Thanks to everyone for the advice! I have two things to say:
A) Being a university student time is really never on my side for me to allow a decent digestion gap between breakfast and workout.
B) Since as long as I can remember, the morning has always been the time of the day when I am least hungry. It's hard to gulp down more food than those 50g of oats first thing when I wake up.

I'm going to try to fix B) by not eating anything within an hour or so of going to bed, see if that works.

I'm going to try out what you guys recommended tomorrow. Unfortunately, the food currently existing in my kitchen is limited to more oats and milk, I just ran out of bananas. Meaning I'm going to have to go with the weak breakfast again, HOWEVER my classes force me to work out no earlier than 2PM so I'll try to fit in a bacon and egg sandwich at around 10-11 (500cals, 30g protein, 45g carbs and 20g fat).
Again, I have a hard time eating a lot during mornings so I'll do my best. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I've actually lost almost a kilo these past two weeks, but that has been because of shitty nutrition during academic related all-nighters and a little emotional trauma I experienced from a personal matter. Gonna try my best to get my shit together.

Not eating anything an hour before bed? Try two or three. Should give you the proper munchies in the morning. And even that last meal of the day should be a bit light. Also, oats and milk make good for an excellent oatmeal with just a dab of sugar and salt. Even better if you have some honey and/or cinnamon to throw in. Of course, it doesn't have the protein content I'd prefer, but can't get 'em all.

Right, I was thinking two or three when I wrote one hour or so. Don't ask me why.
I always thought the oats and milk combo was good too, and the whey shake takes care of the protein.
I'll experiment.

EDIT: My workout today was great!! Not the slightest hint of nausea!

I had a bacon/egg sandwich for breakfast, but as I said I don't seem to be that hungry at all in the morning so I only ate about 3/4 of it. Three hours later I worked out and everything was fine.
I WAS actually pretty hungry during the workout (unsurprising, I only ate most of a sandwich) but I'll fix that next time by having 2 bananas in between.
So the conclusion is, my body just can't handle digestion and exercise within a couple of hours of waking up. It will be hard to time it in between my seminars, but it will have to do. Can't work out after them either because I can only access the gym until 4PM.

Why are gyms here so insanely expensive? I went down to the college gym to check out how much a monthly membership was... 60 euro. For an idea of how insane that is, that's about 70-80 dollars. I know the hotel is even dearer. My only option is a gym that's half that but it lacks some equipment and it's always packed with what appears to be soviet tanks.

I had the same experience at the UCC in Ireland but I think it was a bit cheaper than 60 euro at the time. I imagine that any college gym is going to be expensive because they might use higher membership fees from the public to subsidize cheaper prices for students.

Hey swayze, what makes unrefined sea salt any better than table salt?

Military bitches, brand new gym with indoor pool and I don't have to pay a cent.

Benefits, yo.

Mineral content is one of the big draws for me; unrefined sea salt has a bunch of trace minerals, including magnesium and potassium (and often iodine), so it's great for electrolyte balance. Table salt (and Kosher salt) is so processed that it's reduced to simply sodium and chloride, and then synthetic iodine is added through processing. There is often the use of anti-caking agents as well. I'm not a huge fan of heavily processed or "refined" foods. There's a lot of talk about unrefined sea salt's alkalinizing properties as well, but I don't know too much about that, to be honest.

MWRs people. They keep you sane.

hurray - solved my "problem" with the curd (see some posts back) whose taste started to annoy me due to daily doses of it in the evening. Instead of stirring it up with milk, I now just use a little bit milk and replace the rest with fruit juice. Tastes suberp and was so easy - one just has to think of it
Now I can further get my nightly dose of low fat, low carb (ok, a bit fruit sugar from the juice) slow digesting high dose of protein (ca. 35 gr) without force, hehe. Sweet!

I figured this would be a good place for this. Does anyone here fence? I've been doing it for over a year now, so much so that I've bought my own privet foil and gear. Trust me when I say this, not only is this a work out of your body, it's a work out of your mind.

no, not fencing but I did martial arts for quite some years (from my early teen days up to 25 or so (which is 10 years ago)). Starting with Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu and later Bujinkan Budo Tai-Jutsu (say: Ninjutsu for easier reference ) as well as some workshops in other martial arts. Training with weapons was common in the later years. So "working out one's mind" can surely be applied here, too.
Though I stopped training actively in a group I still do my fave "motions/moves" each morning for a few minutes and longer as a warm up for my workout at home.

Well what a coincidence, I have a friend that did fencing and has now moved on to martial arts (wingchun). As for me, I'm only need to look like I can kick someone's ass, not actually be able to

Go with a cottage cheese that has more fat, your taste buds will thank you.

I want to take all of these holiday cookies and sweats littering our house and throw them in the trash. It's impossible to go through the holidays, be surrounded by obnoxiously junky food and not touch a single bit of it.

My mother bought a shake weight this Christmas, and my girlfriend said she wanted one. Wtf. I tried to explain to them why it wasn't going to work, and specifically why it wasn't going to get rid of the skin hanging from their triceps, but they just looked at me like I was rude for not being blindly optimistic. Meh.

I think that was made simply for people to have sexual thoughts for fitness.

Hear you on that one!

Currently rehabbing a broken/reconstructed foot so the only thing I can do is swim. No weight bearing at all.

I can never seem to motivate myself to go to the gym so I play football, basketball, and volleyball to stay in shape. My college roommate is in the Air Force ROTC, however, and usually guilts me into training with him in our dorm.

I'm a lazy guy and I could spend money on a gym membership but I'm planning to do all of this DIY at home. Do any of you use an app for pointers/help/advice on exercises or weight/dietary checks etcetera?

Occasionally I use this program for the Xbox 360. You need the kinect camera for it to work:

http://your-shape-fitness-evolved.ubi.com/2012/en-GB/home/

It's OK. Kind of nice that the program projects you on the screen, so you can see yourself right along side the trainer. Then, as you exercise, the program tells you what you are doing wrong, allowing you to improve.

I've found that as I go along, I get really annoyed with all the "pointers" being shouted at me.

I live in the cold weather, so when I don't feel like going to the gym and it's too cold to run outside, this does help out quite a bit.

Figured the Kinect would be used for that but I was referring to mobile android applications. I know a bunch of running/jogging apps exist but I was wondering someone could give me a first hand account of using such things.

I started a work out routine. I'm sick of feeling like ass. Commitments!

That sounds awfully pricey. The gym I go to costed myself $70 to join and then I pay $13.95 per week with no lock-in contract so I am free to cancel my membership at any time I choose. As for equipment, as long as your gym has a squat rack you are set!

Well I was very surprised that my relatives gave me lots of money during the holidays. I bought a truckload of metal albums but I still had some left over, so I decided to invest in a mass gainer. Don't get me wrong, I think they're mostly a waste of money and make my own home-made high calorie shakes, but given the circumstances I decided to give test it out and see what the hype is about.
Bought a bag of Mutant Mass. Will start using it sometime next week and will post whether or not it's effective over time.

Been working out for little more than a year, five days a week, three days I build muscle with strength training and the two in-between aerobic. Actually, I hate sports and all sorts of activity, I really surprised myself with this consistency, but, you know, I have this Manowar Hell on Wheels poster in my room, and I could feel Joey dissaproving eyes burning in my back. I was a skinny wimp when I started, and motivate myself to go was hard back then when I lifted girly weights. But after some time, I took a liking into it, now it's more of a hobby.

I've been doing way better about my fitness goals... so far anyway I'm off on the right foot this year. Last year I worked out a lot but pissed progress away by drinking till early in the morning every other day and that sort of shitbaggery. I kept making bitching about it being hard to afford to eat right in Hawaii but then it hit me that if I took all the money I spent on self destructive habits (I estimate taking in 2 or 3 bottles and a couple cases of beer per week. Not cheap or healthy) then I'd have enough to eat whatever the fuck I wanted with plenty left over. And true to my nickname I'm enough of a scofflaw to have a full cooking setup in my barracks room (just a microwave my ass!) so I could save some money just buying stuff like ground pork and chicken breasts.

But now I'm on Oki, sort of on restriction right now and there is literally NOTHING to do besides go work out or go get fucked up. It's tempting at times but I find myself using common sense and choosing the former since there's really nothing to do once you're fucked up besides stand in a circle outside the barracks smoking cigarettes and complaining about life. Besides the gym here is probably the nicest I've ever been to. Has all the amenities of a big commercial gym with none of the bright colors, blaring top 40 music and pencil-necked dumbasses getting in the way. The downside is that proper nutrition really is a stretch here, and I'll be gone sweating it all out a lot, but I'm making do.

I hope be restarting a fitness routine soon, once I find a suitable gym. Plus, having my car shit out on me has made it really hard to get around. I want to focus on muscle gain as well as weight loss. Like FD, I'm also sick of feeling like ass. Anyone have any routines that are great for building out your chest? I know the basics, but I'm looking for something else to try as well.

haha, I just passed out in the gym today. I'm an idiot. Eat something before you work out, dudes.

I'll probably catch a ton of flak for this, but whatever: I think weights are overrated. I think bodyweight exercises are far more interesting. I think there's something far more... tranquil and fulfilling about using your body as a weight. I don't know, I think it requires more detail and attention than just weights and I think there's more of a personal benefit and dependency on using bodyweight exercises. You can do them anywhere. You aren't relying on anything, you don't need a gym, etc.

But then again I'm not a fan of packing on muscle just because. I'd rather be more flexible and develop my muscles to be that way than just, "hey, how big can I get?!" I also think cardio is underrated. My roommate just lifts weights and nothing else, and he's got a little pudge going on that's been there since he started and he's just... bigger, but he's not more defined or developed.

Weights aren't overrated at all. You may be right about cardio being underrated for the most part, but anyone that is serious about weight training knows that it is essential in building a physique. It isnt just about packing as much mass as possible, it's about aesthetics, symmetry and to some people strength. Obviously if your roommate wants to get more defined he needs to shed the bodyfat that came with the muscle building through cardio and he'll look great.

Body weight is fine, so are calisthenics, isometrics and whatever other kinds of exercises people use to get fit. The issue with body weight is progression and plateau. Weight training is more practical in this respect.

As in make it bigger?

A routine itself won't matter so much as HOW you work out. A lot of people subscribe to the common notion that the higher reps automatically means more hypertrophy...but banging out 20 reps of a lighter weight as fast as you possibly can won't make your muscles grow.

With your sets, go for around 8-12 reps with a challenging weight and do them very slowly with as much contraction as possible...make it hurt. Same thing if you do chest flyes.

I've found at least for me that decline bench is really good for this. Also doing negative bench presses will go a long way in putting on size and pure maximal strength...if you don't have a lifting buddy to do these with it's probably one of the only things that a smith machine is good for

For chest you'll want to do incline and flat bench press/dumbbell press as well as dips. Flyes/cable crossovers/pec dec and what are optional as they won't help you grow much, they're better for shaping the chest once it's already built (in my experience at least).

Focus on pressing exercises and dips. You probably knew this much already, but that's all it takes +eating and sleeping big. As was said, 8-12 rep range is ideal.

Running in 18 degrees Fahrenheit SUCKS! I experienced a really uncomfortable amount of thermal shock after I ran for one and a half hours, nine miles. My body blocks out the pain of the cold while I'm running, but when I stop, and I'm reintroduced to the heat of my house again, it's like my body switches from keep-my-ass-from-freezing-off mode, to recovery from the bitter painful temperature mode. It hurts twice as bad as running at my top speed. It's like a searing hot pain, and in places you don't want to know about, because I was wearing

these. With only underwear under them. It took half an hour of sitting still and baring the pain before I could get up and do anything again!

But DAMN! That's a big fuck you! to temperature! I feel accomplished. Good thing I had artillery - by inheritance and edge of sanity - crimson to help me along the way.

Hey awesome, I used to fence a few years ago. I had been doing it for about four years or so, and it's so much fun. Once that mask goes down, nothing else matters. I excelled at epee and sabre the most, I think. I miss it like crazy.

I've been considering trying my hand at fencing, seems really daunting to get into it though... Plus I need work approval to do it.

I came across this website called 'the metal workout'. I don't know what to make out of it but I'm sharing it in case someone wants to see it. Their music recommendations are though.

http://themetalworkout.com/

Does anybody have any experience with marathon running? I'm doing my first one in May, and intend to start properly training for it this week. I was planning on just following one of the training schedules on the website but I'd appreciate a bit of guidance in choosing which one. I've been running for about a year. I did a hilly 14 km yesterday at a fairly relaxed pace, which is the farthest I've done as a straightforward run, and which took about 1hr 7m.

I'll probably go with one of these beginner schedules, either first timer 1 or 2: http://www.edinburgh-marathon.com/?page ... aign=EMF13
Improver 1 also looks okay for me/my schedule but I don't really know yet how good I'll be once I get to longer distances. I also wouldn't be able to drink at the weekends which is something of a deterrant... http://www.edinburgh-marathon.com/?page ... aign=EMF13
My goal is just to finish, obviously, but given my build, weight, and general fitness I feel like I ought to be able to do it in less than 3:30; this is not a goal so much as a vague aspiration though.

Any general advice would be appreciated too-- I have a friend who's run several marathons but her "advice" tends to consist of "don't train or plan, that's cheating. Just run the fucking thing." I don't know anybody else who can give me useful advice that's in any way specific to me!

If you can find a place to do it, I totally recomend it. Once you get everything down, it becomes totally reflexive, and your body just knows what to do. Equipment isn't even that expensive if you get it from the right place: I think mine cost me around $200, with a custom jacket and helmet.

Hmm. Back in Oki again...

Dropped 13 pounds in Korea which was mostly all muscle mass, on the upside it's coming back pretty good and then some that I'm eating and lifting better.

Insomnia is a bitch and a half since I work out before bed though, probably cause of pre-workout stuff. 5 hours a night ain't cutting it...does anybody know of any tips to help get the fuck to sleep? Reading really dry shit seems to work ok mentally but physically...

Can't agree with this enough. Machines are for pussies.
Also, I seem to be one of the only people in this thread who is actually trying to GAIN weight. I've been eating close to 3,000 calories and drinking close to a gallon of chocolate milk daily. Not EVERY day, of course! Don't wanna be a diabetic! >:)

Basically I'm doing Starting Strength routines which has me lifting 3x a week. Squatting all 3 days (easily the most miserable powerlift), deadlifting twice a week (one day light, one day heavy), and benching twice a week. On top of those I do accessory, but necessary lifts such as overhead press, bent-over-rows, and pull-ups/dips. I RARELY ever curl because it just seems so superficial. It's an ego lift.

Big arms DOES NOT mean you're strong. Doing 20 bodyweight (or weighted) pullups/dips gets you MUCH stronger faster than curling a dumbbell/barbell does. The biggest guy is not ALWAYS the strongest!! Hence why strongmen outlift bodybuilders 9/10 times.

As for the whole weight-gaining thing...it's working. Sort of. I clock in at 152 lbs which is 10 more than when I started lifting 3 months ago. I'm extremely toned but wont look "intimidating" as mentioned by the OP until I'm 180+. I havn't put on any noticable size but have put on considerable strength gains in 3 months. Strength always preceeds mass.

First time I squatted below parallel: 95 lbs
Now: 170 lbs

First time I deadlifted: 175 lbs (HARDEST THING EVER)
Now: Pulled 315 yesterday.

First time I benched: 100 lbs
Now: 150 lbs

Bench is consequently the hardest stronglift to raise, but the least important. The guy who squats 225+ ass to grass will always be stronger than the wigger who habitually curls and benches like some egoic routine whilst hitting on chicks inbetween sets. Moral of the story: GO TO THE GYM FOR YOURSELF!!!!!!!