Hey guys, it's me again. I have several questions to ask. Just answer some questions that you guys feel like to answer, and leave the rest if you guys don't want to.

1. Is protein powder a necessity in your diet, or it's simply a convenience?

2. I asked this before in my previous post, but how to calculate your needed macronutrient and calorie intake?

3. Can you shape your body with only cardio? Somebody claimed that his body gets muscular and leaner with only rope jumping. I want to know if it is true.

4. Can back support item help me maintaining posture when doing exercises? Or I simply need to learn multiple times until I get it right?

5. Is there a useful book you want to recommend to gym rat beginners?

Hi there! I'm no expert so just take my words with grain of salt.

1. Not really a necessity if you can achieve the amount of protein you want via foods. It is very convenient however.

2. Not sure, will let others chip in.

3. With cardio, you can get lean. And by getting leaner, u will 'look more toned'. In my opinion, there might be some muscle growth, but not as much as, for eg, weight lifting. I might be wrong though..

4. You can get support items to help you. However, proper form is still more important to maximise gains and to prevent injuries.

5. Not sure also, sorry.

Just to add on some points to the post above me,

2. Search any TDEE calculator online and put ur data in and choose sedentary lifestyle as the option. If you want to lose fats, eat no more than the TDEE-500. Generally, people will recommend you to eat as much protein in g as your body weight in lbs. Try to eat more fats than carbs since carbs will spike your insulin that inhibits lipolysis(the breakdown of body fats).

3. You can shape your body with cardio to a degree and if you go beyond that point, you will turn skinny instead of staying lean since your body will burn some muscles to compensate the reduced burning of body fats. So the best way to lose fats is to incorporate cardio into your weight training programme, be it on rest days whatsoever.

5. PPL, SS, SL are beginner programmes that you will often see if you ever google it. Whether which one that you're supposed to follow, just see which one you like the most since the useful programme is the one that you can stick with and are keen to do.

since you mentioned you are a beginner:

1. not a necessity. our body is capable of utilising proteins from various food sources to build muscle. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/196279

2. any generic calculator will do as it is not 100% accurate

3. leaner yes, but muscles you need resistance training. many jump rope tutorials in youtube often incorporate body weight workouts while jump roping

4. you learn posture fixing exercises instead. can check out some of athleanx videos

5. no need book. just try to see if you can go gym/workout for 3 times a week in a year then we talk.

1. Protein is a necessity.The US RDA is 0.8g per kg of bodyweight. Most Asians will be severely under this bar. Protein powder, is a supplement. You can use it if you are not getting enough protein in your diet. Real food is better for intake.

2. Skipping this. Enough references online and don't think you should be crunching numbers if you are starting out fresh.

3. This is body recomposition. Weight training is the hammer, cardio is the chisel. You may be able to recomp to a limited extent by focusing on only cardio, but probably not into an athletic build unless you incorporate some weight/resistance training. Get more muscular with only rope jumping? Perhaps thighs, otherwise no.

4. Not recommended starting out. Get your form right first before going for 'products'.

5. Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.


Lots of useful sticky threads in here.
If you are really interested, put in some effort to read up.

https://forum.lowyat.net/Bodybuilding&StrengthTraining