Can you tell I'm bored at work?

Well, HGH also tells you body to pack on lean muscle mass and thicken bones and tendons, so it's pretty critical for gains in strength and size. As far as carbs, they are actually not an essential human nutrient, if you're eating appropriate levels of quality protein and fat your liver can produce glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. In reality, as in - the way the human metabolism evolved to function over the last few million years - carbs were consumed in small quantities and only very dense, slow to digest roots and sour wild fruits were eaten. Yes, it's true we have been eating grains for about 8-10 thousand years, but that is a blink of an eye compared to our total evolutionary process, not nearly enough time to change our entire metabolic process. You can live off protein, fat and fiber. Your body will exist in a state called ketosis, which has a horrible rap in modern nutritional science. Current wisdom is ketones make you feel like shit and destroy your kidneys, not true. As you adjust your diet, you WILL feel like shit for about a month while your body acclimates to burning a mix of ketones and glucose for fuel, as apposed to almost purely glucose. The kidney thing, I haven't seen any convincing research to prove ketones are that bad for them. Traditional Inuits live all winter on nothing but seal fat and caribou organs, and they're stupid healthy, practically no incidences of cancer, dental carries, autoimmune disease, and they're incredible athletes, running/walking dozens of miles a day. I personally believe it is much healthier to limit your carb intake as much as possible, but I have some radical views that would be highly disputed in many "conventional" circles. So that's what I think, forget carbs, eat a pound of buffalo, a few blueberries, and smother a salad in fish oil, that's all you need to eat.

Brent,

Thanks for the encouraging words... This thread seems to have caused quite the buzz in the training forum. And I may update as I carry-out my experiment. Many of you have brought up some great points and I would like to address each one individually:

Finger Stress/Overtraing
- I do not think this will be an issue due to the fact that my body is already used to Bouldering V6/7 at 170 lbs... My total training weight will never exceed 170 lbs.
- Also, I will only be climb 3-4 days per week
~ Only 1 or 2 of these days will be in the gym with the belt.

Weight Loss
- This is not going to happen over night folks... It will probably take 3-4 months.
- I will not be taking HGH or any other type of supplement.
- Weekly cardio sessions will be increased gradually.
- The weight will be lost through solid nutrition and good old fashioned hard work.

I hope this helps to clear things up a bit.. Other than that, Thank you to everyone who has provided constructive criticism and lets keep the comments coming.

all you milk haters,

stop farking with my pizza toppings.

/high lactase activity even at my ripe old age of 90!

Thanks for the Information.....I agree with the above thought and I am very happy to be the part of this discussion....
Elenora
Elenora
[url=http://www.trainwithmeonline.com]Weight Training[/url]

Crimp,

Sounds like you're pretty set in your new training regime, and I'm not trying to change it. Sounds like you're psyched about it, and that is really the most important part of any training program.

I started climbing when I was 10 (now 26), and have tried a lot of different things, wight belts included. Be careful with you pulley tendons in your fingers. Weight belts/vests are going to change your center of gravity and thus put more strain on your fingers (esp. if your trying V6/7's), and any sudden force, like a foot popping off a hold, will overload your fingers and POP! No climbing for 3 weeks.

I used to do wighted pull ups, which seems good, but there is a possibility to develop tennis elbow unless you're balancing that out with other exercises. So listen to your body. Sounds like your plan will pertain more to endurance training than anything else. Remember that it is almost impossible to improve grip/tendon strength save for a few free weight exercises and campus boards. So focus on your strengths and weaknesses. Remember, there are lots of people who can barely do pull ups, but can climb really hard. Nothing replaces technique.

One last thing, if you have to start tapeing your fingers for "support" during your training, drop the weight belt. Taping for injuries is really only postponing the inevitable. Good luck!

The book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" is rather interesting, very heavy on the science, and largely confirms what EVS was saying later in the book.

Just a couple thoughts.

If you have been at your current weight for a while, even loosing 5 pounds will do wonders for your climbing.

That said, loosing 20 pounds will most likely be the hardest thing you have ever done...assuming you have been physically active and at your current weight for a while.

So, how about being nice to yourself(loosing that much weight will not be that nice) and just enjoy your climbing. If you pull off the weight loss you will be mutant strong without ANY weight training or other climbing specific workouts. Even if you loose 20 pounds of muscle only a small fraction of that weight would be in your climbing specific muscles.

You will have much better luck with the diet if you see improvements in your climbing VS killing yourself with extra weight.

Good luck with your goals!

If you want to lose weight look at those who do this already - wrestlers and cyclists. You have to expend more calories then you consume. I'm not sure they are the most healthy of people given the extremes they go to, but they do keep the pounds off. I'd think the thing missing from your plan is an inventory on how much and what you are eating. Lance Armstrong used to weigh all his food. Input=Output.

Will the weight belt help that much in losing weight? not sure it matters if you have it on or not...seems more important on how much time you spend at an anaerobic level, WHILE watching what you eat. Doesn't seem to matter the problems, just that you pick the rights ones for your workout. I'd be climbing easier, longer, faster, with a higher heart rate...until you are sweating. Though I'm not sure if you have to go at an all out intensity for short bursts or a 75% max output for a long time is better. Would seem like the latter to me. Thin athletes (runners, cyclists, mountaineers) spend a lot of time in that supposed "fat burning" heart rate area.

OR just get a Bowflex, ab crunch "machine," magic pill, Slimfast, or some Richard Simmons tapes, because according to the idiot box they all work very well. There is also a medieval machine that you can buy from the airline shopping guide that lets you lose weight in 4 minutes a day. Amazing technology!