The Health and Fitness Thread

[Ant]

How bad for me is fruit? I have a reasonably healthy diet but I do eat a lot of fruit...

Fruit? Bad for you?

 

I've been wondering the same thing if I'm honest. From being a kid you're educated to think fruit is good for you. When you hear about diets folk say eat as much fruit as you want. But when I get round to looking into being healthy I start hearing stuff about "avoid fruit as it's full of sugar, stick to protein".

[Kookoocachu]

Fructose is processed by the liver and if you're taking in too much fructose the liver will make the excess into fats and send it off into the bloodstream.

Fructose content in fruits and vegetables isn't a dangerous amount, but if you were eating huge amounts of fruit for every meal every day you'll have a problem.

 

Look out for things like corn syrup and agave nectar, both have high levels of fructose so should be used sparingly.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Kookoocachu

[Loki]

Eating fruit is better than drinking juice, apparently. But no, fruit isn't bad for you. For Christ's sake.

[Smokin']

Eating fruit is better than drinking juice, apparently. But no, fruit isn't bad for you. For Christ's sake.

Fruit is better than fruit juice because that's too refined and a lot of the healthy parts are rejected in the juicing process. Orange juice doesn't have the flavonoids that a whole orange has and those flavonoids work in combination with the Vitamin C in the juice to become a healthy drink. Once you cut out the pith, which is what the refinement process does, the Vitamin C isn't as healthy because it's in isolation.

 

It's the same reason why many vegetarians have unhealthy diets even though they take supplements which are supposed to replace the need for meat. You can take supplements for vitamins, amino acids etc., but in isolation they don't work nearly as well. They're better not nothing and will help an unbalanced diet, but they aren't as effective as getting those nutrients from a natural, unprocessed source.

 

If you like fruit juice, just buy a machine and make your own rather than buy Tropicana or whatever. It'll taste good but be a healthier drink, although frothier.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Smokin'

[Bettencourt]

Well in the last two weeks I've lost 6kg without even really trying. Don't know if I should be proud or worried!

[Sphinx]

I've just joined the gym and did chest workouts. My triceps cane this morning. I basically have no chest, so when I'm told to squeeze my chest...well, I pretty much don't have one to squeeze. I didn't really feel it in my chest, more my arms. Is this normal?

[Dai]

By chest workouts Im assuming you mean bench presses? If thats the case, then things like shoulders and triceps do get a bit of secondary work when bench pressing. However, the fact your triceps ache this morning, and (presumably) you dont have the aching in your chest gives you a good indicator that youre not using the right muscles when doing the exercise. If its the first time youve ever worked your chest, you should be aching a lot there the following day.

 

Go on youtube and search for vids to learn the proper form. I assume you may be using too heavy a weight, and its causing you to lose form when lifting. Could also be your hands are too close together (if youre using a barbell).

[Chest Rockwell]

Super easy to use the wrong muscles if you are doing flys, which is the most common resistance machine and what I assumed you were referring to.

 

Yeah. Basically, drop the weight and work on your form. Or just do some press ups at home, because it will be better.

[Sphinx]

I did bench press, flyes (a couple of different ones to work different areas of the chest), whatever it is where you sit down and pull the bars towards you, and laid down lifting dumbells above my head. A friend was trying to show me technique, but I think he was putting me on weights that were too high. I can feel my chest when I stretch my arms out and when I press them, but mostly my triceps.

 

I'd also done back workouts the day before.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Sphinx

[neil]

A bench press does work triceps anyway, but how wide were your arms on the bench press? Close to your body works more triceps than chest.

[Sphinx]

Yeah, perhaps I was ill informed. They were fairly close rather than wide. Cheers guys, I'm clueless.

 

The guy I work out with is pretty hench, but I do question a couple of things from him. He goes to the gym like four days in a row when surely rest is vital.

[Dai]

I'd ditch the guy you work out with. Seems like he isn't looking at your needs and experience. Making you lift too heavy and also doing too many different exercises shows he's not really thinking of you. As a beginner, you should just keep things super basic. Your list of exercises that you did for your first time is crazy.

 

Keep it basic for the first six months. As you said, you have no chest, so just work on gaining some size there. Stick with a dumbbell bench press on flat bench, dumbbell bench press on an incline bench, and throw in some dumbbell flies on a flat bench. YouTube those three to see the correct form. Master those three, then maybe look to chuck other stuff in down the line. Stick with those and you'll see some results for sure.

 

How many sets and reps were you doing for each exercise, by the way?

 

Edit; and yes, four days straight is never recommended, unless he's on something. Two or three is acceptable, though.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Dai

[Sphinx]

I was thinking Monday and Tuesday, break, Thursday, break, Saturday, break.

 

I was doing 12 on a light weight, 8-10 on a heavier weight, 6-8 on a heavier weight than the last. I should really research what I'm doing. Your advice will certainly help. I like having someone to go with as I have no idea how the machines work.

[Chest Rockwell]

You can totally go four days a week depending on what you're doing.. if you're doing very targeted workouts with a cardio day thrown in the middle, for example..

[David]

Fructose is processed by the liver and if you're taking in too much fructose the liver will make the excess into fats and send it off into the bloodstream.

Fructose content in fruits and vegetables isn't a dangerous amount, but if you were eating huge amounts of fruit for every meal every day you'll have a problem.

It's practically impossible to eat the sheer amount of fruit you'd require to overeat fructose.

 

It's also worth bearing in mind that fruit takes a while to digest, meaning the fructose hits the liver slowly which allows the body to deal with the fructose.

 

In short, fruit is good for you.