitor. He was a hallmark of health and radiance in his prime days before he turned himself into skeleton, wrecked his digestive system and went a little bit nuts into the head and started drinking his own piss. Yes, he was an extreme case but I am yet to see a healthy demonstration of a prolonged fast. Vegetable Police had an interesting story too. He went all in yet in the end most of his symptoms of IBD came back and he took forever to regain a decent body weight. You do. But you also needs sufficient amount of carbohydrates and fats. And those are all hard to get on extended fast. But I mean look. If you don't believe me just do it. Go to the gym during a second week of water fast, load some weights on benchpress and see how it goes. Also then observe your recovery time compared to the usual times. Chances are you'll have the worst workout of your life. There is time and place for extended fats. Absolutely. But it should not be the same time when you are trying to grow, stimulate cell replication, stimulate growth pathways and generally need to be in abundance. Fast in summer and bulk in winter or the other way around.

You gotta think about the karma you are creating in that process too and what that does to your soul if you treat women as walking vaginas.

Water fasting is a regenerative/catabolic state where you should be relaxing, meditating and retrospecting. Muscle building is an anabolic, highly energy-demanding process. Exactly the opposite of what you are trying to achieve with the fast What you'll get as a result is fatigue, brain fog, low-quality exercises, half-assed fast and feeling low & grumpy. Pick one and leave the other. Also, don't oscillate between them too often or you'll wreck your metabolism with all these shock waves.

Were you any happier than you are today back then? Chances are you were pretty miserable and hated your body.

That fat indian ugly girl is still a human being and you were being completely selfish and ignorant of that on your aproach if that's all you saw. Good on her. Start seeing the women you approach as your equals rather than tools or you'll die a virgin. She could probably smell your insecurity a miles away

See if living without Instagram, Facebook & Youtube (100% removal of apps and locking of accounts by another person) would help you feel better about yourself one month from now Burn all magazines related to fitness, beauty and that sort of crap. Hell I'd even consider not using any makeup during this period. The stress of constant comparing with yourself with your beauty standards isn't probably helping. Spend some more time in nature. Grab a backpack and go on a hike few times a week if you can. Helps you reflect better and takes your attention from withing more to the outside. Maybe pitch a tend by the lake sie and spend a few nights on a solo trip. Lots could be unravelled during that trip. Look at the stars, observe birds, fish, bugs and animals. Nature can help you spend some time reflecting on your strengths, on your positives and on what makes you special and unique. If you do all this and still feel like lipo is the best way forward, then do it.

@integral kynurenine pathway is one of those to be mindful of. Some people activate it more than other but there is some association with mental health disorders and chronic inflammation. Although I have no idea what impacts how much tryptophan gets shunned down this pathway.... genetics, microbiome, any ongoing health disorders and certain meds may (or may not) accelerate opening of this channel. But it would be a possible explanation why some people actualy feel worse upon taking TT

@Carl-Richard since we are back at this, let's throw in one more 12:00 - 12:45

Any amateur astrophotographers here? https://mashable.com/article/how-to-see-comet-c2017-k2-panstarrs

It is a personal preference and maybe you need to try different types of exercise patterns to find what you enjoy the most. I've gone through periods of heavy bodybuilding in my teens and early 20s then got introduce to kickboxing and muay thai and stuck with that till mid 20s when we moved to Spain and later to Greece during which time I started to do more HIIT and Crossfit, later on went back to kickboxing in late 20s and now since the panemic been sticking to 100% body weight, callisthenics, rope work and some cycling/jogging and lots of hiking especially since we moved away from London towards Welsh coast. What I'm trying to say is is, your journey will be evolving. So be open to whatever and get the most of the thing you do. Remember, with physical activity, the ultimate goal should be your long-term health quality rather than gains. Do one thing for a year, see how your body responds, see how you like it and what you dislike about it and then adjust. You don't need to have all the answers straight away, open yourself to the period of not knowing and dance with that feeling of "I don't know what to do". Embrace it, you'll find the answers eventually. On the dietary side, as @Jannes said 200g may seem like a lot but on its own even if those 200 grams is a dry weight, it is not enough. As a vegetarian, you need to include much more tofu, wholegrain sources, lentils etc. Tempeh is excellent source of protein as well. Get yourself a pressure cooker and start eating from deep plates with tablespoons I know it sounds barbaric but it is the easiest way to meet your caloric goals by eating plant-based mostly. Forks over knives like that documentary says.

@Jannes You know what, I actually trained since I was 15 and until my 30s I could not do more than 6-7. And then I stopped going to the gym completely and just started doing callisthenics because I have an awesome playground next to where I live and my strength on pullups went up exponentially. I've heard other people report that with pullups you gotta do them like 3 times a week because compared to things like bench-press it is hard to go heavy since the most limiting factor is grip strength rather than back strength. @Ampresus yeah that's a fair point Anyways, soz @Superfluo, we've derailed the topic. Back to you ->

ofcourse I don't have exact data on this but I recall the last time I had this research question and went to look into the literature, some of the vitamins actually increase in bioavailability as well as certain phytonutrients and the loss of vitamins was like 10% max after hours of boiling. SO no, I'm not worried about nutrient loss bit. And with a pressure cooker, you can load so much stuff in there that you'll easily compensate for any loss not to mention that the cheapest ingredients like legumes are the most nutrient loaded. Replacing saturated fats for plant-derived PUFAs has been associated with improved disease outcomes pretty much across the board now. It's mostly just vegetable oils and plant sterols, there is no margarine or any trans fats. its in my signature

It's not that suited for cooking veggies as a side portion, in the standard - carb-meat-veg type of cooking. Personally, I hate that type of cooking because it is too protein-focused, inefficient, expensive and usually minimises the fibre content of the meal. A pressure cooker is better if you like the 1-pot type of meals where you can't tell one ingredient from another. Like curries, burrito fillings, pasta dishes, tofu dishes, tacos & quesadillas fillings, soups, veggie stews even baby food. Also I generally find pressure cookers more suitable for vegetarian and vegan cooking but meat can definitely be used in it easily. True, some ingredients like tomatoes or onions get turned into a soup but the fibre is still there, the nutrients are still there so this is more functional rather than aesthetic cooking. It sucks on Instagram but your microbiota loves it. Get all the indian spices and herbs you can and do some alchemy with your food. I love experimenting with new flavours. I've recently started adding plant-based butter and that's incredible. Nutritional yeats, tahini, miso, tomato puree, pesto and herbs also help. If unsure, there are lots of pressure cooker cookbooks. I also made a few recipe videos on my YouTube. The videos are a noob quality but there are 2 recipes in the most recent video and also in some of the other vlog ones.

@Jannes I agree to an extent. For a beginner or a mediocre practitioner, callisthenics will accelerate muscle growth but once you become too strong that the curve of effect starts bending unless you can load plates on a belt to increase your weight, you won't get the same effects anymore because now doing 20 pullups in one row is not longer a challenge and you can easily do 40 dips in one turn, it's like working with light weights, it's no longer the same. At least this is the effect I've noticed on myself after having practised it for about 14 months now. I went from 8 cap pullups to 21 and the effects is no longer the same to achieve a same type of pump I'd get from 8 before, but I still enjoy it very much. I think callisthenics is one of the most natural and healthy ways to train for health, longevity and strong core but it has its limits for hypertrophy where that is desired. It's all about the individual goals, of course. If you want a Chris Bumstead type of physique, weights need to be included.

Great tips by @Max_V above already. Indeed, more pulling exercises will lead to more hypertrophy than focusing on pushup variations only. In fact, I'd say pull exercises (in calisthenics) have a higher impact on strength than push exercises, especially pull-ups. Gymnastic rings, he suggested, are a beast! They are hard but they make you exponentially stronger once you start using them. But where muscularity is a goal, you would definitely benefit from some weight training. While callisthenics is great for core and functional strength, it is not as effective at "making you bigger" if that's the main goal. But it seems like your main concern is energy rather than training which may come down to multiple factors: From my experience in the clinic, fatigue usually comes down to a few things: insufficient protein intake insufficient carbohydrate intake (or eating too many high GL carbs) sleep deprivation stimulant overuse iron deficiency general unhappiness with life (lack of purpose etc) - this can make a person physically weaker compared to someone with a strong sense of vision if none of that - it is more physiological and needs further investigation (e.g. thyroid, CFS etc)

Sounds like a bit of fat undigestion. Do you still have your gall bladder? There are some faecal tests your doctor could do for the presence of certain substances in the stool that would show potential fat malabsorbtion or deficiency of certain digestive enzymes. @undeather would be better suited to explain how fat malabsorption is being tested and investigated and what can be done.

I've seen the same in my diet, if I eat the same thing over and over, at some point, I just can't stomach that thing anymore. Although I've never seen it cause acne although I'm sure acne could probably be caused by psychological reasons as well although I think with this one, unlike other issues, the cause is usually more biological. That's a long say of saying "I have no idea, Max "

@trenton get yourself a good cooking book and outsource the need to create your own recipes. All you need are 5-6 recipes you can rotate over and over

I have had the same concern with my mom who largely sufferers due to being locked in stage blue values and is utterly resistant to any attempt to help At this point, I don't think there is anything i can do other than be understanding, compassionate and loving to the best of my abilities Also, important not to put it as your own buren to help them elevate to upper levels or to blame yourself for the inability to help

Because you haven't practiced enough. I assume, that you are more introverted type of person. I am too, for us, leadership and communication does not come easy but introverts can be very good at becoming dedicated to learning. All you need, you can learn from books, seminars and materials. Don't take lack of skill as a limiting belief but as an opportunity to grow.

It actually is! Well spotted, thanks for the correction

I don't think that's how it works. If anything, fibre softens your stool because it also attracts water through osmosis in the colon. Hard stools are caused by dehydration due to fibre deficiency generally. I'd be curious to see any prospective cohort study linking excess fibre to digestive issues (also, what digestive issues? IBS? IBD?) If we were to go to the extreme, we would say "colorectal cancer" right? The most extreme form of "digestive issues" is definitely either autoimmunity or malignancy because those can actually kill you. At least in the world of chronic issues. There is also a large amount of infectious diseases but for the purpose of this conversation, we will exclude infectious diseases of GIT. Colorectal cancer is inversely associated with the consumption of grains, legumes, fruits and veggies..the more you eat them, the lower the risk. Compared to beef intake for example which is linearly associated - the more beef you eat the higher your colorectal cancer risk exponentially. SO no, even at the highest intakes of fibre, fibre is beneficial unless the person's gut is already messed up (e.g. severe SIBO or flared-up IBD) - where that's the case, those things need to be fixed. But fibre is not the cause of any digestive issues. Nearly all common chronic digestive issues actually get better on high fibre diet - haemorrhoids, constipation, diarrhoea, ulcerative colitis (if not flared up), diverticulitis & diverticular disease, permeability issues, dysbiosis etc. It's just that even in people who eat like 80-90grams a day, which would be considered being in top 1% of fibre consumers, there are still no associated harms other than pooping 3 times a day which is actually something you want. Also, with gluten. I'm not convinced anyone other than coeliacs actually needs to remove gluten. It's not what's causing the issue, it's that we consume it from products that are just shit foods like pastries, cakes, white pasta and all sort of processed garbage. If you eat wholegrain wheat like this , it is very unlikely that you'll have negative side effects...again, unless you are coeliac or undiagnosed coaliac or have a genetic mutation on HLADQ5 or HLADQ8 or both, which may predispose you to developing coeliac disease. If gluten is an issue, it is worth getting a genetic test along with IgA tissue transglutaminase (can be tested by doctor). Otherwise there is no need to remove Gluten

@soos_mite_ah Yeah, it's probably related to switches in the environment, climate and diet. The current mini-heat wavve isn'thelping probably. Are you in England? I think south-east currently has the worst of it. UK traditional diet can be comparable to the traditional American diet but I know, based on our chat, earlier last year that your diet is more home-cooked and more wholefood based so perhaps if you didn't have as many opportunities to cook and would eat more pre-cooked, bought food, you may be eating less without realising it. When I eat store-bought food in UK, I generally feels worse so for me home-cooked is always the preference when I can. It may be the consistency of food, in UK they use less salt and less sugar and generally fewer additives like HFCS compared to US, I think, the guidelines around food are stricter so it may literally be as @integral said, that there is something in the US food that you are not getting here is potentially causing withdrawal symptoms. I'm not sure if this is the case but would not 100% discount the option. Your body may be stressed about the movement, still jet lagged and kinda struggling to find its way around so that could be taxing your energy levels even without being aware of it. Not sure where in UK you are but places like London & other busy cities have a very dynamic type of lifestyle (including the subway and busy public transport) which can be taxing to a person not used to that. Migrations like this can be stressful. Also, is there any chance you got either some mild cold, flu or even covid? Maybe not but worth asking I thought Also, final question. Do you know your current HbA1C? (blood sugar balance) Have you ever measured your glycemic response? If not eating makes you feel dizzy and nauseous it would be worth having your glycemia investigated. But again, this may not be relevant, not sure. Seems like it is a combination of multiple factors that are putting your body under strain: time lag, diet change, no AC, the current heat, forgetting to drink, eating fewer calories as you are not in your environment, possibly sleep deprivation from the heat. There is no one simple advice I have, other than trying to find some sort of routine while you are here. Shops like Pret-A-Manger offer healthy options for food so you could for example have their oatmeal for breakfast with some fruits and nuts you can buy in grocery shops (Tesco/Sainsbury's/ Marks&SPencer or Waitrose are the biggest brands found at every corner). For lunch, places like Tortilla, also Pret-A-Manger, Wassabi, Itsu and similar can offer alternatives. Alternatively you could look at Meal Deals in Tesco which you can build to be a healthier wrap + fruit + water (most people choose to take crap sandwich, crackers and coke - but there are ways to make the choices to be healthier). For dinners, I assume you have some options at the campus/uni or the institute where you study so just make the most of it. Carry a bottle of water with you wherever you go and aim to get those 2 litres per day. If it helps download one of those water apps and set a 45 minute reminders to drink up. I would avoid drinking anything other than pure water while you are here. They sell all sorts of shitty sugar crap in shops with hidden sources of sugar. Just stick to the basics. Careful with being on direct heat. Also, if you are a coffee drinker, coffees in UK are weaker than those in US so that could be a factor. As for sleep, buy a Chamomile Tea (Pukka or Clippers brand use microplastic free bags and are sold literally everywhere) and drink those before your bedtime. Might help. But for the heat at night, I have no advice, it is pain in the ass where I live too . One thing worth trying is sleeping on the floor if you have that option but its not for everyone. I try it occasionally it is a Russian rullette. Some nights it sucks, some nights it is awesome. Hope that is somewhat helpful. Take care! Feel free to message me if you have questions about anything UK-food related in particular.

This is a 2-year old thread guys. Please start a new one if you would like to discuss this topic further.

It's all about advancing the knowledge of the deepest parts of space. I mean, eventually, you'll see more cool pictures of planets and their moons (if that what you mean by "cooler stuff") but at this stage, they have already gathered so much information on those, that it will be mostly used to identify stuff in the deepest space. Also, bear in mind that the telescope is used mainly by academics for PhD work, thesis, university type of content etc. I was told by Greenwich astronomist that if you want to use Hubble, you have to submit a proposal and then wait 6 months + for your turn (if you get approved) ...so with JW, it might be up to a year and there will be a committee deciding who gets t use the new toy so if they don't like the proposal, they will just reject it. But since NASA is publically funded they need to show some nice photos eventually so give them time