I don’t know about the rest of you, but it sure would help me to help others if that when they are looking for either diet help or trying to figure out why they can’t (lose weight/get big/gain strength/etc.) that they not just put up a long diet list, but INSTEAD give us: macro percentages, grams per pound of protein, and the principle carbs and fat they consume? This assures a couple of things:
1)That they have actually analyzed their diet (which accounts for many failures)and
2)At least helps me get a better handle on the changes they need to make.
(By the way…for those with difficulty in figuring this all out…we can refer them to “The Missing Ingredient” Article.
Any thoughts? This is all meant to allow us all to more efficiently help others, NOT to flame or criticize them.
I would think it’d also be helpful to know age, how long they’ve been training, what their routine currently is like, and their goals: to gain LBM or get lean?
I've been making it a practice of NOT replying to obvious "newbies", more likely "lazy newbies" who would rather NOT do their own homework. But another post by Mufasa that I appreciate. NOW, if only the newbies will read this one.
I agree 100%. Although I tend to think that if people have gone so far as to analyse their diet then they pretty much know what to do and what not to do. But, it’s still a good call - newbies take note! Cheers.
I think that a LOT of what happens is something I did when I first started out: you simply begin to follow one of those “clean” diets recommended and/or posted in the mags, with no adjustments made for your weight, goals or training regimen. Then what happens is the person begins scatching their head in frustration because they “know” their diet is “solid” or “clean” or “they eat like a horse” (because the diet came out of “Flex” and was followed by Ronnie Coleman).
I agree with your additions. (By the way…it should be VERY interesting to see how the “Pet Project” that the staff at “Testosterone” has taken on comes out. In this weeks “Reader Mail”, a frustrated reader was challenged by the T-Mag staff to send in his complete diet and workout regimen. Once analyzed, AND if he followed their recommendations, they felt that they could get him back on track. I hope that they keep us updated…it should be interesting!)
The problem with this is the people who need the help the most have no idea how many calories are in a serving of ____ or ____ or how many grams of protein are in anything or even the difference between different types of carbs etc. If they’re too lazy to dedicate some time to find out for themselves (which it seems too many are are) than how are you supposed to be able to help them. I try asking people to write a diet log for a few days and of course they either don’t do it or if they do they lie about everything they eat. I’ve found it’s a whole lot easier and less hassle just to write down a list of foods that they can eat and hand it to them and give them a quick overview on meal frequency portion control etc… People want a plan that’s already in place…they don’t want to have to put forth any effort in making these decisions. That’s why programs such as weight watchers are so successful in selling their programs.
Well, I useto do that too, see a diet by a established BB, and give it a shot. Then try my luck with a variety of other diets (from muscle mags or recommendations by other competitive BB in the gym)- in my quest to find what works “for me”. But the issue here is that I did it. I performed the research for myself, made the changes, mentally took note of the negatives and/or positives to my physique. Initially realizing that my body changes, learns to adjust and that I should be prepared for the changes/modifications. But I’m no different than alot of the other forum regulars. We’ve all done this. And are still doing this.
The problem I see with alot of the newbies, is the search for the miracle pill, or miracle answer that will solve ALL their problems. We all know that there is no such thing. That it takes all the experimentation we've all performed ourselves. Alot of personal time into research, reading, etc. The newbies want to cut down this time, so that it's "easier" for them. Well, I'm here to say that will do them a disservice - that they'll miss out on their own education of their body's training and nutritional needs. But that's my li'l own opinion.
I really, really hope the newbies check this thread out.
One thing you see all the time on the news groups (NNTP), is a FAQ that’s posted every seven days (or as often as articles expire)with all kinds of info on what people need to do to participate in whatever news group it is… That wouldn’t work here very well, but let’s say you created a text file on your desktop that contained all the relevant questions you needed answers to, to anser intelligently. That way, whenever you saw a post the qualified, you just copy and paste the text file into a response to the message. Takes 2 seconds, tops, and has the desired effect of getting all the information from the orinal poster that you wanted. Provided, of course, they are not too lazy and never come back to read the responses…
Just an idea… An alternate idea is that I could put a FAQ or questions list, or something up on my webserver (I have one on a real net connection that is up 24x7x365), and we could refer people there. But, that has the undesired effect of sending people to another site…
Oh yeah, and if anyone ever wants/needs to publish any HTML (GIF, JPG, etc), I could put it there. Lemme know if you’re interested…
Wait, every diet has to be designed to each specific individual? Crap this stuff is so hard, now I have to read the massive eating article, it’s like 5 pages long, and there is MATH!!! When will I ever find the time? Heh, heh.
Yeah, good post, Mufasa. I don’t know, though. I think that T-Mag is going to have to put another button over on the left side of the screen, one that says, “Newbies start here” or something similar. It can link to a page that gives some “forum etiquette” hints, including one that says, "If you want advice on your diet/workout/etc., you need to list X information in your post - “X” being what has been mentioned above, plus any other relevant info. Perhaps there could even be a spreadsheet of sorts, with blanks listing age, weight, years training and so on. The “submit” button wouldn’t work for anyone who didn’t fill in ALL of the blanks.
Ahhhh, bliss!
(Char-dawg wakes up, blinks a bit, and realizes that it was all just a cruel dream…)
I think a problem with the “Newbies Start Here” link is the fact that alot of newbies don’t even think they are newbies. They already think they know it all because they read a couple of flex magazines.
I don’t know…the questions don’t really “bother” me…it’s just that there is no way I can sit down and break down the make-up of the posters diet in an efficient manner THEN suggest the changes that need to be made. Even if you have software (which I have), imputing diet info is a time consuming process. If a little homework is done BEFORE posting a long list of foods, I think we could help a LOT more people in a more timely fashion.
Like many of you said…I guess if someone took the time to do that…perhaps they don’t “need” our help…oh well…